My Admiration {Armin X Annie} °Aruani°

The Arrival

ʏᴇᴀʀ 857

12:56 am

The air was filled with a slight ocean breeze, it was cool and salty. It was midday and everyone was on a ship to Paradise from Marley to celebrate Historia's soon to come birthday. Connie seemed to be the most excited. He was bubbly and had bursts of energy, almost always smiling and talking frantically. Everyone was on the deck and Connie was running around from one end of the deck to the other.

"Is he always like this?" Pieck asked in a confused yet obviously concerned voice. Jean scoffed, letting his long hair dance gently with the wind over his face. "That idiot had too many drinks." Pieck smiled in amusement, which caught Jean by suprise. He found himself smiling as well. It was nice to have a girl's attention, though he still felt his attention shift to Mikasa as she walked past them. Her dark and now longer hair gently caressed her cheeks as she took each step, he felt his own cheeks burn.

Pieck seemed to have noticed and nudged his shoulder. "Go talk to her Jean." He looked at Pieck then at Mikasa. He took a deep breath and started walking forward, feeling his heart race every inch he got closer to the black haired beauty, his own words.

Pieck watched, not paying attention to her surroundings that much. She snapped back to reality once she heard the floorboards creak next to her. She recognized the blond now standing next to her. "Ah Annie, how are you?" she greeted in a pleasant tone. "Fine I guess, what's happening?" the blond replied with a groaning in her voice. Pieck smiled again, turning her attention to where Mikasa and Jean were. "Jean is talking to Mikasa." Pieck turned to face Annie again, but she noticed Annie wasn't paying attention to neither Jean, Mikasa nor her. She followed Annie's gaze to where another blond was leaning over the railing of the ship a meter away from them on the deck. Pieck frowned, looking back at Annie. She saw how Annie looked at him with affection in her gaze and she frowned deeper.

"Do you know what's wrong with him?" she finally asked. Annie didn't shift her gaze but responded, "Jean had a thing for Mikasa since they were 15, didn't you pick up on that?" Pieck was silent for a moment, "I meant Armin." Annie's gaze moved to Pieck this time, a look of confusion was printed all over her face. Pieck continued, "When I first talked to him he was pretty friendly, a little uncomfortable... But that was understandable considering we aren't close and I did try to kill him a couple of times" Pieck looked down, thinking about what to say next. "Now he's... Different I guess. He never looks at me when I'm talking to him, and when he does it's always a dead stare..." Annie looked back at Armin, the blonde appeared to be looking at the water, his back facing all of them.

"I've never noticed these changes..." Annie replied with a look of concern on her face. "You've never noticed him ignoring you?" Pieck asked, Annie looked at her. "He doesn't ignore me though..." Pieck's frown changed to a neutral look. "So he doesn't ignore you?" Annie gave an annoyed look at Pieck's question. "Did I not just say that?"she said in an irritated tone, Pieck smiled again.

"I'm relieved to know you have a liking to someone who doesn't ignore you." Annie's face turned from annoyed to flustered in a second. "TH-THAT WAS AN UNNECESSARY COMMENT PIECK!" Annie exclaimed while burying her face in her palms. Pieck giggled. From a distance, Jean noticed Pieck giggling and stared at her, "Jean are you okay?" Mikasa asked him. "H-Huh?" Jean quickly turned his attention back to Mikasa again. "Yea sorry, just curious on why there was laughing over there."

Mikasa noticed Armin by the railing and walked over to him
She grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him away from the railing and towards her. "M-Mikasa... Did you need anything?" Armin asked in a suprised and confused tone. Mikasa stared at him for a second before letting go of his shoulder, "Don't lean over the railing, You could fall" she said and turned away from him, walking into the ship's deck house with Jean jogging to catch up with her. Armin watched them, he then took notice of Annie and Pieck from the other side of the deck. He saw Annie with her face buried in her palms, and Pieck laughing at her. "What's wrong with Annie?" he thought to himself. He debated if he should walk over and ask. He decided that he'd ask her later and walked after Mikasa and Jean.