A/N: Tried a new format. Please take the time and let me know how it turned out!~
There Goes the Sun
By: Euregatto
I.
His knuckles are rubbed raw and his fingers are sore from pressing down on too many misplaced stones, but he figures that he's been through more perilous training sessions than this one and reluctantly shoulders his pain, pulling himself up another few feet as he cautiously scales the face of the cliff. The soles of his boots dig into the haphazardly located crevices of the rock's face to keep him locked in place. He inhales sharply, slides his hands into the closest openings he can find above him, and exhales as he hauls himself up again.
The altitude at this height is taxing his lungs and he needs to pause every few minutes to quell the dizziness in his mind before continuing on. His muscles strain beneath his skin – which feels now like it's constricting every bone, joint, and vessel in his body. And let's not forget to mention the veins popping out in his forehead as a mild headache sets in.
They've never had to climb the mountain for 3DMG practice before, and those without the stamina had long since returned to camp while the fittest trainees proceed to continue on in hopes of reaching any of the three plateaus. Eren Jaeger is determined to prove that he's more than fit for graduating in the top ten of his class; this obstacle course would be a huge stepping stone for him.
"You can do it," he mutters under his winded breath, wedging his battered fingers into the next crevices he can find. "You can do it…"
He rocks up and catches the edges of some thick roots. The balls of his feet bury deep into the gravel beneath him and he kicks up another yard, gradually working his way towards the plateau approximately 16 meters above him. Fuck, he was so close he could almost taste his victory on his tongue – like the zest of soil and piquancy of regret. And to think Mikasa and Armin had offered me a safe return home with them…
"Don't fall!" Jean Kirstein calls out from several yards to Eren's right. His voice is so abrupt Eren nearly does exactly what Jean said not to. "I might have to be rivals with some real competition!"
"I hope you slip on horse shit!" Eren snaps back. He's exhausted from the day's events and frankly, he can't formulate any real come-back right now. He rolls his body over so he's pressing his back against the stone and his fingers are clutching to whatever roots and carvings he can get, gaze peering down at the bucolic setting below him.
The forest is a melded blanket that stretches on for miles like a verdant river, blending into the horizon beneath the setting sun, and he's pretty damn sure the birds themselves have stopped nesting up so high.
"The drop is almost as long as your face!" He remarks after a beat, skillfully maneuvering his limbs so he's back in his original position. Jean screams back something in a foreign language and Eren returns with a brash "Go choke on a bale of hay!" before continuing to saunter up the mountain side at his gradual pace.
Something moves off in his peripheral vision.
He glances over to see another trainee perched against the wall, braced with her knees against the tier and one hand suspending her petite frame while the other fumbles with her gear. Eren hesitates as he struggles to remember her name – they had met at Initiation Day. Blonde hair, blue eyes… hmm…
"Christa!" He exclaims as the logic somehow connects into place in his head, but she doesn't seem to notice him. "…Christa! Hello! It's Eren, I'm talking to you!"
The girl finally realizes he's addressing her. She studies him quizzically as he gradually works his way over to her, swinging from spot to spot with whatever notches in the cliff he can find. He finally reaches her and his shoulder brushes a little too close to hers.
"It's me, Christa, it's Eren Jaeger!"
"…I'm not Christa, Jaeger."
There is this silence that settles between them, an uncomfortable atmosphere amplified by the already suffocating air and irritated quirk of her eyebrow. Eren swallows dryly. "…Oh, well, uhm… This is rather embarrassing… I just kinda saw your blonde hair and it's been such a long while since I've talked to Christa… Easy mistake."
He awkwardly laughs to off his own awkwardness and the trainee grunts in her throat, turning her attention away from him as she works at the grapple hook of her gear line. It's wedged into a gap, spokes nestled firmly into the stone from when it had snapped outwards as she attempted to retrieve it from where it had made impact. Shadis had limited them to one assist jump on the ascent since they would need all their gas on the way back down, and clearly she used hers already.
Eren cautiously slides his fingers up under her arm, gently touching her elbow. "Uh, let me help…"
She flinches away but doesn't make any move to shove him off the cliff and to his impending demise, or he just assumes it's what she really wants to do right now. He can't exactly blame her. Talking to girls? Not his strong suit. Insulting people within the first five sentences of exchange? He's a goddamn professional.
When she doesn't deny him his offer he brushes his fingers over hers, ghosting her movements with his and they jiggle the hook around in gradual circles. Without warning the line snaps free. "There," he says with a smirk of triumph.
"And here I thought you were just another idiot."
He winces at that. "Easy mistake?"
"No, I'm right."
"…Okay, I had that coming, but I think we got off on the wrong foot." He ebbs his fingers into a vice-like grip on the crevice and offers out his free hand. "As I mentioned before, I'm Eren Jaeger!"
"Annie Leonhardt," she answers, snapping her line back into place and completely brushing his gesture off with a back-handed slap to his wrist. "Thank you for the assistance. I'm going back to climbing now. Don't trip on your way down."
Eren would have made a snarky comment if she didn't proceed to scale the length of the rock face with the grace of a wildcat – a lioness to be exact, fierce and instinctive, on-point and flawless. She propels her lissome frame upwards, swift movements on par with Mikasa's, hell maybe even Sasha's and Connie's. She barely stops even a second to catch her breath.
Several minutes later she's climbing over the edge of the plateau and disappearing from sight, and Eren is scrambling up in her wake with the grace of a careening elephant because holy hot damn, he has never seen something so impressive in his life.
He means her techniques, of course, regardless of where his shamefully wandering eyes were the entire time.
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XII.
She tells herself she isn't jealous when Eren touches another girl. But his goddamn adorable smile is just enough to keep her at bay… besides, he only ever gives her such an endearing look. That has to count for something, right?
She realizes it doesn't even matter when he makes it up to her against the wall of the supply shed.
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IV.
"You're staring again."
Annie knows that Mina is far more analytical then she lets on, and sometimes it's Annie's favorite thing about her – at other times, though, Annie wishes she was as dumb as a doornail and had the attention span of Connie Springer. Realizing her only real friend wasn't so incompetent however, she turned her eyes away from the back of the mess hall and met Mina's inquisitive gaze. "Come again?"
"You're staring," Mina reiterates, nodding in Eren's direction, "pretty intently, too."
"I wasn't staring."
"Fine, then you were… observing."
"I was not."
"You can't hide it from me, Annie," Mina says matter-of-factly as she shakes her head. "You think he's cute."
Annie presses her lips into a thin line. "I do not."
"Of course you do. I mean, just look at him! He has such nice hair. Is it soft? I know you've touched it at some point." Mina leans closer as her best friend's face dusts with a red flare of embarrassment. "How are his hands? I bet they're rough from all the 3DMG practices we've had so far. They must feel so nice against your skin when you brush during training… You've felt his chest, haven't you? Is it toned? Don't you just want-"
"Mina," Annie interjects, "enough."
Mina giggles into her hand and wafts her other one to ease the tension settling into her friend's features. "I was only playing Ann, don't get so uptight!"
"Whatever," Annie mutters and turns to her food with disinterest.
They leave the conversation at that, for now.
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XIII.
The other girls in the barracks know something is up when Mina and Hannah inquire about the noises they heard coming from the supply shed before dinner. Annie can only pull the sheet over her head and ineffectively ignore them.
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III.
It is through sheer bad luck that she reconnects with Eren after flooring both him and Reiner in fifteen seconds flat during combat practice.
She can't blame him specifically however, she was the one who offered to teach him her techniques. Now he constantly wants to spar, presses her for information about herself when she asks about him, teases her during 3DMG freestyle practices and only gets away with it because he disappears into the canopy of the forest where only suicidal bastards dare to go and risk getting tangled and hung by their own gear wires in the branches.
She can't exactly say she doesn't like the attention.
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V.
She wants to teach him a pinning move and at one point weaves her fingers into his hair and tugs it – hard – snapping his skull back so his lower lip brushes hers, his arms are pinned, one behind his back, the other at the side of his head, and she locks his legs down with hers so he cannot move. He is pressed complacently against the ground, chest heaving as he catches his breath. His chocolate strands are soft, she notes as her nails dig into his scalp, just as Mina had said…
She doesn't realize she's been staring until his gaze catches hers and his voice is a barely audible whisper of her name, "Annie."
He leans up gradually at first, her hold on him keeping her locked in place, his hand sliding from her grasp at his side and inching up along the plane of her neck. He guides her down, drawing their lips closer together, chests melding into place – she can feel his toned abs through his thin shirt, a result of dedicating his days to his training, his seventeen-year-old body comparable to a real adult.
"You got my name right this time," she utters humorlessly. What a dumb thing to say, but she can't exactly think right now – her thoughts have derailed, fractured and exploded into splinters within her dazed mind.
"Of course," he replies, "I don't want anyone but you now."
"Enough with the awful pick-up lines already."
"I try."
"Too hard."
"Just kiss me."
And she does, right there in the middle of the backfield training grounds for every curious eye to see.
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IX.
They kiss one time when they're alone in the girls' barracks, but something surges through her that feels like an explosion of fire in her chest – her emotions burst into lightning and dissolve with the wind. He digs his nails into the small of her back. She suddenly itches to feel more of him against her, the bare flesh of his body, the plain of his palms massaging her sensitive sides, his tongue pressing through her lips and quizzically working at her exposed skin.
"Again," she whispers, and he gladly obeys.
Then her hand tugs his belt.
"Don't stop," she coerces, and he more than gladly obeys.
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X.
"So…"
"Yes Mina, he's a good kisser."
"Then is he a keeper?"
Annie casts her gaze to the boy who stares back with a small smile on his lips that mirrors her own. "He might just be."
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XIV.
"It smells funny in here," Connie grumbles as he sweeps out the supply shed, his punishment for joking around during combat practice and lacking any sensible skills to dodge out of Shadis's view.
He doesn't understand why Sasha laughs and insists she clean the other one.
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VII.
He's never been so excited to go back to the top of the mountain again, and when Shadis makes the announcement about the trainees having to scale to the plateaus he snaps his determined gaze over at her and she knows exactly what he's thinking… there's a lot of effort she's about to put into this climb for him, but she doesn't mind.
He surprises her during the ascent when he finds her after losing Mikasa and Armin, and lures her up to the plateau where they had first been acquainted. They watch the sunset together for old time's sake, fingers entwined and her hand on top of his, but instead of scaling back down they decide to stay (her taking up his original offer) and watch the stars together, him listening to her pointing out constellations as he traces similar patterns on her skin with his lips.
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XI.
Eren realizes at some point he's in love with her, but by the glare Mikasa gives him when he mentions Annie by her name, he knows that other people have figured it out long before him.
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VIII.
They're suspended from a branch by their gear lines waiting for Shadis's next order, Eren hanging limply in his as he rocks back and forth to the motion of the wind, his gaze studying the cracks of azure sky through the blanket of leaves high in the canopy above, and Reiner Braun is at his side, in approximately the same position, with his arms folded behind his head to serve as support. Eren occasionally sighs under his breath, thinking only of Annie and wondering if Reiner had anything to say about her, since there was some implication from Ymir that they knew each other long before Initiation Day.
"So, Eren, between you and me…"
And there it is.
Reiner has a tendency to start rumors with his peers for shits and giggles, and then proceeds to successfully avoid any and all cataclysmic outcomes and laughs from the safety of his wall. Eren figures he's going to irk up a story to get him upset with Annie – since the news of their relationship spread like fire and Reiner already said something to Mikasa about it, so now she refuses to talk to her own brother until her anger passes – but he's willing to listen anyway.
Reiner's a great guy usually. Usually.
"…I think Annie really likes you."
"No shit."
"I mean…" Reiner shrugs as he ponders his word choice. "I mean she… really likes you. I haven't seen her so happy in a long time."
Eren furrows his brow and hums in thought. "You mean she wasn't very happy?"
"Absolutely miserable."
"You're not just saying this, right?"
Reiner scoffs humorlessly. "Look, I say shit all the time, but you know when I'm being serious. She was an orphan after the fall of Maria, just like a lot of the trainees here, and until that day you two sparred I hadn't once seen her crack a smile." He kicks his legs out to build momentum and heightens his swing. "You're something special to her, Eren. Don't hurt her, okay? Also, I like her better when she isn't being a frigid bitch all the time."
It was something Eren wasn't used to hearing from someone like Reiner, but he accepts the advice all the same.
"Of course."
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II.
His body is on fire by the time he's hauled his exasperated ass up and over the edge of the plateau, throwing himself gratefully to the ground and sprawling out on his back. Torrid heat constricts his lungs, a combination of waning energy and meager traces of oxygen in the air this high up. His wound muscles sear with over-exertion. "Made it!" He exclaims rather vivaciously despite his concerning condition, pumping his fist into the air. "Mikasa can shove this giant rock down her throat because I just finished this climb without her damn help!"
"Oh, looks like you didn't slip after all."
Eren sits up with a start. His gaze snaps over to Annie, poised against the next wall of the mountainside; she's shed her jacket and burdensome gear and is already maximizing her priority of tightening two connected straps of her harness, which had probably become mussed up during the climb.
"Don't sound so disappointed," he shoots back, vexed by the innocent air of her sarcasm. "What are you doing, anyway?"
"Fixing my buckle," she deadpans, her tone piqued with irritation despite its calm façade, like 'how dare you question me, peasant'.
"Look, if you're still upset over my mistaking you for Christa… I'm sorry, okay?"
Her fingers halt their routine and she turns her frigid gaze to his own orbs. After several moments of silence she finally glances away. "It's fine."
Eren ascends to his feet, steadying himself against his trembling legs, before trekking across the stretch of the plateau to the cliff jutting out over the valley. He follows the squared-off arc's folding line and perches on the edge, fearlessly swinging his legs out in the open air.
Annie watches him from the corner of her eye. She's already tightened her belts but still subconsciously picks at the buckle, thoroughly perplexed by the reasoning behind his fain desire to sit on the edge of his death. Against her better judgment she pushes off the wall and traverses the length of his wake until she's standing at his side, cautiously lowering herself down to sit beside him.
The aurelian sun is melting behind the horizon, creeping slowly behind the trees, igniting the vast dome of the sky above them with the iridescent colors of fire. Eren is studying every shade of crimson and every hue of indigo that blends together into pastel paintings. "I've never seen a sunset before," he remarks after a minute of quiet, "the walls were too tall for that. It wasn't like in the mountains, according to Reiner."
Annie huffs under her breath. "Well you sure had a happy childhood. I always used to watch the sunset with my father."
"Oh… Where's he now?"
"I don't care. He fucked off somewhere and I never saw him again."
He slides the key out of his shirt. "Same, although I can't exactly say I don't care." The metallic sheen refracts the light and the golden finish appears scratched from all those years of carrying it around. Better scratched than dented, at least. "Do you ever wonder where he is, and maybe if he's thinking of you?"
"Sometimes," she fibs dismally, not that he would know. "I don't like to talk about it."
"Oh, sorry."
"No it's… uh… fine." She brushes her saffron bangs behind one ear. "It's not your fault."
He parts his lips to rebound with a comment, but abruptly snaps his jaw closed and turns away with a guttural hum, averting his emerald eyes to the sunset again. He figures he shouldn't push her for any other information. She might just push him off the platform. He opts on changing the subject instead. "So, nice weather we're having, huh?"
Nailed it.
"You need to learn how to talk to girls," she responds blatantly, rising to her feet. "Now let's go back before Shadis starts to wonder where we went."
"W-Wait!" He interjects and jumps up after her. She watches him out of the corner of her eye quizzically, and he takes that as his permission to continue. "Why don't you watch the sun set with me for a bit longer? Just a little while, not too long, I promise."
"Maybe some other time."
He quirks an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Race you to the bottom," she offers tonelessly, daring not to display any physical signs of emotion that could potentially irk his energy into gear. Her foot presses flat against the edge of the drop off and she kicks out, spiraling through the air as she descends to the forest floor.
He spreads his arm out like wings and lets himself fall in her wake, laughing with triumph as he matches her evenly, the wind beating on his back and the sunset glimmer reflecting in her smile.
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