Attack on Titan: Dreams v.s Reality

It was another day inside the Walls within Rose at Trost District. Kiyomi was cleaning the barracks under the orders of Captain Levi. It was a pain, but if it was an order, she had to obey.

She sighed as she fell lost in thought. Recently something has been bugging her. It's about Armin and Eren. They...they've seem to become slightly distanced.

She doesn't know why though. But she hated it since she loved their bond to the point, she nearly thought of the two as brothers. And brothers ought to get along with each other.

Kiyomi doubted that she had every single thing of dist cleaned just the way Captain Levi likes it, but she doesn't care. She just wants to see Armin and Eren separately, ask them about things to see if she can't fill in the gap that has started to spread between the two.

Kiyomi starts looking for the two by first approaching Armin's door to his dorm room inside the Private Quarters that was quite far away from the City. She was about to knock on the door, but her first paused right before it could collide with the door to see that it was cracked open. This was quite odd, since Armin always made sure to keep it closed and locked for safety.

Kiyomi quietly opens up the door to see Armin working at his desk, completely distracted. He was wearing some plain clothes, so it appeared that today he was off duty.

With a smile, Kiyomi softly calls out Armin's name. "Armin...?" Armin jerks his head up upon hearing his name, seeming quite surprised or even startled as he wiped his gaze over towards the door to find Kiyomi's figure standing right outside. But upon knowing it was her, his expression softens up.

"O-Oh hello Kiyomi." Armin returns a smile. "May I come in if your not busy?" Kiyomi asks for permission to come in. "I'm not busy, of course you can come in." Armin reassures Kiyomi that it was fine to walk on in. So she does.

Kiyomi approaches Armin as he stood up from his chair sitting in front of his desk, and Kiyomi couldn't help her curiosity, and her eyes scrolls over to the desk to find something completely unexpected. It was a picture...a picture of him, Eren, and Mikasa full of smiles before the Ocean. It had seemed Armin had yet to add a drawing of Kiyomi with the group.

"This...is this when we went to the Ocean?" inquires Kiyomi and she couldn't help but to pick up the drawing from the desk table to take a closer look.

"Y-Yeah. It is. Um, don't worry I didn't forget to put you in there. I just have yet to have finished up." Armin explains with a worried and nervous tone, why he had yet to drawn Kiyomi in the picture.

"I see, it's fine." Smiles Koui before looking deeper in the picture. She usually doesn't get to see Armin draw very much. Does he do it often?

Kiyomi notices a smile was curled on everyone's faces in the picture-- even Eren, who was glum and frowned that day they did see the Sea. Kiyomi's own smile doesn't fade as she admired the work of art, yet she is pinched with a little bit of sadness.

She wishes that day was exactly like this picture revealed. She wished everyone was full of smiles

and was happy. Which, all of them were. Well, except for Eren who couldn't keep from frowning and feeling depressed upon realizing that even after reaching the Sea, freedom was yet in reach because across the sea was the enemy-- Marley.

Marley was basically an enemy nation who has been sending out the Titans over to Paradise Island forever.

"Um...how is Eren?" Kiyomi starts. "Why don't you ask him yourself?" Armin Questions. His tone wasn't aggressive or attended to be considered rude. He just thought if Kiyomi wanted to know how Eren fared, that she should check up on him and see for herself if he was doing fine.

"Um...what about you both? How are you both...doing?" Kiyomi forgets her last question and covers it up with a new one. She wanted to know how Armin and Eren's relationship did. She wouldn't want them to be in a gapped relationship or anything sour.

"Weir...uum...doing fine, I guess." Armin responds. But his answer....he didn't sound very sure of it himself.

Kiyomi knew it'd probably be best to leave them both alone. She's sure if things start to go sour, that they would make up. I mean, Armin, Eren, and Mikasa are like family. And no matter how sour a relationship gets, family always makes up to each other.

So Kiyomi decides to change the topic and manages to cheer up Armin's mood. He seemed a little glum and his smile at first seemed forced. But now, he seemed a lot better. So that much made her happy. But then....

"Kiyomi!! Is this where you were slacking off?! You got some nerve, the barracks back at the training camp is still full of filthy dust and dirt! I expect you to return to that spot and clean as if your life was on the line! And that's an order!" Captain Levi himself swings open the unlocked door, and scares the daylights out of both Kiyomi and Armin.

"C-Captain L-Levi! R-Right away sir!" Kiyomi salutes to the Captain before switching her gaze to Armin quickly and telling him that she'll see him around.

Kiyomi leaves right after that while Levi tailed behind her. He wanted to make sure that she was off to the barracks and wasn't about to sneak off once more to slack around.

Kiyomi hopes for Armin and Eren's relationship to get better, and knowing that she made Armin feel a little better by cheering up his spirits, she began to feel a lot more at ease.

The End