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lucadina · 5 years

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Enigma Girl

Rating: T

Pairing: Eren x Annie

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Annie Leonhart is an enigma.

Eren can never tell what's on her mind. He assumes, however, that there is a an albatross of a secret lurking behind those bright, blue eyes of hers. He catches glimpses here and there of a secret self when life brims on her usually cold features as she connects the sharp bone of her shin to his shoulder.

He'd fall to the ground, bolts of pain shooting up his back, and yet it all dissipates because of her. For when he looks up, he sees the numbing sight of an Annie who looks alive. Her skin tinged pink with heat and sweat, pupils blown wide with adrenaline— alive, full of giddy pride, irrefutably human.

Before he realises it, he chases after that Annie. And it's almost as though she's picked up on his intrigue, as she's begun avoiding him since he's made that one (failed) attempt for her mouth.

Annie keeps her distance because she knows that he can't.

Today, the sun is scorching hot and cloudless skies are heavy on the trainees' shoulders. It's hard to keep one's head up, but they all do so because anything less will incite a verbal beating from Satan's stepbrother, Keith Shadis. That, or the devil's students are driven by a formidable sense of duty that remains unshakable even in the most uncomfortable weather conditions — the latter is precisely why Eren looks forward to the next couple of hours of hand-to-hand combat training while the majority pray silently for respite.

'Find a partner!' Shadis barks. The cadets scramble to do so.

Well, most of them do.

Annie doesn't.

Amidst the jumble of a dispersing crowd, her lithe, unsuspecting frame easily slips away, unnoticed by all with the exception of Eren Yeager. He catches her from his peripheral, and has the bad sense to follow her into the forest. Considering that unlike Annie, he sticks out like a sore thumb, he strategically walks behind Shadis' field of vision as he beelines for the trees. He catches up to her by the riverside, where she's staring off into the water, her back to him.

Though he cannot see her face, he imagines it to be peaceful. For a second, he envies the river.

'Hey, Annie!' he calls out, she whips around and glares - he doesn't give a shit, 'You promised that you'd teach me that move from yesterday!'

'Go away, Yeager. You're robbing me of my alone-time.'

'Right, uh-huh— you're always alone, Annie.'

She says nothing, but places her hands on her waist and cocks her hip to the side as if to say so what?

'Come on, Annie. Would it kill you to just... give me some of this?'

'Some of what?'

'Your time.'

'What on earth do you want to do with that?' she presses her back up against a tree, folds her arms, and raises her brows at him, 'Is there something you want from me other than a good beating? Cause if it's a kiss you want, thought I made it clear last time that you're not getting one.'

'No, I just—' his jaw hangs ajar, half-formed words choking to a halt in his throat. He hadn't expected her to put him on the spot like that because frankly, he finds himself creepy for wanting to dig into her soul. Eventually, he regains some semblance of composure, albeit his voice is softer than the shaky breath he takes in to steel himself, 'We're comrades. I have fun with you. Spending time together... isn't that what friends do?'

Preposterous; it nearly gets her to crack a smile— but alright, his insistence has piqued her interest and she's willing to bite for now, 'Eren, we literally do nothing except beat the shit out of each other. We're not friends, not even close.'

'Well, that's your fault!' he fumes, 'I've tried to sit with you for dinner, just for you to stand up and leave-'

'I don't like the murderous look your bodyguard shoots me.'

'I try to talk to you outside of training-'

'I don't talk, period.'

'And when I try to take breaks during hand-to-hand combat to maybe have a conversation, you shut me down by pummelling me to the ground!' he bellows the last phrase, prompting Annie to fist the fabric of his uniform jacket and pull him down. Before he can protest, her hand is already on his mouth. She nudges his kneecap with a thigh, throwing him off-balance so that he topples backwards onto the grass on his ass. She goes limp, allowing herself to go with the motions. Then she's on top of him, palming his shoulders to lift herself up, levelling her eyes to his.

Eren squirms. Man, she's a cunt. It's fucking hot today.

'You have fun when we spar?' Annie has that look on her face again, as though she were looking at something— at someone — too stupid to exist, 'When my father taught me my moves, it was anything but fun,' she leans in, presses her lips against the junction of his jaw and ear, and he shudders involuntarily when she speaks again, 'Not a day of rest, from sunrise to sundown, every damn day— absolute obedience,' her voice drops to a whisper, 'Once... I wanted to kill him.'

'Did you?'

Annie's hands travel to the back of her his head, cold fingers entwining with his coffee locks, 'No.'

He sighs, relieved, letting out a breath he wasn't aware he'd been holding in, 'Then-'

'I settled for crushing his left leg.'

By the way the whole of his body tenses beneath her, she's become conscious of the dark lick she's just sent up his spine. With a wicked half-grin, she tugs at his hair lightly, tilting him as she moves her lips to the pulsating vein of his neck. His breathing turns ragged. She inhales the scent of his skin, faintly smelling of bread (it was his turn in the kitchen that morning) and holiday wood.

'What are you doing?'

'Making friends,' she smiles into his pulse.

He can feel her teeth on him.

She's all teeth, and yet he chooses to lean in.

His own hands, which have been supporting his (their) weight on the ground at his sides, begin to ache. He moves one, to the dip of her waist, up the contour of her torso, winding up with her hair-bun in its grasp. She stiffens, but says nothing. A moment passes, then he tugs hard, whipping her head back so she's forced to stare into his blazingly verdant eyes, brighter and wilder than the overgrown green of the forest around them. He is a fire no one can put out, a bursting line of flames searing her. He is unrelenting, and he won't stop until he burns with her, until he unearths the Pandora's box that she keeps under lock and key.

He feels her go taut, sees her eyes go empty— she's retreating into the labyrinth of her mind, as far away from him as possible.

In a desperate attempt to reel her back in, he asks that one burning question, 'What's your secret, Annie?'

'If I tell you, then it's not much of a secret, is it?'

'Ah-hah, so you are hiding something.'

'We all have our secrets, Yeager,' she digs her nails into his scalp, dragging out a low hiss from him, 'Mine stay buried, until I follow them straight to the grave. Maybe the day you know me— the real me — is the day you bury me.'

His heart is hammering against his chest. He lets her hair go, trails his long fingers around to caress a pale cheek, which he cups with surprising tenderness, 'What if...'

'What?'

'What if I don't want to bury you?'

Comfort is foreign to her. Nevertheless, she welcomes the warm prickle where her heart should be. He makes her want to smile again; this naive, passionate boy is making her smile. It's unbecoming of a warrior. Despite knowing all this, she tilts her face to kiss his wrist, 'You will. You'll want to.'

'You're wrong.' I'd never do that, not to you. Annie is unmoving, her lips linger on his skin in what can only be described as a display of affection - so unlike her. It fascinates him, the thrilling puzzle that is Annie Leonhart. He smirks, 'Thought you said I'd never get a kiss from you.'

'Ah...' her eyes fly to him, almost fearful, like she's just made a grave mistake, though her gaze is careful, effervescent with specks of ice foiling beneath the sweltering sunlight, 'But it's not the kiss you want, is it?'

'You don't know what I want.'

'So enlighten me.'

His heart jumps up, pounding against the constricting walls of his throat. Thankfully, he's always been a brave one; the hand he has on her cheek slides to the underside of her jaw, sloping so that she's angled to look up at him. Beneath his fingers, he feels her heart beating faster than normal, and he turns light-headed at the thought that he's done that to her.

'Eren Yeager,' she growls, defensive, fearful, 'What do you want from me?'

'I want to learn how to talk to girls,' he pauses when she fails to react, which he takes as permission to confess, 'I want to learn how to talk to you.'

Annie smiles sadly.

She's beautiful when the frost of her eyes melts to expose the truth she tries so hard to conceal; she's not a soldier. She's soft and desperate for him, which he's already surmised because he's the only person she gives the time of day to. Even so, she keeps him at arm's length— close enough to taste, not to be touched by. She is a lion, even in her cage, still a lion. He can't get too close. It's her birthright to bite.

Perhaps it is precisely since he's broken this boundary that she raises her hackles just as swiftly as she's bared her spirit.

He's burned her, singed her with the humanity she wishes for.

Annie pulls his head back with so much force, he's convinced it's an attempt to rip his hair clean off his scalp. 'We're done here,' she declares, rising to her feet while he rubs the back of his head, 'Now if there's nothing else, fuck off.'

'Annie.'

'We are not friends.'

He silently agrees.

#ereannie #ereani #eren jaeger #annie leonhardt #eren x annie #my stuff #enigma girl

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