*Five Years Later*
I was seventeen years old during my first day of training after enlisting to be a part of the military. It took me tremendous courage to finally get the will to enlist after the scaring events I witnessed five years ago. I searched and asked everywhere when we first made it to wall rose if any one would have seen my parents. Not one person knew of them so because of that, I had to come to the realization that I was the only one to survive and I will have to keep surviving on their behalf. I studied up on the titans to gain any knowledge about them before enlisting to find that not much information was offered to the public brains. I figured the sooner I would enlist, the sooner I would know more about the creatures so i did just that.
After getting a thrilling speech from our new sergeant, he began to pick on us at random one by one. I was near the back of the rows so I didn't get to see the lucky few he decided to pinpoint near the front. There was only one I really heard about though, a girl named Sasha who apparently was caught eating a potato during roll. Not soon after hearing about it did I see and hear the sergeant yell at her to begin running until she collapsed. Tough luck but at least she would burn off the calories.
Before dinner, we were assigned our cabins in which we would be staying in for the next few years. I was put in a cabin with, ironically enough, Sasha, a petite blonde girl named Christa, and another blonde, yet intimidating woman named Annie, I didn't directly meet any of them at first, our names were just on a list and I was the first to put my stuff down in the house. I flopped down on the bottom bunk of two and exhaled a sigh of exhaustion . I started to close my eyes just to be disturbed by the dinner bell ringing loud and clear.I groaned and hoisted myself up quick enough to meet the gaze of Annie staring at me like an insect under a microscope. Taken a back, I almost swung my fist at her in surprise. Almost.
"So, you're Elizabeth?" she spoke. Her voice matched her appearance, that's for sure.
"Yeah, you're Annie, right?" I asked her back, already knowing my answer. I spoke with such confidence that I thought maybe she has never heard it coming from someone else directed at her before. Her eyes slightly widened and there was a small smile on the corner of her mouth.
"Yeah," she extended out her hand to help me up which I took willingly, "you don't seem too bad."
"Nor do you." I smiled, trying my best to be friendly to a person who I didn't think anyone could be friendly towards to be honest. She rejected my kindness, of course, and with that turned her head away from me to throw her bag down on the top bunk above me and to also turn around to leave the cabin.
"Come on, dinner isn't going to wait for you or me."
"I'll be there in a second, go without me." she rolled her eyes and left without saying another word. I turned to my bag, almost forgetting about it, to find the picture I never gave back to Armin five years ago when I first met him on the day from hell. It brought me luck and happiness in the sick time i was living in. After finding it,I stuck it in my back pocket and left to go to the dinner that would apparently not wait for me.
Ever since the day I lost my direction in the town, I had a hard time ever getting it back and since it was dark, that didn't help me much. Our cabin was on the outside of the premises so just like I once did, I had to navigate my way through the identical cabins, trying to follow the light of the mess hall. I began to get anxiety of being alone so my slow walked quickly turned into a run and as if it was deja vu, I ran into someone when taking a sharp right. I ran right into the said person's back, pushing them right into the ground. After a moment of silence and realization, I got up quickly, trying not to injure the person anymore.
"Dammit, I'm so sorry-" then I noticed long blonde hair that I saw before. He rubbed his back for a second before standing up and turning around to face me with the deep blue eyes I never thought I would see again that widened at my presence.
"A-Armin?" I stuttered.
"Well, looks like we would see each other again!" he smirked as he pulled me in for a hug. He was still kind of small but his voice got a tad deeper and he seemed to have gotten a confidence radiating from him that I didn't see when I saw him five years ago. I hugged him back for about a couple seconds before pulling back to do something I've been waiting to do for years now. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the drawing. His eyes glanced at the paper, up to me, and back down to the paper again as if he was confused. I opened it up to portray the picture to him.
"Five years ago when we first ran into each other, this dropped from your book and stuck to my shoe. I've held onto it, not knowing what it was and wanting to return it, so here you go." he hesitantly grabbed it, not believing I held on to his single picture for about five years. He smiled and looked at me with excitement.
"You don't know what the ocean is I'm guessing?" he inquired, happiness gleaming in his eyes as I shook my head, "Well, I'll just have to educate you then! Let's go to my cabin."
"You don't mind skipping dinner?" my stomache was too filled with butterflies to eat anyway.
"No, I'm sure Eren will save me something. Are you okay with missing the food?" I nodded and we slowly walked together, shoulder to shoulder, just talking.
We must have been talking for an hour or so. I learned all about his parents and their studies, his dreams and knowledge, and in that time I also told him about myself. Ever since my family died I never really had anyone close that I could call my friend or even more than that. I studied his every detail, in awe of him like i was five years ago and I never missed a word he said. It was perfect until Eren came back with some bread and a sour look on his face.
"Why weren't you at dinner"?
"I was busy talking to Elizabeth." he shot me a smile as I waved my hand at Eren.
"Hi, Eren, nice to meet you." I offered to shake his hand which he reluctantly gave me. I could tell that his personality was one that was stubborn and he seemed to have a deep passion for something that I couldn't put my finger on.
"Nice to meet you too." He looked at me and quickly and I felt like I was in an awkward situation so I decided it was best to make my leave.
"On that note, I think I should probably get going. I missed dinner and all of this talking sure did make me tired. I'll see you around, Arlert." I said standing up to walk out of the door. We exchanged goodbyes and promises to see each other again as the training went on and with that I made my walk back to my cabin to have one of the best nights sleep I have ever had. I accomplished my first goal and I was finally happy.
A/N: I'm sorry it took a while to upload this, I have had a lot going on as far as getting into the swing of summer and ending school, and blah blah blah excuses but it is up and I'm going to try to keep up with this story and hopefully release a new chapter every week or every other week. For those who are reading, thank you so much! Drop a vote, add to your library idc i will appreciate any kind of feedback I get! -Brie xx
