Snow On The Beach | AruAni highschool fanfiction | Attack on Titan

5

~Armin's POV~

As we enter my house, I realize how cold I actually am. Each breath causes a bubble of air to cloud in front of my face. Annie's looking around the house, mesmerised. She takes her torn boots off and leaves them at the doormat.

"You can keep those on." I say. She shakes her head and. I gesture over to the couch. "Make yourself at home."

Annie cautiously walks over to the couch as if she's talking on thin ice and it'll break under her feet at any moment. She sits down at the very edge. She places her backpack on the ground right next to her feet. I walk over and place my own bag on the couch. I then make my way to the fire place and get to work on starting a fire. I put all the wood in and light up a match. I throw the match in with the wood and smile when the fire sparks ablaze and the orange light reflects onto my face. It feels nice and warm after a cold walk in the snow. My previously numb hands now feel more relaxed. I get up from the floor and look over at Annie. I hand her my laptop that was conveniently placed on the coffee table. 

"You can open a google document for our project. Maybe even start writing down the pivotal marks we made earlier. We can also add things individually in case we're unable to meet up sometime." I say. "I'll make us some hot chocolate." 

She nods. I watch her hand move as she opens the laptop. "The password is 13121989, by the way." I say. I leave out the fact that it's Taylor's birthday. 

She types in the password and then looks at me. Her eyebrow is raised. "Why'd you pick that?"  She asks. "The password." Her question is abrupt and very sudden but it's nothing harmless. It's random, if anything.

"Well..." I feel my face heat up out of embarrassment. I could say it's a bunch of random numbers but I already convinced her to make the project about Taylor so what's the point in lying? Even if she doesn't like her, she's about to find out when she was born. She's smart enough to put two and two together. I sigh. Oh come on, it's not that deep. "It's Taylor Swift's birth date." 

She looks back at the laptop. "I know that." 

"Do you..." I start. Why does it even matter if Annie listens to Taylor Swift or not? Why do I wanna know so badly? It wont mean anything so it doesn't matter. We'll finish the project and go our separate ways. I don't know how much of a chance I've got at being friends with her. She doesn't seem interested in any sort of connection, anyway. But for some reason, it matters to me. I wanna know. Maybe we can even bond over it. 

Briefly, she nods. I haven't even finished my question. "I do." She says. That explains the name of her cat. In all honesty, I'm relieved. I never tell anyone about my interests out of fear of being judged. But this time, something just made me tell her. I feel a lot more comfortable talking to her now and I hope that in time she'll feel the same way about talking to me. She seems quiet and reserved but maybe she's just waiting for a chance to talk to someone about something she likes.

"What's your favorite song?" I ask. Hopefully this will get her talking. 

"The Archer." - She answers. - "Yours?" 

I don't expect her to actually return the question but I'm more then pleased to answer. "Fearless" (Taylor's Version)!" I exclaim, a little too excited. "My parents would dance around to it when I was really little. Obviously, they only had the original version back then, though." 

She nods. "Cool." She says. But I'm not sure she really means that.

"I'm gonna make some hot chocolate now." I awkwardly state. She nods, typing something on the laptop. She's just created the google doc. 

On my way to the kitchen, I stop by the window. My heart flutters when I look at the glistening snow out the window. My stomach completely turns and a knot forms in it. It feels like just yesterday, it was New Year's day. I watched my mother giggle like a teenage girl at my dad's attempt at building a snowman. My younger self was perched on a chair by the window, right by my grandfather who was enjoying his evening tea. I had a bad cough so I couldn't go out in the snow but I loved watching my parents dance and laugh together. I had never met anyone who was as in love as my parents were, not even anyone on TV or in the story books my dad would read me. As a kid, I wanted a relationship just like theirs. I wanted to fall so deeply in love that it couldn't be compared to any romance to ever exist. Now I don't think that's possible. I'm too awkward for anything.