Sorry for the hiccup. I ran into work.
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Armin was almost certain he had made it to the kitchens, but when he woke up, there was dirt on his face and he was hungry. He was also in bed, his shoulder and most of his upper body bandaged up in what had probably been a training exercise for medical interns. He could hardly move. Clearly, someone who didn't get out of the way fast enough had been handed bandages and an unconscious Armin and told to 'fix him.'
Armin sat up to get a better look at the room and realized, flinching, that painkillers hadn't been part of the exercise. He felt terrible – the kind of terrible that only got better after sleep and lots of not-moving. The movement did let him glimpse Eren, who had fallen asleep in a chair next to the bed. As usual, the other boy looked fine, without cuts or bruises.
On the bedside table, Mikasa had thoughtfully left a note, which read: 'Everyone is fine. Hanji is testing your transporter for future use. Glad you're okay. –Mikasa.'
Good, he thought. So long as it was useful to someone.
Armin laid back again and examined the paneled wooden ceiling. Almost everybody getting back from a mission that went as badly as that one did. Did it constitute a miracle? Maybe it was the best that Max could do.
Levi wouldn't be asking him to lead them anywhere again, that was for sure. It was then that he noticed something stuck to the headboard of his bed. Using his good arm, he reached up and pulled it down. The handwriting was unfamiliar and poor.
'As soon as you are vertical, come to the strategy room. Thanks.'
He had to read it twice. The 'thanks' just didn't follow. It didn't make sense. Then he remembered. For a moment, when his gear, Levi had expected to die on the battlefield. And Armin, the one who couldn't excel or keep up or kill Titans with super abilities, had stopped it from becoming a reality for humanity's one-man brigade.
That was the miracle here.
He got up very slowly and carefully to avoid waking Eren and went to the strategy room.
###End###
Are there unanswered questions? Is anyone really curious about what Levi was going to say to Armin or whether or not Howl would show up to claim the transporter? Cause if not, I like this ending. It doesn't carry this little drabble any further away from the original series than it already is.
I'll issue the disclaimer in full now: I do NOT own Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin, the Princess Bride (from which Max and Val are derived), or Howl's Moving Castle (from which the dial and my imagined little transporter thing derive). Ruther, Dange, and Marla were made up for the purposes of SNK has a large cast. I didn't forget people, I just… couldn't write them…
Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! I hope it amused, and I do apologize for the delay.
