POKER FACE | AOT

2. to you, a naive girl

"You're [Firstname], right?" He asked, looking toward you with the same bored eyes. For a second, you wanted to ask how he knew - thinking that you might've actually met him once more and simply forgot, but he answered your unasked question. "You guys said each other's names earlier," He turned toward your friend. "So then you're Armin?"

"Yeah..." You both answered his separate questions at the same time.

You weren't quite sure how, but the boy ended up inserting himself into the time you and Armin would hang out. It wasn't much of a problem, seeing as the two of you enjoyed his company. You even found that the two of you were similar in a way - yet vastly different in the same regard. When it came to fights, you found yourself steering away from them, not wanting to get involved unless completely necessary - when it came to that, you could put up a good fight.  Yet Eren actively sought and chased a fight, though he would usually be the one beaten in a fight. Well, it wasn't a good example of the varying similarities, but it was the easiest to explain.

It seemed the more of you there were, the less those bullies would come and bully Armin.

Though whenever the time came where they did, Eren would always be the first to arrive - you just so happened to be right behind him.

"Yeah! You better run!" Eren would shake his fist, chasing after them before they left his field of view. Whenever he would turn back, he would have a proud smile on his face. "They're so scared of me!" He would boast, crossing his arms. While Armin didn't have the heart to tell him he wasn't freightning -;you'd say it for him as you helped him off the floor.

"You and I both know they're not scared of you." you sighed, letting Armin use your arm as support as he got himself onto his feet. "They start running once the two of us are together."

"That's not true! Didn't you see the look on their faces when I showed up!?" He defended himself, clearly angry at your words as you avoided his gaze.

"... They looked pretty annoyed." You mumbled under your breath, the smile on your face a result of your amusement.

"What'd you say!?"

Armin looked from you then to Eren. "You're hearing things, Eren." You couldn't tell if he was saving your skin or helping Eren avoid a serious blow to his ego - but you wouldn't worry over that too much. Still, Armin giggled under his breath, giving Eren a quick thanks even though he wasn't the one making those boys run away.

When you weren't with them, you were by your mother. Caring for her as best as a nine-year-old could, it had been that way for a while. For the past four years - she'd been like this since you met Armin. Apparently, according to your father, your grandmother was the same. Suffering from some strange sickness for thirteen years before she had passed away. Although you were young, you were fearful that it would pass to you someday. Those fears went away when you sat outside with your mother, looking up at the moon she would rave about. 

You would turn to look at your mother, her face fond of the idea of space, what was beyond the sky and sun. But never was she found of the thought of going outside the walls, they were vastly different places people would want to go, sure... But why didn't she want to go beyond the walls and see some sort of... Giant fields of ice? Armin always loved to talk about that, space just seemed like... A farfetched idea.

Yet he seemed to act like it wasn't unreasonable, that visiting the moon and seeing the stars was something realistic. You were just a kid, what did you know that she wouldn't? So you'd keep your mouth shut, watching your mother fawn over the moon with such a happy look on her face. You were almost jealous of the moon, it made your mother so happy, she was never happy to see you. To her, you were just some caretaker, not her child. So that's why you would help her outside, sit her down in a chair and listen to her. In hopes that maybe it would make her happy to have you.