Violets (Mikannie)

14 - Repercussions

Happy Tuesday! Did anybody else watch Game of Thrones yesterday?
---

Eren didn't speak to Mikasa on the whole walk back to her house. She could tell that he didn't agree with the plan to relocate Annie to Mikasa's house, but he hadn't spoken up about it.

When they came to the front door, Mikasa finally broke. "Please, just say something! Anything!"

"I can't believe you're dating her, of all people," Eren said in a whisper.

"Why are you so mad about me dating Annie?" Mikasa responded.

"Uh, did you miss the whole part where she was trying to kill us?"

"You know as well as I do that she didn't want that life!"

Eren stepped back, his face in shock. Mikasa never shouted.

"I've always gone along with what you wanted to do, Eren," she continued. "Why can't you just be happy for me?"

"You've known her for a week, Mikasa! You didn't care about her in training, and you can't fall in love with somebody in this amount of time - you aren't in love with her, you're in love with the idea of her!"

It was Mikasa's turn to be shocked. She swallowed to keep back the tears.

"Let's just go inside," she said, trying to keep her voice steady.

She preferred it when Eren wasn't speaking to her.

--

Meanwhile, back at Armin's house, tensions were high. Armin was silent, thinking about all the things they had learned that day (though mainly the fact that Damien was looking for them), and Annie was silent because she was Annie. However, she was busy thinking about the fact that she had confessed her love to Mikasa, and Mikasa had accepted her, even making her her girlfriend. It made Annie feel... Happy? To be fair, she wasn't sure if what she was feeling was happiness or something else. She hadn't had much time to be happy before, except maybe when she was very small. Her father had put her through rigorous training, and then she had had more training after that, and then she had infiltrated another training camp, and there hadn't been any reason for her to be happy then, had there?

"Oh! I just realised something!"

Annie turned to face Armin, who had interrupted her musing.

"You don't have any birth records, or anything like that. You won't be able to get a job or a driver's licence because you don't legally exist - well, you do have records, presumably, but they're from two hundred odd years ago and well the jobs office won't really accept "trapped in a crystal for a hundred and fifty years" as an excuse, will they? But I mean, the government would probably take you into custody because you're a titan shifter, or you'd get put into a psychiatric hospital like-"

"What are you trying to say?" Annie interrupted.

"We need to make up some records for you," Armin said sheepishly. "Or we can buy some on the dark web."

"Huh," Annie said, pretending she knew what the dark web was.

They went back to being silent.

"Your grandfather comes back tomorrow, right?" Annie asked.

"Oh- yeah, he does! With everything that's been happening, I'd forgotten about that. Well, you'll have been in and out of this house without having to meet him, I guess. It's kind of a shame, because he's not too bad of a person."

"Is he a reincarnation of your grandfather from the other life as well?"

"I... Don't know," Armin said. "He might be, but he doesn't remember anything that happened back then. I guess Grandpa's just a universal constant."

Again, more silence.

"So, are you happy knowing that Reiner's alive?"

"What?" Annie asked.

"Did you forget about the video we watched earlier? I wouldn't blame you, a lot's happened since then."

"No, I remember watching it. I was shocked, that was all." Annie hugged her knees. "I guess I'm happy. But we don't know where he is."

"But we could find out!" Armin said enthusiastically. "With the internet, I could look him up on social media!"

"I still don't know what that is," Annie said.

"I'll explain later," Armin told her. "We're gonna find your friends."

--

Elsewhere, later that night, a boy walked into a 24-hour Minimart. The place was deserted; aside from him, there was only the checkout guy and the homeless looking girl asleep outside. The boy took a deep breath to relieve the stress he was under, but it didn't help. He still felt nauseous and headachy, and the flourescent lighting that flickered overhead wasn't helping.

The boy decided to ignore his dizziness and took a bottle of water from the refrigerator. He walked up to the counter.

"Just this?" The old man behind the register asked. The boy nodded. "Dollar twenty."

The boy dug around in the pocket of his jacket, pulled out a two dollar coin, and placed it on the counter. The old man completed the transaction with a "have a good night," and the boy turned to move off. He turned back, remembering something. He paused.

Stupid. You shouldn't have turned around. You don't know which bus to take because you don't know where he is. Now you'll have to talk to this guy or risk looking like a fool.

"You need anything?" The man asked. The boy stood with his mouth agape, then shut it.

"No, sorry. Goodbye."

The boy pulled his jacket closer to himself and walked to the door, before somebody spoke.

"I seen you somewhere before?"

"Pardon?" The boy looked down and saw that the girl next to the door was the speaker. And she looked familiar. The boy's heart started hammering harder.

"I asked if we'd met before. You look like someone I know. Or, knew."

"N- no, I don't think so. Bye." The boy moved to leave. He could feel the sweat drenching his forehead.

"Musta been someone else, then. Hey, don't leave. Siddown." The girl moved over, and the boy, after some consideration, sat opposite her. "You a runaway?"

The boy just looked at her.

"Well, you look all spooked like one. Something scare you off?"

"It's nothing," the boy said, clearly lying.

"Huh," the girl said. "If you say so." She leaned back against the concrete wall. "You watch any YouTube?"

The boy looked at her weirdly.

"Y'know, YouTubers. Charlie James, History Gal, Dane Shawson - you watch him?"

"Yeah, Dane Shawson."

"He's cool, I guess. Seen any of his new stuff?"

"The- the Geoffrey Nebula documentary?" The boy asked. He didn't like where the girl was going with the conversation.

The girl gave him an 'are you serious?' look. "His conspiracy videos. You know, reincarnation and that."

"I, I don't know what you're-"

"Cut the bullshit." The girl's jovial tone had disappeared. "Listen. Here's what I think happened. You were just cruising one day, and you put on a video by your fave YouTuber Dane. But one of the boys in that video was the spitting image of the boy who had appeared in your dreams, and you didn't know what to believe. Then you remembered all the terrible things you did and you took off because the only person who never saw you as a monster is locked up in a hospital in another city." The girl leaned forward. "It's kinda romantic, when you take out the genocide thing."

The boy was pale, in a state of shock. "How did you-"

The girl raised her eyebrows. "You ain't the only one to see your soulmate online. Course, I'd be willing to help you find yours." She moved her jacket, and pulled out a manila folder. The boy's eyes lit up and he moved his hand towards the folder, but the girl pulled it away. "Nah-uh. You've got to do something for me in return."