ArminxReaderxBrother!Marco - Serendipity (Chap. 2)

Chapter Two: Less than Precocious

“Wait, you what?!”

I was more than amused at Jean’s face when he saw the decomposing Titan I had taken down, but I forced myself to suppress a smile. He and Mikasa came over to our location once they had killed a few Titans, and let’s just say that I had never seen Jean so shocked.

I sheathed my blades and sighed. “I got knocked to the ground by that Abnormal.” I gestured to the dead Titan. “I panicked, and the next thing I knew, the walls came off the buildings and rammed into the thing.”

“Do you think it’s a new ability?” Mikasa interjected. “Like how Eren can transform into a Titan?”

I let out a humorless laugh. “I seriously doubt that. . .” I looked down at my left hand, which had quite possibly brought about the previous events. Had I really done that because of the spell I had recited the night before? Such a thing was almost too fantastical to believe. But, given our way of life and the power with which Eren was now endowed, I suppose it wasn’t too outlandish.

Our thoughts were interrupted when Sasha swung onto our rooftop and said, “Eren’s taking care of the breach.”

“Good,” said Jean. “How many Titans are left inside the walls?”

“About five or six. The rest of the squads are on the other side of the city taking out three or so Titans over there.”

I craned my head to see a ten-meter Titan staggering aimlessly a few streets away. Two slightly smaller Titans further off also caught my attention, and I took a step toward the edge of the rooftop before Jean propelled himself toward the pair.

“You and Armin deal with the ten-meter!” he called. When Mikasa had caught up to him, he added, “And don’t do anything else stupid!”

I scowled at his moving figure. “Pompous ass!” I hissed to no one in particular. “I nearly get killed and suddenly have a power that can easily take down an Abnormal Titan, and he has the gall to call me stupid?!”

“U-Um, _____?” I heard Armin stutter between my ranting. “We should go deal with the Titan—”

“Just who the hell does he think he is?! I oughta give that boy a piece of my mind when this is over!” I stomped onto the edge of the rooftop and launched a cable toward a high building in the direction of the ten-meter Titan. “What’re you standing around for, Armin?! Let’s move it!”

Armin followed me at a distance as I swung through the air. I passed off the notion of our usual strategy and simply went for the Titan and sliced the back of its neck open.

“_____,” Armin said, apparently taken aback that I would choose to kill a Titan on my own when there was someone with me. “We should head back to HQ and wait for the others—”

“I mean, I usually don’t get upset about stuff like this, but”—I let out an irritated squeal through my teeth—“I have had it with little Jean-Boy’s butt-face routine! I’ll show him who’s doing something stupid!” With a burst of gas from my tanks, I shot through the air toward the two Titans that Jean and Mikasa were supposed to take out. Jean was on a rooftop just out of sight of one while Mikasa was about to deliver a fatal blow to the other. I let Mikasa take care of her prey, but I was not going to let Jean have his!

Jean had launched a cable toward a building across the wide street, but when a sudden desire for the cable to fail struck me, the grapple at the end of his cable snapped shut in midair, bouncing loudly against the façade and retracting back into Jean’s gear. I smirked at the possibility that I could have done that, and then launched my own cable onto the Titan’s shoulder. Its arms were far too small for its body, so I was able to swing just below its hand before shooting a grapple into its right eye. The Titan roared and brought a shriveled hand to its bloodied eye socket, clawing and scratching for my grapple to release its eyeball. When I finally retracted my cable, I had already propelled the other onto the back of the Titan’s head. I drove my blades deep into the monster’s neck, so deep that I had to plant my feet on the Titan’s back to keep my grip on them. I slowly pulled the swords toward me, but I only succeeded in piercing more of the Titan’s flesh. The Titan leaned forward, its searing blood splattering on my clothes and evaporating. I gave the blades one more yank before saying, “Oh, screw it!” I detached the blades from my handles with two wispy clicks and swung up to the rooftop beside Jean.

“I had him!” shouted Jean. I was honestly surprised to see him so upset about someone killing a Titan for him, but I suppose it was just because I’d stolen his thunder when he really did have this one.

“Yeah, well correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the grapples were supposed to—I don’t know—grapple things! Yours wasn’t exactly doing its job back there, so someone had to help your sorry butt!”

“What is the matter with you?!” he barked, stepping toward me as if he was about to punch me. “You could’ve gotten one of us killed! You only managed to pull this one off because you got lucky! What happens when your luck runs out, huh?!”

“Maybe it’s not luck!” I shot back. “Maybe I actually have skill!”

“Would you two knock it off?!” Armin swung onto our rooftop, his expression showing a surprising amount of exasperation. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little shocked at him; he wasn’t the type you’d expect to try and break up a fight. “Look, we know you’re kind of rivals and all, but that doesn’t excuse the way you’re acting! You aren’t supposed to let personal issues cloud your judgment, especially on the battlefield!” He paused, presumably waiting for a response. “Am I wrong?” he added.

I glanced at Jean, who was glaring at me. I rolled my eyes and grimaced. Armin was right. I’d let something really stupid get the better of me, and I acted rashly because of it. But I would never admit that, especially to Jean’s puny horse-face.

I blew stray hair out of my face, and started for the neighboring building. “Come on,” I huffed. “Let’s get back to HQ.”



“Wait a second,” said Marco as he set down his mug. “You mean you used a building to impale a Titan with your mind?”

I swallowed a bite of my loaf of bread and looked at the tall boy across from me. “Well, it was actually just two walls,” I explained. “And they were from two different buildings.”

Marco’s lips curled up into an awestruck smile. “That’s crazy! How did you do that?!”

I quickly shushed him and leaned partially over the table. “We gotta keep this on the down-low, just in case some of the higher-ups get paranoid.”

“Oh,” Marco said, blinking in realization. “Right.”

“Well,”—I dug through my satchel, which I carried whenever I was off duty—“I read something out of this book Armin and I found in this city’s library.”

Armin nearly spurted his drink out on Mikasa opposite him, then stared at me, appalled. “_____, you stole it?!”

“Yeah,” I replied, setting the hardcover book vertically in my lap. “No way was I just gonna put it back. This thing’s too interesting.”

“Can I see?” Marco asked, craning his neck to get a closer look.

I pursed my lips in brief thought, then held out the book and said, “Okay. Just don’t be too conspicuous—”

Just before Marco could take hold of the book, someone bumped into me quite hard, causing me to lose my grip on it. The book fell on the table, knocking over both my and Marco’s drinks. The spilled beverages sloshed onto the book and soaked into most of the pages. I instantly picked up the drenched book before more damage could be done, then directed a hard glare at Jean, who had stepped up to Marco’s side from around the table. He sat down beside Marco and looked at me indifferently. “You need something, Triggerhappy?”

It took all my willpower to keep from getting up and beating him within an inch of his life; I instead dug my nails into the book's damp leather cover. I stood from my seat, pushing my almost empty tray in Jean’s direction, and left the mess hall without a word.



“_____,” said Armin when we had entered my room, “maybe you should calm down.”

I sighed gruffly. “I’m working on it,” I said as I opened the small window on the other side of the room and gently set the wet book on the sill. “I just can’t stand him sometimes!”

“I’ll say,” he remarked under his breath. He took a seat on the bottom bunk bed—my bed. “You shouldn’t let him get to you like that.”

“I know, I know.” I leaned against the wall and rubbed my eyes. “Why does my brother even hang out with that turd-sicle? Does he like being shrugged off and yelled at?”

“Well, I don’t know,”—Armin brought his finger to his chin—“but it seems like Marco manages to get on Jean’s good side.” He chuckled. “At least, better than you, anyway.”

I crossed my arms. “Yeah, well, he better not do anything to my baby brother or I’ll beat the living shit outta him without even lifting a finger.” I then looked at Armin and sighed. “Thank you, Armin, for being the voice of reason during my bitch-fits.”

Armin smiled bashfully and held up a hand in defense. “Oh, I-I’m not. . .”

I smiled and plopped beside him. “It’s okay.” I lifted my hand and patted his pretty blond hair. “You don’t have to admit it so long as everyone else knows it.”