The Wandering Warrior (An Aot/Snk Male Reader insert)

Chapter 25: Truth

Oh God, no no, please no. I zip through the trees, my Odm gear propelling me forward at incredible speeds. We had decided to get some extra training time in today, that was when Armin's gear malfunctioned causing him to take a nasty fall from pretty high. I notice his body and land next to it. His slightly toned yet fragile and vulnerable body, covered in scratches and scrapes yet nothing to bad. I grab him as Mikasa lands next to me covering her mouth, shortly after Jean and Sasha also land near us.
"Sasha, do you......" She throws me a container with some water left. I pinch his nose and pour water on his face, causing him to cough and jolt awake.
"That was very impractical" Mikasa comments seeming to have calmed down.
"Seemed pretty practical to me" I say helping Armin sit up.
"It's ok buddy we got you" the others get closer ready to support Armin. I can see he's awake however he just sits there, clearly bothered. I check his body to see if I can find any sounds but see none to bad.
"Armin, are you ok" he stands up somewhat pushing me off of him.
"I'm fine........can.....can someone just please take me to my room" Mikasa almost instantly volunteers. She grabs Armin and zips off leaving us there. Just then a thumping sound can be heard, I turn to see Eren Yeager stumbling trying to get a proper footing.
"Where's Armin? Is he ok?" He asks frantically sounding worried.
"Mikasa took him to the barracks" Sasha states. We all look on for a few moments before deciding to wrap up training for the day.

It's been a few hours since armin's gear malfunctioned, we turned it in for inspection a while after the event and returned to our barracks, I had just grabbed a snack from Sasha's room and was on my way back to my own quarters before Shadis noticed I wasn't there. As I made my way to my room I heard sobbing, it took a second to pinpoint the sound but after a few seconds of backtracking I realized it was coming from Armin's room. After a moments hesitation, thinking of what to say I knocked on the door, I heard a light gasp and the sound of a bed creaking before getting an answer.
"Who is it" I hear his somewhat raspy voice call out. He's been crying for a while I note to myself.
"Hey Armin it's just me" I hear him scrambling a bit before coming to the door, after a moment it slowly opens as I get a clear look at the golden haired boy, his eyes red from his tears, he looks up at me as gives me a weak smile.
"Hey Jada" he says his voice still a bit raspy.
"Do you mind if I come in" I ask leaning on the wall. He gives a slight nod before opening the door more. I walk inside taking time to admire the cleanness and organization of the room, 'jeez I wish my room looked like this, it's a mess in there' I take a minute to examine the different books noticing a few new ones since last I was here.
"Please sit" Armin's gentle voice calls to me.
I do so as we both take a seat on his bed, there is an awkward silence for a minute, I try to find the words but can't seem to. Finally he breaks the silence.
"I dont mean to sound rude and not that I don't enjoy your company but is there a reason you wanted to come here, it's pretty late and I'd rather not get yelled at by Shadis and have to run laps for the next few hours," he says. I manage to find the words I am looking for and speak up.
"I just wanted to check in on you, you've been pushing yourself a bit too hard these last few months and I think I speak for everyone when I say we don't want you getting hurt just to prove to us your strong" I say. He looks down, as if ashamed about something.
"I don't need your pity Jada" he says sounding defeated.
"What...that's not.....I wasn't.....I'm not trying to pity you, I'm worried about you, Armin your one of my closest friends, I just don't want to see you get yourself hurt," I say clarifying.
"Maybe I do need to be hurt, maybe then I won't be such a pathetic excuse for a soldier" he says spitefully but not towards me, but rather to himself.
"Whoa, your not pathetic, your one of the best of us here, you may not be the best physically but your one of if not the greatest mind here," I say trying to cheer him up
"That's what everyone says, im always just the brains, that's all I offer, I'm small, I'm weak, I'm slow, I'm a liability to everyone here. I see him begin to tear up a bit and before I can say anything he cuts me off
"I'm pathetic, all I ever do is mess things up and fail to perform even the simplist of tasks, as soon as physicality is brought into the mix I fall short on almost everything" he says visibly showing tears at this point. I think to myself as I realize I'll need a different approach. I think for a moment before a thought pops into my head.
"Give me a minute ok" I say less as a question and more as a statement. I rush out of the room and into my personal barracks and begin looking for an item, after a while I find it and rush back to Armin's room. I see him still crying so I plop down onto his bed and grab his attention. I hold up a book with a smile on my face.
"What is.....? Armin begins to question before I cut him off.
"This is one of my favorite books, it's about a woman who was cast out of her village because she had abilities which scared her village elders, eventually they tried to stage an attack on her home. Unfortunately her mother was killed I'm the attack, however her father, he took her while she was still young and fled, as the tried to run the father was struck down and killed by one of the village leaders. Before he could finish off the girl he look into her eyes, he realized that he couldn't take the life of a child, but he couldn't abandon his village, so he told her to leave, to go far away and never return. She survived on her own for years and years, learning many different skills and surviving through the toughest of challenges, the only thing keeping her going was one day returning to her village once she mastered her abilities, to show them that despite everything they put her through, despite what they thought of her, she was never going to betray the life her parents wanted for her, she was going to thrive with or without the village," I say giving a summary on the story. Armin's eyes light up for a moment as I hand him the book.
"And I want you to have it, whenever you feel weak or incapable, remember to stay true to yourself and your values, because at the end of the day, once we all succumb to our end that's all we'll really have left, yes the world may be a hard and difficult place but that doesn't mean that we don't stay true to ourselves" I put my hand on his shoulder as he begins to tear up again.
"Armin your an amazing soldier and an even better friend, don't sell yourself short just because you don't fit into a specific Category" I say pulling him into a hug as he quietly sobs.

"Stay true to yourself" I say to myself as I look amongst the people of Marley.
"Stay true to yourself"

A/N: NGL this was the first chapter in a while that was actually really easy to get through, I genuinely enjoyed writing this chapter, things in my life have been going pretty rocky lately so I thought it was important to put this message out there, no matter how much life throws at you, don't forget who you are and always stay true to yourself, don't worry I don't plan on taking any insanely long breaks so the next part should be out within the next few weeks. As of the time I'm writing this we've passed well over 5k views and I can't thank you enough for the support this story has gotten recently, I really love writing and to see that those reading are actually sticking with it makes me both proud and excited to continue, so thank you all for reading and thank you to those who have voted, make sure to take care of yourselves, drink lots of water, and surround yourselves with loved ones, tune in next time on Dragon Ball Titan