The Walls We've Built - ◈ ARMIN ARLERT X OC ◈

Chapter 13 - While we wait

I am one of the first to find a perch in the trees, I latch my ODM gear into the tree securing myself in case I fall. I hear the zip of ODM gear behind me followed by someone gently landing on the branch, "Sorry, I can find another place to wait." Rosette apologises, shooting her ODM gear to another tree. I stop her before she takes off, "It's ok, stay. Who knows how long we'll be here, some company would be nice." I tell her, "Oh ok then." she releases her ODM gear as the wire whips back to her side.

I sit down on the enormous branch with my back resting against the trunk of the tree. Rosette sits opposite me with her legs crossed, she looks out to the open terrain before turning to me with a small smile. "Thanks for coming to our rescue before." I tell her gratefully, "Oh it was nothing, of course we were going to help you guys! We are a team, we have to stick together!" she exclaims gesturing to our comrades around us. I can only scoff in response, some people don't seem to agree with you. "What?" She questions, puzzled by my response. "They were going to leave us." I explain, she tilts her head confused.

"Reiner and Jean were going to leave Armin and I in that cluster of trees." I say somberly, making her gasp. I laugh sarcastically "Yeah, after the smoke signal was sent we were going to wait 3 minutes and if no one came they were going to leave on Atlas." I continue, looking at Rosette. She gets up before giving me a long hug, I sit there awkwardly not sure of what to do, she senses my awkwardness and pulls back still holding onto my shoulders. "Just so you know if I was in their position I would never think or even consider doing that to any of my comrades." she states passionately holding eye contact with me. I nod my head, "Good to know." I reply smiling, she lets go of me sitting back down.

There is a brief silence before Rosette continues, "You're a good person Zariya, your comrades were willing to abandon you in a time of distress but when it came to sticking together you stood up for them against that arrogant scout." she states before looking at me. "Not many people have the integrity to do what you did." she finishes nudging me with her shoulder. We hold each other's gaze, sharing a newfound feeling of friendship towards each other.

The time goes slowly, every minute seems to last forever as we stay put in the trees waiting for instructions from Commander Erwin. We sit in silence waiting patiently in the dark about how we will advance from here, distracted by hunger and dehydration my eyes begin to close as I drift to sleep.

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The sound of quiet rustling makes me jolt awake, I look around frantically, confused by my surroundings. I realise where I am, still safely resting on the high branch of one of the forest bordering trees. I look over to Rosette who is now standing up, I rub my eyes before asking "How long was I out for?" She jumps, looking over at me. Obviously she didn't notice I had woken up. "Not long, I'd say 10, maybe 15 minutes? I didn't want to wake you, I can only imagine how tired you would be and frankly at the time there were no threats so I didn't see the point in not letting you sleep." she explains logically. My eyebrows burrow, "What do you mean at the time?" I question getting up, Rosette doesn't reply but instead gestures for me to look down. I follow her gaze confused, I take in a sharp breath when I see them.

Below us, a large group of titans have gathered at the trunks of the trees we are hiding in, some of them scratch at the bark frustrated that we are just out of reach, they look so small, so powerless. I begin to laugh as I crouch down to look at the titans, "What a sight hey?" I chuckle, staring at the titans almost hypnotised. "5 years ago I would have been shitting myself, but now. Now a few swift moves of my swords and they could all be dead" I continue to laugh, the memories of Nicholas, my parents, the colossal titan fly around in my head as I feel the wet sensation of tears rolling down the side of my face.

I feel the presence of Rosette next to me, I must look like a real psycho right now. I wipe my eyes trying to eradicate whatever unpleasant sensation just came over me. "Ar-Are you alright Zariya?" Rosette quietly questions beside me, I quickly get up turning to her, "Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?" I respond chipperly, smiling at her before walking past her away from the trunk of the tree. "Well it's just that," she begins behind me, "Just then, you kinda went really creepy for a couple of seconds there." she states trying to laugh off my weird behaviour. I stop walking away from her and turn around sighing, "I-" my voice cracks, "Sometimes my mind, it tends to wander." I finally croak out, embarrassed.

Rosette just nods her head in response, I expect her to make a mocking comment but she stays silent. She gestures to herself before stating, "I'm from shiganshina too." I take in a sharp breath, I didn't realise so many recruits in our cadet corps came from shiganshina, I thought it was bad enough that only I had to endure the horrors of the attack. Both Gen and Jacob came from other parts of the walls so I never had anyone to relate to about the trauma that day caused us. But now here I am with Rosette.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear." I say somberly, Rosette smiles wistfully. She taps the side of her thighs "What can you do, everyone has the dark parts of their story." she replies, "Yeah I know, it's just unfortunate that ours had to come so early in our stories." I state, she laughs gloomily "True." We both look down at the titans again before I ask "So, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to you and your family that day?" Rosette continues to look at the titans before looking at me, I stare back into her icy grey eyes, before her gaze returns to the titans below, "Well, long story short, my house was right by the gate and it got crushed in the initial attack when the colossal titan breached the wall. My parents got crushed with the house and-" she stops struggling to continue "My sister was eaten by a titan while trying to save me, and" Her gaze returns to me "My- my leg was trapped so I couldn't do anything and had no choice but to watch." I stare at her, as a tear rolls down the side of her face.

I try to hold back my tears before reaching over to hug her. I know we just met but I understand how hard it is to open up about the attack. She lets out a long breath, wiping the tears from her eye, I let go of her, giving her a minute to compose herself. "It must have been hard for you." I say looking at her, she scoffs "hard is an understatement" she replies bluntly. She asks me the same question in response, taking the attention off herself, I go on to tell her the story but change a minor detail.

"Well, my house bordered the wall as well, and the roof got blown off. My brother and I were almost to wall Maria but my brother got crushed in the after shock." I trail off, "What about your parents?" Rosette questions, I stutter for a moment "They got sick from that flu that was going around a few years earlier" She watches me with wide eye waiting for me to finish, "Oh yeah, they didn't make it." I drop my head soberly trying to act sad. Rosette comes beside me, she doesn't say anything but is there as an act of comfort. We sit together looking down at the titans below, we hear someone yell at us from further in the forest. "EVERYONE BLOCK YOUR EARS!" Rosette and I look at eachother confused as we block our eyes, and then we hear it.

The high pitch screech echoes past us, out into the open terrain. We uncover our ears but are welcomed with a new sound of loud footsteps stomping below us. We both quickly look down at the titans to see they are gone, we frantically look over the other side of the branch to see them running off further into the forest. We look at each other bewildered, whatever is going on, it's far from over.