|𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠e𝐥𝐲 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞| ᵃʳᵐⁱⁿ ᵃˡᵉʳᵗ

|10| To Love and To Vanish

*Warnings: Language*

-PARADIS, TROST HQ-

"Do you have heart?!" a man yelled in front of the large crowd of cadets.

"Sir!" they all yelled back in unison, saluting.

"As of this moment you will have three options open to you!" he continued. "Choose wisely." The man continued to go through each of the three regiments. "All of the cadets eligible for becoming an MP have been have already been named! Everyone take a look, these are the top of your class!"

At the front stood: Mikasa, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Y/n, Eren, Jean, Marco, Connie and Sasha. Krista was eleventh and Armin was in twelfth, both of them just missing the top 10. Y/n didn't particularly care that she got into the top 10, not like it mattered to her anyway. She wasn't planning on joining the MP's.

-Dinner-

That night, there was a big feast inside of HQ. Good food and actual meat was given instead of bread and soup that barely looked like soup. Eren started to loudly go on about how he was going to give up his spot as an MP and go into The Scouts to kill all the titans. Thomas Wagner wasn't happy and spoke up, saying that this was their life now and that there was nothing they could do about it.

Y/n felt more guilt pile on top of her. If only they knew that there is so much more than just this and titans beyond those walls. It wasn't even directly her fault, but she knew, and that's the part that got to her. Annie knew, Bertholdt knew, Reiner knew, and they weren't going to say anything. They didn't want too. But Y/n also knew that they must've felt the same guilt as her, that had to. There's no way they don't feel anything for these people, especially Reiner and Bertholdt, they started most of this. They have to feel bad.

Though, Eren wasn't phased by Thomas's comment. He was determined to fight for humanities future, to take back the walls and leave the walls behind for good. He was fighting for something that Y/n had fought for, for a long time, freedom. Eren paused as he realised all the eyes in the room were on him. This caused him to bolt out of the hall, Mikasa and Armin running after him, Armin dragging Y/n with him by her arm.

"That was quite the speech you gave us back there," Armin said as they approached Eren sitting on a large stone staircase.

"Yeah, most of it was yours, all that stuff you used to say back in the day," Eren told them.

"Yeah well, I'm joining The Scout Regiment too," Armin stated proudly. He and Y/n had talked about him joining and how he hadn't told Eren or Mikasa yet. She gave him a quick nudge and a smile, letting him know she was proud of him for saying so. Armin acknowledged this by nudging her back and giving her a small smile before Eren said anything.

"Now you're just being stupid, you're not a fighter, your life is with books!" Eren protested. Y/n felt this odd protective feeling go over her, like she wanted to defend Armin with everything she had, but she stopped herself.

"I'm through with letting other people fight for me," Armin snapped back.

"I guess it's The Scouts for me too then," Mikasa said as Eren turned to face her with a frustrated expression.

"Oh come on! You're the top of your class, you'd be wasting you shot!" Eren protested again to her.

"Understand this, Eren-" Mikasa began -"where you go I go. I made a promise to your mother before she died. I'm not letting you die, I've got your back whether you like it or not. So just deal with it."

"Yeah well, my mother's not here," Eren muttered, turning his head away.

"There's people that I cared about that aren't here either," Mikasa told him. Everyone paused for a moment, just taking in what had happened, what was said. Y/n turned to Armin, who was already looking at her. He smiled, and she smiled back, it was simple human interaction, but there was so much more meaning behind it. She felt his fingers move to the side of her gloved hand, though they didn't move any further from there. Y/n didn't mind, neither did Armin. But he was scared, maybe because he didn't want to get embarrassed and have Y/n reject his hand or worse, his feelings.