Answers

Chapter 7

Damn.

I'm so out of breath!

As I take a break from our sparring, I watch Annie practicing her kicks.

Where does she get her stamina from?

"Hey Annie, aren't you tired?"

"Nope," she answers, ever the conversationalist.

"Come on, take a break anyway."

Sighing, she stops and turns to face me, catching the bottle of water I had just thrown to her.

As she's drinking, I can see that she is eyeing me with suspicion.

I wonder what she's thinking...

When our eyes meet, she quickly averts her gaze.

"Here, sit down."

I beckon for her to take a seat next to me.

Reluctantly, she makes her way over to where I pointed but she sits a bit further away from me than I intended.

"Hey, can I ask you something?"

"You can ask but I can't promise that I'll answer." she replies.

What an annoying response.

"What's it like outside the walls?"

She paused, as if thinking over her response.

"Honestly, I don't know," she finally answers.

"What do you mean?"

"Where I come from... we're not as free as you may think," she replies.

I hardly know anything about Annie or where she grew up except for my own fathers experiences that he recorded in some journals and left in the basement for me.

This could be my chance to press further...

"So what is it like where you grew up?"

She stops and stares at me, as though contemplating whether to tell me anything.

"It's nothing special but it's different than here," she says.

"You don't sound overly fond of it, why were you so desperate to get back there?"

She suddenly shoots me a very cold look.

Still... I have to hold my ground so I stare back at her, waiting for an answer.

"It's home and I have someone waiting for me..." she finally answers, albeit reluctantly.

A boyfriend!? No... wait. The math doesn't add up there, she was a child when she infiltrated the wall with Reiner and Bertholdt.

Come to think of it, I seem to recall her mention her father once.

"... your father?"

She nods.

"What about your mother?"

Her shoulders stiffen slightly and she doesn't respond.

"So tell me about your father. He taught you to fight, right?"

"Yeah. We were never particularly close but right before I had to leave..." she trails off.

I sit silently and patiently but she doesn't continue of her own accord.

"What happened?"

I try my best to be as gentle as possible.

"... he made me promise that I'd return," she says quietly, looking as though she was remembering a distant memory.

I feel a pang of guilt and sorrow when she says that because I know it's very unlikely she'll ever be able to return home.

I feel sorry for Annie but not for her father.

What sort of man sends his young daughter off to kill innocent people and risks her life in the process?

The more I think about it, the angrier I become but I don't want to show it on my face or say anything so I bite my tongue and swallow my feelings.

"I'm sorry..."

"Huh?" she asks, taken aback.

As I look forward, I can feel her eyes burning into the side of my face.

"Why are you apologizing?" she asks softly.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up and... I'm sorry that you're in this position."

I genuinely feel that way. Why did any of this have to happen? She never stood a chance, being raised to fight since she was a child.

She's never known anything else. I want to show her though, that there's still a choice... there's still time to change course and redeem herself.

"It's not your fault. It's just the way things are... that we ended up on opposite sides," she responds quietly, on the verge of being a whisper.

"Do you ever think about what might have been? If the world was different?"

"There's no point. This is reality. It's a waste of time thinking about it," she answers rather abruptly.

"I do. I often think about it, about you... um, Reiner too and Bertholdt. It all could have been so different."

When I look up at her, she's staring at the floor with a sad expression on her face. I don't know if she'd actually been listening but looking at her face now... if she had heard what I said then I think she must've thought about these things too.

Not that she'd ever tell me.

"Anyway, you've probably had enough of talking about this."

Lightly nodding, she turns to face me.

"It's about time for you to head back now isn't it?" she asks.

"Oh, umm... yeah, sorry."

"It's okay, I'm tired now anyway," she replies.

I thought she said earlier that she wasn't tired? Or have I emotionally exhausted her?

"Okay, I'm ready when you are."

She nods to let me know that she's ready but the glum expression on her face bothers me... maybe I can bring her a little something next time, to cheer her up.

"Hey Annie, um... is there anything you want?"

"My freedom," she states bluntly.

I can't tell if she's joking or not so I let out a dry laugh... awkward.

"I've told you before but you're not very funny, you know? Anyway, I meant like some food you like or something?"

I stand there watching her as she appears to be thinking very hard about it. She looks to be mulling it over with an unusually serious look on her face... it was weirdly cute.

"I like d... do... d," she begins, looking a bit embarrassed.

"..."

"... donuts" she finally manages to say.

Donuts? Wait, why was she so embarrassed about that?

I can't help but chuckle a little until I spot her glaring at me.

"Ahem... so donuts huh? So you like sweet stuff... I'll have to make a note of that. Okay, I'll make sure to bring them next time."

Blink and you'd miss it but I'm sure I saw a small smile on her face after I said that.

I escort her back to her cell in silence and we bid each other farewell.

So I learned something new about Annie today. It may not have been useful but it was nice to see a different side to her though.