Chapter Text
He has been dreaming of Annie since he was a kid.
Armin still remembered the dream where they first met; they were still young kids back then. He was sitting down at the bottom of the playground slide, reading one of the new books his grandfather bought for him. He was so engrossed with the fairies and elves having a tea party in the story, he didn’t realize that another kid was sliding down.
“OOOOUUUUCCCCHHH!!!!” Both kids wailed after bumping each other.
“Why are you even using this slide? Can’t you see that I’m sitting here?!” Armin stood up, causing the young girl to bump her bottom on the ground.
“Why are you even sitting here? Can’t you see there are other kids playing?!” Armin looked at their surroundings. There were no other kids in the playground, only them. What “other kids” was she talking about?
The girl looked like she was about to punch Armin when a deep voice called her name. “Annie! You’re picking fights again, I see!” A middle-aged man, probably her dad, approached the two and faced Armin. “I’m sorry, boy. My daughter loves getting into trouble.”
The slight shaking of her body gave away Annie’s sudden nervousness and fear. Armin could tell she would be reprimanded as soon as they arrived home. Tears began forming in Annie’s eyes.
“It was my fault, sir. She didn’t do anything wrong,” he looked at Annie and mouthed the word “sorry.”
Annie’s eyes widened, probably surprised that he stood up for her. “Oh, I see. No worries, boy. We’re leaving, enjoy playing,” the man replied as he grabbed Annie’s wrist and dragged her away from the playground.
Since then, Annie would always appear in his dreams. Sometimes, they would be assigned as partners in a Science project. Sometimes, they would see each other in Shiganshina Park. And sometimes, he would even save Annie from a fire-breathing dragon.
Different dreams, but always the same ending — Armin would wake up longing for Annie. He would wait for the day when they would finally meet in real life.
But will that day come? As years passed by, Armin was slowly losing hope. Every morning, he would forget her face and even her voice. The only thing he would remember was her name — Annie.
Sometimes, Armin would regret studying in graduate school. Whoever said that studying Communication Arts was easy has never probably had a taste of this hellhole. It was a slightly impulsive decision. Being a 23-year-old junior editor in a magazine before he went to graduate school gave him nothing but headaches. His family wasn’t of help either, with constant arguments that did nothing but worsen the living hell he was experiencing every single day. Studying in graduate school was supposedly his only ticket away from stress. But two years later, he was still struggling to get his master’s degree, and the stress he’d been through because of graduate school wasn’t the ride to paradise he had expected. Though to give him credit, he was a semester left from obtaining his degree.
Fortunately, he wasn’t alone in this excruciating journey. His determination to get a master’s degree influenced his two best friends, Eren and Mikasa, to study again. The trio was usually cramming together, crying together, and spending late nights studying together in their apartment. But this time, Armin was all alone — not that he minded. In fact, it was his choice to write his thesis away from the two. Eren and Mikasa had both already submitted their thesis and were busy canoodling on the sofa. To avoid getting too annoyed with being the only one left to write his thesis and seeing the two become too affectionate , Armin decided to visit their university’s main library.
Problem was, the library closed early.
Dammit , Armin cursed as he walked through the streets of Mitras City, looking for a quiet place where he could study.
The weather was scorching hot, his skin was burning from the heat as beads of sweat tried to cool him down. Armin was panicking internally, the deadline of his draft was in three days and he still wasn’t halfway done. After several minutes of walking, he finally found a café on the other side of the city with only a few customers.
True to its name, Productivity Café’s atmosphere prompted him to continue where he had left off. With delicious coffee and pastries, motivational quotes about productivity, and comfortable seats, he wondered why people haven’t discovered this hidden gem yet. But mid-afternoon, the café became full of people, mainly students whom he guessed were also cramming their theses, struggling to get a seat.
Whew , Armin thought. It was a good thing he arrived before the café’s peak hours. He wore his AirPods so he could tune out the background noise.
It hasn’t even been ten minutes when he felt a light tap on his shoulder.
“Hello, may I share your table?”
He immediately removed his AirPods after hearing her voice.
Why does she sound… familiar?
“S-sure,” he muttered, gesturing at the empty chairs. The woman mouthed the words “thank you” before sitting down and taking out her own laptop to study.
A few hours have already passed, and the two were still studying in Productivity Café. No matter how hard Armin tried to give his undivided attention to his thesis, he kept on stealing glances at his new companion.
Why did her voice sound so familiar? Why did it seem like he had seen her before? Why did he suddenly grow at ease as soon as the woman accompanied him in the café?
Armin could also sense the gaze of the woman on him while he was writing his thesis as if she was also wondering if they’d met before.
Ah, maybe she was a former classmate .
“Are you also working on your thesis?” The woman broke the silence between them.
“Ah…” Armin tried not to stutter. “Yes, I’m studying for a master’s degree in Communication Arts. I’ll be graduating this year, hopefully.”
“Oh, me too!” her face brightened after hearing that Armin will soon graduate, and that was when Armin realized just how beautiful she was. He wanted to soar in her eyes that were as blue as the sky. “But I’m taking up Development Communication for my master’s degree.”
“I see,” Armin replied. “When is your deadline?”
“In three days, actually. I might come by this café often for the next few days.”
He didn’t know why unbridled joy began swelling in his chest after hearing her answer. “Same here, so it seems like we’ll be seeing each other more often. If you want, I can reserve you a seat whenever I arrive first?”
The woman gave him a small smile. “Sounds like a deal. I’ll also do the same.”
They didn’t talk again after that conversation, simply greeting each other “goodbye” as the café was closing. But Armin wouldn’t deny that minutes, even hours after that encounter, the woman never left his mind.
He woke up to the smell of freshly-baked cake coming from their oven. Walking towards the kitchen, he found Annie slightly covered with sweat and specks of flour, topping her own birthday cake with strawberries and cream.
Armin went behind her and left trails of kisses from her neck to her shoulders. “Love,” she whined, “let me bake my cake in peace.”
“I should be the one giving you your birthday cake,” he tenderly rubbed his forehead against the corner of her neck.
“You don’t even know how to bake,” she pointed out as she slowly untangled herself from Armin’s hold and turned around to face him.
“Yeah, I don’t,” Armin admitted. “But I still come bearing the best birthday gift you’ll ever receive in your whole life.”
“Oh? Which is?” she raised an eyebrow.
“Me.”
He kissed her cheeks, then her nose, her eyelids, and finally, her lips… Annie giggled as Armin carried her towards the living room where he reminded her just how much he loved her.
“Happy birthday, my love,” he whispered as he kissed every inch of her soft, creamy skin. Her moans and trembles let him know just how much she was enjoying her birthday gift.
It’s been a while, Annie . He thought of her while he was getting ready for the day. Your face… your voice… it still disappears whenever I wake up. But it’s okay, I’ll take whatever you give .
“Your mood seems to be better,” A voice shook him from his daydreaming. Eren sat down on the sofa — the sofa where he and Annie made love on his dream — as Armin put on his socks. Mikasa threw Eren a can of iced coffee from their cooler before sitting down next to him with her own can of iced tea in hand.
“She visited me yesterday,” Armin replied, a gleeful smile present on his face.
“Who? Mystery girl Annie?” Mikasa sipped on her iced tea.
“Who else? Of course, it’s Annie,” Armin grinned as he stood up to check his hair in their mirror. “I haven’t dreamed of her in months! I missed seeing her in my dreams… dreaming of her yesterday definitely gave me the energy boost I needed today to finish my thesis.”
He heard Eren sigh. “I still can’t believe you’re in love with someone who’s not real…”
Armin’s brows furrowed at his response. “Who says I’m in love?” He asked, ignoring Eren’s claims that Annie wasn’t real. He wasn’t in the mood to have an argument with his friends about Annie’s existence that day.
Mikasa chimed in. “Well, you haven’t had a girlfriend yet because all you could think of was meeting her someday.”
His response to Eren backfired. “You have a point,” he muttered. And it wasn’t that no one was taking interest in the man. There were some people who asked him out, but he would turn them down because really, he only wanted to be with one woman his entire life — not that he had met her too.
“Still, Armin, what if she’s not real?” Eren asked. “Maybe after all this time, you’re waiting for nothing.”
No matter how hard he tried to steer their conversation away from this dreaded argument, his friends would always find a way to slap reality into his face. “We just haven’t met each other yet, I’m sure of that.”
“You don’t even know how she looks like or how her voice sounds… how would you even look for her?” Mikasa added.
It was all becoming too much for Armin to handle. The frustration of not being able to remember Annie’s voice nor face during his recent dream was already somewhat driving him over the edge, along with the pressure to complete his thesis on time. He was trying to distract himself through thoughts about Annie, and Eren and Mikasa’s obvious disbelief over Annie’s existence was something he didn’t need right now.
“Stop doubting her existence,” he argued. “We’ll find each other someday, I know that.”
I’ve been dreaming of you for more than a decade now, and even though I can only reach you through my dreams, I don’t have any explanation as to why you’re the only one I have loved.
The image of Annie baking her birthday cake while covered in sweat and flour can’t seem to erase itself from Armin’s mind. And the ghost of her every touch and every kiss in his dreams lingered on his skin. Even though he would forget how Annie looked whenever he woke up, Armin knew in his heart that what he felt for her was real.
“Hey, are you okay?” his mind stopped from thinking about Annie as the woman in front of him snapped her fingers to get his attention.
He was at the café again to continue writing his thesis. As expected, the woman he met yesterday was also there. They have been writing their theses for hours without uttering a word. The woman must’ve noticed that Armin was staring into space.
“Do you sometimes dream of a person whom you haven’t met in real life?”
The woman’s eyes widened, seemingly taken aback by his question. “Uhm… why are you asking? Is it for your thesis?”
Ah, crap.
Armin thought. Why would he even ask a stupid question to a random stranger? “Nothing,” Armin shrugged it off and smiled at the woman instead. “Sorry, I was just thinking about something.”
He shifted his focus to his thesis, hoping that the woman wouldn’t think that he was crazy.
“To answer your question… yes.” Armin immediately lifted his head, surprised by the woman’s answer. “I’m dreaming of a person whom I haven’t met yet.”
Shock washed over Armin’s face. He couldn’t believe his ears. Did he just meet a person who could understand what he was going through?
“Legends say that the person you always dream of is your soulmate,” she added. “I really don’t know if those old stories passed down from generations are real, but I would like to think it is.”
At that moment, Armin found comfort in knowing that he wasn’t alone. That there was a person who had been going through the same thing, who wouldn’t judge him like how other people such as Eren and Mikasa would.
“But what if it isn’t real? Do you sometimes think that it’s possible they aren’t real?”
The woman grew silent for a few seconds before responding. “The dreams… they feel too real to just be figments of our imaginations.”
Her sky blue eyes were filled with hope when they met Armin’s.
“I would like to think that he’s out there somewhere, that he is also looking for me, that he also wanted to see me and be with me.”
Armin gave her a wide, reassuring smile.
“He does. I’m sure he does.”
Armin had high hopes that Annie would visit him in his dreams last night, and he was so disappointed when that didn’t happen. The dismay must be evident in his face.
“Wow, you look like you’ve just lost a huge battle,” the woman, whom he can call his new thesis buddy, pointed out.
“Nah, it’s nothing,” Armin replied. “Just thinking about a lot of things.”
“Hmm, I see,” she tapped her fingers on the table. “Are you almost finished with your thesis?”
Armin shook his head. “Not yet, I’ll still be writing my thesis until tomorrow. How about you?”
“Ah, I’m nearly done. I think I will be able to finish this today, and then I’ll submit it tomorrow.”
Armin couldn’t explain why sadness seeped through his veins after hearing her answer. “So you won’t be passing by here anymore?”
“Nope.”
The frown on his face must’ve deepened, for the woman suddenly chuckled. “Why the long face? You’ll miss me, won’t you?”
Annie suddenly entered his mind. In his dreams, Annie would give that kind of reply.
“I’m already used to having you around, you know,” Armin grinned in response.
“I would accompany you if only I could, but I have to go to this family event.”
“You don’t have to, it’s totally fine!” Armin assured her. “But, congratulations! You’re nearly finished with your thesis!”
“Thank you,” the woman offered her a relieved smile. “You’re nearly finished as well. Just think about how you will reward yourself after you’ve submitted your manuscript. As a motivation.”
“Hmm… I think I’ll go see the ocean,” Armin sighed with content. “It’s been ages since I last saw the ocean with my own eyes.”
He heard the woman’s breath hitch. She took a deep breath and played with the wires of her earphones. “Oh, you also love the ocean, I see.”
“‘Also’?”
“In some of my dreams, he would claim that the ocean is his second love — I’m his first.”
Oh . Armin could detect the sadness in the woman’s voice. What a small world it was, that he and the person this woman dreamed of both happened to love the sea.
“I’m okay, don’t worry,” the woman clarified after seeing Armin’s worried face. “It’s just that I haven’t dreamed of him yesterday.”
So he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t visited by their soulmate. That was somewhat comforting to know, not that he was happy she also experienced the same. “That makes the two of us.”
“Did you try finding love in another person?” She suddenly asked Armin.
“No.” He was the type of person who would wait. He would wait for his feelings for Annie to fade before looking for another person to love. But just like what Eren and Mikasa had said, he might be wasting his time pining for a woman who might not even exist. “How about you?”
“I tried. I tried having relationships, but they all failed because I’m in love with someone else, even though I cannot recall his voice nor his face.”
“But…” she added. “These past few days got me thinking that maybe it’s time to move on.”
Move on… Armin wouldn’t deny that he has thought of moving on a lot of times. Eren and Mikasa would also always remind him to wake up from his dreams involving Annie. He just wouldn’t listen, choosing to wait for the woman of his dreams. But now that the only person who could understand what he has been going through was also talking about moving on…
“You know what, maybe you’re right.”
The woman nodded at him before focusing on her thesis again. They didn’t converse again, falling into a warm, comfortable silence. Sometimes, he would steal glances at the woman. He observed how she would write, how she would put a lot of sugar in her coffee, how she would eat her donut…
He remembered how they first met, how he was immediately wrapped in comfort from her presence. He remembered how she bantered, it was so, so familiar… He remembered Annie.
Armin suddenly thought of the possibility of falling in love with another person. Maybe he would choose the woman sitting in front of him. Maybe they can help each other move on from the people in their dreams.
But it was too late. As soon as he parted ways with the woman did he just realize that he forgot to ask the woman’s name.
“I’m sorry, Armin.” He never expected that the time would come when Annie would finally be free from her crystal.
Their final battle was drawing near. There was a huge chance they wouldn’t survive. This might also be the first and last time he could spend time with Annie. But Armin didn’t let that stop him from confessing. They spent the night in each other’s arms, making every minute, every second count.
“I made you wait for four years. I took the few remaining years that you have. And I’ve done a lot of wrongdoings that have hurt you.”
Armin caressed Annie’s cheeks before planting a soft, reassuring kiss on her forehead.
“Annie, no matter how long it takes, I will always wait for you.”
When Armin woke up the next day, he hugged his pillow so tight as if he was hugging the blonde he has loved his entire life. He opened his eyes and it was as if he could see her blue eyes looking back at him, and–
Wait a minute… he sat down in an instant. Pale blonde hair, sky blue eyes… He did not forget how Annie looked like, how Annie sounded like. Armin waited for his memory to play tricks on him again, but a few minutes have passed and the image of Annie lying down beside him burned in his mind.
Feeling both disbelief and elation, Armin gripped his shirt so tight. It was her . He finally remembered everything about Annie… and he was talking to her all along.
Armin immediately ran towards Productivity Café, hoping that Annie would still pass by the café even though she had already finished her thesis.
It all still was surreal, how he could finally remember Annie’s voice and face. He was already talking to his Annie these past few days. And that was why she was familiar.
Annie already mentioned that the man she’d been dreaming of also loved the ocean, why didn’t the thought of being the same guy that Annie talked about enter his mind?
The café was closed when he arrived. He peeked through the window and the café was empty. Armin had no idea how to contact Annie. They didn’t exchange phone numbers. He didn’t even think of asking her name.
Armin remembered that Annie was taking a master’s degree in Development Communication. And she mentioned that she would be submitting her thesis today, so she might be in her college building. He was about to run towards the campus when he heard his name.
“Armin…”
He turned around and there she was, the only woman he had ever loved. Annie was trying to catch her breath as tears were forming in the sides of her eyes, but she still was the most beautiful person he had ever seen.
“Annie… after all this time, it’s you.”
At long last, they finally remember each other.