She Who Seemed Heartless

Chapter 7

A good, hard beating would be deserving to be given to Armin right at that moment. She stomped her way to the other blond and tried to reach for the phone, but he lifted it up, wherein she failed due to his height advantage.

"What the hell have you done... Give that to me", Annie snarled, in which Armin responded by shaking his head. She continued, "I swear to God, Armin Arlert I will destroy that thing once I get my hands on it."

"Don't do that! If you do, you'll be destroying your pretty face in the picture here", he spat in a teasing manner.

Defeated, she went back to Rina and tried to hide her anger but gravely failed. "I want this stupid thing off of me. Let's go and change back." And they did, though they paid for them at the cashier. Annie didn't have a choice.

They spent the rest of the day entering any store they find interesting. Oddly enough, Annie was starting to enjoy what she was doing with her new family. She was also introduced to shops she didn't know existed, and took note of some that piqued her interest. At last, they were able to buy Annie a phone. Armin did all of the talking to the salesman since they wanted to give Annie the same one as his. Their last destination was a restaurant.

As they were having dinner, a heavy voice called out to Annie. All four of them turned to see who he was, and there stood two noticeably huge men. One was slim though, but taller than the other one who's more masculine. Annie immediately recognized who they were. "Hey."

"What kind of greeting is that? Aren't you happy to see your friends?"

'Friends? She had friends?', Armin thought deeply.

"Uhmmm, who might these two gentlemen be, Annie?", Rina asked, a bit taken aback by their appearance.

"This is Reiner", she pointed to the bigger man and then to the taller one. "And this is Bertholdt. We were from the same orphanage."

"Hello! You might be Annie's new family. Thank you for taking care of her. And ma'am, that was a nice dress you bought for her", Reiner greeted and a boisterous laughter followed suit after the last sentence. Annie transformed into a villainous snake after hearing that and requited in a venomous voice.

"I will kill you, you son of a bi—"

"N-Now, now. Let's all get along. H-Hello there", Bertholdt cut the tension in a more polite and friendly manner.

"You have... big friends, Annie. Who should've known?"

Did Armin say that as a compliment or insult? Annie loathed the way how he uses his words ambiguously. It made things difficult for her to fully study his genius. Whether he has high intelligence logically or just a sly mouth, she could not decide.

Or maybe both.

Reiner however, took it offensively and counterattacked. "And who might this little fella be?" Armin felt frightened somehow and failed to answer him without stuttering.

"I-I'm Armin Arlert. I live with my aunt and uncle, who happen to be Annie's parents now."

"I see. So you're like cousins." The blond liked Bertholdt more. He was gentler with his words and approach.

They were both welcomed by the family and were asked what food they want to have, though the two declined the offer in a respectable manner. Reiner sat next to Annie and was having conversations to all of them, just whoever responds with his statements. Bertholdt on the other hand was more focused to chatter with just Armin, whom he sat next to. He rarely talked about him and his other friend but instead about Annie. From how they met, befriended her (which took about a year), how they spent their time together, etc. Armin noticed something from the tall man which made his heart ache a bit.