The sun rose over the city of Trost, mostly no one being out on the streets or out of their homes that early. Except on the training field near the scouts HQ, there was a lone man running around the small area. Logan jogged around the field, trying his best to stay healthy for as long as he could.
After his eightieth lap around the field he stopped, taking a seat on the grass near the middle of the field and watching the sunrise.
"Hey, didn't expect to see anyone else out here." A voice spoke startling the boy from his relaxed stance. Logan let his head fall back, trying his best to see who was approaching him. A tall blonde stood there, eye bags sitting under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in years.
"Yeah, I could say the same thing." Logan spoke, still trying to catch his breath from the running. Armin lightly smiled as he mumbled a small 'Can I sit?' Which Logan of course welcomed.
"So, how're you feeling?" Armin asked causing Logan to dryly chuckle and shake his head.
"I'm fine, just still trying to deal with everything. I should be asking you the same thing, you look like you haven't slept, like ever." Logan teased causing Armin to scoff and sigh as he watched the sunrise
"It's just been hard to sleep recently, with everything going on. You know we have a whole other country coming to visit us in the next few days?" Armin asked out causing Logan to lightly smile and nod, happy to see even without sleep, the boy was very excited for the new world.
The two watched the sunrise in silence for twenty minutes until the faint bustle of the base began to come alive, making both of them stand up. Armin gave him a small smile and a wave before he began to walk away, Logan biting his lip, trying to force his mouth to say what he wanted it to say.
"Hey! Armin! Listen uh, Cloud and I, well, Cloud really likes you and the books you read him! If you're not doing anything tonight, he'd be thrilled if you came to visit him!" Logan asked out. For some reason, even through all the crazy shit he'd been through, his anxiety would still peak when talking to two people.
Armin lightly chuckled as he felt a slight heat rise to his cheeks. The orange sunrise lit his face as he nodded.
"Sure! I'll come by tonight!" Armin responded before quickly turning on his heels and jogging back to his post. Logan smiled to himself as he felt a feeling he hadn't felt in weeks, excitement.
━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━
"There you go! See! I told you that you could do it easily!" Logan encouraged Cloud as he stirred the food that was cooking in the pot. The small family were in their kitchen, Logan sitting on the counter as he watched his son cook the dinner they'd be having tonight. Cloud had a massive smile on his face as he stirred, happy to see that he was doing a good job when suddenly a small knock came from the door.
Cloud looked to Logan, surprise and confusion on his face as Logan smirked at the boy.
"I wonder who that could be, why don't you go see?" Logan asked, his voice teeming with excitement for the boys reaction. Cloud nodded vigorously before running from the kitchen towards the front door. Logan stayed in the kitchen, waiting to hear the boys excited yell. He furrowed his eyes when there wasnt one, he walked towards the front door, seeing it cracked open with Cloud staring at the person outside.
"Cloud? Who is it kiddo?" Logan asked as he approached the door, opening it wider finding a tall boy who was the last person he had wanted to see. Eren stood on the porch, staring down at the child who opened the door in confusion before he looked up, finding Logan glaring at him.
"Go back to the kitchen, kiddo. I'll be right there alright?" Logan asked out causing Cloud to nod, running back towards the kitchen as Logan stepped outside, shutting the door behind him.
"Before you start-" Eren started causing Logan to roll his eyes.
"I just came by to tell you that tomorrow, at the meeting... they're going to be saying some things you don't like, please just don't lose your temper." Eren spoke causing Logan to nearly bust out laughing, scoffing to himself, looking down at his feet.
"You of all people telling me not to lose my temper, huh. Okay, Eren, sure whatever. You can leave now." Logan dismissed causing Eren to sigh.
"What? The kid lives with you now?" Eren asked causing Logan's head to snap up, his eyebrows contorted into one of anger and confusion.
"Don't talk about him. Listen Eren, you made it very clear to me last time we talked that you had no interest in any type of relationship with me. So you can leave, besides I'm expecting company." Logan spat, trying his best to hold back the repressed anger of the argument from days before.
Eren sighed before nodding, turning around and walking down the stairs just to be greeted by the face of his best friend, holding a small group of flowers in one hand a bundle of books under his arm.
Eren dryly chuckled to himself before shaking his head and walking away from the house.
"Oh... did I interrupt something?" Armin asked, his voice somewhat sad and depressed.
"Nope, he showed up out of no where... god I don't understand him anymore." Logan sighed, running a hand through his messy hair before he looked to Armin. He furrowed his eyebrows at the yellow flowers in his hand.
"Oh, okay! Oh uhm here! I got these for you." Armin said, outstretching his arm to hand the boy in front of him flowers. Logan furrowed his eyebrows as the corners of his lips twitched up at the sight.
"Oh, uhm wow... thank you! These are actually my favorite." Logan spoke, taking the flowers from the boys hand and looking at them, his cheeks turning a slight pink. Armin let out a small hmph as he nodded, happy to see the flowers making the man happy.
"Well, Cloud made some pasta, I hope you're hungry!" Logan spoke causing Armins eyes to widen as he nodded.
The two went into the house, Logan closing the door as he heard the light footsteps rushing towards the door.
"Dad! I think it's don- Mr.Armin!!!!" Cloud shouted as he turned the corner causing Armin to chuckle and crouch down, catching the young boy in a hug.
The trip quickly ate dinner, Cloud asking constant questions about the books that Armin had read to him days before. After they had finished eating, they sat in the living room, Cloud laying on Armins lap as he read to him.
Within an hour, the boy had passed out on his lap. Logan lightly smiled at the sight as he quietly picked the boy up and carried him upstairs to his room, placing him in the bed with a small kiss on his forehead.
"Thank you, he's been begging me to have you come read to him more since his party." Logan mumbled as he walked down the stairs
"Oh yeah, I don't mind. He's probably the only person here willing to listen to them." Armin joked causing Logan to scoff as he sat back down in his chair.
"Please, I enjoy them too!" Logan said before yawning. Armin lightly chucked as he looked to the boy.
"How're you doing? You only coughed a few times at dinner." Armin observed causing Logan to sigh, grasping his cup of water.
"I'm okay, some days are easier than others. In all honesty? I'm going to take some time off, spend it with Cloud. I might take him up to the wall, let him see the view." Logan said causing Armin to nod.
"That's a good idea, he seems really happy with you, Lo." Armin spoke causing Logan to nod, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Yeah, I'm lucky to have him around." Logan spoke.
"Well, I should get going, we have that meeting tomorrow." Armin spoke causing Logan to furrow his eyebrows.
"Not so fast there, blonde... I told you what was on my mind. Your turn." Logan spoke, leaning forwards in his seat. Armin chuckled to himself before making a joke.
"What, you the scout therapist now?" Armin asked causing Logan to roll his eyes and stand up, sitting next to the boy on the couch.
"I'm asking because I care, Armin." Logan spoke softly causing Armin to sigh, running a hand through his hair.
"I just- I can't sleep. I keep seeing Bertholdt's memories and I wake up just to remember that I killed him." Armin spoke, his voice slightly shaky. Logan sighed, pushing his anxiety to the side as he reached his hand out, grasping onto one of Armins free ones.
"Armin, you didn't kill him. I killed him. But id do it again, I'd do it a thousand times over, because it meant you got to live. It wasn't fair, but that was the choice Levi and I made." Logan spoke, seeing the blonde boys eyes begin to glimmer with tears.
"I just- Burtholdt, Erwin, all those scouts... they died so I could live. I don't know if I'm worth all that." Armin asked out, a tear falling from his eye. Logan sighed, remembering the conversation he had with his brother.
"My uh, Arthur. He told me this once, it's kinda stuck with me... he said 'I struggled for a long time, with surviving, and no matter what, you keep finding something to fight for.' I guess I can't find any way to say it better than that." Logan spoke, causing Armin to look at him, the words resonating deep within the boy.
"Have you found something? Something to fight for?" Armin asked, his voice light and anxious, just barley above a whisper. Logan looked up, finding the blue eyed boy staring at him.
"I have... listen, I'm not sure if this'll help but if you want too feel free to stay-" Logan was saying before he was cut off by soft, warm lips meeting his rough ones. He froze in surprise before his body began to melt into the kiss, letting his lips move in sync with Armins.
"Ehem..." a voice broke the two apart, Cloud standing on the stairs with a small smile on his face.
━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━
Logan stared across the table at the woman who was talking about why they had come to their island to help them. It was all for Zeke Yeager, this caused Logan to sit in his anger, letting it brew inside of the man.
"Logan? You've been unusually quiet in this meeting." Hange said, looking to her second in command who was leaned back in his chair, glaring at the woman to cause her to turn her gaze to him.
"Ah, Logan Castle was it?" Kiyomi asked, looking at the boy with slight confusion in her eyes.
"Ackerman. Logan Ackerman." Logan spoke, his voice nearly rumbling the room they all sat in.
"I see... well, I assume you have some thoughts on our ideals based on the look on your face?" Kiyomi asked causing Logan to scoff and turn to the side.
"Logan be nice." Hange instructed, a strict smile on her face.
"No, go ahead... you seemingly have thoughts on our hero's-" Kiyomi was saying before Logan cut her off, leaning forwards in his chair and staring into her eyes.
"You know, I've been hearing him be called a hero for months now. But still, every time I do, it makes my skin crawl. Then I realized, it doesn't matter what you call him." Logan spoke, causing the woman's guard's to take a step forwards before she waved him off, telling him to go on.
"I don't care who you are. I don't care how many people you have, what type of weapons you have. They won't matter, you won't matter, the only thing that matters to me, is gutting that monster." Logan spoke, finally leaning back in his chair causing the somewhat shocked Kiyomi to look at the boy with her mouth somewhat agape
"And what if we don't accept that." Kiyomi simply asked causing Logan to lightly scoff and run a hand through his hair.
"Then I'll kill you too. You wanna know something, Kiyomi? When the Marley first got here, they kept muttering something under their breath. They called me the devil of all devils, the one winged devil. But most of all, they called me the beast slayer." Logan spoke causing her eyes to lightly fill with recognition at the nickname.
"You act like we wouldn't put up a fight, I mean, surly you can't be so foolish. If we attacked you with our full force you would be out manned, out gunned. Every animal has a cage, Mr.Ackerman." Kiyomi spoke, a small, pleased smile on her face.
"Kiyomi..." Logan mumbled out, leaning forward across the table.
"Hmm?" Kiyomi asked, leaning close to the much younger boy. The leader of a nation had no fear of some boy that had stollen the Ackerman name.
"You can't kill me. Zeke can't kill me. No one can." Logan spoke, anger and confidence weaving into his words as he spat them before he stood up and stormed towards the door.
"And Kiyomi? Don't say I didn't warn you."