Chapter Text
“Can you hear them?”
“...Huh? N-no I don’t… I don’t hear them.”
The sight before them was something unlike anything Armin had ever seen before. Glass being made was nothing new, but even that was something that he’d only ever seen in person maybe once or twice.
For it to happen right in front of him, floating in mid air just meters away from him was… beautiful .
Eren gave him permission to witness it, because Jean had begged him to.
Armin wasn’t sure why he’d cried so hard, watching Jean shatter again in front of him, nothing but their upper chest and head left. He knew Jean hadn’t died, that they didn’t feel any pain when they shattered. Maybe it was just human nature, to be upset when things were broken.
Each time Jean broke, they had to be reformed. Each time they were reformed, their memories were erased. It was only by the power of Armin’s intricate time magic, weaving Jean’s memories into stones, and then placing those very stones into their core, could Jean hold onto the new things they’d learned.
It was something that Eren was unable to do, even if he’d cared to learn such a brand of magic. For Jean’s wellbeing, Eren allowed Armin to continually produce this magic.
“I can hear bits and pieces.” Eren tilted his head, staring intently at the large ball of fire before them, oranges deepening to reds, brightening to hot white, and back again.
“They have a name, but I can’t hear it.”
Armin glanced between Eren and the fire, Gilen. Eren confessed to him, that the fire ‘spell’ he used, was actually alive all on its own, and not something he’d conjured up. Not a fire spirit, not a curse, or fairy. They were alive .
“They’re ancient, Armin…. They don’t even speak a real language.”
Unsure of where this was going, Armin kept his attention on Eren.
“Jean… doesn’t love you, Armin. They can’t .”
Eren turned, giving Armin a tense stare. “You have to stop this, this obsession with them!”
Armin’s chest practically rattled with how hard he tried to keep calm, how he resisted the urge to scream.
“They don’t understand it! And they hardly remember you half the time!” Eren was angry , and as much as Armin wanted to defy him, to scream and shout and tell him how stupid and wrong he was? Armin could understand where his anger came from.
Fear . If anyone were to find out that Jean was actually living sand, taken glass form, they would more than likely be crushed to pieces and scattered across the entire world as people tried to pick apart such a rare and powerful source of magic.
Where Gilen could always escape, as fire by nature is free and transferable, Jean was… physical. Without water or wind to carry them in their entirety, they were helpless. And in a glass form ? There was no way to return to their original form. They’d been chained down, now and forever, to a form that would fade away little by little. Microscopic pieces disappearing with each break, whittling Jean’s power and existence down each time.
“They’re….” Eren sighed, looking back to the fire, to the recreation of Armin’s only love in the world. “They’re near- pure magic , Armin. You’ll, age. You’ll age, and you’ll die. And you’ll have done nothing with your life… if you just keep hiding away here, to be with them.”
Armin ignored the tears, ignored the pain. He watched the heat of the melted glass expand, take shape. Formed by the skillful magic of Gilen.
“Why… would you trap Jean like this…? But you let that one walk free!” Armin snapped, trying his best to bite down the envy he felt for the fire. If Jean could be free like that…? If Jean could do whatever they felt like, go wherever they wanted?
“You know why.” Eren scoffed, unfazed by Armin’s outburst.
There had been a reason that no one had ever made it to the bottom of the sea where Jean was found, a reason Jean could never leave.
Eren’s sheer determination might as well have been its own kind of magic, how else would he have been able to find two amazingly powerful, endangered beings and somehow convince them to stay with him?
“Jean can make their own decisions.” Armin was quiet, but there was an overlying tone of finality to his words.
Eren grunted, fuming against himself. But there would be no point to them arguing anymore. It wasn’t like Armin could steal Jean away, or that Eren could keep Armin from coming back.
“...So, you really can’t hear them? Not even Jean?”
Armin relaxed physically, though he was still tense.
“No. Why…? What do you think they’re saying?”
Eren shook his head, “Gilen translates for me, but I can’t decide what Jean’s talking about just based on Gilen’s responses. Closest thing I can guess is….” He laughed. “ She ? I think they’re talking about what, what they look like. Want to look like, anyway.”
Jean’s body, technically , could look like anything they wanted it to look like. Though they were technically put together using less personalized Doll magic; It was the only way Jean could see, hear, and communicate with humans. Being made into glass gave them much more room to work with, looks-wise.
“Which one is… uhm , ‘she’?” Gender was one of the many human things that got sort of lost in translation with magical beings. Jean seemed really fascinated with it, no matter how many times they’d forgotten about it.
“I don’t know. Both? I told you, it’s bits and pieces.”
Armin didn’t mind not knowing now, he’d learn soon enough. When he returned what little memories he’d captured for Jean, when he waited to see if Jean still loved him.