In Memories

Chapter 3: Those who are left behind

Chapter 3: Those who are left behind

"I'll always love you,

I will always protect you,

Be your shield and your fortress

Just stay by my side

Be with me...

Forever"

.

.

.

He dreams about it again, people tearing them apart. Why does he dream about it over and over? Aren't they supposed to leave everything behind? For better, for worse, he promised by the abandoned church atop the hill. To love her forever till death do them part.

They both lie curled up in their sides. Annie just right infront of him as he spoons her delicate frame. He hugs her sleeping form near him, casually running his free hand from her shoulder to her hip. He always loved her curves and when she slightly squirms from the discomforts of pregnancy, he rubs her swollen stomach affectionately.

He likes it when he runs his hands through her baby bump. All his fears seemed so small compared to the small baby growing inside her, possibly getting stronger as the days go by. He fantasizes, how such a small growing creature, like him and her, could erase all the fears that dwell inside his mind. Finally they could start anew. When all of the controversies they've have left behind have died down, then maybe they can move back to the village and out of seclusion.

He tells Annie that when the baby grows and starts schooling they could start somewhere inside the village. Annie smiles at his idea, and he wonders if she agrees to his proposal or not. He wants her to live a normal life just like the things he experienced in his childhood. Even though he wasn't the real child of his parents, he never felt like an outsider in his family.

Whereas for Annie...

Her mother died when she was a baby. She died protecting her infant daughter from the humans. So little is known about the incident, but she recalls that by the time her father came to save the both of them it was too late.

"It was never too late," Eren could recall himself telling her. "You are alive and that's what matters,"

Annie knew deep down that he was right. Her father says that she reminded him so much of her late mother that it just hurts to look at her without feeling so much guilt. Maybe she was really supposed to live and fight. All her life, she spent her days training to be a warrior: perfecting skill after skill, almost killing herself in the process, but the results are worth it. If she hadn't finished at the top of her class she wouldn't be assigned to infiltrate the walls and maybe she wouldn't have met Eren.

In the morning, when she wakes up, she finds Eren's hand resting lightly on her stomach. She slides her hands into his and entwines theirs in a sleepy manner. She's currently entering the fourth month and the baby's growing fast. Unlike human pregnancies, Titan shifters develop faster, hence only seven months in the waiting. She could already feel the baby stirring wildly within her that it created so much excitement and anticipation in her mind. She wonders if Eren could notice the recent development.

Its odd, at least for her, how can a person live in complete serenity, and just resign into doing things they love and be with the one they love. The past months seemed like a fleeting dream in her mind. No nightmares ever infiltrated her days with him. She thinks that these peace would last forever, afterall, when the baby reaches the right age, maybe she would have to agree to settle within the village and give her child the normal life. A kind of life denied to her.