Not The One Who Dies ⇀ Attack on Titan *Original*

Part 52: Ghosts

The sun rose through the windows of the old home causing a blonde puff of hair to slightly stir. His eyes peered open, grumbling that it'd been to early.

"Wake me up in like twenty, okay, babe?" Armin mumbled, snuggling up to his pillow while waiting for a response. His eyes opened up again at the lack of response. They were red, bloodshot almost, the man looked to the other side of the bed, finding it still made, a grim reminder that his husband hadn't been there in two weeks. That he'd never be there again.

Armin sighed, he could feel his eyes trying to water, yet they couldn't. He'd cried more than he'd ever cried in the past few days, he was out of tears by now. The boy threw his legs over the side of the bed, standing up and making his way to the bathroom to get ready.

He was brushing his teeth, staring down at the sink as he didn't want to see the mess he had been. His eyes widened at the feeling of familiar arms wrap around his waist. His head snapped up, hope filling his body as he looked into the mirror. His heart dropped when he just saw himself, there was no one there, Logan wasn't there. His eyes wandered his body, he was skinnier than before, his hair was shot in different directions and there were visible tear stains going down his face.

"Stop being such an idiot! He wouldn't want you to torture yourself!" Armin mumbled to himself, forcing himself to get in the shower. He got ready as if it had been a normal day. Cloud had been staying with Levi and Arthur, not ready to return home just yet so Armin was there, alone.

He'd been making breakfast when there was a sudden knock on the door. He quickly jogged over to it, pulling the door open to find Mikasa standing there with a blank expression.

"Oh, hey Mikasa... what's up?" Armin asked, leaning in the doorway.

"You're not in bed." Mikasa simply spoke causing Armin to nod before looking over his shoulder.

"I made breakfast, you hungry?" Armin asked causing Mikasa to nod, taking a step into the home. She had gone there every day since they returned, making sure her friend was okay. Jean, Connie, and Sasha had gone over there every night to keep the boy company.

The two returned to the kitchen to find food already laid out on the table, Mikasa sitting down and Armin going to make coffee.

"Oh, so Cloud was telling me that you were showing him how to work out the other day? What'd you put the poor-" Armin was saying before he realized what he was doing. He had two cups off coffee in his hands, both filled with coffee. Armin looked down at the cups with a sad look on his face before putting one down on the counter, going to enjoy his breakfast with Mikasa.

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Logan sat across from Reiner and Pieck at the small diner in the intermittent zone. Logan would be leaving to go back home that day, having a plan set up to wait for his new found teammates to arrive. Their plan was to capture or kill Zeke to stop Eren from enacting the rumbling. Granted, that was probably easier said then done.

"Logan? You there?" Reiner asked causing the man to look up, nodding at him as he continued to get lost in his mind, what would he say to Armin? To his son? He felt guilty for putting them through everything he had the past few weeks.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah... yeah sorry. When's Issac getting back? He refused to show me this surprise in the cellar yesterday." Logan asked, leaning forwards and taking a sip of his coffee. His lips curled into slight disappointment as he tasted the drink, it hadn't been as good as the coffee Armin had made him. He put the cup down, twiddling with his ring again.

"I don't know, but uh, listen. I'm not good with this- emotions I mean. I guess you know that more than anyone. But, for what it's worth, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for the wall, for Marco, for everyone. I really am." Reiner spoke, sighing as he leaned forwards on the table, rubbing his face with his hands. Logan looked at the man, sighing as he thought of the betrayal that the man had done, the hurt he'd caused.