AoT: Free Time

I get woken up by Annie pushing me out of bed.

"Hey!" I say sleepily. "What was that for?" I look over and see Annie, standing over me with her hands on her hips.

"We have practice. Did you forget?" Annie said with a glare. "Eren and Mikasa are expecting us."

"Right, I forgot" I say as I get up. "Let me change and I'll meet you in the car after." Annie walks out of our bedroom. I undress quickly and throw on a fresh set of clothes. I walk out of our bedroom and grab my water bottle. I start to walk to the car when I feel my phone buzzing in my pocket. I lift it out of my pocket and see that Mikasa is calling. I answer the phone quickly.

"Good morning, Mikasa." I say.

"Good morning, Armin." She replies.

"What's up?" I ask.

"We're gonna have to cancel practice today due to weather."

"That's a shame. Well thanks for letting me know."

"Of course, we'll catch you next time then. Bye." Mikasa hangs up. I open up my messages app to text Annie that practice got canceled. A few seconds later, Annie walks back into the house.

“So no practice?” She asks.

”Nope, Mikasa just called and said the weather is too bad.” I respond.

“What a shame…” Annie says. She starts walking closer to me. “So is there something you maybe wanted to do Mr. Arlert?” Annie’s face has a light pink plush on it.

”Maybe we could go on a date?” I ask? “I mean we’ve both been busy with classes, our jobs, and practice that we haven’t had much time on our hands. So why not enjoy our day?”

“That sounds great.” Annie says with a light smile. “Do you have an idea on where we should go?”

“I have a few ideas. Just hop in the car.” We both walk out of the house and to the car. We enter the car, strap on our seatbelts, and leave the house.

I rapidly start thinking about things we can do. Maybe the movies, or we could just go get some food. Then an idea struck me, why don’t we go to the arcade.

“Does the arcade sound okay?” I ask Annie.

”Like our first date?” She says. “Back when you had that bad haircut and were short as hell?”

”You don’t have to remind me…”

”Yeah, the arcade sounds fun.” Annie says. I drive us to a nearby arcade.

Once we arrive to the arcade, we rush in. Annie and I get our game cards and we roam around the arcade, looking for something to play. We stumble across a Dance Dance Revolution arcade game.

”Come on, Armin!” Annie says as she grabs my arm. I slide the card through the machine and we go to select our song.

“Don’t pick something too hard okay?” I tell Annie. I see a smirk grow on Annie’s face. She picks a song on the hardest difficulty.

“Annie! You know I’m not good at this right?” I say.

”Oh whatever, you’ll be fine.” She says. The game starts. I try to move my feet as fast as I can with falling flat on my face. I look over at Annie, her usually cold exterior seems to have melted away and she’s laughing and having a good time.

Eventually, our song is over. I’m sweating my ass off and trying to catch my breath, while Annie just stretches her arms a little.

“See, wasn’t so bad was it?” She asks.

”That was horrible.” I reply. “Please tell me we don’t have to do that again?” Annie laughs at my visible exhaustion. We move and find a claw machine with lion plushies inside. I look over at Annie and I can tell by the look in her eyes she wants one. I use my card and start the claw machine. I move the claw strategically, making sure that it would grab the lion perfectly. I press the drop button and the claw grabs the lion, just as I had calculated.

“Bingo.” I say with pride. I grab the lion and hand it to Annie. She grabs it and holds it close to her chest. She looks like a toddler holding their favorite stuffed animal.

“Thanks Armin.” She says with her face completely covered by a pink blush.

We continue playing games and enjoying the arcade for about an hour until our cards run out of money. We leave the arcade and start to head back home.’

”I’d say that was a successful date.” I say. “Right Annie?”

”Yeah, it was a lot of fun.” She says while playing with the lion plushie.

“Do you want to do anything else?” I ask. Annie shakes her head.

“I want to go home. We can chill when we get home right?” I nod. I continue to drive home.

After a short drive, we arrive back at our house. Annie and I walk into our house. Annie immediately walks over to the couch and plops down. I walk to our mini kitchen and start to make pasta.

While I wait for the water to boil, I look at Annie. She’s watching something on the TV while snuggling her lion plushie. She usual never acts this cute.

I continue making the pasta, throwing the spaghetti in the boiling water. I prepare the sauce and when the pasta finishes cooking, I plate the food. I add a little garnish for looks and pick up the plates. I bring one plate to Annie.

”I made you dinner.” I say as I hand her the plate.

“Thank you…” Annie says quietly. I sit next to her on the couch and we enjoy our dinner.

Annie and I finish our food rather quickly. Annie lays on my shoulder as we continue to watch the TV.

”Today was nice, Armin.” Annie says.

”I tried.” I say nervously. Annie’s finger wander towards my face. She grabs my face and pulls it closer to hers, kissing me. I lean into the kiss. Annie breaks it after a few minutes.

“How did I get so lucky?” I tell Annie.

”Because I like dumbass nerds like you.” Annie says with a laugh. I kiss her again to shut her up. Annie wraps her arms around me. I break the kiss.

”We should probably get some sleep.” I say. Annie blushes randomly.

”Can you take a fucking hint, Arlert?!” Annie yells. I’m surprised by her comment.

”What did I do wrong?”

”Do you not understand? I’m horny you dumbfuck!” I look at Annie, my face heating up by the second.

“Annie…” I say nervously.

”Can you just fuck me? Or do something to me at least?!” I walk over to Annie and embrace her.

”Not tonight.” I say. “I’m too burned out from Dance Dance Revolution.”

”Fine, whatever.” She says. We both walk to our bedroom. It’s a little awkward after I rejected her approaches. We both lie down in bed. Annie lays faced away from me.

”Goodnight Annie.” I say. She doesn’t respond. I grab her shoulder. “Annie?” She turns over and looks at me dead in the eyes.

”Next time I won’t take no for an answer.” She says.

“Understood.” I respond. She scoots closer to me and cuddles against me, falling asleep soon after.

THE END