In Love With A Monster (Armin X Annie)

~Chapter Eight~

When Annie finally woke up, she felt better than she had in weeks. She opened her eyes expecting to be greeted by the same sight of the cold, bricked up walls of the castle but instead felt herself within warm sheets and a cosy bedroom. When she finally came to, she began to panic and got out of the bed quickly as she could but her legs immediately crumbled under her and she fell to the ground. Her legs couldn't handle the sudden weight after being rested for days were still recovering. She tried to find something, anything at all to protect herself with because god knows where she was and who was with her. The last thing she could vaguely remember was being with Armin, having just eaten that potato he gave her and then after that it was all just flashes that could've been split moments of consciousness or dreams. Her worst fear was that Armin had betrayed her and returned her back to the scouts, that she would be tortured into answering their questions or simply executed for endangering humanity and trying to capture Eren.

The door to the room opened and Annie could be found cowering in the corner of the room. The only thing she could find to defend herself was a wooden chair. Using the wall behind her, she pulled her self to her feet and held the the chair outwards so if anyone tried to get close she could drive the legs into them to keep them away. Luckily it was only Armin that walked into the room, he didn't look scared or distressed that she was ready to lob a chair at him but instead his face was filled with pure joy and surprise at finally seeing at her well and conscious. Annie wasn't as happy to see him though — Armin predicted she wouldn't be — he'd never seen her in such a state of mixed fear and anger like this before.

"Where the hell am I!" She yelled out at him, he kept his distance from her to assure her she wasn't in any danger.

"You're in a small village, I didn't take you back to the scouts." He began to advance towards her slowly. "You've been out for days, Annie. You were very sick, you need to get back into bed. You're still not fully recovered."

Annie didn't listen, she didn't want to cooperate till her questions were answered and she knew for definite that she was safe. "Where's my ring?" It was one of the first things she noticed when she woke up, she had forgotten that she had left it in the book before she got ill.

Armin pulled the silver ring out of his pocket and sat it on the edge of the bed. "I kept it so you wouldn't leave before I saw you. I'm sorry, I just had to." He was calm and he trusted that she wouldn't try to hurt him or that she would instantly transform now that she had her ring back.

Annie dropped the chair and moved to sit on the bed to retrieve her ring. She held it in her hand and inspected it to make sure it was the real thing, which surely enough it was. Annie felt Armin sit down beside her on the bed.

"Why didn't you leave?" He asked, filling the silent air.

After all Armin had done for her, he had saved her life more than once and proved himself more than enough that she could trust him. She knew after all that, she could give him an answer or two.

Annie sighed, "I wasn't strong enough to transform when I broke out of the crystal and I thought I'd get stronger if I just waited but all I did was become weaker. All I had to eat was cans of disgusting, rotten food that some bandits had left behind in the castle. I could barely sleep because of how cold and hard the ground I had to sleep on. Surely enough after a couple of weeks I was beginning to run out of food, I began to starve and I thought I was about to go crazy. Then I got sick. But I could ask you the same question Armin." She took her eyes off of her ring and onto him, he was still here with her, he said she had been out for days and yet he never left. "Why didn't you leave, someone ought to be missing you in the scouts."

"I've been going back and forth the whole time. I-I also didn't change you or bathe you, in case you were worried about that... but, it wasn't me!!" Armin became a blushing mess, stuttering his words.