Pairing: Armin x gn!reader
Content: violence, war & death
Description: Armin finds himself trapped underground with you, a complete stranger, who also happens to be a Marleyan soldier.
The mission was simple.
Well, as simple as it could possibly be. Truthfully, the task at hand was rather dreadful, as the simplicity of it was due to one thing.
There was nothing else that could be done.
For once, Armin felt useless. Hopeless.
Even in the darkness moments for the Scouts, or, rather, humanity as a whole, Armin had always held on to the tiniest bit of hope that things would workout somehow, in some twisted way.
However, as he watched as Marleyan soldiers gunned down Eldians right in the heart of their homeland and his former best friend taking punches from the traitorous Armored Titan–who was like a brother to the 104th Cadets, once upon a time–Armin wanted to close his big blue eyes, and simply give up.
It was a hunch, really. A desperate act of hope that maybe, just maybe, Eren was truly looking out for his friends. With that little faith, anyone who could grab some blades and fight had one simple task, and that was to protect Eren.
Even as the sound of gun fire and roaring titan shifters clogged up his mind, in the back of his head, a little nagging thought made him wonder if a simple conversation would be able to lessen the hatred between two groups of people battling over what might have happened 2,000 years ago.
However, this was no time to sit around and think.
Armin forcefully snapped back to the unpleasant reality of war just as Mikasa wrapped her arms around him, jumping from one rooftop to another just as a bomb was fired at their former spot.
“Armin!” Mikasa shouted, although truthfully, the blonde boy could hardly hear her. “Are you okay?”
He was able to make out what she was saying by reading her lips and using context clues. Her quick thinking just saved his life.
“I’m fine, thanks!” Armin shouted.
Armin pushed himself on his feet. Thick smoke clogged the air above them from explosives, collapsed buildings, and fired bullets, and below them, Armin could see from where he stood upon the rooftop that the blood of their enemies and comrades coated the streets. As their blood mixed together in a pool of limbs, it was, perhaps, the closest that the Eldians and Marleyans would ever come to unity.
“Armin!” Mikasa shouted once more, snapping Armin out of his wrecked train of thoughts. This time, she pulled him closer as she spoke, noting how they could barely hear each other. “We can’t stay on this rooftop much longer! We have to get on the ground and stay low until we can get close enough to Eren! We can’t-”
The dark haired soldier was brutally interrupted by yet another explosion. Only, this time, she didn’t see it coming. Their ears rang from the sound. Blood trickled out of them. The burst of flame and fire was scorching and unforgiving. The impact of the blast sent the building underneath them into flying debris that would hit and stab them all over. Armin lost sight of Mikasa once she was blasted into the opposite direction.
He could only hope that she was still alive as his own body smacked the unforgiving ground below him hard enough for blood to spill from his mouth. His body bounced from the impact. His body dribbled until he found himself falling once more, this time, into an underground hole. He could smell his own scorching skin. After a moment, Armin opened his eyes to see that he was surrounded by darkness. He figured that he must have fallen into some sort of opening in the ground created by the many other explosions he witnessed. As he glanced up at the one source of light and smoke shining in from above him, he saw more debris falling his way, and with it, a person.
Armin shielded himself as best as he could, but debris still managed to hit him all over, including the body of whoever seemingly fell out of a collapsing building. He wasn’t sure if they were dead or alive.
They were slung over his lap, limp and covered with smog. Another explosion must have gotten them as well.
As Armin reached down to touch them, using the little light peeking through the debris that now trapped him in a random hole in the ground, he saw that through all of the black smoke and ripped fabric, this person was a Marleyan soldier.
They coughed weakly.
A moment later, they coughed again.
Armin hurriedly moved the weak enemy off of his lap as they slowly started to regain consciousness. His heart pounded wildly within his chest, so much so that he could hardly hear anything else. Armin found himself using the little strength that he had to scoot to the farthest corner away from the stranger. He could only imagine how they might react to being trapped underground with an Eldian. Armin looked down at his sides.
Damn it.
His ODM gear broke off once he hit the ground the first time. He could only assume that the soldier was armed, so Armin grabbed a sharp piece of what seemed to be broken glass, the pointiest side facing the enemy as he clutched it to his side, out of their sight.
The soldier staggered out a few more coughs, blood spewing out of their mouth as they slowly awakened.
Armin was trembling.
With the amount of pain that his body was in, he could hardly think straight, let alone defend himself. He could have used his titan abilities to heal his injuries, but if the Marleyan soldier saw that they weren’t only trapped with an Island Devil, but a titan shifter as well…
“Wh-Where…” the soldier mumbled weakly, their eyes slowly started to open.
Armin pulled his knees to his chest. He didn’t care if he looked like the frightened child from his past, cowering away from bullies.
At least, this time, he would fight back.
The soldier groaned, shifting around as their reality seemed to sink in. They hadn’t noticed Armin yet, too busy taking in the fact that they were trapped underground, and due to the chaos going on above, no one would hear their calls for help.
“Shit!” The soldier cried, putting their hand to their head.
Armin saw that they had a pretty serious head injury, and blood pooled out of their scalp when they touched it.
“I gotta get outta here,” they mumbled.
They started glancing around for anything that might help them find away out. They used their hands to feel across the ground for anything.
Glass…broken wood…crumbled stone…a foot.
Their hand graced over Armin’s boot. They slowly trailed their eyes up the boot, Armin’s leg, arms, and eventually, they saw a face staring back at them with wide eyes.
The soldier immediately pushed themselves away from the Eldian. They clumsily fiddled around for their lost gun, in which Armin pointed the glass at their face.
“Don’t move!” He said.
They didn’t move a muscle, to frightened to even blink.
In that moment, Armin could truly see their face. They were young, just like him. Their eyes filled with the same fear and anger.
“D-Do you have a gun?” Armin stuttered.
They didn’t answer.
“If you have gun, you should toss it over there,” Armin gestured his head to the side, the furthest corner from each of them and the safest place for a gun in the possession of two enemies.
They didn’t say anything. They didn’t move.
Armin spoke once more.
“I don’t want to hu-”
“I thought I killed you.”
Armin blinked. “What?”
He lowered his piece of glass.
“My aim was perfect,” the soldier continued. As they spoke, the fear flooded away from their eyes. All that was left was a deep burning hatred as they spat out their words. “You and that other Island Devil should be dead.”
A gasp escaped Armin’s throat. He was trapped underground with the soldier that fired off both explosives at him and Mikasa.
“Why? You don’t even know us!” Armin couldn’t help it. Every little piece of pain and frustration he had felt towards the strangers across the sea started spewing out of his mouth. “You all hate us and wanna kill us over something we all had nothing to do with, and weren’t there to see! We aren’t devils, don’t you get it? We’re just people. That girl you might’ve killed is my best friend. Her name is Mikasa! She has a favorite food, favorite color, people who she loves and people who love her back! It’s the same for every other soldier you might’ve killed today! It’s the same for me, and…I bet it’s the same for you.”
A thick silence swirled around between them, the only sound that could be heard coming from the war happening right above them.
“None of that matters now,” the soldier mumbled. “There’s no way out of here. We’re going to die in this hole.”
With that, they collapsed back against the walls of the hole in defeat, the blood from their head wound starting to drench their clothes.
They weren’t wrong.
Aside from the little light, also serving as their only source of oxygen, heavy debris blocked any escape paths.
“Looks like you’re right about that,” Armin put down the piece of glass. “I’m going to die with a complete stranger. You’ll be…the last person I’ll ever know.”
Armin figured that the soldier would die first due to their serious injuries. Armin could heal himself, but even so, he would eventually starve to death. Transforming would not only devestate everything around him, but he could kill his friends as well.
“Well,” the soldier cleared their throat. “If I’m gonna die with an Eldian, I wanna hear it.”
“Hear what?” Armin tilted his head.
“You told me that you’re a human being with a favorite food and a favorite color or whatever, so I wanna know what it is.”
Armin figured that the soldier just wanted something to laugh at, since, apparently, Eldians weren’t ordinary humans. But even so, Armin looked deeply into the strangers eyes.
“Well, I really like blue. I never cared that much about having a favorite color or food until I saw the sea,” Armin’s eyes light up as he spoke of his favorite place. “When I found out that the sea was real, I saw it for the first time a few years ago. It was all blue, and…it was amazing. And, well, growing up behind the walls meant that food was a rarity in every form, even bread. You had to take what you could get so…I guess I never really had the privilege of picking what I liked the most.”
The soldier turned away. Armin couldn’t read their expression.
“What about you?” He asked them softly. “What do you like?”
The soldier hesitate before they answered, almost flinching at the sound of their own soft tone when speaking to the enemy.
“I like…I like pasta. I also like the color green.”
“Puh-asta?” Armin blinked, tilting his head a bit.
A giggled escaped from the soldier’s throat, and they tried to cover it with a cough, but they couldn’t fight the amusing grin that spread across their face.
“Yeah, pasta,” the soldier nodded. “It’s noodles with some form of sauce. Sometimes, meat is served on top, like shrimp.”
Armin perked up once he heard something that sounded familiar to him.
“I’ve had shrimp before. A Marleyan soldier made it for us one time, as well as other things like lobster. In fact,” Armin gave a gentle smile, “I think he made pasta too!”
“Really?” The stranger rolled their eyes. “A Marleyan soldier? No way.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because,” Armin started, “he saw that we were human too.”
–
Two hours had passed.
For a while now, the soldier was resting on the ground. Armin couldn’t help but feel a bit worried. He slowly made his way over to them, touching their shoulder.
“Hey,” he said softly.
They didn’t respond, but they were still breathing. Armin could only wonder how long that would last. The blonde boy grabbed the piece of glass from earlier, cutting off his pants leg. With his injures, it hurt like hell, but he couldn’t afford to heal himself now. He didn’t know if the soldier had a gun or not, and although they were weak, they could have enough strength to pull a trigger if they were truly frightened enough.
Armin gripped his torn pants leg.
“I’m gonna wrap your head with this,” he said. “It’ll help with the bleeding a bit.”
The soldier hesitated, but after a moment, gave a weak nod.
Armin gently helped the soldier sit up before wrapping their head as gently as he could.
“Wish you thought of this a few hours ago,” the soldier mumbled. They had a bit of a joking tone to their voice, and Armin gave a sad smile.
“Sorry. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.”
“In other words, I’m gonna die either way, right?”
Armin was silent for a moment, his gentle breath hitting the soldier’s neck, and only then did they realize how close the blonde boy was to them.
“Someone might find us. If my friend’s still alive, she’s probably out there looking for me. Or, maybe, the fighting will end soon, and once the noise dies down, we can use all of our strength to yell and hope someone will hear us.”
“Okay…”
With that, Armin finished wrapping their head, and the soldier laid back down.
–
A couple of loud coughs startled Armin, and only then had he realized that he dozed off. When his eyes snapped open, he remembered everything instantly. He couldn’t have napped for more than an hour or two.
The soldier coughed again, and Armin rushed over to their side. They turned over on their back, looking up at the Eldian.
As Armin looked down at the face of the stranger, he didn’t see a soldier anymore. He saw a person. A young person. One who was simply taught to hate Eldians but truthfully was a good person deep inside. A person who held fear in their eyes as they looked into Armin’s blue ones, the fear of impending doom. They were rather beautiful, even with the black ashes and blood coating their face.
“Are you okay?” Armin questioned. He hated himself for asking, as the answer was obvious, but there was nothing else he could do.
They coughed a few more times, and hot tears started to brim in their eyes.
“It’s…selfish, right?” The soldier’s voice was weak and squeaky. “I’m scared to die after I killed so many…so many people.”
“Shhh,” Armin tried to soothe the trembling stranger, pushing their hair away from their cheeks. “You were only doing what you were taught…what you were told.”
Tears started to form in Armin’s own eyes, and he couldn’t blink them away.
Moments passed on with Armin and the soldier staring into each other’s eyes, listening to the sound of war surrounding them.
Slowly, the soldier’s eyes grew heavy.
“H-hey,” Armin shook them gently. His own hands started to tremble.
“I need you to stay awake, you have to try,” Armin said. His voice was thick with worry.
The soldier gave a sluggish nod.
“Tell me something else about you,” Armin rushed out, “uh-what-what’s your family like? Do you have any siblings?”
“My…family?” The soldier mumbled. Their heavy blinking only grew heavier. “‘have a mom and dad. Wouldn’t…be here if…wouldn’t be here if…if I didn’t.”
If Armin’s heart wasn’t breaking inside of his chest, he probably would have laughed.
With the hand he was stroking their cheek with, he now used to tiled their head in his direction, his mind pouring through every potential way to keep them alive. Armin’s own face was only a few inches away, his soft breath blowing across their nose.
“I need you to keep talking to me, please…” A tear slipped down Armin’s cheek. “Please, keep talking.”
The stranger’s eyes widened only a bit.
They used the last of their strength to look into the eyes of the person above them.
“What’s…your…name?” They whispered.
Armin cracked a bittersweet smile. One of his tears splattered over onto their cheek.
“I’m Armin,” he said gently. “What’s your name?”
Their eyes closed, and they smiled.
“I’m Y/N,” they mumbled. “It was nice…meet-ing you.”
They released their final breath, as their eyes failed to open again.
Armin shook them, gently, but he was no fool. They were gone. He didn’t bother wiping away the tears that fell from his eyes. He didn’t bother trying to shake off the numbness that seemed to paralyzed his broken body.
Instead, Armin laid down beside them.
He stayed by their side for hours upon hours. He closed his eyes, resting his head on the backside of his hand.
He didn’t bother with healing his own injuries.
He didn’t bother with trying to widen the small gap to the outside world for more oxygen.
Time passed on.
Armin didn’t bother with fighting against his own death.
No one ever came, and no one ever would come.
