Athenus •armin ✗ reader •

Heracles

It was 6:05 in the morning and my alarm had been ringing for a while. I tried to ignore it but eventually I gave in and got up. It was a cold morning, the beginning of the autumn winds had begun to fly through the bare branches, stripping the trees of their leaves. After I brushed my teeth and fixed my hair I decided to head downstairs and grab something to eat or I was until I remembered about my morning run. I've been doing this everyday since ninth grade and I still forgot most mornings. Nonetheless if I ate I would surely be cursed with a stitch halfway through my run and Reiner would make fun of me for weeks for it. To most normal people a stitch would be nothing more than an inconvenience that would pass but for some reason, in our relationship it would be a revolution.

Me and Reiner had been friends since second when he used to copy off me in math. Hard as it is to believe he's even dumber than me. While I'm an average C+ grader he was a solid D+, but trust me, I would take any possible chance to gloat about this two step difference. In all seriousness though, we were as close as it gets, Reiner is my best friend and I love him forever. He was there when I broke up with my first boyfriend, when my mom died and he was even there to lend me his brand new jacket on my first ever period (the one and only time I wore white shorts, so cliché I know). I was also there for him through some rough times, his dad left before he was born and this led to his mom constantly obsessing with his athletic career, considering he's probably not getting into Harvard.

Just as I finished filling up my water bottle I got that text on my phone that I get everyday. 'ready', shortly followed by 'hurry up'

"wow, their majesty finally emerges from though palace"

"oh shut it Reiner you had that one ready to send the second you arrived. What was I supposed to do? teleport like a frickin' ender man"

"use some of your magic like the one you use to magically make the guys fall for you"

"shut up, just cause you don't get any"

"are we gonna run or what 'cause I'm pretty sure that bickering isn't a sport because if it was you'd be an Olympic champion and since your not I can conclude that-" Reiner suddenly paused realising that I had already started to jog and I was already over halfway down the street.

After we hit our mile we decided to go to a nearby McDonald's for breakfast. I'm not really a fan of the breakfast at McDonald's but Ymir works there so she gives us the family and friends discount and no one can turn down free food. By the time I had finished it all Reiner had practically shoved me out the door because 'we were gonna be late' and I was 'eating slower than a grandma with dentures'

As I walked down the hall to my first lesson I felt a hand grab my arm. I turned around to see Armin staring down at me with tired blue eyes, a slight frown and rosy cheeks. Did he run or something?

"Hey you still doing the thing after school?"

"What thing?"

"Jeez, I knew you were an idiot but apparently you have memory loss too now? It's Thursday, I have to tutor you on Thursday"

"It's Thursday? Damn, I thought it was like Tuesday or something. Ooo that means it's Nearly the weekend, yesss"

Our conversation ended with him flicking my forehead and a quick 'see ya'. Rude. Truth is I did know it was Thursday I just wanted to forget that I have to waste like an hour of my life getting a headache over algebra. Maths should of stayed with numbers, letters are Englishs territory.

One thing I liked about Armin is he always smelt nice. Like vanilla cookies fresh out of the oven on a cold winters night. It was such a comforting smell, always making me feel oddly safe when I was around him.

After a long day of cramming meaningless information into my head I headed towards the library. For some reason I was excited which was strange because I hated staying after school and doing schoolwork so what was I excited for? To see Armin? No, he might seem nice but he is such a jerk sometimes like that one time where he knocked my shoulder and all my books fell on the floor In front of everyone and while I was picking up my stuff completely humiliated, he just let out a smug laugh and continued on with his day. Yes, this happened in third grade and yes, I still hold a grudge.

As I arrived at the library I saw Armin, for the first time I'd ever seen, sat at a table in the corner of the library away from the few in there with books and papers spread messily across the table. The rays from the sun shone from behind him, depicting him like one of those Jesus stained glass murals in a Catholic Church. The way the sun rays glossed against his pale skin, making his blue eyes shimmer like small pieces of snow frozen in place. I wished I could of frozen the moment in time, forever synthesising this image of Armin looking like a Greek goddess into my brain.

All good things must come to an end though and my staring was soon interrupted by the blonde idiot noticing my presence and signalling me over. As he started to talk to me about some sort of equation where it all equals zero, I started to notice things about him. The way he was so soft spoken even if he acted like an asshole, the small freckles dotted around his nose and cheeks, the slight eye bags from staying up until three on school nights playing video games or texting people, the way he spoke with such compassion when talking about subjects he loved or enjoyed. God now I had no idea what he was talking about because I spent so long staring at him.

"Hey, you ok??"

"Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine"

"You feel warm, do you need some water?"

As he asked the question he touched my forehead with the back of his hand. His touch was so soft and his hand was so cool. Even in the middle of summer his hand was cool as if he'd just taken it out of a fridge and placed it directly on my forehead. Why was I so warm? It wasn't because of the heat of summer and I wasn't ill. Or maybe it was like last week when I was leaving the tutoring session and I suddenly started to feel that fluttering effect in my stomach. Come to think of it I'm pretty sure I started to feel warm then too.

"Earth to roadrunner. One time opportunity never get the chance again."

"Oh yeah sorry. I guess if it's a one time opportunity I'll take up your offer. Hope I don't get herpes."

"What are you tryna say flash?"

"Just you know, you're very popular with the ladies"

"Just cause I get bitches and you don't no need to be jealous"

"I swear I said the exact same thing to Reiner like two days ago"

"Oh your beefy blonde boyfriend?"

"Oh shut up he is not, he's been my best friend since we were like, in second grade. He's like a big brother"

"Even though he's two months younger than you"

"You know when Reiners birthday is?"

"It's on the same day as Erens and I know when yours is because you might not remember but I was at your birthday last year"

"Now I know that's a lie because I went skiing with my friends last year and last time I checked you weren't Annie, Ymir or Reiner"

"No but I was at the resort apparently when you were, we had a snowball fight? I helped you up when Reiner knocked you down with a strong snowball"

"Oh. Right. Anyway that's the end of  our session so bye see you around."

I turned back to see Armin packing up and for a second we made eye contact. Unbroken, perfect, momentary eye contact before turning back to our lives as a top athlete with a hard time studying and a bad boy who's wasted potential was trying to desperately be salvaged by school boards all over looking for another white genius to put on their website for achieving 'great things' to attract the next genius.

Worlds apart ...

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A/n: so sorry that it's been a while I live in England so I've been swamped with GCSEs and such but I will be trying to get back into my weekly schedule because hopefully people have enjoyed this so far! Love y'all <3