Reiner threw his weight onto the bench beside Annie with a thundering slam. The sound of it snapped Annie back into reality with a jolting mix of panic and desire. She had been lost somewhere between the heat of Mikasa's breath and the smell of her sweat. It was a dangerous place to be. She refused to turn her head, but she could still feel his overbearing grin creeping along his chiseled face. Bertolt slid onto the bench beside him in silence.

Annie bit into a biscuit, tearing at it with her teeth, working her jaw so she could put her mind on hold. She kept her eyes straight ahead, but that turned out to be a mistake. There was Ackerman, sitting on the bench at a table across the dining hall. Mikasa's eyes met hers, and Annie tore her gaze away so fiercely that she almost felt whiplashed.

"Someone had a rough night. Or was it an early morning?" Reiner's voice was thick with taunt. Annie thought he might as well be wiggling his eyebrows and elbowing her in the ribs. They both knew that if he did either she'd break his nose. She swallowed her biscuit and washed it down with some tea.

Reiner whistled. "You're on a mission today, huh? What's the plan, Annie?"

"Reiner…" Bertolt sounded unsure. Annie thought he was smart. They shouldn't have been messing with her. Not after she'd gone and lost her mind in front of Ackerman, all but begging her to stay in the storeroom when they both knew it was time to leave. Once more? What had she been thinking? It was the first time she had made it sound like she needed it that badly. She didn't need anything that badly, and she didn't need Ackerman at all.

We can't do this forever.

Annie narrowed her eyes. Ackerman had that right. Why then, did it cut her so deeply to hear her say the words? She watched her from across the hall, and in the deepest, darkest depths of her, she felt for the first time a small winged creature trying to break free.

Reiner had been so close to the truth, but he didn't have any of the facts. Just like that other time.


She could remember the sound of the stream by the path up the mountain. Standing at the summit, overlooking the forest and the lake beyond. The sound of the wings of hawks in the distance, hunting by night. Hunting beneath the cover of darkness.

Reiner stood at the edge of the cliff. The moon slipped out from behind the clouds and lit them up in a glowing light. Annie stood behind him and glanced up at the stars.

"You know why we brought you up here?" Reiner turned towards her. He looked changed, in the moonlight.

"To see the lay of the land." Her voice was hard and controlled despite their tranquil surroundings. Reiner smiled a more genuine smile than Annie thought him capable of. She tilted her head to one side and looked off into the distance, past him, towards where the land and the sky met.

"So, what do you see?" Reiner's words were thick with meaning. Bertolt looked vaguely uncomfortable.

"I see what I look for." She would play his game. Reiner glanced at Bertolt, who stood off to one side with his long hands shoved into his pockets.

"And what are you looking for now, Annie?" Bertolt asked, with a soft sincerity that played perfectly with Reiner's rough bravado.

"That depends. What do you have to show me?" She looked at him with a pointed stare.

Bertolt closed his eyes and smiled to himself. "Nothing you haven't already seen."

Annie said nothing.

They stood there, in silence. A hawk swooped into the trees in the valley below and came out empty-beaked. Annie turned her head, and her eyes narrowed. Perhaps this had been a waste, after all.

"Are you a soldier, Annie?" Reiner made no effort to hide his appraising stare.

"What makes one a soldier?" Annie chose to look back towards the vast expanse of land before her that seemed to open up like a promise.

"A soldier is someone who gives orders."

"Or follows them," Bertolt added.

"Someone who's on a mission, and will do anything to accomplish it," Reiner finished, as he crossed his thick arms over his even thicker chest.

"I suppose I'm my own soldier."

"The army of Annie, huh? Has a nice ring to it." Reiner grinned, but his eyes betrayed his disappointment.

Annie went cold, no longer wanting to play along. She made to turn back towards the path, but Reiner took a step forward, and the sound of his boot scuffing the dirt ripped the silence in half.

"Eren Jaeger."

One of the survivors from Shinganshina. Annie had been watching him and his companions from afar. They were a tight-knit group; almost like a family. A tendon in Annie's neck jumped as she turned her head.

"What about him?"

"He's different. Might be worth your time."

So Reiner and Bertolt had seen it too. She wondered if they would.

"We're starting hand-to-hand training next week. You'd have plenty of reasons to strike up a conversation." Reiner's voice was slow and cautious, like he was trying to coax a bull back into its cage.

Annie narrowed her eyes. Strike up a conversation. Like the words were flames. Like talking could provide any warmth or light. Annie shivered and bit at the inside of her lip.

"How persuasive you are." She dropped her shoulders slightly as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket and looked back up to the purple, star-swelling sky. "Are we done here?"

"Hey, come on. We're still friends, aren't we?"

Friends. Annie didn't have friends. She told herself that didn't care to make them, and had no idea how to keep them. There was no one, inside the walls or out, who she could call her friend. That's how she liked it. That's how she needed it.

As she followed them back down the path, she watched them walk alongside one another. There was no doubt in her mind. They were strong. They were the future. Still, she had to keep her distance. If she opened up, even just a fraction, she risked a crack in her carefully crafted armor. It was a risk that she, as a soldier, wasn't willing to take.