"Armin?" The name was chocked out along with the crimson blood that ran down the side of his mouth.
Eyes as blue as the water he so desperately dreamed to see widened in shock.
"Jean," the boy was dumbfounded, he thought he would see the other again when they got back from their mission outside the wall. "Oh god, Jean, your bleeding out!"
He was fighting to keep the tears from streaming.
The blood on Jean was fading in the rain, washing off of his face and body into the puddles, the downpour of rain causing cherry waves to stain Armin's legs.
"Oh god, what happened?" the question barely escaping his chapped lips
An attempt to answer was interrupted by violent coughing.
Brown hair was being dyed maroon by the puddles of bloody water.
The titans had gone where ever they go at night, Armin was attempting to return to camp quickly only to be stopped by Jean.
Stable duty, Armin hated stable duty.
Not that he didn't like the horses, he just didn't like cleaning up after them.
It helped that he had duty with Jean though, he liked Jean.
Despite his feuds with Eren, he was nice to Armin, very nice.
They walked side by side as they were walking down the long stable isle.
Armin could feel the back of the taller boys had brushing against his.
He felt hesitant fingers slide through his, Armin felt his cheeks burn, then squeezed to reassure the other boy
He looked up to him and smiled
"Armin," Jeans struggling voice whimpered, reaching blindly for Armin's hand.
"Jean, don't." He knew the hope of Jean surviving after laying in a pool of his own blood for God knows how long was simply foolish, but hope was all he could ever really have.
"Armin I'll be fine. I'll make it through this," Jean's grip tightened as much as it could. "It's not that bad."
The tears fell now, blending with the falling rain.
"Both of us, we'll both make it. Yeah, we will. Through all of it." Jean smiled, blood covering his teeth.
Levi made them organize the files after being in a particularly bad mood
They had bumped into each other and Armin dropped all the papers he was carrying
Jean apologized rapidly and Armin assured him it was okay just as much
They bent down to pick the papers up
Jean gave his stack of papers to Armin as they both finished cleaning them
Armin smiled and Jean stared at him
His eyes widened as Jean leaned a little closer and flashed an awkward grin
He closed his eyes as Jean laid a peck on his lips and pulled away
"Jean please," he didn't know what to say to the bloody mess laying next to him.
It had been 2 and 1/2 years that they have been in the Survey Corps.
Armin had left dinner early
He was walking back to the cabins so he could maybe read a bit of his book before going to sleep early.
He saw a shadow from behind the cabin near the trees, a small conversation never hurt before bed
He rounded the corner of the cabin and saw Jean leaning against a tree
'Armin,'
It had been this strange routine between the 2 of them
Whenever they were alone the would kiss, innocently of course
But Jean had put his hand on Armin's cheek and kissed him
But the kiss deepened
Armin dropped his book
They had been doing this dance for over a year
But the first time they had been at risk of others seeing them
Something changed, Armin felt a hard surface against his back
It got deeper, passionate, fiery
Jean pulled back looking scared
Armin pulled him back in
He began going down Jean's neck
"It's alright Armin, I'll be fine, yeah." Jean wheezed trying to convince the both of them
'What's that you're reading?'
'A book about the ocean.'
'What's that?'
'Miles and miles of salt water, it covers the Earth more than the land does.' he spoke with his eyes shinning
'That sounds really amazing.'
'Yeah, it does.' 'Hey Jean?'
'Yeah?'
'Do you think, maybe, in another life I'll see the ocean?'
'Why not?' Jean ruffled Armin's hair.
"Armin, don't cry for me, I'm fine." his words were unconvincing, the bloodstains on his shirt increased in size.
"Jean, I can't,"
"Armin, I'll-" he broke into a fit of coughing up blood "I'm going to be fine, better than ever."
"Jean don't please don't" he was unable to control the tears falling from his eyes.
Jean began to seize and cough, he stopped a bit later, a completely dead look taking place in his eyes.
"I'll... take you to the ocean."
"No, stop, please stop." Armin was becoming overwhelmed with this situation. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. He was supposed to see Jean back at camp, they were supposed to talk about anything they felt like, Jean was supposed to fight with Eren. This wasn't supposed to be happening.
Armin was reading in his bed when Jean walked in to the room
Had had a black eye
Armin asked what happened
Jean muttered something along the lines of "stupid Jaeger"
'You need to stop getting into fights with Eren!'
"But,'
'I do not like seeing either of you hurt!'
'Sorry Armin.'
Jean ruffled Armin's hair and sat down next to him asking what he was reading
They read about Buddhism for the next couple hours
"Armin don't cry, I told you I'm okay." his voice had not held the urgency it always had.
"I told you, I'm going to take... you to the ocean." his voice became strained, "Yeah, the ocean, you really want to see the water I know that."
"Jean,"
"We'll see the ocean, we will I promise. Maybe not now, but we will. When the titans are gone. Even if it's some other world, some other life."
Gross sobs filled the silence, Jean was dying and all he was thinking about was Armin's well being; Armin's happiness.
"I-We'll do everything you want to do, but I need to sleep." One last set of coughs came through Jean's lips. "I'm just really tired."
Jean's eyes shut for a while but his grip was still there, he opened his mouth several times to try to say something, Armin knew he was fighting as hard as he could, all to say something to him.
Jean's eyes opened slightly, glossy with tears.
"Ar-min, pl-ease, be ha-" he coughed a few more times and his grip loosened completely, the tears caught in his eyes finally fell.
The world stopped for a moment.
The sobs became louder, he held Jean's blood soaked hand to his face
Jean had just died, he suffered horribly, bled out on Armin, trying to tell him to be happy without him.
Jean's life had faded away like tobacco smoke in the air.
Armin should have known, because death is as inevitable as the rain falling or the tides in the ocean crashing against the shoreline.
He just didn't think it would be this way.
I'm sorry, this was probably terribly shitty and I'm probably going to end up deleting it unless a get at least 1 good review, it's 3 in the morning and i was bored and having major Jearmin vibes and felt like being a depressing little shit
update: i fixed all the typos that i made when i was writing this half a sleep, the positive responses made me feel great as well :)