Author's note: fill for Aruani week, day 3: elysium.

Armin stared over the dark, crashing water, awed. It was bigger than he ever imagined. Bigger than anything he could have ever imagined.

So this was the ocean.

He breathed in deeply. The air smelled different to what he was used to. It was indescribable, and overwhelming, and Armin loved it.

Armin was standing on a sheer rock ridge overlooking the water. The sun had almost set behind the grey horizon, but there was still enough light to see all around him. The waves were breaking against the rock a few meters below him, and he felt the spray land lightly on his cheeks every time a wave crashed. He opened his mouth and let his tongue hang out as he waited for the next wave.

The spray flew up, misting over his face and tongue. He could taste salt in the air. He was tasting air.

Armin laughed giddily at the strange thought. He threw back his head and clutched his stomach and rolled on the ground and laughed and laughed and laughed.

"What's so funny?"

Wiping tears from his eyes, Armin looked around for the source of the unexpected sound. When he saw Annie watching him from the sand dunes behind him, he smiled up at her.

"You can taste the air – isn't that just fantastic Annie?"

Armin was overtaken by another fit of hysterical laughter as Annie watched on, bemused. She understood what he meant, but couldn't see what was so funny about it. Stepping around him carefully so as not to be knocked over, Annie approached the cliff edge and looked out, breathing in.

The sweet scent almost overwhelmed her as she looked down. Flowers were blooming by the thousands. The entire field of swirling, blooming colour, stretched on endlessly under a warm, noon, sun. She had been looking at it from another cliff face when she had heard Armin's laughter and followed the sound through the thick forest, to find him rolling on the ground near the cliff's edge.

Quickly glancing over her shoulder to make sure he wasn't looking, Annie stuck out her tongue. A gentle breeze blew up from the field and swept over her, rustling her hair. Armin was right as usual, the air was flavoured. She tasted honey and roses on the wind, like a bouquet of lavender and poppies and a thousand other scents were dancing around her in the air.

Annie was so lost in the scents and the view that she didn't notice when Armin finally stopped laughing.

Armin lay on the sand, marvelling at the way the water stretched across the horizon endlessly. He played with the sand, letting the grains run through his fingers as he looked, wondering what might be on the other side. Unlike the restrictive Walls that he had grown up behind, Armin thought that this great barrier felt like freedom. He could step into it and go anywhere.

Rolling to his knees, he stood up off the sand and approached Annie. To Armin's eyes she seemed to glowing in the lingering evening light. She was standing at the cliff edge, looking out over the ocean, crying. Smiling through his own tears, Armin reached up to brush them away from her cheek.

Annie started back in surprise.

"Armin, what are you - "

"You're crying."

Annie raised her hand to her cheek, surprised to discover it was wet. She had been so enamoured by the flowers that she hadn't even noticed when she had started crying. She blushed, and began wiping her face hurriedly, but stopped when Armin grasped her hands in his.

Raising her hands to his lips, he kissed her fingers, slowly but firmly. Annie was surprised, but at the same time, not surprised at all. She felt no need to question his actions, so just looked into his eyes, allowing him to continue.

Armin carefully kissed every one of her fingers, before planting soft kisses on both her palms, never breaking their eye contact. Annie forgot about the field behind them as her whole awareness shrunk to Armin's hands, lips and eyes. The roaring waves fell silent as Armin listened to Annie's breathing.

With two final kisses on her wrists, Armin lowered her hands, loosening his grasp but maintaining hold of her wrists. Annie twisted her arms to grasp his wrists tightly in her hands.

They remained standing on the cliff edge, backs to the Elysium Fields, lost in each other for an eternity that felt like less than a moment.