𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 (𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝟐) || 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐈𝐍 𝐀.

+.*Chapter 14: Alternate Path*.+

❗❗WARNINGS:

• Alternate path from chapter 10

• Short again-

I FELT SAD WRITING THIS ANGST PATH-

Your POV

"Do you need anything, Armin?" I ask him. He jumps out a trance.

"Oh! Well... No. I just came out for fresh air..." He itched his head awkwardly with a smile.

I looked back out at the ocean as I hear him sit next to me. We both sat in silence. "So, um... Can we maybe talk about what Eren said at the restaurant? If you don't mine, of course." He asked me.

Letting out a sigh, I set my legs straight in front of me. "But... What is there to talk about?" I say, making Armin turn his head towards me. "Feelings change after a while. Besides, I've been gone for a year since the battle in Shiganshina."

"It's... true, though. I did like you." Armin admitted. I looked over, but a thought came to mind.

He said did.

"Now you like Annie?" I asked, looking at the floor in front of me.

He stayed silent for a while. "Yes, but..." I stood up from where I was sitting.

"Then why are you talking to me?" I asked, looking down at him. He looked at me in surprise. "You should be talking to Annie about this if you like her. Not me." I started walking away before I felt him grab my wrist.

"I didn't finish." He said. "Sit down and just... let me say this." I thought for a moment and sat back down.

"I meant to say that... I... like you both but..." He muttered, looking away slightly.

"You don't know who to choose?" I finished for him. He nodded hesitantly. "Then choose her, then." I say with a raised eyebrow.

"W-What?" Armin muttered. "Why aren't you...?"

"Because." I spoke. "If you can't make a choice between me and her, I'd rather you choose her." I say. "Being the second choice is... hard, but people have to deal with it all the time."

He let out a gasp. "You..." That was all he managed to say.

I smiled weakly at him and stood up. I saw Annie walk out. "There's Annie." I turned my head towards him. He stood up, walking next to me. "Go speak to her before things go to hell. I'm gonna help look through the supplies..."

As I started walking away, Armin called out for me quietly. "Y/n, why are you giving up for me so easily?" He ask in desperation. 

He was a few feet away from my back and I turned my head over, but he couldn't see my face. "It was... nice loving you." I said, continuing to walk away.

I walked to one of the supply rooms and locked myself in.

~

Mikasa walked away with Eren's head in the smoke. I decided to follow her.

"Y/n, where are you going?" I hear Armin ask me.

"I'm just... going with Mikasa." I muttered. "Helping her burry Eren."  I continued walking away into the smoke, following Mikasa.

~

It's been exactly three years since the Battle of Heaven and Earth. I've settled down far away from where the walls were in a little cabin, where I was almost to the sea.

Like our promise.

Except... by myself.

I still make contact with Mikasa and Historia, but that's it. I knew the Armin was gonna worry about me and try to find me since Historia promised that she wouldn't tell her where I was staying.

I laid on a bench outside my cabin, staring at the sky. I've been sleeping a lot more than usual to the point where I take five naps a day.

Reaching my hand out into the sky, I see a bird in the sky. A feather fell, falling on my body. I grabbed it in my hand gently, hugging it in my chest. My eyes felt heavy, making me feel tired.

I closed my eyes, feeling everything fade away. All of my senses stopped. My hearing started fading.

Right as I opened my eyes, I saw a few familiar faces. Ones that I thought I'd never scene again.

Eren.

Sasha.

Marco.

Hange.

"Hello, Y/n!" Sasha greeted with a smile.

Armin's POV

After all the important stuff was done today after we got off the boat, I walked over to Historia to ask her a simple question.

"Hey, Historia?" She turned around.

Her mouth opened slightly. "What do you need, Armin?"

I took a deep breath. "Y/n decided to stay behind for the past three years with Mikasa. Do you know where she is right now?"

Her expression went into a shocked one. She looked down with a frown. "I'm... sorry Armin, but she said that she doesn't want anybody visiting her anymore. Before she left, she said that if anyone asks where she was, I can't tell them. Please, respect her wishes."

My mouth went agape slightly in surprise. I needed to find her. I clutched my hands in a fist. "Then I'll just have to find her."

I figured that she would be by the sea.

"Armin." Historia sighs. "If you want to find her, here's the hint..." I looked over, waiting for her to finish. "North."

"I worry about her well-being. Please try and find her."

I gasped and nodded. I needed to find her. I walked out of the room and out the building.

That afternoon, I rode over to the North side of the island with a few supplies in a small wagon.

In the distance, I saw a cabin. Who was living here? I saw someone laying down on the bench, hands on their chest. I got off my horse, walking over.

It was Y/n.

She was taking a nap. I walked over to her, kneeling down. Nudging her with my right hand, I noticed that she was stiff. I looked at her chest, noticing that it wasn't rising up and down.

She wasn't breathing.

Panic rose in me. I shook her, trying to wake her up. "Y/n! Wake up! PLEASE!" I pleaded. I took her hand, noticing that there was a feather in her hand.

Her mouth was open slightly. I checked her pulse by her neck, but nothing.

"SHIT!" I cursed aloud. "Not again, not again..."

Then, something flashed in my head.

"When Armin was on that roof, you couldn't move. Your body froze. You want to kill yourself in that cell, am I correct?"

No, what if she killed herself because of me? What if... she just gave up and died in her sleep?

I set her down in the wagon, setting a kiss on her cheek. I took the reigns and my horse ran. "There needs to be a way... She's not dead! She's not!" I pleaded.

When I told Historia the news, she immediately called over the others. Y/n was laying in the infirmary, but the doctors couldn't do anything.

She was already gone.

Mikasa and I cried an equal amount as much as we grieved Eren. Now we're doing to Y/n, which is something I didn't think I'd need to do.

Everyone was devastated. Mikasa suggested that she'd get burried right next to Eren, by the tree. Of course, we all agreed.

Annie helped me try and get better.

We all sat at the tree. I sat between Eren and Y/n's graves, feeling guilty that I may have been the cause for her death indirectly.

I'm such a shitty friend.