Nightmares {Armin x Reader}

Imagine your favorite character having a nightmare about something bad that happened to them and waking up shaking and inconsolable, crying and desperately clinging to you, sobbing, “Just stay with me, please just stay with me.”

"Don't worry, we're gonna make it. We're gonna make it, I promise."

"No, we aren't! Are you blind?"

"[Name], we can figure this out! I won't leave you!"

"Armin, stop. It's okay if you leave me behind. I won't hold it against you."

"I'll hold it against myself! I'm not leaving you to the Titans, and that's final!"

You stood there, shaking your head. You had to convince him to leave you, or he'd be eaten himself.

"Armin... Weren't you the one who said 'People who can't throw something important away, can never hope to change anything'?"

Armin stopped. You were right, he did say those words.

"[Name], I-"

"Armin, you want to change things, don't you? You have to leave me to do that. I'll be okay. I can hide in one of the basements."

"[Name], please." Armin's voice cracked, and he knew he was going to cry. He already lost too much. Guilt crept into his skin, as most of those deaths were caused by people saving him. Armin wasn't ready to lose someone else he cared about.

"You can't leave me."

"...Fine. I'll be behind you. I don't know how much gas I have left."

As it turns out, you didn't have much.

And only moments later, as you tried to avoid a Titan that had turned the corner, you lost your right arm, crying out in the process. You rammed into a nearby window and rolled into the building. Armin could only stare in horror and scream you name while the same Titan reached in, searching for your body, and successfully pulled it out, opening its jaws to-

---

Armin gasped and bolted upright, breathing heavily, tears starting to brim in his eyes. He couldn't stop shaking; he'd experienced this kind of nightmare before. So why was he shaking? Why, why did that feel so real?

"Armin...? Armin, are you okay?"

"[N-Name], oh [Name]." Armin cried, grabbing your small body and pulling you into a hug.

"Just stay with me. Please, just stay with me. D-Don't ever leave me."

You sank into his arms, thinking, 'It must've been those nightmares again.' It hurt you to see him like this, but you had no idea how to help him.

"I won't leave you, Armin. I'll be here, I promise."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you."

"Armin, it's okay. I'm here, I'm fine."

"No, no you're not! I-It's my fault, I'm so sorry."

Shaking your head, you wrapped your left arm around his own waist and kissed him gently, asking yourself why a simple nightmare had this effect on him.

But when his fingers ghosted over the stump that used to be your right arm, you knew what he was dreaming about, and he knew that it hurt so much because it wasn't just a dream. It rarely bothered you now, but he still blamed himself for it.

You knew you would never be able to help him get past the guilt it forced on him; after all, he was the one who convinced you to follow him in the first place, a decision that forced you to give up your life as a soldier, to give up fighting for humanity, to lose your ability to function normally. Your missing arm was a reminder to him, of all his regrets and mistakes.

A reminder that sometimes, nightmares were all too real.