A New Life

1. The Night

As I gaze at the bird close to me I remembered a distant memory from a very long time ago. Back then when the truth of the world was still a mystery and life felt "simple" as I would say.

I switched my gaze back to Annie in which she was being her usual quite self, her arms holding her knees up to her chest.

"Whats wrong?" - she said with a worried look on her face as she caught me looking at her. My eyes widened in embarrassment as I my face turned a bit red, until I finally opened my mouth.

"I... remembered a certain memory just now, it made me feel of the more simple times. You know... living behind the walls... me and Eren dreaming of the outside world"- I said a bit nervously.

"Tell me about it"- Annie said confidently, as if she really wanted to know about it. I was shocked that she really wanted to talk about it since she rarely starts the conversation.

I regained my confidence and answered with ease "We talked about what animals we wanted to be if we could, Eren always bragged and wanted to be lion because they were fierce and fearless beasts, even though we've never seen any lions before... we just heard about them in books" I stopped talking for a second and gazed at the sky for some time.

"What about you... what would you like to be?" She said interrupting my gaze at the sky as I looked back at her.

"I... I always wanted to be a bird, so I could fly anywhere in the world... so I could fly past the walls... so I could the see the beauty in this cruel world" I said with a shaky voice. I gazed back at the sky as I felt a light hand touch my left hand. I quickly averted my gaze back to Annie's hand on mine and switched to her eyes.

My eyes widened as I looked at her icy blue eyes, but I wasn't shocked at the kind gesture. I was shocked because I saw her lips pull up a slight smile that brought shivers throughout my spine. Her smile was a most amazing sight to look at.

"Annie, are... are u smiling?" I said with a slight smile on my face as well. I saw her blush immensely as she starts to talk.

"Uh.. uhm.. its just that it really fits your character and... I guess Im smiling of how funny that is" she said nervously because I caught her smile.

"That doesn't explain why your holding my hand though" I said as a joke when I saw her eyes widened at my statement.

Although I thought she would remove her hand from mine after that, but she tightened her grip on mine. I was completely shocked 'I can never figure out this woman can I?' I thought in my mind.

"I just feel like I owe for you talking to me for the past four years... and I think its only fair if could answer some of your questions, which I know you have a lot" she said with a lot more confidence.

"I do have a lot of questions, but... I think I just really want to know only one" I said with a shaky voice, thinking about the certain question that Im about to ask her.

"What is it then?" she said with a face of reassurance as she tightened her grip on my hand.

"Why... why didn't you kill me back then" I said  as my heart kept beating rapidly, waiting for her to break the tension.

"Huh... Armin I... I dont know" she said with her eyes widened at hearing my question. She pulled her hand away from mine. I felt awful for asking her that, awful that I lost her warm touch.

I did something that thought I could never do. I leaned closer to her wrapping my left arm around her for a side hug. "Annie... you know that if you just killed me back then, you probably could've gone back home" I said.

I felt Annie tensing up at my statement, but held her tightly and she stopped. "I know... I knew what you were capable of, I guess... I just couldn't bring myself to do that to you" she said with a shaky voice.