When you Came Back ( Yumikuri / Ymir x Historia )

Chapter 19: For Love

Historia stepped down into the dungeon, where she had cried her eyes out just a couple of months ago. That all seemed like a lifetime ago, now. Historia had asked Hitch to come with her, as her personal body guard but also because she had heard that Hitch and Annie had been roommates.

When she entered the dungeon, she spotted the fellow blonde girl, curled up behind the bar, still dressed in a four year old military police uniform.
"I have to say", her cold and emotionless voice spoke, "out of all people, I didn't expect you to come here, Krista".
The sound of her former, fake name caught her off guard, slapping all those memories, that she had thrown away, back into her face. That was right. Annie didn't know anything. She was living in a different world.

"Actually, it's Historia now", she corrected, "Queen Historia".
"Queen?", Annie replied, turning her head and raising an eyebrow, "don't tell me you're incharge of all these bastards?".
Historia opened her mouth to speak, but Hitch spoke before her.
"What's wrong with you, Annie?", Hitch asked, "when I told you to be more sociable, I didn't mean go and kill a bunch of people!".
"Hitch", Annie stated, noticing who the Queen's bodyguard was, "I-I'm sorry. I had no choice".

"We understand now", Historia told Annie, "it's been four years and we know everything about Marley and The Great Titan War".
"Four years? And you know?...you didn't hurt them, did you...?", Annie asked, her icy-blue eyes fixed on Historia, "tell me that they're alive. That they made it home".
"Do you mean those two guys? Reiner and Bertholdt...?", Hitch asked, her expression darkening and her eyes flicking to the ground.
Historia took a deep breath before replying.

"Bertholdt is dead", she stated, bluntly, "and Reiner... He did go home but he's probably dead too, now".
Although Annie's glass eyes were glistening, her expression remained solid cold.
"Did you kill them?", She asked, piercing into Historia's soul with her glare.
"Me? No. I didn't go into battle. If you're asking if someone from Paradis killed one of them, then yes. Bertholdt was killed by an Eldian from Paradis. Armin ate him and now posses the Collosal Titan. We don't know if Reiner is dead, but if he is, someone living in Marley would have killed him. Why does it matter where their killers were from, anyway?", Historia replied, keeping her tone calm.

Annie sighed, turning her head away from Historia to look at the ground.
"A-Armin...?", she said to herself.
"So are you going to hold a personal grudge against him now?", Historia asked, in an accusatory tone, "it wasn't his fault that Bertholdt appeared to be the enemy".
"And to us it looked like all of you people from Paradis were the enemy!", Annie replied, raising her voice, "it wasn't personal at all! It was because you had the world flattening weapon and you were in the way of us being treated like decent human beings! We had no choice but to see you as the enemy! We were just trying to survive!".

Tears finally started to roll down Annie's face, as she avoided eye contact with Hitch and Historia.
"Bertholdt died because he wanted freedom for the Eldians and a peaceful life for his family. None of you will ever understand", Annie sobbed, before brushing away her tears and straightening her face.

"Maybe I won't ever understand", Historia sighed, "but Ymir does".
Annie gasped, looking back into Historia's eyes, after the mention of Ymir; Ymir had promised to help her during her previous interaction.
"It took me a while, but I'm sure I understand Ymir now", Historia went on, "and through that, I reached some degree of understanding you, Reiner and Bertholdt. There were just too many cracks".
"What do you mean, 'cracks'?", Annie asked.

"Well, when we discovered all your identies, we all assumed you were pure evil. All except Ymir. She even agreed to go back to Marley with Reiner and Bertholdt so that they wouldn't be killed for loosing the Jaw Titan and the Female Titan. She gave her life up for them, because she was the only one who understood. Reiner did end up saving her, however, which is how she made it back here. The only reason she left him was because she lost her memories but sadly, her coming back here could have resulted in Reiner's death. It just didn't make sense for Ymir to sympathise with some evil mass murderers", Historia explained.

"Maybe not evil, but still mass murderers", Annie stated, looking at the ground.
"It's fine. I'm trying my best to understand, and I promise, I will help. I couldn't not help you, even if I tried, because Ymir is my reason to live and this is what she would want", Historia smiled.

"Thank you", Annie got out.
Her eyes still sparkled with tears, her body trembled and her throat was clogged, due to just learning of her two friends' deaths.
"I'll give you some time alone to process that information but I'll come to see you quite often. So will Hitch", Historia told Annie before exiting the dungeon.

***

And so, Historia continued to talk to Annie throughout the next six months. The girl had clearly barriered up her already shattered soul, but eventually Historia was able to understand her better, and she was able to eventually put more trust in the Queen. Historia was constantly overloaded with work and wedding planning, but seeing the subtle changes in Annie gave her a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

She, also, always had something to look forward to, as, once every two weeks, she would take a horse drawn carriage to the coast to spend a weekend with her fiancé. Those weekends were definitely the best part of those six months; Historia would never forget the feeling of the soft white sand between her toes, as the foamy ocean gently lapped at her ankles, or the candle-lit nights spent in oak-wood huts, that greatly resembled those from her training days, or the lingering scent of Ymir, under the angelic white bedsheets. The feeling of Ymir's soft fingertips running across her skin was surely the closest she could get to heaven in this world.

She would constantly feed Ymir her progress with Annie, and the way her lips would softly curve upwards into a smile was enough a sign of pride. It was enough to make life worth living and her work worth doing. Historia knew that she was not only helping Paradis and her subjects, but she was doing what made herself and Ymir happy and that in itself made her problems seem like they had already been solved.

Then, it finally came to the day when Historia would kiss Ymir goodbye and pull away from her embrace to leave the coast for the very last time, as in two weeks time, Ymir would visit the Capital, instead of Historia visiting the coast. The past six months seemed to have dragged for hundreds of years, although they didn't feel at all wasted and in them were memories that would last until death - even beyond death. However, neither of them felt at all saddened that six months had ended, as it was now, finally, time for the Grand Wedding.