AUTHOR NOTES: This chapter and the next are going to be set in the same timeline as the first but before it in terms of chronological order. This chapter is set off-screen during the second OVA. The chapters will all follow the same style. Armin's third person POV, but focusing on Annie.

Despite his physical state, Armin felt very much at peace. It had been embarrassing to have ended up in a cast without the involvement of an aggressor, or even a potentially dangerous stimulus within the vicinity. His injury also caused a great deal of inconvenience to his two fellow trainees. On second thoughts, Armin decided it was actually only one of his teammates who was disrupted by being down a person. It was a beautiful afternoon outside, a warm rays of bright light filtered into Armin's room, spreading across the bed upon which he lay, tickling his hair and face. The air tasted crisp and fresh and the cheerful sounds of children playing in the streets below drifted up to Armin's ears. The sounds made him remember Shiganshina. Before it had been taken over by hell.

After Jean and Annie had escorted Armin to the medical wing and made sure that he was al-right, they had both left. Jean had sounded adamant in his plan to steal some meat from the officers' pantry and had left with haste after Annie and Armin had turned down his request for help. Annie had stayed with him a while longer but had eventually left as well, although Armin had no idea where to. Annie was certainly an enigma to Armin. She was the quietest of all the trainees in the 104th, and she rarely made an effort to interact or co-operate in team exercises. There would always be a sullen look on her face and she acted as if everything around her was almost distasteful. Upon their meeting two years ago, he had somehow managed to strike up a friendship her. It was still one of his biggest accomplishments to date. At least, in his opinion. While Eren was perfectly happy for Armin to be socializing more with other trainees, Mikasa was not. She had been instantly suspicious of Annie from day one, and it was clear that she would rather have Armin not talk to Annie. Armin knew that she thought ill of Annie, even though she had never actually voiced her opinion. It was a two-way street, however, as Annie seemed to be just as distrusting of Mikasa as she was of her. In spite of all of this it seemed that the person he talked to most, outside of Eren and Mikasa was Annie. Even though Annie never talked much in their conversations, he was still pleasantly surprised to see that every time he attempted to speak with her, she would listen and wait. This was the biggest mystery to Armin. How she always seemed so distant from others, never talked to anybody and practically went out of her way to avoid people yet she would always be there to listen to him.

Armin had been slowly drifting into the soft embrace of sleep when he heard the door to his room creak open slowly and the sound of footsteps across the wooden floor. His eyes flickered open as he adjusted to the brightness of the room and saw a small, slim figure framed in the sunshine. The figure seemed to be holding a tray with a bowl containing a steaming broth with a thick roll of bread on the side. As Armin saw who the person was, he was amazed to see the short blonde hair tied up in a bun and the familiar thin lips pressed into a flat smile. It was Annie.

"I brought you some food, " she said, snapping him from his reverie.

"Oh, um, thanks, Annie" mumbled Armin, gratefully. She watched him carefully as he propped himself up onto his elbows.

"Here, this will help," she said as she moved his pillows into an upright position against the headboard. Armin smiled warmly at her as she continued to watch him with a blank expression. Although he talked to Annie quite a lot, he had never seen her do something to show any compassion towards anyone, not to say that she acted indifferently towards him, only that he couldn't have imagined she would bring him food.

"Don't you have,uh... anything to take care of?" Armin asked uncertainly before he quickly realised the ineptitude of his words. "Sorry. What I meant to say was you didn't have to do this for me," he said hastily. Annie brushed her falling hair back across her face.

"We are on a team, Armin. Besides, I can't cook." She said as if it was obvious.

"Yeah, right..." Armin said, turning his head back down to the tray before him. He broke off a piece of his bread, and then paused, thinking hard. Noticing his stillness, Annie asked wearily,

"You hit your leg pretty hard back there, are you feeling any better?" Armin gave an awkward grin and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. He still wasn't over how easily he had fallen, both metaphorically and physically.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better, thanks. Shouldn't you be helping Jean now anyway? Come to think of it, why aren't you helping him? You both want to get into the military police, right?"

"We may both have the same goal, but that doesn't mean we have to take the same road to get there." Armin was impressed by her unusually high moral ground. Most people wouldn't think twice about a thing such as theft of such an expensive and rare food, especially if it helped them to eventually live within the luxury and safety of Wall Sina.

"That's really honourable of you, Annie," he said appreciatively. "So if you don't believe in getting into the Military Police this way, then why bother with the competition at all?" Armin inquired quizzically. She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Who knows," she said, turning her head towards the window. "Maybe because we were already in a team together?" she said slowly, turning back to face him. "You should eat, I brought it up hot for a reason," she reminded him, nodding her head towards the bowl.

"Oh, of course," he said, dipping the bread into the bowl of broth. For the next few minutes they both sat in silence as Armin ate, methodically finishing both the bread and the broth. Throughout the course of these few minutes, Armin noticed how Annie watched him, it reminded him of the way a certain scarf-wearing girl would always look at her brother. Just as Armin had finished eating, a thought occurred to him and he seemed to un-pause from where their conversation had left off.

"Even if you wanted to see this whole thing through, you said yourself you can't cook. Doesn't that mean you wouldn't have been able to help in the first place?" he asked meaningfully.

"I guess you're right, then maybe I just wanted something to do so I wouldn't get bored," she said with a note of apprehension in her voice.

"Now you're just clutching at straws, Annie. There was plenty of work to do for the other trainees while we were out-of-town inside the forest." Armin was fixed upon finding out Annie's true intentions for going with Jean and him.

"Tch... You're more persistent than I first thought." She said, sounding annoyed but with a hint of a smile.

"Would you find it hard to believe me If I said I just wanted someone to talk to, someone who actually thinks of me as a friend?" The words came flowing steadily from her mouth and she had an accusing tone to her voice. Annie was the one who had put pressure on Armin instead.

"That I just wanted to see if my friend was feeling better and bring him some food. Is that really so unbelievable for you?" She asked in disbelief. Her normally pale cheeks were now a light shade of pink. To Armin's wonder, he felt relieved with her answer. It had proven to him what he had always believed about Annie. That she really was his friend, that she really did care about him.

"No... Of course not, Annie. I've just never seen you act like this before," he said teasingly. Annie was quick to retort.

"Don't push your luck, Armin. Don't expect me to act sweet and caring from now on. That isn't me."

"Well, for what it's worth, I really like this Annie," he said thoughtfully. The light was dimming now and the shadows were fading into the approaching darkness.

"Like I said, don't expect this to happen all the time," she replied with a rare smile. "Come on, you're going to have to be the one to cook with Jean" With the help of Annie and the crutches left on his bedside, Armin was able to get into a steady position on his feet. The light had all but faded now and the shadows were melting into the quickly approaching darkness. As they left the room to go down to the kitchens, Armin realised something. Although he still knew very little about Annie and why she acted how she did, he was content in the knowledge that he mattered to her.

And the girl who was walking a few steps ahead of him smiled internally at the very same thought.