All into soft things

Still figuring out how to add colour to my drawings, excuse the inconsistency

For the director's cut game:

In Planetisimal Feelings, what's your input on the scars on Annie's lower back, how she was afraid of letting people see them, including Armin, but grew to be more comfortable with Armin seeing them (later chapters)

Falling into Neptune (my personal favorite of the series!), the scene where Annie describes Armin's shoulders and hands, how she thought he might grow and become

As for VBEOW, you know I want more about Annie's thought process buying the family name seal (and maybe even receiving it later on)

Best of luck!

-Clouds

Heya clouds! And thanks for asking xD This becomes a little hehe sexy toward the end xD

1. PF, Annie's Scars.

So it's my personal headcanon that pre-shifter scars and marks remain intact even during limb regeneration and Titan healing. Good old Ymir in the paths probably has an anatomy book for every shifter in history to make sure she doesn't mess them up when she rebuilds their legs and arms. Anyway, this is why Annie has scars at all, in this series. Wounds she sustained from her dad's training.

I think Pre-Armin Annie would've cared very little who saw what and what they made of it. Post Armin however and her realisation that he saw her as a nice person, she develops a whole avalanche of emotions that she doesn't really figure out. But anyway at this point, she wants to be a good person for him... But her scars are a memory of her ugly upbringing. Proof that she was trained "not to be good", in direct contrast with Armin who's the epitome of goodness. It doesn't really matter atp because he traps her, she crystallizes and any emotional advancements between the two is pretty much doomed before it even progressed.

Post Rumbling, she's alive, he's alive, they've talked their feelings out and it can't be ignored anymore. Armin who stopped the Rumbling because he's never been a person who's liked the idea of killing anybody ever, and Annie, who killed so many out of a selfish/desperate desire to go home. She feels ugly. Not good enough. Not "clean" enough. She doesn't want him to see it. She also doesn't want him to see proof of the shit she went through as a child because now, it all seems pathetic. Her life has been a pathetic existence. What would he think of her, wanting to go back to the very man who gave her those scars? At least, these are her fears.

But then, throughout the series, Armin wears his heart on his sleeve and doesn't seem to be fazed by anything belonging to her past. He pops a vague-ish "will you marry me" question in PF. Tells her how much he desired her, physically, in Falling into Neptune. In TFLM, he tells her it's okay to live and desire happiness despite everything and that he wants to live his life loving her. Most importantly, there's the letter he gives her in which he very clearly promises to "Love her in all the ways it is possible to love her and maybe someday, the pain that rests in the scars on her back will no longer be a bad memory." which is basically a moment of reveal for her that he already knows about them through Bertholdt's memories. And he still loves her just the same. He doesn't see her as a used war weapon, now useless; he sees her as a girl, a woman, his future.

Her fears begin to dissipate. In VBEOW, she goes through a lot of reckoning over her feelings and her needs and desires, trying to make sense of them beyond just the surface level sexual frustration, and she makes several reckless (and cute) decisions that only serve to tell her that he means so much to her, more than she can even begin to describe. She wants him in her life, for good, for long, forever. And he reinforces all these beliefs by constantly telling her how much he loves her (too). By the time chap 5 comes and she learns of Pieck's sparse time with Porco, she understands the miracle it is to still have Armin alive, and the miracle of being granted long, ordinary, human lives. The scars will remain but she's fine with showing them to him, because it's Armin, he wants her and her alone, exactly for who she is and nothing more or less, and he's never going to let her go.

(More on her scars in chapter 11, Armin's going to... make good on that promise. Literally.)

2. Falling into Neptune - physical changes.

A horny midnight hour idea that arose out of the frustration of being robbed of the moment when Annie really SEES the man Armin's become, in canon material. Anyway. Since none of the sequels were planned at this stage, this was just a fic that focused on the purely physical traits that people grow to desire and want.

There's something to be said of a teenage girl's fantasies over a boy she likes. Annie, despite all her pessimism and seeming disinterest in romance and sex, was no exception. These thoughts are intrusive. You just can't help having them. At 15, as military trainees, while Armin was puny and frail, he was still taller than her. After becoming aware of her special fondness for him, she would've started becoming aware of... other things too. Like the size of his hand when he handed her a loaf of bread - a little bigger than hers. The protrusion on his throat that bobbed with every hearty laugh and shout. The back of his neck when the wind blew his hair away and how it would feel to hold onto it. The curve of her hips in contrast to his - slim and narrow. The wider shoulders compared to hers, narrow and small. The heat and scent of his body when he came especially close to her in totally normal situations, but her heart races. She would've gone to bed after training replaying all the little sounds he made while talking to her, all a little deeper in tone. She liked him, and he was a boy, so... different from her, a girl. At this age, you're hyper aware of every single change that you go through and she would've imagined how much taller he'd grow, how the features would change and etc. At the end of the day, she was just a girl with fantasies like anyone else.

At 19, things are very, very different. She's been listening to his voice deepen in register over four years, but seeing him is... a shock. Suddenly he's way taller. His shoulders are now broad. Much stronger. For all the strength and muscles she packs in her arms, his are now much bigger, and longer. Her neck, thin and long, and his neck, thicker and wider. The back of his neck, exposed permanently by that stupid gorgeous undercut that makes him look so good. Longer legs, thighs slimmer than hers but very firm and strong, and when she sits on his lap, she can feel how easily they remain in place and don't buckle under her weight. Waist and hips still narrow. When he turns his neck and yells at someone, she can see a vein straining. Beautifully long fingers and attractive as fuck forearms. The clench of a sharp jawline. He's lost the baby fat from his cheeks, but while he still looks a little boyish, there's no doubt that this is a man. And far sexier than in all her fantasies put together.

3. VBEOW, Annie's hanko.

So an unplanned but very significant subplot now, the hanko is, undeniably very cute xD While she doesn't find out about the hanko's existence until she actually visits the stamp maker, this subplot begins the very moment she undertakes Armin's job of getting that official seal made. The way I see it, the common family stamp in Japan is affixed on all official documents as a signature, and everyone carries one around. In VBEOW however, I made it so that a married couple has just one, and they share it. When she agrees to visit the stamp maker, she's already begun to share his responsibilities. Seeing the hanko there is just a physical manifestation of what she wants in their relationship, both consciously and sub-consciously.

She's also impulsive. Had Armin seen that hanko, he wouldn't have bought it. (If I can say it without spoiling, I'd say Armin's... going about this in a different way xD and I'm so excited to write this scene later on!) Armin is methodical and he'd have done it by the book, and got their hanko after being married. But Annie had one look at all the family names embossed so cutely in little rubber circles, and she thought "Oh... Arlert... would look nice on one of these."

All it took was once glance. And it becomes a fixation. Better at expressing her emotions by actions (sometimes not even that) than words, she runs back to the store the next day with enough money in her pocket, little to no thought of how it would look like to get a seal typically ordered after getting MARRIED of all things, until after she actually reaches there, she blurts out his surname and scrams back home, mortified and embarrassed. Subconsciously, she wanted something of him to keep with her at all times, but how embarrassing would it be to ask him to give her something of that sort? But here's a thing she can buy, put his name on it, and keep close.

Once she receives it out of the stamp maker's kindness (for free! basically trying to say that the things you do for love, in love, are priceless), she becomes instantly attached to it. At this point, she's still battling with putting a proper name and description to her love for him, so to have this little stamp carrying his name in her pocket, in her hands, something of her own that makes her happy and warm and safe and most importantly, loved (in contrast to the ring, that reminds her of awful things) feels like magic.

The hanko will be important in future too, and there will be plenty of cute shenanigans around it :D (some moments i'm literally DYING to write T^T)

But only those within the walls of the parliament building know. Of the horrifying truth. That separation comes at a cost. That too much space can pay a heavy price. That if Ambassador Annie isn't at any given point in time in the immediate vicinity of Ambassador Armin, there is a grave risk that he will at once turn into a pathetic puddle of his own tears.

They have all heard of the rumour of the tailor who was commissioned to make the Ambassador a new suit. Expecting to find someone intimidating and authoritative, so taken by the Ambassador's gentle demeanor was he, that he was even prepared to stay there and make the suit in two days! He was in awe. This is a great man, he thought. This is a man, if there ever was a man, he decided. Some time had passed with taking the Ambassador's measurements when he heard a sniffle. Then another. Then yet another. To his utter shock, he found in the mirror reflection, the Ambassador teary eyed and glancing at the empty corridor like an abandoned puppy. Bewildered, the tailor was torn thinking what could have possibly caused the great Ambassador such distress. But his confusion was quickly put to rest, when in a few moments, the Ambassador Annie walked in. Now she was intimidating, the tailor thought, and she regarded him coolly before speaking to the Ambassador.

However, the change that came over Ambassador Armin was so great that it almost threw the poor tailor off balance. A radiance filled the room. The sun shone through the window. Ambassador Armin brightened, a wide smile splitting his mouth, and bounded to Ambassador Annie, enveloping her in a tight hug. His actions seemed to the tailor to be like that of a dog seeing its beloved after a dreadful absence of three minutes.

So speechless was the tailor that he's said to have returned to his rural hometown after making the suit and could never speak properly again.

Oh but, that is just a rumor. Or so the clerks and secretaries and spokespersons of the Parliament Building thought.

Until that day.

When they were reminded of how they were in the presence of a truly pathetic lovesick creature of an Ambassador.

It was a particularly unbearable day in the country of Nauland when nothing was getting done. Bureaucracy had slowed paperwork, the weather was too hot and humid, some were also plagued, unfortunately, by colds (especially torturous in such weather). If it wasn't bad enough that they were in a foreign land for the signing of the treaty, it only made matters worse that they were under security protection and therefore couldn't even venture out to kill some time.

Ambassador Pieck had discovered, from some mysterious library, a book about dark magic and voodoo and had managed to occupy herself in that world. Ambassador Jean was assessing the money value of the paintings hanging in the great hall. A few of the clerks had decided to play word games to pass the afternoon. It was thus unfortunately, the burden of the youngest on the team, to assemble the day's paperwork and get the Ambassador to sign them.

And so he went, expecting to find the Ambassador in some state of unnecessarily complicated thought or dilemma, surrounded by a pile of books and dusty documents. Out of consideration for the heat, he also balanced a glass of cool water (it was known that the Ambassador was prone to sudden fevers and burnouts). At the door, he heard voices coming from inside the room and perked up. Surely! That must be the Governor of Nauland calling to say all is well and they may proceed! The Ambassador's room was the only one with a telephone. Hesitating over interrupting, he knocked slowly and opened the door.

What he didn't expect to find was Ambassador Armin, sprawled on the floor with the telephone to his ear, tie askew, legs up on the chair kicking and swaying, a finger twirling the cord round and round, and the most blissful, serene blush on his cheeks. "Annie, I miss you," he crooned happily and then proceeded to tell her in such delightful detail how this country fucking sucked without her. He said, in such a pathetic little voice, that he wished she was here, that the sun wasn't shining and the poor junior secretary could only gawk at him, sweating under his own clothes from the day's lurid temperatures. A brief silence followed where Ambassador Annie said something on the phone, and Ambassador Armin broke into such a fit of happy laughter, his hair falling back and chest heaving that the junior clerk was somehow so blinded that he nearly missed noticing the way the Ambassador kicked his feet while giggling.

The junior secretary closed the door quietly and returned to his desk downstairs in a stupor and reportedly never recovered from what is now known by those in the Parliament building as the Ambassador's utter uselessness in the absence of his beloved Ambassador Annie.

Post-Rumbling Armin can't look at himself in the mirror! That's why Annie has to either do or fix his tie in the morning and help him shave often because it's unsightly to have that many cuts as an ambassador

The others also keep track to warn him about his hair before a meeting and give a few pointers on "where" and "how" because he won't turn to look in the hallway mirror behind him

He learns of his undereye bags and pale face from people's reactions. In fact, that's maybe the only time he does look in the mirror; it's to confirm how he feels on the inside

I was thinking about it for a while too, and this whole idea of Armin not looking at himself post-canon runs deep into his self-loathing, to the point where he thinks that he has grown into the man who doesn't deserve all the age he gained. Armin lived for some time with the limited time ahead of him, and I think this fact really developed in him not just the "I have to repay for this second life" mindset, but also the "I'm already dead, I need to be useful as much as possible within this period of time", so when the curse is lifted and he's face to face with not the load of the new responsibilities, but also with the years ahead, his whole "plan" ruins just like the sand-castle with the new tide.

I think that he can develop another stage of his self-hatred with it, since he would look at this double in the mirror and eventually remembered this one time in the Paths when okapi held him and he was looking at himself from another angle - pathetic "piece of shit" he hates, like he said back then - but when he saw himself a few times in the mirror, accidentally, he saw another man he didn't recognize, someone, like you said, worth something, and someone much older than he imagined himself he would be, and this led him to another paralysing, terrifying thought - this man in the mirror isn't me and I hate him even more because he's better then me. I guess, he really can develop this dissociation with his present -self and past-self, which would be tightly linked to that experience in the Paths. He saw himself laying motionless with a dull gaze while everyone was fighting and he couldn't do anything, and this experience, unconsciously, sipped so deep down into his mind, that this is the only thing he can see about himself.

When Annie looks at him, sometimes, he thinks when time will come when she will realize that he's not the one she sees. He doesn't doubt her feelings, no, but he can't understand how the sheer love and a small curve on her lips when she looks at him appear every time when her eyes glide over his frame, how doesn't see in him this pathetic man with so little to offer - this world and his world, her?

Until one day Annie gives him the small book, and he looks at her, puzzled.

"Open it", she just nods, her hands behind her back.

And when he does, all he sees - the pictures of him, in all the mundane and small, ordinary moments of life, caught by her on their new, small photo-camera, a luxury not a lot of people can allow, but for Ambassadors there's always the way.

Here, he curls with the book and blanket, on another picture - him, laughing with Pieck and Connie, on another one - Jean teaches him how to play a billiard and Armin has such a funny concentrated face as if Jean teaches him some difficult geopolitics, here - he cooks her pancakes in the apron, his hair clipped with the hair clip he borrowed from Pieck, here he smiles with such pure and child smile when he reads the new letter from Mikasa, on another one - he and Reiner between the pile of books.

This book is full of pictures of him, just living this life, for one year, and he sees how he also changes, how much he grows and becomes older. And it's not something to be ashamed of.

A few drops of tears fell into the picture of him, where he laughed with Connie, Jean, Pieck and Reiner hugging him, his birthday cake with the candles that showed that he's already 28. He remembers this day, but he doesn't remember Annie taking this picture either - he didn't know she was even doing it all this time.

So when he looks at her, through his glossy eyes, she smiles at him, too, like she always does.

I really had to google what trick meant in this case and-

I'm gonna assume you intended that Armin would let Annie use his wallet liberally for whatever the heck she likes xD

In that case- hell yeah! I'm pretty sure he earns decently BUT. He never has any money 😞 the monthly spending on donuts and ice cream and sweet tea easily soars over his ANNUAL budget for books (and he buys a hell of a lot of books). This is very very abysmal financial planning but does he care? Does he do anything about it? Does he say, "Another cake box annie? We have 19193764 cake boxes at home." ?

No. He says "Ehehe sure Annie, eat all you want you're so cute (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡"

Heyyyy nat! Been a while, how've you been?

This blog is kinda infamous at this point for having a ocean's worth of Aruani smut, but believe it or not, some of my most favourite headcanons are those fuzzy, cute, old-soul, slow and lazy moment types!

Off the top of my head I guess some hcs that particularly make me feel all warm and giggly inside are:

1. Aruani playing word games on a rainy day when there seems to be nothing else to do. Armin, out of the very goodness of his heart, with the simple desire to make Annie scowl cutely as much as possible, uses some of the hardest, most convoluted words possible. But to her credit, Annie, deeply annoyed and very much pissed by how much he's enjoying this, simply makes up words that she says are exclusive to Liberio and so ofc he hasn't ever heard of them. 100% he suspects she's bullshitting but she's just so cute (and a very sore loser!) he just goes with it. (And anyway, this is why they're so good for each other 😌)

2. Aruani discovering vinyl! Brand new shiny invention, he's definitely buying one for their home as soon as he can find one and making her dance to all these jiggy records he buys (doesn't have very good musical taste unfortunately ☹️) but hey, she actually enjoys it? It's fun, and they end up actually having a hell of a time moving as ridiculously and stupidly as possible before making out so hard they have to pull away to laugh.

3. Annie getting her ears pierced for earrings and Armin absolutely freaking out at the needle that (obviously) has to go through her ear (to pierce it ofc) but hey. Sometimes he's a stupid blond fellow.

4. Annie just closing her eyes and listening to the sound of his voice as he rambles on about this and that sometimes. It reminds her of the crystal and how much has changed since then.

5. Armin trying (and failing) to replicate the knot Annie puts her hair in after he spends all his mornings watching her wake up and do it, determined to learn as well. He's very bad at it. 0/10.

6. He's very good at pulling her poker-face cheeks wiiiiiiiide for no reason other than to laugh at how cute she looks. Reporters who accidentally get a peek at this are shocked. That's Ambassador Leonhardt, the most intimidating! And he's just pulling her cheeks and laughing! Anduhxkdnhd what sorcery is this?!

7. She's very good at tickle-attacks. Ymir may have been a bitch ass kid but atleast she didn't give her the tickle genes. Armin, however, is veeeeryyy weak to tickles. And Annie learns to dole them out generously 😌

8. Playfighting that leads to sex, and slow, unhurried kisses. I'm not elaborating.

9. Nightmare nights when neither can sleep, and they end up comforting each other with whatever they can think of. Armin's the guy with the clever words but Annie uses her actions to convince him he doesn't deserve to die. While he speaks into her ear and calms her shaking, she makes him look into her eyes until his racing breath steadies. Slow breathing, in tandem with each other, until they eventually drift off into an uneasy sleep, but atleast without anymore nightmares.

But wait! This aruaniversary will feature BONUS PROMPTS!!! You may use the following four prompts however you wish, you have complete freedom!

And here are our rules!

I'm not saying Aruani are the type to gossip... But Aruani are absolutely the type to gossip. Because Annie looks aloof as fuck but can get really nosy actually, and Armin, well... let's just say... he likes making... theories.

Sometimes I headcanon that the two of them are just lying in bed in their room during a scheduled power cut at night with nothing but the faint moonlight shining through the window and the sounds of frogs from the garden. And they're staring into the dark of the room, feet propped up on the wall above the bed, just talking. About that couple they saw today at the town square and well, didn't they look suspiciously distant? Hadn't they just announced their engagement last month and it was very rushed? Oh? The guy's family disowned him? Where did you hear that? The girl's got a secret dark past? Where did you hear that? Thats weird, haha. What do you think that could be? Like she killed someone or something? Or, hmmm, I wonder why the guy was disowned, wait, isn't his family really wealthy? Was it because he-

He tries to get up and she just wordlessly pulls him back into bed

Armin: A-annie, i really do have to start getting ready

Annie: (sleepy murmer) no, I forbid it

This scenario of Armin trying to get up only to have Annie pull him back to bed can go on for 30 minutes to an hour before Armin concedes

Armin: you really aren't letting me go are you?

he tries to get up and walk somewhere when Annie gently scoops him up or better still, uses her arms to create a little enclosure or squished him to her cheek

any time he tries to get up she just gently pulls him back, maybe gives his hair a little tussle with her finger or maybe even a gentle kiss on the top of his head.