#arminweek2020

And that was what made him feel worse, if only she raised her fist and punched him in the guts, if she kicked him and slapped him, if she told him that he’s as worthless as he was when they were kids, getting bullied at every given chance, that he’s not the person they should have brought back to life….

He would have nodded his head and told her that she was right.

He would bend his head down and tell her that he should’ve died four years ago.

His hands tightened on the straddle of the horse, his knuckles turned white, and his teeth clinched.

Armin never thought that a day would come where he and Mikasa would have an argument this corrupt, and the core of it to be Eren. He just wanted to turned around, get back to base, hug Mikasa and apologize.

She had enough weighing her down already.

But, Armin considered, that at the heat of the moment he just spitted out the first thing that came to his mind, he never meant to hurt her and he was stupid to snap at her, but at that moment, his mind exploded with how many things were happening at the same minute.

Eren is destroying the world.

Levi and Hanji might be dead.

Commander Pyxis and commander Nile are gone, hell, he himself killed commander Pyxis.

He had no idea what the Yeagrists were doing, nor Yelena.

He thought of Reiner, the Cart Titan.

Connie and the boy they were after.

Annie.

His breath hitched, and his tongue turned into a knot which was hitting the roof of his throat making him gag.

If the day to finally see Annie out of the crystal had finally came, and it was today…

No, there’s no way he could meet her today, she might not even be out the damned crystal, but then the thought that he could look at her without a barrier between himself and her, that he would be able to raise his hand and land it on flesh rather than a freezing glass…

Again, he didn’t want to get his hopes up.

He decided that he needed a distraction, and he tried to start a conversation: “So you and that kid are close, huh?” Shit, that’s not something he should be asking about now.

“Yes, we are, and that’s why I need him back.” Gabi answered Armin, her voice determined and unwavering, her gaze fixated on the road ahead of them, never averting her eyes from it, as if she looked concentrically, she would get there faster.

“It’s really something to have someone that close to you, isn’t it? Someone you would die for.” Armin was spouting, he wanted to keep this conversation going on.

“Everyone has that someone, no one can live without someone to go back to.” She swallowed hard, and Armin comprehended that this isn’t a laid-back topic for her to approach, “even if we don’t realize it at the moment, but someone is always thinking about us, someone is waiting impatiently to see us, and these people are worth our very last breath.”

Armin contemplated what she said, then he added: “But dying won’t do them any good, we should fight to survive to be with them, shouldn’t we?”

Gabi didn’t answer him, but he noticed that her gaze intensified, something in her eyes deepened.

They kept going on in silence for some time, it was enough time for Gabi to grow the enough courage to ask Armin this question: “Do you have someone like that?”

It was Armin’s time not to answer.

But he did think of some people.

His grandfather, the 104th squad, Hanji and Levi.

Annie.

“You know what, yes, yes I do have that someone, and the whole thing is crazy, I think I’ve gone crazy, I don’t get why I feel that way or how.” He confessed, he just needed the last push and he would spill it all out.

“What are they like?”

Huh.

“Well, when you first look at her, a piercing ice would come out her eyes and you would immediately feel a shiver down your spine.” He glanced at Gabi, and for his surprise, she was already gazing at him, and that encouraged him to talk more, he took a deep breath:

“She joined the cadet corps the same year me and Mikasa did, she ended up in the top ten and she had a special talent in throwing people off her shoulders.” A shy smile pulled at Armin’s lips “she wasn’t talkative, she would eat alone, but that’s not because she’s shy or mean or anything, that’s just who she is, I guess. She’s a good person, but she had a goal in her mind, and she wasn’t interested in anything except in it.”

“What was it? Her goal I mean?” Gabi inquired.

“To go back home.”

“And she couldn’t just do that?”

“if she had the chance, she would have taken it, but no, she had to stay.”

A beat of silence.

“Are you talking about-”

“Wait, do you see what I see?” Armin asked, craning his neck forward as he inspected a silhouette of a horse with someone on it.

Gabi didn’t know why Armin was alerted at the sight of another horse, but when they got closer, she saw a woman in military uniform, a horse’s head implemented on the jacket.

“Hitch? Hitch!” Armin shouted and waved with his hand, and that caught Hitch’s attention.

She looked behind her, and for a moment Armin was worried if someone was chasing her, but the horizon seemed to be empty and only them were in his peripheral view.

When Hitch neared, he noticed that her lips were moving, and Armin wondered if the time had finally come for her to lose her mind and started talking to herself since no one was around her, and then he decided that everything they had been through is certainly enough to turn even trees into lunatics. Just how long until all of them talked to themselves and staggered in the streets? If they were alive by then alright.

The horses neighed as they pulled the straddles, bringing them to a halt, both had sweat dripping from their foreheads and were slightly panting, even though they were riding the horses and not running on foot.

“Oh, hello there Armin, and hello there, young lady, what’s up Armin? Out for a last walk before these titans smash us?” Hitch wisecracks as pointy as ever, but there was a hint of fear in it that was coated with uncertainty.

Armin weighed the decision of garnering information about how everything was going in the interior, or to just ride past her because time was running out and they barely could get to Connie in time.

Annie.

“Hitch.” Armin had no idea how he was supposed to say this and sounding as sane as someone whose life was about to end, so he tried tentatively to reach the subject as smoothly as possible, “when the walls fell down, the armored titan’s armor broke down at the same moment.”

“Ok?” Hitch titled her head to the side, slightly offended that Armin ignored her question.

“Annie. I know this might sound crazy, but.” His hands were up and in front of his head, shaking violently and waving around, as if drawing motions with them would help him get to his point tranquilly, “the crystal, I mean-”

“Well don’t you look at that.”

Armin’s arms froze midair, and air was stuck in his lungs.

Even though there was a chance that Hitch was only playing around and pulling a prank on Armin, it was highly anticipated that she was solemn.

Then Armin saw something.

Or someone.

He got off the horse, and Gabi did so only to catch the horse’s straddles; they couldn’t afford more time to be dashing after horses, not now.

Armin walked a few hesitant steps towards Hitch, and the someone was more visible.

A small frame, a hunched back.

Blonde locks.

“Annie…” He could manage to get some air out and wheeze that name, and it didn’t come out as a question, because she slowly, almost agonizingly slowly, lifted her head up, and he could see her face.

It was her face with no doubt, he has been looking at it for hours daily, for over than four years.

But for the first time in these four years, there wasn’t a barrier between him and her.

He wondered if her eyes had always looked this blue.

As blue as an ocean, he thought.

Then she sighed, and got off the horse too, but with some trouble.

And then she was standing right in front of him, only some feet apart, Armin inexplicably felt premonition of emotions swirl through his stomach, and he didn’t know what expression he was making, nor did he know Annie’s, since she suddenly was interested in the dirt underneath her shoes.

Armin stretched out his arms towards her, but still far away to feel her body’s heat, and his arms kept hanging there.

She was there, he could touch her face.

He spent sleepless nights just wondering how her hair would feel like between his fingers, and how his own body would feel pressed against hers, he imagined her body warm, unlike the crystal that she caged herself in, warm and soft.

Then he was startled when her head snapped up.

Blue met blue.

It was almost detectible to see the sparks materializing from both of them, for them to meet in the middle and create a magnificent mass of luminous blue energy; too gorgeous to stare at, too terrifying to touch.

“Armin.” She said, he felt a pinch on air rushing into his lungs, and instead of breathing ordinarily again, it only suffocated him more.

Then Armin’s eyes were growing hot, and blazing tears squirmed at the edge of them threatening to fall if he blinked, but his eyesight was growing blurry, so he had to blink, but his view didn’t clear out, because now tears didn’t stop falling and scrolling down his cheeks.

She only looked at him, her face more professional than a poker face, but if you’ve been around her for enough time, you’d know she’s showing more emotions than she did in years.

Armin heard Hitch throwing colorful profanities, but her voice seemed distance, and he was weightless; floating, like he was deep under water.

He called her name one more time before he took the two steps separating them and wrapped his arms around her; he hugged her tightly, so tight, and a few sobs slipped from his clenched jaw, and he hugged her tighter because -even though he had already anticipated that she broke free from the crystal- he couldn’t believe that he could just touch her.

To feel her.

Her body was warm, and her hair was soft, he didn’t know when he had tangled his fingers in her hair, but he didn’t pull back.

Then weak arms were pressing around him, and he had to pull back for a second to make sure he was hugging Annie because there was no way Annie’s grip would be as weak as that.

She pulled him back into the hug, and he hugged her again.

He was laughing.

And he didn’t know why.

Then he felt his shirt getting damp from where Annie’s face was buried, and that was when he loosened his embrace.

He pulled back, his arms cupping her cheek, and wiping off a tear of her cheek.

For a moment, in years, he felt pure happiness.

It’s true the world was crumpling down around them.

And it’s true that they would probably be dead soon.

He was happy for a moment.

And by seeing the twitch at the corner of her lips that turned into a smile, he assumed that she was as happy as he was.

Armin rested his forehead on Annie’s, then she closed her eyes, and so he did.

“You’ve taken your time, haven’t you?” Armin questioned her, though he wasn’t serious in the slightest.

“I did.” She answered, and he could hear the smile through her voice.

“A lot have happened.”

“I know.”

“A lot have changed.”

“I know.”

“I’ve changed.”

“I know.” She sounded confident when she replied to his last statement, her voice firm, and her fingers digged slightly in his cheeks.

Armin’s lips were partly opened, he was thinking of how he could tell her about everything that happened, all the catastrophes that occurred while she was locked away, faraway from anyone’s reach.

He, even though they were on the line to do their most likely failed mission, let himself enjoy the blue in her eyes; he had never been this physically close to Annie, and his breath was taken away.

He could get lost in her eyes at any time, to sink and drown and not even trying to save himself.

You should tell her.

A nagging voice at the back of his head insisted.

You must tell her.

“Annie, I-”

“She knows.”

Armin completely forgot that they had company, he had lost the sense of time and place the moment he felt Annie’s body against his, and despite the fact that he felt slightly irritated that he was snatched back into reality form his boundless pensive world; he was glad he was run by again with their condition.

And now that Hitch said that Annie already knew everything, then Hitch must have told her before their unforeseen meeting.

“She was awake, all this fucking time, she heard everything we said.” Hitch said this as it was the most common thing anyone could do at any time; yeah sure my friend got herself crystallized for four years but she was conscious all that time! Do you believe that?!

Armin looked back at Annie for validation only to find that she was already staring at him.

“Is that…?” He couldn’t let himself finish the question.

“Yes, I was.”

It took Armin three seconds before her turned into fifty shades of red.

He looked everywhere except Annie’s eyes, but he was sure she was still there because she was in his arms. His arms that now were around her waist.

A giggle.

That’s a sight he couldn’t miss, so he instantly looked at Annie, who held a bigger smile on her face.

Dammit.

“Never thought you were that type, Armin.” She said, “But I guess four years did change you in many aspects, right?” She was enjoying this way too much.

“Well.”

“But honestly you look handsome in this haircut.”

“Huh?” Armin didn’t think she would say this so abruptly, and he shivered at her fingers skimming the hairs from his undercut.

“I mean, I did like your long hair, but you look as good as I remember.”

Armin was looking back straight into Annie’s eyes, he could see the deepest corners of the ocean in her blue orbs, then his eyes flickered to her lips.

Then her eyes flickered to his lips.

And they both met in the middle.

It wasn’t a sweet kiss from one of the fairy tales his grandfather used to read to him; when the prince met the princess and their lips barely brushed in a sweet, gentle kiss, no, it was rough, rougher than a first kiss should be, but perfect for two souls with suppressed spirits, prohibited from feeling each other for years.

His arms could wrap completely around her waist, she was tiny, really petite, and he grew in the past few years, not much to be compared by his teammates, but he was adequately built to gulf Annie into him fluently.

Annie kissed him back as hard as he kissed her, if not even tougher, no one would know how much at times she just wanted to get out of the crystal, grab Armin by the collar of his shirt, smash her lips onto his, then get back into the crystal.

But when it finally did happen, she wondered if it was even humanly possible to want to get back into that freezing cold mass after feeling the blazing flames his lips were.

They both never kissed anyone before, but they couldn’t imagine anyone on earth would have the same lips as the ones they were kissing now.

Annie cupped Armin’s cheeks and moved her lips towards his, for some inexplicable reasons, it didn’t feel awkward, nor did it feel just right, it felt like they had already done this plenty of times, but each time they kiss, a new fire is ignited and they were thrown into a whole new world.

But their real world was ending, but there they were.

“Um excuse us, but we are kind of in a hurry and, uh, the walls literally just collapsed?” Hitch sarcastically commented, even though her grin was so wide it was actually audible.

Annie pulled away, and it was the cutest thing ever when Armin followed her withdrawing lips, wanting to kiss her more and obviously didn’t hear Hitch, but then he opened his eyes, and they were blurred, like he just woke up from a two days sleep and was itching to sleep even more.

So, Annie caressed his cheeks and while doing that she softly replied to Hitch: “Shut up.”

She watched him blink a few times, then he slightly shook his head, and he seemed to emerge back into reality, then his eyes widened, and Annie, with all the strength she could monitor, held herself back from just kissing him for the end of all eternities.

“Yes.” He murmured, and nor Annie, nor Hitch and nor Gabi -whom jaw hit the ground- were aware if he was agreeing with Annie or with Hitch, but maybe he was syncing his senses back to that moment.

“Yes…Yes!” He said, this time completely back in his mind, his eyes had a glint that didn’t show in years, “Annie, could you transform?”

“What?” Annie was confused, she shrugged her head back.

“I mean, we need to get to Ragako, Connie’s village, as fast as we can.” Armin took a step back and even though his body language seemed to indicate that everyone was included in this conversation, his eyes were fixated on Annie, “and your titan form is fast! Faster than thirty horses combined!” he was gesturing with his hands, then he stopped, a cover of concern layered him: “wait, I don’t even know if your capable of transforming, I mean, are you ok? How are you feeling? You had clearly lost mass muscles, I just-”

Annie reached out and held his hands in both her hands, looked him in the eyes and said: “Yes."

Thank you for reading!!!