A few hours passed after the enlistment ceremony and you were currently watching Sasha continue to run laps tiredly around the training grounds, barely able to stay conscious at this point as her arms could barely go up and down. You looked up at the dimly lit sky and over to the setting sun to see that it was almost time for chow. You knew now that it was just time for the new cadets to get more settled in to the camp and that they had no other duties tonight. While watching Sasha do her 70th lap around the grounds, you spotted a certain blonde haired person in the distance and this caught your attention. Walking over to the mess hall in her casual clothes, Annie walked alone while fixing her hair into a bun looking at Sasha one more time, you got tired of supervising her.

"Ten more laps and you're done, Braus. Don't pull shit like this again, got it?" You said as Sasha continued to run, leaving you to assume that she heard you as you walked off towards Annie.

"Damn it, where was the mess hall again?" Annie looked around in annoyance before hearing footsteps approach her.

"Looking for something?" You asked as she turned around and grew a surprised look briefly before standing at attention. 

"Instructor Y/N!" Annie stood straight while looking straight ahead at you as you smiled.

"At ease, it's already dinner and there's no duties that you fresh cadets can take on yet." You said as she eased up on her stature and grew a confused look when you turned towards her with a gentle look on your face. "Looking for the mess hall? I can show you. Come with me." You said while walking off.

"Thank you, sir." Annie said as she followed you, but you dropped back a bit to walk beside her. 

"Call me Y/N." You said as this sudden request to call her instructor by his name caught her off guard. "We're the same age, so it feels a bit weird to be always called a Drill Instructor." You said as Annie just remained silent. "So, why are you alone and not with the other cadets? They're all probably having dinner together right now." You asked as she turned her head away from you.

"I'd rather not." Annie replied simply.

"Don't like being around people?" You asked in curiosity.

"Not really." Annie responded straight forwardly.

"I see." You said as the two of you walked in silence as you both approached a building that a loud ruckus was coming from. "Well, here's the mess hall." You said as the talking grew even louder and this made Annie stop briefly as you noticed an unsure look on her face. "Wait here a minute." You said to her.

"Huh?" Annie was confused when you told her to wait as you walked inside the mess hall and closed the door behind you. 

The moment you closed the door, all the talking and ruckus that was going on inside fell silent. Annie was surprised by how quiet the entire area was now when the noise inside stopped, but after waiting a few minutes, you walked back out with two trays of food in your hands. You raised of the trays and gestured it to Annie as she picked up on the signal before walking over and taking it out of your hands. Grabbing the handle of the door with your free hand, you peaked your head back and said a few words that Annie couldn't quite hear properly before you pulled your head out and closed the door. Once the door shut, all the noise and ruckus came back as you walked over to Annie with a smile.

"Mind if I have dinner with you?" You asked her.

"Huh? I-I don't...it's just..." Annie was caught off guard by your request as she turned away. "I usually eat on my own." She said as you smiled.

"It's okay, I won't make a sound. I just wanna eat in silence also, but enjoy the feeling of some company at the same time." You said as Annie just gave you a shrug as you chuckled. "Follow me, I know a spot we can eat at." You said as you led Annie to a different location.

Moon light began to cover the camp as the stars that were once hidden by the clouds, revealed themselves to the earth and began to shine their lights upon the world. You and Annie walked in silence as you found yourselves walking down a small path that led through the nearby woods, before Annie grew a surprised look of where you two ended up at the end of the path. Annie came to a clearing in the woods where there was a beautiful small field of grass where some flowers and a few rocks to sit on were located. You walked over to one of the larger boulders and climbed on top of it to sit down as you turned to Annie and gestured her to sit on the rock just below you. Annie came forward and looked at the rock reluctantly for a bit before deciding to just go along with it as she hopped on top of it with her tray of food and the two of you began to eat in silence. Annie took a bite from her bed and grabbed her small cup of water from her tray as she felt a nice cool breeze blow through the area. She looked up at the night sky in awe as she really felt connected to the nature that she was surrounded by. 

"When was the last time I took the time to look at the stars..." Annie wondered as she lowered her head back down and looked around the field that surrounded her. "When did I last see a sight like this? No, have I even seen anything like this?" Annie thought as things were beginning to feel a strange tingling sensation in her stomach and chest. "Why...did he take me here?" She thought as she turned her head back to see you sitting with one knee up to your chest as you just stared up at the sky while drinking from your cup.

"Hm? Something the matter?" You asked her as you noticed her staring up at you.

"Why did you bring me here?" Annie asked as you smiled at her actually speaking to you. "Why did you say those things during the ceremony?" Annie asked as this made you grow an awkward look on your face. 

"Your eyes..." You said as this made Annie perplexed and confused. "I thought you had beautiful eyes and...I couldn't help but admit it..." You said as a blush crept onto your face. 

"Thank you..." Annie said as she turned her head back down and took a sip from her drink.

"But, they also looked sad..." You said as this stopped her mid-drink as she turned back towards you. "Sorry, I don't mean to assume anything...but I felt like something was troubling you terribly in your heart. Feel free to leave or chew me out for asking, but did something happen to you?" You asked her as she couldn't believe the look you had in your eyes, a look of worry.

"..." Annie turned back to the forest and hid her face from you as you felt stupid and terrible for asking something so rude. "Can I ask you something, Y/N..?" She suddenly spoke up as you turned towards her. "What do you do when..." Annie trailed off as she couldn't believe what she was doing right now while staring up at the stars. "...when all your life, you've done nothing but live for someone else...someone who will never truly accept you, and only needs you when its convenient?" Annie asked as she remembered the Marelyan government and how badly Eldians were treated, honorary or not. "Then you do something that you know is wrong, but if you didn't, something terrible would happen to you...what do you do then? What does right and wrong even mean?" She asked as silence fell between you two for a few moments before you spoke up.

"I'd do whatever I felt was right for myself." You said as she turned towards you in surprise of your answer. "Life isn't always going to be nice to you. It's gonna knock you down so hard at one point you'll probably never wanna get up again. You'll have to make tough decisions that could probably greatly affect not only yourself, but those who are around you. When that time comes, I think the only thing you can do is make the decision that sits right in your heart, and that you can make without regrets." You said as she was ensnared by the sight of you. 

Annie was beyond stunned by the delivery of your answer and captured by the sight of how enchanting you were with the stars in the background. There was a cold breeze that blew through the area you were in as Annie shivered from the feeling, but was surprised when she felt a piece of clothing gently fall atop her head. She turned her eyes upward and reached a hand up to feel a jacket had landed upon her head. Turning towards you, Annie had grown a blush on her face when she saw you smiling down at her with your jacket on her head. 

"It'd be a shame if you caught a cold. Use my jacket, it'll keep you warm." You said as Annie turned away while adjusting the jacket onto herself.

"...thank you." Annie muttered while hugging her knees to her chest to hide her face. "...what is this? Why is he doing this?" She was confused and felt her heart race. 

"I think the only thing you can do is make the decision that sits right in your heart, and that it's the one you can make without regrets..." Those words echoed into her mind as it resonated with her ultimate goal of her mission here. 

"I'll definitely find the Founding Titan, and once I do..." Annie thought to herself as she remembered her father back home in Liberio. "...I'll return to you, father..." Annie thought as she strengthened her resolve.

After finishing up your dinners and heading back to the camp, you took Annie's and your trays back to the mess hall before walking her back to the women's barracks. The two of you didn't speak for most of the time, but when you got to the women's barracks, she spoke up before entering. 

"Hey, Y/N..." Annie spoke up as you turned back towards her. "...thank you, for what you said." She said as you smiled.

"Yeah, feel free to talk to me whenever you need someone to talk to." You said to her before she opened the door and walked back inside the barracks. "...Agh! What was I thinking!? Why'd I admit her eyes were beautiful!? Ngh!" You roughly scratched your head in frustration and embarrassment as you dragged your feet back to the officer's barracks.

Back with Annie, she walked back into the barracks where all her fellow female cadets were already back and talking amongst each other before going to bed. She went to her bunk that she shared with a girl named Mikasa, and climbed up the ladder to her top bunk before laying down and staring up at the roof of the barracks. Annie's mind flashed back to the moment of you staring off in the distance, as that scene in particular, was stuck in her head and she couldn't stop thinking about you for some odd reason. She felt her cheeks heat up and a strange feeling in her chest as she turned over to face the wall and closed her eyes as she tried her best to fall asleep and think of something. Meanwhile, you were laid in bed in your dark room with a hand behind your head as you turned to look out the window and to the stars again. You began to think back to how beautiful Annie looked with the light of the moon shining down on her, and that made you flustered as you turned onto your stomach and shoved your face into your pillow, trying to fall asleep as the two of you couldn't get each other out of your minds, and struggling to fall asleep.

The Next Morning

The early morning came as the sun began to shine its light down upon the camp, and you were already up and running laps around the camp for your daily routine. You were running shirtless and built up a fair sweat on your body as the light began to reflect off of your skin, and after finishing up one more lap, you walked over to the pull up bars that were nearby and began to work out there. Whilst grunting and toiling away to get stronger, you heard a set of footsteps approach from behind as a voice spoke up. 

"Hey, go wake them up. We're giving them a bright and early physical training session in hell." You heard Shadis voice come from behind you.

"I thought you said that you didn't wanna break them so soon...!" You grunted while pulling yourself up one last time before dropping off the bar and turning around with your hands on your hips. "Well, not that I wasn't going to suggest the same thing." You said while walking over and grabbing your shirt before using it to wipe some sweat off your face.

"I just said it first because I knew you'd wanna wake them up like this. I'll be waiting in the main yard, 15 minutes." Shadis said as you nodded before slinging your sweaty shirt over your shoulder and heading over to the barracks. 

You walked over to the men's barracks and kicked their door down before screaming at the top of your lungs for them to wake up. They were beyond shocked from the sudden commotion and a few fell out of their beds while scrambling and trying to find out what was going on. After getting a good scare on them and telling them where to fall out, you began your walk to the female's barracks where you stood in front of their door. You thought that since they were girls and all, you should probably go easy on them, but that would've gone against your ideals as you raised your boot up and kicked their door in.

"GET THE FUCK UP YOU LAZY SACKS OF SHIT!!! IT'S TIME FOR TRAINING!!" You shouted out as the girls were all startled awake and a few screamed from your voice, while others were rushing to get ready. "I WANT YOU OUT IN THE FIELD IN LESS THAN TEN MINUTES!! IF ONE GUY OR GIRL ISN'T OUT THERE BEFORE THEN, WELL THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!" You yelled at the top of your lungs before noticing all the girls had stopped when they saw you shirtless and a few of them had nosebleeds from the sight. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!? GET FUCKING READY!!!" You yelled as this startled the girls back to getting ready.

After screaming at the cadets and heading back to Shadis, you threw back on your shirt and stood next to your uncle as he stared at your shirt and noticed the sweat marks and noticeable stench.

"You know, you should probably change." Shadis said to you.

"How rude, uncle." You said as you gave him a pout.

"I'm just saying the obvious." Shadis chuckled as you two watched the cadets all run over in a haste and fall into position before standing at attention before you two. "Today we will be testing your aptitude for training on the 3D Maneuver Gear, but before that, you will run through strength training with Y/N. Understood?" Shadis spoke to the cadets.

"Yes, sir." Everyone replied as Shadis noticed something strange amongst his trainees.

"Leonhart!" Shadis called out Annie as she stood even firmer.

"Sir!" Annie straightened up as Shadis walked over to her and looked down on her.

"Why is your jacket bigger than you?" Shadis asked as this confused Annie and everyone turned their eyes a bit to see what he meant.

Annie looked down to see what he meant, and when she did, the blonde discovered that her sleeves went passed her wrist and almost covered her hands, and that the bottom of the jacket almost reached her waist. Seeing that it was much oversized for her build, Annie came to the conclusion that she had put on the wrong jacket, and that she was wearing the jacket you had given her last night. 

"T-This is..." Annie wasn't sure how to explain without geting killed, but another voice spoke for her.

"That's my jacket." Everyone turned to see you walking over to Shadis and Annie. "I leant it to her because it was cold lst night and I saw her shivering a bit. I insisted she take it, so that's why she has it. She must've just gotten mixed up between mine and her own. It's alright." You said as Annie stared at you in amazement of how calm and natural you spoke.

"...I see." Shadis said in a calm tone as everyone was shocked at how you calmed him down. "Just make sure you get it back after this.Alright, get to it." Shadis said while walking back to the front.

"Alright, all of you! You're gonna keep pace with me! Start running!" You yelled as you jogged off and ran alongside the cadets who ran in formation.

You and the cadets were running around the camp at a steady pace, though you noticed a lot of them were struggling just to keep the pace at all, many were breathing heavy and exhausted. Meanwhile, Annie was handling the run just fine as she was used to harsher training than this, but someone to her right spoke up in a hush tone. 

"Hey, Annie..." The blonde girl turned to see Ymir staring at her with a grin. "Why do you have our drill instructor's jacket? There's no way he just gave it to you. Did you steal it? You so head over heels for him that you'd steal his clothes?" Ymir teased Annie as the blonde just ignored her. "What's the story? What did you and the young stud drill instructor do?" Ymir asked as Annie shot a glare at her.

"Nothing happened. You're just too imaginative." Annie replied before looking back ahead.

"Hmm? Is that so? Well,  I don't think any guy just goes and gives a girl their jacket without a suggesting something. Maybe he has the hots for you. You gonna take advantage of this?" Ymir grinned as Annie was getting annoyed.

"There's nothing to take advantage of. He's just a nice person I guess. I don't care." Annie replied before dropping the conversation entirely as she just focused on getting the training done.

After doing some physical training and almost killing a few of the cadets, you were standing off to the side watching as they were all being tested for their aptitude of the ODM gear by hanging from a pair of wires to simulate the gear. You weren't all too impressed at the people who passed, seeing as almost everyone in the corps would be at least able to train on the 3D Maneuver Gear, but there was a surprising case that caught everyone by surprise when a cadet named Eren Jaeger was able to pass the test briefly using a broken belt. Though, after that brief feat, there was nothing special throughout the rest of the day as everyone was handed back over to you for hand-to-hand combat training. While explaining the situation the cadets would be replicating, which would be defense against a knife-wielding attacker, someone's hand shot up from the cadets and you saw it was Eren.

"What is it, Eren?" You turned towards him as he lowered his hand.

"Sorry for asking, sir, but what does sparring with each other have to do with anything about fighting Titans?" Eren asked as you walked over to him.

"Hmmm, that's a pretty good question. You're quite a thinker aren't you, Jaeger." You said while stopping in front of him with a fierce and intimidating aura as he grew extremely nervous. "Should I demonstrate to you why this training is a part of the course?" You said in a menacing tone as everyone was looking nervously at Eren, and even Annie was wondering what was about to happen. "I'm just messing with you, silly! What? Did you think I was going to beat you up or something? Ahahahahahahaha!" You laughed while patting Eren on the shoulder as this didn't ease any of the cadets at all. "Haha! Ah, no I'm not going to hurt you. That'll be uhh, Krista Lenz's job." You said.

"Huh?" Eren gasped in shock.

"Fueh!?" Krista from another side of the formation had a shocked expression.

"I'll pair everyone up and you'll be practicing how to disarm and restrain a knife-wielding attacker. Believe it or not, but some of you are gonna be patrolling through the districts looking for criminals, and some of them won't just surrender." You said while roughly patting Eren's shoulder as he almost fell before you stopped and walked back to the front. "Now that we have made our first pair, I think it's time to announce the second! The next pair of partner will be Mikasa Ackerman..." You said as she stepped forward and your eyes scanned around the cadets before falling onto a certain head of blonde hair. "...and Annie Leonhart." You said as she looked surprised when she saw you smile at her.

"Y/N...What are you trying to get out of me?" Annie couldn't help but wonder what your goal was with her, and continued to ponder why you interacted differently with her from the other cadets.

"This is gonna be good." You grinned as you couldn't help but feel excited to watch possibly two of the best cadets in the 104th go at it, and you couldn't wait to see what Annie was made out of.