Under the Tree [Attack on Titan self insert]

A Dim Light in the Darkness of Despair

             The Commandmant stepped in front of Armin. "Hey, Mop-top!" Armin put his right fist on his chest right over his heart and his left hand behind his back. Armyn had to bite his tongue to not laugh a little. "What's your name, maggot?"
             "Armin Arlert, from Zhiganshina, sir!" Armin responded. Armyn could see sweat running down his face.
             "What did you do to your parents to deserve such a name?" Wow, low blow.
             "It was my grandfather's pick, sir!" He handled it well.
             "Tell me, why are you here, Cadet Arlert?" He leaned down to get in his face.
             Armin took a deep breath before responding. "I'm here to save humanity from the titans!"
             "That's great to hear, I'll let them know they have a light snack headed their way. Row three, about face, runt!" He made Armin turn around before finally moving on.
             Armyn knew this wouldn't be easy and no one training them would be kind. He had to have known that. They couldn't be sensitive if they would be fighting, they had to strengthen their resolve. Discipline them. He stood tall as the Commandant stopped in front of a few cadets, yelling in their faces to insult and intimidate and moving on. Honestly, Armyn wasn't really paying attention until he stood in front of him and his brother.
             "I see we have a pair of twins? How cute, thought this would be a nice bonding activity for you?" The Commandant's voice was loud, and he held the same tone through every sentence. It was kind of impressive. "What do you call yourselves?"
             In unison, the twins saluted with their fists over their hearts.
             "Eren Jaeger, sir!"
             "Armyn Jaeger, sir! From Zhiganshina!"
             "And what are you here for? Looking for a comfy place in the interior as well?" He said, mocking some of the previous cadets.
             Eren puffed out his chest. "We're here to eradicate the titans from this world!"
             "Perfect! You'll do well as finger foods, practically served on a plate." Armyn knew Eren had to be biting his tongue right now. "It'll be their lucky day, I'm sure of it."
             He finally moved on, and Armyn let out a breath. He watched as he started picking on some bald kid who saluted wrong—and his jaw dropped when he picked the poor guy up from his ears. Jesus, this guy was insane.
             Everything went silent when a girl a couple people down took a bite out of a potato. It's like she didn't even care that everyone was staring at her now, because she just kept chewing. Man, she was so dead. Saidies dropped the bald kid, who stumbled a little and rubbed the sides of his head, and walked towards her. "What are you doing? Just who do you think you are?"
             The girl stopped chewing. She swallowed and saluted, still holding the potato in her hand. "Sasha Braus, from Dauper village, sir!"
             "And what is that you clutch in your right hand?" He probably expected her to get embarrassed, realize that she fucked up.
             "A steamed potato, sir! It was waiting in the mess hall and I couldn't resist!" Was she brave, or stupid?
             Saidies stared down at her, not speaking for a moment. "I don't understand... Why would you eat that potato?"
             "It was getting cold, so I provided it shelter in my stomach." Armyn swore his tongue would bleed if he bit it any harder.
             "Why? I just can't understand..."
             "Uh..." Sasha raised an eyebrow. "Are you asking me why people eat potatoes? Have you never had one?" He didn't respond. She sighed and grabbed the potato with both hands, snapping it in half and handing one half to Saidies. "Here, you can have half."
             Armyn didn't think he wanted the potato.

             "I thought potato girl was totally dead," the bald kid—Connie Springer—commented, watching Sasha running.
             "I'm kinda surprised she wasn't punished more." Armyn scratched his head. "Saidies seemed pissed."
             "I think taking away her meal privileges was enough. Didn't you see her face? She was more devastated about that than running til the sun set." Eren almost laughed.
             "Oh yeah, I think she said she's from Dauper. That's like... a little hunting village up in the mountains, if I remember correctly. They're pretty big on food." Connie rubbed his chin.
             Another guy, Marco, who was standing on the porch with them stood up and looked at Armin, Armyn and Eren. "Hey, didn't you guys say you were from Zhiganshina?"
             Eren nodded, putting a hand on Armin's shoulder. "Yeah, we grew up there together."
             "So, that means..."
             "You saw it!" Connie interrupted. "You saw what happened."
             Marco looked at Connie. "Quiet! They probably don't want to—"
             "The colossal one! You saw him, didn't you?" Connie grinned. He looked overly excited about this.
             Armyn nodded his head. "Yeah, we saw it."
            While they were inside, just trying to eat, everyone was crowded around them trying to ask questions. Armyn thought Eren liked the attention.
             "Yeah, okay, I saw the big guy." Eren said in a tone that said he didn't think it was such a big deal.
             "How tall was he? I heard he was tall enough to step over the wall easily!" One kid said.
             "That's what I heard too!"
             Eren scrunched his nose and shook his head. "It wasn't nearly that big. It was just tall enough to stick its head over—it was ugly as sin, though."
             Armyn shuddered. "It didn't have any skin. It was all muscle, pretty creepy."
             "What about the Armored titan?" Someone leaned forward onto the table.
             "The what?" Armyn had to think. "Oh, you mean the one that broke through wall Maria? I dunno, it looked almost like a normal titan to me."
             "That's crazy... what were they like?"
             Eren gasped suddenly and dropped his spoon. Armyn knew what he was thinking of. He covered his hand with his mouth, like he was muffling a cry. Armin put his hand on his shoulder.
             "It's... a little much to remember. We don't like to talk about it a lot."
             Connie winced. "Sorry, we didn't mean—"
             "That's not it." Eren shook off Armyn's shoulder and picked up his piece of bread. He took a bite—he probably thought he looked so cool. He chuckled. "They're not all that. They're dumb, slow—once we get our ODM gear, it'll be a piece of cake."
             Armyn sighed, resting his head in the palm of his hand. He's heard this monologue about fifty times in the last few months. As he went on, Armyn felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked over, only to be greeted by some... horse face. He remembered his name was Jean.
             "Out of curiosity, was he ever checked out for insanity?" He laughed. "He'll be dead on the first day. Surely he knows that—or is he just suicidal?"
             Armyn couldn't even speak before Eren was standing up. "Excuse me? Who do you think you are? You'll see for yourself—or maybe not, you don't seem like you have the balls to even get through training."
             Jean's cocky smile dropped. "At least I'm not some loudmouth who thinks he's invincible. Don't pretend you're not piss-scared too."
             "Are you trying to pick a fight?" Eren hissed. Armyn sighed.
             "Maybe I am." Jean stood up too. "It's not like I can't take you, you're puny."
             "Can you not do this right now?" Armyn didn't move to get up, he didn't even sit up in his seat. "You're both gonna get in trouble. We all know neither of you are gonna do anything anyway."
             They ignored him, but it seemed like he was right. For about ten seconds they just stood there, glaring at each other, before a bell rang in the distance.
             Jean sighed. "Whatever, sounds like we got off on the wrong foot. Sorry for what I said. Truce?" He held out his hand with a smile. Armyn respected that.
             Eren stared at his hand for a moment. "Yeah, whatever. I'm sorry too." He slapped his hand away and jerked his head for Armyn to follow him out. Of course he just had to be a dick about it.
             Armyn stood up to follow him. "Sorry about that, please don't hate him." Jean laughed and opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped as Mikasa walked by to follow Eren. He pushed Armyn out of the way a little, a small blush on his cheeks. Armyn sighed and walked out, he really didn't want to hear this love confession. "You really need to stop doing that," he said when he caught up to Eren. "You're going to get yourself in a lot of trouble, not just with whoever you fight. What if Saidies finds you like that?"
             Eren scoffed and brushed it off as they walked. "It's really not that big of a deal."
             "He's right, Eren." Mikasa walked up behind them, making Armyn yelp and jump a little. "Sorry."
             "Seriously, you too?" Eren groaned. "If you're gonna worry about something, worry about your hair. It's gonna get caught on something."
             Mikasa grabbed a strand of her hair, thinking for just a second. "Alright, I'll cut it then. How short do you think I should go?"
             Armyn hummed, rubbing his chin. He walked backwards to examine her face. "I dunno... it's hard to imagine your hair super short. Maybe like... a tasteful bob."
             Eren's nose scrunched. "I still think that's too long, but it's a start I guess."
             "Hey, guys!" Armin called, running up to them. "Listen to this—I heard that tomorrow we're getting our ODM gear and learning how to use it. Looks like we'll be moving pretty fast, right?"
             "Perfect! Straight to the point, that's awesome." Armyn smiled.
             "Of course. They don't want to waste a second, and neither do I." Eren grinned. "Let's work hard, master the ODM gear." He looked at Armyn. "We'll avenge our mother, I'm sure of it."
             Armyn stared at him for a moment. The death of their mother had really changed Eren. It changed him too, of course—but Eren saw it. Eren had nightmares of it, Armyn was there every night to listen to him whine, and when he woke up he was there to talk to him. Armyn had nightmares of that day in general, but he never saw what happened to their mother. He finally nodded. "For mom."