Childhood Crush

A five-year-old Sasha Blouse was walking down the mountain that she lived on with her family, her hand firmly gripping her father's as she looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings. The trees that would normally surround the path started to lessen as Sasha could clearly see some of the buildings of the town. Sasha's father, Artur, looked down and noticed that his daughter was slightly shaking from fear of this new environment, and he responded by rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb. Sasha looked up at her dad and smiled before nuzzling the side of his stomach as the two finally made it into town.

"I know you're nervous Sasha, but we won't be long. We just need to get some vegetables for Mama's soup," Artur explained. Sasha's nervousness quickly came back in full force as she hid behind her father's back when she saw a lot of people walking around the town square. Artur ruffled Sasha's hair to try and calm her down, but Sasha still wouldn't look around at the people walking about. Artur pulled Sasha further into the town square, and the father/daughter duo arrived at the vegetable station with Sasha drooling at the freshly picked tomatoes and carrots that were on display.

"Hello there, can we have two vines of tomatoes, one bush of carrots…," Artur began asking as while Sasha was waiting for her dad to finish, a couple of people were walking by, and bumped into her, pushing Sasha away from her father. Sasha tried to grab her father's hand again, but she was once again pushed away inadvertently by some kids running by her. When Sasha turned around, she couldn't find her Dad; the town square got so crowded that Sasha couldn't even see her father's hat.

"D…daddy?" Sasha asked, her voice quietly trembling due to her growing fear of being in town without her dad. Sasha frantically looked around while walking around, but she couldn't see or hear her Dad. Tears began flowing from Sasha's eyes, with Sasha trying to rub the tears out of her eyes with her fists. Sasha continued walking through the town square, and despite her eyes getting blurry from tears, tried to look around for Artur. However, Sasha was quickly stopped when she bumped right into someone's chest, and right when she hit the floor, Sasha rolled onto her stomach, and put her hands over her head in fear.

"I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO!" Sasha yelled out, her crying coming back in full force as rather than a punch or a kick like she thought she was going to get, Sasha felt a comforting hand on her shoulder. For a second, Sasha thought that her father had found her, and she was about to bounce up for a hug, but then Sasha noticed that the hand on her shoulder was small, as small as hers. When Sasha looked in front of her, she noticed a blonde-haired boy with a book underneath his armpit and a brown hat on his head.

"Oh no! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to run into you," the boy responded, taking his hand off Sasha's shoulder and offering a hand to help Sasha up. Sasha looked tentatively at the hand in front of her before nodding, and taking the hand, allowing the boy to pull Sasha up to her feet.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you my name. My name's Armin. Armin Arlert."

"I'm Sasha, Sasha Blouse," Sasha said, starting to feel a little more comfortable around this blonde-haired stranger that looked to be the same age as she was.

"Are you OK?" Armin asked as he pulled Sasha away from the crowd, and into an alleyway, where there were no other people and the noise that had contributed to Sasha's fear had greatly decreased.

"Yeah…," Sasha mumbled while looking at her shoes. It looked as though the boy was about to say something else, but the three boys that pushed her earlier came running back and smacked the book out of Armin's grasp.

"Hey, heretic! You're still reading that garbage about the outside world!?" one of the bullies from earlier mocked, pushing Armin down as he tried to get his book. Sasha looked up at the bullies and glared at them before jumping up, and without really thinking, kicking one of the bullies hard enough to send him crashing into the wall back first. Sasha looked like she was going to apologize for going a little too far, but the bullies' two goons came running after her, so Sasha decided to forgo the apology and focus on dodging the two other meatheads. Armin looked on with eyes sparking in wonder as Sasha slid between one of the bullies' legs, sprung back up to her feet, and hit another Spinning Kick to the back of his head, knocking him down to the ground face first.

"You're dead, girlie!" the last remaining bully yelled out. Sasha got back to her feet, grabbed the running bully by his arm, and threw him into the trash, sending him crashing into the lead bully.

"Listen up, you bullies! You better leave my new friend alone! If you don't, then I'll get REALLY angry!" Sasha exclaimed. The lead bully looked as though he was going to say something, but Sasha took a couple of steps forward, causing the two conscious bullies to get back to their feet, and run off while picking up their unconscious friend off of the floor. Sasha smirked at the bullies running around, turning around to a still star-struck Armin looking at her with his bright blue eyes.

"Wow! That was amazing! You're almost as strong as Mikasa!" Armin exclaimed in wonder as Sasha scratched the back of her neck in embarrassment as her cheeks blushed a bright pink.

"It's not that big of a deal, it's just something my Daddy taught me," Sasha responded. However, mentioning her Dad again seemed to put Sasha in a trance, which Armin immediately took notice of. Sasha started staring at the wall with a blank expression before Armin grabbed her hand, looking at her right in her chocolate brown eyes that matches her hair.

"Ummm…Sasha, are you OK?" Armin asked, not being prepared for the waterfall of crying that erupted out of Sasha. Rather than plug his ears from the piercing sound of Sasha's bawling, Armin decided to continue holding onto her hand, remembering what his Dad did to his Mom to calm her down, and rub the back of her hands with his thumbs. "Sasha? What happened? What's wrong?"

"I CAN'T FIND MY DADDY!" Sasha cried out, using her free hand to try and wipe the free-flowing tears from her eyes. Armin looked on with empathy, as he'd probably have the same reaction if he couldn't find his parents either. Armin then decided to hold Sasha's hand with only one of his, led her out of the alleyway, and began walking towards the same town square that Sasha had just left.

"I'll help you find him," Armin offered, looking through the crowd of people to see someone who was missing a child. Sasha looked at Armin with a smile on her face and nodded at him.

"Thank you."

"Of course. But…I have to ask…what does he look like?"

"Ummm…he has a blue shirt, a brown hat, a small beard, and hair that's brown like mine," Sasha explained, trying her best to rack her five-year-old brain for some useful information about her dad. Armin nodded and continued looking through the crowd, leading Sasha deeper and deeper in the crowd as Sasha helped Armin by looking through the right side of the crowd, which Armin couldn't due to Sasha's head being in the way. After ten minutes of nothing, Armin and Sasha headed back to the vegetable stand where Sasha lost her dad, and sure enough, Armin pointed at a man with a hat, blue shirt, and small beard, who looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

"Sasha! Is that your Dad!?" Armin asked excitedly as Sasha turned straight ahead, and gasped when she saw Artur looking worried and trying to ask people if they had seen her daughter.

"DADDY!" Sasha screamed out in happiness as she ran out of Armin's grasp, and jumped into his chest for a hug just as he turned around. Artur smiled and hugged Sasha back, kissing her on the top of her head.

"There you are, Sasha! I was so worried about you! I'm sorry that I didn't keep an eye on you!" Artur apologized as he continued kissing Sasha on the crown of her head.

"It's OK Daddy, Armin helped me find you again!" Sasha exclaimed, pointing at the shy blonde-haired boy looking down at the ground with a blush on his face. Artur looked at the child for a moment before smiling at him and patting him on the shoulder a little too roughly as Armin almost fell over.

"Thank you, Armin. I really appreciate you finding my daughter and bringing her back to me," Artur thanked as multiple onlookers started applauding Armin, making him even more self-conscious as he was not used to this many people talking to him, let alone complimenting him. Before Armin could properly formulate a response, Sasha ran over to Armin, and pecked him on the cheek, causing his blush to grow even more before Sasha skipped back to her father's side.

"Thanks again, Armin! I'll see you around!" Sasha exclaimed, waving at Armin, who was not working at the moment. Sasha laughed at Armin's blank face before she and her father walked away from the town square, and headed back up to their home. Armin shook his head, recovering from his trance, and looked at Sasha's disappearing frame with the blush still visible on his face. Armin touched the cheek that Sasha had kissed, his mind immediately wandering to the next time that he would meet the girl with the chocolate brown hair that saved him from bullies.

Little did he know that it would take another seven years for Armin and Sasha to cross paths again, and even longer for the two to take their relationship to the next level.