Chapter Text
prologue
Year 850 • Trost • Training Corps Headquarters
It was only for a brief moment, just a split second as the crowd washed between Armin and the pair of familiar eyes. A rich turquoise he knew he'd seen before. A profound colour that had flooded his memories of his life before...disaster. A wave of nostalgia crashed over him, at first he didn't want to make assumptions when he momentarily caught sight of the dark brown hair. He could have easily brushed it off as anyone. Yet something about the figure brought back such an evocative feeling, and at that transient second, everything went into slow motion. The dewy eyes blinked, staring right into his own sea blue eyes. Armin's breath hitched and he went to bring his hand as if to close the 10-metre gap between him and the figure as if to help him imagine feeling tanned skin against his fingertips. Or maybe it was to convince himself that it was real, that he wasn't seeing things, that his suppressed grief wasn't resurfacing for the fun of it. No, it was real, it had to be. It was real. It was definitely real. His fingers faltered and in a matter of an ephemeral measure of time, a herd of people had covered his view.
It was only for a second, but it was real.
Armin stood, processing the likes of his current situation. How he had dreamed of this moment, in various forms and circumstances. With a newfound sense of burning determination, desire and panic he turned back around, weaving carelessly between the huddles of people, ignoring their grunts and unpleasant cursing as he shoved past them. Armin was a smart thinker, 'efficient' was basically at the top of his vocabulary. He knew he'd never find the owner of the intense turquoise eyes on his own. No doubt about that, but with the help of a certain black-eyed beauty, rekindling the one hope she had would make this process faster.
~~~
"Sasha." She caught the brunette by surprise, who halted shovelling food into her mouth rather abruptly. Beside her, Connie rolled his eyes and pushed a cup of water into her hands.
"Mikasa! I didn't get to savour that bite!" Sasha grumbled, grabbing her spoon and pointing at her.
Connie smirked, " that was like a whole ass chunk of whatever they've been serving here. How do you even have the heart to eat this glob." The soup-like meal hung from her spoon, weighing down in a kinda disgusting manner. Connie wrinkled his nose, Mikasa remained unbothered and Sasha scoffed. Mikasa took a seat opposite the pair, passing her share of bread to the starry-eyed girl, who thanked her briefly before greedily devouring it.
"Hey, Jean." Connie waved the horse-faced teen towards them. Jean bit his lips, running his hand through his hair before plopping down beside Mikasa. While he saw this as a sexy action, Connie and Sasha thought otherwise, ready to run their mouths at his completely ignored attempt. Jean, sensing the coming embarrassment, shot them down with death glares and decided to make small talk with Mikasa, when he was very much rudely interrupted by someone else. He was ready with a retort at the top of his tongue but swallowed it back down when he found himself about to give Commander Shadis a threatening glaze.
"Anything you want to say, Kirstein?" Commander growled.
"N-no, sir." He turned back around, preferring to look past the annoying faces of his fellow cadets.
"Right. Ackerman, would you go to help set out the ODM gear for the veterans. You can supervise with them and help out with the other trainees. Ask one of these slackers if you need help. But I expect you capable enough on your own" Commander Shadis turned around, exiting the cafeteria. Jean waited till he was out of sight and turned back to converse with the girl he was infatuated with. However, his second attempt was also, rudely cut short. And by his own friend as well?? The betrayal was deep.
"Sorry to bother you Mikasa, but have you seen Krista or Ymir?"Marco asked," I think Ymir decided to drag Krista into a prank she pulled on Reiner and now he's going around like a raging lunatic. If you do see them, tell them to avoid the equipment room, cause I'm pretty sure Reiner was hiding out there." Marco concluded, laughing at their antics. Mikasa nodded, letting him know that she'd warn the pair if she bumped into them. After Marco left, Jean finally made his move.
"So Mikasa-"
Or at least tried to, anyways.
"Sorry to bother you guys, but have you seen Annie anywhere?" It was Bertholdt. Jean grumbled, rather audible and they all turned to face him. Connie, despite his vain efforts, could not control the snickers that he let out.
"Is something bothering you Jean?" Mikasa looked at him, to which the latter turned red with embarrassment.
"He's just jealous at how popular you are," Sasha commented.
"Well, I've been trying to talk to you, but some people," he said, shooting Bertholdt a look, "keep turning up. First the Commander, then Marco, Bertholdt and I'm pretty sure Armin was looking for you as well-"
"Armin?" Mikasa titled her head. Jean nodded.
"Yeah, the man was a mess, running around like a poor headless chicken. He was looking everywhere for you, acting a bit, you know coo-coo if you ask me. Said something about seeing him, or something, I don't know."
"Who did he see?"
"He didn't say, he just said that he had finally found some guy that he's been looking for and it was important. He said he saw his eyes."
"Sounds a bit creepy.." Connie said, looking from Jean to Mikasa.
"Well enough about him. So back to what I wanted to say, how about you and me, maybe we can uhh train together sometime?"
"That would be fun-" Sasha began to speak when Jean elaborated "just the two of us." Sasha furrowed her eyebrows.
"So what do you say, Mikasa?" They all turned to Mikasa.
"Mikasa..?"
"There's no way..." Mikasa whispered.
"There's no way what?"
Mikasa glanced up and grabbed Jean's shoulders. Jean felt his heart speed up and could feel colour flood his face. However, Mikasa remained serious and almost hysterical.
"Where is Armin?!" She asked frantically, "where is he?!" The other three was shocked by the sudden change in the atmosphere, it was an uncomfortable shift.
"Uh- last I saw him was-"
"MIKASA!" They all perked up, and Mikasa whipped her head around to face none other than her blonde friend. She locked eyes with the sapphire eyed breathless teen.
"Armin...? Please tell me it's what I think it is..." Armin slowly nodded once, which was enough to reduce Mikasa into tears.
"We've finally found you...Eren..."