Chapter 1: There Was One, Once

A/N: This one shot was actually inspired by a picture I saw on Deviantart a while back. If I ever find the link, I'll be sure to put it up here.

A large smile grew across Hanji's features.

"Oh, look at all the happy couples!" she squealed, fists shaking. "Humanity will repopulate in no time with this amount of hormones swirling around the room!"

Her smile widened, and a nearby Eren tensed. Levi let out a deep breath of air and set his cup on the table. "Quit rejoicing, Hanji, there is no point," he told her.

She swiveled around on the bench and peered at him, head tilted slightly to the side.

"What is a better reason to celebrate than the growth of humanity?" she asked.

Her nails started to tap together in in her lap as she peered at him, twitching slightly in her seat. To any stranger these movements would be frightening, but for him they only served to annoy.

His eyes narrowed. "Many of them will be dead before any 'repopulating,' can take place."

The words were nearly spat. He picked up his tea, and took another sip.

Eren, who had heard everything from his seat, shifted and took a gulp of his own drink. Levi' allowed himself a look over of the room. Hanji was truthful; from what he could see there were many people mingling together, holding hands, hugging, sitting closer on the bench than you would with a friend or relative. Perhaps some of them were an exception, but he could assume that many of them were indeed 'couples.'

Suddenly his tea went cold, and he slowly set the cup down on the table.

"What about you, Eren?"

Hanji turned to him and leaned across the table. Eren looked up and blinked, glass frozen in hand. Hanji stared back at him,

"Has anyone ever made your hormones rage?"

Eren stiffened in his seat, going pale. Levi sighed.

"Hanji," He called.

She let a small gasp and turned towards him, eyes wide. His own narrowed at her.

"Stop pestering everyone with such questions," he told her. "It is very irritating."

She blinked, but before she could react, Eren shuffled in his seat and cleared his voice, catching their attention. Hanji darted around. Levi turned as well, brows slightly raised.

Eren propped his head in his hand and looked out across the sea of people in the room. He took in a slow deep breath, and seemed to relax.

"Well, there was this one person who made feel… different."

-..-

"But hey, am I a good kicker or what?"

He chuckled.

"I picked it up from watching you at it, but it worked out great, I'll say," he told her.

The girl swiveled around to look at him, meeting him directly in the eye. Her brows rose ever so slightly,but the rest of her features remained cold and unreadable. His smile fell at the look.

She let a short, quick snort. "That was hopeless." She told him. "A complete train - wreck."

His mouth gaped. She turned away from him, and took a step forward in the other direction, towards the exit.

"Wh- " he started, taking a step towards her, He stopped, staring at her back. "Where did I get it wrong?"

She froze, and slowly turned back around. She was slow in the movement, and such and action made the anticipation building inside him grow. She looked at him for a long moment, and for a brief second he saw a flicker of surprise behind her blue eyes.

For the first, and only time; he saw a genuine, tiny smile grace her features. He sucked in a breath. Her mouth parted, and a flash of white shown. He froze, enraptured by the tiny glint of her white teeth, shimmering in the sun. Then her lips closed, and her smile diminished,; but it still remained, and he could not look away from such a sight. Annie never smiled, but she had for him, just that once.

"If you like that technique so much," the words were slow and stretched out to him, being distracted by the curve of her lips. "Maybe I can teach it to you,"

She swiveled around, and strode away.

-..-

But no matter how many times he remembered her smile, how many times he pictured that bright glimmer that ran along her teeth, it always came back to the other Annie, and he would forever envision her laughing and twitching at the top of those stairs instead of the beautiful smile she gave him that day. In place of Annie, he would always see the titan.

'It wasn't funny, Annie,'

But her laughter rang through his head, clear as if she were right in front of him, performing the act herself. He grimaced. That, too, was burned into his memory.

'So why were you laughing?'

He looked up, and saw someone's skeletal white knuckles wrapped around his cup. His eyes widened, and he slowly relaxed, letting go of the glass. It rocked back and forth on the table.

He exhaled, and glanced to Hanji. "But… things didn't turn out the way they should have," he told her. "I was always so focused on killing the titans, I never paid attention to my own feelings.

He shrugged casually, and glanced down at the table, suddenly solemn.

His lips pursed. "I guess it's too late now."