Annie Leonhardt x Reader

Please Be... A Coward [part 1]

Summary: After the Battle of Trost the barracks are empty. Right when you don't think you can handle being alone, you receive a visitor unexpectedly. Annie finds herself in an unusual state of mind. Three days that change your life, and the interactions you have with Annie on them.

tsukidrama's note: here's some more blatant miscommunication re: annie not actually being able to talk about what's bothering her! i've also had some inquiry about the backstory for Annie's reader in my little fic world -- i intend to explore that in a different aspect each chapter as well

♫ Easy on Me - Adele

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The battle of Trost was many of the cadets' first encounters with Titans face to face, but it was not yours. You'd seen them before, five years ago when the Wall fell. You remembered the way their footsteps shook the very ground you stood on. The hot, coppery scent of blood mixed with something inhuman and terrifying clogs all of your senses.

Whenever Wall Maria fell, you were just a child. But you will never forget what you saw on that day. And as much as it changed you, this was worse. The amount of death, and gore. It was unthinkable.

Fear takes over quickly, and you're torn between freezing in horror and running as fast as your legs will take you. If you hadn't been on the back of a horse, you'd be dead. Sometimes you wish that you had died, too, with everything that was lost. Everything you had seen.

Seeing the carnage from Titans never grew any less horrifying, no matter what the scenario was or how

But fighting them? That was so much worse. It was worse because this time you saw everything. Limbs being torn from people you knew and were friends with. Your comrades in arms, the people you used to sleep next to and eat with, crushed and bitten and ripped and stepped on, all right in front of your eyes.

Twenty minutes after the gates have broken, you watched your first squad get picked off one by one. You and one other survivor barely made it out, by luck alone. Until you're able to meet up with somebody you know, you run along rooftops to try and save gas.

After the tides turn, you try hard not to get separated from your friends. You're careful to swing high around even the small Titans as you zip down an alleyway to clear the path for Eren and the massive boulder that rests on his shoulder.

You make your first kill right then, as you zoom up behind a small Titan, maybe 5 or 6 meters in height. You're so caught up in the adrenaline and pride in yourself that you don't realize what's happened until you hear the screaming from behind you.

It all happens so fast. You hook your maneuvering gear to the lightning rod of a nearby building, just to get away. In the time it takes for you to get to your vantage point and turn around, it's too late for you to help.

A titan crawling on its hands and knees catches one of your squadmates by the wires of their gear and yanks him to the floor. The only other survivor from your first group runs to help, but the Titan is faster. It grabs him around the chest and squeezes, and then you lose him too.

The rest of you freeze, overcome with shock. Some people cry, you included. It seems like ages have passed with everyone staring in horror as the Titan goes back and forth. When it turns its attention away from its prey, it lunges for a rooftop. The cadet who is perched on top screams and frantically looks for another place to run.

It's a miracle that the Survey Corps arrive when they do. They zip through the alleyway at the speed of sound, quietly and full of determination. Barely does it take their effort to slay what had been an untouchable monster seconds before.