In Love With A Monster (Armin X Annie)

~Chapter Nine~

// I apologise in advanced, this chapter is long.

Days turned into weeks and Armin still continued to visit Annie as often as he could, they'd usually see one another three times a week and sometimes it would only be two. Regardless, Armin always made a stern point to Commander Erwin that his 'Volunteer Work' was extremely important and tried as often as he could to leave the scouts when he didn't have important work. During this time, Annie had settled in to the small village and had even begun to contribute. The village was very good for farming, she was taught by the locals how to tend to the crops and help out with the animals too. She had fit in nicely and was greatly appreciated by the others for all her hard work and for the first time in years she finally felt at peace. Annie's regular days would usually consist of early mornings where she'd still train hand to hand combat and then get on with her work, she didn't mind the hard work and sleepy mornings however because with every passing day Annie reminded herself that Armins visits came closer and closer. He would only ever come for a day at a time but he would always make the most of it, leaving the scouts as soon as he saw the sun rise. When he came to visit, he'd usually help Annie finish her daily tasks and would always make an effort to interact with the others around the village, everyone enjoyed when he came to visit, especially the children. Annie would watch in awe as the young ones would rush up to Armin, yelling his name when they saw he had arrived. Every time he saw them, he would tell them tales of the outside world, about the sea, he would read fairy tails to them and recite stories he had memorised. Annie and Armin would cook dinner together in the evening, once they were finished with chores. They only had what was grown in the village, which wasn't much more than vegetables and sometimes only a mere scrap of meat but they always made do with what they had and they never once complained. Neither of them would admit it, in fear the other didn't feel the same, but this was the only thing they both looked forward to during the long tireless weeks. Armin would bring Annie books he had taken from the library and she would always finish them within the week he had given them to her. She finished so many books they were beginning to pile up, except for the one book Armin read to her when she was crystallised, she saved it and waited till they were able to read it together again. Leaving was still hard for Armin, multiple times he received sanctions when returning to HQ because he has decided to stay with Annie for multiple hours past sundown. He didn't mind the punishments much though because to him, every second he spent with Annie was worth it.

However something was different about this week. It had been a while since Annie had seen him, almost a week had passed since Armin's last visit. She didn't think too much into it, she thought that missions had properly begun again and that it may be a while till they saw each other. Armin did warn her of that possibility.

It was late evening, Annie was making dinner for herself, the usual vegetable soup. The day had been very slow and she didn't have any chores to complete, so all she did was laze around and read book after book, re-reading some of her older ones and finishing the newer ones. While cutting the food, Annie took notice to the silver ring that she still had on her finger. She hadn't acknowledged it much since Armin gave it back to her and she never really wanted to. During the past few weeks, Annie tried not to think about her uncompleted mission. She was still torn between continuing or abandoning it. Annie enjoyed her life in this village, she liked how she felt included, she felt needed and not in a way where she was expected to harm anyone. No one here knew about her past or about her secret and she liked that she could pretend it never happened — if only for a short while. Annie would find herself filling her day up with chores to distract herself from the decision and tried to forget about it for as long as possible, she would always remember though.

Annie heard the door to the house opening and assumed that it was Rosemary coming to check up on her or deliver more food for her dinner, as she usually did. Annie called her name out and told her to leave the food on the table but the realisation sunk in quickly that it wasn't her when Annie heard the footsteps of loud leather boots treading on the floor. Annie turned towards the door and saw Armin just standing there. He wasn't looking at her, he wasn't looking anywhere but the ground, Annie couldn't even see his face. He didn't say anything either, which was unlike him, he was usually the first to speak, yelling her name as soon as he came through the door.