Shingeki no Kyojin © Isayama Hajime aka heart breaker

1. Sleeping Beauty

A loud echo of footsteps could be heard in the usually silent underground chamber stairs. The said chamber was dark, its only source of light was the torch a young man—source of the footsteps—was holding. the young man was wearing a green coat with its hood on, hiding his face. As he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he took off his hood—not sure from whom he was hiding his face, but he felt the need to. As the hood fell, his blonde hair and blue eyes were revealed.

Armin Arlert walked towards a deeper part of the chamber, and stopped when he saw something reflecting the light from his torch. A large bluish crystal, bound tightly by a great number of ropes. Armin put the torch on its holder on the wall, making the crystal look clearer. He knew too well that he wasn't alone in the chamber.

"Hey, Annie."

No reply could be heard, of course. The crystal was a form of cage Annie Leonhardt, a traitor, had chosen to keep herself alive and not giving information to the legion. It had been months since Annie encased herself in the crystal, and many attempts to break her free were futile. Most people had already given up, save for Hanji and of course, Armin himself. Only few people knew Armin's visits to the chamber where Annie was kept. Armin always did so whenever he wasn't on duty.

Armin took a step closer to Annie's crystal, and touched its surface. It was cold, like usual. Armin always wondered if Annie could feel the changes of temperature, could actually sense something, and if she could hear him visiting.

"You know, despite not being trainees anymore, Eren and Jean never really change. They never grow up," Armin stopped to let out a light chuckle, "Eren was just talking to Mikasa casually, about their training, and Jean suddenly butted in saying Eren was bothering Mikasa—Jean thought Mikasa was taking a break—and they ended up being punished by Corporal Levi."

Armin stroked the surface of the crystal gently, "It's such a mystery to me how can Mikasa not realize Jean has a crush on her when it's really obvious. Eren is such an oblivious guy as well, for not realizing that everything he does around Mikasa makes Jean jealous."

Armin went on and on. It was always like this whenever he visited, him telling pointless stories without knowing if Annie could even hear him. Armin had told her that the squad had found out about Reiner and Bertholdt, and Ymir was joining them instead of staying to protect Christa—correction, Historia. Armin didn't know what was keeping him doing this routine. He just felt he needed to share what was going on with Annie.

"Annie, I read a new book yesterday." Armin started again, "I don't know if you've known this before, but I've always loved reading books. Books tell me many things I didn't know before, especially about the world outside the walls. You know? There's a great amount of salt water out there, called an ocean. I really hope I'll live long enough to see it with my own eyes," Armin seemed like he had just realized something, "oops, shouldn't be too loud. Books like that are illegal, after all."

Another silence. Armin lifted his gaze to take a good look of Annie's face. She certainly was beautiful, especially since now her hair wasn't tied in a bun—although it made a part of his heart ache, since it reminded him of her titan form. Armin could also see traces of tears on her face. Eren had told him that he saw Annie cry before she encased herself in the crystal.

Armin's hand moved upward, stroking a part of the crystal's surface that was right above her face. He was stroking it gently, as if he was stroking her face.

"The book I just finished reading," Armin muttered, "is called 'The Sleeping Beauty'. It tells about a princess that is cursed by an evil witch. She is cursed to fall in a deep slumber forever, but then a prince appears and breaks the curse, then the princess wakes up." Armin's hand stopped right above her lips, "The prince breaks the curse by kissing the princess."

Breathing deeply, Armin leaned his forehead on the crystal's surface, feeling its coldness. Slowly, Armin pressed his lips to the crystal's surface, right above Annie's lips. Nothing happened.

"Of course," Armin let out a sad laugh, "but I guess trying won't hurt." Armin stepped back, eyeing Annie with a sad look.

"It must've passed midnight right now," Armin said to no one in particular—maybe Annie, "I must go back to the headquarter."

Armin then took his torch from its holder, and turned his head to glance at Annie once again, "See you again, Annie." A small smile was formed on Armin's lips, then he turned his back on her, and started going upstairs.

I'm sorry. I can't be the prince to break your curse.

He didn't see drops of tears fell from her closed eyes.

A/N : HELLO. So I know collections of AruAni oneshots exist, but I still want to write things for my OTP and puff! This fic happened. I'm sorry if the Sleeping Beauty reference might be weird for you. We all can pretend that Armin reads the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty and not the original tale

I apologize if there are some mistakes, such as grammar errors, typos or things that don't match the canon setting. I even doubt if Annie's crystal is located in an underground chamber.

Please do tell me where can I improve my writings!

Also, if you've got prompts for AruAni, canon or AU, and want me to write based on them, please tell me. I don't accept smut though, still building my confidence to write one.

Thank you for reading!