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Chapter Text

Annie wasn't sure what she hated more, walking to school in the rain or putting up with the assholes on the bus. Right now she felt like she should have just walked. Going through a full day soaking wet would be easier than resisting punching out whoever was behind her kicking the back of her seat.

Finally, Annie couldn't take it anymore. "Would you cut it out?" She seethed as she whipped around to face the instigator.

Connie Springer looked up with surprise from his handheld video game. "Huh?" Then when he realized he was dealing with the infamous Annie Leonhardt he repeated himself with a squeak of fear, "Huh?"

"You are kicking my seat. Quit it." Annie said with what seemed like a slightly bored tone, but her eyes gleamed with a deadly shine.

"Yeah- uh, Okay. Sure thing. Sorry." Connie nodded his head obediently.

Annie turned back to face the front without acknowledging him again. Connie was known to be an idiot, so she didn't think he was purposely trying to rile her up like some people would. Some people really liked to push her buttons and humiliate her, despite knowing of her short fuse and her ability to kick their asses- even using the information to get her in trouble.

Annie took out her ear buds and cranked up the volume of her mp3, drowning out her thoughts in a chorus of violent drums and screaming vocals.

OOOO

Surprisingly, Annie actually found lunch slightly entertaining. She considered people watching a hobby, and she could watch the high school drama unfold daily for her like her own personal soap opera. From her table strategically chosen in the corner of the room, with her back to the wall, she had the perfect view of the imbeciles surrounding her. It was the only entertainment she could find at school.

Pushing around her cement mac n' cheese with her fork, with her gaze directed at Sasha Braus eating like a ravenous dog, she didn't notice the boy until his body was slammed into the other side of her table. She jerked back as her tray jumped into her lap with the force of the jostled table. Fuming, she was about to tell him off when another voice beat her to the punch.

"What's the problem, Jeager?" Jean Kirstein shouted, obviously itching for a fight.

"You're my problem, asshole!" Eren Jeager yelled back furiously.

It didn't really surprise Annie that Jean was instigating a fight with Eren Jeager, who happened to be the body that collided with her table, the two were always at odds. It didn't surprise her, but it did really piss her off. Couldn't they fight like children somewhere else?

The two boys had a hold of the other's collar and were shouting obscenities, taking no notice of anything around them. A swift yank of an ear and a strong kick to the stomach and Annie had Jean on the ground and Eren in her clutches. With a quick adjustment Annie made Eren crumple to the floor alongside Jean.

"You two fucks watch where you're going next time, huh?"

And with that, Annie nonchalantly walked out of the room, all eyes following her smooth movements with fear.

Chapter Text

"Do you know why you're here today, Ms. Leonherdt?"

Annie did her best to not roll her eyes. She failed. She just wanted to get this over with.

Mr. Shadis pressed his hands to his desk and leaned forward, trying to look intimidating, "You got into another fight. You'll get someone seriously hurt someday! This is unacceptable!" The vice principal was on a roll, "A young lady should know better! You get two weeks of detention, starting today! Do I make myself clear?" By the end of his tirade Mr. Shadis had raised his voice to a booming shout.

Annie shrugged. She'd gotten worse for breaking that one kid's nose last year.

"Whatever." Annie sat through her scolding, daydreaming of kicking out Mr. Shadis's kneecaps. Relieved when she finally was allowed to escape, Annie swiftly slunk out of Mr. Shadis's office. Lost in her brooding, she jumped slightly when she felt a hand come down on her shoulder.

"Woah woah!" A frantic Eren pleaded when Annie had instinctively twisted his wrist to a submission hold. "I just wanna talk!"

Annie narrowed her eyes. She released his hand warily. Who would want to 'just talk' to someone who embarrassed them by flipping them violently in front of the entire lunch room? Revenge was probably what he was plotting. Eren Jeager was know for his temper, after all.

She stared at him blankly, waiting for him to explain.

Once he realized she wasn't going to say anything he cleared his throat. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"My Dad." Wait, why did she say that? Damnit. "Not that it's any of your business." She added harshly to make up for her slip.

"Oh, we'll that's cool. You're really good. It's pretty impressive that you can flip me- because you're so short. How tall are you?"

Did this guy have no tact? "Five foot." Was Annie loosing her mind? Was she actually answering these invasive questions?

"Woah, that is short. But anyway, you should teach me that flip thing sometime."

"No."

"Ah. Please? Well, anyway, it was pretty cool."

Annie started to walk back to her class, not because she cared that she was missing it, but because she wanted to be rid of Eren Jeager, but he just ended up following her.

"You sit alone at lunch, right? Come sit with me. There are open seats."

So that must be it. He was going to try to humiliate her in the lunch room to get back at her for humiliating him there.

"No."

Eren seemed slightly taken aback, like he was finally realizing that she didn't want to be having this conversation whatsoever.

"Uh, no, I mean, with us, as in Mikasa and Armin too. Not like, just us two." She was wrong, he was just misunderstanding and stupid again.

"Still no." She deadpanned.

"Well, think about it, 'kay? I'll see you tomorrow!"

As he trotted off to whatever class he must have been skipping, she couldn't help but roll her eyes again. Damned stubborn.

OOOO

Annie was preparing to watch what was going to become the break up of the semester between Hanna and poor naive jock Bertholt. She wasn't sure how the two got together in the first place, but she guessed it was because Hanna wanted the status of dating a football star. Annie was also pretty sure Bertholt was as gay as they come. She had seen the break up coming for weeks, and today must be the fateful explosion of pent-up emotion. It was promising entertainment.

But just as Hana began to approach Bertholt a figure stepped into her line of sight. Annie shifted her eyes to meet the perpetrator's. Surprise, surprise, Eren Jeager.

"Come on, wanna sit with us?" This again?

Maybe, if she just ignored him, he would go away.

"It'll be fun. It must get boring eating alone."

Annie stole a glance at him, and internally cringed. He was looking awfully determined. She would have to flat out reject him to get him to leave her alone.

"I really would rather not."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to."

"Why don't you?"

"I like sitting alone."

"You could also like sitting with people. Never know until you try."

"I won't."

"Why not?"

Finally Annie couldn't take it anymore. She stood up harshly and stalked over to Eren, poking him in the chest. "What do you want?"

He seemed stumped by the question, but his serious determined face didn't falter. "What do you mean?"

"What do you want from me?"

"To sit with me and my friends?"

She sighed, exasperated, "But why would you want me to sit with you?"

"Because I want to be your friend?"

"After I flipped you on your back? Are you a masochist?"

Eren chuckled lightly, like Annie had made a joke, "Maybe, but I think you are interesting. Why not, I figure."

And Annie couldn't think of anything to say to that.

Chapter Text

Somehow Annie found herself sitting across from Eren, surrounded by his friends. Currently she was engaged in a glaring contest with Mikasa Ackerman. Mikasa was at the top of the class, athletically and academically. It was also a popular rumor that she had the hots for her adoptive brother, who just so happened to be Eren. Annie figured Mikasa was just getting pissed that Eren had invited another girl to sit with him. Holding no interest to be anywhere near this table, but not wanting to back down, Annie was willing to icily stare at Ackerman indefinitely.

"Hi!" A cheerful yet timid voice broke through her concentration. Unwittingly she glanced towards the voice. "I'm Armin Arlet. Nice to meet you."

The short- still taller than her- blonde boy stuck his hand out with a shy and sincere smile.

Annie ignored the handshake and just hummed with acknowledgement. She hadn't heard much about Armin other than he was ridiculously smart, but not well-rounded with athleticism like Mikasa.

When he realized Annie was not going to shake his hand, he retracted it awkwardly. A heavy silence creeped onto the table.

"So, Armin, did you do the English homework?" Eren said obliviously.

"I'm not letting you copy." Armin replied without missing a beat.

"But if I don't get a B on this test Hannes won't let me go to the amusement park-!"

"But you won't learn the material unless you actually study." Armin was adamant.

Changing tactics, Eren turned to Mikasa, "Mikasaaaa..."

Annie saw Mikasa's resolve waver right away. "You shouldn't cheat..." She said half-heartedly.

It was funny seeing hard-ass Mikasa bend to the begging of her brother. Annie suddenly thought of a way to aggravate her.

"Do you have Mr. Nolts?" She interjected. "Page 35?" Annie reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out the said homework, waving it in Eren's face.

"Oh yes! Thanks so much Annie, you're the best! I love you! You're my savior! I owe you one!"

Eren snatched the paper from Annie, and started to furiously scribble down the answers into his own workbook. Annie smirked at Mikasa, who was trying to hide her own snarl. Annie had just taken Eren's praise knowing it would make Mikasa jealous. Armin kept his eyes warily on his best friend's sister, ready to restrain her if she tried to tackle Annie across the lunch table. He found Mikasa was prone to violence when issues occurred involving Eren and other women (or men, if they were so inclined.)

OOOO

The rest of lunch had continued in the same fashion, with Eren being oblivious, Annie pushing Mikasa's buttons, and Armin playing mediator. Annie hated to admit it, but she may have enjoyed herself a little. But that was absolutely a one time deal. She always enjoyed aggravating people.

Right. She sighed to herself. She was just going to school to get good grades so she could get the well paying monotonous desk job. She did not need any of that high school drama that having friends required. She saw enough heartbreak and back stabs in the lunchroom for her to realize that it was best for her to be alone. Stability and an easy life were what Annie was after- other people would just drag her down.

Annie returned to what she was doing, grocery shopping. Father really wasn't one for anything that could be considered 'domestic' so if Annie wanted to eat something other than pizza every night, she had to get it and cook it herself. Not saying that she was a good cook. Actually, she was pretty terrible, but when she absolutely couldn't stand any more pizza she was able to whip out some spaghetti with store bought sauce or something else very basic.

Annie threw what she needed into the cart and headed for the self check-out. As she was tugging the receipt from the machine a voice greeted her from behind.

"Hello, Annie."

Resisting the urge to jump at the surprise of being snuck up on, Annie managed to turn around at a regular pace, her usual scowl ready to deter any certain girls-

but it was just Armin.

"Shopping by yourself?"

"Yes."

When Armin saw her reaching for her bags he quickly leaned over and snatched what looked like the heaviest bags. "I'll help you out. Did you drive here?"

Annie scowled again. She wasn't helpless. She could manage a few bags by herself. "No, I walked. I can carry my own bags home. It's close."

"It shouldn't be too far out of my way then." Armin said, only taking one cautious step back when Annie's glare reached a new level of pissed.

What was with this? "I'm fine, I can carry it." Annie raised the level of venom of her voice.

Finally Armin faltered enough that Annie could snatch her bags from him. She spun on her heel and made her way out of the store and across the parking lot to only realize she had a stalker. "Would you leave me alone already?"

"Hm? Ah- well," Armin stuttered, and then decided to get right to the point, "You should sit with us again tomorrow."

Annie stopped for a moment. "No."

"Either you agree to it now, or Eren drags you forcefully again."

Annie glares at the boy out of the corner of her eye, "Are you threatening me?"

"Negotiating. Eren has this thing where he is really passionate about something and he wont stop until he get what he wants. He apparently wants to be your friend."

"Tsk. Would you cut it out? Just because Eren wants something doesn't mean its going to happen. I don't want friends so I'm not going to have any."

"I thought you enjoyed lunch, even just a little?" Armin said with a hint of hopefulness.

"You mean antagonizing Mikasa? Getting anyone angry can be entertaining. And she hates me now anyway, so whatever." Annie started to walk again.

"She... doesn't. Not really. She is just protective of Eren."

"Does everything you guys do revolve around Eren?"

"Wha- No!"

"Eren this and Eren that- Whats so great about him?" Annie locked eyes with Armin, and ignoring the flash of hesitation and guilt said, "You guys aren't even like friends, he completely uses you. You cater to him for everything, like bitches."

Armin turned red with anger and embarrassment. Before he could say anything Annie cut in again. "See? Getting people angry can be pretty entertaining. It's like a hobby." And with that she turned away, finally free of her stalker, but she didn't miss his face change from anger to pity.

Chapter Text

The town of Rose was mostly rural, mostly farms, with a a few blocks of shops, the high school and middle school, and a park surrounded by old homes that was considered the 'center of town.' Annie lived in a patch of woods around a small lake on the outskirts of what would be considered Rose, based on the school district lines. Annie would run from her house, into town, then take a different route home. She had never measured the distance, but because of the winding farm roads she thought it was probably at least four miles there and back. She wasn't training for anything other than fitness, so she didn't worry about increasing the distance any when her usual loop became easy. She also trained in martial arts when she finished her run, so she supposed that helped her endurance.

Currently, she was on a run after school and she had just started making into the cluster of houses on the outskirts of town. She wore a light tanktop and running shorts, but a cool wind signaling fall was making her wish for sleeves. Annie picked up her speed to warm herself up, and was soon making her loop through the small park.

Annie heard a loud catcall and swiveled her head to find the last person she wanted to see sitting on a bench in front of her. Mina Carolina was surrounded by what looked like twenty year old men and Annie's scowl became fiercer. Mina was going to try to start something when she passed, she just knew it. She prepared to run straight past the group, ready to ignore anything said, no matter how dirty the insult.

Annie caught sight of Mina's smirk as she got in range, and was suddenly jerked to a stop by a meaty hand on her wrist. She twisted loose but was stopped by a wall of older men. Annie deiced it was best to not start a fight just yet. She was confident in her fighting, but she wouldn't get out of a fight with four grown men without a scratch, or at least she didn't want to bet on it. She didn't have a death wish and she wasn't stupid or cocky. It would be a lot easier if she could talk her way out of this.

"Look who it is. My best friend." Mina sneered, still sitting on the bench.

Annie glared at her, but didn't take the bait. They hadn't talked on good terms since eighth grade. Before the Incident, Mina had been Annie's best and only friend. But then Mina had become obsessed with what others thought of her, and tried her best to fit her own deluded version of cool, which now apparently included hanging out with creepy high school drop-outs who probably lived with their mothers.

"Just kidding. I don't hang out with psychotic bitches." Mina continued to taunt, "Didn't your mother ever teach you... Oh, right! She's a whore and left you!"

Annie tried to settle herself by taking a deep breath, but her irritation levels were at dangerous heights. "Back the fuck off or I'll break your toe."

"My toe? What the hell? She is crazy, isn't she?" Mina's henchmen chuckled deeply. "You have a screw loose up there or what, Leonhardt?"

Annie had heard these same lines over and over, Mina was the most uncreative insulter Annie had ever heard, but for some reason the words always riled her up. Anything her backstabbing-slut-ex-friend would say always set her off like a firecracker.

"I'm serious Mina." Annie growled through clenched teeth.

Annie saw a flash of something cross her enemy's eyes, but the snarky confident look was back just as fast as it had left. "Did you hear that, Alex? She's 'serious.'"

The man with the meaty hands chuckled and leaned forward, taking Annie's wrist in his hand again. "Heh, what could a shrimp like her do? Poke me to dea-" Suddenly he found all 190 pounds of himself flying through the air.

Annie didn't pause to watch him hit the ground. She reached out to the next closest man and punched him in the gut, then the jaw, then sent him sprawling on the ground with his friend. By then the other two had realized that being in Annie's reach was a bad idea, and had stepped back.

"What're you pussies doing?! She is just a girl!" Mina shouted, panicked.

The taller of the two tried to punch her full force in the jaw, but it was easily dodged, and in the same movement twisted the man's arm until his whole body followed as what could be described as rough barrel roll. When the next man lunged she stepped up to meet him and with their chests close enough to brush, she brought her knee up into his groin.

Within one minute she had brought down four grown men easily. She had over-estimated them before. It actually would have been easier for her to kick their asses first instead of putting up with Mina's insults. Who knew? Annie blankly stared at Mina, and never one to break a promise or a threat, stomped on her foot, hard. "I hope that broke your toe." She said with no inflection as she began to jog off.

Chapter Text

Study hall. A part of school Annie hated less than the others, because even though she was bored to death half the time, it was better than doing actual work. She was able to nap sometimes, when her supervising teacher was engrossed in getting lesson plans together, or, to get a change of scenery, she would head to the library. Sometimes she actually did read- on the long list of things she hated, reading wasn't one- but most of the time she would hide in the magazine section and listen to music or browse the web on her phone.

Now was a time that she was lounging with her earbuds in, brooding. Not that she expected it, or hoped for it, or anything like that, but Annie couldn't help but notice she hadn't been invited back to the Jeager table. A number of reasons came to her mind, but the forefront was her confrontation with Arlet. It must have been hard hearing the truth, she thought, but at the same time felt oddly guilty for putting it so harshly. Annie shook the emotions from her mind. She was Annie Leonhardt, not some weak naive child that cared about others over herself. She left the sympathetic feelings to idiots who wanted to waste their time on other people.

Huffing, she shifted her gaze around, hoping to distract herself. She caught sight of Christa, the only person above the age of 12 who was shorter than her looking quite confused as she glanced at the spines of the books. She seemed to be searching for something specifically, but couldn't find it. What an idiot.

"What're you looking for?" Annie spoke up, her monotone able to be heard easily in the quite library.

"Oh?" Christa turned with a jump, wide eyes falling on Annie. She grinned bashfully, in a way that seemed to ooze pureness, making Annie a little sick to her stomach. "Just a this reference book on World War One. It doesn't seem to be anywhere!" Christa then proceeded to bound over to Annie and, leaning into her personal space, handed her the paper with the apparent book name scrawled on it with loopy letters.

What was it with people lately? Had she lost her ferocious aurora or something, because no one seemed to respect her space until she told them off or beat them up. Annie glanced at the paper. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Artillery by Ivan Hogg. What was she suppose to do with this? Its not like she was going to-

"Can you help me, please?" Christa held Annie's glare, the gleaming blue melting Annie's icy blue.

Damnit. Damn damn damn! Annie couldn't help it when she felt herself deciding she could help, she wasn't doing anything anyway, she enjoyed not having to crane her neck up to glare. But she was still unhappy about her weak will in the face of pure blue eyes.

OOOO

It only took the pair five minutes to find the book, and now Christa was waving goodbye and calling her thanks out too loudly for a library. Annie turned away without acknowledging the smaller girl. She just wanted to get back to not doing anything. She stopped short when she saw another blonde sitting in the chair across from hers in the magazine section. She stiffened slightly and her scowl deepened. What did he want?

She sat across from Armin Arlet, stonyfaced, ready to snap at him as soon as he opened his mouth. But- nothing. He didn't look up from his book for the rest of the study hall period. He didn't even glance her way when he got up to leave. What a weirdo, she thought angrily. But it wasn't the only time it happened- every study hall he would sit down, read, and leave, not saying one thing to her. Of course Annie wasn't going to say something first if he was playing that game, whatever 'that game' was.

Starting the day after the library incident, Jeager approached her again at lunch, somehow threatening and pleading and annoying her to sit with them again. So began the days of being persuaded to sit at the Jeager table, and being stalked in the library. The strange thing was that outside of Eren convincing her to move tables every day, no one talked to her. It was odd, to say the least. Annie had no idea what to make of it. Did they just want to disrupt her day? Or were they psychologically trying to mess with her?

...It was working.

Chapter Text

Two weeks after the start of Armin's strange stalking habits began, Annie made a mistake. Armin was running late- he usually arrived at his chair across from hers right after she sat down, but it was half way through the period and she still was sitting alone. Not that she was disappointed, or anything- just curious. Was he sick today, or did he actually have to do homework for once? Maybe he wanted to do something more interesting than sitting close to Annie to just make a point of ignoring her. She was about to turn back to her mp3 when she saw his messy blonde head walking through the aisles of books.

"Where were you?" as soon as the question left her mouth she swore profusely to herself. They were ignoring each other, she shouldn't be questioning his whereabouts! Damnit!

Armin just gave her a surprised look that transformed into a genuine smile. "Got a new book. Worried?"

Annie didn't sputter- but she almost did. "No." Annie denied sharply. Quick! She had to recover her cool somehow, "Just wondered if you had something better to do than stalk me." Annie cringed- that sounded weak, even to her.

Armin's smile grew if it was even possible. "Don't worry, I wasn't going to ditch you."

"Its- you can't even ditch me, because we aren't sitting together." Bullshit, Annie called on herself. She knew they weren't technically planning sitting together everyday, but it happened, and it had become such a habit that she expected him to be there. "What's this even about anyway? Shouldn't you hate my guts for yelling at you at the supermarket? Are you trying to annoy me-"

"No, no! And I'm really sorry about that day. I was really pushy, and you had told me to leave before you yelled, so I should have taken the warning. My bad."

Sorry? His bad? "What the hell?" Annie was utterly confused. He was apologizing to her when she was the one who over-reacted? Did she just admit that to herself?

"Well, I mean, I should have said I want to be your friend too. It isn't just because Eren wants to be friends that I want you to sit with us. And I guess I didn't go about it in the right way, I was trying to force you to hang out with me. I saw you with Christa the one day- you helped her out. You really are a nice person, aren't you, you're just trying to hide it."

This conversation was not going where Annie wanted it to go. She was fighting a blush, she was considering his words like his opinion mattered to her. This was no good. Bad. Time to abort, to hell with her pride. She stood and was about to make a dash for the girl's bathroom, but he caught her sleeve. Annie rounded on him, her glare spitting fire. He had balls though, even through his fear his hand stayed latched to her sweatshirt.

"Please. Just give us- me- a chance. Just keep sitting with us at lunch, tag along with us when we go places. You don't even have to participate unless you want to, just try it out." His eyes were wide and pleading, and Annie still hadn't recovered from him wanting to be her friend. What was that about, she had never done anything to make anyone like her- well she was too nice to Christa that one time, but even so-!

"Here, here," Armin pulled something out of his pants pocket with his free hand and shoved it at Annie. "For you. Just come with us this Saturday. I swear you'll have fun."

She peered down at the slip of paper to discover a ticket for an amusement park. She had never been, and it was tempting. Wait, wait, wait! What the hell was she thinking! Not tempting at all! She did not want to go anywhere with anyone!

"Please, think about it. I really want you to come. Eren will too. Mikasa can get over herself."

She really wanted to try that one rollercoaster, and the ticket was paid for. She was just using him to get into the park. Thats all. She just wanted the free ticket to the amusement park. She nodded. She would go.

Chapter Text

Annie almost didn't show- but just almost. She was late to their meeting spot, though, and Eren shot her a slight pout when she did finally arrive. "C'mon, Annie! What took you so long? The lines are going to be sooo long when we finally get there." Eren was practically bouncing with excitement where he stood.

"Would you calm down?" Mikasa chided him quietly, never taking her glare from Annie's.

"Would you relax? I'm just excited that we're finally going!" Eren said, pout turning into a scowl.

Annie just stuck her hands in the pocket of her sweatshirt and waited for them to resolve their issues. For a rumor going around that Mikasa liked her stepbrother, they bickered a lot. Some had said they did act like a grumpy married couple, but she figured it was exaggerated, they could also be bickering like siblings. Shocker.

"Hey, Annie! I'm glad you showed." Armin greeted, ignoring the sibling rivalry, with smile too bright to be looking at her.

"Hm, sure." Annie said passively, avoiding his gaze. She just wanted a free trip to the amusement park- nothing more.

"I wish Sasha could've come. Too bad she had that thing going on." Mikasa said nonchalantly. Annie understood immediately. Her free ticket had originally been for Sasha. Annie ignored it, keeping her bored expression like nothing had been said at all. She did catch Armin shooting Mikasa a warning look, his eyes getting sharper than she thought he was capable of.

Eren quickly tried to change the subject, "Anyways, let's go. Don't have all day!" He released an awkward laugh. Today was going to be interesting, to say the least.

OOOO

"Sorry, you're too short to ride..."

Did he just say what she thought he fucking said? She was about to kick him where it counts. Or maybe throw him off the top of this rollercoaster after she ripped his limbs off and forced her way on. They had only been on a few rides so far, but Annie absolutely loved them (not that it showed.) The thrill of flying through the air, the wind in her face, the stomach turning twists! And here was this fucking prick trying to tell her she couldn't fucking ride the most fucking adrenalin pumping ride in the whole fucking park because she was too fucking short?

The asshole backed up a step at her glare. Annie took two steps forward, into his personal space, "What was that?" She said with deadly venom, "I don't think I heard you." She held his fearful eyes, daring him to hold her back.

"Ah- you- safety-" He mumbled nervously.

"I'm plenty safe, don't. You. Think?" she emphasized her words by tapping her foot.

"The rules..." The worker replied.

Eren stepped up next to her arms crossed in what he probably thought was an intimidating pose, "Would you just let her on, man? She isn't a kid."

"I- it's-" he let out a defeated sigh, "Fine, but only one ride. If you come back again, I'll get my supervisor."

"Alright!" Eren cheered, slapping Annie on the back, scowl gone and intimidation attempt forgotten. Annie walked to the seats and discovered part of the reason for the height requirements. The rollercoaster was made so that the seats hung off the rail, so instead of riding on top of a rail, it was dangling beneath. This left a large gap between the floor and the actual seat in the loading area, making it difficult for Annie to climb on.

"Here." Armin held out a hand to help her, but she ignored it, instead managing to pull herself up by a mix of hopping and climbing that didn't look quite as graceful as she hoped it would. She snuck a glance at him, and was surprised to see a him with a peculiar smile on his face, just part of his mouth upturned, like a smirk- but warmer.

Was he making fun of her? Her height didn't bother her, what bothered her was when people made a big deal about it or treated her like a kid because of it. "What?" She snapped, venom from earlier still evident in her voice.

He shrugged, and sat in his own seat, avoiding answering. Annie may or may not have 'accidentally' smacked him in the face in a particularly fast corkscrew flip.

OOOO

"There- Just a little more- Yes!" Eren shouted as Mikasa won another game, and received another huge plush toy. This one was a giant white rabbit with floppy ears and a furry chest. Annie was mildly surprised. That made 4 wins no losses for Mikasa, and Annie was pretty sure that was impossible with the way the game stalls were unfairly rigged. "Here, Annie, you get this one. Our hands are full." Eren said as he jiggled the huge badger in his own grasp. Mikasa kept the first plushie she won, a dog with droopy eyes, and Armin's was a white owl that reminded her a lot of Hedwig.

Annie had to practically bear hug the bunny in order to carry it. For a second time that day she cursed her smallness. She was glad it was night and the park was closing because she wouldn't have been able to carry the stuffed animal around for long through the crowds. Her feet were sore and she was exhausted. She noticed everyone except Mikasa was a walking zombie at this point. Annie had to admit, that girl was a beast.

They somehow made it to the car, and Eren let Mikasa drive without putting up a fight. "I gotta catch some Zs" He muttered before collapsing in the passenger seat, out like a light. Annie shoved the bunny into the car first, then climbed in after it, trying to find a comfortable way to position herself. Armin seemed to be having as much trouble or more getting situated. Somehow they ended up next to each other in the middle of the seat, stuffed animals closest to the doors.

"Did you have fun?" He asked quietly.

"Rollercoasters are okay." Annie said blankly.

"Yeah. I think they're okay too." he said with another one of his not-quite-a-smirk smiles.

"What?" She asked, tone not changing.

"I'm pretty sure the nicest thing you've said about anything or anyone ever." Annie just turned away, ignoring him. "We'll have to come again sometime, huh?"

That caught her attention. Another day of vomit-inducing rides? She was ready. But, that would mean hanging out with them again. She supposed she could put up with it, she thought as she buried her face into the bunny, already fading into the world of sleep.

Chapter Text

"Annie. Annie, wake up."

Annie just hummed and turned her face. She was comfortable, she could feel the warmth on her side keeping her feeling cozy while the air was crisp and chilly. She buried her nose into the smooth warmth, and something began to nag at her brain.

"Annie." The voice became sharper, and along with the nagging feeling of something being off, Annie began to regain her senses. The warmth on her right side shifted slightly, and she realized she was sitting up. Why was she sitting up? Why was their warmth on her side? Finally Annie snapped awake when her name was called again. Everything came rushing back- the amusement park, the stuffed animals, the car, the boy sitting next to her-

Annie jerked away from Armin suddenly, but there was only so far she could move, being pinned in by the giant rabbit. Armin barely even twitched at the jostling, and Annie's face was soon burning when she discovered how tangled they had become during the drive- his hand resting innocently on her thigh and her arm loosely hooked around his, their legs pressed together and her face must have once been nuzzled in his neck.

"Annie, where do you live? I'll drop you off." Mikasa asked from the wheel. Annie's face continued to burn, and she felt like slapping Armin, but that would wake him up and make him realize what had happened, and everything would become that much more embarrassing. Best to pretend nothing happened. Eren was asleep too, but Mikasa... Annie glanced into the rear view mirror, checking for a mocking smirk or a devious glare from the girl, but her face was still blank. Although, when their eyes met, it was the first time there was no glaring contest between the two.

Cautiously, Annie gave Mikasa her address, watching carefully for any signs of acknowledgement of her previous position. Mikasa was still stony-faced though, and Annie allowed herself to relax slightly. Maybe she had been focused on the road- but the more Annie considered it, the more she realized Mikasa must have noticed. Mikasa was only territorial about Eren- not Armin. The first time she felt no malice from Mikasa was after leaning on Armin in a compromising way, she must be assuming things and feeling more at ease about Annie because she wasn't hanging off Eren, just Armin.

Annie had to stop herself, the heat on her face was unbearable. She hoped it was dark enough outside to hide it. She hoped Mikasa wasn't one to hold on to embarrassing stories just to bring back up later as blackmail. Annie didn't like Mikasa, but she respected her, and she thought that maybe under all that tough was an honorable girl who just wanted to not bring up embarrassing stories ever, because Annie would kick her ass- She caught herself mentally panicking and took a deep breath. She didn't care, she told herself, she didn't care about opinions of others. It was just dumb high school anyway, who cared.

Feeling only slightly at ease now, Annie stepped out of the car when Mikasa pulled into her driveway. No parting word were exchanged, and just like that the car was gone and Annie felt exhausted all over again. They had left the park around ten, so it must be about eleven at night. Annie hefted the bunny, which Eren had insisted she keep before they had left the park, and walked into her house. The frontdoor was unlocked, and Annie immediately felt uneasy. Her father always locked the doors, even if they were in the middle of nowhere.

Silently, she crept into the through the living room, into the kitchen, and blindly searched for the lights. She flicked them on and flinched when she was surprised by the figure of her father sitting at the dinner table. His eyes were wide awake and slitted in what Annie recognized immediately as anger.

"Father? What are you doing up?" She asked, staying cautiously in her monotone.

"It's eleven fifteen." He said, almost like he was stating what he had for breakfast.

"Yes, sir?"

"You weren't around all day, which I'm use to. But you weren't home for dinner, which I'm not."

Oh. Was he really having a worried parent moment? It caught her off guard. He wasn't one to worry like this, "I went to the amusement park..." Annie indicated the plushie in her arms.

"With friends?" Her first instinct was to say 'no' automatically, but she hesitated for a moment, giving her father all the answer he needed. "You be careful. You can't trust people. You can't trust the world, Annie, 'cept me."

"Yes, sir." Annie replied, far too use to her father's lectures and suspicion of the 'world.' She thinks it comes from her mother abandoning him- she was one year old at the time, and she never knew a father who wasn't deeply depressed. If she was honest with herself, she might realize that he was where she got her antisocial tendencies from. "I'm going to bed." Annie said.

"I'm getting you up early to train." Her father warned, his eyes still glinting with anger and worry. Annie just nodded her head, accepting her punishment silently.

OOOO

Monday morning Annie felt like an old woman. Her muscles were sore, and bruises covered her body. Her father was brutal when 'training' her. She was good at martial arts, and she trained on her own everyday, but when her father decided to step in, he always took it too far. He would come at her, and she would have to block his punches and kicks that were his full strength. Her arms were a bruised mess, luckily her sweatshirt covered them.

Needless to say, Annie wanted to be able to hobble like an old woman, but she wasn't weak so she forced herself to walk normally. She was suddenly grabbed by the wrist, and she had to bite back a yelp. She jerked out of the grasp and whirled on her attacker, but again held herself back. It was just Christa.

"Hi Annie!" Christa greeted cheerfully, unfazed. "How are you?"

"Bad." Annie dead panned.

"Oh. Sometimes I don't like Mondays too." Christa nodded innocently. Annie got the feeling Christa liked everything, even Mondays, but she was just saying that to have sympathy for her.

"Oi, Christa." Annie focused on the person behind Christa. She was tall, with dark brown hair and freckles- Ymir. Christa's shadow. "Let's go."

"Do you two know each other?" Christa said, ignoring Ymir, "Ymir, this is my friend Annie! She helped my with my history project. Annie this is Ymir, my best friend, we've known each other since eight grade." Christa paused, like she expected the two to shake hands or something equally as friendly.

Annie was still a little confused at being called a friend, they had only ever talked once. Ymir seemed to be sizing Annie up, measuring something. The result was a pause that only Christa found awkward, the opposing girls were too wrapped up in their own thoughts to notice.

"So you helped out Christa?" Ymir suddenly inquired. "What for?"

Annie truthfully had no idea why. She did it on an impulse. She hadn't really thought about gaining anything from it at the time, but she knew that answer wouldn't satisfy Ymir. She knew Ymir's type, and understood them well- the selfish type that only would do things that directly benefited themselves. Annie thought everyone was that way, she knew she was, but Ymir was the rare type that acknowledged and maximized it. She was dangerous. "Maybe she'll help me out with a project sometime. Who knows." Annie said, trying to stay vague.

Annie could see Ymir bristle slightly, "If you need anything, do it yourself." Was Ymir trying to protect Christa, or keep her to herself?

"Whatever." Annie said blankly, then walked away silently.

"Oh, bye Annie, see you around!" Christa called after her rude exit from the conversation.

"Yeah, bye Annie" Ymir called mockingly. Annie was going to have to watch out. She wasn't use to dealing with the consequences of talking to people.

Chapter Text

Annie sat down at lunch and immediately could sense something was weird. Eren and Armin were staring at her dumbfounded, and Mikasa was neutrally gazing at her out of the corner of her eyes. Was there something on her face, or what? Did they suddenly realize that they didn't like her? But Armin broke into a smile, and she knew nothing was wrong. But still, this whole situation was creeping her out.

"What is it?" Annie asked, indifferently.

"You sat here on your own! I didn't have to drag your stubborn ass across the lunch room today!" Eren exclaimed, relief written on his face.

"Thanks for sitting with us, Annie!" Armin said. He really was a piece of work, thanking her to sit with him. She suddenly remembered the car ride home and had to turn away from his friendly gaze.

"Whatever." Annie kept her eyes on her tray of food. A few minutes later Eren directed a question at her, but she missed it, being caught up in her own thoughts. "What?"

"I asked if you were going to the football game this Friday. It's against the Titans, our rivals! We have lost every year to them, but this time Erwin Smith is quarterback, and Levi- oh and Olou and Eld-!" Eren trailed off, waving his arms enthusiastically, like he wanted to give Annie some of his fanaticism.

Armin cut in when he saw her about to decline, "We are all going, you should come with us. Even if you don't like football, its fun to see Eren make a fool out of himself."

"Hey!"

"It's pretty relaxed," Armin continued like he hadn't heard Eren's protest, "No pressure, if you don't want to, though."

Yeah, right, 'no pressure.' Those pleading puppy eyes said differently. Annie had to avert her gaze again or she really would end up going.

"No."

"Annieee!" Eren whinned, "But it's football! No one can say no! It's an American tradition! Don't be a stick in the mud!"

"I said no." Annie reminded him, her eyebrows dropping into a scowl. "Football as a whole is a tool of society to pick the 'popular' and the 'athletic' people. How many of those popular football players that you just named will play in college? Possibly a few. Professionally? Most likely none. They'll get normal jobs and have to use their brains, or whats left of them, to think like the rest of us. It's idiotic to make something so inconsequential the base of how we judge people today."

Eren looked frustrated, but surprisingly thoughtful about the whole thing. Annie was surprised he didn't blindly defend the worshiped sport. Mikasa was watching her impassively, and Armin chuckled. He shut up quick when Annie turned on him with a glare.

"I'm not laughing at you! That is a very good point." Armin explained in a rush, "It's just, I think we go for the fun of it, to hang out. Not to support the game, really. To be truthful, I don't like watching sports, I like just hanging out."

Annie considered it. Armin wasn't really the sports type, so she believed him, but he really wasn't making a good case for her. Annie was still not particularity fond of people or sports, so it was a lose-lose situation.

"How about if you go I'll buy you something from the concession stand, anything you want." Eren prodded. "Even that seven dollar cheese steak."

Annie was not interested in cheese steaks. At all. "I'm not putting myself through high school football for an overpriced cheese steak."

"What would get you to come?" Armin asked.

Annie thought for a moment, and picked the most ridiculous thing that came to her mind, "If you two paint your chests with something full of school spirit, and stay that way the whole game." Annie knew it would be freezing, being late fall.

"It's going to be freezing, you probably shouldn't" Mikasa warned.

"Okay. We'll do it." Eren said, giving Mikasa an annoyed glare.

"Huh?" Armin started at Eren's quick reply. "Wait a second-"

"We'll do it." Eren turned to Annie, full of seriousness.

"Okay..." Annie muttered as her eyes widened slightly in surprise. He actually agreed to it? Annie glanced at Armin, who looked very unenthusiastic about what Eren had dragged him into. She gave him the most sympathetic blank look she could manage. They were kind of in the same boat- she hadn't actually thought Eren would agree to something that crazy, and now she had to go to the football game.

OOOO

Eren had actually managed to wrangle two of his other friends, Connie and Thomas, to join them so they could spell out the name of the school, Rose. When Annie had arrived at the field the game was just starting and she was greeted with loud shouts and jeers as she walked in front of the home bleachers. She gazed up into the rowdy student section, looking for her shirtless group she was obligated to sit with. In the sea of red and black school colors Annie spotted them. Eren, the O, was standing and chanting loudly with Connie, the S, and some others sitting in front and behind him. Thomas, the E, and Armin, the R, were clapping, looking like they were trying and failing to have fun despite the cold. Annie herself had added a leather jacket over her usual hoodie; it got surprisingly cold without the sun.

Annie started climbing her way over students to get to them, not apologizing when she accidentally stepped on toes. "Hey." She greeted blandly to let Armin know she had actually showed up like promised.

He turned, and his miserable face lit up, "Hey! You came!" He elbowed Eren, "She's here!"

"Sweet, yeah! Go Rose!" He fist pumped the air.

Thomas and Connie noticed too, and greeted her with cautious smiles, still part of the few people who remember her terrible reputation. Annie sat and watched the shifting mass of people around her instead of giving the game her attention. She wasn't use to being in the mix of the crowd, she was always on the outside looking in, and it was a strange feeling to be sitting in the middle of the action. After a few moments Annie realized Mikasa was nowhere to be found. When the boys finally plopped back into their seats when the possession of the ball switched, Annie asked where she went.

"Oh, Mikasa?" Eren answered, "She didn't come. She hates football."

Seeing Annie's rising anger Armin stepped in, "Do you want something to eat or drink? I'm going to get a hot chocolate."

"I'll come too." She snapped, purposely stomping on Eren's toe as she passed him.

"Sorry about that." Armin said as he walked, "We didn't think you would care if Mikasa came or not. You don't usually talk to each other so I thought..."

"I don't care about her, it's that she wasn't forced to come."

"Ah, well, you get to see us being tortured, so maybe it's worth it? And hopefully, you will be having honest fun by the end?" Annie glanced at Armin's bare chest, and back to his face, not letting anything show, and pushed him out of the way.

"Let's just get some food." Annie walked up to the shortest line, making sure to keep her face down to hide her burning cheeks. For a nonathletic book worm, he wasn't flabby at all. He wouldn't win any medals for bulging muscles, though he gave off something undeniably male. Maybe it was light hair leading from his bellybutton downward-

Annie mentally smacked herself. She also felt her face burning hotter as she felt him step up behind her. "What are you going to get?"

She took a moment to collect herself, "Just a hot chocolate." She managed normally.

"Okay. Two hot chocolates, please."

"Here you go, young man. You and your girlfriend have a good night." The woman running the stand winked at him, and he noticeably flushed.

"Ah, no-" His eyes flicked down to Annie, who was pretending not to care. She grabbed her cup from him and started to walk back without him. Quickly he caught up and walked beside her, peering at her from the corner of his eyes, trying to judge her mood. "Are you okay?"

"Fine."

"Okay..." He said skeptically.

Somehow they made it back to their seats without spilling their drinks. As they sat she heard someone calling her name.

"Annie! Hey, Annie!" Annie glanced farther down the bleachers to find Christa standing and waving to her. Annie gave her a nod back, and that was enough of an invitation that she started to make her way up to Annie. Ymir slunk behind her, following her cheerful friend through the crowd. "I've never seen you at a game before!" Christa said as she plopped herself down next to Annie.

"First time." Annie had to scoot over as Ymir also forced herself down on the bench with Christa. She felt like she was in a person sandwich. She tried to not think of who was on her other side, shirtless.

"Oh cool! You made it to the best game this season, don't you think, Ymir?"

"Sure. It's wonderful." Ymir replied sarcastically.

Not seeming to notice, Christa leaned forward and squinted, "How do you sit so far up? I can't see who's who from here!"

"You need glasses, that's why, four eyes." Ymir smirked. "I bet you'd look real cute and smart, too." As Christa blushed and looked away from Ymir, Ymir shot Annie a fierce territorial glare.

"Hi," Armin greeted from behind Annie, "How are you Christa, Ymir?"

"I'm great! Aren't you cold though, Armin?"

"Yeah, but I'll live." He chuckled, chest half pressed against Annie's back, "Good thing there's hot chocolate."

Annie couldn't help but shifting awkwardly. She wasn't sure how to deal with this crowd. She wasn't sure how to react to all this causal contact. She really was out of her element here. It was making her nervous and wanting to get away. Couldn't she have enough space to breathe? A pressure was building in her head, and it got worse as Christa leaned over, closer to her, to talk to Armin, pressing in, behind her.

Swiftly she stood, sloshing her hot chocolate. She mumbled something about needing air and rushed down the bleachers and turned at the edge of them to lean on the fence beside them. There was a lot more room now, and she felt like she could breathe again. She never realized she was claustrophobic, but that's what it must have been. She steadied her mind, and closed her eyes, tilting her head back until it rested against the chain link fence.

"Annie? You feeling sick?" It was Armin, the last thing she needed. Annie ignored him and kept her eyes shut. He might get the hint that she didn't want to be anywhere near anybody right now. "Annie? Do you need me to take you home?" He gently cupped her elbow, as if to steady her.

She shrugged him off and responded, "Too many people. I think I'm claustrophobic."

"That's unexpected. You were fine at the amusement park and earlier tonight. But if you think so, I can still take you home if you want."

Annie scoffed, eyes still closed, "You just want to be warm again."

"True, that's part of it." He laughed, nearby, but giving her space.

She was quiet for a moment, thinking. Then, "I think I'm okay. Just give me a little bit longer. I'm not a pussy like you."

He laughed again, knowing she wasn't speaking out of anger. She opened one of her eyes and watched him as he sat next to her, wrapping his arms around his knees. He buried his head in his arms and sighed, relaxed. He turned his head to the side and caught her watching him. He grinned, "Even if it's a lot of trouble, I swear football games are fun to watch. Usually."

"Hm, right. Whatever you say." deadpanned Annie, turning her face up to watch the sky. Light pollution from the stadium lights prevented her from seeing the stars, but she searched anyway.

"You like stars?" Armin questioned.

"I guess. They're there."

She could hear Armin's smile, "That's absolutely right. They are, aren't they?"

Was he saying something that meant something else? He was sounding awfully philosophical, but Annie wasn't sure. He seemed like the type to gaze at stars and think deeply though. "Wanna head back?" Annie asked, pushing off from the fence with a rattle.

"Yeah, let's go."

Chapter Text

Sitting back down on her spot on the bleachers, Annie made sure that she had at least a tiny gap between her body and her neighbors. Christa and Ymir were still watching the game next to her, but Christa seemed to know to give her a little personal space. She still asked if Annie was feeling alright, and Annie assured the small girl she was fine. Eren surprised her by being uncharacteristically aware, also asking about how she felt, did she a ride home?

"I said I'm fine." She responded blandly.

He shrugged. "You just don't seem the type to tell someone if you feel sick."

She was that type of person, but she wasn't going to admit to him being right. "Well, I really am fine." She said instead.

The rest of the game was fairly uneventful, save for Rose losing to the Titan's and Eren almost frothing at the mouth in animistic anger. Annie almost wished Mikasa was around to drag him away so he wouldn't cause a scene. Armin was trying to control Eren's indignant shouting, but it was ineffective. Annie was standing back, watching Armin struggle to try to talk some sense into him, but she couldn't take it any longer. She stalked up to the boys and pulled Armin back roughly by his arm, and kicked the side of Eren's knee in a way that made him collapse without permanently harming him.

"Ah, what the hell, Annie?" Eren shouted from the ground, clutching his leg.

"You were being a dick. Suck it up." She looked down at him and wondered at his mood swings. Just a moment ago he was shouting and yelling, but now he looked thoroughly ashamed of himself. Even earlier that night he had been happy- ecstatic even. She chalked it up to the fact that was just the way he was. He was moody, Armin was sympathetic, and she was stony. It was a full spectrum of emotions.

Although, if she was truthful, she would consider herself angry, so maybe Armin was the only calm one. Whatever.

Somehow Annie ended up in Eren's car with him Armin after he said goodbye to Connie and Thomas. "So where do you live?" He asked as he drove off the school's campus. "I was asleep when Mikasa dropped you off last time."

"A left at the light." Annie directed, "Just stay on this road for a few miles."

"Okay." Eren agreed, then, "Sorry about earlier. I got a little upset..."

Annie just raised her an eyebrow.

"Okay, I kindda freaked." He shifted awkwardly in his seat. "I, um, I might have some anger management problems."

"Wow, really?" Annie said sarcastically. At Armin's warning look she added, "So?" She felt as if adding a semi-genuine question cut out on her sarcasm's harshness.

"I-I can get a little violent. It's okay if you don't really want to risk it-" Eren broke off and cleared his throat.

Annie felt like rolling her eyes, and for once she indulged herself. "Are you a dumbass? I've taken you down twice in one move and you're worried about me? Don't flatter yourself."

There was a pause, and Annie could see Armin trying to hold off a smirk. On impulse, she gave him an exaggerated scowl that caused him to chuckle out loud.

Ignoring that moment of weirdness, Annie directed Eren to her house. When he pulled into the driveway Annie cringed. Her father was on the porch. She had eaten dinner with him, but left afterwards. It wasn't like she had sneaked out, he obviously saw her leaving, she just hadn't said where she was going. "Bye." She said and slipped out of the car as soon as it came to a stop.

"Ah, bye-"

"See ya-"

Both of the boys' goodbyes were cut off by the shutting door. Annie walked up her driveway silently chanting leave leave leave leave leave. They should leave before her father stands up-

Too late. He gave a fake smile and a big wave, ignoring Annie and walking over to the driver's side of the car. She didn't turn, but she heard the window being rolled down, then Eren's greeting.

"Hello, sir."

"You must be Annie's friends. I'm her father."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Leonhardt." She heard Armin pipe up.

"You too. It looks like you all had... fun." He must have noticed how messy they looked. Thankfully they had shirts now, but somehow paint had made it's way onto their faces and arms, and their hair was a mess.

"Yeah, we went to the football game." Eren explained.

"Is that so?" he asked, skeptically.

"Yes, sir?" Eren assured, noticing the hostility.

"Well, my little daughter has never liked football before. She actually has expressed hate for it, if I'm right. I'd like to know what you two did to convince her to go."

She could tell they were starting to pick up on the hostile vibes. It was almost impossible to miss the palpable suspicion her father was emitting.

"Ah-" Eren seemed stuck on how to answer, so Armin jumped in.

"We asked her, and she did say she didn't like football, but um, we said we would do something embarrassing if she came. We painted the letters for out school on our chests and stood in the cold all game. She said she would agree to come if we did that."

"Ah." Her father said with fake understanding, "I see. So in a way, you were bribing her. Bribery in deceitful, you know?"

"Father," Annie turned halfway to face him "we should let them go home soon. They don't want to be talking to you."

He shot her a hard glare that neither Eren nor Armin missed, "It's a father's duty to make sure his baby girl is being treated right."

"I'm sorry if we gave you any reason to doubt us," Armin said, "but I assure you we wouldn't do anything to hurt Annie."

"That sounds nice doesn't it? Two perfectly nice boys looking out for my only daughter. I bet you are the ones that took her out to that amusement park. How nice. You payed for her to go, expecting nothing in return, I bet. How noble of you."

"Father" Annie spoke in a low tone, wanting to drag him away, but knowing she couldn't.

"Annie, I am just making sure you don't mix yourself up with troublesome boys." Her father shot the car a dirty look.

"They aren't troublesome," she lied, "they're my friends." which, she found, was not a lie.

"Yeah, like that Mina girl was your friend? You want to go through that again?"

Annie's nostrils flared. She was trying not to flip out, but she could feel her cool mask waivering more every second. Her father couldn't just bring shit like that up. If he wanted to drag up the past, she'd hit home too- but she couldn't, "Bye Eren, Armin. See you tomorrow." she said instead, then she walked away, not looking back and not thinking about how she wanted to scream at her father. Annie never wanted to be like her him, bitter and alone. He had told her most of her life that people were not to be trusted, and that life was an obstetrical to survive, not an adventure to live.

She knew he was wrong- of course she knew. But even with his hate for the world she loved him, and Annie was not a person who could act against love.

"Yeah, um, bye Annie, see you." Eren said before quickly making his escape. She watched the car until it went around the bend in the road and became invisible.

"I'm disappointed in you." Her father said gruffly as he walked by her, back to the house. He didn't know that what he said was the worst punishment he could come up with, for Annie loved him, and he was suppose to love her, and he was dissatisfied with her, just like the rest of the world he so hated.

Chapter Text

Thwack! Thwack!

Annie pounded on the punching bag hung in her garage mercilessly.

Thwack thwack thwack THWACK!

She performed a swift combination of moves, spinning on the balls of her feet like she was dancing. The door behind her opened, but she didn't turn around. Sweat was sliding over her skin, and she paused a moment to pat her face dry with a towel.

"We need to talk." Her father stated, still standing at the door.

Annie went back into her fighting stance, "Yeah." She let loose a volley of quick boxing strikes.

"You are hanging out with your so called 'friends' quite a lot lately. Boys, no less."

She kept her voice bored, but her quick punches evolved into stronger strikes, "So?"

"I don't want you hurt. Boys break hearts, and I don't ever want you to go through that."

"What if I break hearts, not them?" She questioned, wondering why she didn't deny that hearts weren't a part of this at all.

Her father took a moment to respond. "That's no good either, Annie. You can't just go around hurting people- you aren't like everybody else."

Annie stopped mid-swing and grabbed the punching bag to stop it's swinging. "What makes me different from everybody else? I'm still scum like them."

"No you aren't! Annie Leonhardt is my daughter, and she is so much better than the bastards in this town!" He father seethed.

"Yeah, just because I'm your daughter?" She turned her face so she could watch him out of the corner of her eye. "That's awfully presumptuous of you to think you can raise a daughter that goes against humanity's natural scummy nature. Do you think you are better than everyone else?"

"No, no I'm not- but I am sure you are-"

Annie whirled on her father, "I am not! I am a horrible person who hasn't made one good friend her whole life! Can't you let me enjoy what little fun I'm having now? I don't care if they betray me- I can't be alone anymore!"

"Annie… You aren't alone, you always have me, you don't need anyone else."

"I don't want you!" Annie seethed as she shoved passed her father. She grabbed mp3 as she passed the table where she dumped her school bag. She slammed the door viciously and sprinted away from her house. She just needed to get out- this wasn't new.

She easily slowed into her distance running pace, and was glad she had already stretched before boxing. She was still feeling a little tense. On a whim, she takes a turn that isn't on her usual run to distract herself.

Why was her father such a pain? She wasn't perfect, not even close. He was an idiot for thinking that she wasn't scum. She was plenty capable of making her own choices, anyway and she isn't a child anymore, for fuck's sake. Can't he keep his nose out of her business? He was so damn annoying-

Annie was shocked out of her thoughts when suddenly something zoomed into the corner of her vision. She jumped slightly- because she was already worked up- and watched as the person ran ahead of her easily.

Who the fuck runs that fast? Annie thought. Then as she looked closer she noticed the silky black hair, perfect skin, and womanly but muscular stature. It could only be Mikasa Ackerman. Subconsciously Annie increased her speed to catch up, but she didn't seem to be getting any closer. She picked up her pace again, and watched as Mikasa adjusted just enough to keep Annie behind her. It was like that, was it? Annie increased her speed again, breaking into a sprint. Mikasa did the same without even glancing back. Annie pumped her legs furiously, but her shorter stature was putting her at a disadvantage. No matter how fast she made herself go, Mikasa matched it easily.

By now, Annie was about to reach her limit. Being in great shape didn't mean she could full out sprint for a mile after boxing that morning. Mikasa suddenly turned a corner and slowed to a stop in a driveway. Confused Annie automatically followed her. Huffing, she put her hands on her head to prevent a side-stich and watched as Mikasa wiped the glowing sweat from her face. Annie's hate for Mikasa was growing. She wasn't vain, but anyone would get jealous of someone who looked so attractive after working out so hard. She made every other girl on the planet look like pigs.

Mikasa spoke, "You're fast." Annie was too peeved and winded to respond, although she was pleased to hear Mikasa was out of breath too. "Come on." She said, and then walked up the driveway and into the open garage without looking back.

Annie hesitated a moment, but ended up following behind. Mikasa led her into the house and grabbed two glasses out of the cabinets and started to fill them with water from the tap. Annie glanced around in a way that wasn't nosy, but curioius. She assumed this must be Mikasa and Eren's house, and she confirmed it when she saw a family photo of the adopted siblings and a blonde man who must be their father. The house was small and homey, and was very cluttered with papers and folded clothes.

"Sorry about the mess." Mikasa offered Annie the glass of water and she took it gratefully.

"Mikasa! Ay, Mikasa, you back?" A grown man poked his head into the kitchen. He was the same blonde man from the picture. "Oh!" he exclaimed when he saw Annie. "A friend! How rare! I'm Hannes, Mikasa's guardian." He stuck out his hand enthusiastically.

"Annie." She shook his hand twice. Guardian? Not just parent or adoptive parent? She'd have to investigate that later. Annie noticed Mikasa was looking a little softer in her house- she actually relaxed her scowl.

"Annie! Eren's mentioned you, that boy. You beat him up right?"

Annie was a little worried she would be kicked out of the house before she got to finish her water, but she nodded anyway. No use in lying.

To her surprise Hannes broke out into a bellowing laugh, "Good, good! He needs a woman in his life who'll beat on him when he deserves it. Mikasa is to easy on him."

Mikasa grabbed Annie's wrist and tugged her past her guardian, "Hurry up." Annie could have sworn she saw a light blush on the girl's cheeks.

Annie was pulled up a narrow stairway and into what appeared to be a boy's room- it was covered in video game posters and mech action figures. "MIKASA GET OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY! I'M ABOUT TO BEAT- SHIT, WOMAN! YOU MADE ME DIE!" Eren bellowed from his beanbag in front of his TV and game system. He jumped up and got in his sister's face, "Get out of my room, would you? Let me enjoy my weekends in peace, killing people." Mikasa just gestured with her head towards Annie.

He jumped when he saw her, "Ah! Sorry Annie, I was in the middle of, um, just-"

"Grand Theft Auto V?"

His demeanor automatically changed, "You know what it is? Do you play? Wanna add me on-"

"I don't." Annie cut him off before he could really get on a roll.

"Oh. Okay." He said dejectedly. "Wanna try it, at least?"

OOOO

Three hours later, she was still in Eren's room, but now they were playing Wii games. Mikasa always won, no surprise, but after Annie learned how the controls worked, she gave Eren a run for his money, which made him very frustrated, and very amusing.

Without realizing it, she had taken to taunting him- making it appear like he could win, but pulling a big stunt at the last moment and humiliating him. It gave him just enough confidence he never gave up, but made him mad enough he became like a curse dictionary.

Deciding that she was thirsty again, Annie stood. "Can I have a drink?"

"Yeah, yeah, just go down and help yourself." Eren muttered, enthralled in his game. She looked to Mikasa who just shrugged her shoulders. Annie rolled her eyes and started down to the kitchen. She felt a little weird poking around in their freezer, but she really wanted something sugary like a soda.

She heard the garage door opening and glanced over, expecting Hannes to be walking in, but was surprised to see Armin. He didn't notice her at first, and was taking his shoes off when she greeted him, "Hey."

"Hey- Annie!" His eyes widened when he finally realized who she was. "What are you doing here?"

She popped the lid to her coke and thought. What was she doing here? "Getting a drink." Might as well be literal. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was bored, and I stop in all the time. It's like a second home here."

They heard a loud yell of "FUCKING SHIT! ASSWIPE! DAMNIT!" Coming from upstairs.

Armin smiled, but still managed to look worried, "Eren's got you playing video games?"

"Yeah."

"How long have you been at it?"

"Three hours."

Armin cringed. "I'm sorry. He gets carried away."

"I don't mind, I beat him every time."

Armin smiled, "Then you'd really whoop me."

"That's okay with me." Annie closed the refrigerator and started back up to Eren's room, and Armin followed. Suddenly Annie was aware that she had been sitting in her own sweaty-ness for the past three hours. She probably smelled like shit. She hadn't really been that aware around the others, but Armin just gave off cleanly vibes. Would he be disgusted?

Annie practically swooped into Eren's room and sat in his desk chair that was on the opposite side of the room from the bean bags- but Armin didn't sit in a bean bag, he plopped on the bed right next to her.

"Hello, Armin." Mikasa greeted.

"Huh? Eren glanced away from his game, "Oh, hey Armin."

"Hi guys. Are we still planning on shopping today, or…?"

"Can we just send Annie with her? I don't want to go dress shopping. I'm a man."

"Send me where?" Annie inquired, annoyed she was being volunteered.

"Homecoming dress shopping." Armin supplied. "I don't really want to go either, but Mikasa doesn't really have girl friends to go with, other than you."

Annie thought about that for a second. She supposed it was true, for as beautiful and perfect as Mikasa was, she had a hard time making friends because of their jealously and her rough personality. And then she took a second to be surprised about being considered Mikasa's friend. Rival was a better term.

"You can get a dress too, while you're there." Eren added. "Fun girl stuff, right?"

"I'm not going to homecoming."

"Oh, you can come with us as a group. It's really fun. Even Mikasa has a good time, right?" Armin leans back against the wall as he talks.

Mikasa looks away, and Annie can only take it as a conformation, Mikasa really does have fun at the dances. How many things was Annie going to get dragged into by this group? She could already tell Armin was preparing his tactis to convince her to go. She can't resist his pleading, so she decided to not waste her time.

"Fine. Whatever. I'll go."

"But it really is a good time- wait, what?"

"I said I'll go." Annie averted her eye from his, for some reason she had the urge to blush. She had a feeling she was going to be blushing a lot soon.

Chapter Text

The car ride was silent, and Annie had to question her own judgment. Alone with Mikasa for an extended period of time? They were going to kill each other. One of the boys were always there when the two met, and surprisingly having a third person to get between them calmed them down enough that no major damage was done. They were going to kill each other.

Mikasa parked and Annie followed her into the mall. Annie was slightly taken aback by Mikasa's choice in stores; it had way too much pink and frills for either of the sporty girls. Still, Mikasa seemed to know what she was doing, so Annie trailed along despite herself. She had to imagine Eren and Armin dragged in here, and felt like she could empathize.

"Here." Mikasa shoved a dress into Annie's hands.

"I am not carrying your shit-"

"It's for you." Mikasa grabbed another and held it up to Annie's body, but decided against it and hung it back up.

"Me? I thought you'd get yours first, I'll just grab whatever."

"Armin's tie is blue, and it'll really bring out both of your eyes." She said nonchalantly as she motioned to an all-too-frilly blue dress.

"No way, not a chance!" Annie protested,

Mikasa deadpanned, "You are a girl. Girls wear dresses."

"So are you, I think. I'm not making any judgments."

Mikasa's nostrils flared, and she growled, "Don't make this more difficult than it has to be."

Annie bit back a sharp retort. Don't kill. She can't kill her. "Whatever." She ground out.

Soon, Annie was able to relax some, and she began to pick out dresses for Mikasa as Mikasa picked hers. Increasingly both of their choices became more and more ridiculous, trying to make the other wear the most absurd dress they could find. When they couldn't carry anymore they started to try the dresses on, showing off the crazy choices. Currently Annie was in a burnt orange sequence dress that covered her entire neck, except for a random hole by her cleavage. It was so short that if she tried to walk she would flash everyone, and itched her skin. Mikasa was in a fluffy green plaid dress that was more like a colorful sack than anything.

They watched each other silently from the open dressing room doors. Their eyes met, "You look terrible." Mikasa insulted bluntly.

Annie scoffed, "You look worse. That black one with the lace pattern didn't make you look like a slut too bad, though."

Mikasa responded, "Like I said, you might as well wear that blue one, everything else makes you look washed out as shit."

And thus the pair bought their homecoming dresses.

At the check-out counter as Annie was waiting for Mikasa to pay she heard a familiar voice. She turned, but whipped her head back around, hoping she hadn't been noticed. It was Mina Carolina and her henchman with the meaty hands, Alex.

She did not want to fight in the store right in front of Mikasa. She watched as Mikasa carefully pulled out her change and handed it to the cashier, who lazily exchanged it in the cash register. Couldn't they pick up the pace?

"Oh, Annie!" Mina suddenly gushed behind her. "Didn't see you there, bitch."

Annie turned to face her nemesis with barred teeth. Mikasa stepped up beside Annie and gave her a questioning glance. "Let's just go, Mikasa." She grumbled.

"Oh, the cunt speaks. Who's your friend, huh?"

"None of your business." Annie said as she tried to slide around the pair.

Mina's henchman blocked their path, "Remember me, you little pipsqueak?"

Annie kept her glare flat, "You must not remember me if you're willing to risk an ass-kicking so soon."

"I don't like you're attitude. Maybe your pretty little friend knows better." Suddenly the man grabbed Mikasa's shoulder and pulled her to his side roughly. "Hey, babe."

Mikasa looked a little surprised, and when she tried to lean away he grabbed her by the back of her neck and held her in place.

"Fucking leave her alone!" Annie growled, and as she adjusted herself to wail on the man with her cocked fist, she is beaten to the punch.

"Ah!" He grabed his face and released Mikasa, whose knuckles are bruised on one hand.

"I don't know what your problem with Annie is, but you better leave her alone, jackass. And next time you touch me, I'll kill you. My specialty is slicing up meat." Mikasa says, completely seriously.

"What the fuck, you crazy bitch?" Mina said, stepping away. "You have fucked up friends, Annie, and I'm not surprised. I'm glad I knew when to ditch you." And with that Mina stalked off, Alex shuffling behind her, hands still covering his nose.

Annie flicked off their backs, and turned to Mikasa awkwardly. What are you suppose to say after your nemesis's henchmen roughhoused with your rival who you respect? "Ah, sorry." Annie mumbled, soft enough that she wasn't even sure if Mikasa heard her.

To her surprise, Mikasa just picked up her change from the useless shocked cashier and grabbed her dress like nothing had happened. "Let's go."

OOOO

Annie looked at herself in her mirror. The dress was a light blue that matched with her eyes, and even if the design was girly, she had to admit, it might've looked okay on her. She absolutely refused heels though, and ended up with plain flats. She let her hair down for once, and wondered why she was trying so hard.

She was a little interested in the dance, what better way to see drama unfold than to be in the middle of it? She also had to admit that if she was going, she wasn't going to half-ass it. When she actually tried, she really tried.

The only problem would be getting out of her house. She had been doing a good job of avoiding her father for the week, except for meals, which were silent as always. If worse came to worse, she would just walk out and suffer punishment later.

Her plans of silently walking out were ruined when the doorbell rang. "Shit!" Annie exclaimed to herself and she swung open her door and leapt down her stairs. Hurriedly she wrenched open the door, only to stop short when she caught sight of Armin. He looked absolutely nervous and uncomfortable, but also good in his simple sport jacket, white shirt and slim blue tie. And did she see suspenders under his coat? What a dork.

"Annie, who is it?" Her father called as he walked down the hallway.

"Shit, let's go," Annie said, pushing Armin off her stoop and shutting the door behind her. She continued to push him towards Eren's car.

"O-okay?" said a confused but compliant Armin.

Finally they got to the car and piled in. Mikasa was wearing the black dress with an intricate white lace pattern over her chest that Annie helped her pick out. Of course she was stunning, with perfect makeup and hair. Eren seemed to have already taken off his jacket, if he had even started with one, and wore a black dress shirt with a white slim tie, showing off his surprisingly fit physique.

"Eager, are you?" Eren teased.

"Shut up. Just get out of here before my dad kicks your ass."

Eren paled slightly, but his excited demeanor quickly returned, "Aye, aye, captian! To Homecoming we go!"

Chapter Text

Annie wasn't really sure what the hell she had been thinking when she agreed to go to the dance. Her, dancing? It wasn't happening. She knew she had made a mistake as soon as she set foot into the decorated gymnasium, full of streamers, balloons, and thumping bass.

She had been distracted by her escape from her house, but now all she could think about was she was going to be expected to dance. No way. She eyed the large group already on the dance floor, either dancing crudely or awkwardly flailing. Annie wanted no part of that, and as she noticed the depressed wallflowers standing to the side she decided she didn't want any of that either.

"Let's grab some punch first, then dance." Eren suggested, starting off towards the snack table without waiting for a response. Annie noticed Mikasa was keeping a hawk's eye on Eren, making sure girls weren't getting to close to him, and pleasantly didn't pay Annie any mind. Annie was still worried that Mikasa had some great plan to horde all the blackmail she could about her, but at least she wasn't paying attention to her for now.

Annie gabbed a plastic cup and poured herself the punch, ignoring Eren's attempt to serve her. Armin stood to her side, and even if she didn't look at him, she felt him smiling in his friendly smirk. Nonchalantly she took a sip of her drink and glanced at him in the same motion. He was smirking, and at her. Noticing her glance, he looked away, but his smile lingered.

"What's your problem?" she growled.

"Nothing," he said airily, then obviously changing the subject, said, "Oh, love this song. How about we go dance now?"

Eren and Mikasa had apparently chugged their drinks and were on the dancefloor in a flash, but, damnit, Annie still had a little left. Not wanting to get left behind, she threw back the rest of her punch like a shot and followed her friends into the crowd.

Annie's uncomfortable feeling increased the farther into the crowd of dancing bodies she went. She had never danced in her entire life. She hoped the punch was spiked, because she needed it. Eren seemed to like the style: "flail and wiggle hips." Mikasa, of course, actually looked pretty good dancing, even though she used minimalistic movements that wouldn't have been considered dancing when done by anyone else. Armin was fairly synchronized, mostly shifting his legs and shoulders to the beat. Annie stood near them, not really having any idea what to do.

Armin said something, but it was lost in the music. He leaned in when Annie gave him a blank look. "Just relax and do whatever. Nobody here cares if you dance well or not."

Annie shifted her weight from one foot to the other, still feeling uncharacteristically self-conscious. Sensing her uneasiness, Armin grabbed her hands lightly, and guided her arms in movements that she guessed went along with dancing. "Move your body too." He instructed, and started to exaggerate the shifting his shoulders and hips as example. Annie copied him slowly, and he broke out into a grin, "Okay, you have to move your feet a little too. Take little steps."

She followed his instructions, finding that she still felt uncomfortable, but was able to move her body as Armin told her to. "You got it!" He exclaimed, releasing her- Annie faltered for a second, but continued to move.

She lost track of the songs that passed and tired to focus on anything other than how she was actually one of the idiots dancing poorly for all to see. She didn't think anyone would actually notice her out of all the idiots surrounding her, but still, it was the principal that she was still embarrassing herself.

Throughout the night people would come up to their group and dance around with them and talk, but most left shortly after. Sasha Blaus and Connie Springer were dancing so well together that a circle formed and people watched them for a song. Annie found herself loosening up, dancing more freely. Eren kept trying out the oddest moves, like the shopping cart and sprinkler, trying to get Mikasa to smile, and he was succeeding. A few hours into the dance, Annie noticed Armin was missing from the dancefloor and snuck off to find him.

He was getting a drink at the waterfountain, and she walked up beside him, waiting for him to finish. He straightened up and she finally noticed he was missing his sport coat, "Hot, isn't it? I just had to take my coat off."

"Suspenders?" She pointed out as she reached out and tugged on them lightly. "Who actually wears those?"

"Me." Armin said, and Annie realized she had left her fingers gripping his suspenders when he began to blush brightly.

Pulling back quickly, her own face red, Annie flicked her gaze away from his. "Do you want to dance still?"

Switching to his teasing demeanor, he shoved his hands into his pockets incredulously, "I'm not saying I mind, but isn't the guy usually the one to ask the girl to dance, not the other way around?"

"I didn't mean together." Annie denied.

Armin paused, as if trying to judge her mood before proceeding, "Would you mind if it was together, though?"

She shot him a glare that fell flat when she met his honest and vulnerable eyes. He wasn't teasing her any longer. Her gaze softened, but she still didn't know how to respond. She had never been in a situation like this, what was she suppose to do? He noticed her comfortableness, he always did, but he did nothing to make it easier, wanting a straight answer.

"Ah…" Annie shifted, glancing away from him to the floor. Why was this even a question? Shouldn't she be breaking his nose for even suggesting dancing, let alone together? Oh, wait, she was the one who had seeked him out and suggested dancing, but not together. No way. But still, she couldn't really blame him for the situation she was in. Why wasn't she denying him automatically though? She knew it, if she wanted to or not- she was considering his feelings. She wasn't really up for dancing with him, but she didn't know how to reject him without hurting his feelings. She didn't want him to feel bad because of something she said.

When had that happened? Where did the days go where she wanted nothing to do with him and was willing to curse him out, insulting whatever she thought would hurt him the most? When had she turned soft?

Finally deciding that he wasn't going to get a positive answer, Armin tried to play it off, "You dance well enough on your own, you don't need me to cramp your style." He grinned at her, but she could read the pain in his eyes.

"No- er, I mean, if you want to, we can," Annie blurted, trying to salvage the situation. Anything to make him smile all the way to his eyes again.

It took a moment for him to register her words but when he did, his eyes lit up, "Really? Okay!" He gently grabbed her hand and tugged her on to the dancefloor, flashing a true smile over his shoulder, and she couldn't help lifting the edge of her mouth back. She was done for, there was no turning back to the way she had been before.

Luckily for Armin the song playing was slow, and as he turned to face her, Annie saw his own nervousness. "Can I…?" He asked, lifting his hands halfway to her hips, but hovering a safe distance away incase she declined.

Annie nodded, but kept her face towards the floor, hiding how red she had become. He placed his hands on her hips and she awkwardly put her hands on his shoulders, still not meeting his eyes. They started to move, and Annie snuck a glance up at Armin who was as red as she must've been, his blue eyes wide and looking down at her.

"What're you looking at?" She asked stiffly as she gripped the fabric of his dress shirt.

"Uh, its nothing, I just really wasn't expecting you to agree to this, or, at least, I thought you'd slap me a couple times." He chuckled nervously.

"Do you want me to slap you?"

"No, no thanks." An awkward pause in conversation slipped in again, and Armin tired to break the silence, "I'm really glad you came."

Annie hummed, not really wanting to talk at all, just wanting to get this dance over with. It wasn't a dance that made her heart flutter, or made sparks fly between them, but it was one that made her mouth dry, and her body sweat with nervousness. It wasn't perfect and romantic, they stepped on each other's toes and felt awkward the whole time, but sill, Annie couldn't get it out of her head for weeks to come.

Chapter Text

“What do you want to do after high school, Annie?”
Annie looked up from her book, a recommendation from Armin. He was resting with his head propped up by his hand, watching her lazily from his seat in the library. It was the week after the dance, but it felt like lifetimes ago. Was she really the same person who willing danced and- dare she say it- had fun? Annie knew it was her, but still, she still didn’t feel like the type of person who danced. She was still herself, the anti-social girl who had a reputation for getting into fights. Yet she had softened, had fun with her friends, and didn’t mind as much when they pestered her with questions like this one, even if it was still odd.
“I’ll go to a college and get some generic degree and get a stable job.” She replied without pausing.
“Wow, you really have it figured out.”
“Why? Don’t you know? You could go to any school you’d want with your grades. Just go to Yale and become a lawyer or something.”
“Actually, I don’t really want to go to college.” At Annie’s incredulous look he corrected himself, “A-at least not at first. Take a year or two off, you know? I’m saving up so I can go on a road trip across the country, and maybe I can make it overseas somehow. I haven’t been on many vacations, and when I have it’s been with Eren and Mikasa. Have I ever told you I live with my Grandpa? My parents died when I was young, so we haven’t really had that much money. I’ve just always wanted to see the world.”
Annie wasn’t sure how to respond. He had just revealed a lot of his personal life to her, and she wasn’t use to hearing life stories. Was she supposed to say something about his parents dying? Was she supposed to ignore it? What about his not wanting to go to college?
“Um…” She fumbled, “Sorry.”
His eyes widened, “I’m sorry, I’m not asking for pity or anything. I guess death isn’t something I should bring up suddenly like that.”
Armin is absolutely the weirdest person she knew. His parents had died, and he was apologizing for talking about it.
“Are you stupid?” She questioned. “Don’t apologize for stuff like that. You’re allowed to talk about whatever you want.”
“I know I can, but I shouldn’t. I’ll just make you feel uncomfortable.”
“So? If you want to talk about your dead parents do it. What I feel about it doesn’t really matter.”
“Yeah,” He said cautiously, “Okay.”
Annie scowled, “You don’t really agree with me, do you?”
“Yeah, I do. I agree-“ His obvious lie was interrupted by Annie.
“You don’t want to start an argument with me, is that it?”
Armin sighed dejectedly, breaking eye contact. “It’s just, I don’t know, I don’t want you to get angry at me. You’ve just started to hang out with us, and I know I already screwed up once- I don’t want you to start hating me.”
“You’re doing a pretty shitty job.” Annie saw his flash of hurt and cringed, “What I’m trying to say is: just because I get mad or something, doesn’t mean I hate you, idiot. It’s more annoying when you don’t say what you want to because you’re afraid of how I’ll react. Like I said, how I feel is my problem, not yours.”
Armin gaped at her for a moment, then broke into his friendly grin, making Annie feel fluttery, “I didn’t know you were my psychologist, doctor.”
“I’m not.” Annie protested, embarrassed for suddenly talking like that to Armin. She was the last person he should be listening to for advice.
“What ever you say, Doc.” He taunted.
OOOO
Somehow, Annie found herself back at Eren’s house. She was in his flat, fenced in backyard, wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants. It was finally cold enough outside she needed the warmth, although Eren insisted he wasn’t cold and was standing in front of her in a t-shirt, shivering.
“Come at me.” She commanded, hands raised in her fighting stance.
Eren took a deep breath and charged. She admired his fearlessness, but then again it could just be stupidity. He lunged, putting all his weight behind a single punch. If it landed it might have the power to knock her out, but he wasn’t able to get close to landing a blow on her. Easily, Annie knocked his fist away from her gut, grabbed his wrist and twisted. She forced his whole body to turn away from her and shoved him to the ground.
“Nice try, Eren!” Armin encouraged from the porch. Mikasa was watching the exchange silently, and Annie figured she was learning from this as well.
“Damn, Annie. You’re stronger than you look.” Eren panted as he stood back up.
“Not really, I’m just using your weight and balance against you.” She said matter-of-factly. “You’re biggest problem is you aren’t being smart. If you know I can easily get you to submit by getting a hold of you, try to not let me grab you.”
“Every time I fight you you’re are able to get me.” Eren grumbled.
“Of course. You’re being stupid. Don’t use brute force.” Annie continued to instruct Eren on the basics of fighting as her other friends watched. Eventually Eren’s pride couldn’t take any more losing and they went inside to raid the fridge.
“Oi, Kiddos, how was it?” Hannes said. He was standing at the counter, sipping a beer. “Didn’t beat the boy too bad, hopefully?” He asked Annie.
“Nothing permanent.” Annie reassured.
“It feels permanent.” Eren complained as he hobbled through the kitchen.
Hannes released his barking laughter. “You’ll get over it eventually. I remember when I was a kid, I got beat up by these two huge seniors after school. I had a black eye for weeks!”
“Two seniors have nothing on Annie.” Eren whined. “She’s a demon.”
Annie could only shrug. She wasn’t going to deny it.
“Anyway, it’s almost dinner time. What do you guys want?” Hannes asked.
“Enchiladas. I’m in an Enchilada mood.” Eren said.
“You okay with that, Doc?” Armin questioned, using her new nickname.
Annie was confused for a moment. Were they asking her to eat dinner with them? She hadn’t eaten dinner at another person’s house since Mina’s good days. “O-okay.” She said unsurely. Was she really welcome?
“Awesome, Enchiladas it is. Let’s get started.” Hannes announced.
Apparently, cooking dinner at this house was a group activity. Armin seemed to know the kitchen like the back of his hand, and everyone except Annie fell into an easy routine. Mikasa noticed her standing out of the way and motioned her over. She handed Annie the cheese to grate, and Annie got to work.
She found herself sitting around the table, quietly eating her enchilada and observing the interactions going on in front of her. She was use to eating with Eren, Mikasa, and Armin, but there was something different about doing at their house, and having a guardian around. For a moment she couldn’t place it, yet she knew. She had never experienced it for herself, but this was a family. Despite the obvious brokenness of no one here being related by blood, it was family. And if she could experience this feeling of being accepted just one time into a family, she’d go through anything.

Chapter Text

Annie hates snow. Sure, it can be nice to look at, but the cold absolutely sucks. If she had a choice she’d live somewhere that people didn’t even know what snow looked like. But she lived in an unfortunately cold climate and had to adapt. Adapting consisted of bundling up in layers upon layers of clothes.
She also hated shoveling her driveway, but there she found herself, shoveling away. Her father hadn’t asked for her to do this, but she knew he wanted her to. Or, at least, she thought so. Her father hadn’t been saying much of anything to her lately. She was glad he wasn’t on her case all the time now, but is was also unnerving that he was practically ignoring her. Annie felt like she was living on her own, and she hated to admit that it wasn’t as nice as it sounded.
Annie finished shoveling the end of her driveway and returned the shovel to the garage. Without bothering to tell her absent father that she was leaving, she trudged on to the street and started making her way to Eren’s house. It was a habit. It was always warm in his house.
Annie heard the crunch of footsteps approaching her as she left her driveway and glanced to her side to find Armin trudging towards her. “Hey, Annie!” he called happily. He was bundled up in his winter coat and fuzzy beanie. His face was flushed red by the cold, and his nose looked a little runny, but he appeared energetic, and was towing a sled behind himself. Annie inwardly groaned. She knew what she was going to be doing this afternoon.
“Are you heading to Eren and Mikasa’s house?” He asked as he came up next to her.
“Yeah,” she responded as they started walking side by side, shoulders brushing.
“Eren called me last night and wanted to go sledding. Is that alright?”
Annie shrugged. She wished she had a phone so she knew what the plans were for the day. It would help her mentally prepare for their escapades. “I guess so.”
“I wish you had a phone so I could call you- er, so we could let you know what are plans are.” Armin stumbled over his words, but Annie didn’t catch his meaning.
Suddenly a snowball flew past Armin’s face and just missed the top of Annie’s head. They both flinched, surprised, but they didn’t have long to take in their situation as they were soon being pelted.
Armin grabbed Annie’s hand and pulled her behind a car parked in the street. The loud voice of Eren called out, “We got you!” He whooped triumphantly, only to be cut off by a snowball straight to his face.
Stunned, he found a disgruntled Annie packing another snowball. Still frozen, he caught her eye as she aimed and realized she was furious.
His last thoughts before being murdered at the hands of Annie once again: Well, shit.
Armin couldn’t stop laughing, Annie was easily hitting Eren every throw, and Eren could barely skim her. She was quick.
But when she was suddenly hit straight in the chest he knew Mikasa had joined the fight on Eren’s side. Armin started to pack his own snowballs to help Annie out. Eren and Mikasa had built up a small wall of snow for protection beforehand and Armin and Annie took shelter behind the parked car.
Armin watched in amazement as Annie’s anger disappeared as her movements became less lethal and more playful. She wasn’t aiming for faces and started to taunt Eren. Armin was so distracted he didn’t realize he wasn’t covered until a snowball, probably from Mikasa, skimmed his head and knocked his hat off.
Annie had seen the whole thing and burst into laughter. It was light and cheerful, and her smile was beautiful. She had always been pretty to him, with golden blonde hair, cute nose, and deceivingly small stature, but when she was laughing he felt like he was on top of the world because she was happy.
Armin was blushing all the way to his neck and his hat hair was ruffled and covered with snow. Annie reached up and brushed the snow off the top of his head. He looked flustered and embarrassed, making for a cute combination. “You look ridiculous.” Annie tried to deadpan instead.
“Ah- yeah, um,” Armin stuttered, blush not letting up.
“Here,” Annie handed him his hat from the ground, avoiding his eyes for some reason.
The pair snapped out of it when Eren suddenly ran around the corner and bombarded them with more cold snow.
“I give!” Armin laughed, forgetting the awkwardness for a moment, trying to cover his face from the onslaught, “You got us!”
“We did it, Mikasa!” Eren cheered, high-fiving his sister.
“Yay.” Mikasa said with half the enthusiasm of Eren.
“Anyways, are we sledding or what?” Armin asked.
“Of course.” Mikasa said. “I’ll go grab our sled.”
Annie was curious. Was Mikasa excited for sledding? It was rare for her to show much personal interest in fun things like sledding. Maybe if Mikasa liked it, it wouldn’t be too bad.
Mikasa returned with a plastic orange two-person sled, much like Armin’s, and started leading their group down the street. Eren walked with her ahead, talking animatedly about something while MIkasa nodded absently.
“Does Mikasa like sledding?” Annie asked Armin who was walking behind with her.
“She loves winter in general. I think she likes the snow, mostly.”
“It’s too cold for me.” Annie huffed, burying her nose in her scarf. “I hate winter.”
“I always thought it would be really cool if snow could exist in warm temperatures, then it would be perfect.”
“That’s impossible.” Annie pointed out.
“I know,” Armin smiled sheepishly, “but what if? Wouldn’t that be cool? We could have snowball fights and sled all the time.”
Annie thought for a moment. “Wouldn’t that be like sand or dirt?”
“How so?”
“No one would think it’s special if we had it all the time. I think if we could have snow all the time we would want rain. Snow wouldn’t be anything special to us. Nobody wants what they already have.”
“I suppose.” Armin still seemed doubtful.
“It’s like…” Annie considered it, “love. People always want to be loved, right?” Armin nodded. “But when people have others who are suppose to love them realize it isn’t just rainbows and butterflies, and people fight because they realized they aren’t getting what they thought they wanted. They want perfection and get a person.” Annie realized her analogy wasn’t matching up with what she wanted to say. It’s possible she may have been venting about a certain father in her life.
“I get it.” Armin said kindly, and when she snuck a glance at him she saw that he got it. He got that she hadn’t just been talking about snow and it unnerved her. He was too smart and he understood her too well.
“I think we’re here.” Annie announced when she noticed Eren and Mikasa looking down the side of the road. When Annie came close enough she could see that after the road the ground seemed to drop off. The hill was steep and long, and led directly into a stream that looked half-frozen.
Eren seemed to notice her apprehension, “You just have to bail before you reach the water. I’ve only heard of one kid taking a swim, and he didn’t even break anything. It’s a gnarly hill, you’ll love it.”
Considering her penchant for roller-coasters, it wasn’t that big of a surprise that Annie loved it. She understood Mikasa’s love for snow now, even if she still hated the stuff. If only snow could be warm…

Chapter Text

She didn’t think it was possible, but she was sweating. Walking up this steep hill in this deep snow over and over again was more physically demanding than Annie expected. It was her turn to pull the sled back up, and she couldn’t believe that pulling a small piece of plastic would make it so much more difficult to walk, but it did.
“Damn. Snow.” Eren huffed as he marched up the hill beside her. Mikasa was already at the top, but Annie was pretty sure she was at least panting, and Armin fought to trudge along with them.
“Eren, we have to go.” Mikasa called down, “It’s already four.”
“Shit, really?” Eren cursed. “Sorry guys, but we have to get ready to go to some weird company party thing with Hannes.”
“It’s alright.” Armin panted, “I don’t know how much more of this I could take.”
They reached the top of the hill and took a moment to catch their breath before starting off toward their respective homes, all of which were in the same direction. The walk back was silent and quick. Much too soon Eren and Mikasa said their goodbyes, and Annie’s own house came into view. Armin was still walking with her, but all she could think about was her dread of returning home. What would she do for the rest of the day? She didn’t want to sit around not talking to her father.
“Hey, Annie, wanna come to my house? I bet my grandpa will let you eat dinner with us.” Armin offered off-handedly.
Annie pretended to consider it for a moment before nodding her consent. She was fairly curious; she had never been to Armin’s house before. What was his grandfather like? All she could imagine was a smaller frail elderly version of Armin.
Armin led her to his house, which was a modest one-story that looked well-kept. Armin let himself into the front door and began to strip off his wet jacket. “You can put your wet clothes in our dryer.”
Annie was pretty sure the snow had soaked all the way to her underwear, but she wasn’t going to mention that. “Okay,” she agreed, taking off her outer layers.
“Hey, Grandpa, I’m home!” Armin called after he gathered their clothes in a large bundle in his arms. Annie followed him into the kitchen that was open to a living room where Armin’s grandfather sat.
“Ah, Armin.” His grandfather stood and took some of the clothes from his grandson. “Who’s your friend?” He did look like a smaller, more frail version of Armin with a hunched back and gnarled arthritic hands.
“This is Annie Leonhardt. Annie, this is my grandpa.”
“Nice to meet you, sir.” Annie greeted stiffly.
Armin’s grandfather took a moment to take Annie in, then smiled gently, in a way that reminded her of Armin, “What a nice young lady my grandson has made friends with. I hope he treats you well.”
“Grandpa, let’s get these clothes in the dryer.” Armin said, changing the subject.
“Of course, of course.” The old man smirked knowingly.
Once the laundry was sorted Armin started leading her down the hallway to what she assumed was his room.
“Leave the door open, you hear? I don’t want you two getting into any trouble.”
Armin immediately flared bright red, and Annie soon after. “Grandpa!” Armin shouted with embarrassment. “I’m sorry.” He apologized, pushing his door closed, but leaving it unlatched. “He gets… like that sometimes.”
Annie shrugged and looked around his room as an excuse to avoid his eyes. He had a small and cluttered room, full of papers and books and science posters. Definitely nerdy in a very Armin way. One of the three bookshelves squeezed into his room held a picture of a young looking Armin and two adults with blond hair and blue eyes. His parents, she guessed.
“Ah, sorry for the mess. It’s always like this.”
“It’s okay.” Annie dismissed, still looking at his things. It may have been a little rude, but he invited her in the first place. And suddenly she was aware she was alone with a boy in his room, but as soon as it came, she dismissed her worry. What was there to worry about?
Armin noticed Annie looking at the picture. “That’s a picture of my parents, before they left.”
“Left?” Annie questioned. It was a little morbid of her, but she had assumed they had died.
“Yeah, um, they wanted to see the world, so they went.”
“Oh, so they travel a lot. Have they gone anywhere exotic?”
“I assume so. They haven’t really stayed in touch since Africa, seven years ago.”
“Oh. Oh.” Annie didn’t really expect that. Her mother had left, and look what it did to her family. While it didn’t look easy for Armin, he turned out a lot better than her. But what does a person say after a revelation as serious as that?
Luckily for her, Armin said something first, “What I remember most about my dad is looking through atlases and pointing out all the different places he was going to take me and mom. He wanted to go to the wild places like the Sahara, Brazilian rainforests, and the Alps. Mom was really into culture- she knew three languages fluently- and she added to our list by picking famous and obscure cities in every country available. We had it all planned out, our family trip. But then one day they bought tickets and went to Africa. Where, exactly, I’m not sure, but we haven’t heard of them since.”
“Is that why you want to travel?”
“Kind of. They gave me the bug, you know?” Armin sat on his bed and leaned his back against the wall.
“My mom left too.” Annie blurted, “I don’t know why. I just don’t think she liked me- and my father.”
Armin blinked up at her, and his expression was the softest she had ever seen it. “I bet she loved you.”
“No-“ Annie snapped her mouth shut. She didn’t want to start yelling with Armin’s grandfather in the next room over just because her mother was sore subject. “It’s nice that you think so, but she didn’t.”
“How could someone not like you, Annie?”
Annie huffed, “It’s easy. You, Eren and Mikasa are the only people who put up with me.”
“We aren’t putting up with you, Annie. We’re your friends. And you have more, Christa and Ymir-“
“Christa is nice to everyone, and Ymir obviously hates me.”
“If you’re going to be like that, Ymir hates everyone except Christa, doesn’t she?”
“Yeah, she does. So both of them don’t count.”
“Your father loves-“
“My father hates me!” Annie spit, “He doesn’t even speak to me anymore! He doesn’t care what the hell I do anymore.”
Armin looked stricken, “I bet he’s just frustrated, raising you alone must be difficult-“
“What does that mean?”
Armin stood and waved his hands gently, “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
“It may not be what you mean, but I know that’s how my father thinks.”
“Maybe he isn’t good at showing his love?”
“It’s okay, I understand, I wouldn’t love me either. I’m just a bitchy whore-“ Annie recited the words that were thrown at her by Mina, the words that circled in her head constantly. Even if she hadn’t originally thought of herself that way, when someone is constantly saying you are something, it’s hard to not believe them.
“Who told you that?” Armin protested adamantly, “That isn’t true at all! You are thoughtful and smart and beautiful!”
“Oh yeah, then name on person who loves me. I can’t think of any, but I can list people who hate me, and let me know on a regular basis.”
“I do.”
“What?” Annie’s shouting quieted at Armin’s soft and serious tone.
“I love you.”
“What?” What the hell? What? Love? Her? Armin Arlet Loved Annie Leonhardt?
“I do.” He reached out a gentle hand, and cupped her cheek, making her realize she had been crying angry tears.
“Uh?” Annie was stunned. She wasn’t the type of person that was loved. She was insociable, harsh, and quick to anger. She could hardly believe that she was put up with when she hung out with Eren, Mikasa and Armin, but love? She wasn’t pretty, she didn’t have a kind personality, she didn’t have any redeeming qualities. What would anyone see in her, let alone someone like Armin, the ultimate nice guy?
“I love you, Annie.” Armin breathed quietly, bringing his face closer to hers. She felt his hand shaking nervously on her face.
Annie’s eyes widened as her came closer, was he going to-? He was! “Stop!” Annie protested before Armin could bring them together. “Stop.”
He loosened his hold, but kept his nervous hand to her cheek. “I do. Believe me, Annie.” He brushed his thumb over the ridge of her cheek, and Annie couldn’t take any more. She needed to breathe, to get out.
She twisted out of Armin’s grip and dashed out of his room, past his grandfather that called a confused farewell over his shoulder. Annie sprinted out into the cold and fell to her hands and knees. What was he thinking? She didn’t deserve his love, he must be mistaken. She didn’t want to break his heart when whatever expectations he had for her failed miserably. She feared disappointing Armin. She never wanted to hurt him, and she knew for certain she would.
She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn’t see it coming until it was too late. The car tried slamming on it’s breaks, but in the snow and ice prevented the tires from finding friction.
The last thing Annie saw was the silver bumper of an SUV.
The last thing Annie heard was the panicked yell of her own name.
The last thing Annie thought was I’m sorry that you love a person like me.

Chapter Text

(Gore)
Blood was everywhere, standing in stark contrast to the white snow, standing in contrast to Annie’s golden hair.
Armin threw up.
All of his thoughts were jumbled and all he was able to focus on was the bright blood that drew his eyes. He refused to look at Annie directly. He knew he’d really loose it if he took in how damaged her body was.
First of all he needed to think. Annie needed doctors, people who could help. “Grandpa! Call 911!” Armin shouted, voice cracking.
“I’m doin’ it!” His grandfather called back feebly from the house.
Okay, okay. What now? She really was bleeding a lot, and it’s cold. He should probably move her, but then again, what if she had a spinal injury? He could harm her even more by moving her. This situation was impossible. He felt so useless.
“Oh my gosh! Is she okay?”
“Don’t touch her!” Armin barked as a strange woman reached out for Annie. She must have been the woman driving the SUV.
The woman flinched back, and Armin noticed her shaking hands and dilated eyes. She was scared too. “I-if her spine is injured, you could paralyze her.” He said.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” The woman cried, breaking out into heaving sobs, “Sorry, sorrysorrysorry,” She continued to murmur through her tears.
Armin blocked her out, all that mattered right now was Annie. He steeled himself for a closer look and tried to systematically search for wounds on her body. Blood was coming from her head and face, but Armin couldn’t tell where the actual gash was. Her wrist was twisted at an awkward angle, and scrapes covered her bare skin. The worst was her left leg though. Bone was poking through the skin of her shin, and at the sight of it Armin threw up once more.
It’s my fault. It’s my fault. Armin realized. He shouldn’t have confessed to her, he shouldn’t have tried to kiss her. She wouldn’t have run away if it wasn’t for him. He was a terrible person. It was his fault. He hadn’t been planning to say something like that to her, he had just wanted to prove that she was loved. How could she not see what a unique and important person she was? And now she…
“Shh, Armin,” Armin felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. He turned his face away from the carnage and pressed his nose into his grandfather’s bony shoulder as he cried.
Armin was in a daze when the ambulance came and took Annie away. He barely noticed when his grandfather drove him to the hospital to wait, and he blankly answered the questions from the policewoman thaat gently reassured him before patting him on the back and leaving him alone once again.
He remembered when Annie first sat at their table at Eren’s insistence. Truthfully Armin had been intimidated by her cold demeanor, but that wasn’t going to stop him from being nice. When she had yelled outside of the grocery store he almost stopped talking to her altogether. He was obviously pestering her, and he should have known better. Not everyone wanted to talk to the biggest nerd in the school. He was lucky to have Eren and Mikasa as his childhood friends, he shouldn’t have pressed his luck.
He had seen her helping Christa in the library, and despite himself couldn’t keep away. He liked to think that she got use to him slowly. He was ecstatic when she started to become more comfortable in the group, slowly relaxing.
He wasn’t sure when he started to like her, but he was sure he did, and he couldn’t help it. She didn’t say much, but when she did her words were filled with meaning. She was clever, and competitive. He loved the way her small stature hid her strength, he loved the way her icy blue eyes glinted and how her hair was always in that messy bun. He wanted to spend time with her, he wanted to get to know her. He wanted to be someone important to her.
Armin was jarred out of his thoughts by rough hands on his shoulders. “-Armin? You okay?”
Armin blinked up at Eren and nodded absently. “Sure.” When had he gotten here? And Mikasa and Hannes too.
“What happened? Can we see her? Is she alright?” Eren questioned rapidly.
“Eren…” Mikasa pulled her brother back. “Give him a second.”
“I’m alright.” Armin lied. He couldn’t let them see how distraught he was. He didn’t want his friends worrying more than they had too.
“Well? What happened?” Eren pressed again, anxiety showing on his face.
“Annie got h-hit by a car. She was unconscious and broke some bones.” Armin took a breath to steady his speech, “Probably worst she’ll come off with is a concussion.” He left out all the side-effects of bad concussions that he read about. He also left out that broken bones meant bones-poking-through-skin broken. Also internal bruises. He hadn’t thought of those yet. So many ways for complications to happen, but he left those details out. He was torturing himself with what if’s, and didn’t want his friends to suffer the same way.
“C’mon, let’s sit down.” Hannes said gently. “I have a feeling we will be waiting a while.”

Chapter Text

The first thing she was aware of was a dull pain that spread throughout her body. Annie felt it concentrate as a headache pounding against her skull, but it didn’t feel like anything serious, just very unpleasant. She inhaled deeply, but choked to a stop when the pain in her chest sharpened. She tried to curl in on herself, but the slight movement made all the pain she was feeling sharpen.
Moaning softly Annie tried to relax her muscles gently, but the sharp pain kept throbbing acutely in her chest and up her leg. Her head felt like it was going to explode, and vaguely Annie noted that someone was talking in the background.
Just as suddenly as she woke, Annie felt drowsiness overtake her.
OOOO
The next time Annie came-to, she felt like she was dragged up from the bottom of the ocean. Her eyes blinked rapidly as she tried to get her bearings, and her head felt as if it was spinning. White overwhelmed her vision, and her stomach churned.
She managed to keep from getting sick, and slowly the painful white faded into a more neutral shade.
“Annie, dear? Are you awake?” A portly woman leaned into Annie’s vision. Who was she? Annie just nodded slightly, turning her head slowly to take in her surroundings. The room was drab, with faded browns on the furniture and a faded white on everything else. White… Annie felt a shudder. She felt colder all of a sudden. The walls were as white as snow, which made her uneasy for some reason.
“Annie?” The woman asked again, looking into Annie’s eyes like she was watching for something.
“Hm?” She hummed in response. She couldn’t manage much else.
Seemingly pleased the woman smiled and nodded her head, muttering under her breath. Annie watched as she grabbed a clipboard and started jotting down notes, then called for someone over a phone hanging by the door.
“W-where?” Annie croaked. She felt like she should know what this place was called, it just wasn’t coming to her.
“Do you know your name, dear?” The woman ignored her.
“Annie.” She answered, not able to focus enough to have the will to argue.
“How many fingers?”
“Er, three.” Annie answered, unsure of herself. Was that a trick question?
“Good, you are doing fine, honey. Just checking some things.” The woman reassured. “What is the last thing you remember doing?”
Annie opened her mouth to speak but paused. She didn’t even know where she was. All she knew was that here didn’t feel natural. But… snow? She felt like she had been in the snow recently.
“In- was I in the snow?”
“Very good, that’s all I want to know for now. You’re doing fine. The doctor will be here shortly.”
Doctor? Did that mean she was in a hospital? Was she hurt? What was wrong? Annie fearfully glanced down at herself and noticed for the first time the casts, braces, and IVs. How had she missed that? Her body was cocooned in medical equipment. Maybe it was that IV, now that she thought about it, she was probably on serious drugs if she had that many braces on her body.
“What happened?” Annie whispered in shock.
The door opened smoothly, interrupting what the nurse was about to say.
“Annie!”
Suddenly Annie was being squeezed up against a firm body, and her ribs screamed in protest. She released a pained gasp and the man pulled back, worry flashing over his features. “Sorry. Did I hurt you?”
“I’ll live,” Annie replied stiffly, trying to hide her wincing. She watched his familiar features, trying to place from where she knew him.
“Excuse me, but could you give your daughter some space please?” The nurse asserted.
Ah, he must be her father. Now that she said it Annie could place his face, the hard lines and blank eyes. Yes, no mistaking him now.
“Father, what happened?” Annie tried again.
His mouth turned down in a worried line. “You were hit by a car, badly.”
She swallowed. “How bad? I’m okay, right?”
Her father glanced to the nurse, who sighed and rubbed her temples, “You were kept under for a week. You have a broken rib, a broken wrist, and a very badly broken leg. You have a very serious concussion with unknown symptoms right now. You seem to have most of your memories and motor functions, though. You are very lucky to be alive with all your limbs right now. You fell just right when the car made impact with you.”
Annie took it in slowly. She had been knocked out for a week, and she didn’t think doctors would do that for just any head injury. She reached to rub her head with her good hand and stopped when she noticed something was wrong. She felt a scar jaggedly trailing from the side of her face to her right eyebrow. It must be extremely noticeable.
She wasn’t a vain person, not at all, but Annie still felt a stab of dread. Makeup wouldn’t cover this, and everyone would notice. It was unavoidable with the scar so obviously marring her face. She wasn’t pretty to begin with, and now-
Annie slammed down on her emotions. She would be fine. She was fine. She didn’t care about anyone’s opinions. But. Her mind nagged her. What was she forgetting? Who was she forgetting?
“You are thoughtful and smart and beautiful!”
Who had said that to her? She knew it wasn’t her father, for certain, but who else? Who thought that highly of her?
“My friends, where are they?” Annie asked on impulse, trying to forget about the scar. She couldn’t remember their names or faces, but she was certain she had some. Right? She had to.
She could sense her father switching moods. “They are irresponsible brats, Annie. I don’t want you seeing them again. It’s their fault you are in the hospital.”
“They aren’t!” Annie protested immediately. She wasn’t even sure who she was defending, but damnit, she’d defend them.
“Excuse me sir, but it would really be best if you tried to not rile up your daughter.” The nurse said softly.
Her father whirled as if to start a fight with the nurse, but he just huffed and clenched his fists. “My daughter and I are having an important conversation right now, so if you’d please.”
As he started to turn back around the nurse moved in front of him. “I’m sorry, but it is not healthy for her to get worked up right now. She isn’t even suppose to have visitors until the doctor arrives. So please, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
Her father paused, shoulders tense, and left despite his obvious anger.
“Thanks.” Annie offered after the door slammed close.
“Anything, dear. Do you want me to call your friends for you? They left their numbers.”
“I thought I wasn’t suppose to… oh.” Annie blinked. She didn’t think nurses were allowed to lie like that. She wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, so she just nodded mutely. She was going to see her friends again.

Chapter Text

Annie watched the sharp wind cut across the parking lot as people stumbled towards the doors with their heads down. The stark cold was visible, but if she was able to just look towards the sky and imagine that it was summer, she could feel the sun’s warm rays melting the ice around her. She felt herself slipping into a content daze, but shook her head to snap herself out of it. The concussion was really affecting her concentration.

She had lost track of time, but Annie was pretty sure her friends should be here soon- it had been at least thirty minutes since the nurse had called them. Nerves tightened her stomach, and she felt her palms become clammy. She wasn’t able to pinpoint the exact source of her anxiety, but she still felt the full force of it nonetheless.

Why would a visit from friends make her so nervous? Was she incredibly shy, or something? Annie considered it and just as quickly discarded the idea. Being shy just didn’t feel like it fit her character. It must be something else then, but what? She continued to rack her brain, but every idea she could come up with she reject on the grounds that they didn’t ‘feel right.’ Shaky reasoning, yet she was positive she wasn’t wrong. This partial memory loss was really starting to grate on her patience.

A knock came to the door, snapping her out of her bad mood and right back into her flustered nervousness. “C-come in.” She answered, watching the door curiously.

First a fierce looking Asian girl padded into the hospital room and locked eyes with Annie. Mikasa, her mind supplied immediately. She could recall her memories of Mikasa without a problem, it was almost as she had never forgotten, she just needed a reminder.

Closely following Mikasa was a messy brown haired boy who she remembered was Eren. He gave a friendly grin, which she didn’t return because she didn’t usually return grins, right? That wasn’t a very ‘Annie’ thing to do, so she didn’t.

Finally Eren was trailed by a meek looking boy, with his face turned down, avoiding her eyes. Armin. Annie’s face immediately flared red. He was the reason she was feeling so nervous, the shy awkward kid, of all people. She accidentally caught his gaze and found he was as red as her, with dark circles around his crystal blue irises.

In a desperate attempt to distract herself Annie tried to ignore Armin, instead turning to Mikasa and Eren. “Hi.”

“Hey, how are you doing?” Eren asked, softer than usual, “I heard that it was a really rough hit.” She watched his eyes- along with everyone else’s- follow along her scar. She didn’t care. I don’t care what they think of it, she lied to herself.

Annie considered her answer for a moment before trying to ignoring her self-consciousness, “I’ll live, so no big deal.”

“You could have died.” Mikasa mentioned. Annie noticed the dark marks under her friend’s eyes. Mikasa of all people was worried enough about her to loose sleep. It was scary- more scary than just being told that she had been in a dangerous situation. Her seemingly unshakeable friend had been shaken.

Gulping slightly, Annie tried to play off her sudden fear, “But I didn’t. You guys are stuck with me for a little longer.”

Eren grinned, and being his usual jovial self, clapped Armin on the back, “We have to keep teams even for video games, so I guess she’ll have to do, am I right?”

Realizing he was being prompted to speak, Armin jolted, “Er, yes. Of course.” Annie was still stubbornly avoiding his eyes. “I’m glad you are okay, Annie.”

Mikasa’s eyes flicked back and forth between Annie and Armin suspiciously. “Hey, Eren, let’s go buy something in the cafeteria.” Mikasa suggested as she tried to corral her brother out of the room.

“What? We just got here.”

Annie saw that Mikasa noticed the tension between her and Armin and was trying to give them time to themselves. Had Armin told her what he had said? She wouldn’t put it past him to look to her for advice. Annie tried to call Mikasa off with her eyes- no, she did not want to be alone with Armin, it was too soon, she didn’t know how she was suppose to respond to a love confession, too much awkward, stay, please-

“I bet Annie wants something to eat, and I’m hungry too.”

“No, that’s okay-“ Annie tried to protest.

“Armin,” Mikasa cut her off, “Stay here. We will be right back.” And with that Mikasa practically picked Eren up and walked him out of the room, leaving Annie alone with him.

It was silent. Armin shifted nervously on his feet. “Annie-“ His voice caught. He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry.”

Annie kept her head down but asked, “What for?”

He clasped his hands in front of his body. “I shouldn’t have done what I did. It wasn’t the right time, and I shouldn’t have tried to- tried to kiss you. Especially without waiting for your response.”

Annie was confused. Why was she feeling disappointed? “So you regret it. You want to take it back.”

Armin took her in, wondering what she was trying to get at. “I can’t take it back.”

“But you didn’t mean it.”

“I did mean it, but I went about it wrong. It wasn’t very fair of me to spring it on you in a situation like that. I was taking advantage of your emotions, or I was trying to.”

Annie was taken aback. “What?”

“I’m really sorry.” Armin apologized meekly, “I just wanted to show someone did lo- like you, but I took it too far, and then you ran out, and you got hit, and it’s my fault, I shouldn’t h-have said that-“

Armin broke off and that’s when Annie realized he was crying. “A-Armin,” She reached out her good arm and motioned for him. What was she doing? She didn’t know, but people are suppose to stop other people from crying, right? Right.

He stepped forward, and Annie grabbed his wrist and pulled him closer, then shoved him roughly back, making him fall into the chair beside her bed. “Shut up, would you?” She muttered as she gripped his wrist more gently. “You’re really an idiot.”

Armin blinked at her, but she was avoiding his eyes more than ever. He could still see her red face though, and it gave him a flicker of hope. He twisted his wrist until he moved Annie’s hand into his own. “I-is this okay?” He whispered shyly.

Annie clamped her mouth shut in fear of embarrassing herself, but squeezed his hand softly.

Emboldened, Armin leaned forward to try to meet Annie’s eyes. “I don’t deserve it, I really don’t Annie, but could you listen to me one more time?”

What was he talking about? She was the one that didn’t deserve him. He was the nicest, most sincere guy she had ever met. He was smart, attractive, and fun. He should get with a nice girl who would be just as kind and understanding as he was. He should get with someone smarter, more pretty, someone with less baggage. Annie didn’t want to cause problems for Armin and the best way for her to do that was to not get involved with him.

But. One of her problems was her selfishness. And she wanted nothing more than to take his trust and kindness, and she wanted nothing more than for him to have what little trust and kindness that she had to give.

“Okay.” She whispered.

He took a breath “I love you.” His voice was shaking, as was his hand.

She turned her face up slowly to meet his eyes, and felt her own tears streak down her face. “I’m sorry that I’m selfish,” she apologized as she leaned in, pressing her lips to his, mixing her tears with his.

Chapter Text

Annie squinted into the sun and tucked her chin back under her scarf. It was a chilly day, although the snow was almost melted by now. She sat silently as her father wheeled her to their car. She hated it, but she needed to use a wheelchair until she healed, crutches just wouldn’t work with all her other broken bones. She supposed it wasn’t the worst thing that could’ve happened. Her head still hurt, and she was pretty much sore over her whole body, but she was glad she could get out of the hospital. The food and the boredom were killing her.

Annie’s father helped her maneuver into the car and folded up her wheelchair, putting in the trunk. He had been his irritable self, visiting every now and then for a few minutes until he fulfilled his mandatory fatherly duties. He and Annie still weren’t speaking much, and it still hurt Annie as much, if not more, than before the accident. She wondered if they’d ever make it onto better terms with one another.

It didn’t help her father’s mood that Annie had more friends than even she knew. Her father didn’t know how to handle his daughter having visitors all the time. Of course the trio visited the most, but even Christa and Ymir stopped by at least once. It was jarring to discover that she had people who cared for her.

And Armin- she could barely comprehend his entire existence in her life. After the kiss everything and yet nothing seemed to change. He still acted the same towards her in almost every way, except for his lingering smiles and the increase in casual touching. He always took her off guard, brushing her arm or moving her bangs out of her face. She found out how easily he could make her blush with just the ghosting of his fingers across her knuckles.

Annie had to assume MIkasa and Eren had noticed something different. Or at least Mikasa had. Annie wasn’t sure how observant Eren was about things like this. Mikasa seemed to give her subtle approval by always managing to give Armin and Annie a few minutes to themselves when the trio visited together. Of course, for Annie, these moments were awkward beyond belief. How was she suppose to act? What could she say?

It didn’t help that Armin didn’t seem to know what to do either. They were both knew to this sort of situation. And what even was this situation? Annie didn’t know what to call it. Were they going out? It had never been said, but Annie felt like that was close to their situation, right? She doubted herself though. What if he didn’t want to date her? She was stubborn and moody-

Realistically she reasoned that he said he loved her, so he must want to date her. Still, she was able to torture herself with her own insecurities and doubts. She needed to figure out was up with her and Armin for her own sanity.

OOOO

School was even worse than before. She wasn’t able to blend in like usual with her casts and wheelchair, and she was fairly certain that there was a rumor going around that she tried to commit suicide. Ridiculous.

Currently Annie was staring down anyone who would so much as glance at her. Who were they to make judgments? As soon as she could stand she was going to kick them all in their faces.

“Annie. Hey Annie, are you paying attention?” Eren waved his hand in front of her face.

“What?” Annie straightened her back and smoothed out her scowl, embarrassed to be found lost in her own thoughts.

“Don’t worry, he was just blabbing about his games again.” Mikasa assured.

“I’m not blabbing, this is groundbreaking stuff!”

Before Mikasa could retort Armin scuttled towards them, waving a paper in his hands triumphantly. “Guys! Guys, check it out!”

Annie looked down, not wanting to meet his eyes yet, and took the paper from his out stretched hand. “Dear Armin Arlet,” she read, “We are impressed by your academic achievements and would like you to join us in the new game show…” Annie trailed off. “Game show? You’re going to be on a game show?”

“It’s not like Jeopardy or anything, it’s just on the local news station, but yeah I guess.”

“How much money are you going to win?” Eren asked seriously.

“Uh, the grand prize is ten thousand dollars, but I wont win that…”

“Oh, sweet! Think of all the stuff you could buy!”

“It isn’t about the money, really…” Armin said uncomfortably.

“It’s enough that he made it into the competition in the first place, right?” Mikasa supported.

“Good job.” Annie muttered. She was feeling insecure again. Armin was really out of her league.

He gave her a soft smile, and if sensing her uneasiness, grabbed her good hand in his and squeezed softly. “Thanks for your support.” He faced Mikasa and Eren again, but kept his hand gently around Annie’s, “The actual shooting of the show takes place in a month, you guys are welcome to come and be in the audience. If you want to.”

“Of course!” Eren exclaimed, “We’ll definitely cheer you on!”

The warning bell for the next class rang and Mikasa and Eren went there separate ways. “I’ll take you to your next class.” Armin said as he walked behind Annie and started wheeling her down the hallway.

The hallways were mostly empty by now, and Annie didn’t think they’d get another alone moment like this for a while. “Armin, um,” She tried, at a loss of how to start the conversation.

“What is it?” He prompted.

“It’s us. What- I mean to ask, what’s going on?”

Armin leaned over her shoulder to get a look at her flushed face. He was surprised. “What are you talking about?”

Annie felt her neck grow hot and sputtered, “yousaidyouloveme.”

By now Armin had a dusting of red on his own cheeks and his walk halted. “I guess I did. What about it?”

She felt a well of frustration spark within her. Was he going to make her spell it out? Damn, he was suppose to be smart. She turned and glared at him, “What do you mean, ‘what about it,’ are you going to ask me out or not?”

His eyebrows shot up, “I thought we were! I kissed you!”

“So? Just because I let you do that doesn’t mean we’re dating. You have to ask!”

He laughed nevously, “You’re making me ask you? If you’re so excited about it, ask me out.”

“But- You’re the guy, man up!”

“This is the twenty-first century, women can ask men out.”

“You’re just being difficult now. Just ask me out.”

“You are surprisingly old-fashioned.” Armin rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “I can say I didn’t expect that from you.”

“Stop procrastinating.”

“Who would’ve guessed that Annie, the girl who could kick any guy’s butt, would want the classic romantic situation? Should I buy roses and sing to you at midnight while you watch from your window?”

“Armin, you know that’s not what I mean-“

“I better get a big dowry for all the trouble you want me to go through.”

“Armin, for fuck’s sake, just go out with me.” Annie growled.

Armin grinned smugly and kissed her lightly on her lips, “Well, if you insist.”

Chapter Text

Annie woke up and plodded into the kitchen, searching for a box of cereal. Today was Armin’s big moment in the gameshow, so she had to get up earlier than usual for the weekends, and she felt it in her drowsy movements. Absently she poured her cereal and milk as he father walked in the front door, fully dressed and appearing as if he had already been awake for a few hours.

“You’re up early.” He noticed. Annie just shrugged. Her father wouldn’t like that she was going to see a friend. Boyfriend, she had to remind herself. Her father really would hate that even more, but she felt heat rising in her neck out of her own eagerness. Was she regressing into a shallow prissy girl at just the thought of a boy?

“We are moving.” Her father said without preamble. It took Annie a few moments to process the words, and still she wasn’t sure she understood.

“Moving?”

“Yes. I just spoke to a real-estate agent, and the house if officially for sale. We are moving to the city by Monday.”

Annie was speechless. Suddenly moving for no reason? To the city, which is an hour and a half away, no less. “What? Why?”

“I have a job opportunity.”

“Bullshit! We are doing fine here, why do we have to move?” Annie was standing, her hands pressed firmly into the table to stop their trembling. She had a feeling she knew her father’s real motivation.

He sighed, “You must think I’m stupid Annie. I notice how often you get into fights, in and out of school. That Mina girl has been after you for such a long time, and now you’re dating that boy. You aren’t responsible enough. You need to focus on school and your future without any distractions.”

How did he know all that? How much snooping into her life had he been doing? “I’m fine!” Annie shouted, not knowing what else to say. “Fuck!” Moving? How could he think that was a good idea? “You can’t do this, it’s not fair!”

“I’m your father,” he boomed, “I can do whatever I want. This is what’s best and that’s final. We are moving.”

“You can’t-“ Annie growled in frustration. “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!”

Her father’s face was stony, “You will be grateful when you become an adult.”

Annie stomped out of the kitchen, ignoring her father’s angry calls. She slammed the door to her room with enough force to shake the walls. Angrily she stripped out of her pajamas and put on jeans and her sweatshirt. Her father pounded on her door, demanding that she open up.

Annie methodically opened her window and slithered out, letting herself drop to the ground with a thud. She sprinted away from the house that was soon not going to be hers.

A moment later she found herself infront of Armin’s door. She checked her face and smoothed her sweatshirt. She wasn’t going to tell him. She couldn’t, not yet. He had to focus on his game today, not her. She could suck it up to give them one good last day together. She hoped he wouldn’t be too hurt when she would suddenly be gone without explanation. She hoped he would understand she didn’t mean it.

The door opened and Annie jumped, shaken out of her thoughts. “Oh, Annie dear.” Armin’s grandfather said in surprise. “We weren’t expecting you for another hour.”

“Um, yeah. I can come back later-“

“No, no, its fine. Come in.” Armin’s grandfather smiled warmly at her and opened the door wider for her. Annie stepped into house and followed him into the living room. Armin was sitting on the ground, going through flashcards.

“Visitor for you, Armin.”

Armin glanced up and his face brightened when he saw Annie. “Hey! You’re early.” He stood and greeted her with a warm hug.

“Yeah, sorry.” Annie mumbled into his shoulder as she let herself be embraced.

“No need to apologize. I’m glad you’re here.” He released her but slid his hand down to capture her fingers. “I need a distraction. I’m getting a little stressed out.”

“Have you had breakfast yet?” Armin’s grandfather asked.

“Yes.” Annie answered, avoiding eye contact. How could she look him in the eye when she was about abandon his grandson?

“Well, feel free to help yourself to anything you want. I have to go put on my Sunday best.” Armin’s grandfather gave him a sly wink and retreated into his room, leaving Armin and Annie alone.

“I’ve been studying all morning,” Armin said, trying to cover his sudden awkwardness, “I’m going to make a fool of myself.”

Annie tugged on his hand gently, “You’ll do fine, I’m sure of it.”

“But-“ He tried to protest.

“No buts.”

Armin smiled at her. “Thanks,” Then he pulled her down to sit on the couch with him. His back was stiff, and he let a small gap between them, face turned upwards slightly in a vain attempt to hide his pink cheeks. Annie felt her heart breaking. He really was too sweet for her. Annie let herself lean her back against his chest, erasing any space between them. Armin slowly relaxed and placed a kiss on the top of her head. “I’m glad you’re here, really.” He breathed softly.

She knew it was selfish of her, but she really wanted to enjoy this while it lasted.

OOOO

“Get a room.” Eren called childishly when he and Mikasa walked in on Annie and Armin sharing a kiss on Armin’s couch.

Immediately the pair jumped to their feet, both red all the way down their necks. Eren was rewarded with a sharp elbow into his side from Mikasa.

“Augh, the hell, Mikasa, I’m just playing around.”

Mikasa ignored Eren and approached Armin like nothing had happened. “Good luck, today.”

Armin cleared his throat, trying to stifle his blush, “T-thanks, Mikasa. I’ll need it.”

“Yeah, good luck, I’m sure you’ll do great!” Eren added sincerely.

“Ah, the gang’s all here!” Armin’s grandfather said as he grabbed his floppy hat, “I’d say it’s time to go, then. I’ll drive everyone.”

They piled into the car, and Annie listened throughout the ride as Armin quizzed himself out loud. Soon enough, they arrived, and in a whirlwind of activity Annie found herself watching Armin fidget as he answered questions. The audience was mostly made up what appeared to be family members and a few close friends of the contestants.

Armin ended up doing well, but he didn’t make it into the final round, losing to a curvy brunette girl on a question of ancient Egyptian history. Annie stood and made her way over to congratulate Armin when he made his way off stage, Eren and Mikasa trailing close behind her.

When Annie reached Armin he was shaking hands with the girl, probably saying something polite about her win. Annie didn’t think twice about the situation until the girl leaned in and obviously began flirting. Annie’s immediate anger was stifled by her realization that after today, she wasn’t going to be around anymore. Maybe it would be best for Armin to find someone else, despite the way it made Annie’s stomach twist at the thought.

Mikasa nudged her forward silently, and Annie broke out of her dark thoughts and approached Armin.

Armin, oblivious to the curvy girl’s flirting, waved happily once he caught sight of Annie. “Hey, guys! Sorry I didn’t win.”

Suddenly feeling possessive, Annie greeted Armin with a quick kiss and slipped her hand into his, “It’s fine, you did great.”

Startled by Annie’s unusually straightforward affection, Armin flushed and smiled goofily. “Oh. Okay. Thanks.”

The other girl looked miffed, arms crossed and eyes critically tracing Annie’s scar. Making judgments. “Well, Armin, I hope I see you again.”

“Yeah, sure, see you around.” Armin waved her off and turned back to his friends. “Want to go grab some pizza?”

OOOO

Annie was about to burst. How could she possibly leave all of this behind? She actually enjoyed her life how it was. She had great friends who she was learning to trust and open up to, and they trusted her as well. She had a boyfriend who cared for her. She actually didn’t mind living in the small town where mostly everyone knew everyone else.

Dinner, like it always is with the group, made her feel more at home than she ever had with her father. But she wasn’t old enough to live on her own, and she had no money anyways. She didn’t even know the first thing about being an adult, truthfully. How was she suppose to run away when the law and her own stupidity would be working against her?

Annie had a sinking feeling that Armin’s grandfather or Hannes wouldn’t have a problem taking her in for an emergency. But she couldn’t. She wasn’t going to ruin the only good households she knew with her prescience.

“Is something wrong?” Armin questioned beside her. He was walking her home, for the last time.

“Nothing.” Annie mumbled, face turned down.

Armin hummed, not convinced. “You can tell me if something is bothering you.”

“Nothing.” Annie insisted weakly.

“Is it something I did?”

“No.”

“Something your Dad did?”

“Maybe.”

“Did he say something mean again?”

Annie stopped. She grabbed Armin’s face. “Remember I never wanted to hurt you, I swear. I swear I never wanted anything like this to happen. I swear-“ Annie was cut off by her own tears.

Armin looked a little panicked. “Okay, what’s wrong? Don’t cry, Annie, shh. I’m sorry, Annie. Talk to me, please.” He grabbed Annie and pulled her into his body.

His hand rubbing into her back gently slowed her tears, but made her feel even more empty inside. She couldn’t do this. She was a selfish coward, and Armin deserved better than her anyway.

Annie pushed away roughly. “I’m sorry. I have to go. Forget about this. Forget me.” And then she was running. She was always running.

“Annie? Annie!” Armin called, confused.

That was the last time she heard him call out for her.

Chapter Text

Annie stared absently at the chalkboard, trying her best not to think of anything. In this new school, with her new schedule, Annie had Science right after lunch. With her stomach full and the droning teacher babbling on she found it very easy find herself sleep.

She didn’t really mind, of course, her grades could stay afloat just enough for her to pass without paying attention and the teacher either didn’t see her or didn’t care. She didn’t speak to anyone, and she didn’t think should would be able to recognize any of her classmates if they approached her anyway. This style of slipping through school felt very similar to her underclassmen years, except she hadn’t gotten into a fight once here. She was even more outside the radar in this new school.

The few saps who had initially approached her were easily turned away by Annie’s practiced rudeness. They just wanted to seem like nice people, or maybe they wanted to grow their group of friends to make themselves look more popular. Either way, Annie wasn’t going to talk to anyone.

She didn’t need a repeat of her quick move just because she decided to be polite for once. Not that she wanted to. Sometimes she secretly allowed herself to feel the loneliness, and she longed for her old friends back, she just wanted to be accepted again. But Annie didn’t let herself feel for long. Just as quickly as she could slip into her depressed state she snapped herself out. Give it until she graduated, then she could do whatever the hell she wanted, she could live anywhere, talk to anyone, anything. And as much as she wanted to ditch when she turned eighteen, she knew staying the few months to get her degree would help her in the long run. Her friends would wait that long for her, right? They had to.

She just needed to graduate.

“Excuse you.” Annie flinched when she snapped awake, disoriented. She blinked hazily at a curly haired girl leaning over her, science book in hand and hip popped.

The girl obviously wanted something from her, but Annie had no idea what.

“Whatever,” The girl huffed. She slammed her book down and turned the empty desk in front of Annie to face her. “I hate when I get freeloaders in group projects.”

A brawny blond boy marched up to the curly haired girl followed by a timid but towering darker boy. “Group of two?”

“Yeah, sure, we need two more to make four.” The girl responded.

“Hey, new girl, I didn’t catch your name before, I’m Reiner.” He extended his wide hand in a friendly manner.

“Annie.” She said flatly, pointedly ignoring his offer for a handshake.
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Alright.” He turned to the other group members, “So I was thinking we should do the presentation on mitosis…”

OOOO

About a week later Annie discovered that being a freeloader with Hitch, the curly haired girl, was impossible. She was willing to throw the entire group’s grade if Annie didn’t do her own share of work. Annie hated her stubbornness, but found herself coloring in a poster on cell life along with the others in the classroom after school anyway. Annie needed to graduate.

Berthold was the tall boy, and she was fairly certain he never stopped nervously sweating. “You’re smearing the colors.” She grumbled as he pulled his hand over the section he had just finished lettering.

“O-oh, sorry.” He pulled back hastily.

“Lay off,” Reiner mumbled absently. Even he had gotten use to Annie’s bluntness, not even worried about Berthold anymore, even if his first reaction was to defend him.

“Where’re you from?” Hitch asked suddenly. “Not many people move near the end of the school year like this.”

Annie was silent, but when all eyes focused on her she relented, “Rose school district, out in the country.” She said grumpily.

“Why’d you move?” Hitch pressed again.

“Dad’s job.” Annie covered easily.

“Were you an antisocial bitch at your old school too?”

Annie lifted her head, hands paused in surprise, and swiftly rose in anger. Her chair clashed violently with the desk behind her and she pressed her fists menacingly down on the table in front of her. “Do you want me to show you what I did to people who pissed me off at my old school?”

“No way, I can’t risk marking this face for a fight with you.” Hitch taunted condescendingly.

Annie lunged but was held back by Reiner’s iron grip. “Hold on girls, don’t-“ He was cut off by an elbow to the stomach.

“Reiner!” Berthold cried in surprise. He reached out for his friend, and Annie automatically twisted his wrist into a submission hold.

“You’re crazy!” Hitch cried as she raised her arms defensively. Annie locked eyes with her, and was about to lunge again when a booming voice made her flinch.

“What the hell is going on here?” Their science teacher demanded. Without pausing for a response he swept into the room and loomed over them with a menacing scowl.

“N-nothing,” Reiner tried to cover, but it was too late, the teacher had seen too much.

“Nothing my ass. Detention in my class after school, all of you, for the next two weeks. You better not skip out or I’ll have you suspended.”

“But-“ Hitch tried to protest, but she was cut off by the teacher’s sharp glare.

Annie let her bangs fall in front of her face. Great. More quality time with the science group.

OOOO

Annie swore fate was just making fun of her. How the hell did a group of people like this get together? This wasn’t some sort of movie, how could she just happen to get detention with the three people least likely to put up her bullshit, but also the most willing to get in her business?

Annie felt as if her three leaches felt the need to play twenty questions constantly. Somehow they had become attached, and nothing was going to let her admit that she let them be there.

It gave her déjà vu.

It was summertime now, and Annie found herself lying under the colorful umbrella on the roof of Reiner’s apartment building. She was doing her best to ignore the boys’ loud splashing and Hitch’s displeased complaining by focusing on the book in front of her, but it was no use. She looked up from the pages to find Hitch struggling fruitlessly to push Reiner under the water, the difference in strength was just to much.

Berthold shook his head and glanced cautiously at Annie. She gave him a sarcastic smile and he relaxed. She had found out that he was always nervous because of the bullying he had to endure from his parents and fellow students, when she had first found out Reiner and Berthold were dating Bert almost passed out from nervousness. She assumed he was expecting her to hate him, but really she couldn’t care less.

She discovered Reiner wanted to get a scholarship for football so he could go to college with Berthold, because he wasn’t going because of his grades, that was certain. She also found out that he was a dick to everyone except Berthold, but she gave him enough snark back that he had toned down around her.

Hitch was a manipulative brat that somehow could manage to get almost anything she wanted, except when it came to normal socializing. If she wasn’t able to look down or swindle someone out of something then she was an awkward mess.

Annie herself tried her best to dodge all the questions that came her way, but little by little they managed to get her general story. She was bullied, and then she became a fighter. And then when she finally managed to get friends her asshole Dad made her move away. Knowing this her new group of-dare she say it- friends did their best to keep their existences secret from her father. The second time having a group of friends made her smarter at hiding them. Annie periodically wanted to scream, because why hadn’t she been able to hide her friends before? Why wasn’t her father as ignorant then as he was now?

“Annie, I’m gonna order pizza, what do you want?” Hitch called over, snapping Annie out of her suddenly depressing mood.

“Peppers-“

“How about no, meat lovers all the way!” Reiner cut her off, pulling himself out of the pool and drying himself off.

“Sucks for you guys, but I want Hawaiian and I have the phone.” Hitch smirked.

“Why’d you even ask, then?”

“I try to be polite sometimes you know.” With that Reiner lunged at Hitch and tried to snatch the phone from her hands, but she was too quick and ducked under his hands. He reached out again and this time picked her up by around the waist with one arm and with the other reached towards her hand that held the phone.

Hitch yelled indignantly, legs flailing, but when Reiner’s fingers brushed the phone she tossed it at Annie, who only caught it on reflex.

“Quick, call in for a Hawaiian!”

“Berthold get her, I’ll hold this little bitch and you get that one-“ Reiner was cut off by Hitch driving an elbow into his side.

“Who you calling a bitch, bitch?”

Berthold just watched wide-eyed, hands raised in surrender.

Annie couldn’t help it, she laughed and began to dial the number for the local pizza shop. “Yes, hello, I would like to order a large pizza with bell pepers, pineapple, sausage and anchovies. Yes. Yeah, that’s it. Thanks. Bye.”

“What was that, Annie?” Hitch wailed dramatically, “Everything and anchovies?”

“Yeah, one topping for each of us- Bert loves anchovies.” Annie explained.

“Thanks.” Berthold smiled gratefully.

Reiner pouted next to Hitch, “Yeah, whatever, be that nice person.”

Annie smiled softly. Even if it hadn’t worked out in her old school, she had to do her best now- that was what Armin would want her to do. He wouldn’t be able to stand it if she didn’t allow her self to have fun and to have other friends. And she realized, she hoped he was doing the same.

Life hadn’t stopped just because she had moved away, life would never stop. She just had to keep going no matter what- she wouldn’t make the same mistake of shutting herself away twice. Not anymore.

Chapter Text

Annie hummed absently to her radio, eyes scanning the road as she drove through her neighborhood. Old neighborhood, that is. It had been almost two years since she had last been anywhere near here, although she thought of this moment constantly. She recognized the hill where she had gone sledding, and her old running route, and a million other nostalgic things.

Nerves rolled in her stomach as she passed her old house, not because of the bad memories it held, but because she was getting closer to her destination. She almost wished she had taken Bert up on his offer to come with her for support- but she felt like this was something she had to do on her own. A lot had changed in her time away, and she had a lot to apologize for. Yes, it was important to confront her old friends on her own. She hoped they listened to her, and weren’t too mad at her.

Finally Annie pulled her car in front of the Eren and Mikasa’s house, and took a deep breath. She just wanted to bridge the gap that her father forced between them. They were her first true friends, and she was finally free to do as she pleased with her life.

She took a deep breath and slid out of her car, smoothing down her shirt nervously. Annie stood in front of the door and rung the door bell with more force than was probably necessary. A long moment passed without anything happening. Almost a minute later Annie couldn’t even hear movement inside the house. Maybe they were out? Would it be obnoxious of her to ring again? She decided to knock incase the bell was broken.

Still nothing. They must be out. Annie sighed dejectedly. Just her luck. Annie plodded back to her car and leaned her head against the wheel once she sat down. She had know this was a possibility, but still, it was a big disappointment.

Annie was snapped out of her thoughts when a knock came to her window. She jerked her head up to find a middle-aged woman who was vaguely familiar.

Annie rolled her manual window down and squinted up at the woman, “Yes?”

“Are you looking for the family living here?”

“Uh, yeah, but they’re out.”

The woman pursed her lips, “Just missed them, dear, they left for vacation yesterday. I’m their neighbor, I could take a message for when they return.” So that’s why she was familiar, Annie thought.

“Yeah, here-“ Annie pulled a piece of scrap paper from her glovebox and scribbled her address and phone number on it. “Can you tell them Annie stopped by?”

“Of course dear, I’ll tell them to contact you right away.”

“Thank you very much, mam.” Annie nodded as the woman stepped away and waved her off. Annie pulled back onto the road and took a turn that would lead her to Armin’s house. Now her stomach did flips. It was possible her went on vacation with Eren and Mikasa, but if he didn’t what could she possibly say to him? She had no idea what to expect.

As soon as Annie could see his house her hands became clammy. She walked up to the familiar house and rang the doorbell before she could talk herself out of it. Almost immediately she could hear yells and small feet running across the ground before the door opened to reveal a big owl-eyed woman who was definitely not Armin or his Grandfather.

“Yes?” The woman asked as she tried to hold back two children from escaping through her legs.

A little dumbstruck, Annie gaped for a moment, “Uh, are the Arlets around?”

“Oh, no honey, we bought the house from the Armin boy almost four months ago when his grandfather passed away.”

Annie’s stomach dropped. Armin’s grandfather had died and he had to sell the house? Was he alone? Where could Armin have moved too?

Annie leaned against the wall, face drained of color, “Died?”

“Oh, dear, sorry, I didn’t mean to break the news to you like this-“

“Its fine.” Annie cut the woman off. “Fine. Do you know where Armin moved to?”

“No, I’m sorry. Would you like to come in for some tea?”

Annie took a step back and shook her head before turning abruptly back to her car. She should have been there for him- the only family he had was his grandfather, and all she wanted to do now was to be able to comfort him. Annie soon found herself on the highway back into the city, face a hard slate. Today had been a wash but Eren and Mikasa would be able to contact her once they got back wouldn’t they? And they would know what happened to Armin. Right? They had to contact her. She wanted to apologize, but her doubts were finally catching up to her. What if they were still mad at her? What if they didn’t want to deal with her again? What if, what if, what if?

OOOO

Annie could feel her face’s hotness in the night, her sunburn making her look constantly flushed. Reiner was in her same situation, although she thought he didn’t really notice because of how drunk he was. Berthold and Hitch on the other hand, were blessed with skin that just became evenly dark without trying- Berthold in particular. Hitch was as wasted as Reiner, and was currently making out with some guy she had just met. Annie rolled her eyes at her antics, but was use to Hitch’s idea of fun by now. Reiner was still guzzling beer, playing some game Annie wasn’t interested in enough to be paying attention.

It was times like these she was thankful for Berthold’s reserved nature. They stood in the sand, watching the party while nursing their own drinks at a reasonable rate while keeping an eye on their friends to make sure they didn’t get in too much trouble.

It had only been a few days since she had been to her hometown, and when she returned in a funk her friends were determined to get her mind off of it. So they practically kidnaped her and took her to the beach, with the sole purpose of partying. Her protests of “It’s illegal” were ignored.

Annie jerked when an arm draped over her shoulder, but relaxed when she realized it was only Reiner. He leaned down to speak to her over the music, “Ay, you should dance, relax.”

“I’ll have to pass,” Annie grumbled shoving Reiner’s face away with her palm.

He stumbled back with a laugh, “I wont take no for an answer!” and before she had time to react she was slung over his should.

Magically she had managed to keep her drink from spilling, so she quickly tipped it back, finishing it in one large gulp before Reiner plopped her back down in the middle of the crowd of gyrating bodies. Admittedly she started out awkwardly, but she loosened up soon enough. She was reminded of her homecoming with Armin and laughed out loud at the though of him seeing her in this situation- this sort of party was a far cry from the innocent homecoming dance. Reiner danced with her, and soon Bert joined in, along with Hitch and a different random guy from before.

At one point Annie stumbled back into a body and felt them catch her by her elbows, Annie chuckled, “Sorry-“ She glanced up and froze.

Armin peered down at her with wide eyes. “Annie?”

“A-armin? What the hell are you doing here?” His hair was longer, and his face was sharper, but there was no doubt in her mind it was Armin.

“I could ask you the same thing!” He laughed, “I never thought you were the party type!”

“Hey Annie, babe, this dude bothering you?” Reiner approached, flexing. He was doing the regular routine of pretending to be her boyfriend to get guys to leave her alone, which she appreciated most of the time, but not now.

Armin quickly let go and stepped back, eyes falling to the ground, “Oh, um, sorry-“

“Shut up would you?” Annie hissed to Reiner, who gave her a befuddled look.

Armin raised his hand to Reiner, “Uh, I’m Armin, I know Annie from highschool, I didn’t mean to-“

Reiner broke out into a knowing smile and took Armin’s hand in his own, practically swallowing the other boys, “Oh, Armin! Annie’s told us about you.”

“Has she?” Armin said, surprised.

“Okay, good, go dance with your boyfriend.” Annie emphasized, shooing Reiner away.

“So he’s not your boyfriend?” Armin asked once Reiner was out of hearing range, avoiding Annie’s eyes.

“No. But look- I’m really sorry for moving without saying anything, I even drove down a few days ago, and I don’t know how to say how sorry I am for not being able to keep in touch-“

“You don’t have a boyfriend?”

“-no, but I’m trying to apologize and this is really hard to do in the middle of a drunken party and wow I probably drunk-“

Annie was halted by Armin’s lips. She sucked in a surprised breath, and leaned into him automatically. He pulled back gently, “I forgive you. Do you think we could pick up where we left off?”

“Sure,” Annie breathed, “Sure.”

“Alright! Get some!” Annie broke away and turned to find Eren taunting them. “Hold up, Annie?” He gaped, “Holy shit, Annie!” He threw himself at her in an enthusiastic hug.

“Good to see you too,” Annie managed under his surprisingly stocky body. He wasn’t a kid anymore either.

“Annie,” Mikasa greeted, stoic and beautiful as ever.

“Mikasa, good to see you,” Annie replied, still holding up Eren. When she was finally released another arm draped itself over her shoulder.

Hitch leaned on Annie, and Berthold and Reiner stood close by.

“Who’re these punks?” Hitch wondered at the same time as Eren.

Annie laughed with pure joy, “Friends, they’re my friends.”

Chapter Text

Annie murmured and scrunched her eyebrows together, pulling her sheets over her eyes to keep out the morning sunlight filtering through her window. She was so comfortable but just as she felt herself slipping back into a dream she was coaxed awake again, this time by the tickle of her hair moving over her neck.

“We only have an hour and a half until everyone gets here, you gotta wake up, baby.” Armin warned her as he carefully brushed her hair with his fingers. Her only response was to sink farther into her pillow. Armin’s hand slowly drifted to the scar on her face, still prominent years after the accident, not that it really bothered her anymore. She could count it as a plus, it made her look tough and Armin had the habit of tracing it absently, like now. “We still have to eat and shower and clean up a little, this place is a mess.”

Annie twisted her body until she was facing Armin, “I like this place a mess.”

“But do you really want your bras hanging from the sink when they come over?” Armin questioned with a quick glance at the offending clothing.

Annie shot her gaze back over her shoulder then shrugged. “It adds to the effect. We really seem like honest-to-goodness homeless people this way.”

“Homeless? Don’t let The Can hear you say that, he’d be offended that you don’t consider him a home.”

Annie laughed. The Can was the RV they lived in as they traveled across the continent. It got it’s name because at first Annie had complained about the way the RV Armin had bought looked and she had said she didn’t want to live in a mobile tin can for the rest of her life. Of course The Can grew on her, and she couldn’t imagine living in a normal home.

“Oh, my bad, we will look like honest-to-goodness ‘free spirits.’” Annie air-quoted. Armin stuck his tongue out at her and she just rolled back over and swung her feet off the bed. Standing, she stretched her arms over her head and cracked her back with a quite sigh. Armin followed her and started to clear off the kitchen area of the clutter. “I’ll hop in the shower first.” Annie told him as she stepped into the bathroom. He hummed in response, already concentrating on pulling out the ingredients for breakfast.

Annie undressed and slipped into the shower. It was a little cramped, even for her petite build, but she had mostly gotten use to it. She had been skeptical at first, about the entire idea of this ongoing trip. It was a big step, suddenly moving in with Armin, suddenly living in such a cramped space, and suddenly going across the country, away from anyone and anything she had known except Armin. Somehow he had convinced her to go, something about how he needed his muse for writing or something else just as cheesy and endearing.

But against all odds it seemed to be working, Armin was almost finished with his first novel, all the while still keeping up with a small blog about their travels to fund their trip, and Annie hadn’t completely blown a gasket with the close quarters. True, she was able to keep herself busy with basically taking over the blog from Armin, but it’s not like he minded.

Of course it was never easy, Annie had a short temper and Armin had to have plans and order almost all the time. They grated against each other often, but always made up before the fights could put a permanent kink in their relationship. Annie was still afraid that it wouldn’t work out, but then again she halted herself before she could think any further on what “working out” would mean for them.

She stepped out of the shower and dried off, then walked out of the bathroom to the closet near their bed. “That was a quick shower,” Armin commented, pretending not to sneak a glance as Annie changed.

“You’re the one who woke me up and said I had to hurry.” Annie answered as she slipped on athletic shorts and tanktop. She spun once she was fully dressed and leaned into the kitchen counter, swiping a pancake off the pile Armin was creating for their breakfast.

“Hey, wait until I’m done.” He scolded her halfheartedly. Annie just shrugged, unable to respond because her cheeks were full of pancake.

Armin finished and they ate outside at a picnic table, then started tidy up their RV for guests. Annie started to feel a fluttery sort of nervous at the prospect of seeing her old friends. Of course everyone still kept in touch as much as they could through the power of phones and the internet, but she couldn’t help but doubt herself. What if they’ve changed? What if she’s changed? What if they do think she is living like homeless person? What if, what if, what if?

The sound of a car door slamming shut and loud laughter snapped her out of her thoughts, and the excitement and joy on Armin’s face wiped away her worries. Nobody could hate Armin, and she’d just use him as a shield if things got messy.

OOOO

Thankfully things went much smoother than what Annie was expecting and she had no regrets about meeting up with everyone. It was great to see everyone in the flesh and not just through a screen. Mikasa was living in the same building as Berthold and Reiner now, so they had become pretty close. Eren was excelling in college because of his stubborn desire to prove Hitch wrong, as her favorite insults for him are ‘slacker’ and ‘dumbass.’ Their interactions filled her with a happiness that she could only guess came from her closest friends becoming close as well. It felt right to be sitting around the fire pit outside The Can, talking and laughing like she and Armin had never been gone at all.

Eren was in a passionate discussion about exercise techniques with Mikasa and Reiner while Hitch and Berthold watched the fire and talked excitedly. Annie leaned into Armin and grinned at him. “I’m glad we stopped.”

“Me too. It’s great to see everybody again.”

“We should stop more often than once a year.”

“Sure.” He agreed as he poked at the fire with a stick.

Annie narrowed her eyes, “Are you okay? You seem a little down.”

Armin stiffened like he had been caught doing something bad, “No, not really.”

Now she was positive something was going on with him. “Oh, ‘not really?’” Annie quoted sarcastically.

He still didn’t meet her eyes, but she could still feel his uneasiness. “Not here.” Was all he said, and it put Annie immediately on edge. What could he possibly want to say to her that he couldn’t say in front of their friends? It didn’t seem like something positive either, not with the way he was acting suddenly. Or maybe it wasn’t so sudden. Had he been feeling down lately? More tense? Not that she remembered, but she had been so caught up in coming home recently…

“… Annie?” Reiner questioned, obviously trying to bring get her attention.

“Yeah?” She asked, drawn back into conversation with her friends. They were able to distract her but she still felt her own apprehension tugging at the back of her mind for the rest of the night.

OOOO

When their friends had left around ten that night- the latest visitors were allowed at the campsite- Annie felt her nervousness spike. Her and Armin were due to be in town for about two weeks, so she wasn’t upset her friends had to go home, she was dreading whatever Armin was going to say. She had no idea what could be upsetting him, she couldn’t even come up with her usual speculations.

She walked up to him as he used a hose to water down the embers from the long-dead fire. “What’s been bothering you?”

Armin was silent for a minute, collecting his thoughts. When he spoke his voice was low and even, “Are you happy?”

She was confused, but answered truthfully, “Of course. Are you?” Was that it? Was he unhappy with their lives now?

“Yes, but…” He took a breath and finally looked her in the eye, “You seemed so excited to come home, ever since we planned to stop here, and when your friends arrived you were the most excited I’ve seen you in a long time. Are you tired of living on the road? I know I practically forced you to come with me, and I just want to know what you want- if, um-“

Annie sighed and rubbed her forehead with a wry smile. This was what he was worried about? “You are worried about if I’m happy traveling now, of all times?” She laughed, “You wouldn’t have gotten me out of the town if I hadn’t wanted to travel with you. What brought this on?”

Armin looked immensely relieved, yet nervousness still stretched in his lips as he smiled back at her. “I read that, um, girls- that is to say women, want stability, like a house and stuff.”

Now he was blushing fiercely, but Annie didn’t have a chance to enjoy it because of her annoyance. “Where’d you here that shit? You think I want to be some sort of meek housewife that never wants adventure?”

Armin looked like a tomato now, but he still managed to respond, “Not, uh, about the ‘meek’ or ‘adventure’ part but, um, the w-wife part.” He appeared as if he was about to pass out, but quickly continued before Annie could even process what he said, “Iwasjustwondering!”

Now Annie was just as red as Armin. Had he just implied what she thought he did?! “Armin!” She exclaimed, flustered, “Shit! Holy Shit!” They had never spoken seriously about marriage- just jokes that Annie forced herself to not think about too deeply. “Give a girl some warning!” No matter how much she loved Armin she was not about to marry him this young- well, at least not this moment without time to consider it seriously. He really had come out of leftfield here.

“Sorry! I’m not- I just wanted to know if you thought about it! I’m not proposing!” He waved his hands frantically, trying to calm Annie down, who had started pacing wildly, “I was just worried you’d want something more than me if you didn’t think I was committed to you! I was worried you had grown old of living in The Can and traveling and having no other friends to talk to other than me. You were just so excited to come back…”

Annie took a deep breath, “No-“ she laughed at the pure absurdity of their situation, “Armin, no. I was so nervous to meet up with our friends again. I was worried we had changed or that they would have changed and we wouldn’t have gotten along anymore. When it turned out we still connected I was so relieved, I was overjoyed that we could travel and still have a home base with our friends. That’s all I need, a home base and you.”

Armin was still flushed, but he beamed at Annie’s declaration. “Oh.”

Annie whacked his chest lightly, “Shut up, you jerk. I was really panicking for a minute there.”

“Well, now I guess I’ve given you a warning so you aren’t taken by surprise in the future.”

He smirked proudly then spun on his heals and swiftly ducked into the RV, leaving Annie a sputtering mess, “W-what? How long in the future? Armin!”