Finally people are starting to notice that Armin's getting buffer, not everyone's overly thrilled about it, enjoy :)
After three months of training with Levi Armin was beginning to feel a vast improvement. For one thing he could now get through an entire session without feeling the need to collapse by the end of it. The exercises no longer hurt as much and, unlike when he had first started, moving afterwards was no longer the momentous task it had been; now if he ended up on the floor he was able to get straight back up again.
Levi had also pushed him to revisit hand to hand combat from his basic training. 'When am I ever going to use this?' was Armin's first question when Levi had said that was the plan for the session.
'You ever come across someone like Leonhart again, this will give you the chance to try and take them down before they can transform'. That was a good point. Not everyone with Titan Shifter abilities was going to be like Eren; they weren't all going to be fighting on the side of humanity and they weren't all going to go with them willingly. Some were going to be like Annie and do anything and everything they could to keep their identity a secret. Really it was only by sheer luck and using his head that Armin had figured out that it was her in the first place – if he hadn't they would still be shooting in the dark.
As he hadn't done hand to hand combat since basic training his first attempt had been rather pathetic, with him flat on his back before he could even land a hit on Levi. Each time Levi had knocked him to the floor he had forced himself to get back up and try again but he still hadn't managed to land a hit of his own. That night he had gone back to the bunks bruised and feeling defeated. The next day Levi had taken him through some basic steps and once he had mastered those he was able to build on those skills having forgotten everything he had previously known.
With the addition of hand to hand combat in his training regime he no longer felt the need to make up an excuse for why he looked like he had gone four rounds being someone's punching bag. Whenever anyone asked him what had happened to him he would just answer 'training' and move on. Most people paid it no mind.
As well as training with Levi he had taken to doing exercises of his own to build up his muscles. In the bathroom that only he seemed to use there was a bar attached to the wall that Armin assumed a shower curtain had once hung. It was rusty as hell but it was still firmly attached to the wall and would take his weight without too much protesting so he had been using it to do pull up exercises. It had filled him with pride to see the look of surprise on Levi's face one morning when he had managed to do thirty without even thinking about it.
The lack of field action meant that Levi was the only one who had seen any real improvement in him until he was hand-picked, by Levi, to tag along on a mission with him and a few others outside the wall on a capture or kill expedition. Hange had been after new test subjects and Levi had said that it would be a good chance for Armin to put his new skills to the test. When they arrived back Armin had bumped into Connie in the stables and knew that, by the time he had cleaned himself off, everyone would know that he had been out with the elite.
"So are you one of the new Levi Squad now?" Connie asked that evening at dinner.
"No," Armin replied, "he just asked if I wanted the chance to go out on the mission with them. It's not like it was a planned thing; Squad Leader Hange just wanted to dissect things again and I just happened to be passing as they were getting ready." That was only partially true, he had only been passing but Levi had given him a cryptic message about making sure that he was passing by the stables at that exact time during the previous day's training.
"Yeah but still," Connie gushed, "you got to ride with the big leagues. I thought it was only Eren or Mikasa who would get to do that." Armin shot a glance in Eren's direction but he seemed to be paying no attention to anything but his food.
"So what was it like out there?" Jean asked.
"Honestly? Kind of terrifying," Armin replied.
"How so?" Jean asked.
"Well you know when we were on the fifty-seventh exterior mission and we got ambushed by Annie and a load of other Titans?" Armin asked. A few grim nods served as a reply, none of them really liked talking about the fact that it was Annie who had tried to kill them all. "Well it was kind of like that but we actually went looking for Titans."
"So what happened?" Sasha asked.
"We basically found a nest of them," Armin said. "There was about twenty or thirty of them and they were all sort of huddled together in this one place – no idea why so Squad Leader Hange told us to bring at least some of them back alive so we could try and work that out. Anyway we're trying to get as close as we can without alerting them to our presence but I think they could just smell us because everything was going fine and then we've got thirty Titans all trying to climb over each other for their next meal."
"Oh my god that must have been terrifying!" Sasha cried.
"Did you level any?" Connie asked giving Armin a nudge.
"Yeah," Armin replied. "Kind of had to."
"How many?" Jean asked, expecting the answer to be one.
"Six or seven," Armin said after a moments thought. "I wasn't really counting so I can't be sure but I think it was around that."
"By yourself?" Jean asked, his jaw almost on his plate. This couldn't be the same Armin who cried at Trost and nearly got eaten because he could barely move from fear.
"Yeah," Armin shrugged. "I mean I got lucky with a couple of those because they were only five metres and Captain Levi blasted through most of the rest but I think that was about my total by the end of it."
"Seriously?" Jean asked. "How did you do it? I mean, no offence but you're not exactly..." However he had planned to finish that sentence was left hanging in the air.
"Nah man he's been getting buff," Connie said, filling the silence before it could become too awkward. He turned to Armin. "Take off your jacket and show him."
"Do I have to?" Armin asked with a laugh.
"Yes," Connie said.
"Fine." Armin rolled his eyes as he took his jacket off. Jean's jaw seemed to drop even further as he looked at him. Now that he had more muscles his shirt was tighter than it had been and it clung to his biceps and across the top of his chest. While he was still skinny he was more defined and it was obvious to anyone who looked at him that he was well built. Sasha's hands closed around one of his biceps and she gave it a squeeze.
"Hello," she gasped and there was a slight lilt to her voice that Armin had only ever heard when she was talking about food. "Tense it," she ordered and Armin complied. She giggled, squeezing his arm again. "Hiding a fair amount of muscle under that shirt."
"Yeah take it off, let's have a look," Connie said and Armin just raised an eyebrow at him.
"Guys we're eating," he said, "I'm not doing that."
"Aww come on," Connie whined.
"Why do you want him to get his kit off so badly, homo?" Jean asked, thankfully taking the heat off Armin.
"That's not..." Connie began to protest.
"Whatever," Jean cut him off, "if you're going to start perving on people in the shower who aren't Sasha I'm going to start showering somewhere else."
"Sorry back up a second, what?" Sasha turned to Connie and stared at him with an open mouth. Connie flushed scarlet and turned to glare at Jean.
"You're a fucking dead man," he hissed.
"Fucking bring it," Jean shot back.
"Well as fun as this has been," Armin chuckled, "I have a mission briefing I have to attend so I'll see you all later."
He got to his feet and left the dinning hall leaving Jean and Connie fighting, as much as they could get away with in a crowded room filled with officers, and Sasha looking confused and embarrassed.
He made his way down the corridor in the direction of Erwin's office for the briefing. When they had returned Erwin hadn't looked overly happy and Armin had a sneaking suspicion that was because he either hadn't been made aware of the fact that they had gone or because Levi had taken a rookie cadet with him without permission. He was about half way down the next corridor when he heard someone calling his name.
"Armin!" He turned and saw Eren running down the corridor towards him and smiled. Since he had gotten back it had felt like Eren had been purposefully avoiding him.
"Hey," he said, smiling, once Eren had reached him. "You okay?"
"Yeah, Mikasa and I were going to hang out and take a walk around the castle, maybe see if we can get on the roof and look at the stars or something, if you wanted to join us," Eren said. Armin felt his heart skip slightly. It felt like ages since he had been able to spend any significant time with Eren and Mikasa. Either Eren was always being put through tests to do with his Shifter powers, and it felt odd spending time with Mikasa when he wasn't there, or Armin was training with Levi. He was about to open his mouth to say yes but he caught sight of Levi rounding the end of the corridor and suddenly remembered where he was supposed to be going.
"I'm sorry," he said sadly, "I can't."
"How come?"
"I've got this mission briefing and I've kind of got to go," he replied. "I think Commander Erwin's pissed that I went along."
"Yeah why did they take you on a mission like that?" Eren asked, his brow furrowing angrily. A part of Armin wondered if Eren had been thinking about saying 'and they didn't take me' but he didn't say anything else so he didn't mention it.
"Like I told the others," he said, "it was just luck. I just happened to be passing at the right time and Captain Levi asked if I wanted some more field experience."
"Yeah but that still doesn't make sense," Eren said. "I mean you're not really one for the fighting and stuff."
"I have as much field experience as anyone else from the 104th," Armin said defensively, "including you."
"I'm not saying you don't have field experience," Eren said trying to back track and correct his obvious mistake. "I'm just saying that some of us in that class were stronger than others, like Reiner and Bertolt."
"Well I've been training and I've been getting stronger so don't worry about me; I can take care of myself."
"I'm not saying you can't!" Eren said putting his hands up in defence to the glare Armin was levelling him with. He sighed and let his head drop. "Look I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to come out like that. It's great that you got to go out on a mission, I'm just being an arse."
"No arguments there," Armin chuckled giving him a playful punch on the shoulder.
"Do you maybe want to come and hang out after your done with the briefing?" Eren asked.
"Sure," Armin smiled. "I'll just have to ask Captain Levi when he next wants me down on the training ground before I leave."
"Surely that won't be tonight," Eren said, "you've only just got back."
"I don't know," Armin shrugged, "it might be. He might want to run through some blade techniques while it's still fresh in my mind but I can..." He stopped suddenly at Eren's barely disguised eye roll. "What?"
"All you ever do is train these days," Eren said. "You can take some time off every once in a while."
"That's not true," Armin said. "It's just that when I'm not training you're doing tests with Squad Leader Hange so we don't run in the same circles anymore. Besides what do you mean 'take some time off'?"
"I'm just saying you can afford to relax every once in a while," Eren replied. "It's not like there's been an attack for a while, not since Stohess anyway."
"Where is this coming from?" Armin asked narrowing his eyes. "Because this isn't the Eren I knew who said that we had to be prepared for anything because an attack could happen at any time and it sure as hell isn't the Eren who said he wanted to be strong enough to slaughter every last Titan that crossed his path."
"I still do," Eren said and there was a definite edge to his voice, like Armin's words had damaged his pride.
"Then why are you acting so strangely?"
"I just..." Eren stopped himself, as if he were trying to find the right words. "I just don't get where this sudden obsession with training has come from."
"It's hardly an obsession, I just wanted to become strong enough so that I didn't have to rely on people like you and Mikasa in a fight."
"And what's wrong with that?" Eren asked, on the defensive.
"I've been relying on you two my whole life," Armin replied, "surely it's my time to prove that I am actually worth something as a soldier. You two are the reason I enlisted and I can't lean on you forever. I'm not anybody's burden."
"That's not what I meant," Eren said. "I just didn't realise it was now your life's mission or something to go out there and get yourself killed."
"That's what I'm trying to prevent by getting stronger and becoming a better fighter!" Armin cried. "Look we weren't all born skilled fighters like Mikasa and we weren't all gifted with special powers like you, some of us actually have to work for it."
"You could have asked me for help," Eren said turning away and looking at the wall. Armin saw the indignant hurt in his eyes and it suddenly dawned on him why Eren was being this pissy about it.
"Are you jealous?" he asked.
"What? No!" Eren snapped, just furthering to prove Armin's point.
"You are; you're jealous that I went to Captain Levi instead of asking you for help," he stated.
"So what?" Eren asked petulantly. "I've seen the bruises you come back with; he's too hard on you."
"And neither you nor Mikasa would have been hard enough," Armin replied. "He's a highly skilled fighter and I needed to ask someone who wouldn't let me give up because it looked like it was going to be too hard." He sighed, placing a hand over his eyes in frustration before looking up at Eren again. "Look I'm sorry this is just something I need to do on my own right now. I'm getting better and I might not have to do it so much anymore."
"Whatever," Eren snapped and pushed passed him, heading off down the corridor to go and find Mikasa. "Let me know when you've finished being Levi's lapdog."
Armin waited until Eren had turned down the corridor and he was alone. He sighed, placing his head in his hands and leaning back against the wall, sliding down it till he was sitting on the floor. He felt like crying. He had thought that Eren would be happy for him; getting stronger and no longer having to worry about if he was alright during an attack but apparently he had thought wrong. He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself and stop himself from breaking down completely when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Levi standing over him. He drew the back of his hand over his eyes, just in case he was actually crying, and quickly got to his feet, taking a steadying breath and saluting.
"Captain," he said, his voice thick but still steady. "I'm sorry Sir I shouldn't be sitting in the corridor. I was on my way to Commander Erwin's office and..." He stopped. How did he finish that sentence? He had seen Levi round the corner before but he had no idea how much he had seen or heard.
"It's alright," Levi said. "I heard."
"Oh..."
"Yeager's so obnoxiously loud I'm sure a lot of people heard."
"Oh..." Armin could feel tears pricking the corner of his eyes. Maybe because it was the first fight he had had with Eren since they were about seven but knowing that other people had probably heard them as well just made it worse. The lapdog comment had been particularly hurtful and Armin really wished that Levi hadn't heard that. He looked at the floor, willing himself not to cry – you're a fucking soldier damn it – but looked up when he felt the hand on his shoulder give him a squeeze.
"It's hard," Levi stated, "when people who used to be stronger than you slowly start to realise that you're becoming stronger than them."
Armin nodded. He didn't trust himself to speak or even to open his mouth, thinking that if he did all the hurt Eren's words had caused would come pouring out of him and he wouldn't be able to stop. Levi seemed to notice and gave Armin's shoulder another squeeze.
"Come on," he said, "let's go get this shit over with with Erwin and then we can go somewhere and talk."
"Yes Sir," Armin said nodding. He swallowed, pushing down the hurt and anger for the moment. He would get through the mission briefing, if he was going to be reprimanded for going along then he would take that punishment too, and then he could let everything come pouring out of him.
"And if Erwin gets pissing about you coming along with us he can go fuck himself," Levi added. "You did well today."
"Thank you Sir," Armin replied chuckling softly, despite himself.
He saw the corner of Levi's mouth twitch up slightly into the faintest hint of a smile – a look Armin very rarely saw on his face but it always made Armin happy when he did. Levi gave his shoulder another squeeze before setting off down the corridor in the direction of Erwin's office. Armin followed. He could not have been more grateful to have Levi there for support than if he had just saved his life. He took a deep breath, feeling just that little bit stronger; if he could handle Eren being difficult about him riding out with Levi then he could handle Erwin no problem.
