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"We're almost to the Scout's base near the ocean," Hange informed you, staying close to them. "We'll start experimenting with your Titan after you get settled."
Nodding, you then looked ahead and saw a huge wall peaking out of the sand. Eren had told you that was where people were turned into Titans, which is also the place your father had gained the Attack Titan. Met a guy named Eren Kruger, meaning he was the namesake for your brother.
Over the piece of land you looked over, you saw a blue surface that aligned the horizon in the distance. It was just as Armin said.
...
"Niccolo!!!" Hange called out to a blond man, who was dressed in some white clothing under the shade. Speaking of, this must be the man Sasha was talking about with his Marleyan cuisine that she heard about. "I've got someone new to introduce you to!"
Startled, he sharply turned around. "Oh-- Uh, Commander Hange! Who's this here?"
They went around behind you, leaning on your shoulder. "This is one of our veteran scouts, [Name] Jaeger. Very skilled one indeed," Hange babbled as they softly punched your arm.
Attempting to shrug her arm off, you pouted. "Don't need to flex me off Commander..."
"Nice to meet you," Niccolo said, seemingly trying to keep calm about the fact you were related to Eren.
"Oh?" Another voice joined, making you glance over at the figure approaching. A tall woman with rather dark eyes and short blond hair walked up to you. "Is this who I think it is?"
Her eyes were burning into your soul with strange admiration. You could feel her mysterious eyes look at you, making completely eye contact for what felt like five straight minutes. Even so, you couldn't help but wonder why she was looking at you like that.
"[Name] Jaeger, I heard? You must possess the power of the Paths Titan. Fascinating... Really Fascinating."
Hange jumped in the conversation. "These two are from Marley, along with the dozen other soldiers that volunteered. But, you needn't worry about that." They then looked at the blond lady. "This is Yelena, an Anti-Marleyan volunteer."
"I've longed to meet you, [Name]," she held out a hand.
With a bit of hesitance, you took her hand and shook it. "You too, Yelena."
After doing the instroductions, Hange sighed. "Alright. After tomorrow, we'll get started with your Titan transformation," their face shifted to a more serious one. "If it goes well, we'll then proceed to start with ability testing. We still don't know much about this Titan."
"I... may be able to help with that."
Thankfully, Niccolo had already left to tend to his food at this point as the three of you talked. "Zeke Jaeger gave a massive amount of intel about such a Titan. We can wait until later for such duties, though."
Zeke Jaeger... your half-brother.
"Alright..." Hange hummed before turning to you. "For now, get settled in. Your friends over there are having too much fun without you. You're dismissed."
"Yes, Commander!" With that, you walked away, not wanting to look over your shoulder. In the distance, you saw a couple of friends conversing near the shooting range Armin was babbling about, suggesting that you should try it out. He, along with Jean, Eren, and Mikasa were talking about something refering to the guns.
"Are you joining us at the shooting range today?" Mikasa asked Armin, holding a shotgun in one hand.
The blond-headed boy shook his head. "Not for a bit, at least. I'm gonna be walking with [Name] for a while, along the shore," He responded with a smile before looking over his shoulder, meeting your eyes. "Oh, you've met Yelena and Niccolo?"
You nodded, walking up next to Armin and Mikasa. "This Niccolo guy doesn't seem to trust us yet, I suppose?"
Jean let out a deep breath. "He's been like that for a while, now. Well, I mean-- He did have a blade to the back from Captain, so I don't blame the guy. But still, could at least show some respect."
"What about this Yelena person?" You added on, feeling quite suspicious of this tall woman. "Apparently she'll be present at my Titan experiments two days from now."
Mikasa gave you a worried look. "Really? She must've gotten that intel back at Marley about your Titan, from Zeke and possibly Bianca for all we know." She said before her expression went more stern. "I'll be there. If she makes you feel uncomfortable then I'll be there. So will the rest of us, I'm sure."
"She's got quite the 'infatuation' with Eren, so I assume that she was like that with you as well?" Armin asked you, taking a glance over at Yelena.
Sighing, your shoulders lowered. "Yes. But to get off this topic... Armin, you wanna start the stroll on the beach?"
Eren smiled to himself, seemingly smirking like he knew something. "Hm, dragging my dear sister away from me, Armin?" He joked while grabbing his shotgun to his side. "Alright... I see you."
"Eren, you know that's not my intention! You out of all people should know," Armin crossed his arms before turning to you. "Let's get going. The views at sunset would be a pain to miss."
After Mikasa elbowed Eren as a punishment for his joking statement, she glanced at the two of you with a smile. "I hope you have a great stroll, you two. Tell me about anything you see out there, alright?"
This whole time, Jean was staring at Connie and Sasha trying to drown eachother in the sea again before sighing. "Yeah, uh... Have fun. While you do that, I've gotta stop two you-know-whats from killing eachother."
You and Armin said goodbye to your three friends, walking off to the silent shores of the island. Mikasa and Eren wanted to somehow push you both closer, knowing that you seemed more closer than friends would usually be.
"I told him, actually," Mikasa admitted to Eren, making him look at her. "Surely they'll hit it off in some way."
Eren agreed with a silent nod, watching the two figures walk away. "They better. Don't know if I wish I could erase seeing them being all close outside before Wall Rose was reported to be broken."
"Huh?" Mikasa raised a brow at him. "What do you mean?"
Glancing back at her, it seemed that they both had the same idea. Eren took a quick glance at the weapon in his hand and set it down. "Would you be alright with a detour?"
...
"So you're saying that there's fish larger than a house living in the ocean?"
Armin was talking about stuff he heard that was in the ocean by some friendly Anti-Marleyan volunteers, and even a marine-biologist. You could only imagine how big some of these animals were compared to you.
"Yeah. This kind person that studies oceanic animals told me, considering that I was willing to learn about them," he explained intently. "Oh! There's also some places that keep fish for entertainment in big glass tanks. There's a big one in Marley, apparently."
When you looked out into the ocean, you wondered if you would be able to see any animals Armin talked about. Though there was little to no possibility, so you didn't put your hope into it.
"I planned to invite you for a stroll along the shore initially," Armin said as he pulled out some rock from his pocket. "I also wanted to show you this."
Looking down into his hands was a rock with some swirling designs on it. "It's a seashell, I've been told. Here, hold it." He then dropped it gently in your hands, moving them under yours.
The shell was a nice shade of blue and Armin seemed to be very sentiment about it, which you can see why. "Is it an alive creature?"
"No," he responded. "Think of it as your hair. It's a part of you but isn't alive itself. I got it when we first arrived here. Forgot how long that was ago."
A moment of silence fell between the two of you. When you shifted your gaze to meet his eyes, you found him already staring at you. You couldn't look away, as if you were infatuated with his blue eyes. This view was familiar, you thought.
It seems that you had gotten lost in each other's eyes. Again.
"I have something to ask you. It's... rather important," Armin spoke. Snapping out of the trance you were in, you nodded, wanting to hear what your dear friend wanted to say. "Are you in love with me?"
Your mind started to race with the sound of the ocean waves crashing into the rocks around you. At the moment, you were at a loss for words, completely forgeting the seashell sitting in the palms of your hand. It was such a straight up question, but Armin was hesitant for an answer.
"Tell me," he spoke again.
Gathering your words, you tried reading his face for any sign of nervousness. Nervousness of rejection, preferably. "Yes," you shoved your own dignity aside. "You asked at a random time time, did you?" You took your chance to know about how he feels about you, and you'd feel horrible if you kept all these feelings hidden.
Armin mentally took note of your flustered state and smiled as if he wasn't as well. "I did. I'm glad, because I was initially going to ask you to walk with me before you had." He admitted. You felt his hands close yours in his softish hands. "I just... I wanted to make my feelings about you known. Thing is, Mikasa told me you also felt similar feelings. That fact alone made me feel better, so I built the courage to ask you."
"Mikasa told you all that?" You questioned with the feeling of impending doom. "What about Eren? Did he say anything?"
He remembered something embarrassing Eren said to him in a certain conversation, just yesterday.
"What were you talking about with [Name]?" Eren asked him as he and Armin were preparing supplies on a carriage. "You two were talking quite a while. Thought I was gonna be loading this stuff alone."'
Armin set a barrel down onto the sturdy back of the carriage and wiped his sweat off. "Nothing important. Tried to catch her up with what's been happening, like the volunteers from Marley and such," he explained as he stepped down onto the ground.
Both of the boys then leaned on the wall beside them, taking a quick break. The sky was orange, meaning that the dark sky was soon to fall.
"As scheming as you are, you're kinda bad at hiding your feelings," Eren crossed his arms with a foot on the wall behind him.
"My feelings?" The blond teen looked over at him with knowing eyes. "You..."
Eren put on a mischevious smirk. "I know when someone's pinning my sister when I see it. Hmph, kinda surprised Jean wasn't the one but my best friend is."
"Wait-- What are you implying?!" Armin exclaimed, knowing well what Eren meant before settling down. Now that he though about it, he was right. "We're not talking about this right now, are we?"
"Oh," Eren laughed, "Yes we are. The two of you were so obvious."
If Armin could, he would rip Eren's scalp off but he felt too 'nice' to do that. Even so, Eren would regenerate in an instant. "Okay, you caught me," Armin sulked with his hands together. "I... like [Name]."
Your brother sighed in relief. "It's about time, man. Took you damn well near seven years. I saw the way you looked at her ever since I made you two meet."
"It's about time?" Armin raised a brow at him, "You were waiting this whole time? For what?"
"For you to admit it," He said, looking over at him. "You wanna know how tired I am of the two of you? Especially after I spotted the two of you in the courtyard before we heard about Wall Rose being breached."
That was when Armin fell into embarrassment bigger than anyone can imagine. "We-- That was on accident, Eren! Don't assume such things. I could say the same about you and Mikasa." He sassed back at him with a turned face.
"Hold your horses, Armin," Eren reassured him, "It's not a bad thing. In fact, I want you to be a source of comfort to her."
"You know... If something happens, she has someone to lean on. She's the last family I have left."
...
"Eren encouraged me to tell you," he explained, hands caressing yours. "How do you feel, exactly?"
Nothing could describe how you felt, really. Within the past two minutes, it felt like you were falling in love again. You were falling harder than before. "There's nothing I could say to describe what I feel, but I know that I..."
"I know that I love you."
The amount of tension decreased immensely and Armin sighed in relief. His face showed a blush under the orange sky, but you couldn't tell if it was the light or just him blushing.
Taking a quick glance at your hands, you then looked back up at Armin. You gently broke through his hands and hugged him with all your love. Feeling his hands wrap around your body, you closed your eyes, taking in the lovely silence around you. He did the same, feeling like he would be able to fall asleep in your embrace. He'd be lying if he said he didn't desire that at some point.
"[Name]?"
"Yeah?"
"They've been watching for a while, now."