I'll Make You Bleed

Watch Your Back (Armin POV)

**written by: thesketchytepe** 

6:11 PM

"Ugh, what the hell."

Armin didn't know how long he'd been sitting there on the bedroom floor, trying to unzip an old black backpack of his from high school (it wasn't damaged nor too terribly worn out, so he decided to keep it for travelling and overnight events). The zipper kept getting caught in the rough fabric and his bony fingers shook too much to untangle it. So there he sat, his heart pumping, his hands shaking, his vision going blurry with suspicion and fear.

Annie eventually came over, crouched down, and undid the mess he created, swiftly and silently, just like with everything else she did. Armin huffed but thanked her. She stood back up and paused before brushing the back of her finger across his cheekbone and tucking a strand of hair behind his ear, her attempt at comforting him. She walked away and he wished she hadn't.

"You okay?" he heard her mumble as she shrugged into an oversized hoodie. It wasn't a question; she knew that he wasn't and this was her way of opening up this can of worms.

He got up from the floor and opened the closet beside him. He threw a pair of jeans and two shirts in the backpack, not really paying attention to what exactly he was throwing in there.

"I don't feel great about this whole idea," he muttered into the closet, his vision going blurry again. He thought about Eren and the past year, everything that happened, everything he saw and felt. What was etched into the back of his mind like an ancient cave drawing, however, was that cardboard box he found underneath Eren's bed. He remembered fishing through it and feeling a sense of dread wash over him as if a bucket of icy cold water poured over his head. It was so horrible; he never felt anything like it before.

"We don't have to go, you know," Annie said matter-of-factly. "If you're this worried about it—"

"No."

He looked back at her. She was standing by the window with her arms crossed and her weight balanced on one foot. It was clear that she was set to drop everything and forget that text Eren sent out in the group chat and, as much as Armin wanted to do the same thing, he couldn't bring himself to.

"We have to go. We just have to."

He set his backpack on the bed and zipped it back up (which worked the first time around). "You think something's gonna happen?" Annie prompted. Again, she knew Armin's skepticisms; she wanted him to say it aloud as if the situation at hand would become more real if he did that.

"I don't think this friendly little gathering is going to turn up well."

And then it worked. Saying his worries aloud made them real, accurate, a good reason to panic. With wide eyes, he stared into space and muttered under his breath, "I think Eren might do something. I think Mikasa won't stop him—she knows it's wrong, but she's too blind to see another way. I think if we don't go, something will go terribly wrong. We have to go."

His eyes shot up toward Annie's, but instead of seeing her sky-blue orbs, he saw that box underneath Eren's bed.

He hurried toward her and grabbed her shoulders. "You have to stay right next to me the entire time," he said in a low panic as if Eren himself were in the room. "Alright? You don't go too far without me by your side."

It was moments like this when Annie was vastly different from Mikasa. They were similar in many ways: they were expressionless most of the time, physically capable of bringing down men twice their size, they didn't speak often, they didn't really care for authority. But Mikasa would bend over backwards to please Eren and Armin. On the rare occasion when Armin told Annie to do or not do something without him nearby, she got pissed and usually deliberately disobeyed him. She hated being told what to do and, if she thought he deserved it, would let Armin suffer the consequences of his own actions. Maybe that was why he first became attracted to her—Mikasa was his friend, but she was also a suffocator. Annie gave him so much freedom and space that he didn't know what to do with all of it.