Armin hadn't showed up at school in a pair of days, which wasn't like him at all. And though professors and the Eremika couple seemed to know what was going on, they didn't tell.

Annie was worried about the boy. Last time she saw him, he had given her a rather sweet kiss on the cheek, which she kept recalling unintentionally.

"Hey, Jaeger" Levi asked after calling list, "how long is your friend planing to be absent?"

Eren's breathing stopped and his eyes glued to his notebook. Mikasa answered for him, "We don't know".
The teacher sighted before continuing with his class.

Annie was trying to focus on the lesson when a torn paper was tossed to her: rn't u going 2 ask?

She looked around till she met with a pair of green eyes. "Should I?" she asked in a whisper.

"Thought you might wanna know" he mumbled, frightened of being caught. He searched for her crystalized eyes, "we are going to visit him".

She stared back at him coldly, so that Eren couldn't find questions behind her gaze. He's jaw stiffed, "fuck it, Annie! Off with the crap!" he said out loud, which made Levi turn around and call them both off.

But Eren's words echoed inside her head for the rest of the classes and on their way to visit Armin. She followed close behind him and Mikasa, who kept looking back at her every two minutes, obviously resentful for what had happened during math.

She couldn't get them, nor any other couple for the matter; and she could easily blame her dad for that and for many other things. Annie shook him out of her head.

That bastard is a monster. He used to be drunk all the time when she was just a kid. He shouted at her mom and hit her every at any chance.
When Annie was eight her mother made their bags, took her and ran away; she bought a small, old apartment with the money she had saved working as a waitress.

The tree kids walked through the streets and by the main park 'till they reached a building Annie couldn't describe other than monstrous. "Thought we were visiting Armin" she said out of breath, wishing the boy wasn't in there.

Mikasa's cold gaze met hers. "We are" she said, "he has been straying here with grandfather".

Both kids noticed as the color drained from Annie's face. "Don't tell me you are hospital-phobic" he laughed, making Annie frown. She wasn't nosocomephobic, she just didn't like hospitals at all. She couldn't stand it farther than the ground floor, so Eren and Mikasa went ahead while she ordered some coffee at the cafeteria.

On that same place she had developed taste for bad coffee and old cookies. It had been seven years already and she still couldn't fill the hole in her stomach with cheep hospital food.

In front of her sat a young man with messy blond hair, and worn blue eyes who greeted her with broken voice; Annie couldn't find hers.

She saw her eight year old self in Armin: torn, scared and tired. She had to force herself not to look away.

He asked, "Are you alright?"
How could still be worried about others with his world being a fucking mess? "You aren't".

"Neither are you". He didn't ask, he had already seen though her. His eyes pleaded for an explanation, for a distraction from his own problems.

The necklace started to weight a ton; she took it off and put it over the table, where Armin could see it. It was a simple accessory: a leather strip tied to a piece of crystal. She started, "I spent my last days with my mother in this hospital".

After they bought the apartment, with the money left, her mother bought a crystal heart the size of her fist to decorate their room. Months later, Annie found her laying unconscious on the floor, surrounded by a bunch of crystals dyed scarlet. The little one called for an ambulance and in the hospital they were told that her mother had something pressing against her heart. They had no money for the surgery; it turned into a question of time.

They stud in silence before Armin reached for her neckless. The piece of crystal was big and sharp enough to cut his finger if he wasn't careful. "Why do you keep this?"

Once she returned home, she collected the piece along with the rest of the crystals as she cried and cursed. She answered, "It's a little reminder".

Armin leaned over the table, his blue eyes glued on her. He took the crystal between his fingers and pressed until a drop of scarlet liquid came out. "This" he said, "won't let you heal. What could you need to remember?"

"That I can't trust no one".
"So you don't trust me". Silence took over the place.

Armin stud up with effort, walked between the people and through the hallway to call for the elevator. He was so tired and had no condition to deal with other's problems; yet, he was so fucking curious of that damn girl' fucking life. The elevator's doors opened, he waited for the people to come out before being pushed inside. "Annie?"

The girl pushed the close button and turned towards him; took him by his shirt collar and pulled him down so his face was at the same height as hers and could see her ice cold glare. "I don't trust you" Annie mumbled, "you can see through me as if I was made of glass and yet you are kind to me and you have this way of being that makes me feel safe and… you make me vulnerable and that's why I don't trust you".

Armin blinked, "how is that my fault?"
The girl blushed and turned away, releasing her grip of his shirt and crossing her arms over her chest. "D-don't you fucking act as if you don't fucking get it!"

The boy stood right. "I don't know if I get it, Annie!" he shouted, taking her aback "You're so fucking confusing that I can't even think about you without getting a headache!". The elevator doors opened so he took a step outside.

"Screw you Arlert!"
The doors closed.