Note: This came about because I wanted to do a hurt/comfort story that played on Armin's strengths, because my boy is smart, damnit! Listen, I love protective Eren (and Mikasa!) and I love putting Armin in situations where we can have a protective Eren, but I wanted a story that would a) have all of that and b) actually do justice to the fact that Armin has brains and knows how to use them. Because he is a smart cookie. And I love him for it.
Also, I just really wanted to do a chapter fic for this fandom.
"Eren…" Armin breathed. He shut his eyes and tried to ignore the sharp knife point resting just beneath his jugular. Which was hard to do when any increase in pressure could easily result in him choking to death on his own blood. "Don't do it."
So far, Eren hadn't looked at him, but Armin knew he was listening. Instead, his eyes stayed fixed on the man holding him hostage.
He hadn't moved either, except fractionally when he'd lowered his hand away from his mouth once he saw the position Armin was in.
Maybe that was for the better.
Transforming here and using his titan would be all the excuse the military police needed to finally execute Eren as an enemy of humanity and both of them knew this.
It was pressing on Armin's mind. He certainly hoped it was pressing on Eren's as well, though it didn't look like it was.
Eren would be too focused on Armin's position to even consider his own. That was just how he was.
The hand on his elbow gripped tighter, pulling him back a step.
Armin staggered.
The knife pressed harder and Armin felt a sharp sting and the warmth of a thin rivulet of blood sliding down his throat.
"Don't do it, Yeager," the man at Armin's elbow repeated. His tone was low and mocking. "Will you listen to your friend and get him killed. Is that what you want?"
"I'll kill you," Eren spoke for the first time. "If you hurt him, I swear I'll kill you."
"But until then you'll do exactly what we tell you, yeah?" The man turned his head, rubbing his nose against Armin's hair. "I'd hate to damage something as pretty as this."
Armin cringed away from him.
"Stop it!" Eren snapped.
"You're not much in a position to tell me to do anything, Yeager," the man said, but he did stop, much to Armin's relief. "Are you ready to play nice? Good. I want you to get your hand away from your mouth. I don't think you'll try anything when I have your friend here, but I don't want to take any chances."
Eren snarled, but dropped his hand to his side anyways.
"Eren…" Armin protested.
"Shut up!" He cuffed Armin just above the ear.
Armin yelped and Eren shouted, "Hey!"
"Klaus, secure him."
A second individual, a large man with an oily, untrimmed mustache and a beer gut, appeared on Armin's right. He stepped behind Eren, dragging both hands behind his back.
Once Eren was secured, the man lowered the knife from Armin's throat.
Armin barely had the time to feel relieved before his hands were also yanked behind his back, bound together at the wrists with a coarse rope.
"You're not really the military police," Armin didn't know what possessed him to speak in that moment, but once the words were coming, they didn't stop, "are you?"
The man paused in his movements and Armin flinched before he could control the impulse, wondering if this was going to result in another blow or something worse.
Instead, a long pause followed his bold statement.
And then what he got was a laugh.
"They told me you were bright, kid." With a final tug, he secured the last knot and stepped back. "You want to tell me how you reached that conclusion?"
Eren's eyes flickered questioningly to Armin.
"Your uniform," Armin answered quickly. In truth, he hadn't been sure. It was their reaction that had confirmed his initial suspicions. "It's the same one the military police wear, but it's not kept well. Your form is sloppy too. You're just a couple of common thugs, aren't you?"
The moment he said it, Armin knew he was wrong.
They weren't military police, but they weren't common thugs either.
They knew who Eren was or, more specifically what he was, and they had come up with a scheme to obtain him using Armin as their hostage and with the military police uniforms to ensure that any passerby who happened across the scene wouldn't question what they saw too deeply.
This was bad.
This was very, very bad.
Without warning, the man holding him pushed his wrists too far up his back and Armin cried out, standing on his toes to try and alleviate the sudden pressure.
"Is that all?" he asked, leaning in close again. "That evidence is subpar at best. You can't even call it evidence."
"Stop it," Eren snapped, lunging forward. The man at his elbow held him back. "Armin…" His eyes were wide and frantic.
"Listen," someone else stepped in, "we need to get them out of here. This place is pretty secluded, but there's still a chance someone could walk in on this."
Armin's captor released his wrists. He gasped with relief, dropping back to the balls of his feet.
The man quickly caught him at the elbow, shoving him along before him.
Armin cast one frightened look over his shoulder at Eren before the man nearly thrust him off his feet.
"Eyes in front."
There was a covered wagon just ahead and Armin knew what it was for. It was meant to take him and Eren away, hidden so no one can stop whatever is about to happen.
What would they do, once they have them so far away that no one can help them? Kill them?
His knees were trembling and he staggered once, almost losing his balance when the man jerked him again.
Armin shut his eyes tightly. He was well aware that his terror was obvious and that he was just making this harder on Eren.
If he were Mikasa… they'd never be in this position in the first place. She'd never let herself be so vulnerable as to become a hostage.
No one would dare touch her. No one would even dream of it.
Only he could find himself in this position.
He was forced into the carriage and shoved immediately to the ground. With no way to catch himself, he hit the floor, smashing his chin.
Behind him, Eren yelled something indiscernible.
A hand grasped him by the collar, hauling him up, and he was shoved back and seated at the side.
"Let me go!" he heard Eren snap as he was undoubtedly wrestled into the wagon as well. "Armin!"
There was the harsh sound of flesh meeting flesh.
Armin winced.
A hand tangled in hair, dragging his head back.
Armin's eyes snapped open and he suddenly found himself staring at Eren.
Even with his hands bound behind his back and blood trickling down his chin from a newly split lip, Eren still had a fire burning behind his eyes.
"Maybe you didn't quite judge the situation correctly." Armin was quickly pulled against someone's chest, a rough hand covering his mouth. "You act out and this one pays for it. What should we break for this infraction? An ankle perhaps?"
A third kidnapper gripped his ankle with strong hands. He was smaller than the other two, with a nasty, weaselly look about his face.
He noticed Armin staring and winked with a leer.
Maybe he should have struggled, maybe he should have kicked out, done anything to fight back, but all he could do was breathe harshly through his nose, eyes blown wide with terror.
"No!" Eren lurched against his captor's hold, but they kept him back. Nostrils flaring, he glared at them. "Stop it! Don't do it!"
"I don't know." The man holding Armin against him drew the words out slowly. The hands on his ankle tightened and Armin squeezed his eyes shut with a quiet whimper. "Maybe this will take the fight out of you, Titan Boy."
He didn't want to watch his own leg break. Just the sound of the bone snapping would be bad enough.
"Stop. Please." Surprised, Armin opened his eyes. Eren had stopped fighting them and they'd pulled him back to his feet. "I'll do what you want." Armin had never heard Eren sound so defeated before in his life. He didn't even think Eren- loud and defiant Eren- was capable of feeling defeat. "Just don't hurt him."
"Is that so?" the man with the rough hands asked slowly. "Maybe I'll do it anyways. I think I want to hear him scream."
"You-!" Eren lunged, but was held back again. A hard blow to the side of his head had him dropping to his knees.
Armin winced in sympathy.
The man drove his knee into Eren's gut.
Eren doubled over, coughing.
Armin shouted into the man's hand, twisting his head and trying to break free. An increase in pressure on his ankle served as enough warning for him to stop.
"That's enough." The interruption came from a man who was slender and unassuming in his appearance, but there was no mistaking the authority in his tone.
He nodded at Rough Hands and Weasel. "Let him go," he said. "He's going to have to walk eventually and I don't want a crippled prisoner on our hands."
Reluctantly, Weasel released his hold on his ankle and the rough hands were pulled away from his mouth.
Armin sucked in a tearful breath. "Eren…"
He was shoved back to the ground a moment later, forced to sit with his back against the wagon's side.
"Armin!" Eren's eyes searched Armin over for any injury even though he had been there the whole time and knew Weasel hadn't actually hurt him. His ankle still throbbed, a reminder of just how tight Weasel's grip had been, but he would still be able to walk on it. That was what mattered.
His own captor wrestled him to his feet, dragging him across from Armin and forcing him back to the floor.
The apparent leader stepped up onto the wagon, stopping to crouch directly in front of Eren.
"Before you try anything," he cautioned, "I'd advise you to think of your friend. I don't wish to have him harmed, but I will if you give me no other option. Is that clear?"
Eren clenched his teeth and said nothing.
He sighed, holding a hand up to signal Rough Hands and Weasel. "I said, is that clear?"
"Yes," Eren finally ground out, begrudgingly. His eyes flickered to Armin. It was enough for Armin to catch the brief flash of panic at whatever wordless threat had just been made.
"Well, well," he said, gripping Eren's chin and tilting his face from side to side. "I seem to have gotten my hands on my very own titan."
Eren glared, lips pressed into a thin line, but he endured it.
Armin hated knowing that it was for his sake.
"Don't you care?" He finally dared to break the silence. "Eren might be the last chance humanity has against the titans." Desperation made his voice crack. "Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
In truth, his plea was more selfish than that.
Eren was his friend. For years, he had been his friend, but he had been more than that too- his protector and his confidante.
Saving humanity was an admirable goal, but Armin really just wanted to save his best friend.
Please don't hurt him.
His throat closed up and refused to let him speak the words.
This man was speaking as if Eren was something to possess and not a human being.
My very own titan.
The words sent a chill up his spine.
The man angled his head to catch Armin with a sly smile. "Humanity?" he asked. "You think I care about something so… lofty as 'saving humanity?' As if humanity can be saved. And you… so arrogant of you to assume that your friend here could do the saving." He released his grip on Eren's chin and turned to face Armin completely. "It's about time you learned there's only one thing that matters to folks like me: money."