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The black and various shades of red tally marks adorning people’s wrists fascinated Armin Arlert from a very young age. Most people referred to them as soul marks, but Armin read one too many soulmate fairy tale stories to share this sentiment with the majority of the population. In his books about fated mates, there was always only one perfect person for everyone, but with these special lines of their world, it wasn’t the case.
The red lines appeared when a person started to fall in love, deepening in color as the feelings grew, and when the love was requited, the marks turned black for both parties. The moment that someone started to fall out of love, their line began to fade with their diminishing feelings, only to disappear completely when all romantic affection vanished from their heart. It was a sad experience to witness someone, who only a couple of days ago proudly displayed their black mark for the whole world to see, suddenly stopped smiling and turned into themselves, hiding their unwanted, deep red line under layers of clothing.
The third kind of mark, the silvery white line resembling an old scar, was something everybody wished they’d never have to experience in their life, but with titans roaming outside the Walls, Armin knew that it was most likely just wishful, naive thinking on their part. This scar-like mark represented the death of a beloved.
Armin’s first red line started to appear when he was eight years old and hardly conscious of the difference between having the desire to live all his life with his best friend, and having romantic relations with someone. When he discovered the faint red mark, he showed it to his Grandfather with a beaming smile. The old man only patted his head with a fond smile of his own, and advised him not to think too much about it, since he was still just a child.
Young Armin didn’t take his advice, and he spent mornings and nights checking on the mark, whether it turned to black already or not, but the angry red line sit on his wrist unchanged every time he pulled up the sleeve of his shirt. It took him a few weeks to notice how both Eren and Mikasa started to wear their long-sleeved outfits despite the heat of the season. Even though Armin was exceptionally sharp for his young age, he still felt a bit lost at that, until one day, when Mikasa had to run to the market for some apples for Carla, Eren finally confided in him. His best friend told him about how he wanted to marry Mikasa when they grow up, and how he thought that the girl wanted the same. When Armin asked what made him so sure about that, Eren simply showed him the black line on his arm with a secretive smile playing on his lips.
If he knew the difference between romance and friendship, it might have been the first heartbreak of Armin’s life. For a short period of time after that revelation, Armin felt disappointed and kind of left out, but then the Wall was breached by titans, and he had no time to dwell on his unchanging red mark as they ran for their lives. Over time, as they had to grow up way faster than intended, the ugly red of his line faded into a pinkish shadow but hadn’t completely disappeared for a long time.
Training with the 104th Cadet Corps brought in new friends to their small group of three, and Armin watched as his comrades bonded, formed relationships, and fall in love. He still had his pink shadow of a line on his wrist, but no matter who he met, that was all the experience he got with soul marks.
Armin saw how Krista and Ymir circled around each other, and how Jean and Marco’s friendship morphed into blushing conversations and longing gazes, and as they filled up on gas before setting off to Trost that fateful morning, he saw a black line peeking out under Marco’s uniform. Armin wasn’t there when Jean found Marco’s half-destroyed body after the attack, but he heard about Jean’s breakdown from the others, and saw how the death of someone so purely loved could affect a person.
Jean had nightmares for months after Marco’s death, and Armin spend countless nights with the other boy, being the only one to wake up to the faint sobbing. He held onto Jean’s scarred writs with one hand while he cradled the other’s body to his chest with the other, and murmured calming reinforcements into his hair until he calmed down enough to fall back to sleep.
Armin being Jean’s emotional support during those months of grieving brought the two boys closer together, and when Jean kissed him for the first time, Armin didn’t push him away. It felt nice to be with Jean, the soft kisses and experimental, shy touches made Armin feel content for the time being. He read about all-consuming love and romance before, but this relationship between them wasn’t even close to what those novels described.
Dating Jean was nothing more than nice. Armin was comfortable, and Jean seemed happier. The blond rarely checked on his wrist by now, he deemed these tally marks nothing but a source of heartbreak. Be it unrequited red, or silvery whites of death, he didn’t want to see all the ways a person’s soul could suffer through visual evidence.
Armin tried to be the best boyfriend to Jean without breaking both of their hearts, but when he caught sight of the faint red on Jean’s usually covered wrist, only a centimeter higher than his permanent silver scar, he knew he had to break up with the other boy before things escalate. To be fair, he checked his own arm thoroughly before making a decision, but his wrist was bare of any tally mark, not even the pinkish remainder of his childhood love was visible anymore.
So Armin broke it off with Jean before he could destroy the boy’s already scarred heart and faith in love. They stayed friends, but the blond hadn’t felt completely safe until he was sure that the red completely vanished from the other’s arm.
When Armin met Captain Levi for the first time, he wasn’t thinking about lines or love at all, merely trying to survive the titan attack. The captain swooped in like a lethal hero and killed off the surrounding titans, while Armin fought to get Eren’s barely conscious body out of harm’s way.
After he first joined the Scouts alongside his friends, there were not many interactions between them, but with being elected as a member of the newly formed Levi Squad, Armin got to spend more and more time in the quiet but resolute Captain’s company.
By the time they finally rescued Eren and got Historia to claim the throne, Armin developed a respectful admiration towards his Captain, and sooner than later, he started to realize that his feelings were bordering on something like a childish crush. Levi, even with his strict attitude regarding duty and precept, has been a kind and dependable captain, and an exceptionally loyal comrade to have in one’s corner. As they started to work together on the plans set out to take back Shiganshina, Armin came to admire not only his Captain’s ever-growing list of commendable characteristics and unquestionable physical strength but his uniquely handsome beauty as well. Armin often caught himself dreaming about Levi’s small, barely there smirks, sharp jawline, and piercing gray eyes shining in the low light of the candles they lit while working way into the night.
With how much time he spent admiring Levi’s features, it was a wonder it took him that many months to catch sight of the black line that was running across the Captain’s wrist. The first time he saw it, Armin thought he was just hallucinating, so the next day he began to give special attention to Levi’s arm every time he moved. It didn’t take long to see it again. Levi raised his arms to stretch his stiff back sometimes during the middle of the night, and it was there, clear as a day. Captain Levi had a black tally mark, a sign of requited, undead love, on his right wrist.
This knowledge didn’t hurt Armin as he thought it would, nothing even close to the sadness he felt after Eren told him about his black mark years prior. He admired Levi as a person, as his superior more than a stupid little crush, so instead of feeling down because of this new development, he felt happy for the man. Loving someone, and being loved back in return, was a rare and beautiful thing to experience in this day and age, so he was honestly glad that Levi was able to find his person out there.
When they started out on the Shiganshina mission, Queen Historia bid them farewell with an unclothed, clearly scarred wrist held high. As the horses sped up and the long ride began, Armin wondered just how many people are waving at them with colorful tally marks on their arms, and how many of the black ones would turn white after they returned. One thing he was sure of, in the case of his untimely death, he left no one behind to bear the burden of a permanent scar of his lost life. Theirs was a messed up, dangerous world, it was better to keep everyone he loved at a safe distance to spare them from the potential heartache.
The fight against Reiner and Bertholhdt was bad. In the midst of the fighting, Armin couldn't keep tabs on the people on their side of the wall, but after the Colossal transformed it became clear really fast that their casualties were dire, and their options were limited. Armin burned in that heat with the clear conscience that he helped to save humanity. He helped to save his friends, the ones he loved more than anything.
Waking up after he already accepted his own death was a confusing experience. Eren hugged him with a desperate force he never felt from his friend before, and Levi’s cold assessment of the situation left him with a tightness in his chest that didn’t leave him for weeks after that disturbing interaction on top of the Wall. They won, they got the city back, they learned about the world outside, and they acquired one of the strongest titan powers, but at what cost?
Only nine of them came back from the mission, beat up, grieving, and irreversibly broken. Even without being able to retrieve their bodies, they held a formal burial for all of their lost comrades. As Erwin Smith was formally laid to rest, Armin saw the way Levi gripped his right forearm with such force his knuckles turned white from the strength of it. He couldn’t outright notice it before, the real aspect of their superiors’ connection, since there was no matching mark to search for with the Commander’s right arm lost in a battle before he came to the knowledge of Levi’s black mark, but looking back Armin had to realize that it was never a secret. Levi and Erwin were subtle, but the small, shared smiles, the simple touches, and the love in their eyes as they watched the other even during military meetings, were all out in the open. Armin’s heart ached for the Captain who had to sacrifice the love of his life, for Hange whose own white line stood out even on their battle-worn skin, and for all of those who lost someone important in the name of humanity.
After the funeral, things sped up for the Scouts. Armin finally got to see the ocean he dreamed about ever since he was a kid, but with discovering the uncharted territory came new people and a thousand new tasks to sort out. The presence of the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers was weird to get used to at first, but in time they became good comrades to work with, some of them could’ve been called as friends.
The train tracks they implemented came out nicely, giving the Scouts an easier means of transportation than riding on horseback, and the plans of them visiting this faraway land developed quickly. Marley was a fascinating place, and Armin enjoyed the novelties it showed them with the others without holding back. When they were woken by Levi and Hange in the wee hours of the morning, the blond’s half-drunk mind wandered off to long abandoned territory, and for a moment he thought about how the Captain was the most handsome man he ever laid eyes on, but with the meeting so close he didn’t have time to daydream about his teenager crush.
With Eren gone, their plans got slightly sidetracked. The basis stayed the same, but with the Attack Titan’s absence, there were too many unanswered questions about where this whole conflict was heading, and what exact purpose did Eren’s disappearance have.
Armin spent his days mostly with Levi, going over documents and traveling between locations, mostly as Eldian delegates - Armin as the strategist carrying out Hange’s instructions, and Levi as the reinforcing strength behind him. It was after one of their joint missions that Armin realized his previous crush might have escalated during their time spent together on the road, if the faint red line adorning his wrist was any indication to base his assessment on.
In the upcoming days, he thought a lot about his earlier admiration towards the Captain, and he had to admit to himself that this new feeling was something else. It felt different, more mature, solid. Like a red mark that had the potential to not only turn black or disappear over time, but to leave a permanent scar.
The thing about love, what Armin forgot to calculate into his approach to the topic, was that it might’ve happened unexpectedly, but not without a reason. He and Levi spent endless hours just talking between documents and meetings, they confided in each other, and they also started to heal together. The love that made the tally mark on his wrist deepen in red was earned through attention and comfortable, safe companionship.
Armin tried to hide it for as long as he could, because for once in his life he had no idea how to bring it up in casual conversation. Reading Levi now was an easier task for him than even a year before, but still, he didn’t know how to differentiate between romantic affection and friendly gestures when it came down to the Captain.
In the end, it was Hange who solved the problem for him. The Commander came into the office where they worked in comfortable silence barely half an hour ago. They started out by talking about their visit to the capital, and how their meeting with the Queen went. Armin wrote down every useful information dutifully, while Levi just hummed behind his stack of reports. After Hange was done, they sat down next to the Captain and started to look over some of the documents, claiming that they missed these medieval tasks since being Commander basically meant being a political figure now. Levi left them to help, but the silence didn’t last long.
At first, it was just some side glances, then it escalated into straight-out staring. Funny enough, it was Levi who broke the tense silence only to fall victim to Hange’s shameless, calculating gaze. Then they switched to Armin, and the blond made the irreversible mistake of tugging lower the right sleeve of his uniform on instinct while being regarded with such a knowing eye. Noticing his movement, Hange suddenly beamed at him, and they excused themselves with an unnecessarily loud voice. As they were leaving the room, they turned back to the confused pair of them, and with a mischievous grin they mentioned just how curious a coincidence it was that both of them started to wear their long-sleeved uniform in the middle of the warm season.
Levi didn’t say anything at that, but Armin noticed how the Captain reached over to touch his right forearm on instinct. After sitting in tense silence for a few more minutes, Armin finally mustered up his courage to pull up his own sleeve and check on the mark - something he didn’t do in weeks, by now. He let out a startled, unbelieving gasp as his eyes landed on the solid black line running across his skin, and as his brain caught up with the meaning of the sight before him, he raised his head to look over at the other man, only to find Levi already staring back at him with a small smile playing on his lips.
Armin let out a deep sigh as he looked down at the scattered papers in from of him. His head swam with exhaustion, and the more he tried to focus on the lines in from of him, the more they started to blur. They’ve planned out everything to the last bit. Their ships were to dock a few miles away from the main Marleyan port in a small city ruled by the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers, and the scouts were to infiltrate the city of Libero days before the festival hosted by the Tilbur family.
The blond just had a few more letters to go over, to check that they didn’t miss any details in them. Being one of the planning committee officials, he felt responsible for every one of the people that joined them on the mission, so staying up just a little more to make sure that everything was in place felt like a small sacrifice if it meant that he could potentially keep casualties at the minimum. The candle-lit room started to cloud before his unfocused, tired eyes, and he almost headbutted the tabletop as his head lulled forward in a half-asleep haze.
The next time he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was the faint light of the rising sun, softly illuminating the room with all shades of oranges. The room, in which he didn’t fall asleep. With that realization came the panic, and he tried to sit up, only to be pulled back by strong arms holding him around his waist. It took him another moment until his still tired brain caught up to the situation, and he could finally assess his surroundings accordingly.
He’s been to Levi’s private room countless times before, so the familiar sight calmed him down immediately. Armin was laying in the Captain’s bed, which he definitely didn’t walk to by himself last night, and he was cuddled by said man from behind. He looked down at the arms holding him, and he could see the end of a black line, only a centimeter from another silvery white one, showing on the Captain’s wrist even as he was hugging him close. Armin smiled; ever since he voiced his fear of waking up with a red, or Walls forbid, a scarred one, Levi always took extra care to make the black mark on his arm visible to Armin whenever it was only the two of them. It was a really nice gesture on the Captain’s part, and Armin’s chest swelled with love every time he thought about it.
Armin, still smiling to himself lightly, turned around carefully in the arms holding him. His cautious movements were proven to be unnecessary, since as soon as he finished turning, he met Levi’s alert, gray eyes openly staring at him. He knew exactly what was Levi to say, they’d been over this issue a hundred times before. As demanding as Levi was when it came to their job, he never condoned Armin’s habit of over-exhausting himself with paperwork. Most of the time, the Captain found him before he fell asleep in the office, but on some unfortunate occasions, he only got there after Armin’s body gave in to exhaustion with his head laid on the table.
So the blond knew exactly what kind of words were about to leave the Captain’s mouth, so to avoid being berated for not taking care of himself, he leaned forward before Levi was able to start talking, and kissed him on the mouth. Levi sighed into the kiss after a moment of hesitation, clearly debating whether he should give in to Armin’s distraction or lean back and continue the lecture he didn’t even have time to start and kissed back. Armin melted into the Captain’s body as the strong arms around him tightened their hold. Their first kiss was slow and light, only lips moving on lips almost lazily. Nonetheless, it felt wonderful and the calm familiarity of the act made Armin’s chest fill with warmth.
Their love wasn’t a sudden occurrence, not a raging wildfire of lust and all-consuming emotions, but a constant buzzing in the back of their head. It was a calm, familiar companionship - warm, safe, affectionate, and constant. Even though it wasn’t the kind of romance Armin’s books described, it was theirs, and they were dedicated to each other in such a deep, unbreakable way that the blond was sure it would be hard to put into words what they truly felt.
With this thought in his mind, Armin deepened their kiss and pressed himself even closer to the other’s warm body. Paperwork, the mission, the whole damned world could wait for them just another hour. He wasn’t thinking about how this could easily be the last time they spent in each other’s arms, Armin just wanted to feel Levi, wanted the other man to fill him up completely until there was no telling where one of them begins and the other ends.
They peeled away each other’s clothes with a careful softness that made Armin’s heart ache with something ineffable. Their kisses got deeper, more desperate, as their hands started to wander, and naked bodies melted together in perfect tandem. Armin tangled one of his hands into Levi’s unruly locks, while the other ran all across the other man’s back, feeling hard muscles and soft, scarred skin under his palm.
Levi prepared him with the utmost care while he left tender but passionate kisses on his mouth, his left cheek, his neck, his collarbone and on the sensitive spot behind his ear, drawing out the act until the blond was almost ready to beg for more. They became one between emotionally overcharged kisses and declarations of love. The room filled with the breathy moans of their shared passion in no time, and Armin tried to hold onto Levi’s body with each thrust, wishing that they could just morph into one entity and never leave each other’s side.
After they both reached their climaxes, they stayed there, entwined in a desperate hold, for a little while longer. Just two men, Armin and Levi, in a loving embrace. No titles, no pretenses, no Marley, no war; just them in love, and two black lines to mark their unquestionable devotion.
Armin’s heart stopped for a moment when he saw Zeke’s monstrous figure climbing the Wall. The Beast Titan was supposed to be under Levi’s close surveillance, somewhere far away, not here in the city. Armin’s arm trembled, but he gathered all his resolve and refused to look down at the black line on his wrist to check… To see whether Levi was still alive. They were in the middle of a full-blown war, he couldn’t allow himself to get distracted, and seeing a white scar in place of the dark proof of their shared love would definitely destroy him.
He had to forget about it for now, but his wrist itched with unanswered questions, and he wanted to cry from the pent-up frustration he felt. Levi must be fine, he repeated the line as a mantra in his head while they jumped from building to building, fighting enemy soldiers left and right.
The fight got worse when Zeke turned the people who drank from the wine into titans. The blond gritted his teeth with anger as he let out a final blow into the nape of one of his own people. Then Eren’s head got shot, and things escalated only in mere seconds. One moment he watched in horror as his best friend’s head got separated from his body, then the next he found himself in a weird vision. Eren did it, the rumbling was in motion.
They watched in confused mortification as hundreds, maybe thousands of titans emerged from the broken down walls and started marching without taking notice of their surroundings. It felt like not only the ground, but the whole world around them rumbled under the seemingly infinite number of giants Eren lead against the rest of humanity.
As the titans rumbled around them, and the world as they knew it was ending without a doubt, Armin let himself just a few seconds to spare, and he finally looked down at his right arm. He lifted the sleeve of his uniform with shaky fingers and finally looked at his wrist, honestly not sure what he’d find there. At the sight of the solid, unchanging color of his black tally mark running across his wrist, he let out a weird choking noise, something between a sob and a laugh. Levi was alive, they just had to find each other again.
He looked back at the others, plans already formulating in his overworked brain, and with a stable voice he addressed his friends standing next to him, “Let’s move out!”