Chapter Text
She was always sure about most things.
“You’re quitting?”
She always knew what time she was being picked up, how long she’d train after school, which class not to take, and what club colleges would like.
“It’s only been 2 weeks, I can still drop the class.”
She saw the letters before they appeared on her report card as if her eyes had etched them all out before the semester began. Everything seemed all too calculated that there was no more room for the slightest change. She didn’t just draw it out with a whiteboard marker but she carved it all on stone.
“No, no — I just have never seen you do this sort of thing.”
Annie glanced over at her seatmate who was furiously shaking her plastic cup filled with a cold latte. The ice rattling almost called the attention of the whole cafeteria but Annie fixated her gaze on the scribbles in her friend’s cup.
“Can you believe it? They spelled my name wrong again. “Mitch”, like come one! I’m a regular there at this moment, they can’t even spell it.” Hitch finally put her cup down and Annie was relieved to be freed from the annoying sound of clanking ice.
“Then just don’t order there,” Annie replied before taking a bite of her lunch.
“But he always orders there! That’s the only time I can see him!” Hitch was quick to reply as she defended her coffee choice.
“All Marlowe ever does there is sit on the farthest corner of the coffee shop and fights off the whole debate team and calls it a club meeting. Honestly. If you really want to see him every day just join the debate club, Hitch” Annie retorted as she pushes off a lovestruck Hitch Dreyse and proceeds to pack her things inside her bag.
“I want my cutesy coffee shop au, and he’s…wait,”
Annie looked over at Hitch who suddenly stopped at her blabbering to look at her with wide-set eyes.
“How’d you know where the debate club hangs out?”
Annie froze and suddenly she wants Hitch to start shaking that annoying cup of iced coffee because all the cafeteria noises muffled in her ears and her hoodie lost its purpose as she swore some sort of chill struck her somewhere by the nape of her neck.
“It’s the only club Marlowe likes. He never struck me as an “I study at a coffee shop” -”
Hitch let out a laugh. “You’ve never stepped foot in that cafe because you don’t even like coffee.”
Annie wanted to bite her lower lip until it bleed.
“It has big windows you can easily just peer into them and-”
“You interested in someone from the debate club?” Hitch’s cheeky grin and squinted eyes told her only one thing. And she would choose being interrogated by the FBI over one Hitch Dreyse. She had to sprint. She wanted to sprint. But running away would only fuel this cheeky bitch in front of her.
“If you are concerned? No, I’m not stealing your ‘man’ he’s all yours, Hitch.” She replied as nonchalantly as possible. While packing away her things inside her bags.
The Debate Club was the school’s treasure. Well other than their many athletic teams, the debate club were all seasoned humans whose mouths will never shut until a gold medal weighs them down. Reiner was one of the reasons she disliked that organization so much. She disdained the way they spoke as if they could do something about it, the way they’d give their all and lose their voice for some stupid motion.
She didn’t like it.
Hitch was about to speak until suddenly she stopped herself to stand up and put a hand on her smaller friend’s shoulder as a means to comfort, but Annie felt as if it was a weight that she wasn’t willing to carry.
“I feel like you shouldn’t drop a class after only 2 weeks,” Hitch spoke and Annie was taken aback, yet at the same time grateful because the whole conversation about the debate team was gone.
“Why are you suddenly bringing this topic up?” Annie glanced over at Hitch and she flashed a knowing smile.
“ You shouldn’t judge a class after just 2 weeks of being in it.”
“But I don’t like it. It’ll probably affect my GPA plus I only did it to help me with college essay writing. I’ll just get a tutor. ”
“Shh. Stay for another week and I’ll see what I can do to help. And Oooooh, are you heading to the student council room?” Hitch points out the folder Annie just took from her bag labeled “Student Council Stuff”.
“Yeah, I don’t know about staying for a week-”
“Bye”
Annie knew she was an odd girl if odd was the right word. She pops out of nowhere and abruptly leaves. But being classmates since pre-school, Hitch just automatically thought that she and Annie were great lunch buddies.
Annie shrugged off the thought and headed out of the cafeteria. She was finally able to exhale after the sounds of chattering students died down for she was now met with empty halls. It was only 30 minutes into their lunch break, everybody else was in the cafeteria, courtyard, or maybe the janitor’s closet. She turned towards the ancient staircase to the second floor. One of the many things she didn’t find alluring about the student council room was its location.
A school such as Paradis Academy was established sometime during the late 1800s. And though the thought of having an old castle-like structure for a campus felt interesting at first, the old building’s poor lighting and lack of heaters were annoying. The campus did have much more modern buildings but out of the many infrastructures in the school, the place Annie was headed to, was a 132-year-old building.
Can’t they just put the damn student council room in any of the new buildings?
The floors squeaked with every step she took and the doors always creaked even if you move them the slightest.
“Treasurer Leonhardt.”
Annie’s steps halted. Her efforts to remain quiet and unseen have all gone to waste. Peeling her eyes off the wooden floor she was met with-
“What the?” Annie took a step back, her weight all on her left heel as blonde knitted brows and bewildered blue eyes scanned the man in front of her. He was about to open his mouth to speak but Annie beat him to it.
“ Oh so now you’re stealing my style, Arlert?” She gestured at his white hoodie under his navy blue blazer.
“Before you start blaring at me this is Eren’s, I borrowed it-”
“-to steal my look.” she finished his sentence for him and she continued on her stroll towards the student council room.
“Yes, of course, I’m here to steal your look, as always.”
Annie sensed something underneath the dry sarcastic tone of his and though she must admit, she’d only sometimes hear him like this. The small ooze of pride was felt in the musty air that surrounded the both of them and she knew exactly why.
Annie was lucky that she was in front of Armin, for he’d point out her excessive eye rolls. She never bothered her school’s 3-layer pyramid system. It was an odd rankings structure. After a quiz, a teacher would bring out a pyramid and stick their names according to their scores. The third layer had room for three students, the second for two, and of course, the top was just for one very special student who was the best in a class of 20. Ever since freshman year, her name remained at the tip of that triangle. The lowest she’d go was against Mikasa Ackerman during sophomore year’s economics.
It was because they tied in almost anything they ended up sharing the top place.
Except the day came when Armin Arlert and Annie Leonhart took the same elective class, Creative writing.
Annie liked it when some things always resulted in one specific answer: The square root of 16,384 was 128, though 127.9 works. The point was; that Annie likes it when things had certain answers, straight to the point, and specific.
Creative writing was her total opposite. It required her to dance around certain topics as if she was to paint an apple with all the colors but red and green. They wanted her to milk out everything but the words that she needed. She wanted to easily tell but they needed her to show.
That was uncalled for. She never liked it when things were uncertain.
And just when Armin Arlert’s name topped the pyramid and hers wasn’t even at the very bottom—
The uncertainty if she was to show up in that stupid triangle followed her everywhere it stuck to her shadow.
She needed to get out.
“ If I were a person who’d steal someone’s style, I’d try not to look like I came out of a kid’s show.” She retorted and kept with her pace him tailing her behind.
“And what children’s show is that, Leonhardt?”
Annie stopped walking at the mention of her surname, she finally turned to look at him with a blank expression but he was just there with an innocent grin.
“Teletubbies.”
Of course, her words hold some sort of truth. The way the hood of the white clothing framed his face and its string was too tight, it’s probably itching his complexion. Not a single strand of his blonde hair was in sight. Only those big blue eyes behind thick-rimmed glasses and a straight line of a grin. She wondered why he’d choose to wear it that way because this seems too far off from the man who never skipped a day without bringing that light blue cardigan.
Armin chuckled, Annie felt like leaving. After all, she had a class on a building right across the lawn, and the sudden urge to hide in a bathroom stall because she wanted to be out of sight, from the man who got rid of her name on a pyramid in one of their classes.
“We have a meeting later and you're seriously gonna hold it whilst looking like a rapper from the 2000s? ” Annie finally spoke, shushing him from his laughter and she stared at the odd way the hoodie strings pulled on his face.
“Well, I came here to drop these off. Well actually, I was supposed to do it before lunch but the debate club had things to do at the cafe.”He showed her a folder that was much like hers.
“Aren’t you gonna use that for the meeting later?” Annie asked him
“Aren’t you going to use yours for the meeting later?” Armin used her question against hers and she groaned. He looked over at the folder in her hands and her grip tightened on the papers she held.
“ I’m leaving early, I’ve got training. I talked to the auditor about it. You?”
“Something urgent came up. I’m leaving it to the Vice President.”
Annie frowned and his smile faltered all of a sudden, she saw the way his ‘prideful’ demeanor crashed like a lego wall built by a toddler.
“Is—is something wrong?” Armin asked her and now this sudden change in the atmosphere made her want to run to her next class even if she’d be half an hour early.
“No,” She simply answered and she pushed down the lingering question of ‘what’s your emergency’ because she has no time with his emergency. She went back to her walk towards the student council room and he followed her behind, uttering not a single word.
She thought she liked silence because of how badly she wanted to leave the noisy cafeteria earlier. But now? Where was the sound of someone shaking their iced coffee when she needed it?
She should like the quiet. In fact-
“Oh-uh wait”
She stopped and suddenly he wasn’t an arm's length away from her. She could see the blur of his lenses and it made her wonder if it improved his vision or worsen it. His hands were atop the door knob while hers was an inch or two just atop of his. A second too late or both hands will be clasping that damn knob. A millisecond too late her hand would– His suit jacket sleeves were unbuttoned. That’s annoying.
“Wha-”
“It’s locked.” He simply puts and lets go of the handle to fiddle with something in his book bag.
She replaces his hand on the knob and it was already warm. It was locked, he told her it was locked. Why did she even attempt to open it?
She sighed impatiently though it sounded more defeated. She should have known it was locked. Why did she not know?
Armin searched his bag and the look of worry in his eyes was almost funny. She had to look down to hide the unknowing smile on her lips. Defeated, he was. Can’t even find those damn keys in his damn messy bag that he probably never cleans. Pathetic. But at the same time, no one was completely perfect (Not that she was thinking he was). Especially since she saw the keychain inside the water bottle pocket. The part of his bag he wasn’t even minding.
Should she point it out?
“President,” Annie spoke after a good 30 seconds of staring at the bag. Yes, the bag not the man. (at least that’s what she thinks)
Armin looked up at Annie’s smug face as she pointed at the water bottle pocket of his bag. All of a sudden he felt like melting at the scene, and though she was a couple of inches shorter than him, he felt a foot smaller than Annie Leonhart.
“Ah-here they are! Thanks.” He shook his head and moved towards the door.
Annie squinted her eyes because he dared to smile after what she did and though it was a small smile compared to his usual wide childlike- childish grin. It was nonetheless, a smile.
Annie only huffed and entered the room and left as soon as she put her folder down on the auditor’s desk. Not even looking back to tell goodbye to the Student Council president she just said she had
She had a class on 1:30.
Armin only chuckled as she briskly left the room. It was only 12:43.
Coach
Good afternoon, Annie. Muay Thai
training will be moved on 5 p.m today.
Is that alright with your schedule?
Today 2:36 PM
Annie
Good afternoon. Sure, coach.
Today 2:40 PM
Annie
Thank you
Today 2:42 PM
Annie paced outside the school’s main gate. She could leave and go home early to catch up on sleep or attend the student council meeting. Usually, the school trip is something the student council would be busy with. Paradis Academy at the end of its school year holds an international trip. Either way, it’s one of the main events the student council plans and though they were still a few months into the first months of the school year, everything needed to be arranged.
She scrunched her nose at the thought of the student council.
Of course, the wise decision was to attend the meeting, instead of leaving it all to their auditor. Make sure the student body doesn’t go bankrupt, see if they need a fundraising event, and interrogate the president about budgets.
She laughed at the latter. The newly elected student council members were sort of—a funny group to say the least.
The president was the first of his kind. Different, she’d say.
The President wasn’t attending. Why did she ponder on the idea of that man in that meeting?
Annie felt a small buzz in her pocket and snatched her phone,
[Creative Writing 1232] Student Aid inbox
PETRA RAL Tues, Aug 9, 2:40 PM
to me
Good day, Ms. Leonhart.
I am reaching out regarding your concern about dropping Creative Writing class code 1232 this semester. Duly noted that students are given only a month to drop a chosen elective, the faculty thinks that two weeks is too early on. We would like to meet with you in Rose Library from any time until 7 p.m today.
Thank you and enjoy your day.
.
Well, this was a reason not to attend that darn meeting.
Annie scrunched her nose. She has prepared some phrases to tell her teacher regarding her actions.
“My schedule is loaded.”
“I have an international competition coming up”
“ABRSM Exams”
“Recitals”
“I’m in the student council”
She was sure one of those would work.
“We’d like to offer you a solution Ms. Leonhart” Her posture stiffened as she sat in one of the library chairs. Ms. Petra’s voice was smooth and the jar of cookies by her table allured her though she resisted dipping her hand into the sweets.
“Well, it’s to stay for a week in the class which I’d assume you’d have realized and we’ll judge your grades and see if you qualify for dropping the class.” Annie tried to remain her blank expression but her mind jumbled.
“ My grades aren’t the best miss, and I think it would be better to drop the class before it affects my overall GPA,” Annie replied and she looks over to the teacher whose eyes never left her frame as if she was about to run out.
“You still have two weeks left Ms. Leonhart, if you drop it later it wouldn’t do much to your current grade. To be honest, I think you’re not as bad as you think you are.” Annie wanted to sink in her chair and wished muay thai wasn’t rescheduled until 6 p.m.
“The school started this program where we will have faculty members and upper-class men to tutor students after class hours and seeing your packed schedule, we could at least sneak 2 hours a week if you’d like?” Annie shot her teacher a look and though she was often unreadable Ms.Ral was quick to reply.
“At least try it for a week and we’ll see how you’ll do. You don’t have to commit to these. “ Ms. Petra smiled at the girl.
“If you want we can start. I actually assigned you a tutor from 3-4 if you’d like?”
Now, this wasn’t in any of Annie’s plans.
Sure, she’d expect this conversation to be at least half an hour long, but she wouldn’t think it’d turn out to be like this. Creative writing was in demand for Juniors such as her for the looming college application preparation starts way too early in this institution. If she was able to find the means to network with upperclassmen then maybe it wouldn’t be so hard.
She knew the standards when this school asks a student to be a tutor.
It was way over the roof.
Because she was once asked to be one but Annie turned it down.
And though she knew networking wasn’t her biggest strength, this could at least be it.
Annie nodded and in a swift motion, she was following ms. Petra to one of the study rooms.
And though uncertainty followed her as she walked in a forest during a wildfire.
And whatever she saw once her teacher opened the doors of the study room burned her to crisps. Because of all her uncertainties and uncalculated movements at least she got an answer as to why he decided to look like a Teletubbies character with that white hoodie and hide every single strand of blonde hair.
Because he lost a chunk of his well-known coconut hairdo.
His new look wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Surely, it was the most normal hairstyle any boy his age would want their hair to look.
It was uncomfortably normal.
He gave her a slight smile and for a second, Annie swore his eyes didn’t match the expression of his lips. He twiddles with his thumbs and his expression was far from the one he gave her earlier when he unlocked the student council room.
Was he nervous?
“Armin, have we kept you waiting for too long? I’m sorry but this is the student I was talking about.” Armin quickly took his eyes off her to look at the teacher.
Sure, the man has spoken in front of a crowd ever since he was in the 5th grade. Debate made him a little bit used to being at the center and though he wasn’t one to hoard attention much like his friend Jean, he certainly felt queasy at this moment.
Not because he was just about to be tasked with the responsibility of tutoring the influential Leonhart Family’s only daughter. Not that.
Maybe a part of that.
But something tells him she isn’t fond of the new, well, look.
“She’s the student Dreyse told me about and seeing that she told me that the both of you knew each other with the student council and all. I thought that it would be best if Annie here is partnered with someone that she’s familiar with.”
Armin was about to speak but Annie’s wide eyes caught him off guard.
“Dreyse?” Annie asks in a more of a whisper, an audible one, and her teacher chuckled.
“Well I coach Hitch sometimes, I’m her mentor at the broadcasting club and well, we had after-lunch sessions and she brought it up that you might not take a liking to being taught by a stranger so she kindly recommended me to a friend of yours.” Ms. Ral pointed over to Armin with smiling eyes and Annie wished she had gone to the student council meeting and just ran away.
“I-uh will do my best in tutoring her, ma’am”
Annie didn’t like any of this one bit. The word ‘her’ and ‘tutoring’ being used in a sentence spoken by Armin Arlert felt wrong but her expressionless demeanor didn’t help as Ms.Ral thought that this is what Annie would have wanted.
“Well Annie, I’ll leave you to your tutor.” Their teacher waved bye and shut the door close on her way leaving the two left alone in the small study room.
Annie felt like using the restroom. Because she did not just refer to that boy as her tutor. She looked at him and his lips formed a line and his eyes were too round for her liking. She tried to focus on other things, the five other empty blue chairs, the whiteboard, the dark black TV, the yellow light that made the color of his not-a-coconut-anymore hair look a tad warmer.
“You can sit down-”
“I’m fine,”
“You sure?”
“Yeah,”
“It’s one hour long.”
“I know.”
Armin nodded, not releasing a breath as he attempted to occupy himself with the papers before him. There wasn’t a tinge of disdain, excitement, or anything in her voice. To be frank, she was monotonous as she could get. Though he only had a few classes with her, he wasn’t a stranger to her bored intonation, expressionless eyes that were glued to the floor but one thing that he always found in her was the certainty with every word she spoke. And he wanted to be patient about it and tolerate her for an hour. His childhood friend’s tactics were much more dangerous yet he thought of it as more alluring than being in this room.
Where were Eren Jaeger and his plan of jumping off from the third floor with nothing but his blanket when he needed it?
“Just please sit down.”
“I said I’m fine.” She stood like a board near the door and he wanted to-
No, he was certainly not going near her. Why did he think of it?
He finally exhaled but it sounded less of an exhale of relief.
“Alright.“ Armin spoke and tore his gaze off her bored eyes as he picked up one of the papers on her desk.
“Regarding your work for Activity number 3.1 you wrote that A sea is a vast of-”
“What are you doing?” He suddenly looked over at her and yes, there were finally emotions in those eyes.
“Reading your work?” He waved the paper in front of her face
“Aloud?” She raises one brow and crosses her arm and though there are an expression ‘shooting daggers’ the girl in the room was stabbing him with a katana with that look.
“You’re three meters away from me. How would I raise a point and-”
Annie rolled her eyes and pulled the chair to the opposite end of the table. Her arms were still crossed and her expression never changed.
“The ocean is an excuse for someone else’s cowardly-” He stops at the sound of a chair running against the tile floor.
“I thought you’d shut up?” Annie was now standing up, a scowl on her face. Armin wanted to just let her be but the smallest most irrational part of him wanted to test the waters he knew were still undiscovered.
“You’re still too far for me to point out-”
She trashed her previous seat and moved until she was just 4 chairs away from him.
“ someone else’s cowardly behavior of not being able to trudge too deep”
Armin heard her stomp her mary janes and the sound of squeaking chairs was once again heard in the room. He didn’t take his eyes off the paper.
“For they only wish for the view of the sun meeting the waters but not when it’s 2000 ft deep and-” Again, the sounds of chairs moving but he didn’t dare stop reading her work aloud. His upper left lip pulled into a smile and if it wasn’t for the piece of paper covering his face Annie would’ve wiped off that smirk.
“And when sunlight could no longer reach the areas that are far too deep, their o- ” He never stopped reading even if he knew that she purposely stood up with a stomp much louder than the other and pulled the chair much harsher.
From four chairs, became three, then two and she remained still but his eyes never left the paper.
“We stop when darkness consumed and our-”
He stopped abruptly and the paper in his hands peeled away much gentler than he’d have expected.
The chair nearest to his was occupied and though she was just a mere pen away from him, he felt the way she’d stab him right in the chest puncturing every piece of skin, tissue, and flesh until it met with his most vital organ.
“Closer?” Annie held the paper he was reading and her eyes bore nothing but boredom except for a raised brow. Armin failed to answer the simplest of questions.
He knew how the quadratic formula was derived.
The distance of the earth from the sun.
He devoured quantum gravity equations like it was his last meal.
“Closer?”
Why couldn’t he answer?
“You said you wanted to point something out.” Annie placed the paper down on the desk peeling her gaze away from him though he knew that she would remain on guard until she knew he’d lost his.
He wasn’t letting that happen.
He nonchalantly took the piece of paper away from her hands and watched the way her eyes went from her work to his fingers pulling at the paper.
He clicks his tongue along with the click of his pen and points at a single word in her writing.
“Just use eyes instead of orbs.” He says simply encircling the word and she just laughs.
His grip on the mechanical pen tightened.
“That’s all you're pointing out?” She asks, her blank stare completely erased as he swore that the peaceful blue of hers was turning red with every second he’d stare but a part of him couldn’t be rid of that look.
“Do you want to point something out?” He asks and she looked over at him with a scowl.
“You're my tu-” she stopped mid-sentence and looked over at him who decided that this was the time he’d lean back at his chair to yawn and stare at the ceiling as if they were just chatting about the weather.
“About what?” Annie finally muttered
“Anything.”
She tried to keep that scowl amidst the loud crashing sounds of her heart and she could feel the blood pumpibg out; she didn’t know if it was anger, pure disdain, or just the urge to leave this room because why the heck would he ask her questions and give her a look as if she didn’t know. How dare he assume she wouldn’t know. That stare, those…eyes. As if he was counting the time it took her to answer.
5,6,7,8,9,10,11…
As if he was waiting for a bomb to do its thing.
And he knew that he was starting a fire. And she knew well that though he might be seen as the sweetest cupcake, softest bear on campus, or whatever the hell they call this human being.
If he wanted something to burn he wouldn’t hesitate.
“Anything?” she said, no, asked, why did she just ask?
‘Do you want to point out something, tell, show, confess, state, opinionate…”
She was seconds away, and she could hear the ticking of the bomb loud and clear in her ears.
“I do have something to confess.” she breathed in and straightened her posture to look at him with that blank expression.
He gestured for her to go on and all Annie wanted was to hold her fist and-
Tolerate it, Annie. What would get him to stop with that smile?
“Your hair doesn’t suit you and-” She stood up and walked towards his seated frame and she knew that all that ‘relaxation’ bullshit of a facade was crumbling down, she could stomp at the little pieces falling on the tiled floor.
Annie took a sharp inhale though one she’d be certain that Armin Arlert wouldn’t notice.
She was close. He was close. They were too close.
Armin fought back the urge to flinch against her touch as she so delicately took a hold of his wrist and her eyes never once left his. She didn’t dare touch his skin just the buttons that were unclasped.
“Unbuttoned sleeves annoy me.” She finally left him and went back to her seat and she wanted to laugh the moment she heard him exhale.
“Well, Leonhart-”
“Oh, Hey students so sorry to interrupt but they're closing the library early. They’re getting CCTV cameras installed in the rooms but how was the 30-minute tutoring?” Their teacher Petra suddenly entered unannounced her sweet smile unchanging as ever and-
They both looked at each other.
30 minutes?
And all he taught her was to use eyes instead of orbs
“Arlert’s well.”
“ Leonhart is good.”