Chapter Text
Prince Eren Yeager always spent most of his days stuck in his castle walls. Not being able to leave or have the freedom to really do anything. As much as Eren liked being a prince, he had to admit, it got very boring very quickly. There were a lot of rules he had to follow, and honestly he could barely remember most of them. The one he did remember though, was that he was never allowed to leave the castle walls. He could walk around the gardens and courtyards, but he couldn't go any further. He wasn't even allowed to go outside and see the village. His own village, that he was supposed to rule and protect one day, He couldn't even see it.
Even at the age of five, Eren wanted to run away. He wanted to run as far away as he could, and never have to look back. He even came up with plans. Planning out exactly how he would get away and where he would go. He was so prepared. Yet every time he tried to get away, he just ended up back where he began. Locked up in his room.
Eren's favorite spot in the entire castle was the library. He didn't know how to read very well- He was learning how and it still didn't really make much sense to him. What did make sense however, were the pictures. He could stare at pictures of the outside world for hours. Just hoping that one day he would be able to see it. As Eren grew older though, that hope turned into something else. Want, and need. Two very different things, yet very similar and powerful.
Armin Arlert has always wanted to explore. To leave his little village and see the world. He knew there was more out there. Things he couldn’t understand or explain but really wanted to. Yet he couldn’t. He was stuck in his little village, not allowed to leave his grandfathers side. His grandfather had gotten really sick when Armin turned four. He could do every day activities- like get the groceries and organize his books. He could not however go on trips, or walk very far.
The small boy was left with his grandpa around the age of two. His parents went on trips almost all the time, exploring the world. So Armin never really got to know them. Instead, he became very close with his grandfather. One day, his parents just never came back. He of course was pretty sad, but he had his grandfather, so he could get through it.
Armin spent most of his time walking around. Unlike Eren, he was allowed to explore. He was allowed to run around the village and forest. Of course he wasn't supposed to go very far, and he never would, but it was still something. He spent most of his time exploring the forest, trying to find the best places. By the time he turned six, he already found a very good hiding place deep within the forest. Whenever he was feeling down or just out of it, he would run away to his spot and spend hours just staring up at the sky.
One night, as Eren was wandering through the library, he came across a little, blonde, blue eyed, boy, asleep laying against one of the bookshelf's. Eren paused for a minute, just watching the boy as he slept. He didn't care how creepy he looked, this was his first time seeing another kid that looked around his age in years. It might sound weird- but since Eren wasn't allowed outside, that also meant no friends. The only person that was close to his age was his sister Mikasa, other then her he hadn't seen another kid in years. So when he found the small blonde sleeping by the bookshelf, he just got so excited.
Another kid- that looked his age. No words could explain how excited he was. He smiled a little and sat down by the boy, poking his shoulder a bit to wake him up.
"Hey- Are you gonna wake up? You look nice and I was just wanting some company.."
Armin moved around a bit, groaning a little and mumbling something under his breath. Eren smiled a bit, deciding that the other boy was probably just starting to wake up. The blonde was slowly waking up, but he definitely did not want to. He moved around a bit more, to the point that he was just completely laid down on the ground. Armin honestly thought he was at home. He had completely forgotten about his grandfathers little job in the castle that night, and how he had basically begged to go along with him. Why had he begged to go to the castle with his grandfather? Well- two very simple reasons. A) He didn't want to be alone. B) He wanted to see the library. He had heard that it was big and full of books- so he wanted to see it for himself. What he really wanted to see was if there were any books about the world.
As Armin started to slowly wake up- the last thing he expected to see was another kid watching him. His eyes widened a bit and he sat up, moving backwards so he wasn't so close to the other. Why was this boy watching him sleep? And where was he? Eren flashed him a big smile once he noticed that he was awake, happy to see that the boy he was watching was finally awake. "Hi! I'm Eren, Whats your name?"
Armin looked around for a second, trying to remember where he was. Once he did, he let out a little sigh and looked back at Eren. He was really confused for a bit, but after remembering his grandfathers job and begging to go with him- he wasn't that confused or scared anymore. He smiled softly at him and sat cross legged. "Im Armin."
Eren nodded a bit, still smiling as he thought about the name for a few seconds. He really liked it. He wasn't sure why- It just sounded so nice and perfect. His smile turned softer as he looked back to Armin. "I haven't seen a person my age in years. Im six by the way! How old are you?"
"Im also six." Armin said softly. He didn't really know who this kid was, but he seemed fun, and really nice.
"Thats so cool!" Eren said, pretty loudly. "Hey- Can you read? I noticed that you were surrounded by books and I was just wondering if you could actually read any of them."
"Oh- Yea I can." He smiled a bit. He had learned how to read at around the age of three. His grandfather wanted him to have something to do while he worked, so he taught him how to read. Armin picked it up pretty quickly, and basically fell in love with books.
The princes eyes lit up once he heard that the other boy could read. He smiled a bit and stood up. "Stay here, i'll be right back." He then ran away. Armin sat there for a few seconds, not really knowing what to do. He decided to just wait, maybe Eren was getting water or something.
The taller boy was getting something- but it wasn't water. He ran past all the fiction books, trying to find his favorite section. Once he found it he ran in and looked around for his favorite book. A few minutes later, he found it. A big beautiful book, filled with pictures and paragraphs of the world. The brunette grabbed the giant book, having a little trouble carrying it for a few moments because of how big and heavy it was. Soon though he was walking back to the blonde, excited to show him his favorite book.
Armin looked around himself as he waited for Eren to get back. He still wasn't quite sure who the boy was. He never paid much attention to the royal family or anyone who lived in the castle. He probably could've put together that Eren was a prince, but he didn't really care. He was meeting someone new, someone who seemed really interesting. The blonde never really got along with the kids in the village. They thought it was weird that he would rather read than play around with them. It was nice to meet someone else who seemed to like books as much as him- or at least enjoyed them enough to walk inside the library.
Soon, Eren had found Armin again. He smiled at the blonde as he walked back over to him. Armin smiled back, seeing the giant book and tilting his head slightly. He was curious to see what was inside, and even more curious as to why Eren had wanted to show it to him. The brunette sat down next to the blonde, setting the book down in front of them. He looked up to Armin for a split second before looking back down at the book.
"This is my favorite book in the entire library. I can't really read it.. but the pictures look so pretty! And I can make out a few words! I know its about the outside world and well, I've just always wanted to go out and explore y'know. But I cant, so instead I have this book! Its not as great as the real outside world, but at least its something." Eren looked up at Armin with another smile. This smile however, was different then the others, and Armin noticed immediately. It was a sad smile. Armins eyes widened very slightly at it. A sad smile- he didn't like that. He wanted it to be a happy one. He wanted Eren to be happy.
"Then i'll take you! One day, We'll see the world together. Its a promise." He said it quickly, barely having any time to think of what he actually wanted to say. He knew those were the right ones though. He knew he had just met Eren, but he already wanted to go on so many adventures with him. He wanted to see his eyes sparkle and widen at how pretty the world was.
Eren stopped smiling, and just looked at Armin. He wasn't mad, angry, or anything like that. If anything he was surprised. Surprised that someone would actually want to explore with him. After a few seconds, he smiled again. This one was a way happier smile. "Alrighty. Then I promise to wait for you. I'll wait for you no matter how long it takes. Besides, seeing the world with you sounds way better then seeing it by myself or with anyone else." Armin smiles, his first real smile that night.
They sit there, talking and laughing all night long until both of them end up asleep on the floor.
Hannes, Erens personal guard had been looking for him all night. He had lost him earlier that night, and wanted to find him before the queen or king found out. Eren was always running away from him, which Hannes honestly didn't have an issue with. He knew the kid wanted to be alone most of the time. He also knew that he was always trying to escape the castle- which was nearly impossible because of all the guards surrounding the place. Anyway, he knew that he would always eventually find Eren, so he didn't really see the problem with it.
Right now though, he was having a really hard time finding the boy. He always had to find him and have him in bed by 9 pm- that was usually the time the queen and king checked up on him. It was already 9:20, and luckily the two parents were running late with a meeting and would check up on him at 9:30. Hannes was extremely lucky to get ten extra minutes to find Eren. He had already checked most of the palace though, and didn't really know where else to go. That was until he remembered Erens odd obsession with the library.
Hannes walked into the library, walking through the isles of bookshelves, trying to find the little prince. After about 3 minutes, he finally found him. What he didn't expect to find however, was the little brunette prince to be curled up next to a little blonde boy. He paused for a moment, not really knowing what to do. They seemed so peaceful laying there next to each. He smiled a little, He hadn't seen the young prince that content in a while. About a minute passed when he started to hear someone yelling a name from somewhere else in the library. The voice continued to grow louder until suddenly a old man popped up on the other side of the isle. He stopped almost immediately when he saw the two boys curled up and another man watching them.
Armins grandfather had been signing up for little jobs around the village for a while now. They were running low on money, having barely enough to spend on food and water. So Mr. Arlert decided to sign up for some jobs. He knew he couldn't get a full time one- because of his sickness. So he decided to get little ones around town instead. These jobs mostly consisted of helping people clean, take care of their kids, help making clothes, take care of their pets, and even sometimes just to help make food. After about a week without having any jobs, Mr. Arlert was starting to worry. If he missed a few more days without getting paid, then he knew they would have barely enough money to spend on food for the next week.
So when he heard that the king and queen were looking for someone to help them clean the ballroom, Mr. Arlert signed up almost immediately. Once he told Armin about where he was going that night, the small blonde basically started begging him to let him go along, and well, he couldn't really say no.
The first thing he notices when Mr. Arlert finds Armin, is the boy next to him. He pauses for a few moments, confused about what was going on. He then looked up and saw a guard. He smiled a bit and quickly stood up a bit straighter. "Ah hello- Im so sorry if my boy has caused any trouble. He just really wanted to see what the library was like so I decided to bring him along with me."
Hannes gave a smile, shaking his head lightly. "Don't worry, I don't believe anything bad has happened. Other then Prince Eren being late to his curfew." He let out a sigh and leaned down a bit, gently picking Eren up. "I have to get this one to him room. Good night!" Hannes said before then leaving to the princes room.
Mr Arlert just sighed a little before waking Armin up. He made sure both of them were awake and could walk before holding Armins hand and walking out of the castles library with him.
"Guess what grandpa, I met a boy! His name is Eren and he seems really nice. I promised that one day I would help him run away and see the world!" Armin smiled, obviously very proud of himself for making a friend. His grandfather smiled down at him, also very happy that his grandson finally made a little friend. He wasn't so sure about how they would stay in contact though. He was pretty sure this would be the last time either of them visited to castle grounds.
After that day, the boys never crossed paths again. They did however send letters back and forth. A lot of their letters would be simple little things. They would each say how the past couple days had been (It took about five days for their letters to get to each other) and then they would ask the other a couple questions. Eren usually asked Armin what it was like outside the castle, Armin usually asked Eren random things, mostly about him, his family, stuff like that. Then they would answer the others questions before finishing off the letter whatever way they wanted. Eren would usually end it by saying how excited he was to see Armin again, Armin would end his with a fact about the outside world.
Armin was able to write, sometimes needing the help of his grandfather to spell words, otherwise he was pretty good. Eren on the other hand couldn't really write anything. He was still having troubles trying to write and read- so Hannes wrote the letters as Eren told him what to say. Eren was still the one to sign it at the end though.
After about two years, Armin stopped receiving letters. At first he thought that they must have just gotten lost in the mail or something, So he wrote a letter to Eren explaining that he hadn't been getting any of his recent letters. After about four weeks of waiting, it was pretty obvious that Eren wouldn't be sending a letter anytime soon. Of course, Armin was pretty sad about this. He wasn't even sure if his letters were reaching Eren anymore. He kept writing them though. He wanted to make sure that Eren knew he wouldn't just keep him waiting. One day he would help him run away, and they would go see the world together.
Eren of course didn't stop writing to Armin because he wanted to. His parents had found out about the letters, and instead of telling him to stop sending them, they decided to teach him a lesson.
To start, they found the most recent letter that Eren had written to Armin, and without telling him, they burned it. They continued to burn any letters that were from or going to Armin. They wanted Eren to believe that his friend had abandoned him. That he wasn't going to come and "save him". That he was alone. This might seem really awful, and honestly it was. Eren had no idea what was going on. He hated not being able to hear from his only friend. He hated not knowing if Armin was even ok. It was torture.
After a couple years, they both gave up. What was the point of writing and sending letters if you weren't gonna hear back? Its not like they wanted to stop, they just lost the hope of getting a letter back. Eren continued to grow up into a mature and honest prince, who was loved by the entire village, even if he knew none of their names. Armin became a kid in the background, just another villager.
He was ok with it though. He didn't owe anyone anything anymore. Sure sometimes he wondered what it would be like to play out their dreams. To sneak into the palace and save the prince from his very nice prison. He knew it would never happen though. He was no longer apart of the princes life. It was like he didn't even exist. He was just another random villager in their kingdom.
Armin thought Eren had completely forgotten about him, but that was probably furthest from the truth.
Armin was one of the only things on Eren's mind. Sure it probably wasn't good to only think of your childhood friend that randomly disappeared one day, but its not like he could control where his thoughts led him. He couldn't even count the number of times his thoughts wondered to that little blond boy asleep in the library years ago. It would happen at random times, sometimes when he was up late at night staring at the sky, or even during his classes when he was supposed to be paying attention. Eren knew he should probably let go of his dream and promise, but he just couldn't. So instead, he decided to wait. Wait for the blonde boy from the village to come and rescue him.