Love & Crime

Cheers!

[Eren's POV]

Everything about you is so mysterious. But I could say the same for everyone. But I just can't place what it is about you. I've only just met you.

"Shirley temple. And sure. I'd love to."

I raise my brows. I was a bit surprised. She didn't seem like the social type. I'm surprised she's in this whole gig.

We make our way over to the bar.

"Two Shirley's with gin please." She says so coldly.

There is never a hint of emotion in her voice, even when she accepted my offer. She almost sounds like she's incapable of showing emotion. Her voice is always so stoic. You cannot even hint a slice of emotion or mood.

"Here you are, enjoy!" The cheerful bar tender smiles.

Annie takes her drink and takes a sip as she walks away.

She's walking away. Wait. Why is she walking away?

I grab my drink and hurry after her.

"Wow, you sure like to be on your feet." I nip at her.

"No point in doing nothing and sitting around. Plus I'm going back to the lobby. I hate the main hall. Too loud." She opens the door to the lobby we were in.

When we enter the private room, no one even seems to look in our direction. They all seemed to be doing their own thing.

Porco and Pieck still asleep, well, atleast Pieck was.

Reiner was black out drunk.

Bertholt and Armin were talking about innovations for their "company".

Jean, Colt, Connie, Mikasa, Sasha, and Marcel were playing poker. Except Connie and Sasha had no idea what they were doing.

Annie scoffs under her breath and takes another sip of her drink.

She makes her way towards an empty spot on the sofa.

Uh... Do I follow or is she signaling me to go away...?

"Eren. You're back." Armin smiles. "Almost all the food was eaten but don't worry. I saved your plate. It was terrifying to keep Sasha from grabbing at it. You should thank Mikasa for that. She was able to restrain her."

I look over at Mikasa and shoot her a smile of gratitude and she just smiles and nods then goes back to her card game.

I go over to the wrapped plate of mine and sit at an empty elevated bar against the wall and a stool and begin to chow down.

It's delicious!!

I savor more of it. I missed warm meals. I've been eating canned foods and microwaveables for so long.

"Poutine, huh?" A voice behind me asks.

I turn my head over my shoulder to see Annie.

Her brow is raised. Her voice was still emotionless.

"Yea. First time I ever had it. It's pretty good."

"Hmph." She pulls out a stool next to me and sits. Her drink is already finished and she chews on the remaining cherries.

I take a sip of mine. It's definitely a favorite already.

"So. What kind of trouble were you in that you had to come here?" She asks.

I stop eating.

Trying to dig deep huh? Already?

"Financial trouble. Too much gambling and I hadn't been able to pay rent either. All when I was 18. I was in so deep that I wasn't able to buy food either. At that point I began stealing. When Mikasa found out she told me to come here. She fixed me up real quick." I stare into the wall infront of me.

"Sounds about right."

"Huh? Are you trying to check my story? Do you think I'm lying?" I interrogate her to call her bluff and cover.

"No. Not at all. It's just that's what Mikasa told us so I wanted to see if it was true. This is a strict business. We've had several moles in the system before. Certainly don't need another. Do you understand what I'm getting at here?" She looks at me.

I look back at her. "Yeah. But trust me I'm not like that. Do I look smart to you? Smart enough to pull a whole spy mission off?"

"You don't look stupid either."

I let out a little giggle. It was soft and almost undetectable but still there.

"So what about you? Why did you come here? In fact what about everyone else?" I question her trying to gain as much information as possible.

"I guess it's only fair you know a little bit about us." She begins. "Colt over there was personally taken in by one of our higher ups (Zeke). Colt is like a little brother to the higher up, practically. He saw Colt was left with nothing and decided to give him a place to stay and thrive. Connie and Sasha were too stupid to amount to anything else, so Levi recruited them. He hated to see such youth rot away. Turns out the two were pretty useful when it came to the transports. You know, goods and stocks. Jean, he was a huge gambler. But unlike you, he was good. He knew what he was doing. One of the downtown clubs out boss owns saw Jean and wanted his services. Jean quickly accepted, he knew how rich he would get, and so fast as well. Marcel and Porco, they are brothers and worked for their father's investment company. Well, they were younger and interning at the time. Their father had ties with our company, and decided it would be for better financial interest that he send his sons to work for us. Pieck also worked for Mr. Galliard. She and the brothers interned in the same lot. So they all knew each other before they came here. She was also sent here for the same reason. Mikasa and Armin worked for lowtime dealers. Armin was the brain, could find the best value and quantity for a deal. That's what caught our boss' attention. He needed a tactical genius like Armin. Mikasa was also spotted. She could fight like hell and was incredibly strong. She was the muscle. If anyone tried to cheat their exchanges, she made sure she left them a painful reminder. Me, Reiner and Bertholt were taken in by, well, default. We had relations to this company the day we were born. Our parents were involved in this company, but didn't want us to be involved. When they disappeared, we took their places."

It was a lot to take in but I've got it for the most part.

"So how long have you been here?" I ask.

"All of us has been here about the same time. 2 years." She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear.

"That's not too long." I take a sip of my drink.

"Yea... not too long."

She gets up. "Cmon, I wanna show you something."

I get up and follow her out the door.

She takes me to the elevator. We go to the top floor.  She takes me out onto the balcony.

The fresh air feels so good. The summer breeze feels so good on a night like this.

She steps towards the edge of the balcony and leans against the railing.

"It's beautiful isn't it." She says calmly. Her voice wasn't stoic and plain this time. It was relaxed. Relieved.

I look at her.

"Yeah. It is."