A/N: Again, kind of set in the canon universe, not long after Armin shot that woman. Could be considered events after the first part, you can decide for your own.
Day 2 - Lucid Dreaming
Armin was dreaming. He could feel his eyes shut and his body breathing, but he knew that he was asleep. Cautiously, he opened his eyes. He tested out his left arm, curling his fingers into his palm to experiment. While he could control his fingers, he could hardly lift his head off the ground. From what he could see, they were at the hideout Levi's squad found last night. He saw Jean next to him, and Connie on his other side.
He knew he was dreaming, because there was no possible way for Connie to suddenly look over at him with the same face as a titan. He could not move, yet the face of the titan scared him half to death. He called out, and Jean sprang up from his sleeping position. Well, more like rose from the ground without moving his chest. He suddenly went from horizontal to vertical, and with swords now in his hands, that had come out of nowhere, he cut the head off of the Connie-titan.
Armin found he could now move, and got up to stand beside Jean. He spoke words to Armin that didn't register as words, but he knew in his head that Jean's point was basically to keep alert, there were more titans around.
Observing his surroundings, Armin saw the hideout just as it had been before they fell asleep. The fire in the center was blazing just as it had been before. Armin thought that they had put it out before they all went to sleep, but that was impossible. He must have been mistaken.
The light of the moon suddenly went out with the fire, and Jean and Armin were plunged into darkness. Armin felt his heart race, and Jean's presence beside him faded, leaving Armin all alone. He heard a quiet growl from behind him, but when he turned, he couldn't see a thing. A hiss issued from his left side, but he was still blind.
Armin heard various noises from around him, more than not they sounded agitated, like they were going to strike any moment. They kept getting closer, until he heard a shaky, rabid sort of breathing right behind his ear, the breath from the creature tickling his earlobe.
He jumped away from the creature, only to find himself in the grasp of a titan. Armin thrashed back and forth, but it's grip was too tight. It lifted him off the ground, and suddenly there was light. He screamed, the titan holding him was not like any titan he had ever seen, it had twisted features, red eyes, and it's mouth was dripping blood.
It moved Armin towards it's mouth, but stopped, as a flash shot behind it, and it fell to the ground. Jean had killed the nightmarish titan.
"Jean, thank you so much." Armin said, to which Jean smiled.
"No problem Armin, I…" but his words were cut off as a woman hiding in the shadows ran out and shot Jean in the face at point blank range. Blood spilled all over the ground, and Armin saw his body covered in blood. Jean was truly dead, and this time Armin had been unable to save him.
"No! No, no… no…" Armin cried as he felt the world fade into mist around him. He bolted upright all of the sudden, and he suddenly became aware of his true surroundings.
The hideout was the same as it had been but different. The fire was out, there was no titan, he had just been dreaming. The reality of the dream had frightened him, but Armin was still not settled when he came to. The events of the past week were still haunting him, along with that frighteningly vivid dream.
It was then that he noticed a hand on his shoulder, another one on his chin, and he recognized the mousy hair of his friend. The same one he had just seen murdered right in front of him. Without a word of explanation, Armin threw his arms around Jean, hiding his face in the crook of his neck, and he let the tears begin to fall. Jean's arms wrapped around him just as tight, worried about what his friend had just been dreaming.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" Jean asked quietly, stroking Armin's golden hair softly. Armin shook his head. Jean was itching with curiosity at what Armin had been dreaming, but not enough that he wanted his friend to relive whatever had just happened. From the way Armin had thrashed around in his sleep, accidentally knocking Jean in the head for an unexpected wake up call, Jean could tell that Armin must've had a nighmare. He cried out the word no several times right before he woke up, so it was most likely pretty bad.
"I watched you die. I couldn't save you this time." Armin cried, hot tears Jean only held him tighter, he knew Armin needed the support.
"Shh… You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Jean reassured him. Armin looked up at him for a moment, sharp blue eyes stained red with tears, nodding appriciatively, before pulling away.
"Armin, you did what you had to. Don't beat yourself up for this, you did the right thing. There was…" Armin interrupted when he placed a chaste kiss on Jean's forehead.
"I know what I did. I know that it will haunt me for as long as I live. But I also know that if I had to do it again, to kill a stranger to save you, I would do it in a heartbeat." Jean was speechless. he was glad that it was dark out and Armin couldn't see the massive blush that was spreading from Armin's actions and his words. He had come to terms with his feelings for the blond a while ago, but Armin never failed to make his heart race faster than if a titan were chasing him.
"Do you think you can go back to sleep?" Jean asked. Armin shook his head. He didn't want to risk having another lucid dream like that, it was just too real. It was the first time he had gotten one, and it was even worse than a usual run-of-the-mill nightmare.
"It looks like dawn isn't too far off, I'll stay up with you."Jean said, scooting closer to Armin, wrapping him up in a cloak they now shared. Morning came a little over an hour later, and when the rest of Levi's squad woke up, they were caught off guard.
Huddled under one cloak, Armin had fallen asleep curled around Jean, who had his arms wrapped protectively around him. Since no one in Levi's squad had the nerves to wake them up, they woke up an hour later, still holding on to each other as if the other one would be gone at any moment, but this time, there were no nightmares.