Nest & Wings (Annie Leonhardt x Male Reader)

Chapter 06: The Bitter Rivals

Two weeks pass since you started training with Annie,

Instructor Keith focused on physical training that day and put you through a grueling exercise schedule. After finishing the routine, you were lying down, completely beat up and exhausted. You could almost picture your bed and wanted to call it a day.

But your dreams are short-lived as Annie walks over and kicks your shoulder saying, "Get up!" You desperately bring yourself to your feet and follow Annie to your usual training spot. As tired as you were, you knew there was no way out of it and that it was worth going through.

You've only been training with her for about two weeks or so, but you already felt significantly stronger than you were before. Whatever Annie's doing worked, so you put your faith in her and follow through despite how strenuous it was.

Eren sees the two of you heading off to train and asks, "Annie, will you teach me too?"

She responds, "I've got my hands full right now. Besides... you'd rather teach me how to behave, wouldn't you?"

"That was Reiner's idea! Also, didn't you already kick my ass for that?" Eren retaliates.

"You came at me with everything you had, so I had to defend myself. In fact, shouldn't you have gone easy on me because I'm a frail little girl?" Annie asks.

Eren gets frustrated. "Huh? Your jokes really aren't funny, you know. If you're so weak, then why was I the one left lying on my neck?" He questions her.

"Come at me and we'll find out." She gets into her stance and challenges him the same way she did when you asked her to train you.

As Eren charges towards her with all his strength, Annie grabs him around his shoulder and neck and trips him using her leg. Even after taking him down, she keeps holding on to him and continues to increase pressure on his shoulder.

"It's not about size and strength, it's skill and technique that lets even the weak win a fight." Annie imparts her wisdom on him.

"Alright, I give up! I give up!! Let go..." Eren begs her.

Annie tightens her grip further and says, "Learn how to use your strength and how to talk to a girl."

You could see Eren's face go red as Annie wraps herself around him. But it soon starts to turn blue as his blood flow gets cut off. Somehow, seeing that made you uncomfortable in a way you didn't quite understand. Was it because of the way Eren looked like he was about to die? Or was it something else altogether? You keep thinking to yourself.

As Annie kept tightening her grip on Eren, Reiner comes flying out of nowhere and crashes on to him. Annie lets go of her grip just in time to dodge.

Mikasa walks up to her and sarcastically says, "Hey Annie, why don't you teach me that technique as well...?" But the death glare on her face basically implied 'get off my man, you whore.'

As far as you could tell, Annie didn't seem to have any feelings for Eren. But the way she held on to him was somewhat suggestive, and Eren seemed to get flustered by it. That's probably what triggered Mikasa. As tough as she was, she would easily get jealous when Eren was involved.

"I dunno, this one's for humans. I don't see what you'd need it for. Though I'm interested to see if it works on wild animals." Annie says while returning an equally daunting glare at Mikasa.

Things started to heat up between the two and the atmosphere got really tense as they stood across from each other with an air of intensity as if they were about to fight.

"It's the ultimate showdown! Who do you think is gonna win?" Sasha asks everyone as they gathered around in awe.

"Probably Annie right?" Marco says while Jean objects. "Huh? Are you stupid? I'd bet my dinner on Mikasa."

"Who do you think will win?" Reiner asks Eren, but he didn't seem to have an answer.

While you personally rooted for Annie, you try to analyze the situation objectively. It was obvious that Mikasa was physically stronger than Annie. She was also better than her at almost everything else. But hand to hand combat was Annie's specialty.

It was already established that she had superior technique and could easily offset her opponent's strength by using their own momentum against them. So at that point, you figure it really could go either way.

Everyone watched with much anticipation as Annie gets into her stance and stares at Mikasa, ready to fight. Mikasa starts moving towards her, but to everyone's shock and disappointment, she walks right past Annie, ignoring her altogether.

She walks over to Eren and says, "Stay away from people like that!" while helping him to his feet.

Eren wasn't a fan of Mikasa treating him like a kid and complained saying "I can take care of myself."

Eren's frustration however, was nothing compared to the look on Annie's face as she stood still. She looked extremely furious as she must have felt humiliated by Mikasa blatantly ignoring her when she was genuinely prepared to fight.

Mikasa was a rather calm individual and didn't involve herself in quarrels like Eren. But you learn that she's masterfully passive aggressive, so much so that calling what she did 'disrespectful' would be an understatement.

"That stuck-up bitch has got to learn a lesson." Annie says to herself as you approach her.

You were surprised by how angry Annie was, as she barely ever showed emotion. She avoided conversation and generally kept things to herself most of the time. But at this moment, she was completely overcome with animosity towards Mikasa.

She wasn't alone in that thought as you too were irritated by Mikasa's deliberate show of disrespect— especially considering how Annie was your teacher after all. With that, you decide to yourself, "Annie's too good for Mikasa, I'll beat her up myself" which positively motivated you to train harder.

After what transpired, one thing was obvious: Annie and Mikasa are definitely going to be bitter rivals going forward.