Indefinitely - Armin X Reader

Chapter 30 | In The Field

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Riding in the field

Tension filled the air and poisoned the sky the day of the mission. No one felt much like talking before we left - it was as if we didn't want to acknowledge the severity of the situation. It had been years since any one of us had set foot outside Wall Rose, and the prospect of throwing ourselves in to titan territory seemed like suicide. None of us ever wanted to see a titan ever again, yet here we were.

I was placed in a squad with just Armin, while everyone else was spread out throughout the long rang formation. I had to admit, Erwin Smith was a genius; this formation was a work of genius. Leaving the Wall, I called out to Jean and Reiner, who were the closest people I knew. 

"Stay safe guys!" I shouted to them.

"You as well!" Jean called back, and Reiner nodded. 

Armin and I stayed silent as we rode, both of us nervous. We had been spending a lot of time alone together lately, however we both didn't mention any of those times after they had occurred. Since the night we had arrived, it wasn't uncommon for him to make his way to my room after curfew had passed. We would lie together for a while, sometimes talking, sometimes in comfortable silence, but we would both fall asleep fairly quickly; something about Armin never failed to relax me, and it was safe to say I definitely got my best nights sleep with him by my side. In the mornings, usually it was me who woke up first, and I would have the task of rousing Armin and sending him back to his room before he got in trouble. 

Waking Armin up never failed to amuse me; he was definitely not a morning person. I wasn't either, but it seemed to take nearly 10 minutes for him to wake up properly, especially now that he was used to waking up beside me and all awkwardness was gone. In all his morning grogginess, he was never rude. If Sasha woke me up early she would be met with a kick in the stomach, however when I woke up Armin I would be met with a few muffled, incoherent grumbles and dreary eyes, but never an unkind word. After all those mornings however, it was never brought up after the fact by either of us. It wasn't like I was embarrassed of my actions, in fact I'd do it all again, but I didn't want to say anything to put Armin in an uncomfortable situation or make him feel awkward.

There had been no sign of titan's so far, everything going smoothly. Yet we still rode in silence. It was terrifying to know that at any moment we could be attacked. All we could do was rely of Erwin's plan. 

A sudden blast was heard, shattering the silence. I looked around and saw a red flare, signaling that a titan had been spotted. Armin quickly fitted a red flare in to his gun and fired it off in to the sky with another loud crack. 

"That's the first one." I muttered. 

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It felt like hours had passed with us riding in silence. There was a terror in the air that was contagious. Something felt not right. We had been told that titan's were often spotted on every mission, yet only one signal had been fired yet. 

"Something has to be wrong." I muttered sharply, and Armin nodded, face filled with dread. "It's too quiet."

A few moments passed before a loud crack sounded, and I saw black smoke staining the sky.

"An abnormal!" Armin gasped. 

As if on cue, a titan burst out of the forest to our left, walking with such weirdness that I had to laugh.