AoT/SnK~Preferences/Oneshots

Armin ~ Injured

Armin hoisted Y/N up a bit further as he brought her to a wagon.  Her arms had been draped loosely around his neck, blood dripped from her forehead and there was a large bruise on her ribcage.  The only thing that kept him from breaking down was the sound of her breath, shaky yet soft. He knew he had to stay strong for her, yet tears streamed down his cheeks as he placed her on the wooden wagon and climbed on next to her.  They had to go back to headquarters, a command from Levi himself. Armin didn't really mind, he would have rathered Y/N be off the battlefield anyhow.  
     He held her hand from the moment the wagon started moving to when it came to a stop.  There were a few seconds where her chest had ceased to rise and fall. He had grabbed her shoulders and leaned down to her chest, placing his ear above her heart.  Tears welled up in his eyes as he realized what was happening. She then let out a sigh, and began to breathe again. He held back his sobs and wiped at his face, squeezing her hand tighter than before and asking her to hold on just a little longer.  At HQ, he carried her into the infirmary and laid her down on a cot.  
     "Cadet," the head of the infirmary called to Armin. He turned to face her, there was blood on her blue apron, none of it her own. "We have too many injured coming in and not enough manpower, you can wrap this one up yourself or else we can leave her."
     "Yes, ma'am," he said with a nod, knowing full well there was no chance he'd leave her.  The infirmary had more than enough rooms to accommodate the extreme losses felt by the survey corps, but not like this.  
     Armin then turned back to Y/N, whose head wound still bled.  He got a cloth and wet it, then sat down beside her and gently cleaned her forehead.  Despite the thought being odd, he couldn't help but notice how peaceful she looked. Her eyes closed, breathing softly, even though she had been terribly injured.  That really represented the scouts as a whole. As if up until the point of injury, they had been preparing to die. As if this was expected. But Armin would not let Y/N die.  Once her forehead was clean, he sat her up and bandaged her head. She slumped over his shoulder as he tied the knot in the back, and for a second he didn't want to move from that spot.  He knew he had to, to remove her harnesses and make sure her bruise hadn't been punctured. So he slowly unfastened the straps that were used to hold their gear and placed them on a table across the room.  Then, feeling slightly guilty for her not being awake, he unbuttoned the bottom buttons of her shirt and checked her bruise. It hadn't broken the skin, but it was nasty to say the least. Blues and purples and blacks spread from the bottom of her breast to her waist.  The most he could do for it was wrap it, so he did.

When Y/N woke up, she noticed that the pain had subsided, at least a bit.  She also noticed that she was alone. Who had brought her here? She remembered a tight grip on her hand as she teetered between consciousness and death.  And a voice. She knew.
     "Oh, you're awake!" Armin said as he passed by the door.  "I'm sorry I wasn't here, the head of the infirmary had me help her out a bit."
     "What happened?" She asked as Armin walked in and sat on the bench beside her.
     "Well, one of the titans, when it hit the ground, its hand made an impact with your side and sent you flying."
     "Oh," she said lamely.  She wondered if Armin had fixed her up, and decided she didn't mind if he did.  However, she could not find the words to say to him. Her mind ran a mile a minute, which left him sitting a bit awkwardly beside her.  He took this as his cue to leave. He stood and said he'd go see if the head of the infirmary needed anything else.

     "Wait," Y/N said as he approached the door.  He looked back to her.
     "Can you stay?"
     She pulled at the left side of her blanket, silently asking him to sit beside her.  He felt his heart skip a beat and he nodded, slightly flustered. He carefully sat on her left side, avoiding her bruise.  She had no idea what she was doing, or why she was doing it. All she knew was that it felt right. She propped up the pillows behind Armin's back, so he sat nearly upright, then lowered herself a bit and leaned her head onto his chest.  His arm found it's way around her shoulders, and even though he found that his stomach was in knots, he dared not move.
     "What's the ocean like?" She asked, always having heard him reference it but never quite knowing what it was.  She just liked to hear the sound of his voice anyway, which was especially soothing when quiet.  
     "Well, I've never been there," he said.  "But I've read a lot about it from an old book I found, it belonged to my grandpa," his voice wavered a bit, and he took a second to calm himself.  
     "It's massive.  So big, it covers most of the world.  And it's full of salt, so much that merchants could spend their whole lives trying to collect it all and still would hardly make a difference."  He continued to tell her of the sea, what else he wondered about it, and after a while he was not nervous anymore. She smiled as she listened to him speak, every so often cracking a joke.  Truth be told, she was almost as fascinated by the outside world as he was, at least after being told of the wonders that await them.
     "And you're going to see it one day? The ocean?" She asked, her voice quiet as she began to drift.
     "I mean, I hope so… but I don't want to experience it by myself.  I want others to share the experience with, Eren, Mikasa, You," Armin glanced down at Y/N, who had placed a hand on his chest.
     "Really?" She asked, a slight smile on her face as her eyes closed.
     "Of course.  I want all the people I love to- I mean, um-" Armin's face turned a shade of pink, although she could not see it.  She cut him off:

     "I love you, too."

     She fell asleep.  And Armin could not.  He couldn't sleep, and he couldn't keep himself from smiling every time he thought of her tired face mumbling those words to him.  He rested his cheek against her head and leaned deeper into the pillows, careful of her injuries the whole time. Then, for the few hours that she slept, he pondered everything, anything he could think of.  He dozed every so often, waking up twenty minutes or half an hour later, then thought some more. She didn't move much in her sleep, although when she was dreaming she would sometimes clutch onto his shirt. He placed his hand on hers, and she seemed to relax.
     When Y/N woke up, it was nearing midnight.  It had been during one of the short intervals where Armin was dozing.  She lifted her head from his chest to look at him and his eyes fluttered open.  
     "Hey," he whispered, "how are you feeling?"
     "Alright, I think," she said in a voice equally as quiet as his.  He sat up a bit, looked around, and started to get out of bed.
     "I'm just going to light a lamp," he said, pushing the blanket aside and walking over to the lamp that sat on a table across the room.  He found a book of matches in the drawer, lit the lamp, and brought it over to the table beside the cot. It lit the room in a flickering orange-yellow light, and somehow made her even more beautiful.  He sat down at the edge of the bed, beside her, and took a moment to observe her beauty in the dim light.  
     "About what I said earlier…" she started, still unable to meet his gaze.
     "It's okay, you don't have to apologize," he said with a smile, even though it hurt to do so.  She looked up at him, eyes wide.
     "No," she said, "That's not it at all... I meant it."
     Armin's expression softened, "I meant it, too."

     She leaned forward, stopping just before their lips met to make sure he wouldn't push away.  When he didn't, she kissed him. At first it was relatively still. Then, after they both pulled away, their lips crashed together again, as neither wanted this moment to end.  Armin placed his hand on the side of her neck, his thumb resting on her jawline. Their lips moved together, and they only broke away once they were satisfied. Then Armin got back into bed beside her, and they talked of the ocean until they both fell asleep.