Lara (Long-Fic Levihan | Armin Arlert X OC)

Chapter 75 - Gabi and Falco

"BE QUIET!!!"

Immediately, everyone looked at him, astonished. Armin never raised his voice.

Lara gave him a little smile of thanks.

"Is anyone hurt?" she asked.

Gradually, everyone shook their head negatively.

"Good," replied Lara, and she got down on her knees to stay at the same eye level as the children.

The little blond boy stared at her with lots of fear and seemed like he was about to cry at any moment. The little girl, however, had the look of the most extreme and purest fury. As calmly as possible, Lara looked from one to the other and said:

"Hi... My name's Lara and I'm a Squad Leader of the Survey Corps from Paradis island. Are you two okay? Could you please tell me what you're doing here?"

"DON'T SPEAK A WORD TO ME, DEVIL!!!" shouted the little girl, her eyes bloodshot.

Lara got so startled that she almost fell backward. When she understood what the girl had said, her expression changed to that of someone who got deeply offended.

Everyone in the lobby widened their eyes and held their breath. Of all people they knew, the one who was most completely repulsed by this vicious name-calling that the Eldians received, was Lara.

She sensed that Armin wanted to come closer, but she signaled with her hand for him to stay where he was. Lara took a deep breath and ran her hand over her face, then looked at the little blond boy.

"Let's try it with you then," she did her best to give him a kind smile, "Could you please tell me your name?"

The little boy looked from Lara to his friend, who was shaking her head negatively, asking him to be quiet. However, he answered, almost in a whisper:

"My name's Falco... She's Gabi..."

Lara finally managed to give a genuine smile.

"Nice to meet you, Falco. Could you tell me what you're doing here?"

When he was about to answer, he was interrupted.

"She killed my friend!!!" Gabi pointed to Sasha. "That devil must die!!!"

Sasha widened her eyes.

"Gabi!" Falco grabbed his friend's jacket, desperate. "Keep quiet! Can't you see we're surrounded?!"

"Look what you all did down there!" shouted Gabi, pointing to the airship door, with tears in her eyes. "Because of you, my friends are dead!"

Lara felt great sorrow get into her heart and she lowered her head, covering her face. She had a lump in her throat, and when she faced them again, her eyes were red and teary. For a moment, the children were startled by the unexpected reaction of their "enemy".

"I..." began Lara, with a very downcast voice, "I simply... Don't know what to say to you. I really don't. This whole situation is just... Horrible. I'm very, very sorry."

"Being sorry won't bring them back..." Gabi also had a lump in her throat.

"I know..." replied Lara, with a choked-up voice, "I know, Gabi... And that's what hurts the most..."

They looked at each other for a few seconds, in silence. Then, they heard Floch shout from among the soldiers:

"We must kill them right now!"

Some colleagues followed him. Lara felt her blood boil and glared at him.

"Are you crazy?!" she exclaimed, standing up in a jump, even forgetting her injured foot pain, "They're just children!"