In Love With A Monster (Armin X Annie)

~Chapter Eleven~

Armin stared out the sitting room window, a storm was raging outside. The rain battered against the windows and the wind howled through the leaves of the trees. Everyone in the village barricaded themselves inside their homes it was so disastrous, including Armin and Annie. Annie was kneeled before the fireplace, she was trying to light a fire to warm the house up but had been fairly unsuccessful up to this point even with Armins tips and pointers.

Annie gave a frustrated sigh, her hands were covered in char and her fingers were burnt after so many failed attempts she was finally getting angry. "Are you sure this is how you do it?" She asked Armin.

He nodded in response and kneeled beside her, "Positive, are you doing it wrong?"

Annie looked at him, her eyebrows were furrowed and she clearly was not too pleased to be questioned. "If I were doing it wrong, I would've stopped..."

Armin chuckled, he thought her frustration was funny. "Okay, okay just grab another stick and try this last thing."

Annie followed his directions and grabbed another stick from the pile. He directed her to keep rubbing her hands together, twirling the stick between them. She was right, it wasn't working. Annie threw the stick down with anger, this had been at least her twentieth attempt.

Armin thought for a moment, he was sure that was how you did it. "Ok try it again but move your hands downward as you do it."

Annie groaned, her hands were almost covered in sores from how many times she had done this but she did it again. Warmth was worth more than blisters. She did as he instructed and this time it finally worked, Annie blew on the growing flame in the pile of firewood stocked in the fireplace. The two of them rejoiced, they high fived one another in their victory of final warmth.

"Ouch, Ouch!" Annie pulled her hands back, skin of her hands had peeled from the friction against the sticks, it was painful to touch anything.

"Sorry, sorry!" Armin apologised profusely. "Are you okay, do you need bandages?"

Annie shook her head, she waved her hands around in the air to stop the stinging sensation. "This is nothing compared to the blisters I used to get from training."

For a few moments the two of them decided not to move, they sat together in front of the blazing fire, indulging in the heat. In the past few days Armin did a lot of thinking, about Annie, about his future. All he thought about was the two of them, together. He could no longer mistake his attraction for admiration, Armin was smart and he knew when he was hiding feelings. Every time he saw Annie after what happened at the stream that day, his heart began to flutter, he could feel his cheeks grow warmer and they became pink.

"Do you ever think about cadets?" Annie asked, filling the silent air.

"All the time..." Armin did enjoy it, the training was hard and Sadies scared him to his core but it's where he met all his new friends, it's where he came to know them all. "Do you?"

"Every day." Annie smiled faintly. "I'd never admit it then but I think it was the best time of my life... I think about her all the time."

"Who?" Armin asked.

Annie hesitated, it had been so long since she had even said the name. It had been long since Annie openly spoke about her since Trost. "Mina."

Armin had forgotten that Annie and Mina were friends. They sat together every night at dinner and Mina was the only person Armin saw Annie speak to regularly. He never knew how close they truly were, all he knew at the time was Annie was the one who found her body.

"What do you think she would be doing today, if she was still here?" Annie asked. She knew Mina had already picked out her regiment before she died, she was going to join the scouts with everyone else, she even tried to convince Annie to join with her and for a moment —for Mina — Annie considered it. But in the end Annie knew what she had to choose. The military police.