The first day of kindergarten at Shiganshina Elementary was a new one for little Armin Arlert. It meant a bunch of new faces, new things to play with and especially new things to learn about! THough the boy was young, Armin was as sharp as a tack when it came to problem solving.

As the small boy wandered around the classroom he came across a small set of blocks of various shapes and colors resting beside a box with holes the same shape as the blocks themselves. The bright colors and fun shapes drew the boy to them and he gathered them in his arms.

A shove to his shoulder made Armin drop the blocks in his little arms, scattering them about on the carpet. Armin looked to his right and saw a couple of stout little boys standing there at his right.

"We wanna play the blocks!"

Armin looked between the boys and the blocks, then smiled. "Okay! Let's play then!"

The little blonde boy started picking up the blocks once again. As he did, one of the little boys took what he had managed to gather and joined his other stout friend. "No you! We play only."

Little Armin watched as the boys took both blocks and box to another part of the room and start to play together. Armin began to silently cry, huge tears falling heavily down his little cheeks as he went to sit down by the cubby holes. He sat with his arms folded over the tops of his bent knees and put his head down over his arms, burying his head there as he cried more.

His little shoulders shook with each sob until he felt a light tug on his shirt. Armin looked up with watery eyes and saw a small girl with the same color hair and eyes as him standing in front of him, her hair slightly messy as she held up a set of colored blocks. The little girl looked bored but her blue eyes never left his teary ones.

"Wanna play with me?"

Armin looked toward the girl holding the blocks and suddenly smiled through his teary eyes, wiping them with the back of his arm and nodding, no longer looking quite as sad as before.

As the two wiled away the time with the blocks, the teacher (a Miss Petra Ral) had two crying boys to deal with, bloody noses and all.

"I'm Armin! What's your name?"

The girl looked to the happy little boy sitting in front of her, holding up a white cloud-shaped block while she had a green moon-shaped piece.

"Annie."

Her voice matched her look, but it wasn't unkind. Armin smiled more as he swayed his head to an unheard tune. "I'm friends with Annie! Yay!"

Little Annie just slid her piece into its slot and stuck her tongue out at him, her little cheeks bulging with a flush as she did so.

Halfway into the school year the two had grown inseperable since that very first day, sitting together on the carpet at story time or playing together at free time. What they liked the most was when Miss Petra let the class have snack time outside.

Armin and Annie would sit under the big tree by the swing set, it's branches giving it ample shade overhead. The two tots would sit there and have their snack while most of the other kids would play while eating their own snacks.

Today was Armin's turn to get their juices. As Armin was coming back from his little errand, he saw that one of the packages of chocolate chip cookies was wide open and the little cookies inside were now splayed out on the grass. Tiny little ants were now covering the bits of food. Little Annie was sitting on the other side of the tree, her small knees hiked up to her chin and being very quiet.

"What happened, Annie?"

Armin came around to sit beside his friend, only for the girl to let out an irritated whine and turn away from him.

"Did you fall and get a boo-boo?"

Annie shook her head and let out another little whine.

"You get picked on?"

Again, she merely shook her head and whined.

"Was that your snack on the floor?"

This time, the little girl gave the slightest nodding gesture of her head, eyes downcast and hair falling over her face.

"It was too hard to open! And they were chocolate chip too..."

A small sniffle reached Armin's ears and he remembered his own unopened packaged snack.

Annie heard something rip and tear from beside her but the crunching that usually came after opening a snack never came. She peeked up from her knees and saw Armin holding up his opened package of cookies to her, a happy smile on his face.

"Here Annie! You can have mine!"

The little girl wiped at her nose in disinterest but shyly reached a hand into the bag and popped one into her mouth. Armin then handed her a juice box and the two sat content under their snacking tree.

From the doorway of the classroom, Miss Petra was speaking with a man in a brown trench coat.

"She's been making excellent progress, Mister Leonhart! Much more since preschool! Little Annie is speaking a bit more than she has before and her class participation has improved by twenty-three percent! All good marks of course. She's even made a new little friend!"

Mister Leonhart was looking out towards where his daughter sat while he listened to Miss Petra's report. The woman couldn't see it but the man was both elated to hear this and troubled by it.

Time goes by and the kindergarten school year is nearly done.

Book sales, class parties/projects, school plays, field trips, school festivals and student award assemblies. Through thick and thin, the two remained bound to each other. The little friends held no secrets from each other, always talking to one another and playing together, and they always had fun even if Annie always looked bored.

Once in a while a couple of other kids would join them but the dark haired girl and Annie never seemd to get along with each other, and she never let the little boy she was with out of her sight. So when he would wander off she'd follow, silently holding her red scarf around her neck and face as she went.

Overtime, Annie would show the tiniest of smiles when Armin would go to her if she was ever by herself. Even if they were doing schoolwark or having naptime, Armin was always right beside Annie.

When the little blonde girl was in preschool, the other kids would be too afraid of her to get anywhere near her. Though she didn't have any control over it, Annie had an uninterested yet intimidating glare that often made the children wary of her, even some adults as well. Things devolved as fights happened often with both students and teachers, lashing out either openly or subtly until she would just shut down altogether.

For a little one, Annie Leonhart was a rough and tough individual.

This year in kindergarten was a new start for the little tyke, and she had her new best friend by her side the entire time. Along with her moods Annie's grades, class participation and interaction with her fellow students had all improved exponentially. She had even been among the student to recieve a student award in her class.

At home though, Annie could tell something was up with her father and his work.

He had been even more scarce than he already was, nose deep in some project that was obviously important. It wasn't unusual to see papers and schematics strewn all over the coffee table while barbells sat abandoned in a corner. What made this time different though was the fact that everything was clean now.

No traces of left over take-out cases, pizza boxes or TV dinners around. No emptied packages of potato chips or empty soda cans or water bottles. No clothes in the hamper. Actually, there was no furniture around either.

Later on her father took the time to explain that his latest project was moving and that they had to go along with it. So today was their last day here.

So on that morning, Annie never left Armin's side. From roll call and on through lunch time. little Annie took a page from the dark haired girl's page and went wherever Armin would go. Even though Armin was happy to see Annie with him alot today, he was also concerned about it too. She had even skipped snack time and she never did that before! She never gave up a chance to get chocolate chip cookies, they were her favorite.

Once second recess came around, Annie led Armin towards their tree. The little girl was glad to see her friend was more than happy to go where she wanted to go.

As the two walked side by side, Annie reached her little hand over and took hold of Armin's hand. The little boy looked first to their hands and then up to Annie, who refused to meet his eyes. Never the less, the shy boy smiled and swung their interlaced hands as they walked, nearly skipping as he did.

"Annie!"

It was the voice of Miss Petra calling out towards them, standing by the classroom door alongside the girls' father.

Miss Petra moved her lips while speaking but Annie paid no mind to what was being said as she pulled Armins' hand, pulling him into a run.

"Oh, dear..."

"My apologies, Miss Petra. I'll take it from here."

The teacher bit her lower lip anxiously and nodded as Mister Leonhart went to retrieve his daughter, knowing these sort of situations never went well. At all.

A small ruckus rang out behind the tree where the kids disappeared to, and soon she heard a loud shout. Miss Petra rushed over to inspect the scene.

Mister Leonhart was at eye-level with the kids, bent at the knees in a sort of squat and trying to get Annie t come with him. A crying Annie struggled to free her arm from her father's grip as an angry Armin kicked at the mans' legs, one kick actually connecting and hitting the older man square in the jewels and mkaing him cry out from the pain.

Miss Petra then moved to pick up Armin and remove him from the the spectacle.

"Armin sweetie, you can't be kicking people like that!"

The boy didn't hear her as the saw the man pick up his daughter and slung her over his shoulder. Annie still struggled even as her father rose up and started to walk away from their teacher and Armin.

"Miss Petra! He's taking Annie away!"

"I-I know, honey! Annie's daddy has to take her back now, Armin!"

Little Armin struggled against Miss Petra's arms and reached his little arms out towards Annie's direction. A tiny crying Annie did the same, stretching her arms out and trying fruitlessly to grab Armin's hands. Seeing his best friend sad and crying made him start to cry as well.

The little boy then reached into his pocket and held up a package of chocolate chips he had saved for Annie when she had skipped snack time earlier, holding the bag out as if it would bring his friend back to him.

"Bu-But Annie hasn't had her snack today, Miss Petra!"

"Armin..."

"It's Annie's favorite!"

With an angry shout Armin tried to throw the bag over to Annie's outstretched arms but his throw was too weak and the bag fell not too far from where Miss Petra stood. The teacher turned around just in time to see Mister Leonhart disappear into the double doors of the attendance office.

Miss Petra had seen little Annie's pained blue eyes and the sight of it near broke her heart as her throat tightened, something that intensified as a little Armin broke down completely in his teachers' arms.

'And after Armin helped Annie make so much progress...'

The woman patted Armins back as she started back towards the classroom, trying her best to soothe the distraught boy she carried.

"I know, sweetie, I know. Hey, why don't we go back to class and finish recess hm? You can play with whatever you like until recess is over."

As Miss Petra continued to carry her student back to the classroom, she had accidentally stepped on the dropped bag of cookies left on the ground and popped the little package open. Little Armin was too distraught to hear it, and neither one saw the small swarm of ants climbing all over the broken bits of baked treats.

END-

A/N: Made for INU-004. I'ma be honest here, I've never really watched, I mean really watched, AoT/SNK(?) so I just did some research on these two aaaaand made this little AU piece! Now it ain't nothing fancy but it's my first AruAni fic. I do like these two, as well as EreMika, but haven't really delved into the AoT world just yet. Still, hope you all enjoy this!