Chapter Text
He flips the page. A red, thin, straight line suddenly appears. The paper must have cut through his skin. It stings, but only a little. He watches as the faint red becomes bigger and clearer until a drop of blood lands on the page of the book.
Armin expects it to heal in no time, but it doesn’t. It starts to hurt more, until he’s forced to jump out of his seat. He heads to the kitchen sink. The water runs through his finger and provides him comfort, the cold water washing off the blood. It’s not supposed to hurt, but it does.
“Paper cut,” Armin explains briefly when Annie appears behind him.
“Let me see,” Annie says, turning the faucet off and quickly dabbing Armin’s hand with a small towel. “I could heal myself for years, so it’s taking me a while to get used to this.”
Armin’s heart skips a beat. He’s still not used to Annie being kind to him like this. He sees this side of her when they’re alone, and he doesn’t know what to make of it. They haven’t had a proper conversation after the war, and since his almost-confession seems to lack clarity, Armin wishes he could spend alone time with Annie once more.
“How does it feel to be a normal person again, Arlert?”
“Oh, uhm,” Armin pauses, surprised with her sudden question. “I’m not really sure how to feel about it. What about you, Annie?”
“No one has stopped being a titan and lived to tell the tale, so I’m just as clueless as you are.”
Their eyes meet. Annie doesn’t realize how close she’s been standing in front of him until now, but she doesn’t step back. Instead, she leans in closer, unsure of what she’s about to do next. All she knows is that she can’t stop looking in his eyes, and she can tell that Armin feels the same way.
Armin moves his face closer to hers, their foreheads almost touching. He’s never wanted to kiss someone this bad, and he could only imagine how soft her lips are. But right now he might feel them on his, and he couldn’t think about anything else but kissing her, holding her by the waist and then cupping her face with his free hand—
Annie steps away, her cheeks a deep shade of red. She’s never done anything like this before. She’s too scared and embarrassed and confused to process anything at the moment. But the look of shock in his face almost breaks her. She thinks she’s hurt him. It’s not that she doesn’t want to kiss him, she does—desperately. But the thought of kissing someone for the first time is a lot daunting than any other form of training she’s ever done in her life.
Annie finds her way out and closes the door behind her, leaving a bemused Armin all by himself.