Disclaimer: I own nothing. Shingeki no Kyojin belongs to its rightful creators
Author's Note: Inspired by this massive cold spell striking the United States. Here's some more AruAni for ya. This'll be a tri-shot, if anyone is curious.
It was the coldest winter that any of the recruits at the training camp could remember. After receiving numerous good-natured complaints from the instructors about the students' distracted nature and repeated glances out the window at the softly falling snow outside, Shadis resignedly announced that the recruits were all allowed to take the rest of the day off. The notice was met with great enthusiasm as the teenagers poured excitedly out of the classroom, skidded across the icy thoroughfare leading to the cabins, and immediately began to put on every inch of clothing they possessed.
Eren was the first teen out, followed closely by a hollering Connie, who seemed unaffected by the cold, despite the bristles of ice forming on the top of his shaved head and the chatter of his teeth. Soon, a large number of the recruits slowly filtered out of their cabins, bundled from head to toe in mismatched outfits.
Several kids proposed the idea of a snowball fight. Eren immediately declared himself to be the captain of one team while Jean retorted back that he would lead the other team. The two brunets proceeded to bicker incessantly as they each selected members for their team. The argument boiled nearly to the brink of blows over the debate of which team Mikasa would join, though even Jean had a sinking suspicious that she would naturally side with Eren. However, the dark haired girl shocked the entire recruitment camp when she announced her intentions to start her own team.
After a bit more arguing, the teams were set. Marco and Reiner joined Jean's team while Sasha, Christa, and Ymir joined Mikasa's team, with the freckled brunet proclaiming loudly about how they were going to kick some male ass. Eren's team consisted of a still chattering Connie, Bertholdt, and Armin, with the latter two looking particularly nervous and unenthused at the impending snowball fight.
With another loud whoop by Connie, the game began and each team began their retreat to their appropriate base. Immediately, Eren turned to his blond friend.
"Where should we go for the best spot?"
Armin pursed his chapped, frozen lips in thought. He wasn't excited about the athletic, snow-in-the-face aspect of the snowball fight, but he was a fan of the underlying strategic veins required for success. "I'd say we should head towards the hill past the pond. At the top, we'll be able to see the other teams' progress."
Eren grinned widely and slapped the blond boy's shoulder hard enough that Armin still felt the muted sting through layers upon layers of clothing. "I knew you were the best pick," he added, which made the blond smile. Armin had a feeling his cheeks were a bright red, though he wasn't sure if it was from what Eren had said or from the nip of the bitter cold.
Eren turned his blazing gaze towards the rest of his gathered team. "We better get there before anyone else figures it out," he began. Connie and Bertholdt nodded and soon the four boys were running as fast as they could in the thick snow towards the hill.
Bertholdt's long legs and Eren's determination kept the two easily at the front of the pack. Although Connie was shorter than Armin by a few centimeters, the former boy's agility and natural springiness allowed him to stay close behind the other two. The group hadn't even traveled for several hundred meters before the blond was exhausted beyond belief.
"Er—Eren!" he panted, feeling his chest threaten to burst. Each large, delicate snowflake that landed on the boy's warm, red face melted immediately into a fat bubble of cold water which mingled with the boy's warm, saline sweat and trekked down his stinging face in a shimmery, cold path.
The others slowed and the shorter brunet spun around to look at his best friend.
"You—you go on, and I'll ca—catch up," the blond panted, heaving twirling gusts of misty fog in the frigid air with each heavy breath.
Eren hesitated and exchanged glances with Bertholdt, who looked equally unsure.
"It's alright," Armin added after a pause. "You don't want Mikasa or Jean getting there fir—first, do you?"
At the mention of the brunet's name, Eren straightened up and nodded with a determined expression. "You're right—" the boy paused, "but you'll be alright, though?"
Armin suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. It was just running in the snow. There weren't any titans around and the biggest danger was if one of the other groups found him. Still, the blond had the faint belief that if he pleaded long enough, either group would eventually absorb him into their own group or leave him alone. "I'll catch up with you in a second," he reassured Eren.
The brunet nodded again and the other boys instantly continued their journey towards the perfect base. Armin watched them go with an amused smile and began his far more comfortably paced stroll towards their destination.
Armin encountered very little trouble on his way towards the hill. He was apprehended by both teams, but they predictably let him pass untroubled with a few curious questions.
He had first run into Mikasa and Sasha. The two girls had watched him pass without a word and the brunette even had lowered the large snowball held ready in her palm. "Where's Eren?" Mikasa had asked, followed by Sasha's confused "And Connie and Bertl?"
Armin had smiled weakly, deciding that they were going to find out anyway. He might as well tell them now where his group had gone. "They've gone to the hill past the pond. I was just a bit too slow," he had added, hating the red creeping up his neck and cheeks. He had been grateful that his cheeks were already strained red by the cold so they wouldn't notice.
Mikasa had even offered to give Armin an extra pair of gloves, but the boy politely refused, assuring her that she could give them to Eren when they would surely meet later. The two girls then nodded and let the blond pass.
Only moments later, Armin was then cornered by Reiner, Marco, and Jean, who all looked far less sympathetic than the girls had been. It seemed as if the boys had been following the female team at a safe distance with the strategy that Mikasa would lead them to Eren's group.
"Where's Jaeger?" Jean had demanded, threatening the blond with a tightly packed snowball.
However, after Armin also explained where he was going and where they could find Eren, Bertholdt, and Connie, the other boys quickly left him alone and Armin continued on his relatively peaceful trek to the hill. He allowed himself to take longer pauses and inspect frozen flowers along the way, spending as much time as possible avoiding the hill and the chaos that was surely occurring at the top. In the distance, Armin could hear the Connie's faint shouts as they were no doubt swarmed by the other two teams. The blond lifted an amused eyebrow and glanced behind him at the tiny mountains surrounding the training camp. It's a miracle Connie hasn't caused an avalanche yet.
When the boy reached the icy pond that was only a few hundred meters from the hill, he settled down on a nearby log to catch one last glimpse of peace before he approached the pandemonium on the hill. He reached down to adjust one of his multiple layers of socks when a snapped branch caused him to freeze. The boy slowly lifted his head up, feeling his heart thump loudly in his chest.
It's probably just a deer, he reasoned, chastising himself for being such a coward. Although he had yet to see Ymir or Christa, he doubted they would have strayed far from Mikasa and Sasha. Based on Connie's and Eren's distant shouting, the other groups had found their target.
Still, Armin countered that it couldn't hurt to be cautious. He quickly and quietly hid himself behind a particularly large snow drift. He watched the opposite side of the pond with wide eyes, waiting for whatever creature to appear from the gnarled, winter-bare branches.
Annie Leonhardt forcefully pushed through the icicle-tipped branches with a stern expression, causing the shimmering spears of frozen glass to fall from the boughs with a light twinkling. Armin would have called out to her, but the girl's drastic change in expression caused the friendly greeting to die in his throat. Where her face had been as cold and stoic as the world around her previously, at the sight of the snow covered, frozen pond in front of her, the girl's eyes lit up with a childish joy that Armin had never seen on the girl. She stumbled towards the frozen body of water in the high snow and immediately dropped to her knees, brushing the snow covering from the deep blue ice.
Armin felt guilty watching her, as if he was intruding on something he shouldn't be near. However, he didn't want to alert her of his presence immediately, partially because the girl's uncharacteristic enthusiasm intrigued him and also because he feared for his life if she found out that he was spying on her. He watched with furrowed eyebrows as the girl crawled on her hands and knees, clearing the snow from the top layer of the pond with thin, holey gloves. The girl wasn't wearing a scarf and her breath came out in wispy, delicate puffs of silver mist.
After the girl fell into a slight coughing fit from the exposure to the cold, Armin decided that he was going to help her regardless of the threat to his life.
"Annie?"
The girl tensed up immediately on the ice with her head jerking up towards the source of the sound. When she realized that it was Armin who spoke, the girl's body relaxed, but her stony expression remained fixed accusingly on Armin.
"What?"
"What are you doing?" Armin asked after a moment's pause. He slowly walked around the frozen pond and stood on the bank from where Annie started.
Annie glanced back down towards the loose snow on the pond and for a moment, Armin thought that she wouldn't respond. However, she glanced back up, studied Armin's face for a brief second, and returned to sweeping the snow away.
"I'm clearing the snow," she announced flatly, as if it was something obvious. Armin supposed in a way it was painfully obvious, though he was hoping that the girl would elaborate further. No such luck.
Armin smiled bemusedly and sunk to his knees in the cold snow. He began to brush the snow away from the ice as well, though still maintaining a comfortable position on the frozen bank. The blonde regarded the boy with an unreadable expression before returning completely to her work.
Armin suppressed a nervous breath as he cleared away the first patch of snow. Below the soft, pure snow was a thick sheet of bluish-ebony obsidian. He stared at the smooth, cold ice and tried to force away a memory he hadn't thought of in ages.
It was so cold…I—it hurt to breathe…Where a—
A hoarse cough from the girl broke Armin from his reverie. He glanced up sharply, steeled his expression into a nonchalant smile, and began to mirror the girl's relaxed actions.
Don't think about it. He quickly brushed the memory away like the snow. He was smarter now. He trekked cautiously out onto the frozen pond surface, testing his weight with each inch he traveled.
As he pushed the soft, cold blanket away, Armin could feel the melting snow creep in through the porous fabric in his gloves and chill his numb digits. I should have taken the gloves when Mikasa offered them, he echoed half-heartedly with a rueful smile. The boy glanced over to his companion and frowned. Annie's gloves were far more threadbare than his own pair. He could see small patches of blistered, chapped skin through certain holes. However, the girl continued to clear the snow away from the icy surface, undaunted by the cold.
When Armin shuffled closer to the girl, he could hear her rattled breath and see her red-rimmed eyes from the biting chill. Without even thinking about how the girl would respond, Armin untangled his scarf from around his warm throat and gently wrapped it around Annie's pale, freezing neck. The bitter cold immediately attacked the boy's exposed flesh, but he swallowed the icy shock with a warm smile in the direction of the blonde girl. She looked up and blinked at him, too startled by the kind action to be angry or upset. Armin immediately retreated to the opposite side of the pond and began clearing the snow away on the other bank, avoiding the girl's questioning stare and avoiding the sight of black ice below him. However, Annie soon accepted the gift and bent down to continue her work.
After a long moment of silence, Armin met Annie in the middle of the now cleared pond. He smiled reflexively at her, but the girl was already turning and crawling back to the opposite bank from which she had first begun. Not trusting himself to stand on the slick surface, the boy scuttled to the nearest bank and climbed to his feet with a sore groan. His knees where freezing and he could feel tiny droplets of melted snow trace down the inside of the legs of his many pants.
"Why did you help me?" Annie asked, still avoiding the boy's stare. She sat down heavily in the thick snow and proceeded to pull something out of a bag that Armin hadn't noticed until then.
Armin watched her curiously. His main reason was to find out what she was doing, but he couldn't very well admit that to her. "I don't know," he lied. "Maybe because I don't want to be in the snowball fight?" he offered with a wry smile.
Annie glanced up at him and scoffed in agreement. He vaguely remembered not seeing the blonde present at the division of teams. He had assumed then that she was one of the many recruits who was enjoying a calm day alone in front of the fire.
Armin interpreted the mutual feeling of distaste as an indication to take a step closer towards the girl. Now only a few feet from the girl, he was able to see what she was doing. He took in the two fragments of the titanium blade and the thick twine with a confused frown before the simplicity of the answer struck him. He chuckled softly under his breath when he realized what she was making.
At the sound of his laugh, the girl eyed him with a baleful glare that seemed to suggest he was no longer needed. She slowly climbed to her feet and made her way unsteadily on wobbling legs towards the cleared pond. The girl stepped cautiously on the ice with her makeshift pair of skates. The fragments of the swords groaned slightly at the girl's weight, but the twine miraculously stayed taut around the razor-sharp blades. Ignoring her observer completely, the blonde kicked off of the frozen bank and glided a cautionary circle around the edge of the pond. When she deemed the ice and her shoes were sturdy enough, she immediately began to perform breathless twirls and spins in the center of the cleared pond.
Armin watched the blonde twirl with such a calculated grace that he felt his own heartbeat accelerate as if he were the one skating. She traced intricate, beautiful patterns on the deep blue obsidian and half the time, the girl's eyes were closed in the epitome of youthful bliss. Although the majority of Annie's hair was still pined in its typical bun, the frayed ends soon broke free from their restraint and flared out periodically in a blonde halo as the girl took sharp turns or spins.
Armin wasn't sure how long he watched her dance along the frozen surface of the pond. Like most things that the girl did, she was perfect and graceful in all aspects. The entire scene—the icy, white cold of winter; the warm, rosy glow of her cheeks; and the fathomless dark ice she was gliding on—seemed almost surreal to the boy. He half thought that Annie had completely forgotten about him.
However, the blonde skidded to a quick stop, spraying the boy with shards of ice. Although Annie's features were relatively composed, Armin noticed that her cheeks were flushed red from the chill and a flustered sense of playfulness.
"You helped clear all the snow—aren't you going to skate too?"
Armin took an instinctive step back. He and frozen water did not mix well. He fought down the same memory of ice and water with a forceful swallow. Don't think about that…
"Wha? Uh—no—I," he hesitated and frowned. "I don't know how to skate," he admitted. He had never bothered to learn as a child, since it rarely ever got cold enough for the local reservoir to freeze over completely.
Annie tilted her head and studied him for a moment. "It's easy," she countered. "You should be able to pick it up quickly."
Armin didn't have the heart to tell her that he despised all forms of ice and ice skating. He had only helped her clear the pond since he was curious about her intentions.
"I'm fine—really," he added with another hasty step back.
Annie did not tear her relentless gaze from the boy's flushed features. "Here," she said softly, unwinding the boy's scarf from around her neck. She offered the frayed end to the boy and held the other end tightly in a closed fist. "Hold on to it for balance."
Armin glanced down at the tattered end of the scarf with a glum expression. Annie was being uncharacteristically persistent for a person who seemed to hate all other human interactions.
"Okay," he murmured, taking a cautious step towards the pond. He wasn't so much afraid of crawling on the ice as he was standing on it. He gingerly placed one foot on the ice and steadied himself with a deep inhale before bringing his other foot to rest beside it on the slick surface. The ice didn't even crackle at his added weight and he released a breath he didn't know he had been holding.
If Annie noticed his obvious discomfort, she didn't comment on it. Instead she turned away and slowly glided towards the center of the pond, towing Armin along the way. His grip tightened around the scarf and he bent his knees to maintain his balance on the slick ice. Annie stopped and looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to move on his own.
Within seconds, the blond was wincing on the ice with a far too chilled and sore rear for his taste. He still hadn't let go of the scarf, but the slack in the garment did little to stop the boy's fall. Annie slowly glided towards him and looked down at the frowning boy with an unimpressed expression. Armin clambered precariously to his feet on the smooth ice and nearly toppled over had he not grabbed Annie's arm instinctively. The girl barely reacted in time to keep the both of them upright. Armin steadied himself on the ice and sent the girl an abashed, weak smile.
"Sorry," he murmured, receiving a blank frown as his response. "I told you I wasn't good at ice skating," he added. He took a cautious step back and pulled away from the girl.
However, the girl's grip on the boy's arm tightened. Armin gawked down at the unexpected contact and looked back up to the girl's face. He expected her to be angry at his invasion of her privacy, yet she seemed partially amused by the events. She kept a firm grip on his wrist as she towed him gently towards the edge of the pond. The boy's soles slipped periodically on the ice without any purchase, but Annie's support kept the boy upright and stable. He knew a part of him should have been mortified that he was being towed around the ice like a child by Annie Leonhardt of all people, but another larger part of him enjoyed the warmth of the blonde's grasp around his wrist. He still held the tattered end of the scarf in his other hand, though it hardly mattered anymore.
Neither of them spoke and for a long while the only sound that could be heard was the soft hiss of Annie's makeshift skates slicing through the dark indigo ice. The lack of sound caused Armin to frown, because they had been able to hear the shrieking from the nearby snowball fight throughout the moment. The silence struck Armin as odd and he began to worry slightly that something might have happened to his friends.
However, the boy's ridiculous fears subsided when he heard the loud, distinct grumble of Eren in the near distance. Within seconds, his friends appeared in the distance, trudging heavily in the thick snow with tired grunts and sighs. Connie was the first one to notice Annie and Armin on the pond. He halted in his tracks at the odd sight, which caused Jean to collide into his back.
"Hey! Watch it, Spring—er?" The brunet froze and blinked at the scene in front of him.
Eren's relieved expression (he had been wondering where the blond had gone, but was too preoccupied by the fight to go searching for him) morphed into one of confusion when he saw what the blond was doing. "Armin, don't you kn—hey!"
Evidently, the snowball fight had failed to relieve animosity between the two teens. A weak branch above Eren snapped under the weight of the snow on the boughs, causing the cold, white powder to shower the boy and trickle down his exposed neck and back. Jean snickered at the boy's obvious discomfort, which made the shorter brunet shove a large handful of snow at the older boy's smirking face. Jean stumbled back at the impact, tripping over his own feet and pulling Eren down at the same time. The two rivals tumbled down the steep embankment and landed on the frozen pond with a heavy crack. Both boys scrambled backwards with panicked shouts at the ominous sound. Armin immediately dropped Annie's hand and inched towards his best friend. However, his treadless soles slipped out from underneath him and he collapsed with a short bark of pain and surprise. He bounced slightly on his rear, wincing at the familiar pain.
However, all pain was immediately forgotten as the faint crack caused by Jean's and Eren's debacle evolved into a louder, sharper sound of grating ice. Thin, spiderlike veins traced their way through the icy obsidian and encircled the two blonds. A majority of the cracks stemmed from the sheared path Annie had made with her homemade skates. The titanium blades had sliced the ice sharper and deeper than either of the teens had anticipated.
With one last heavy sigh like a dying breath, the once solid ice shattered into a thousand shards.
I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading.
Part Two will hopefully be up soon in the next few days. A larger response means a quicker update time -hint-hint-