Shingeki no kyojin does not belong to me.
...
The first time she sees Eren Yeager is the first time in her life she wants to laugh.
Annie doesn't, of course. But she still feels like it, the temptation rising every time she hears him talking about titans. How he will be the one to wipe them out of this world, to save and avenge humanity. Every five seconds the word killing leaves his mouth, like it's the only verb he knows, the conviction so palpable Annie wishes she could just erase it from his brain. That he could just shut up.
But Yeager doesn't. And day after day she hears it. Just killing and killing and killing.
She is well aware, just like Reiner and Berthold, of how much of a hopeless idiot he really is. But they don't act either. Berthold shrugs and tries his best to ignore it, Reiner only smiles in a loving but (for her) psychopathic way, and Annie resigns herself to wait. Laughing on the inside when even his own people turn against him, mocking him and punching him in the face.
She holds her breath as the smile transforms into a grimace, trying her best to ignore the pity and the anger and the tears that just won't come out. She doesn't let them.
Sometimes Annie feels like she is going to explode. Keeping all this sensations and emotions inside of her. No expression, no thoughts. Her body obeys her about this at least. But she knows it's only a matter of time. She needs to find a way to let it out. To scream in the middle of nowhere or kick a tree until her leg bleeds and her bones break. She needs something.
And then they order them to practice combat training.
To this she doesn't really know how to react at all. Kind of wants to avoid thinking about it like Reiner so well does when he is hanging out with the other cadets (the devils, she reminds herself involuntary) And it works. For a while. Her father only really comes to mind when he is summed.
For no other one that by Eren fucking Yeager.
And with Reiner smirking down at her she strikes. Sharp and hard and professional. She is still in control, knows where she is and what she is doing. But Yeager gets up and asks her to please teach him while spitting blood. To what? She stops. Her minds stops, her heart races and the only thing stopping her from running away and turning into the weapon is Reiner's face. Since when did she start obeying him? Annie wants to scream. She doesn't.
Instead, she thinks of her father, sees him in Yeager's face and proceeds to beat the shit out of him.
He enjoys it.
Because he keeps coming back. He is insane.
She keeps going. Over and over again.
Berthold looks at her weird and she knows she has to stop but she can't. Even when Ackerman jumps like a mother protecting her cub when she sees Yeager on the ground. Annie doesn't stop because he wants to learn. Because Eren Yeager actually wants something from her, something only Annie can give him and in this rotten world she can't give that up. At least not so easily.
But then it ends. Suddenly, just like it began. He doesn't want it anymore. He can't do it anymore, he says. It hurts too much, he says. She wants to scream at him, to grab him by the neck, throw him to the floor and tell him how pathetic he is. A coward, a pushover, a baby.
She wants to crush his foolish dreams, tell him he doesn't have it and that he is going to be one of the very firsts to die anyway. That she, Annie Leonhart, is going to be the cause of it. She is going to kill him before he even has the chance to get close to her neck.
I am your sworn enemy, you suicidal bastard.
But she doesn't. Instead, she listens as he, with all the honesty of naïve kid, compliments her.
And after what feels like fifteen years, Annie genuinely smiles.
...
Hello everyone! Hope you enjoyed, and I want to thank all of you for the recent reviews. I love the support this fic (and this pairing!) is getting, and your comments only make me wanna write more about them! So thank you, and hope to hear from you soon.
Stay safe,
-vigigraz