Beneath the Cliffs (Armin x Reader) DISCONTINUED

Chapter seven - I fade into dark

That's why he needed to get out of there tonight. Armin needed space from all the talk of other women and other men and drinks and blurriness.

You were his friend - one he knew did not, and likely would not ever reciprocate his feelings. He shouldn't forget that, even if he would still keep you from others.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, stirring him from thought. But he didn't check it. Probably just Eren. As he closed his eyes, a heaviness once again settling into his chest and over his lids, he drifted off. He wondered where you were right now, and how long it would be until the sun came up.

———

It was still dark when Armin's eyes fluttered open again. His lashes felt thick against his cheeks, his head groggy and tongue dry from the alcohol still working through his system. The boulder at his back set an ache in his shoulders and he wondered for a moment how long he'd been dozing, and what exactly had stirred him. Then he registered the distant crunch of grass under foot and the echo of muffled giggles from across the hilltop.

There was someone else here.

Snapped from sleep, he sat up, peeking over the side of the boulder to spot two blurry figures in the dark. Their words were indistinguishable and they were clumsy in their footing - probably drunk. But he could make out the tone of their speech - one feminine, one masculine. Probably a couple.

Armin thought it odd - as far as he was aware, no one but him ever came here. With a sigh, he shuffled back into the line of trees behind the ledge of cliffs - the one that separated his private spot from the quiet street beyond. It was probably best not to sleep out here anyway. He was about to turn and head to his dorm, ready to just plonk into his sheets and doze off again, when his step faltered, and his heart did too.

As clear as day, he heard a single sentence from the couple at his back. From the woman. From you.

"So what do you think?" you asked your partner.

Armin didn't hear the man's response above his thundering pulse. His heart was so heavy he could taste it in his throat. When you spoke again, he was shaken from his stupor, and turned fully to face you in the darkness of the trees.

Even through the dim he could make you out. He could see the dress which hugged your curves in all the right places, the sheen of sweat across your skin, the mussed state of your hair - so pretty. But you hadn't spotted him hidden in the dark.

That was always the case. Armin always saw you, when you hardly ever noticed him.

His eyes fell cold when he looked over the man beside you. He didn't know him. Didn't recognise his slicked tresses of hair and an unbuttoned collar. But he was messy, like you. Messy, Armin could only assume, from your hands running across his skin, over his clothes. That thought alone lit a fire in the blonde's chest.

Hitch was right. What he had feared was true.

His breathing shallowed at the revelation. He'd worked for nothing, only to see you slip through his fingers when you were just within reach. All night you'd occupied his mind, and all night he hadn't even scraped a corner of yours.

The air felt thin in the dense thicket of bark and leaves. Armin slumped down against the side of a tree, falling to the earth with his head thumping against its trunk. Yet he could still see you in his peripherals - the man laughing at something you said, his thick arms cornering you against the side of the boulder - his spot - and squeezing the fat of your thighs.