empty spaces ~ armin x reader

chapter seven // forget what i said

I didn't question where I would go for too long. Mikasa would be helping out the Scouts with whatever covert missions they required her to carry out. Eren was in a cell on probation for going behind everyone's backs. Armin was... well I had no fucking clue what he was up to. So that left two options.

"Connie!" I exclaimed when I had finally spotted him amidst a group of MP soldiers I did not recognize. They were throwing spiked darts at a target with numbers on it.

Connie's head whipped around and he beamed when he saw me. "Y/N!"

He ran towards me with a dart in his hand. He pulled me in for a hug that woke up something within me. I hadn't had meaningful touch in six weeks. His arms around me made me remember something so vital I didn't know how I made it this far without it. I leaned further into that feeling, and he pulled away far sooner than I would've liked.

"I've missed you, y/n. How's it hanging?" he grinned and my eyes nearly watered.

I composed myself before saying, "It's been pretty dull without your dumbass here to make 'your mother' jokes to Eren."

A laugh rang behind me and I recognized the participant immediately. I whipped around and my smile doubled in size.

"You're wrong for that one, Connie," Jean teased, addressing me with a sideways glance. I could see the mirth shone deeply through the gleam in his eyes. We looked at each other as Connie threw his head back and laughed openly.

Tugging at my heart was the iron-cold fist of emptiness that I hadn't realized had seized me. The serotonin in my body served as a reminder for how hollow these weeks were. I hadn't realized how deep I was buried before I finally felt the first rays of sunshine. It was everything I missed.

"Do you guys want to grab a few drinks at the tavern?" I suggested.

They barely hesitated before replying, "Fuck yeah."

We walked together, side by side. Connie spoke proudly about how he had met up with Hange a few times to try out new gear. Jean retorted by calling him a guinea pig. We had all been her test subjects at one point or another. I felt envious of Connie because even though some of their ideas scared the shit out of me, it was a callback to my childhood in the Scouts.

The sun was melting out of the sky in a magnificent whorl of oranges and pinks. It fell beneath the West walls, buried beneath stone. A shimmering moon shone just ahead in a waxing crescent. The mist of early spring transpired around us. It cooled me down as I opened the door to the seedy tavern.

The tavern was already packed full with MP trainees who had just finished their training for the day. Uniforms were shucked on every surface as chatter and the aroma of beer and sweat filled the atmosphere.

"Three beers," I said, signaling three fingers towards the occupied tavern worker.

We made our way to a secluded corner that contained two quiet tables. I set down my jacket to mark the seat and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man already slumped over a table.

"Did you get the letter?" I asked, trying to spark a conversation.

"Yes," Jean spoke, and after knowing him for years I could tell there was an underlying sadness there.

I had been so wrapped up in my pensiveness against Armin that I hadn't passed thought to the full weight of what this meant. Historia's pregnancy was drawing to its end after nearly eight months. That nearly led to the fallout of our government, and Commander Pixis was barely able to hold it together in her absence. She hadn't made an official appearance since the announcement that she was with child. The higher-ups were livid about her "irresponsibility", but the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if she even had a choice. I found it incredulous that she would do this of her own volition. It was not romance that drove Historia, for that had died years ago, it was self-preservation.