Chapter 7

Today while running , Eren decided that he'd introduce himself to Annie. He noticed during the short time he has been here, Annie rarely interacted with anyone. Compared to Reiner and Bertholt who conversed with others like it was normal, she gave the cold shoulder to everyone else.

If he didn't already know that they ended up as "traitors" then he himself would've been fooled. He never expected it while reading the manga. He wondered wether he should tell Armin and Mikasa about them, but those two never got too close with them in canon anyways and Eren and Armin actually sleep near the Titan Shifters. It would be too suspicious if friendly Armin suddenly stopped talking with them and they'd question if he learned what they were and do what they did to Marco in canon.

Breaking out of his thoughts, he spotted a blue eyed girl with blonde hair in a bun, so he began to run to her and immediately introduced himself.

"Hello , my name's Eren Yeager, what's your name?" Eren greeted while running beside her. It may be a lame but he wanted to keep it simple.

Annie didn't want to talk to him so she thought if she ignored him , he'd eventually leave. Unfortunately for her, she was completely wrong.

"You know, you could at least tell me your name. " Eren said to her. Annie was going to ignore him again but decided against it. 'Maybe he'll leave me alone after I talk to him' she thought.

"Annie Leonhart" she said. Eren smiled and began to talk again.

"Where are you from? If you don't mind answering. I asked Reiner where he was from and he said you, Bertholt and himself were from the same village."

Eren knew this story was complete bullshit. The trio of Titan shifters made it up after finding a man who committed suicide. He lived in a village that was destroyed by titans and the three decided to co-opt his story into their own. Eren just wanted to see how Annie reacted to the question.

"He's right, unfortunately our village was attack by titans but luckily we escaped and survived. We ended up at the refugee afterwards." Annie said acting just a little sad. It would be too suspicious if she said that in her normally cold voice. She didn't care what people thought about her, but it wouldn't do good to be too suspicious. Especially since she planned to do most of the spy work.

"I see, you must have lost family and friends there. I'm sorry." Eren said with a downcast look.

Annie glanced at him then said "I lost my father but I didn't really have friends over there except maybe Reiner and Bertholt so it wasn't too much of a big deal for me. " She didn't know why she was still talking to him or why she told him about her father but it could be a good cover up to when others question her about her martial arts skills.

"Well I'm sorry for your loss... my father went missing recently and my mother was eaten on the day the wall fell, so I can understand your pain." Eren said with a frown.

"So you're from Shiganshina?" Annie asked. She heard him talking about the titans in the mess hall.

"Yes I was. Me and my two friends Mikasa and Armin as well. It was a horrible experience, but I'll never forgive those monsters from taking my home and my mother away from me that day. That's why I'm getting the top spot and joining the survey corps to exterminate them." Eren said while looking ahead with a deep glare and a shine in his emerald green eyes.

Annie looked at him with a bit of a frown and said "Sorry for your lost, that must have been hard for you, and exterminate them? Hate to say this but one man wouldn't be enough to kill all of them"

'Plus their not the only problem you guys have' Annie said in her mind, thinking of the Marleyans.

She would usually never talk to someone she just met like this, or anyone else in general but she felt kind of calm while talking to him. Even if she was lying to him or even if she was part of the reason on why his mother died, it felt kind of refreshing to actually talk to someone else. It also helped that he didn't seem like the other idiots that tried talking to her.

Hearing what Annie said , Eren began to laugh a little. "Don't worry, I've been training ever since that day for the past year. I'll show you just how strong I am during our time here" Eren said with a smile.

"You seem to have a lot of confidence. It would be a shame if you just ended up eaten from trying to kill your first Titan" Annie said. She didn't think too much of what he said about being strong and exterminating the titans when he joins the Survey Corps. Even if she may have a little respect for him for not shying away after what he experienced, but she still thought he was a fool for even thinking he could achieve what he said. Annie didn't know it, but she'd change her opinion on this in the years to come.

"Isn't that a little too harsh?" Eren said chuckling. "Like I said , you'll just have to see in these next 3 years"

"I guess I'll wait for your failure" Annie said.

"Real funny... but I'll see you later Annie. Can't keep my friend waiting for too long. We should talk again another time." Eren decided his first talk with Annie was good enough. He honestly expected her to just straight out ignore him but she didn't. It was a short talk but he wasn't disappointed at all. So he began to pick up his pace and ran to Mikasa. He didn't want her to get mad at him for suddenly leaving her like that.