It was the next morning. Armin and I had decided to sleep at my house, mainly because he preferred my bed at home over the one in my cabin. It was 8:00 am and I had woken up. Armin was still asleep beside me. My back was turned to him, so I rolled over to look at him. His eyes were closed, lips slightly parted. He was beautiful even while sleeping. I envied his perfect complexion and his pretty blue eyes. To me, he was perfect in every sense. I was incredibly lucky to be with a boy like him. His love for me was profound, and my love for him was boundless. Maybe I had found the one. Was that what it felt like? I gently placed my hand on Armin's cheek, rubbing it with my thumb. His eyes opened slowly and he smiled.

"Come here," he whispered, putting his arm up. I made my way underneath it and cozied up to his chest. I missed his familiar scent. I missed human contact like that. I missed the way Armin held me.

We lay together for another 10 to fifteen minutes before changing positions. I sat up and stretched. My back cracked, which felt nice. Armin rolled onto his stomach and looked up at me. His chin sat in his palms. He smiled. "Hey," I asked, "can I braid your hair?" Armin nodded and sat up. "I don't think I've ever had my hair braided before. Do I need to do anything?" he said. I told him he just needed to sit in front, back turned to me. I scrummaged around in my nightstand and found some hair elastics. I put them around my wrist and began running my fingers through Armin's hair. It was soft, but a little tangled, due to bed head. I sat up on my knees so that I could work at a better angle. I parted his hair into two chunks, then proceeded to work on the right bundle of hair. Dividing the bundle into three equal pieces, I rhythmically layered them over one another, until I reached the ends of his hair. That's where I tied the braid off with an elastic, from my wrist. Armin looked at the braid in the full-length mirror beside my bed, gently holding onto it with his fingers. "That's really cool, you must be super talented, Y/N. I have no clue how you did that," he said in amazement. I replied, "it's pretty easy, you know. I could teach you." His face lit up. "Really?" he exclaimed. I smiled and responded, "of course. Let me just finish your second braid and I can teach you with my hair." 

Armin sat patiently as I worked on his second braid, eventually tying it off with an elastic at the end. "Done," I told him. He turned around and looked at me, eager to learn. Moments like these were fun. I enjoyed spending time with him, teaching him the simple things I took for granted in life. We sat facing each other, cross-legged. I parted my hair into two groups and demonstrated a simple braid on the left side of my head. He watched diligently. "Okay, can I try it on you?" he asked me as I finished tying off the end of the braid with an elastic band. "Sure," I replied. I turned around so my back was facing Armin. Armin sat up on his knees as I had, and began fumbling around with the hair on the right side of my head. I sat there for what felt like ages before he chirped, "done!" I looked in the mirror beside my bed so that I could see his work. The braid was a bit unkempt, but it was a braid. Decent for a first attempt and I appreciated the effort. 

"It looks cute, I like it."

"Really? I mean, it's definitely nowhere as close to being as good as the ones you did. I have no clue how you made them look so smooth."

"I think it was a great first attempt," I encouraged. Armin smiled warmly at me and giggled, "I'd love to practice some more on you. Maybe not now, but definitely later. Right now I just want to go back to where we left off. Ten more minutes, please?" he begged. I rolled my eyes sarcastically. "You can practice on me anytime and no, we need to get up. I'd love to lay here with you all day but I'd also love it if we could go out and do something fun. The nice fall weather won't last forever, so we should go do something," I explained. Armin pouted, giving me puppy dog eyes. He really knew how to play my heartstrings. "How about we take advantage of the outdoors while we can. We could go canoe somewhere and have a campfire tonight. Come on, that'd be really fun. Sure, canoeing itself isn't that fun, but doing it with you is. How about we do that," I suggested. Armin thought about my proposition. A one-day canoe trip would be something fun to do together. He didn't mind the idea, so he agreed. 

"Where are we going to go? Are we going to do it here or in my time?"

"I live near my city's lake so we could rent out a canoe and leave via the beach. We can have a campfire in my backyard since that's probably easiest and the most controlled. You good with that?" I asked him. He nodded. Great, the day was planned. I was so glad he agreed to go. We'd been laying around a lot for the past month. For a while after what happened with Eren and Jean, Armin could barely get out of bed in the morning. He wasn't motivated to do anything and that made life a little bland, for the two of us. This was the first time in ages where he seemed genuinely happy. Armin wanted to live again, and that meant a lot to me. His mental health seemed like it wasn't improving for well over a month and that was discouraging to me. The fact that he came to my house, that he smiled, and that he genuinely wanted to go out into the world again was a massive relief to me. He was getting better, at least when it came to his outlook on life. Sure, he was definitely still battling a lot of heavy things on his mind, but he was moving forward. I was so excited to venture out onto the water with him and, more than anything, I was proud of him.