Heart To Leonhardt
A/N: I came up with a Aruani AU where both Armin and Annie are college students who are deaf and after sharing it on tumblr, it seemed to be a pretty well accepted prompt. Therefore, I spat this out. Enjoy.
Also, I do not want to romanticize deafness, or any disability. Truth be told, I doubt I have any sort of right to depict deaf people, since I'm not deaf myself. But I caved in this one time.
The screen on Annie's phone blared the time 1:29 AM in the dark bedroom. Taking a deep breath, that was more of a yawn, she looked down to her side to see a familiar blonde coconut resting on her pillow.
Annie and Armin's movie night went all right, better than she expected. She didn't believe that watching subtitled versions of Back To The Future would be interesting, especially with Armin tapping her shoulder every once in a while to sign to her a cool fact about the movie.
'Did you know how they made the hoverboard effect work?'
She would shake her head and wait for his response.
'They were directly attached to the actor's shoes while they were hooked up to a wire.'
She would then nod and both would go back to watching Marty McFly lose his temper and fuck shit up.
The evening went fine, but once the midnight hour was hit, Armin felt himself dosing off on Annie's pillow as Doc Brown and Clara Clayton shared believable chemistry. She didn't mind and let him rest, since he usually had a morning engineering class that was mandatory to attend. Annie, however, had most of her law lectures in the afternoon. Therefore, she could afford to stay up at this hour.
Seeing that the film was already done and that there was no physical way she could sleep in at the moment, let alone try to find some space in a small bed, (Goddamit, why did these dorm beds have to be so tiny?) Annie had to some sort of task to do.
Leaning over to her laptop, which sat at the foot of her bed, Annie awoke the device from its sleep and logged on. She closed the finished sci-fi trilogy and accessed one of her term papers, which needed to be finished at one point or another.
The screen turned bright white as she opened the document, which caused some light to shine right into Armin's face.
Being a light sleeper, he opened his eyes and propped himself onto is elbows. Looking over to Annie at work, he tapped her shoulder.
Once she turned around, Armin lifted up his arm and tapped his wrist, asking for the time.
Annie reached to her phone and clicked the side button, showing him the time.
Rubbing his eyes, Armin mouthed the word 'fuck' and laid back down. Knowing she was still watching him, he found the energy in his arms to start signing.
'How do you stay up this late?' He then leaned his head a bit up to see her reply.
'I require short amounts of sleep.'
'That's probably useful in university.' He then sat back up completely. 'What are you working on?' He shifted himself so he was placed right beside her.
'Essay,' she signed. 'If I'm going to be the world's first deaf lawyer, I have to make sacrifices.'
One could see her deafness as a disadvantage in the courtroom, but Annie had spent her life since she was 6 learning how to read people's body language. It would give her a certain edge to tell when people were lying through their own front teeth.
'Those who don't sacrifice will never change,' Armin communicated, a pleasant expression on his face. 'I like the way you think.'
'And those who do not prove themselves to the world will never be respected,' Annie replied, the subject of her signals suddenly becoming sour. She then went back to her work typing.
Armin processed that statement in his head for a moment before tapping her shoulder for her attention again. 'I don't think that's true.'
'I've been proving myself ever since I was 6, Armin.' The common glare on her face turned into a disgusted scowl. 'Proving to every fucker I met that I wasn't some retarded deaf girl who couldn't speak.'
'You don't have to! When I met you, I didn't think anything close to that!'
'Right, you probably thought that I was just some deaf girl.' Annie's bluntness was getting the worse of her.
'Well, yeah! That's why I started signing to you, because I knew you would at least be able to reply.' Armin sat in a criss-cross position and turned so he was facing her completely. 'But then we started talking more and I found someone who was more than just the sum of her parts.'
Annie looked down bitterly, refusing to reply to even look at him.
Armin did not feel like letting her ignore him. He reached over to tip her chin so she was looking in his direction. 'Know this, Annie, when you and I spent that entire night signing to each other in my bedroom, I shared secrets with you that I never told anyone else.'
Annie gave him a look that was the embodiment of being 100 percent done.'Aren't you and Eren best friends for life or whatever that scarf-chick told to me?'
'He is, but he's not…..' Armin wasn't sure how to continue, since he rarely discussed Eren in a negative way.
'One of us?' Annie offered with a sour expression.
'Technically. I mean, it's great that his dad taught him to sign for me, but I don't tell him everything. But sometimes, you just need someone like yourself to talk with.'
'Have you ever met another deaf person before me?'
Armin shook his head. 'Only my grandfather. I told you that about me. I told you everything about me.' His expression suddenly softened, 'And I only hope that most of what you said about you was true.'
Annie looked almost hurt, 'I would never lie to you.'
'I trust you, Annie. Even more than I trust myself.' He paused his hand motions for a moment, thinking of what to communicate next.
At this point of the night, they had been signing for so long that the time was way past the 2 AM mark. It was fine though, Armin could just grab a ride from Jean to get to his lecture.
'And I definitely respect you. Not because you replenish your energy with Reiner's tears on a daily basis, or will cement your place in history as the world's first deaf lawyer. But because when I sign with you, I'm with someone who listens me. Someone who understands me. Someone who validates my thoughts. Someone who makes me feel at home. Someone who can relate to me. Someone who's interesting. And dare I say it… someone who's got a heart.'
Annie's expression remained unchanged, as if she were processing the behemoth load Armin had just communicated to her.
'I'm not lying in bed with the boss ass bitch who impresses Professor Smith with every paper turned in, I'm lying in bed with Annie Leonhardt. And I really like Annie Leonhardt,' he finished off, hands becoming weak from all the thoughts he had expressed.
Taking a deep breath, Armin felt slightly relieved, and partially embarrassed. That morning, he only planned to hang out with Annie for a Back To The Future Marathon. He did not expect to be in this position, expressing the very feelings that flowed through his mind at the wee hours of the night.
The experience was partly uplifting and mostly tiring. A headache seared in Armin's skull, something that would most likely be fixed with slumber. Since Annie's face was still emotionless and stoic, he figured that going back to bed would suit the situation best.
He started rearranging himself in the proper sleeping position. But before he could, he could feel Annie stop him by putting her hands on his shoulders.
Armin stopped right away, looking into her lifeless icy eyes curiously. Her expression softened slowly as she held him, letting anticipation build up like carbonation in a bubbly drink.
Before Armin could at least mouth something to her, Annie moved her face forward to lean into an intimate and impassioned kiss more intense than her refusal to speak.
They had kissed each other before, like most people who were labelled as 'dating' would. But there was something particularly peculiar about this kiss. Everything felt more intimate, everything felt more close, everything felt so right.
The heat of a blush swelled in Annie's cheeks as Armin deepened their lip lock, slowly moving his tongue around in a certain way, almost as if he were trying to taste her. Without disconnecting them, he started shifting his position. He gradually pulled her small frame onto him before turning unhurriedly to the side, so that he could gently roll himself on top of her.
One hand on the headboard and the other placed onto her lustrous neck, Armin somehow found it in himself to end their kiss and pull away.
Opening her eyes, Annie was greeted to Armin's loving expression and warm touch, only being able to see him in her laptop's activated screen, which was slowly turning off due to lack of activity.
Somehow, Annie found a small degree of courage in herself to mouth to him her final words of the night.
'Thank you.'
And with that said, Annie did not have much else to do but entwine in Armin's physical touch, embrace his scent, and bask in the savoury taste of his kiss.
Originally posted on my tumblr
Disclaimer: I do not own a thing.