3, 6, 9. 13
all writing behind the cut, skip to each section if you prefer. I went with:
3, Sadness. Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan, Annie Leonhardt. (content warning for mild post-anime spoilers, up to manga chapter 44)
6, Admiration + 9, Hatred. Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan, Bertholdt Fubar/Hoover x Reiner Braun. (content warning for post-anime spoilers, mention of self-injury, negative self-image/body dysphoria, very mildly suggestive content)
13, Pity. Transistor, Red and Sybil. (spoilers for first boss fight)
3 Sadness. Shingeki no Kyojin, Annie Leonhardt.
[SPOILERS FOLLOW]
Annie had to admit to herself, with great reluctance, that Mikasa was interesting. She reminded Annie of herself, really. Perhaps Mikasa was an example of what Annie could have been, if the lone wolf had only allowed herself a pack.
Annie could never quite shake her curiosity about Mikasa, though. It inadvertently had led to an unspoken rivalry, which came to a head one day during a hand-to-hand combat training session. Eren kept badgering her to teach him her fighting moves; Annie was honestly beginning to wonder if Eren just enjoyed getting his ass kicked. She knew Mikasa acted like a protective guarddog around Eren, though, and it was only a matter of time before Mikasa retaliated.
It was pretty impressive that Mikasa could fling a guy like Reiner that far.
“Hey, Annie. Why don’t you teach those moves to me as well?” It was the first words Mikasa had actually spoken to Annie.
“Well, I don’t know about that…” Annie started, straightening up as Reiner groaned at her feet.
At dinner that night, Annie was startled when Mikasa sat down next to the blonde. She brushed her loose hair from her eyes, peering sidelong with open curiosity at Mikasa.
Mikasa didn’t meet Annie’s eyes, looking down at her food as she dragged her spoon through her stew. “Thank you,” she said. “Annie.”
Annie glanced past Mikasa to where Eren and Armin hovered nearby, looking anxious.
Snorting in a mixture of disgust and amusement, Annie rose to her feet and slipped off the bench without another word, abandoning the remains of her supper.
—
As she fell from the wall, Annie looked to the sky, past Mikasa, and thought: We could have been friends.
6 Admiration + 9 Hatred. Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan, Bertholdt x Reiner.
[headcanon: Bertholdt has a very negative self-image. Reiner thinks Bertholdt is beautiful. inspired by a lot of idea-jamming with antiperspirantforbertholdt, honestly he gets half the credit for this ok.
content warning for self-injury mention, body dysphoria/self-hate, mild sexually suggestive content, post-anime spoilers]
It wasn’t so much that Bertholdt felt less self-conscious in his Titan form – but that it was intentionally unnatural. ((grimace full of too many, perfectly-even teeth; tendons slipping across meat-red flesh as he moved; disproportionately thin arms compared to pillar-strong legs; clouds of shimmering steam that lifted off his burning hide))
In human form, well… ‘Uncomfortable’ was the kindest word Bertholdt would use. He wasn’t graceful, and he felt he had to move deliberately to keep his limbs ((too long, too narrow)) from getting tangled somehow.
He broke a sweat at the slightest bit of physical activity, and he was perpetually aware of the resulting pungent personal odour and an oily sheen to his hair and skin.
Clothing was uncomfortable; it either flattened or pulled at the unnatural amount of hair coating his body. It made him his arms and shoulders and chest and legs itch in a way that made him want to claw at himself until it sloughed away under his nails.
At least clothing covered him, though, offering some barrier between others’ eyes and himself. Bertholdt wouldn’t even change in front of the other boys, slinking into bed and changing between the day’s clothes and his pyjamas under the sheets. He bathed alone when he could seize a chance, scrubbing furiously with the rough, hard ration soap. ((as if he could wash away the dark hair, the disobedient sweat glands, the raw pink friction burns the 3DMG harness left on his copper skin))
Then there was the way Reiner looked at him.
Reiner was the only person Bertholdt could allow to see him in any state of undress. Bertholdt was still painfully aware of his body as he allowed Reiner to remove his undershirt, the thin fabric sticking to his damp skin.
Reiner drew in a sharp breath and drew his fingers through the thatch of black hair on Bertholdt’s chest.
No matter how many times they’d been intimate, he always gave Bertholdt this look, like the first time they had – fumbling and adolescent – hastily undressed each other. Reiner’s gaze was reverent and lovesick and just a touch wolfish, and it made Bertholdt’s hair stand on end with the intensity of it.
Bertholdt found it hard to be so self-critical when Reiner was looking at him like that.
13 Pity. Transistor, Red & Sybil
[headcanon: Red and Sybil have a History. contains Transistor spoilers through the first boss fight.]
Red had been furious. She still was furious, but no longer with Sybil.
When she’d first met Sybil on the stage, however… White hot fury.
Red had been past feeling horror for what Sybil had become; she was mired in righteous fury. How dare you, Sybil. How dare you do this to him and then attack me again?
Then it was over. Fitting that ended where it’d begun, on the stage. Wasn’t it always.
The fury and adrenaline drained from Red. She stared at the Process? Sybil? as she twitched fitfully, dragging herself towards Red on four shaking, spindly arms.
All that Red felt now was pity. She tried to tell herself this wasn’t Sybil, this thing with the distorted voice and the round, red eye. But she knew it was Sybil’s voice, choking and begging incoherently. It was all that was left of Sybil, now.
“We can’t leave her like this,” the man in the Transistor said. He was right.
I loved you, once, Red didn’t say as she struck the mercy blow.