Shelter from the Rain Vol. 04 Armin Arlert & Connie Springer
The clouds covering town from the early afternoon had grown heavy and grey before erupting at last into a sudden downpour. The two young boys Shopping in the market ran for shelter under a building they found in a back alley.
"Hey, Armin. This should clear up soon, right?"
"Yeah… The clouds are moving fast."
Armin pointed to the sky, where the rain clouds drifted by. But next to him, Connie was looking at something else.
"Look at those little brats."
The two could hear the children's cries of joy as they innocently romped around in the unexpected rain.
Armin and Connie looked at each other after the words came out of both of their mouths simultaneously.
"Um, I…" Armin said, looking aside as the rain beat down on the roofing. "…I wasn't the kind of kid who played with everyone else. That's why."
Armin was called a heretic when he was little. He had an interest in what was past the Walls, and when he tried to explain why to the children in his town, he was shunned and bullied by them.
Connie looked utterly surprised to hear this story from Armin's past.
"…I was sure you were popular 'cause of how smart you are."
"What about you, Connie?"
"I got teased in my village, too, for being stupid and little." Connie scratched under his nose and looked at the children. "And I really am stupid. They even left me in the woods outside my village, thinking that I wouldn't be able to find my way back."
"…I couldn't. Right as they did, it started to rain out of nowhere, just like today… I got lost, and I was drenched. I started crying."
As the rain got stronger, the playing children began to take shelter under a roof.
"…My mom came to get me in the end. I'm ashamed to say it, but…"
"Me, too… It was the same for me," Armin said. He saw the children gathering together to care for one of their friends who had gotten cold. "It was a rainy day…and I couldn't move because I'd been punched. But then Eren and Mikasa came to get me and we all went home together under the same umbrella. I felt so ashamed then, but…"
"Now that I think of it, that was them proving to me that they were my friends. I'm glad I didn't try to turn down their help."
"Oh. So I should have thought of it as my mom showing that she cared about me, huh."
"Yeah… Probably," Armin nodded, before looking to the sky. The heavy clouds rolled away, reflected in his eyes.
"Why don't we go? It looks like it's about to stop raining."
"What is it?" Armin asked, looking back at Connie's laughter with a puzzled expression.
"To tell you the truth, it's because I thought you and I didn't have anything in common. I couldn't help but laugh."
"…When you put it like that, yeah." Armin chuckled back.
As the rain passed, the glowing evening dried the pavement as it illuminated the two boys running back into town.
SOURCE: Attack on Titan: Short Stories
