3 years after the Rumbling and Eren's death, Everyone has been recovering from the traumatic events and been able to enjoy the world as free people. Except not everyone has been acting normal. Annie notices Armin's change of reaction around everyone...
After the inland travel, they all arrived in the shinganshina district. They stopped to greet people who they knew before making their way to the royal capital.
Historia was waiting outside, holding her baby in her arms. She smiled at them as they arrived. Connie, Jean and Mikasa were the first to greet and hug her. Annie caught a glimpse of Reiner's surprised expression towards the baby. Gabi and Falco were behind Armin, looking and appearing to be admiring Historia's appearance and presence. Historia smiled at the two, they smiled awkwardly back. Armin seemed to not be paying attention to anyone, which was weird considering even Levi greeted Historia. "How have you been Historia?" Mikasa asked with a calm expression on her face. "It's been fine... Kinda stressful from time to time" Historia replied with a tired sigh.
"How's the little one?" Jean asked. Historia looked at her child, then back at Jean. "She's been a handful for the past three years but... She's more manageable now." Annie looked at Pieck who seemed to be in awe at the baby. To be honest, Annie never used to care about kids. She never took the time to take a liking to them as her life was originally gonna be cut short. Now she sees kids a lot differently, she's taken the time to see how kids are raised and how they behave under normal environments. She both admires and envys kids. Annie was deep in thought when Pieck nudged her shoulder. Annie looked at Pieck with a startled expression. "The queen is greeting you" Pieck said. Annie turned her attention to Historia. "Oh um, sorry... Hello" Annie said with sweat dropping down face.
Historia chuckled, "Hello Annie, I see you haven't changed at all." Pieck was just watching, amused by Annie's embarrassed state. Something from the corner of her eye suddenly caught her attention, she slightly turned her head to see Armin smiling, looking straight at Annie. "What's he thinking about?" she thought to herself. "Anyway, it's a pleasure to have you all here, and to see new faces, there are rooms prepared for each of you" Historia said at last before turning around to face the castle entrance. She walked inside, with everyone following close behind. As they were walking Historia decided to break the silence, "did you guys eat already? Or do I need to arrange a giant meal for you all?" Everyone looked at each other, seemingly to detect a hungry person. "I think everyone is fine" Mikasa finally replied.
Annie then remembered Armin not eating anything on the ship. She was wondering why no one had actually went to look for him like they said they would. Then she remembered she was asleep when Armin went back to everyone else, he could've eaten when he got there, so she decided to say nothing.
05:30
Historia gave everyone a personal chaperone to show to their rooms. Annie, Reiner, Mikasa and Armin were lead to a large hallway with about 9 to 11 doors before the hallway had a dead end. "You all can pick your rooms, your other friends are a few corridors away from here" the chaperone said as he turned to walk away. "Strange how there's more then half the amount of rooms then how many people are here" Mikasa said as soon as the chaparone left. "Maybe due to noise?" Reiner responded. "That's a possibility..." Annie added. Armin stayed silent, then walked towards the closest room, opening the door. The other three walked towards him to look at the room.
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"Wow..." Reiner said with an impressed tone in his voice. "How long are we staying here again?" "About 2 weeks..." Annie responded. Mikasa then walked to the next room, opening the door "They're all the same" she said as she walked back to them. "So we're just picking where we want to be?" Reiner asked. "Looks like it, I'm picking the last door" Annie replied before walking down the hallway, Armin followed. "Do you want this room?" Mikasa asked Reiner. Reiner looked at her then at the room. "You can have it, I'll pick another" Reiner finally responded. Mikasa walked into the room and closed the door behind her. Reiner walked over to the next room.
Meanwhile, Armin picked the third last door on the side opposite the side Annie's room was. Annie looked at him as he entered his room. She just stood there for a minute before entering her room. The room came with its own bathroom as well, so Annie decided to wash her face.
06:15
Almost everyone was still up and partying. They were drinking, dancing and talking. This time Gabi and Falco joined them (Not the drinking part). Annie, Historia and Levi were the only people that didn't join as they wanted to sleep.
Annie just stared at the ceiling above. She couldn't sleep, something was bothering her. She looked at the clock on the wall, it was hard to make out where the arms were pointing, but she was able to make out where they were by darkened shadows. It was around 06:16 - 06:17. She was exhausted but couldn't fall asleep. "Great... This is how it's gonna be?" Annie said with a groan. She then decided to take a walk, since that might help her fall asleep. The getting up process was a painful one, but she was able to stand up, put on some slippers the room had for them and headed to the door.
She stepped outside to feel the cool gush of wind that filled the hallway. "This is gonna be annoying..." she thought to herself. She then noticed Armin's door was slightly opened, with a faint light being emitted from it. "I thought he went to party like everyone else?" She then quietly walked over to the door, peeking through the crack. She couldn't see anyone. She slowly moved the door more open and scanned the room. No one was in there, the bathroom's light was off so it was unlikely Armin was in there. She couldn't hear anything other then the distant sound of music from below. She was about to leave when she caught a glimpse of white on the nightstand. It was a piece of paper, a few words written on it in the same hand writing as the one on the boat. "What's he writing?" she thought to herself. She scanned around the room again incase someone was actually in the room with her, then she started walking towards the nightstand. "Wait what am I doing?" she thought to herself, stopping halfway. "Am I really gonna interfere with Armin's personal stuff?" she looked at the door then back at the paper. She wanted to head out, but curiosity got the better of her and she carried on walking towards the nightstand.
She picked up the paper as lightly as possible, as if someone was right next to her. She looked at the page with immense interest as she read:
𝒯𝒽ℯ 𝓂ℴℴ𝓃 𝒷𝓁ℴ𝒸𝓀𝓈 𝓂𝓎 𝓈ℯ𝓃𝓈ℯ ℴ𝒻 𝓇ℯ𝒶𝓈ℴ𝓃𝒾𝓃ℊ. (The moon blocks my sense of reasoning) ℐ'𝓂 𝓃ℴ𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃ℊ 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒶𝓃 ℯ𝓂𝓉𝓎 𝓈𝒽ℯ𝓁𝓁 ℴ𝒻 𝒸ℴ𝓃𝒸ℯ𝓇𝓃. (I'm nothing but an empty shell of concern) 𝒮𝒽ℴ𝓊𝓁𝒹 ℐ 𝓁ℯ𝓉 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓂ℴℴ𝓃 𝓉𝒶𝓀ℯ ℴ𝓋ℯ𝓇 𝓂ℯ ℴ𝓇 𝒻𝒾ℊ𝒽𝓉 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓊𝓇ℊℯ 𝓉ℴ 𝒷ℯ ℴ𝓃ℯ 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒾𝓉. (Should I let the moon take over me or fight back the urge to be one with it)
The writing ended there, nothing else was on the other side of the page. Annie read it a few times over before putting it back down. She hurried out the room of fear someone would catch her. She stood out the door for a minute, taking in what she just read. "What did all that mean?" she thought to herself. "Was that even ment to be literally or a figure of speech?" "It could've just been something he made up, so why am I so curious about what he wrote?" Annie was stumped, she didn't know what to do or say next so she headed back to her room. "The good thing is I think I might actually be able to fall asleep." A few minutes later, Annie drifted off, a moment of freedom from her friends, lover and worries.
