#ahahaha...

Astronomica Unit

Astronomic Unit

Astronomi Uni

Astronom Uni

Astrono Uni

Astron Uni

Astro Un

Astr Un

Ast Un

As U

A U

Al U

Alt Un

Alte Uni

Alter Univ

Alter Unive

Altern Univer

Alterna Univers

Alternat Universe

Alternate Universe

Basically the same thing right guys

THESE DUMB IDIOTS INLOVE...

Hi anon!

Ahaha I see someone's in a melancholy mood... welp T^T

You know, that would be an extremely bittersweet way for Aruani to "end" on, so to speak. Both of them fall for each other to varying degrees in their cadet days; for Annie all the turmoil of feeling what she feels for him constantly constricts her throat until she has to forcefully turn it off by focusing on the harshest activity possible - putting herself through rigorous training, because there's nothing else in store for her except death, and most certainly a very horrible death for him too if she doesn't put a stop to these silly feelings. For Armin, it's intrigue mixed in with a happiness not like any other he's experienced, Annie makes him want to sit in the open without crawling into a shell and talk about the boring things she somehow doesn't hate. Annie makes him want to be next to her, until he can see her eyes and count her eyelashes and the little bumps on her skin from how close they are. Annie simply makes his heart light, and it's certainly a "like" even if he doesn't recognize it as "love" yet.

But neither ever speaks.

Not before they graduate, not before they part ways, not before that afternoon in the Forest of Giant Trees after which nothing is ever the same.

In his agony to dutifully report to his superiors, Armin realizes, maybe it's not just a like, maybe it's stronger, maybe it's got a tighter hold on his heart than he ever could've imagined because why is it so hard to open his mouth and say her name and put an end to this madness?

And Annie... Annie knows. When he leads her into the tunnel she knows, it's good she never said a thing, it's good she never admitted to wanting to touch his sunlit hair just once before they put on dedicated military badges. Reality is only ever cold, like this void of a tunnel stretching before her - there's nothing in store for her, nothing except death. If only she could've willed her heart to become stone.

So she becomes that stone instead. She becomes that stone because her heart cannot possibly be - her heart is too weak, so her body becomes strong, protected by a thing that nothing can ever crush.

Here, in the cold, dark basement where she remains suspended in a glass prison, Armin does speak.

And she listens.

But it remains unrequited because she cannot speak.

When finally, years later, walls come crashing down, and with them the glass into a million little pieces, Annie can speak, and Armin can listen, but she doesn't. Because believing any of it was true will only lead to more pain, for one by fear and for the other, by hesitation.

He doesn't know she heard his words, and she doesn't speak to let him listen to hers.

They fight. They survive. They lie in the smoke and dust and billowing clouds of dead giants carrying the putrefied smell of burnt corpses. They are alive.

But still.

He can't tie her down.

And she can't hurt him anymore.

And so they never speak.