And thus nothing went.
"Are they not home?" Annie asked as Eren began to pound on the door, "because if not we're fucked."
"OPEN DAMMIT!" Eren shouted, "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"
"No you don't," Annie pointed out, "The lights are off."
Before Eren can retort back, the door swung open and a disgruntled Jean stood there, shirtless and eye patch-less.
Nobody moved.
"Wait…is that…?" Jean trailed off, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Yes," Annie interrupted, "And he's currently bleeding out and on the verge of snapping so let us in."
Eren didn't have time to respond as Annie shoved past Jean, dragging a silent Armin behind her.
"Is Marco home?" Eren asked.
"Yep," Jean replied, causing a wave of panic to course through the brunette, "but he'll be fine with it, I'm sure. I for one don't care as long as I don't get arrested…"
…what?
"Everyone loves Armin, huh?" Eren asked sarcastically, making his way inside when Jean made way for him.
"It seems so," Jean replied just as dryly, stepping into the living room with him. Meanwhile Annie had taken her hoodie back and was inspecting Armin's torn arms.
"Armin," she said, taking his bloody hands into hers. "Are you okay?"
He suddenly pushed her away and stood, pacing the room. "No," he said bluntly, " But I should go—"
"Oh no you don't!" Eren interrupted, "I didn't go through all of this trouble for you to self destruct again!"
"Why the hell do you care!?" Armin screamed suddenly, "After everything I did—why are you being nice to me!? It makes no sense!"
"Does it have to?" I demanded, "Murderer or not, you're still a human being—!"
"Eren—" Jean tried.
He was interrupted by a laugh. "Me? Human!? My humanity died with my sanity!" the blonde shot back.
"That's what you keep telling yourself!" the brunette shouted, "Because you're too weak to acknowledge that you need help!"
It was as if the universe stopped. Armin looked like he had just been slapped, Jean looked horrified, and Annie was slowly backing out of the room, eyes wide.
"W…weak…." Armin's look of shock morphed into a terrifying smile. "Y-y-you don't understand…"
He began to giggle, and Eren realized that he had made a horrible mistake.
"Y-you don't know what it's like…" he continued, falling on to his knees. "…everyone around me dies…everyone…" another laugh. "…b-being alone means not getting hurt! I-I can't kill people I care about if I don't care about them, right?! What's the point if I just end up killing them anyway!? Haven't I suffered enough!?"
"Armin—" Annie interjected, trying to reach for him.
Armin shoved her away. "Y-you can't see them!" he screamed, "I-I have to kill them so they won't hurt me anymore!"
Eren backed away, realizing that his constant screaming was going to wake everyone up—as well as the fact that Armin's train of thought seemed to have derailed off a cliff. First he was talking about his trauma, but seeing things? This must have ran even deeper than he first thought…
Then again, this did turn him into a mass murderer, didn't it?
"I-I'm sorry!" he wailed, grabbing his arms and tearing at him with his nails. "A-Auntie LET ME OUT!"
Now officially scared shitless as well as completely confused, Eren looked at Annie, who was staring right back at him.
What do we do? He mouthed.
Annie shook her head, clearly as confused and terrified as him.
"Look at what you did Yeager," Jean muttered, "H-how do we stop him?"
Suddenly loud music with equally deafening bass blasted from the TV.
"Marco!" Jean cried, "What the fuck is happening!?"
Eren turned to the freckled brunette, who unfortunately looked as lost as everyone else.
"I have no idea," he called over the music, "but at least the music will cover his screaming…"
The green-eyed brunette turned back to Armin, who had actually ceased screaming.
"Well," Marco said, turning down the music. "I think that might have helped a bit…"
"I…I'm sorry," he whispered, eyes dead and emotionless. "I…I shouldn't…" He laughed again, albeit weakly.
Sighing, Eren knelt down to him and tilted his head up by the chin to look him in the eye.
"Armin," he said seriously, "it's okay to cry in front of us."
"Eren…" Annie trailed off.
Armin's eyes widened as he stared at the brunette. "W-what?"
"You've cried in front of me before," he continued, "and I'm willing to bet you cried in Annie's presence too, huh?"
"I…I…" the blonde's eyes had begun to sparkle with tears and something else Eren couldn't quite name.
"I know you may think it's a sign of weakness, but having a stick up your ass and refusing help is also weakness too," Eren finished elegantly.
It looked like he was actually going to cry and let it all out as Eren recognized the sparkle in his eyes.
It was hope.
But as suddenly as it appeared, it withered and died.
Armin jerked his head away from his hand. "No," he murmured, "I-I can't fall for that again…"
Eren was taken aback by the unexpected reaction. "Armin—"
"Every time I get close to someone I hurt them…" the blonde continued, voice monotone and eyes devoid of life. "…because they hurt me…they always say that they want to help, but they just throw me back into their jaws to be devoured whole to save their skin…"
Thankfully Annie stepped forward when Eren was sitting there gaping like a fish. "Armin," she said, "let me look at your arms."
The blonde blinked and drew away from her. "Why?"
"You're bleeding out," Annie said, "and I'll be damned if I'm going to let you bleed to death."
Eren was starting to feel unsettled by the dead look in Armin's eyes as he stared at his torn arms.
"It'd be a peaceful death," he commented, "like falling asleep…"
Annie looked just as unnerved as Eren felt. "I thought you were afraid of death."
"I…" the blonde continued to stare as he let out a weak laugh. "…I thought I was too."
"Alright," Jean interrupted, "let's put a hold on all of this morbid talk and patch you up, alright?"
Armin stared as Jean took one of his arms and suddenly dabbed it with rubbing alcohol he had readied earlier.
He didn't respond.
Noticing this, Jean decided to talk anyway. "I know rubbing alcohol is a bitch but bear with it," he said, "its cleaning the wound."
Still no reply.
While Jean cleaned Armin's arms,, Eren was trying to make sense of the entire situation. Of all the people in the room, Jean had taken the initiative to clean the serial killer's wounds?
Everybody loves Armin, huh?
First Marco, then Annie, and now Jean? What the hell was happening? Even he was feeling sympathetic to the murderer, and he didn't know why. He had thought it was him apologizing that day in the bookstore, but he realized that it was much more than that—he was genuinely insane, but it's becoming clear that he doesn't want to be insane. He's obviously in pain, but is obviously too afraid to show it—until that night in the garage, that is. He wasn't even supposed to witness that, but Armin surely would have died if he wasn't there.
And let's not forget the hallucinations he was talking about earlier…
I have to kill them so they don't hurt me.
They say that they care about me, but they just throw me back into their jaws to be devoured to save their asses.
Don't put me in time out.
Suddenly it clicked.
"Annie," Eren said, "I need to talk to you."
"Well I'm right here," Annie replied, glancing at him suspiciously.
He glanced at the blonde, and she nodded. "The kitchen," she said, not even waiting for him as she disappeared into the next room.
Having no other choice, Eren followed.
