catalyst ⋆˙⟡ nerd!armin arlert x reader

chapter 40 - a ˚. ᵎᵎˎˊ˗

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Armin looked at himself in the foggy mirror, watching as slow, methodical droplets of water fell off his long hair and into the sink beneath him. He reached forward, wiping off steam, leaving drops of condensation rushing down the surface.

He was leaning on his arms, squinting as he got closer to the mirror, using one of his hands to push his hair back to inspect his eyebrow piercing. At times, he felt like he didn't recognize himself, especially since the two of you stopped talking.

But these days, he was starting to resemble someone he once knew, someone who was happier and with you. Though he knew you were just being nice, playing into how sick he was and moving out of sympathy rather than desire, it was hard to pretend things weren't how they used to be when he knew you were a room away, lying in his bed, wearing his sweatshirt.

Huffing out a sigh, he pushed back, taking the towel he had hung around his neck and running it through his hair before he used his fingers to brush it out, hanging it behind him and adjusting the towel hanging around his waist.

Armin had woken up an hour before, stirring to life with none of the mental fog he had had the day before and a newfound sense of awakeness. The sniffing had gone, his sinuses had never felt clearer, the headache he had been plagued with was long gone, and above all else, he found the sudden and incessant need to go on a run.

He'd hit the ground in a sprint shortly after stretching, running on the coast of the beach, passing Sasha's and wondering if you'd be gone by the time he got back, maybe the sinking feeling in his chest that had been set there since you coughed last night was wrong and maybe you'd be riding off on Jean's car when he returned.

When he got back, he made a smoothie, drank it, and was shocked to find you still hadn't woken up, and that's when the panic started to set in.

It was not beyond him that you had hardly eaten dinner last night, or that you fell asleep within seconds of hitting his bed which was unlike you as far as he was concerned, back when you shared a bed frequently it took you at least half an hour of flipping around and messing with the covers to fall asleep, this he knew for a fact.

Instead of freaking out, he'd resigned to taking a shower, hoping that the water and his moving around would wake you, maybe you'd even yell at him for making such a rucus so early, he'd even settle for you leaving altogether, but what he found was neither of those.

Armin's feet padded on the hardwood as he adjusted the towel around his waist, almost forgetting you were in the room when he pushed the slightly ajar door open further, and found you curled into a ball on your side of his bed, comforter shoved off of you, and the sweatshirt you had asked him for through chattered teeth and labored breaths was decorating the floor beside you, leaving you in nothing but a tank top and small sleep shorts.

This alone was enough to worry him, seeing as you were always freezing when you slept, but when he rounded the bed, crouching so he was a little above eye level with you, his heart dropped. A gleam of sweat on your forehead, and a subtle shake to your character.

"Fuck," Armin muttered, standing up and making his way towards his walk-in closet, shutting it gently behind him as he dropped the towel and opened the drawer beside him, grabbing some of his underwear and a pair of sweatpants and tugging them on with haste.

He sighed roughly.

The cough he had heard last night wasn't just some one-off issue; it was what he had feared. He had gotten you sick.