A/N: Drabble idea I really wanted to do. Enjoy, let me now what you thought~

I Remember Running to the Sea

By: Euregatto

She dreams of the ocean Eren describes to her in vivacious detail, from every stroke of riptides in the surface of the water, to the thick texture of salt on her tongue as it poisons the sweet, sweet air, and to the way the waves consume her hand when she dips her slender fingers down to explore this mysterious, vast, abyssal, cobalt veil. It is so new to her she cannot break her trance of it. The void engulfs her, and she submissively lets herself float aimlessly into the darkness, watching with half-lidded eyes as the sunlight pierces the barrier of liquid with its intense, dancing rays, igniting the uppermost layer of ocean with pseudo-sapphires.

She cannot breathe. She does not need to.

And it comes as no immediate surprise when she awakens with a startled gasp that is caught between an abrupt scream and an instinctive shout, jolting upright in her bed, fingernails biting into the threadbare sheets. She inhales mighty bursts of much needed air, moving her free hand to clutch at her chest as the feign emotions and suffocating pain disperse, gaze darting around the darkness of the room in newfound alertness.

"Annie?"

She winces as the girl beside her stirs, clawing at the crust gluing her eyes shut. "Go back to sleep," Annie whispers bitterly, casting her glare in the other direction. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

Mina Carolina yawns into her hand, moving her body over to draw closer to her friend. Her obsidian gaze reflects in the moonlight circulating through the room as the netted ceiling of clouds passes through the sky. "Why are you crying?"

Crying? Annie doesn't cry. But when she checks, there are tears streaming down her cheeks, and she nearly hisses at the accursed droplets as they plash against her lap. "It's nothing," she denies quickly.

"Doesn't seem like nothing."

"It's absolutely nothing."

Mina sighs under her breath, tucking her head into the crook of the blonde's neck, arms around her waist, and bringing her down against the mattress. "What'd you dream of?" The younger girl asks quietly, her breath tickling the exposed plane of Annie's neck.

"The ocean," she admits.

"Was it beautiful?"

"It was very beautiful," she drones under her breath to the image of the headless corpse at her feet. "I'm so sorry… I really wish you could have seen it with me."

"It's not your fault," Mina says, but when Annie turns her head to protest the girl is gone, and the impression in the bedding from where she had been is non existent. When the feeling passes Annie realizes she is as alone as she had been since her father left almost ten years ago, not even bothering to take a single look back.

.

.

.

"You were talking in your sleep again." The comment is followed by a lanky body unceremoniously planting itself into the seat on the table bench next to Annie who, in turn, pretends not to notice. "You sounded like you were in some pretty damn turmoil over something or another."

"That's certainly the most intelligent thing you've said to me yet," Annie quips, but her roommate doesn't seem to notice, unfortunately.

"And you were sobbing. I just want to make sure you're okay."

This time Annie decides to humor Hitch and passes her an emotionless glance. "I'm fine," she says after a moment of quiet to dwell on the thought. "Just a stupid nightmare."

"About Trost again?"

"Again?" Annie echoes.

Hitch nods matter-of-factly, dipping her spoon into her bowl of stew. By the lack of eruptions in steam Annie figures she let it get cold. There's something on Hitch's mind as well, and it unnerves Annie more than anything ever has. "Sometimes you mumble about some Eren guy, other times you yell at some other dude with some dumb 'R' name, and the rest of the time you talk about being sorry for what happened in Trost."

The blonde's crystallized stare travels back to the half-eaten meal in front of her. "I see."

"I just figure it's some flashbacks or something from the battle. You haven't talked about it since you saw the mental doctor."

"She's a regular doctor who's supposed to check out soldiers who participate in battle."

"She diagnose you with anything? Crazy-mania or something?"

Annie is tempted to give up the conversation altogether. "No."

Hitch shrugs passively, noticing the darkened pigment in her eyes as she remembers something that is beyond Hitch's understanding. "You gonna go visit that friend of yours anytime soon?"

"What does it matter?"

"I'm just curious - hey, where are you going? Wait, Annie!" The blonde disappears out the door and Hitch releases an exasperated sigh. "You didn't eat again…"

.

.

.

The cell reeks of black mold and alcohol, a tall-tale sign that he had been experimented on for things she doesn't quite want to ask about, and it's unbearably hot by any human standards, but Annie doesn't mind, not at all. She isn't human. Neither is he.

She digs her nails into his neck and guides him down to meet her lips - and he kisses her feverishly, almost like he knows, knows that deep down in her abysmal soul she's a loose cannon just about ready to explode, and he's trying to douse her igniting her fuse, trying so, so hard to keep her from touching the real world around them, allowing her to raze their imaginary realm to the ground so long as she did not touch anyone else.

"I dream about the ocean sometimes," she whispers into him, gradually unbuttoning the top three buttons of his shirt as he sheds his jacket and pins her down against the bed by her hips. "It's exactly how you said it would be."

"I want to go someday," he utters, sliding both of her slender wrists into his larger hand, pinning them above her head, using his free arm to reach up her undershirt and stroke the sensitive side of her torso.

"Mm… Maybe, at the end of all of this, at the very, very end of the world, every Wall will be torn down, and all that will remain will be me and you, and we can go together."

"If we weren't in the middle of a life-or-death crisis I would almost consider that romantic."

"Crisis?" She muses, wrapping her legs around his waist, tossing her head back as he locks his lips with the pulsepoint of her neck. "What, suicidal you going outside the Walls, fighting Titans, and fragile me staying within the safety of Sina?"

"Yes." He sucks on her pallid flesh, and she gasps.

"Romantic… as in a relationship…"

"We're together, yeah."

"And will we end up regretting this in the end - everything we've done and failed to do - when there's only me and you?"

He moves both his hands away, sliding his careful touch down the length of her thighs and finally clasping the zipper of her pants. "In the end," he says, small smile on his lips, "probably."