Nest & Wings (Annie Leonhardt x Male Reader)

Chapter 01: Prelude to Disaster

After a day of hard work, you return home early. As you walk through the door... you feel something tight in your chest as tears start pouring down your face. You're conflicted as you question yourself if they're tears of joy or sorrow.

Seventeen years earlier in Shiganshina; the southern district of Wall Maria,

"Grandpa, here! I brought you some bread!" You hand your bedridden grandpa the loaf of bread you had stolen earlier that day.

"Did you get beaten up again?" He asks you, looking extremely concerned as usual.

"Nope! I ran away before they even knew it was gone." You answer while forcing a smile to try and hide the pain you were in.

Grandpa examines you with a quick glance and says, "You're such an innocent child... you don't even know how to lie, do you?"

He immediately notices the dirt on your shirt and the bruise on your cheek. "I wish you didn't have to steal food like this. It's all my fault! You're only five... I'm supposed to be the one taking care of you, and yet here you are feeding me instead." Tears fill his eyes as the two of you share the first meal you've had in nearly three days.

As far as you can remember, it's always been just you and grandpa. You have no memory of your parents as they had abandoned you at birth. According to grandpa, your mother was sixteen when you were born. She apparently had an affair with a soldier from the Garrison and you were the result of a 'mistake of youth' as he worded it.

Your father— in a rather cowardly manner, requested his transfer immediately after finding out that she was pregnant. It was approved in a few days and she never heard from him again. Still a teenager, she too had a whole life ahead of her and wasn't ready to raise a child on her own. With that, she left you with grandpa and disappeared just two days after you were born.

It must have been extremely difficult raising a child on his own, but grandpa did his best to take care of you despite his age. He worked at a farm nearby, and did so well past his retirement age. However, a few months ago, he suffered an injury to his spine from an accident at work. As a result, he was paralyzed from the waist below, forcing him to retire.

Without a source of income, you soon ran out of money and had no choice but to steal food to survive. That said, you didn't condone stealing as you knew how it would cause trouble for the shopkeepers who themselves suffered from poverty. But seeing grandpa look weaker and weaker by the day made you fear for his life and forced yourself to go through with it.

❋❋❋

The first time you stole a loaf of bread... you got caught.

"Give that back you little piece of shit!" the shop owner yells at you.

"I-I'm sorry, my Grandpa... he's sick! Please... just let me have a little piece." you beg him.

"Huh? What does that matter to me? If you ain't got no money, you ain't getting no bread. Now give that back!" He retaliates.

Realizing you had no other choice, you attempt to run away with the bread. The fully grown adult chases after you and tackles you rather easily. Having pinned you to the ground, the sweaty shop owner starts beating you up.

As the barrage of amateur fists rained down on you, the pain and fatigue kicks in, causing you to lose your grip on the loaf of bread as it slips through your fingers and falls on the ground.

"Look at what you did, now no one's gonna eat it!" the shop owner rebukes you.

Seeing it was no longer edible, he kicks you in the gut once more for good measure and leaves. You drag your battered-up body over to the dirt-covered loaf of bread and dust it off. You return home limping on one leg, and share it with grandpa.

This became the norm for the next few years. You'd steal food two or three times a week and get caught every so often. One day, you nearly get stabbed by a drunk shop owner after stealing a loaf of bread from his stall and barely escape with your life. As difficult as it was, you had to keep grandpa alive as he was all you had.

As time passed, you quickly gained a reputation for being a thief which predictably led most people around to dislike you. You even gained a nickname, 'The notorious Bread-Bandit' as the other kids from the neighborhood started bullying you.

Fortunately enough, they let you into public school as the law prevented discrimination when it comes to basic education. However, it didn't help you make friends at all as your reputation got ahead of you. The bullies from your neighborhood only made it worse as every time you approached someone new, they would spill the beans and discourage them from associating with you.

Six years pass since your grandpa got paralyzed.

Getting used to the pathetic circumstances life threw at you made you stronger. The streets of Shiganshina weren't the easiest place to grow up in. However, as time went by, you got better at running away.

You memorized every street, every corner, every nook, and cranny of the district and learned to use it to your advantage. You became more agile and could get around easily through the narrow alleyways that the adults couldn't fit in.

In a way, the city itself became your ally under dire circumstances to the point where it practically felt like an extension of yourself. Even though you had no friends or family besides grandpa, you found a sense of belonging in Shiganshina itself. You started to realize that it was your turf! No one could outmatch you as long as you were in the familiar streets of your hometown.

Stealing food became a breeze. You no longer woke up sweating in fear of the day ahead. In fact, you had become such a masterful thief that you could've stolen more than just food and gotten away with it. But there was still some childlike sincerity left in you that kept you from doing so.

Even though the other kids still disliked you, they couldn't bully you anymore as you learned to stand up for yourself. As life was starting to get a little easier, little did you know that things are about to take a turn for the worst.