This is another response to something I read on Tumblr, also originally by former Tumblr user Lainadraws. The prompt was an AruAni breakup, so of course, that's how it had to end. The author chose to go with a Modern Day AU. I think the premise was that they were in middle school/going into high school, and basically, Annie felt smothered and pressured in the relationship to feel more than she did (e.g. Armin would say often he loved her, and she didn't know if she really loved him or not, which, by the way, is perfectly reasonable for a middle schooler/high school freshman.), so she broke up with him after they'd been together for a year or so, I think. Of course, in true middle school style, though, she didn't give him any reasons, just said that she was done and that it was her, not him, etc. and that was that. Again, I like Armin and Annie together, so I needed to do something to fix this. XD
In Lainadraws' original (now deleted from the internet) work, I believe she made them the same grade in school, so that's how their ages work out in this continuation/response, too. This story begins in their freshman year of college and ends at the end of junior/beginning of senior year.
Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan or any affiliates.
"Well, this is beyond awkward," Annie thought to herself as she sat across from the boy she'd dumped four years ago. By someone's sick idea of a joke, they'd ended up as project partners for their Computer Science III class, and now, for the rest of the quarter, they'd have to work together for thirty percent of their final grade. It was too late to drop, and they couldn't switch partners without extenuating reasons, not that she really wanted to from a grade standpoint. Armin was a computer whiz, whereas the only reason she got good grades in CS1and 2 was because she had practically lived in the CS lounge working with the TAs.
It's not like she'd asked the administration to draft her into this stupid pilot program where they thought it would be a brilliant idea to coerce students from non-technical disciplines to take the introductory programming sequence for a letter grade in order to "broaden their thinking." While Annie could understand the sentiment, she really would've preferred to take more humanities classes since they were, I don't know, related to her major? Considering the International Relations major with Criminal Justice minor wanted to eventually work for the CIA, she supposed it wasn't completely useless to learn programming, but she really would've preferred to pick up some history classes on different cultures around the world. Not to mention that if she were in one of those history classes right now, she wouldn't be sitting in front of her ex wishing she could be anywhere but here.
Finally, Armin sighed and offered a tentative, if forced, smile. "So our first deliverable is due in a couple weeks, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Do you have a copy of the project description on you?"
She nodded and pulled it out, relaxing a little. It seemed he wasn't going to press her about what had happened four years ago.
The two went over the rubric and outlined rough ideas and strategies for about an hour before Annie had to run off to her Russian class. As she packed up her bag, they made plans to meet up later that evening to more concretely flesh out their strategies and possibly even start coding. She paused for a moment in the middle of zipping up her backpack. "Hey, Armin…."
"Hmm?" He looked at her expectantly.
She looked away briefly before turning up the corners of her mouth into a ghost of a smile. "Thanks…. I'm…looking forward to working with you."
Armin nodded. "See you in the library."
Once he was sure she was gone, he blew out a long breath and sank further into the cushy chair. That…had gone better than he'd expected. When he'd received the email that Annie was his project partner, he'd sworn to do all he could to keep things from being awkward, but that didn't mean he'd be perfect at it. He didn't resent her for what had happened, though if he was completely honest with himself, he still wondered deep inside what he'd done wrong. But as time wore on, he found that he primarily missed just spending time with her more than he missed kissing her or holding her hand. Maybe with this project, he could try to rebuild the friendship he'd been too afraid to ask for back in high school.
After about ten minutes of coding later that evening, Annie demanded that she be the one to type during their coding sessions. Armin obviously hadn't grown out of his bad habit of tuning out external input once he got in a zone (Back in middle school, she'd seen this behavior most commonly when he was reading.), and if she was going to be coerced into this class, she was going to actually get something out of it, thank you very much. He was thrilled her commitment to earning her own way hadn't changed. He'd had more than his fair share of group projects where he did virtually all the work and his partner(s) put their name(s) on the project, so he readily agreed even if she didn't type as quickly as he did. They found it actually worked really well. Since Annie was a kinesthetic learner, the physicality of typing helped cement the concepts in her head, and Armin found that not typing gave him enough distance from the code to more readily see possible strategies or ways to optimize their algorithm.
When it became apparent they'd finish their second deliverable a week ahead of schedule, Annie unexpectedly found herself mildly disappointed. She'd forgotten how easy it was to be around Armin, and she was honestly almost getting more out of working on the project than taking notes during the lectures. It was right around then that he offered to help her with her labs. She'd understandably been taken aback since she'd figured he wouldn't want to spend any more time together than absolutely necessary, but found to her satisfaction that under his tutelage, she soon could actually do most of the labs by herself with only a couple of pointers from him. Once she'd firmly grasped the concepts Armin explained to her, she was able to bring a fresh perspective to their coding sessions, and so sue her if it was a mite flattering to blow the mind of the top student in the CS Department every so often. That she was working on her labs with someone who wanted to help her of his own free will in the library instead of in the CS lounge with people who were obligated to be there was also a plus.
By the time their third deliverable had been submitted, they'd taken to eating together before their coding sessions. Sometimes they'd code or go over what they'd been learning in class as they ate, but other times, they'd discuss topics that ranged from public policy to world affairs to dumb things their friends had done. Annie considered them more than project partners at this point and found that she'd cautiously categorize Armin as a good friend.
Even though he did most of the talking during their discourse unless it was something Annie was particularly passionate about, Armin enjoyed how she'd thoughtfully listen and intelligently comment on or challenge his opinions. He'd known she'd been smart when they were younger, but intellectually, she'd become a foeman worthy of his steel, and he was loving it. If rated on a scale, he remained more insightful and perceptive than she, but she had more street smarts and brought fresh perspective and insight. He was kind of sad they wouldn't have any reason to study together anymore after this class was over. Since CS3 was the last class in the introductory programming sequence, after the final, they'd go their separate ways: she to her liberal arts and he to further technical classes.
After Armin voiced the sentiment one particularly late night in the computer lab, Annie struck upon a solution: since he had an interest in cryptology and information security, why not pick up a Criminal Justice minor? Taking CS1-3 had royally messed up her schedule, so she hadn't been able to start on her minor yet. If their schedules worked out, they could possibly take all of those classes together or at least at the same time. They'd have an automatic study partner, take classes relevant to their future careers, and they wouldn't fall out of touch: win, win, win. It took an hour and a half of playing class schedule Tetris with their two extremely different programs, but they figured out a way to arrange their schedules so they'd share one class almost every quarter for the next three years without killing themselves or getting horrific professors for the classes that were actually part of their majors.
And so began their journey of healing. The next couple years saw them through ups and downs both academic and personal. They became reacquainted with the other's friend set, spent more days together than apart, shared meals and memories, and even bailed each other out of awkward romantic encounters. Their friendship rivaled even the bond Armin shared with Eren and Mikasa. Despite the blemish of the past, life was sweet. Everything had fallen into place perfectly just as it should have. Until one day, she kissed him, and their idyllic world came crashing down.
Annie felt weak and stupid as she laid on the bed clutching her soaked pillow. She'd ruined everything. Why couldn't she just be satisfied with the easy, comfortable friendship Armin had offered? Why did she have to be so greedy? Why did she have to tip past simply caring and fall in love with him? She was such an idiot.
I'm not looking to turn this response into a big long story, but I am splitting it into two parts just for transition and flow purposes. The next chapter will be done kind of more in real-time instead of giving a high-level overview of the months of relationship restoration, so there won't be nearly as much exposition.