IN WHICH ARAMINTA IS STUCK!
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ARMS TONITE  ∕  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

         ARAMINTA'S MIND HADN'T HAD A SINGLE MOMENT of peace since the days following the expedition. The Female Titan was strongly believed to be their own Annie Leonhart, a conclusion that caused her to become physically nauseous. The sight of bodies rolling off carts and being squashed under fat Titan feet was still haunting her as well. But, the event that occupied her thoughts most of all was Eren Jaeger's confession.

Even now, as she sat within this little building with the rest of the Scouts that had come from the 104th class, his words were all she could think about. You're pretty. I love your laugh. I have feelings for you. She still hadn't seen him since that conversation, which worked in her favor since she still had no idea what to do next. The pressure to figure something out hung over her like a dark cloud, causing her breath to hitch in the back of her throat every time she was reminded of it's presence.

So, when Reiner appeared out of nowhere and sat down next to her, she hadn't even noticed, too lost in her own mind. As soon as she did notice his presence, however, she nearly fell off the bench she was seated on. Oh, God. Reiner. He was the last person on Earth she'd wanted to see right then. Not because he'd done anything necessarily wrong, but with Eren's little confession sitting in the back of her brain consuming all her thoughts, the second Reiner came into the picture her brain was threatening to explode, too many thoughts and feelings for her head to contain.

It all felt so stupid. They were sitting in the middle of nowhere while Eren, Armin, Mikasa and Jean helped take down the Female Titan, (which, by the way, she'd hadn't had time to process the fact that she was probably actually Annie), and the only thing she had done for the last twenty four hours think about was her love life, of all things. Did she really have time to be thinking about this? No, she had a mission. And also a tall, blond problem next to her whose eyes were burning holes into her head.

She should probably address that.

"Hi..." She said slowly.

"Hey." He responded with a huff. "It's crazy, isn't it? Annie? I still can't believe we didn't see it coming."

Araminta frowned, and nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I mean, I guess I can understand how we didn't catch it. She really made us believe she was our friend, you know? We trained together, we laughed together, we ate together... I never thought it'd be one of our own." She paused and glanced up at Reiner, who was looking down at her with wide eyes.

"Oh, yeah. I-I guess that makes sense. I guess I never knew Annie that well, we weren't super close." He shrugged, looking down at the table.

Not super close..? Araminta furrowed her eyebrows, recalling several times she saw Reiner and Annie whispering in the corner of the room during dinner, but honestly that could have been anything. After all, she'd whispered quietly to Mikasa a couple of times in the corner to get training tips, but she'd never considered herself close to her.

"It's hard to believe any of us would betray humanity." She spoke up, brushing his previous comment aside. "We've all gotten so close over the years. Sometimes I think of us as... Like..."

"A family?" Reiner cut in.

Family? No.

No, the relationship she'd had with her family was nothing like the relationship she had with the 104th cadets. Right? At least that was what she thought.

"Ah, I don't know..." Araminta reached up to rub her forearm, tucking her bottom lip between her teeth. "You think Eren can defeat her?" She attempted to change the subject, a sour taste surfacing in her mouth.

"I don't know. He kinda got his ass kicked in the forest, but I think once they confirm it's Annie, he might be able to use that to his advantage and stand a chance."

"That makes sense... God, I hope he can defeat her. She was probably one of the scariest Titans I've ever seen." Araminta shivered at the memory of her piercing blue eyes, and the horrifying screams she let out that echoed in the forest.

"Really? More scary than the Armored and Colossal Titans?" Reiner scoffed, rolling his eyes.

Araminta shrugged. "Maybe. I mean, those guys are scary in their abilities, but something about the way she thinks and her cunningness makes her so much scarier."

"I don't know about that. The Armored Titan seemed pretty smart, I know I was scared for my life when he appeared." Reiner pressed.

Araminta eyed him suspiciously, why was he getting so defensive over a Titan? But, he'd probably had some very specific trauma with the Armored Titan when it passed by his village or whatever, which made it seem much scarier to him, right? If Araminta ever saw the ugly Titan that had squished her sister like a grape between his giant teeth again, she'd probably be much more scared of that than the Female Titan.

"They're all scary, I suppose." She sighed, leaning on her arm. "We can't let ourselves be scared of them, though. When we do, that's when we freeze, and we screw up. I remember one of the first times we were training with the big cutouts in the forest, I had flashbacks to the time I saw real Titans, and wiped out." Araminta chuckled softly at the memory, which was almost a little bit embarrassing to relive.

"Oh, is that why you wiped out? I always wondered what happened, since you're usually one of the best of us." Reiner spoke, his words causing blood to rush to Araminta's cheeks.

"I wouldn't say one of the best--"

"But you are. There's a reason you made it into the top ten, y'know." He reached up and nudged her shoulder, his touch lighting her skin on fire.

"Haha, yeah, I guess so!" She talked quickly, the words tumbling out of her mouth. She was so incredibly flustered, she was sure if he didn't get up and leave in two seconds, she was going to spontaneously combust into flames. But luckily, she was saved before that could happen.

"'Minta!" Sasha appeared out of thin air, sitting down on the bench besides Araminta and wrapping her arms tightly around her. Araminta huffed out a breath of relief and looked up at Reiner, who was smiling at Sasha's arrival. "Oh, hey, Reiner! I'm so bored, aren't you? And so hungry. Oh my God, I'm so hungry, you guys don't even understand." She groaned, leaning back so she was nearly hanging off the bench.

"Didn't you just eat an hour ago?" Reiner asked, narrowing his eyes together.

"That was too long ago!" Sasha retorted, while Araminta mouthed her words in sync. Her response was all too predictable. Reiner chuckled, to which Sasha narrowed her eyes. "You think it's funny, Reiner? I'm literally starving! Dying!"

"Yeah, I'm sure you are." He replied with an amused smile on his lips. "I'm gonna go talk to Bertholdt, I'll talk to you later, alright?" He stood up and waved to the two of them.

Araminta returned the wave, while Sasha simply scoffed. "Wow! I confide in you, and you just leave me to starve?! I can't believe you!" She yelled, earning the attention of everyone in the room. Luckily, this was just typical Sasha behavior, so they all shrugged it off. She heaved a sigh and turned to Araminta, chewing the inside of her cheek. "He is so rude."

"Our horses are out there, you can go eat one of those if you're hungry." Araminta teased. "There's also grass if you'd rather be a horse. Like Jean."

"Shut up." Sasha grumbled. "You were so red when I came over, what the heck did he say to make you look like that?" She asked in a taunting tone, the corners of her lips quirked upwards.

The blush made its return. "Oh, uh, he just complimented me on something. It's stupid." Araminta fought the urge to bury her face in her hands, curl up into a ball and roll off the bench.

Sasha giggled. "Oh-ho-ho, he complimented you? Oh, I assumed he had gotten down on one knee and proposed based on how bad you were blushing."

"Shut up, Sasha." Araminta grumbled through her clenched teeth, glancing over at the boy in question. "You should know, I finally decided that I don't have time to worry about boys. I am a soldier, and soldiers don't have time to stress over their love life." She said matter of factly, tearing her eyes away from the blond in a dramatic fashion.

"Boys? As in boys plural?" Sasha gasped, placing her hand over her chest dramatically. "Elaborate, please?"

"I--No! I just told you! I am done with them, and that includes elaborating on them!" Araminta snapped, folding her arms across her chest. "I'm a soldier!" She repeated, affirming the words. And to be honest, it was more for herself than it was for Sasha.

"You can be both, you know." Sasha shrugged, and pulled her knee up to close her chest. "You can be a soldier, but you can also be a girl."

Hmm, could she really? In the midst of fighting Titans and learning about the creatures and trying to be the best soldier she could be, could she really be both? Surely not. It's like being afraid of Titans, if she let her emotions overtake her, she would get end up getting hurt. And she didn't have time to get hurt. So she shook her head, amber eyes dancing around the room.

"No, I don't think I can." She responded, her gaze then falling on the door. "I'm going to go catch some air. I'll be back in a couple of minutes." She stood up, ignoring the sad look she knew Sasha was wearing, and left the small room. Technically, she wasn't supposed to be out, but as long as no one saw, it wasn't a bug deal, right?

The air was cool against her skin, the sensation causing goosebumps to sprout up on the back of her neck. It was a bit windy out, the gentle breeze coursing it's way through her hair. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and allowing the fresh air sit in her lungs for a moment before exhaling and letting it go.After spending the last two hours cooped up in the small cottage, the fresh air was beyond refreshing.

After a few minutes like that, relishing in the serenity, she finally forced her eyes open, gazing at the scenery in front of her. If she was any good at painting, this would be the perfect place to use as a reference point. But, since she wasn't a painter, it seemed all she would be able to do would be to capture the view with her sight and burn the image into her brain to recall later.

There was a small patch of wildflowers nestled besides a tree, and she could see there were a few she didn't recognize. It would be risky to go over, since one of the Scouts might see her, but she was overwhelmed by curiosity. So, she stepped forward, pulling her cardigan tight around her arms to keep the breeze from making her any more chilly. She knelt down, gently running her fingers against the different flowers, tilting her head to see the different angles.

There was one with loads of bunches of tiny little white blossoms, spreading from the center stem in small bursts. She picked one out of the ground, lifting it up to her noses and surprised to get whiffs of what smelled like... Carrots. Hm, she'd never smelt a flower like that before. It was a pretty little flower, and although the smell wasn't mind blowing, she did quite like the look of it. So, she decided to keep it, tucking it into the pocket of her long skirt.

She did that for several minutes, examining the flowers and smelling each of them, pocketing the ones she liked--which actually turned out to be all of them. Honestly, she'd been neglecting her quest to find the perfect flower, which Marina would be very disappointed in. This seemed like a good place to find some new flowers to test out. Her favorite as of late was the orange hyacinths she'd encountered while on a training mission a couple of years prior, but it still wasn't a perfect flower in her opinion.

There was still lots of searching for her to do--and not just for a flower.

AS TWO HOURS TURNED INTO FOUR HOURS, Araminta was sure she was about to die of boredom. There was no word from Commander Erwin yet, which meant they were to continue to stay put. The day was dragging on, and there was quite literally nothing to do. There was a chess board, but Reiner and Bertholdt has been hogging it most the day. At some point Araminta had thought maybe punching the wall repeatedly would be more fun, but then she was sad to remember her sprained wrist wouldn't be the biggest fan of that activity.

So instead, she sat at the table, with her head face down against the surface, praying she would just pass out so she wouldn't have to sit through anymore of this agony. Sasha and Connie sat across from her, and though she couldn't see them, she knew them well enough she could imagine they were sitting with their chins in their hands, completely spacing out as their gaze bore into nothingness.

"You know, my village isn't too far South of here." Connie spoke up randomly, and Araminta swore she heard someone's drool drip against the wood.

"My hometown is close by too." Sasha responded.

Araminta fought the urge to remind them her hometown was basically destroyed and infested with Titans.

"Damn. Why can't I go visit?" Connie said. "Maybe I'll sneak out at night."

"They told me not to come back until I'm normal." Sasha told him, completely disregarding his words

"They told me I was too small to be a soldier. Was genius enough, though. Top ten of our class..."

"Connie. If you're serious about sneaking out, I'll help." Reiner spoke up. His deep voice startled Araminta, who finally lifted her head to observe the scene. Honestly she'd forgotten they were sitting next to each other.

"Me too. I have nothing better to do. And it'd be fun to see where little Connie grew up." She cooed, though the boredom in her voice was not getting the sarcastic point across.

"No. Just for that, you don't get to come."

"Don't you guys think it's a little weird? We're on standby in our plain clothes, and we're not allowed to be in our uniforms or to train." Reiner began to monologue, standing up to peer out the window. "And the other soldiers are fully armed. It's strange, isn't it? We're in the wall, not on the front lines. Who are we fighting?"

"Hmm, there are bears in the area." Connie muttered.

"Yeah. Bears." Sasha agreed.

"Guns are enough to handle bears." Reiner retorted, sitting back down next to Araminta. Sasha finally lifted her chin out of her palm, sitting straight up before bending over to rest the side of her head on the table. Araminta decided to do the same, putting her forehead against her forearm to stare at the wood. She was finally beginning to feel peaceful, prepared to fall asleep right then and there.

But, with a dramatic gasp, Sasha disturbed her peace, snapping straight up like a ruler. "I hear thuds! They sound like footsteps!" She shouted, alerting everyone. Araminta frowned, leaning her head against the side of the table as Sasha had done before. Surely, she was imagining things, right? There was no way--

"Get serious, Sasha."

Thud.

"No, she's right! I hear them too!" Araminta exclaimed, leaping off the bench to check out the window.

"If you two are suggesting there's Titans here..." Reiner began, and Araminta knew what he was going to say next.

"It means Wall Rose has fallen."

And then she saw them, out in the distance. Multiple Titans heading in their direction. "Holy shit..." She whispered to herself, curling her fingers into a fist.

There was sudden movement, and Araminta screamed, jumping back and falling onto the table. Oh. It was just Nanaba, one of the Scouts that was traveling with them. She opened up the window, looking around the room.

"Everyone here?" She inquired.

"Nanaba?" Christa asked quietly from the back of the room.

"Multiple Titans, 500 meters from the South. They're coming right this way. There's no time for you to gear up. Take your horses and evacuate all nearby settlements. Understood?" She filled them in quickly, and a heavy dread set in inside Araminta.

"From... The South?" Connie asked slowly, his green eyes wide.

"Has the wall been breached?!" Reiner practically growled.

Araminta thought she might throw up.

So fun!! i realized halfway through
they were not really in a cabin and
they can't rly leave but idc i was too
lazy to rewrite and this is fanfic n e
ways so who cares at the end of the
day 🙄🙄🙄