The Walls We've Built - ◈ ARMIN ARLERT X OC ◈

Chapter 20 - Shooting Stars

I feel Armin's presence as he takes a seat on the step next to me, I rest my head on my knees still looking up at the cloudless sky. He sighs, relaxing his shoulders, also looking up at the sky, "I- I heard Gen saying something about Pluto?" He says intrigued, looking over at me. My eyes meet his making my stomach do a backflip. I hide my face in my knees before replying, "It's just this planet thing that-" I begin explaining what a planet is for the second time tonight. "Oh, no, I know what a planet is," my head shoots up so fast it almost comes off my body, I look Armin surprised. He smiles, laughing "I know what Pluto is too." He finishes nudging me with his shoulder. I smile to myself again, thank god the darkness is hiding my rosy red cheeks right now.

"Well if you know about planets and Pluto, why don't you tell me what else you know about space?" I suggest. Armin's eyebrow raises in response. "Well I did just spend the last hour trying to explain the entirety of space to Gen and Rosette so I'm a bit sick of talking." I explain, "And the screaming match back there didn't help either." I finish nudging Armin with my shoulder. He looks at me with a wide smirk across his face, I smile back at him as we sit in silence. "Well," Armin begins breaking our eye contact. "I do know Pluto is the smallest planet in our solar system, and I also know it is the furthest away from the sun, just to name a couple things." He hums, slowly looking up at the stars. "Hm, that is pretty impressive." I reply contently, "Well, I do like to read." Armin responds looking back at me. I laugh quietly at his comment, who knew Armin Artlet knew how to joke.

"So tell me, how are you going, considering everything that happened... back there." Armin questions looking directly into my eyes. I look away for a moment trying to organise my thoughts, "To be completely honest, really annoyed." I say bluntly, Armin nods along understanding my frustration. Not only was my friend falsely accused of being the enemy but I was attacked by the person I am supposed to trust most, my own commander. "That is understandable." Armin reassures me. "Damn right it's understandable. How can Commander Smith do that to his own Scouts, it's so wrong." I say irritated, he continues to nod along with what I am saying. I feel Armin arm next to mine as we sit in silence, "Well if it's any compensation, we think we know who the actual Female Titan is." Armin says casually, I look at him with utter confusion. "What?" I ask a bit too loudly, he shushes me before continuing. "Well, do you know Annie Leonhart?" he questions me, I know of Annie but not on a personal level. The only thing I do know about her is that she is extremely skilled, it's intimidating. "Somewhat, yeah, I guess." I answer. "Well I have hypothesised that it's her." Armin begins.

Annie? The Female Titan? Armin explains his reasoning, he tells me about Maro's ODM gear, everything. As much as it disappoints me that she could betray us, I can't help but be relieved, Armin has put Rosette in the clear. I feel so much relief and comfort that I don't register my movements. Before I know it my arms are wrapped around Armin in a tight hug, he is frozen at first but quickly relaxes hugging me back. Hugging Armin doesn't feel uncomfortable or awkward, it feels familiar. It's almost like hugging Jacob or Gen but different in a way I can't identify, I realise it's been a while and quickly pull away before it gets awkward and he starts judging me.

I look in the opposite direction of Armin and he does the same, a warm feeling spreads across my chest and I feel myself smiling again. "So what does this mean? If Annie is the Female Titan, how do we plan on confronting her?" I ask Armin, he goes on to explain the plan that will take place in 2 days, when the Scouts custody of Eren will be revoked. He says that Eren, Mikasa and himself plan to 'privately' confront Annie, however the rest of the Scouts will be hidden on the rooftops ready to attack if things go south. I nod along with his plan but I am thinking about how effective this plan really is or if Annie is gullible enough to fall for it, hopefully she is.

Once Armin finishes explaining the not so awkward silence returns, "I'm impressed." I say reassuring Armin of his plan, he contently looks at me before looking up at the sky once again. I look up as well admiring all the stars shimmering in the sky, "So what is your favourite plan-" I begin, "Zariya! Look!" Armin grabs my arm pulling me towards him gesturing to the bright streak of light flying across the sky. I look at it in awe as it streams from one point to another.

When I read the book on stars as a kid, I was always most fascinated by shooting stars, but the only page in the book that mentioned them had been ripped out. I remember being so heartbroken because I would never be able to learn about what they were. It was silly, but I blamed the only other person who borrowed the book. I had convinced myself that they didn't want me to know, so they had ripped it out and kept the secret of shooting stars all for themselves. As interesting as the book was, it wasn't a very popular one, the front page of the book had a small piece of paper with the initials of each borrower. It always alternated between 'Z.W' and 'A.A'. Throughout my whole childhood I never knew who those initials belonged to, I had suspected it was some old man who was just as bewildered by astronomy as I was. I had always hoped that one day we would cross paths at the bookshop so we could discuss our love for it. At the time of the colossal titan attack I did not have the book, but if I had I would have brought it with me, that book was my favourite thing in the world.

Armin sighs beside me standing up, "We should probably go to sleep now, it's very late." He laughs, putting out his hand to help me up. I take it and stand up with a grunt, it's only now that I realise how exhausted I have become. We walk up the stairs and through the empty hallways in silence, mostly because I am officially too tired to talk. Armin walks me to my room that I share with Gen, Sasha and 3 other girls. As we reach my door I stop before opening it and turn back around to face Armin, "Thanks for the chat, it was really nice." I whisper, a smile spreads across his face. "It's my pleasure, my kind lady." He says quietly, making me cringe, I blocked that out of my memory. I can't help but laugh and Armin joins me. "Goodnight Armin." I beam, grabbing the door knob, "Goodnight Zariya." Armin trails off as he walks away.

I watch him leave for a moment before entering my room. As I go to twist the doorknob I hear Armin whisper from down the hallway "Also to answer your question before, my favourite planet is, in fact Pluto." He smirks looking back at me. I smile nodding my head, "Mine too." I reply quietly, I wave goodbye to Armin again before entering my room. I close the door quietly and begin taking off my shoes and putting my sleep wear on. Once I have slowly scaled the ladder or my bunk I heavily drop my head onto my pillow, my body feels numb and alive at the same time. Finally I can sleep, my eyes drift shut as I begin falling asleep. However my eyes quickly open again, Armin and I have the same favourite planet, I smile to myself. I close my eyes and fall asleep with a warm feeling in my stomach.