Chapter 1:

Annie Leonhardt never understood her father's ideology. She never saw a reason to the way he thought, or his deep-rooted hatred toward humankind. For sixteen years of her life, she felt like she barely knew anything about him.

But she did know that she wanted to please him.

So she put up with the years of rigorous training, both mental and physical, in hopes that one day her father would be proud of her. She honed her hand-to-hand combat skills, learned her father's style, trained relentlessly, and built up an emotional wall that kept people from getting close to her. And when it came time to assume her role in the plan, she enlisted in the Trainee Corps with the intention of graduating in the top ten, so she could join the Military Police and infiltrate Wall Sina.

Annie joined the Military's 104th Cadets. It was the largest group of people she had ever needed to interact with, and she was going to have to do so for three years. She was not going to enjoy this.

Annie had never been good at dealing with people. She was awkward, apathetic, distant, unapproachable, and exclusionary, traits her father had drilled into her personality from years of confinement from the rest of her village. As far as she could remember, she had never made a single friend in her life.

Not that she minded. Friends would just get in the way of her mission.

Commandant Keith Shadis seemed to have it out for Eren. He seemed to relish in embarrassing the zealous cadet, so it was only natural that when Shadis split the class up into pairs to practice disarming a knife-wielding opponent, Eren got stuck with Reiner. Reiner was the bulkiest, buffest, muscliest member of the class, and although Eren wasn't exactly a twig himself, he was still dwarfed by the blonde Hercules. Even if the two of them were friends, Eren's fear of being steamrolled and flattened didn't lessen.

Reiner charged at Eren, practice knife in hand, yelling out a ferocious battle cry.

Eren ran away.

"Yeager, you worthless piece of shit," Shadis's voice rang out like a gunshot, "Turn around and fight your opponent!"

It took a while, but Eren and Reiner gradually slowed down.

"You're thinking about this all wrong." Reiner said, encouraging Eren once they had stopped, "It isn't a matter of who's stronger, it comes down to who can use their strength better. Focus on using my own momentum against me."

Eren inhaled deeply and nodded.

Reiner raised the wooden training knife again and charged, and this time, Eren was ready. Eren grounded himself, planting both feet into the ground, and as soon as Reiner was within reach, he grabbed Reiner's shirt and ducked slightly, allowing Reiner's forward motion to propel him over his shoulder. Reiner hit the ground hard.

Eren looked down at his hand in disbelief. "Wow, it worked!" He stretched the hand out to help Reiner back onto his feet. "Sorry. I'm not good at holding back."

Reiner got to his feet and held out the dagger. "Now it's your turn to be the rogue."

Eren looked down at the knife and furrowed his brow. He didn't see a point to this exercise. "This training doesn't make any sense. We're training to fight Titans, not people. Besides, only an idiot would fight barehanded."

"We're soldiers." Reiner said simply, "Sometimes we won't have a choice. The enemy comes in all shapes and sizes, and we have to be ready for anything."

Reiner's gaze drifted to the side and something caught his eye. He pointed subtly at a short, sulky looking blonde girl with blue eyes. "Hey, look over there."

Eren looked over at the girl. He recognized her, and combed through his brain for her name. "That's Annie, I think. All she ever does is slack off."

A manic grin spread across Reiner's face. "Let's go teach her a lesson." Reiner grabbed Eren's shoulders and began steering him towards Annie.

"Commandant's message not getting through to you?" Annie recognized the voice. She turned to see Reiner grinning at her. Another boy was standing next to her, a shorter boy with dark hair and bright green eyes.

"Unless you want to get any shorter than you already are," Reiner continued, "I suggest you think back to why you joined in the first place."

The other boy piqued up. "Hey, no need to be so harsh."

Classic Reiner, Annie thought, very annoyed. Being an obnoxious tin soldier to impress his comrades.

"Whoa, you made her really pissed." The green-eyed boy commented to Reiner.

And then, Reiner shoved Eren towards Annie.

"M-Me?" Eren stammered.

Annie took up her usual fighting stance. Weight evenly distributed, fists balled in front of her face. Just like her father showed her.

Eren looked back at her. "Okay. You know the drill, Annie." Indeed she did. "Here I come!"

Eren charged. Annie saw everything, every body motion, every shift in weight. She sidestepped and swung out in an arc with her leg. The ball of her foot connected with Eren's shin, and down the boy went. It was barely a fight.

Gripping his shin, Eren winced in pain on the ground.

"Can I go now?" Annie asked, brushing strands of her blonde hair out of her face.

"No, you know the drill. Take the knife."

A sigh escaped Annie's lips. She walked over to Eren, who had stood up again, grabbed his wrist, and kicked his legs out from under him, sending him to the ground once more.

"Now it's your turn." Annie said, tossing the knife to Reiner.

"Oh, no," Reiner said, looking scared, "I don't think that's necessary"

"I thought you wanted to teach her a lesson, Reiner." Said Eren contemptuously, still on the ground.

Reiner swallowed his fear. "Yeah, I was." He gripped the knife and charged. "Here I come!"

Too easy. Annie grabbed Reiner's wrist, twisted the knife out of his hand, and kicked his legs out. Reiner landed on the ground in a similar position as Eren.

"That's an amazing technique," Eren said in awe. Something inside Annie's gut buzzed around. "Who taught it to you?"

Annie didn't answer for awhile. She was still trying to figure out why her stomach was buzzing. "My father."

"It's incredible. Reiner's twice as big as you and you sent him flying." Eren's eyes were filled with wonder and respect.

Annie could feel her face getting hot. She looked down at the ground, and the faintest smile crept onto her face. The buzzing in her stomach increased. She brushed hair out of her face again. "You know, if you like that technique so much," Annie muttered, "I could teach it to you."

Annie's stomach tingled again at the thought of training Eren one-on-one. Sparring, especially with her particular combat style, often meant that people participating got... Close. Annie felt something inside, a desire to be close to him, feel his body's warmth.

"That sounds great!"

Annie looked up to see Eren smiling. He has a nice smile, she thought to herself.

Annie looked down at the food on her plate and stirred it around. She wasn't hungry. She was too preoccupied with her thoughts to be hungry. Thoughts of home, thoughts of her mission, thoughts of her father... Thoughts of him, too.

Eren Yeager, the boy who made her stomach feel fuzzy. With his chocolate, scruffy hair, his goofy smile, his vibrant, determined, green eyes... Eyes that masked pain, grief, anger.

Eren Yeager had gone through hell. Annie heard the hushed whispers around the barracks before, she knew he used to live in Shiganshina, but so did Armin, and Armin's eyes didn't mask the same emotions that Eren's did.

That's an amazing technique, Eren had told her, It's incredible. She had been praised for her skills before, with no effect. So why did Eren's words make her blush?

Annie had a faint thought. Is this what it feels like to have a crush? She had ever had a crush on anybody before.

That startling question gave way to another. Do I have a crush on Yeager?

Her thoughts were interrupted. "Are you gonna eat that, or are you just gonna stir it around?"

Annie turned. Oh, she thought, Sasha. Annie pushed her plate towards the brunette girl, whose smile grew so wide it was a little bit unsettling.

"Wow, thanks Annie!" Sasha remarked.

"Whatever." Annie muttered as Sasha wolfed down the food.

Off behind them and to the left, Jean was shouting again. Probably at Eren. Those two were always butting heads. Annie turned her head slightly to look at them.

"I don't give a damn about your shirt! I'm so jealous!" Jean's grip was tightened on the cloth hanging from Eren's chest, and Eren looked both bewildered and aggressive.

Eren gripped Jean's hand and yanked him by the wrist towards him, and then swept out the taller horse-faced boy with one well-placed kick.

Annie recognized the move. She had just used it on Eren a few hours ago. Annie's heart beat a little faster at the sight of Eren using a technique she had showed him. She took it as a massive compliment.

"What the hell was that?" Jean asked.

Eren glared over him. "A technique I learned the hard way while you were screwing about playing MP." Annie's stomach felt fuzzy again.

"You're not a soldier," Eren followed up, "You're a disgrace."

The door creaked open. "Anybody care to explain that noise I just heard?" Shadis's voice rasped against the interior of the mess hall.

Silence.

Mikasa raised her hand. "Sasha passed gas, sir."

Sasha looked mortified, and the rest of the cadets did their best to contain their laughter. Even Annie thought it was funny.

"For God's sake, woman, control yourself." Shadis said, slamming the door shut again.

After dinner time was up, the group of kids gathered around the field for a night outside. Annie sat alone, silently watching the others laugh and have fun. Reiner, and Jean were armwrestling while Bertholdt and Marco respectively were cheering them on, (even though Reiner was clearly holding back,) Ymir was flirting with an oblivious Krista, Franz and Hannah were holding hands, clearly thinking that nobody could see, and Eren, Mikasa, and Armin were talking amongst themselves.

Annie felt slightly annoyed when she saw how close Eren and Mikasa were. Uncertain of the reason, she kept glancing over periodically. Every time Eren would meet her gaze, she would drop it again, wait awhile, and look back at him.

"Hey, Annie," a cheery voice behind her rang out, "whatcha looking at?"

Annie nearly jumped. "Oh! Uh... Nothing." Annie looked at the ground again.

Mina Carolina sat down beside her.

Annie liked Mina. Or at least, she liked Mina a lot more than she liked the other cadets. Mina was cheerful, but never tried to force her cheeriness and optimism onto others. Nor did she ever try to encourage Annie to talk, which Annie was appreciative of. She wasn't sure if Mina thought of her as a friend or not, but appreciated her presence nonetheless.

Mina shrugged. "Okay, then."

"Mina?" Annie asked, still looking at the ground?

"Hm?" Mina cocked her head to the side.

"Does anybody ever make your stomach feel fuzzy, or make you blush?"

Mina thought for a minute and looked up. "Well, maybe Nac." She smiled sheepishly. "But that's just because I have a little crush on him."

"I see." Annie thought to herself.

"Why?" Mina asked.

It was a while before Annie answered. She was working her brain around it, it was pretty much confirmed: She had a crush on Eren Yeager.

Finally, she replied. "No reason."

That night, lying in his bunk, Eren tried to sort through his thoughts. He had noticed back on the field that Annie kept glancing over at him, and then pretended not to have been. It made him wonder. Annie was cute, in her own sulky way. Eren liked the way her hair parted; it was uneven and yet perfect. Her expressionless eyes were hiding something, some emotions that she had repressed deep within her psyche.

He knew because he repressed a lot of emotions that he tried not to let resurface, either.

Eren hadn't really had any experience with girls, apart from Mikasa, but she was like family to him so it hardly counted. He knew next to nothing about them.

"Eren?" Armin said.

"Huh?" Eren replied. He realized that he had spaced out thinking about Annie, and snapped back into reality.

"What's bugging you? You've been awfully distracted today."

"Oh," Eren replied, "It's nothing. Just thinking about stuff."

"Is it about your mom?" The coconut-headed blonde boy asked.

No, Eren thought.

"Yeah." He said.

"Don't worry about it that much." Armin yawned, "We're doing more training with the 3DM gear tomorrow, once we master how to use it, you'll be able to kill all the titans you want."

Eren smiled at that. "Sounds good." He said quietly.

He felt himself drifting to sleep. His thoughts went back to Annie. Her blue-gray eyes, blonde hair, the faint smile she gave when he complimented her... She looks so cute when she smiles, he thought. I wish she would do it more often.