A little 3 am Hanji/Armin bro-bonding!
6. Doubts
Armin had never been the popular kid among his peers. For as long as he could remember, he had been a victim to teasing, name calling and many times, bullying. Both verbal and physical. Sometimes, when Armin lay in his bed, he hated himself. He hated himself for being so weak, for being such a burden to everyone.
Especially to Eren and Mikasa.
Mikasa was the strongest and most gifted soldier Armin had ever seen. She could cut down fifty titans and still not break a sweat. And Eren…
Armin shuddered.
There was a fire inside of Eren. His anger drove him to perform tasks well beyond someone his age should be able to manage. Through sheer willpower and determination, Eren could accomplish things even a fully grown adult would have a hard time doing.
Both of them had always been there for him whenever he had needed their help, chasing away his bullies while he cowered against the was he compared to these brutal forces of nature?
I hate holding you back. I hate being so weak, so pathetic. So useless.
"Armin? Armin!"
"W-what?" Armin was jolted out of his thoughts by Hanji Zoe's face, which was uncomfortably close to his own. "H-Hanji? What are you doing here? How did you...?" He spluttered as he tried to sit up in his bed without bumping his nose against hers.
"Oh, I picked the lock. That's not important, though!" She added hastily as Armin looked traumatized.
"I-Is everything okay? Eren? Mikasa?" He started panicking.
"Armin! Relax." Hanji plopped down on his bed. "Oh, it's softer and squishier than mine! This is so unfair." She wailed, bouncing on his bed.
"…"
"Right." She snapped her goggled into place. "I need your help, Armin."
"My help? At three in the morning? With that?"
Hanji mistook Armin's incessant questioning for enthusiasm and dived into the meat of the matter, her face flushing red with excitement. "I had drawn some blood samples from Eren the other day and I came to some interesting findings. I need someone to back my opinion hence I came to you!"
"M-Me? Why me?" Armin asked her meekly, patting down his blonde hair to regain some semblance to decency.
"Huh? Armin! You are the smartest person I know! If anyone will get it, it's you."
"You really believe so…?"
"I do." Hanji stressed, "Now, let's not waste any more of our precious time…"
"Oof!" Armin barely had time to right his balance as Hanji practically dragged him off his bed.
A small, tentative smile curled his lips upwards as he listened to Hanji blabber about titans with one ear as he followed her through the torch lit corridors. Maybe I am not so useless after all.
