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The wind blows Annie’s hair across her face as she stares up at the gargantuan wall that stretches into the clouds above her. Blonde wisps float in and out of her vision. The brush of it on the back of her neck serves as a grim reminder of the vulnerable spot. Annie is stricken with a strong desire to cover it. She shakes her head, she can’t think about that right now, her chaser is biting at her heels. Quite literally actually.
Eren stands near the bottom of the wall, roaring in anger. Sharp green eyes staring daggers at her, all teeth and screams and rabid determination. He’s out for her blood and he won’t stop until he beats her, she knows that, but hell if she’s going to give up now, after everything she’s been through. Eren chases after her, grasping at her feet. Trying with everything in him to keep her from climbing the wall. Annie scrambles for a handhold, fingers holding fast to any bumps and grooves she can find and tries to kick him away when he gets too close.
Why is the wall so tall?
Oh, yeah. There’s that.
Annie scrambles for another foothold, away from Eren. Her arms pull her higher and higher. Breathing hard, Annie climbs the wall as fast as she can. She tries not to think about what she’s leaving behind, sacrificing or how high up she is. She shuts off her mind focuses on her escape at the top of this wall. Annie looks up at her goal. ‘I’m almost there’ she thinks ‘almost there.’ She winces as Eren bellows once again. ‘Why does he have to be so loud?’ she wonders. If he spent less time with intimidation tactics, he might actually get something done. She grabs the wall with both hands and pulls a little higher. She looks up once more at her progress and sees something she doesn’t expect.
The figure of a woman stands in her path, standing against the wall. She’s held up by a complicated network of wires that is as familiar to her as it is to Annie but, god, does she handle it well. She handles them like an extension of herself until they’re no longer just wires, they are her wings. The woman stares down at her, gaze stoic. The woman staring at her is beautiful, lithe body gracefully floating determined above her. Time seems to stand still as she watches the wind blow silky black hair back from her face, exposing storm gray eyes, delicate pink lips and a scar on her cheek. From the woman’s neck flows a long familiar red scarf that might as well be her biggest weakness. Annie watches her, entranced.
Mikasa.
Annie’s world stops. She can’t believe her eyes and a part of her wishes her eyes are lying to her. Her wishful thinking blinded her to this possibility and now it will likely be her downfall. A bubble of silence and stillness envelopes around the girls as their eyes lock. In that instant there is nothing but the other. Annie watches the girl above her. She thinks about memories of the past. Whispers in the dark. She thinks about the fact that she knows what it feels like to run her fingers down those ebony locks, how those calloused hands can caress as softly as how hard they can maim.
Mikasa moves but it’s too quick for her to see. All she can see is the slight quiver in her lips. She wishes she could kiss it away but is too distracted by her heart breaking for what must be the hundredth time in her life. You would think that after everything she’s been through, she wouldn’t allow someone to ever soften her icy heart. Yet, who knew that the black hearted Annie would be defeated by a pretty smile where she least expected to find one. She feels heavy, like the earth is dragging her down, ready to open up and claim her for all she’s done. Annie looks into Mikasa’s eyes, watching as they soften. Her eyes have always spoken all the word she doesn’t say out loud. They were the most expressive part of her. Those words weren’t just for anybody, only those who were worthy enough could hear her true voice.
Annie was glad that in the time that they had known each other Mikasa had deemed her worthy enough to see into those eyes and hear what they had to say. She was glad she had witnessed those eyes dancing with amusement while her smile remained hidden. Glad she got to see them fill with concern over Eren or her friends even when the only movement on her face was the slight pull of her eyebrows. Happy she got to scratch the surface of the sheer amount of stories and history hidden deep inside them that flitter to the surface every once in a while, she has seen the glow of the raging fire that inhabits them sometimes. To be able to see that beautiful moment when they turn into glass that reflects the world around her, making you wonder what it all means to her meanwhile her countenance is immobile but for a twitch of a lip, the shine of a tear that refuses to fall, as tough and determined as she is or maybe the slightest of all blushes painting her cheeks a pretty pink that would go unnoticed if her eyes didn’t give her away.
Most of all, Annie was glad she ever got to see them up close. The whisper of secrets ever ghosting among the shadows and how they shine beside the candlelight. How they light up in fervor under stolen kisses and hushed escapades. They spoke of her confidence and insecurity, of their interest and their boredom, of their hatred and…
Maybe. Just maybe, they spoke of her love.
Her expression was hard to read but her eyes were speaking now as the often did. Annie looked into them and she understood. Maybe, Annie never did hear clearly what they had to say and maybe she may never truly understand but at that moment, Mikasa’s eyes spoke to loud and clear. Make no mistake.
They spoke of her betrayal.
Annie’s hands were no longer on the wall. Without her hold, her body began to tip backwards, answering the gravity’s eager call. Mikasa looked into Annie’s shocked eyes that were reflecting the clouds above, stealing the sky she never got to reach and hiding it in her gaze to keep for herself and she spoke two steady words.
"Annie. Fall."
Time was not merciful with her, still sluggish as if to make sure Annie lives through the full extent of her betrayal. Annie falls. As she sees the top of the wall getting slowly smaller, with it the small shadowy figure surrounded by light, scarf flying around her as if mocking Annie, she knows that deep in her heart, she has already forgiven her.
And she falls.
…
…
And she keeps falling.
The cord lets out an annoying whir as she falls. Annie dangles from her equipment as her wires lower her slowly to the ground. Colorful rocks zoom across her vision.
"Fuck you, Akerman!" she aims at the girl that’s perched smugly at the top of the wall.
"Right back at ya, Leonhardt!" Mikasa says, an amused smirk painting her lips.
Annie’s body hangs defeated, arms and legs dangling pathetically in her harness. She zips past Eren, halfway through climbing the wall, as he laughs. “Are you sure you should be cursing? There could be kids near!” he mocks. Annie sticks out both middle fingers at him and he started laughing even harder. “Long live the king!” he says.
From below, Reiner laughs raucously. “Only Mikasa could get away with something like that! If I even thought about trying that, I would get my ass kicked in two seconds flat.” The others waiting below make noises of agreement. A faint heat rises on Annie’s cheeks as she shouts down “If you keep talking, I might consider it!”
“Ha!’’ mocks Eren “I know what it’s like to be at the receiving end of that! You better watch out, Reiner!”
“Whose genius idea was it to climb the stupid wall in the first place?” Annie asks irritated.
“Yours, Einstein!” Reiner answers from below.
“Hell no, it wasn’t!” she says while kicking at the wall in a temper tantrum-like, to try and speed up her descent.
Mikasa swings her legs like a kid and shouts from where she is perched at the top of the rock wall she waiting for Eren, “Yeah it was”.
Annie reaches the floor and begins unhooking her gear, rolling her eyes at Reiner to try to keep down the insistent blush lingering on her cheeks. Bertholdt scampers off to buy them all water once his boyfriend has finished making obnoxious noises at Annie and Mikasa. Annie sits down on a bench next to Armin, who smiles at her in greeting, one that she answers with a nod as she takes off her helmet. He notices her brushing the messy strands back in place with a scowl takes of her hair tie from his wrist where he put it after Reiner passed it to him. Reiner hollers taunts at Eren who yells back insults. Annie nods thankfully at Armin and puts her hair up in her signature bun. It felt weird to let her hair down but the bun felt weirder in the helmet. Having it brush against the back of her neck tickled her so she rather it didn’t.
Eren reaches the top and playfully swats at Mikasa’s feet, their laughter and threats echoing from above. Eren triumphantly rings the bell at the top and lets out a series of celebratory yells. Armin claps politely while Reiner pumps his fist in the air and makes what could only be described as frat-boy sounds and yelling “You go, Eren!’’. Annie just huffs and rolls her eyes at their ridiculous display but finds it hard not to smile.
--
Mikasa hops down the wall in quick little zips and lands on her feet gracefully.
“You did great, Mikasa!” Armin pipes in, standing from the bench. Eren makes his descent not too far behind Mikasa. He attempts to hop off the wall like his sister did only to misstep and slip, swinging on the wire and dangling from it while he flails. Reiner laughs at the attempt and yells something about uploading a video of him to some funny video show. Too busy trying to save face, Eren reaches the floor too quick and tries to land on his feet only to slip last minute and land on his ass. Reiner doubles over in laughter. “Oh this is so going on Snapchat” he wheezes as he takes out his phone. “YOU BETTER NOT” Eren screeches as he starts to run towards Reiner only to be violently pulled back by the wire that’s still attached to his body, landing on his ass a second time, only making Reiner’s guffaws even worse. Armin sighs and goes towards Eren to help him out of his gear before he furthers his embarrassment.
Bertholdt later returns with six water bottles. He gives one of them to Mikasa and another to Annie with small ‘’nice job” and a smile and turns to give out water to the others after the girls give him their ‘’thank you’’s. He almost gets bowled over by a laughing Reiner as he violently noogies Eren’s hair, while Armin makes distressed noises nearby and tries to ‘’stop their horseplay before someone gets hurt’’.
Mikasa sits next to Annie on the seat Armin had previously occupied and takes off her helmet with a soft shake of her hair. After taking a swig of water, Mikasa smiles at Annie, eyes full of mirth, face still red from the exertion. Annie turns her face away with a huff and a cross of her arms. Mostly out of grumpy revenge but also so she doesn’t have to look at how cute Mikasa looks with helmet hair and ruin her bravado. Mikasa bumps Annie’s shoulder with hers until she turns her head back at her. When she looks at Mikasa’s face, she’s wearing the most ridiculous puppy dog eyes coupled with an exaggerated pout on her pretty bottom lip. Annie stifles a laugh behind her wrist, the corner of her mouth curling up behind it. Mikasa tilts her head from side to side, still pouting to try to get Annie to laugh. The pout begins to be too much for her and she leans in fast and kisses it. Mikasa scrunches her nose at her and sticks out her tongue. At this, Annie lets her win and chuckles at her silly girlfriend, earning a triumphant smile from the same.
“I’m sorry” she says, taking a sip from the water bottle. The smirk on her lips betrays her.
"Pfft, you’re not sorry in the least." said Annie.
"Nope" says Mikasa, beaming at her cheeky answer almost daring Annie to say something about it.
Annie tries not to think of the annoying flutters her heart does.
‘’Tch, you’re lucky you’re cute.” she says, covering her face by taking a swig from her bottle.
Mikasa hums approvingly and starts to take of the straps from the gear. Annie’s eyes totally don’t join Mikasa’s hands in sliding over her sculpted calves.
--
After Reiner has stopped harassing Eren and their fluttery partners are sufficiently calmed down (and two or three embarrassing snapchat stories later) they prepare to leave the wall climbing center, returning the gear and thanking the employees. They set off and Eren drapes an arm over Armin’s shoulders. “Where are we going next, QP?’’ he says.
“Oi, shouldn’t you be asking the whole group where they wanna go?” protests Reiner from the front of the group.
“But Armin always has the best plans!” Eren shoots back.
The group murmurs it’s agreement while Armin blushes and playfully swats away a laughing Eren.
Armin ponders it for a while, knitting his eyebrows together in concentration. Finally, he pipes up with “Maybe we should go out to eat.’’ ‘’I’m kinda hungry. How about you guys?” he asks glancing around the group. Reiner whoops while Bertholdt nods with a shy smile. Annie looks back at Mikasa who shrugs then nods and says “m’kay”.
“Hell yeah!’’ yells Eren. ‘’And since Annie lost the bet, because I made it to the top of the wall first’’ he aims the last part at Annie ‘’she gets to buy us all drinks!’’
Annie shoots a glare a Mikasa who shrugs at her while Eren and Reiner dancing and making a ruckus, even getting Bertholdt to let out breathy hoots in between bouts of laughter.
“I’m only getting the first round.” Annie says
“Awww” whine Eren and Reiner in unison and Bertholdt snickers under his breath.
Eren looks at his watch. “I think Sasha and Connie have gotten out of work by now. Do you think they would join us?’’
‘’Are you kidding?’’ says Reiner ‘’this is Springer and Sasha you’re talking about. If there’s food involved they’ll rappel here if they have to!”
“Ymir and Christa aren’t coming. Ymir says that…” Bertholdt squints at his phone screen “they’re having some…’lady-lovin alone time today so buzz off’.” It’s hard to tell with his tan skin but he might have been blushing when he looks back up.
Eren makes a face like he ate a sour lemon. “Ew, I did not need to know that.”
Armin says ‘’Hey, it’s Valentine’s Day, let them have their special day together.”
“Hmm…’’ Eren hums. “Nah, you do the whole smart and nice bit and I’ll just do the part where I carry you for being a nerd.’’ The last part is barely more than a grunt as Eren crouches in front of Armin and hoists him off the ground onto his back. Armin clings to Eren’s neck tightly. “Aah! Eren, let me down!” screeches Armin. Eren laughs and says ‘’Nope!’’ and runs ahead of the group with a laughing Armin riding piggyback. Bertholdt and Reiner laugh at their antics and Bertholdt twines their hands together when they stop, earning a smile that crinkles Reiner’s eyes. Eren stops jogging to hand Armin his ringing phone but doesn’t put him down. Armin explains the directions to the restaurant to who is presumably Connie, while Eren just holds on to him and smiles faintly. Bert and Reiner swings their joined hands softly while Reiner’s thumb strokes Bertholdt’s. Annie looks back at Mikasa and slows down to match her pace. Mikasa looks at Annie and smiles. Annie puts her arm around Mikasa’s waist and Mikasa steps closer to make it easier. Seeing her apperant cuddly mood, Annie's fingertips play with the top of Mikasa’s back pocket, asking for permission. Mikasa nods and Annie hides her hand in Mikasa’s jean’s back pocket and Mikasa reaches over to do the same. The girls look at each other with small smiles until Mikasa drops her gaze first.
--
Like Reiner predicted, Sasha and Connie come by. They wouldn’t miss out on food and drinks. Just as well, they know eating out wouldn’t be the same without Connie putting straws in his nostrils while Sasha gestures energetically as she tells funny and frustrating stories about the magical world of working in retail. After they eat, the speakers announce that they’re opening a karaoke for the night. Sasha screams in delight, dragging Connie and Eren with her, who in turn drags Armin behind him.
Reiner looks at Sasha hopping toward to the three boys with a song book in hand and leans into Bertholdt to whisper something into his ear. Bertholdt’s eyes widen quickly and he looks at Reiner in fear. “REINER, NO’’ he says. Reiner laughs and says “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” Bert eyes him like he doesn’t quite believe him. Annie and Mikasa glance at each other with questions on their faces and turn to level their curious eyes on Bert. Bert glances back and forth between the girls and Reiner, visibly sweating and unable to meet the two intense girl’s gazes. Reiner decides to take pity on his sweaty boyfriend and stands up saying ‘’Well, Bert and I are gonna go check out the song list. Maybe we can make Jeager sing something embarrassing”. Bert nods enthusiastically and scrambles away to follow Reiner.
Mikasa and Annie sit silent for a few beats. In the background they could hear Sasha beginning a terrible rendition of ‘’Bleeding Love’’ that would make Leona Lewis cringe. “Hey’’ says Mikasa. Annie looks up at her in question. Mikasa looks down at the table sheepishly and fiddles with her scarf. Annie’s heart beats faster. She’s so cute. It’s not fair. Fuck. Annie pushes back a blush as she waits patiently for her answer.
“…I got you something.” She says finally. Annie tilts her head sideways. “You didn’t have to we agreed we weren’t.’’ “I know” she says. ‘’But I saw it and I don’t know’’ she shrugs ‘’it reminded me of you somehow…’’ she looks at her seriously. ‘’Ah. There go the eyes.’’ Annie thinks and heaves a mental sigh of defeat.
“Let’s see it then’’ she says.
Mikasa’s eyes light up ‘’Really?’’
“Unless you don’t want to-” Annie starts but doesn’t get to finish before Mikasa is already face deep in her black leather purse. Her face is neutral but her movements are fast and excited. How long exactly has she been holding this back? Annie shakes her head at her behind her back and she feels her eyes soften. Mikasa finds it with a triumphant sounding grunt. Annie’s curiosity piques at the sight of the small rectangular box Mikasa holds. “Whatcha got there?” says Annie. Mikasa places it on Annie’s lap, flushed. “…Open it” she says.
Annie strokes the lid before slowly pulling away the lid. It reveals what looks to be a silver chain necklace with a crystal dangling from it. The crystal is clear enough that it allows for what is inside it to be seem. Seemingly suspended in the crystal is a small blue heart. Annie lifts it careful from the box, looking at how it reflects the light in awe. Speechless, Annie looks at Mikasa who smiles at her softly.
“Want me to put it on you?” she offers. Wordlessly Annie gives her the necklace and turns her back towards her. Mikasa’s hands appear on the sides of her peripheral, gently placing the necklace on her chest. As she brings both sides together she caresses the sides of Annie’s neck, too slowly to be purely coincidental. Her warm breath brushing on her skin makes her skin break out in goose bumps and she shivers at the graceful fingers running softly under her jawline as if they were reading the story written on the Braille of her skin. Once the necklace is hooked up, Mikasa presses her lips on the back of Annie’s neck right above the clutch. Annie’s breath hitches, she forgot that Mikasa KNOWS. She turns to glare at Mikasa but the blush that surely must have spread to her neck rats her out. Curse her pale skin, curse Mikasa and curse that sensitive spot she thinks. Mikasa lets out a low chuckle under hooded eyes. Her eyes are dark and positively burning.
Annie’s eyes widen, her heart races, the rapid pumping warming her from the inside out. What’s with this sudden change of mood? Mikasa shakes her head, as if to clear her head and says “Sorry. Your neck looked so pretty right now. I kept thinking about…”. She shakes her head again with a chuckle, not finishing the sentence. Annie’s stomach flipped. Ah, ok. She looked down at the table and slid a half filled glass of water in front of Mikasa. The person in question looks at Annie, confused with her offering. Annie levels her eyes with Mikasa’s, face serious and placing a hand on Mikasa’s shoulder. “…For your thirsty ass” Annie says monotonously.
Mikasa snorts suddenly and covers her mouth and nose with both hands, her eyes wide in shock at the unexpected sound. Two beats of silence pass as wide eyes meet wide eyes. They both burst out laughing unexpectedly loud, garnering the attention of the nearest table. “W-what wa-haha what was that?” says Annie, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “Shut up!” Mikasa says making breathy shushing noises and gestures. “Well, there goes the mood huh?” Annie says with a chuckle. Mikasa’s shoulders shake with the quiet aftershocks of laughter as she shakes her head at the table smile still stretched wide on her face.
Finally, she looks up at Annie, shaking the hair from her face. She lifts her arms slightly, an invitation. Annie turns back around and rests her head on Mikasa’s chest. Mikasa wraps her arms around Annie’s shoulder and buries her nose in Annie’s head. “I love you” she mumbles. Annie smiles and tilts her head up to bump her nose with Mikasa’s chin. ‘’I love you too, nerd’’ She says. Mikasa hums happily and kisses Annie’s temple. She rests her chin on Annie’s head once she faces forward again and fiddles with the crystal on Annie’s chest. “Do you like it?’’ she asks. Annie’s hums her assent and looks down at it. “Yeah, it’s beautiful” she says running her fingers over it’s facets. Annie can feel Mikasa’s happy hum run through her chest. “I’m glad.” She says burrowing her nose back into Annie’s hair. Annie spins the crystal around her hand, mesmerized at the small blue heart floating in it. She can see what Mikasa meant by it reminding her of Annie. She spins it again, the glares of the lights reflected on it. It is kind of familiar…
Mikasa shifting behind her distracts her from her thoughts. Mikasa leans into Annie’s ear. “Happy Valentine’s day” she whispers. Annie lets go of the crystal to look at Mikasa. “Happy Valentine’s day” she says and gently kisses Mikasa as the muffled voices of Eren and Connie crooning “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” permeate the air around them. They wouldn’t want it any other way.