Soft Pastels (Armin X Reader)

Counting Sheep

I looked Armin in the eye. We stared at each other while I pondered what I would say. Armin had completely rattled me with his question. He was always the type to be completely flustered by these things, and if forced to ask these questions, blushes profusely with his big blue eyes darting every which way.

"Armi-" "It's only because you look cold!", Armin quickly interrupted. "There he goes with the blushing. I guess he was a little delayed.", I thought to myself. I gave him a small smile. He was just so adorable sometimes. "Sure Armin." He gave me a smile that showed he was half glad, and half relieved.

I stood up, and dragged my blanket to the couch Armin was sleeping on. He moved over to make space for me, and made sure that he could put as much distance as he could between us. I lied down on the spot he had reserved for me, and wrapped my blanket around me in a way a chrysalis would look.

Armin had scooted as far away from me as he could, and had turned to face the other direction, with no doubt that he had turned a nice shade of ruby red. I smile to myself. He was such a fragile boy. The smallest things could rattle him completely. I on the other hand, was never really shaken by a lot of things. I was always the 'expect the unexpected' type, which was most likely because of my parents.

I turned towards him. "Armin, what's wrong?", I asked. A little teasing won't hurt. "Nothing. Nothing at all. You thought something was wrong? Nope. Just fine!", he said shakily. I laughed to myself and gave a sympathetic smile. "Armin there's no need to be so nervous. We're just sleeping in the same spot. Nothing serious.", I said in a sympathetic tone.

He turned his head to look at me from behind. "Y/N, may I ask you a question?", he asked. "Of course." He turned all the way around to face me. "What do you think will happen to us once I join the army?" Oh. Right. I had completely forgotten about that.

Ever since Eren had sworn to join the army once he turned fifteen, both Armin and Mikasa promised to go with him. I didn't blame them. Mikasa had always been extremely protective of Eren, and Eren had always stood up for Armin when they were kids.

"Well", I spoke slowly. "I'll be here waiting for you. It's not like you'll be very far. Half of your training happens in town." The people that train to become soldiers did all their basic training on specified grounds, then move on to learning how to do the real thing. The way they do that is just by using their maneuver gear around the city and patrolling. Once Armin is able to do that, I'll get to see him almost all the time.

Armin's look softened. "Right, of course.", he said, a hint if relief in his tone. "I really hope I'll do well.", he said. That's exactly what concerned me the most. There was no doubt that I believed in Armin with all of my heart, but honestly, he was pretty fragile. I'm afraid that the brutality of the military might just snap him in half, mentally and physically. I want him to pursue his beliefs and goals, but I'm afraid for his well-being too.

"I'm sure you'll be great.", I tell him with a smile. "Well I guess we should really get to sleep now, huh?", said Armin. I look at the clock. Ten past twelve? Jeez, I hadn't even realized.

"Well, goodnight Y/N."

"Goodnight Armin."

And with that, we slowly fell asleep.

~Oh my gosh! I didn't think anyone would actually read this story! Thank you all so much! As you may have been able to tell, I've been trying to set up a regular update schedule. I'll attempt to update every weekend. And if you're wondering, It should only be a chapter or two before we dive into the main plot of the story :D Again thank you sooo much, and happy reading!!!~