Falling Inward | armin x titan charmer!reader

✵ Oh, How the Years Go By

Your Perspective |

Four years.

1460 days.

That's how long it had been since the gate to district Rose had slammed shut, trapping you and many others inside a titan-infested territory. You've grown to be seventeen years old, never seeing another human soul for over one-thousand days; it's been so long that you're no longer sure how you would react, if you were to see one. You shook your head clear of the thoughts as you whirled around mid-air, slashing your blades into a titan's neck with deadly accuracy.

"Twenty-two."

You hummed as the body toppled to the ground, gracefully landing on the gutter of a nearby building that you had dubbed 'the no-zone'. You were at an all record high with the amount of titans you had slayed in one day; the poor fellow behind you was kill number twenty-two. You scooped a stray piece of glass from the tiles that laid in disarray, holding the glimmering shard up to the sun before slipping it into your pocket and taking off through the sky once more, rolling your neck as you mounted wall Maria.

"Home sweet home."

You muttered, ducking into a rag-tag tent that wasn't quite straight, sewn together from various loose scraps of fabric that you had acquired over the years. The lean-to shelter was staked down with various metal shards you had ground into the stone, keeping the tent secure even on the windiest of days. A partially-crushed tray of dirt stood attention-starved at the foot of your 'camp', harboring a budding tomato plant, pea plant, eggplant, and the rather strange addition of a potato spud within the confines of its soil. A half-empty canteen of water lay discarded by the make-shift garden, it's oily leather skin covering up the metal container that was re-filled every couple of days- quite the feat, you may add- you had been able to get water from the well twice a week without getting eaten (well, so far). Several pairs of clothing hung limp from a string that bowed downwards in the middle, an unbelievably small bar of soap held in a small dish underneath; you washed 'your' clothes only when they were indistinguishable from the blood and dirt that coated them.  You emerged from the flaps of your tent with a small weather-worn notebook- you had risked your life for that book, and you didn't regret in the slightest. 

It had been (B/N)'s old sketchbook, back in the day.

"Hey mom, dad, (B/N)." you whispered as you sat cross-legged upon the stone, flipping through the numerous pictures hastily taped to the pages, "I miss you guys." You weren't aware of the tears falling from your cheeks until the faint circular splotches appeared on the well-worn pages, and you roughly dragged a dirtied sleeve across your face to wipe them away. "No. Get yourself together, (Y/N)." You scolded yourself as took a deep breath, "There's no place for soft people, in this world." You tucked the notebook away in your shelter, taking care to wrap it safely in a tattered blanket. You moved to the edge of the wall, plopping down on the hard cornered edge and dangling your feet over empty air, leaning back on the palms of your hands.

You had never found the titan that killed your entire family.

You had searched for days, months, years; valiantly and never giving up hope, but it was as if the monster had vanished off the face of the earth. "I wonder if everyone thinks I am dead?" You mused aloud to the wind, who offered no response, "No one has even bothered to come looking for survivors; everyone they left to die is, well, supposed to be dead- but do you think the thought of survivors ever even crossed their mind?" The breeze echoed through the ruins of the town beyond, and you let your gaze drop to the group of titans gathered around the base of the wall, no doubt waiting for you to fall. The air whipped your (H/L)(H/C) hair around your face, almost as if it were a halo, and you allowed yourself a rare smile. It was a near perfect day, with a bright blue sky and a shining sunlight that chased away the clouds- even the breeze was on your side, carrying away the stench of death and bringing with it the aroma of the forest.

"I wish you guys were here." 

You whispered, tracing patterns in the dust that clung to the wall. You often wondered what life was like on the other side of wall Rose, so far off in the distance. Could a life of no worries and mere laughter still exist? Was there ever a day that passed without the fear of killing titans looming over your head? You jerked yourself back to reality as you sighed, reprimanding yourself sternly. "That's enough of that," You stated, "They have their jobs and I have mine."

Killing titans.

That was your sole purpose, your one job in this solitary and hopeless life- to exterminate as many titans as you possibly could, and train yourself to get better at it with each passing day. It was true, the notion that you had gotten better- ever since you had been stuck here, you had practiced, you had trained. Putting 3DMG on in under ten seconds was no challenge at all, not anymore, and you were skilled at committing chain-kills, ending several titans in a row. You closed your eyes as you let out an exasperating breath, letting your head fall backwards to rest upon your shoulders; you were about to retreat back into the safety of your tent when your eyes fluttered open as a distant sound carried over the desolate landscape, a sound so rare, so foreign, that it had been over four years since you had last heard it-

people.

✞

 editing is underway, 967 words.

          xo barry