Lara (Long-Fic Levihan | Armin Arlert X OC)

Chapter 71 - Accident

As Lara fondly remembered the day Hange found out she was pregnant, she got startled at seeing Armin spasm.

"He must've been having a bad dream..." she thought. For a millisecond, her fingers brushed his short blond hair, but as soon as she touched it, she quickly pulled them back. Lara still didn't have the guts to do that. In fact, she didn't want to do it without his permission.

"What a situation we got ourselves into, huh?" Lara looked at him, giving a sad smile. Then she looked out of the window again, remembering what had happened, just about three hours ago.

Lara was at training class with her Squad, as they did most afternoons. The person who was normally in charge of training classes was her father, but he wasn't there today. Levi and Hange had gone to the port two days ago, to prepare the airship that would take the Survey Corps to the city of Liberio, with Onyankopon. The reason for going to this city of the nation of Marley, was because three months ago, Eren had gone there on a diplomatic mission to make deals with the "Association to Protect the Subjects of Ymir", and who knows, make some peace treaty.

However, Eren simply stopped giving news about his situation, which made everyone extremely worried. Then, about almost two weeks ago, he sent letters asking for them to rescue him in Liberio. What left them most perplexed was knowing that Eren wanted them to also rescue Zeke together, none other than the Beast Titan himself. In the course of the new alliances that the Eldians made with the Marleyans, they ended up discovering that Eren and Zeke were actually brothers of the same father. And apparently, while Eren was in Liberio, he got in touch with his brother without notifying anyone from the Survey Corps. And now, they had to go there to rescue him in the middle of enemy territory.

That was why Lara was so worried about her mother and mad at such boldness Eren was showing, because, in the last few days, Hange had been complaining of some pain in her belly region, leaving Lara pretty distressed, and especially Levi. Hange was about five months pregnant now, which was a critical stage for some potential complications, since according to what the doctors had said, it would be a high-risk pregnancy.

So, in Levi's absence as the instructor, another one took his place, Captain Rufus. However, this instructor didn't like Levi at all, out of sheer envy or rivalry.

Rufus was much older than Levi, and he had the physique of someone who just couldn't stop lifting weights for a minute and who lived based on eggs, chicken, and sweet potatoes. But, he displayed such childish behavior, that most people felt repulsed by him. And, because he didn't like Levi, consequently, Rufus didn't like Lara at all, always giving her the most difficult exercises that demanded the most physical effort.

Lara hated having training classes with him. Not only her, but most of the other soldiers as well, except for just a select group of delinquent followers that Rufus had always behind him and who would agree with his nitpicking.

Since Eren's rescue mission would be in three days, they decided to practice hand-to-hand combat, because they would probably fight more people than Titans in Liberio. So Rufus began to make pairs with the soldiers, to practice with each other.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, sounding more like a dog bark, "Mini Ackerman! Come here and pair up with Arlert."

Even though Lara was now just two centimeters shorter than her father, Rufus insisted on calling her "Mini Ackerman", a nickname which he gave her when he found out Lara had been adopted by his rival. Actually, Rufus couldn't even be considered a rival of Levi, for he was so insignificant, that he used his ODM gear swords in a very poor way, and still he thought he was the best.

When Rufus paired up Lara with Armin, practically everyone around stopped to look at them. They wouldn't miss that fight for the world.

It was no secret to anyone else in the Headquarters that Lara and Armin loved each other, but they weren't together because of his "Titan Curse". For the past three years, after Hange and Lara ended their research for a cure, their relationship remained pretty much the same: one being as kind to the other as possible, speaking to one another only when necessary, what in fact was not rare, because as Officer and Lara's right-hand man, they both had to stay in each other's company for many times.