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“HOOOOO! Quickly! Get a sketch of his face!”
Hange hooted and hollered excitedly at the sight of Eren’s disfigured face as he was pulled from his titan’s body. Across from the researcher stood Mikasa, whose face was contorted with worry and frustration. She wasted no time and cut him free and she refused to leave his side until his face had completely regenerated to its normal state.
Across the field lie the exhausted body of the other titan-shifter experiment. Annie had also complied with Hange’s strenuous tests, and as a result had eventually collapsed along with Eren into the dirt. Now she lie amidst several of Hange’s assistants, barely conscious and breathing. Though everything felt hazy and the babble of those who surrounded her made it even more difficult to focus, she could still make out Mikasa’s figure in the distance. As usual, she was concerned with Eren’s well being- obsessed with it almost. This was admirable, was it not? Such a devotion to what she considered to be the last of her family was praiseworthy to say the least. That is...she did consider him family...right? That was all he was to her, wasn’t he? Annie’s mind flashed across these questions as she slipped out of consciousness. Why hadn’t Mikasa come to her side instead?
Mikasa hadn’t realized this had bothered her until Annie awoke hours later, nestled into a bed in one of the Survey Corp’s stations. The titan-shifter stirred sleepily before she flipped to her side and noticed Ackerman sitting at the side of her bed, back faced to her.
“You’re awake!” Mikasa abruptly turned to face her when she had heard the rustling of sheets. “You were out much longer this time...I was getting a tad worried.”
“Mmmmm…” Annie mumbled sleepily. There was something other than tiredness painted in her eyes and it couldn’t be hidden from someone with such a strong intuition as Mikasa.
“What’s wrong…?” Her voice softened as she leaned in closer.
“Nothing…” Annie’s breath hitched while she tried to wrap herself back into the sheets. She felt as though she didn’t quite have the right to be upset over something as “minuscule” as this.
“Oh, it’s definitely something.”
“No…”
“Tell me.” Mikasa slipped one of her slender fingers under the covers where Annie hid and brushed it down the arch of Annie’s nose.
“It’s…” Annie sighed out. “...really selfish.”
“Annie.” The sheets were peeled off by Mikasa so Annie was in clear view. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
Annie took a deep breath in and looked into the eyes of the woman she loved so dearly.
“It’s just…you ran to Eren’s side earlier today...but you didn’t even bother to check on me.” She tried her best not to sound this hurt but she knew her voice wavered just slightly. “You do stuff like this all the time. He’s always your top priority...and like...I get that...but it makes me feel so insignificant to you at times.”
When Mikasa didn’t answer right away and the expression on her face was hard to read, Annie tried to backtrack.
“I…” Her eyes shifted to her fingers as they gripped into the sheets. “That was a strange thing to say. I’m sorry...I shouldn’t have-”
Before Annie could continue, she was silenced by Mikasa’s warm lips against her own. Mikasa gifted her with kiss after kiss, tugging gently at her bottom lip each time they pulled away to breathe. Annie could only manage to whimper into her, to return each kiss with all the power the ache in her heart had granted her.
“That isn’t strange, Annie.” Mikasa spoke tenderly as she hoisted herself into the bed and on top of her loved one. “I’m...so sorry you’ve felt that way.” Her fingers then entwined into the other’s blonde locks and their eyes met silently for several blissful moments.
“I know he means a lot to you and I respect that I just…” Annie bit her lip as she wrapped her arms around the other’s neck. “I need to know you love me too.”
“I don’t just love you too .” She allowed their foreheads to touch softly. “I love you...more than anything.”
Annie let out a barely audible gasp and shut her eyes. She let the feeling of Mikasa’s mouth pressing against hers envelope her entire body in fire, in complete security.
“I love you too I…” Annie whispered between gasps. “...You have no idea...how much I love you…”
“Eren is important, he will always be important to me. But you are the one thing I don’t think I could live without.”
This was all she needed to know. All she had ever wanted in her life was some sort of purpose in this nearly meaningless world. All she had believed she needed for the world to be bearable was to be loved as deeply as she could bring herself to love someone else- and that someone had become none other than the woman who held her tighter than anyone ever had before.
Mikasa would never let her fall, nor would she ever let her mind doubt her worth ever again. She made sure Annie drifted off into a healthy sleep along with words spoken to the titan shifter that would surely carry her off into to the sweetest dreams.
“I love you most of all.”