From Across the Sea (Attack on Titan/OC) [ON HOLD]

Chapter 3

"Eccentric" apparently came in the form of Hanji Zoe. With her wild hair pulled back into a ponytail, and her brown eyes gleaming in excitement behind her glasses as she rambled on about another one of her experiments. Angharad was currently smiling as she listened to her friend continue to talk with to regards as to whether or not she was actually paying attention. She thought back to their first meeting 6 months ago. Hanji had been excited at the prospect of a new friend and hadn't really given Angharad a choice before all but dragging her through what would soon become their home together.

"Ang. Ang! Ang, are you even listening to me?" Hanji's voice snapped her back to reality. Angharad, or "Ang" for short, to those she felt close to, looked to her best friend, and tried to look like she was actually paying attention this time. Hanji shook her head and continued on anyways, knowing very well that Ang had probably spaced out about 10 minutes ago. "What's got you thinking so hard anyways?"

"Nothing." Ang smiled. "Have you thought of a way to put your theories to the test?" Hanji smirked and looked down at her notes spread out across the table in front of her. After living with Hanji for a few weeks, Angharad had decided that her roommate needed help staying organized. Hanji's brain ran a mile a minute, and as a thank you for being so open and accepting to her, Ang had bought her an actual pocketbook where she could record her findings and results of her experiments, rather than the napkin doodles, and other scraps of paper she often found lying around their shared home. 

"I was thinking of joining the military, actually." Her response came out so casually it took a second for Ang to register what she had said.

"What? Hanji, what are you talking about? The military?" Ang sat at the table next to her. "How would that help?"

"Well, they would have an actual lab I could use. And hopefully I'd get to see the world outside the walls and collect samples out there!" Ang remembered the long time she'd been walking until she reached the fortress. Had the circumstances been different, she might've enjoyed being outside the walls too. She could see the appeal to someone who didn't even know there was a whole world beyond their tiny little island.

Oh yea, she'd also learned that nobody knew anything at all about the world beyond just Walls Sina, Rose, and Maria. Nobody ever mentioned Marley. It's like her hometown just...didn't exist to them. She'd gotten a job at the bar she had encountered on her first day, often working with Carla and Marie. She learned that Keith Shadis was very much in love with Carla, and he frequented the bar on his days off as an excuse to see the young woman. Ang sometimes found herself giggling alongside Marie as they teased Carla about her admirer.

Ang had used most of her first wages to buy herself some clothes and a good pair of used boots. She couldn't keep borrowing Carla's stuff. Now, as she wore a puffy sleeved shirt and brown bodice, something she usually wore for working at the bar, she realized just how much Hanji's argument made sense. She looked up at her friend's brown eyes again before answering.

"Well, you're not wrong. To learn about the outside world, you do actually have to go outside." She laughed as Hanji smiled at her. "When do we leave?"

"Huh?" The scientist looked at the blonde sitting next to her before smirking. "In 3 months. There's an open enlistment for those who want to join. I guess they're a little low on numbers."

"At least that's plenty of time to save some extra money and pack our stuff." Ang laughed as she stood and moved about the kitchen again.

"Yes, it does, Ang." Hanji sat back and crossed her arms. "Soon, we'll be famous for all of our discoveries." Hanji's eyes lit up and eagerly sat forward again before exclaiming, "OH! Maybe, we'll get to learn more about titans!"

Ang froze. She was lucky her back was to her best friend, otherwise Hanji would have seen the panic flash across her face before it was gone again. She looked over her shoulder for a second before continuing trying to tidy whatever mess Hanji had left behind. "Why do you wanna know so much about titans?"

"I just think it's odd. We don't know where they come from, or what their goal is." Hanji's response made her feel suddenly cold. "They just showed up out of nowhere one day, decided to eat people, and now we barricade ourselves behind the walls and call it living." Hanji shook her head, once again looking down at her notes.

They were once people! She wanted to scream. But any indication that showed she knew things everybody else didn't, would only raise suspicion and eventually, chaos. Instead, she turned to lean her back against the counter and gave Hanji her full attention.

"Well, if anyone is going to find the answers, it's definitely going to be you, Hanji." The woman in question looked up at Ang again with the signature gleam in her eye. It was in this moment, Ang knew she and the mad scientist were going to be friends for a very long time.