𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝙸'𝚖 𝙶𝚘𝚗𝚎 | 𝙰. 𝙰𝚛𝚕𝚎𝚛𝚝

•23•

You've rested enough that you can actually sit without the room spinning in all different directions. You slept through most of the conversation about Eren and now everyone is just sitting silently. It's painful to look at if you're being honest.

You toss your legs off the side of the cot and rest your hands on your knees, feeling the gash on your head throb with each beat of your heart.

"Hey," Armin stands from his spot at the table and comes over to you. He sits beside you, the outside of his thigh pressed against yours. "How are you feeling?"

"Like my head is going to explode," you wince, but try and keep your smile to reassure him. "How about you?"

He looks taken back by your question. "Don't worry about me, I healed already."

"I know that," you look down at your hands and sigh. "I meant with the whole Eren situation. You're friends..."

Armin pauses and looks at you blankly, like he's trying to understand your question and figure out an answer for it. But he doesn't have one.

"So what? Is there nothing we can do but sit here and wait for things to play out?" Connie breaks the silence between you and Armin.

"Here," Sasha's father walks up to you and Armin and sets two cups of tea on the bedside table. "You like tea?"

Armin nods, "Yes, thank you."

"Thank you," your voice is weak and shy since you don't know him all that well. You're not sure how to talk to people from here, because most of them hate you.

As you go to take a sip from the cup, Connie directs his question to Armin. "Do you think you could bust us out of here by turning into a Titan?"

"Afraid not," Armin swallows the hot liquid with a deep breath. "I'd blow up half the town if I tried. The Colossal Titan is powerful, but it's far from precise. Unlike Eren's Titan."

A flashback comes hurdling painfully into your mind. Back when he had blown up the port in Marley and you had thought your parents had succumbed to the wrath. But as soon as the image enters your thoughts, you shake it away.

Armin told you they were fine.

As you clench your eyes shut, Armin sets his hand on top of yours. He rubs his thumb along your knuckles, gently soothing you.

"Are you scared?" He questions quietly so that the others can't hear. Like it's just you and him.

You want to say yes. That would be the honest answer, but instead you settle for half of the truth. "As long as I'm with you, I'm not. I know you'll keep me safe. Just like you said you would."

He almost looks sad that you put that faith in him. But you want him to know you don't hate him. Not that you did in the first place or anything. It was just easier to pretend than to be honest with yourself.

Footsteps echo down the corridor and everyone's attention is drawn to outside the cell.

"Hero's of Shiganshina," the monotone female voice fills the cold cell. "It's always an honor to see you. It pains me that our reunion must take place across these bars."

Connie is first to speak. "Now way," he growls. "You're on their side, too? Let us out!" His words are directed at Onyankopon.

"Seems like more than you have the right to ask for," he smiles slyly. "Considering how you guys kept me as a prisoner. Just sit here and wait. Zeke and Eren will meet soon."

"Why, you..." Connie seethes and you watch Jean come up beside him.

"You must be proud, Yelena. It seems like everything is happening exactly as you planned. First, you get Eren dancing to Zeke's tune. Then, the raid on Marley won the Edlian people's support. Which gave you free reign to use your poisoned wine to take over the military. Eldia's yours. As is the founding titan. Now, you can crush Marley and avenge your homelands. That's it right? The real reason that you volunteered came to this island?"