Chapter Text
The war is lost. The walls are gone. The titans have been freed to roam free and outside of Paradise. Free to destroy everything and anyone standing against Eldia. To destroy everything and anyone in their way; children, women, and men alike, uncaring of their nationality, their status, or their beliefs, and completely indifferent to their suffering.
Armin knows this is truly the end.
No possibilities, no unexpected allies, and no hidden back-ups.
Nothing.
Armin is no stranger to helplessness.
There have been countless times when he had felt things were finally over. However, even when it had seemed that the end had come, fate had always thrown a curve in his way in the form of a helping hand, a concerned friend, or the sharp incision of a needle. A miracle.
Armin is no stranger to betrayal either.
Not after Annie, not after Paradis’ well-kept secrets, nor after Reiner and Bertholdt.
Yet, this time, it is different because it comes from someone that knows them all too well, someone of their own. It comes from Eren. His best friend, his lover, and his family.
It hurts. Of course, it does. There is pain, but Armin has no tears left to cry, leaving him with a cold and tiring sensation that makes his blood boil and which Armin recognizes as disappointment and anger, rather than sadness and grief.
Armin wonders if he has had enough time to cope if he saw this coming long enough to dilute the pain into anger.
He is angry at Eren, but he’s also angry at himself. Because deep down, Armin knew that Eren had been planning this for a while. Armin saw the signs then, and so did Mikasa, but they both ignored them in favor of those fleeting moments of happiness. In favor of an illusion of hope.
“Was it worth it? Is this what you wanted?” Armin asks in a dry tone as he looks up in order to meet ocean green eyes.
They are alone in the room.
Armin is on his knees, and Eren is leaning over the opposite wall of the room.
Reiner and Pieck are dead. Mikasa, Jean, Connie, and what was left of the others have been led in handcuffs out of the room to an uncertain fate that Armin does not want to entertain at the moment.
Everything is just wrong, and Armin wonders how exactly did this happen. How did they allow him to go this far?
Eren does not answer as he walks towards the blond and crouches before him instead.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Eren says as he reaches to grab Armin’s chin, “Not you,” the brown-haired man says in almost a soft tone.
Armin pulls away from his touch.
Had his hands not been handcuffed behind his back, he would have slapped the hand away.
Never in his life has Armin thought that Eren’s closeness would make him sick.
Because Armin can’t look at him without thinking about what this man has done. About what he might do to the few people remaining in Armin’s life.
Eren’s facial expression contorts, and the blond realizes quickly that it has been the wrong thing to do as Eren reaches for the collar of his black uniform –still dirty and bloodied– to pull him up and force Armin to look at him in the eye.
There is fire and hurt behind green eyes.
Eren has never taken rejection well.
“How do you want me to look at you, Eren?” Armin asks in a cold easy tone. The name rolls down his tongue in a dry way.
“Do not talk to me like that either,” Eren’s frown deepens. And the mere sight makes something within the blond rejoice at that look.
Eren is angry, he notices. Angry and frustrated. A mirror of Armin’s own emotions.
This is only fair.
He wants Eren to feel hurt. He wants to hurt him, as he had done to him and Mikasa.
“Like what?” Armin challenges coldly. He knows that what he is doing is dangerous, that provoking Eren is not a good idea, but he does no longer care.
He has got nothing else to lose. Nothing else to fight for.
“Like you don’t know me. Like you have forgotten what we have been through… like you hate me,”
“I don’t know you,” Armin says simply, “I can’t recognize you anymore, you’re a stranger to me now, and I will treat you like one,”
Eren’s hold on him tightens and Armin braces himself for a punch.
However, it never comes
“Ah, but I can never be a stranger to you, can I Armin?” Eren almost smirks as one of his hands leaves his collar in favor of lifting his chin, “I will never be a stranger to you, in the same way that you will never be a stranger to me,” Eren states simply.
“I know you” the brunette continues “I know you from head to toe, Armin, I know you better than I know anybody else, I know you personally, and intimately ,” he caresses his cheek “as much as you may hate it,”
It is Armin’s turn to frown.
He tightens his jaw, and he struggles with the handcuffs. This is not the first time Eren has made him angry with his words. And the fact that he knows it, and how unabashed and casual he is about it, makes Armin’s blood boil.
“I know you have a good heart, but you are no saint either, are you Armin?” Eren purrs as he leans in, “You do what it has to be done, and you manipulate your way with others, when necessary,”
Armin glares.
“We both know you are doing it now, don’t we?” Eren’s voice is velvet smooth, “we both know you want me to get upset at you and send you back with your friends, don’t you?”
“And then what? Rot your life away in a cell?” he says, “You’re smarter than that, baby. You can get anything you want from me. We are finally free. Free from a cage, free from others’ choices, free from others’ threats, and free from fate itself. For the first time, we truly get to decide what we want from this world. And whatever you need, whatever you want, I’ll give it to you, all you need to do is ask,”
Eren doesn’t see it coming.
One moment, Armin’s head is colliding with his nose, and the next the blond is up on his two feet staring back at him with angry blue eyes, a couple of steps away, and with his wrists free.
Eren feels the blood running down his nose, but he does not care. Adrenaline conceals the pain as his muscles tense in anticipation, and his heartbeat zooms in his ear. Every ounce of his attention is solely focused on the blond.
Suddenly, the scene seems all too familiar. Almost like a deja-vu
“You wanna fight me, 'Minnie?” Eren purrs.
Armin frowns at the pet name.
He does.
Even though he knows what to expect, and even though he also knows he will not be the winner, Armin does want to fight him.
He throws himself at Eren. His first is curled and there is a sick crack when it collides against Eren’s jaw.
It feels good, but Armin knows it is short lived, only until Eren hits back.
However, he does not. And Armin does not understand.
He does not retaliate either when Armin’s fist connects with his cheek.
And Armin is taken aback. Eren has hit him before. Has punched him and kicked him down to the ground.
Why is he not fighting back?
Instead, he looks at Armin with an almost unreadable expression.
“Is a fight what you want?” Eren asks again, as he cleans the blood and saliva with the back of his hand.
Armin does not understand.
“Shut up,”
“Think this carefully, Amin,” Eren smirks, “Is a fight what you want?”
Armin takes a moment.
“Yes,”
Eren’s smile is feral and soon they both throw themselves at each other.
However, even when Armin does manage to land one or two solid punches, Eren does not hit back. Not when he sees more than one opening and not even when they both know that he is taller and stronger than the blond.
Armin manages to land a third and Eren spits some bloody saliva, but Armin is not done.
He throws himself back at Eren, but Eren stops him by grabbing him by the neck of his clothes with both hands. He slams him against the closest wall and the blond’s head collides with the wall. His vision whitens for a second, and Eren takes the opportunity to sneak a leg between his legs as he uses one hand to take both of the smaller man’s wrists.
Armin tries to push him away, but Eren does not relent as he uses his weight to cage the blond between his body and the wall. Both of them are panting, but Armin seems a bit calmer now.
“Have you had enough?” Eren asks. They are so close Armin can feel his hot breath on his neck.
“Fuck you, Yeager,”
“I thought you would never ask,”
The kiss is wet, filthy, and sloppy.
Teeth clash together, and Eren wastes no time in invading the other’s mouth with his tongue.
Armin bites him, and Eren smiles at the motion, but he does not relent.
When they break apart, Armin’s pupils are dilated, and they both are breathing heavily. Armin feels slightly dizzy, and he’s shocked too. He is angry, and he feels like he has lost.
Because even after everything that has happened, even after everything that Eren has done, his reactions to those teal eyes are all the same.
Because he cannot look at Eren without seeing his childhood friend, his lover, and his traitor. He feels love, hate, hope, and regret. All at once. And he can’t deal with this.
“Tell me what you want,” Eren purrs.
His hot breath caresses his skin, and Armin does take a moment to consider.
It would be easy.
It would be so easy to give in. To look away from everything that has happened and accept Eren’s offer. He could surrender now, and negotiate with Eren about the others’ fate later.
Eren looks at him. Teal meets blue, and Armin cannot help but wonder. Wonder about what had happened that turned his Eren into this stranger.
“Take me with others,”
Armin looks away and Armin misses the hurt expression that flashes through his former friend’s features.
Neither say a thing for a while. The blond’s gaze is firmly glued to the window while the brunet openly stares at him.
“As you wish,”
Eren says after a while and calls for Floch and the others.
Armin’s wrists are behind his back again as he is escorted out.
It feels like it is over.
But they both know it is not.
Eren has never been one to back down. He is stubborn and relentless.
He is the type who would take miles when given an inch. Especially with Armin and ever since they have been kids.
It always had been about how long could he make Armin stay with him, to convince him to stay for a sleepover, and then ask him to stay for breakfast, then lunch, then dinner, and why not the night after. It did not change as they grew up, and neither did it when they reached puberty and discovered intimacy together.
Their codependency stretches to the point that their friends knew that wherever one went, the other could not be far away. And such closeness was simply not something that changed abruptly.
Deep down, both of them know that it is only a matter of time before Armin cracks.
Because, when it comes to Eren, he always does. He always has