"Were you expecting someone else? I told you I was coming today."
"Oh yeah, I kinda forgot about that! Sorry Armin."
The blond sighed and put his rather extravagant suitcase on the table next to the cash register. After his long day of work being penned up in the crazed city hall, Armin decided to visit his childhood friend.
"Dude, I still don't understand why you need something that fancy. I mean wouldn't a backpack do fine?"
"Eren, this isn't high school anymore. I can't just slack off. What would the mayor think?"
The florist glared at him, "You mean the same mayor that hosted All You Can Wear Bolo Tie Day?"
"They were very stylish!"
"Right, and that's exactly why you wear one isn't it?"
Armin looked away furiously and straightened his blue bolo tie that was given to him by yours truly.
"So anyways, why were you all freaked out when I came in? I saw a bunch of pots and stuff tipped over and now your hair's all messed up too."
Right, I was thinking about her. Did I really make all this mess though? Damn, I'm pretty klutzy…Eren thought.
"Alright, hear me out. There was this gi-"
"Oh God, here we go again Eren..."
"No, she was so different though! Nothing like the others!" He pleaded his friend to listen.
"First it was Historia and then you found out she was lesbian. Then it was Ms. Ral, our guidance counselor, until you discovered she was married only after you asked her to prom. And after all that you thought you were into guys because you had no luck with girls and asked Marco out but he dumped you a day after when he found out you hated broadw-"
Eren fumed, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it! I suck at relationships, but Annie's different alright?"
"What about her?" The shorter of the two asked.
"I...I don't know. She was strong and pretty standoffish, but for some reason she defended me when her friend Reiner made fun of my shop even though she knew me for only five minutes really. I'm the one freaking out over this and she's probably over there totally fine just...I don't know, being cool or something?"
"Did she have a blue hoodie, sweatpants, and blonde hair?"
"Yeah! How did you know!?" Eren asked curiously.
"She's coming towards your shop right now."
"Haha, that's so like h-Wait...What!?"
The next moment Eren dashed from his place and tried to pick up all the pots he knocked over coming in as an attempt to clean his store up. Even though he tried to tidy up there was water spilt everywhere, it smelled like fertilizer, and a cactus fell over which probably was a health hazard.
"Can't you help me!?"
Armin looked at him as if he were crazy,"Do you really think I'm going to try lifting up a cactus?"
As they were arguing the glass door opened and a chime sounded in the store. Annie walked in and stopped when she found Eren and his friend bantering as they cleaned up.
The short girl shifted awkwardly, "Am I interrupting something?"
"Not at a-DON'T STEP ON THAT!" he hollered as she walked near them, almost tripping over the prickly plant. "But,uh, what do you need?"
Moving back, the tattooist ran and jumped over the cactus, then approached them.
"I need your wifi password because ours isn't set up yet. I already found what network is yours."
Eren looked at her in surprise, "How'd you know it was mine? Mine isn't that obvious."
"With a name like Itsagenderneutralhobby it was pretty easy to guess. Also, the signal was the strongest." Annie answered, smirking.
Eren hit Armin in the shoulder and whispered to him, "I thought you said it wasn't obvious!"
"Oh yeah, who's your friend? Nice, uh, man jewelry..."
"See, she thinks the bolo tie is nice."
"This is Armin. He works for the mayor, hence the ugly circle tie."
Armin glared at his so called friend. "Nice to meet you Annie," the man with the bowl cut responded, introducing himself.
Her icy blue eyes bore into Armin's soul, or so he claims, as they stood across from each other to Erens disappointment.
"So, uh...about that password! It's...well. Uh...let me write it down for you," Eren cut in then ran to the back of the register to get some paper and a pen.
After scribbling out the code very darkly on the sheet he handed it to Annie.
"...The password is ahorseissleepingwithmysister? Is your sister into beastiality or-"
"Wha-No! Not at all! It's just her...boyfriend...looks and sounds like a horse."
"But he isn't a horse..?" she asked in disbelief to a panicking Eren.
Armin, who was still standing there, cut in, "He's talking about our friend Jean. They've been rivals since middle school and he's dating Mikasa, Erens sister. He owns the music store on this street."
"You jealous, plant boy?"
The brunet put up his hands defensively, "What, me? No way! Why would I be jealous of that prick!?"
"Well what I'm guessing is that you aren't exactly popular with the ladies as that so called stallion dating your sibling."
Eren stood looking absolutely embarrassed, "I am very popular with both men and women!"
She smirked playfully, "Alright. Tell me about one of your past relationships that have been successful."
Armin tried to contain himself but burst out in laughter and bent over trying to hold it in.
"A successful relationship that Eren's been in!? I would tell you but most of them are...well actually all of them were just failed crushes. Can I tell her the stories Eren?"
"Oh, hey Armin! Would you look at the time! It's 3:00, and you know what that means."
"It means that it's 3:00?"
"No, it means you um...you have to go...get your bolo tie cleaned!" Eren urged him, his eyes darting to the door.
The two blonds stared at him for a second but his friend got the message, "Alright, alright, I can take a hint."
After his friend left, Eren pushed his back against the door and sighed. Realizing the girl was still there staring at him, he stood up and walked straight back to her without paying attention to the fallen plants.
"Sorry about Armin. Sometimes he can be a real s-SHIT!" He yelled out in pain, tripping over the cactus.
Annie cocked an eyebrow and made her way over to him quickly, "Are you okay?"
"Y-Yeah, just f-ugh fine!"
"Don't be fucking stupid, you have needles all over your shin!"
"No really, I'm o-"
Without being able to finish his sentence, the tattooist hoisted him up and slumped him over her shoulder, "First aid kit. Where is it?"
"Heh, funny story about that. I don't uh...I don't have one."
"That's really smart plant boy. You carry poisonous plants and cactuses and yet you have no first aid."
"Actually, you say cacti." He retorted condescendingly.
"I can't believe this! Half of your left leg is covered in needles and all you can do is give me a lecture about how to correctly address a group of plants. Fuck it."
Annie started dragging him to the door. It looked like she had no trouble holding him up. For someone her size she was pretty strong in Erens eyes.
"Hold on where are you dragging me Annie?"
"Where do you think I'm taking you? The circus? I'm taking you inside my workplace where we have proper first aid."
He relaxed only to be frantic again, "Oh that's fin-Wait, why are we going across the street? There's still cars coming!"
"So? It'll take longer if we wait. Hold on, but don't dig your nails into my shoulders."
"Annie, no this isn't safe! Annie! Stop!" He pleaded but she began her trek across the road.
As the two were slowly making their way to the other side of the street about three cars abruptly stopped and honked. One driver rolled down their window and yelled at them. A Toyota Camry almost crashed into a Honda Pilot but Annie didn't seem to mind.
RING
Reiner and Bertholdts eyes darted to the door.
"Reiner, where's the medical shit?"
"Well hello to you too. What the hell happened to him?" The buff blond asked with a smirk.
"Idiot tripped on his own cactus."
"Ouch. Why come here? You gonna cover it up with some ink?"
Eren laughed awkwardly, "Heh, well um I don't have a first aid kit."
"Man, are you serious? Everyone needs one. Alright Annie, it's in the back near the fire extinguisher."
She nodded, dragged Eren to her station in the back end of the shop, and roughly sat him in her chair. "I'll be back in a minute. Don't touch anything. I don't want you tripping over my needle."
"That's not really...possible." He tried to say but she rushed out of the room as fast as she entered.
The room became silent and Eren could feel a draft. He stood up and quietly walked around, looking through the girls workplace. Most of the counters looked empty but he knew it was probably because she kept everything in shelves. The only thing he found was a sketch book the was beat up and had a ripped cover.
Flipping through the pages he was amazed. Her sketches were very crudely drawn and the graphite was blended all over the paper. It was probably Spread like that because of Annie's body oils from her fingers touching the page.
Although it was messy, Eren could see that it was a drawing of Forget-Me-Not flowers with their stems spun around...a tombstone? The stone had no name but the drawing seemed like it was very important to her. He could see many erased lines that were still present and that the paper was rumpled.
As he flipped to the next page he barely heard her come in.
"What are you doing with my drawings?"
The boy jumped back in surprise, "Huh? Oh, sorry! I uh...you're really good! Where did you learn to draw like this? The flowers look so real and the tombs-"
"Get away from my fucking book and sit down..." She ordered darkly and stalked her way over to hide it away in a cabinet, "Why did you look at it? You don't just go through people's property. Why did you have to open to that drawing of all of the hundreds of pages I have in there?"
Annie roughly opened the first aid kit and took out some tweezers.
"W-Wait, you aren't just going to rip them out one by one, are y-"
"Why would you go through my shit! Don't you have any sense of privacy!?" She fumed, and plucked a needle out, earning a scream from Eren.
"Annie! I'm s-sorry! Please! I didn't know it was that important to you, really!"
"Of course it is! You have no idea who the hell it's for! You don't know anything about me! Why do you want to just jump right in to my life!?"
"Because I...Because I kind of...I don't know Annie. I'm just curious about you, alright? You're like the first girl other than my sister who doesn't think I'm a prick or something! Look, I didn't know. I can go if you want and you never have to talk to me again, okay?"
While Erens leg was throbbing in pain Annie just looked silently at the ground for a minute.
What is she thinking about? He thought.
"My mother..."
He was confused, "What about her?"
"It's hers."
"Wait, what? What's hers?"
"The damn drawing you were so fucking curious about. It's her tombstone."
"Annie, I-"
"You satisfied with your answer? Is that what you wanted out of me?"
There was a moment of silence and the air around them felt tense. He felt rather guilty for prying so much but he wanted to know her better.
"Listen Annie, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was that touchy of a subject for you. If...If it makes you feel better I lost my mom when I was younger. I know it's hard to think about them."
"It wouldn't be so hard if people didn't try to poke around my past." She averted while taking out some Elmers glue from the box.
"Hold on, what's that for? Wait, why are you slathering it over my leg?"
Annie snorted as she applied the white substance, "Ever heard of waxing before?"
His eyes widened and he instantly turned paranoid.
"Isn't this going to h-"
RIP
"Argh! What the hell!? Are you trying to rip my legs off!?"
"Shh. I'm trying to focus on this. You don't want me to rip off your skin, right?"
"No, not really!"
"Then stay still plant-boy."
Thus began Erens waxing treatment and many minutes of pain.
