Day 1- Spooning

It couldn't be easy, it just couldn't be uneventful. The simplest of exercises had to turn into fight for survival and Annie was really tired of all the drama. So when the blue of the sky was engulfed in the angry grey of clouds she knew what was coming. Looking ahead of her she could see Reiner, Bertholdt and the others carving a path through the snow, only seconds after Annie had noticed the encroaching storm Reiner stopped in his tracks and looked to the sky.

"It looks like a blizzard is coming. Armin where was that cave we saw on the map?" He asked.

Fumbling for the map Armin looked between the map and his surroundings. "There are two caves actually. The one head of us is larger but it'll take us longer to get there and the other one is only roughly half an hour away away but there's hardly enough room for all of us."

Reiner hummed. "We should stick together and head to the larger cave. How long will it take us to get there?" He asked turning once again to Armin.

Looking down at the map Armin let out a defeated sigh. "It'll take over an hour."

Not hesitating Reiner took his pack off of his shoulders and pulled out a long coil of rope. "Connie, Sasha. Use your rope to anchor everyone together, we'll be walking through that and we don't want anyone getting lost."

"Speak for yourself, I'm going to the smaller cave, there's no way I'm walking through a blizzard." Annie sighed as she turned on her heels and walked away.

Bertholdt, who had stayed quiet as Reiner explained the plan immediately stepped forward towards his friend. "Those clouds look really bad, we can't leave her alone. She'll freeze."

Reiner rubbed his eyes. "Annie isn't one to listen, take an extra bag of supplies and go with her," Seeing the pink blush creep us Bertholdt's cheeks Reiner leaned towards him with a smile. "And I want to hear all about your night alone with Annie tomorrow."

Not wanting to give Reiner the satisfaction of eliciting a response Bertholdt simply grabbed the extra supplies and broke out into a jog after Annie.

(Twenty minutes later)

"Why are you following me?" Annie asked as she traipsed through the snow. Since heading towards the cave a sharp wind had picked up and neither their coats or blankets were enough to stop the icy touch of the elements.

Bertholdt took a moment to warm his hands with his breath before answering. "You don't where the cave is and you don't have enough supplies to last the night."

"You don't know that, and maybe I wanted some time away from everyone."

Bertholdt roughly shrugged his shoulders to stop his bag from slipping before picking up the pace to come to Annie's side. "That doesn't change the fact that you don't have enough supplies… We're not invincible you know."

This time Annie did stop, suddenly she was all too aware of the cold that bit at her fingers and the wind that drained more of her energy with every step. "I guess you're right," She eventually admitted after taking a brief moment to look over and see the extra bag on Bertholdt's shoulders. "If it's you I guess it won't be too bad. So where is this cave then?" She asked as Bertholdt pulled out the map.

With Bertholdt's help it only took the two of them a handful of minutes to find the cave, upon finding it Bertholdt put the bags on the ground and rolled his shoulders groaning slightly at the pain. "Armin wasn't kidding, this thing is tiny." Bertholdt sighed as he dipped his head.

The cave itself was nothing more than an extended overhang that went back only a couple of meters and was ever smaller when it came to height. And while Bertholdt was distraught at the number of times he would undoubtedly hit his head on the ceiling, Annie on the other hand seemed almost happy with the size of the camp.

"This is good," She explained. "If we can get a fire going we should be able to warm up." Although the smile on Annie's lips was more than enough to warm Bertholdt's cheeks.

By the time they had finally gotten a fire going the winds had strengthened into a howling wall of ice and snow. The joy of igniting the kindling they had spent an age searching for quickly vanished whenever a particularly strong gust of wind threatened to snuff their only source of warmth. Even with the extra blankets Bertholdt had brought with him they were nothing against sheer icy bite of the blizzard, looking over from the fire to see Annie huddled against the cave wall, Bertholdt had hoped that by having his back to the wind he could shield her from the worst of the elements but judging from the violent nature of Annie's shivering it wasn't working.

You know what you could do to help. Bertholdt thought to himself as a pit quickly formed in his stomach. "Um… Annie," He mumbled. "Are you cold?"

Annie's reply came in the form of a bark like laugh. "Take a guess."

Scolding himself for asking such a stupid question Bertholdt sat up. "You don't have to but… it would be a good idea to share body heat… If you want."

Even the wind seemed to die down in the painfully quiet silence that followed as Bertholdt awaited an answer. There were no words as Annie shuffled towards his open arms, once she approached him Annie simply lay down on her side and grabbed Bertholdt's hand and pulled him around her.

They fit together like two puzzle pieces, the way she curled up and Bertholdt molded around her. The effect was immediate as warmth seeped from his chest and heart into her back and neck, although Annie was distracted from the relief of the warmth that now coursed through her body by the sheer speed and force with which Bertholdt's heart was pounding. However it wasn't enough to keep her from succumbing the heaviness of her eyelids and soon she was fast asleep in Bertholdt's arms, who didn't sleep at all that night, instead choosing to relish in the feeling of having Annie in his arms.