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The iron stench of blood filled Armin’s nose as he breathed into the crook of Eren’s neck. He wrapped his arms as tightly as he could around the brunette.
Their bodies slotted together like their arms and limbs were made just for burying themselves in one another. The two could’ve been held in that embrace for years, or perhaps it was seconds, Armin wouldn’t know.
He’d been deprived of physical comfort from the brunette for four whole years, moments Armin held sacred were all washed away in the shore of Eren’s grand plan.
The last he felt Eren’s touch in the physical world was when he received flurries of blows for defending Mikasa. He’d spent so long trying to understand what happened to his childhood best friend, his family, his lo-
He wondered for so long how the hope of humanity, his sun, became humanity’s enemy, his enemy. Armin remembers the through pleading and begging…
“We’ve been together all our lives. Please don’t go any further away,”
“The reason we never fought before…is because we would never have a fair fight,”
…only to be pushed away, for even the slightest glimpses of recline in their friendship to be stomped down under Eren’s shoe. Until now.
“Eren?”
The green eyed boy practically jumped Armin into an embrace. The blondes ribs being crushed in the process. The brand new colossal titan, just woken up not having a clue what happened in the last few hours. Of the fight Eren put for his life, standing up to humanity’s strongest and gambling the risk of humanity, just for Armin’s sake.
“Armin..I’m so glad you’re back…” he could feel Eren’s tears falling onto his shoulders.
It was Armin’s fault any of this happened anyways. If he had not run up to the bored boy with green eyes, showing him the illegal book that would plant the seeds of the worlds destruction.
A free unoccupied world, a river full of salt, lands of ice, snowy sand field. And when Armin would find it he would be entranced by the world’s beauty, his best friend would be disappointed in the outside’s world’s true cruelty.
He would forever stain their dream with unforgivable sins, but perhaps, even if it’s for a moment the two of them could sit in a true free world. With a river of salt, lands of ice and sandy snowfields, with each other for company. And after that they’d pay for the sin of that freedom together.
Nonetheless, Armin would treasure these last few moments of Eren breathing on his shoulder again forever. This familiar comfort was his closest reminder of home.
His thought process was interrupted by a sudden sniffling, and the wetness from tears cascading down onto his shoulders. He looked up to see shining green emerald eyes, no longer the cold stranger he’d seen for the last few years. Tears streaming down his cheeks, his voice sounded choked up.
“Armin…you were a wonderful experience.”
Warmth floods through his body as Armin holds back his own tears. Perhaps it’s because of the Attack Titan’s ability to see in the future. Or maybe it’s because of Founder’s ability to experience the past.
Eren said he kept experiencing it all at the same time, that he couldn’t understand what was what anymore, and that was a grand factor in his downfall.
But through all that, he could tell what he felt with Armin was wonderful. In the mess of the rumbling, his first coherent thought was of Armin and his book. He’s reminded of his youth, how easily Eren looked at him like he was his guiding light, how he always put the blonde on a pedestal.
Perhaps it didn’t have anything to do with the Power of the Titans, perhaps it was just for the simple fact Eren loved him.
He strengthened his grip on the brunette. Armin shared the sentiment.
“You were everything.”