A/N: I'm going to try to make this story fit with the cannon story-line as much as I can, but I cannot do too much.

(TIME SKIP: FOUR MONTHS)

If I were to tell you that moments after the kiss were NOTHING but beautiful and tender moments, then I would be tainting my soul with lies. It's not that I'm saying Eren Yeager and Annie Leonhart didn't love each other, for they did. They loved each other with every beat of their heart and the marrow of their bones. But they did have their fair shares of awkwardness, in which one would blush and stammer, prompting the other to feel sorry for their significant other and blush and stammer with them. Yet they accepted every awkward moment because it was with each other. Eren blushed with Annie and Annie stammered with Eren, which they accepted wholeheartedly, for it was each other and nobody else. 

Everything was wonderful otherwise, as Eren could feel the sunshine through the leaves warm him up as he lay his head in Annie's lap, curling up as she ran her hands through his hair, along his earlobes, and his eyelids. Or sometimes, she would sit on his lap as he spooned her, burying his nose into her shoulder-blade and taking in her presence. Other times, they would lay next to each other, hands entwined, whispering their shares of "I love you." When they were with one another, the cold world and their even colder fates didn't catch up to them. They were just Eren and Annie.

Until the day they were reminded of their curse.

+++++

Annie smiled down at Eren, who was all curled up in her lap. Her right hand cradled her boyfriend's head whilst the left ran a hand through his hair, taking in its softness and the odd smoothness of his scalp. Eren in the meantime stared up at Annie, enjoying the feel of Annie's fingers in her hair whilst lazily tucking some of Annie's hair behind her ear, stroking her earlobe, her pulse point, her chin, and her cheek, to which he held as Annie rubbed circles into his hair.

However, Annie suddenly pushed Eren away, pushing herself off of the tree trunk. Her chest burned and she hacked with violent and angry coughs. Eren jumped up and crawled to his girlfriend, holding her to him as she coughed into her hand. 

"Annie?" He asked.

"I'm fine," Annie groaned, her hand still on her mouth. Slowly, she removed it, only for Eren to let out a yelp. Annie's lips were caked with a wet crimson color, like a sunset that had burned the sky. The hand she coughed into was covered in that color, great, red, warm, and all. 

"What is it?" She asked, reaching out to stroke Eren's cheek, only to pull her hand back upon seeing the blood splattered on her hand. 

At that moment, as if on cue, she felt her chest burn with a great, sharp, great pain. She lurched forward once again, clutching her sweatshirt with the bloodless hand. Eren crawled forward, afraid for his love. However, after the lurching and the shaking, Annie lay there for a second before rising up again. Her milky-white skin was paler than before, her striking blue eyes looked like a dull, still-water lake, and her lips were still caked with blood. However, when Annie met Eren's eyes, he could see that her eyes were shining and blurring up before something wet fell down her cheek. He leaned over, wiping her tear away with a shaky hand.

"Annie, what-"

"Eren, it's happening," she replied, glaring daggers at the blood.

"What's happening?"

Annie brought her knees to her chest, burying her face in them.

"The Shifter before me," she replied, "The former Female Titan. She started coughing blood when...when..."

"When what?" Eren's whispered, his heart racing and his stomach filling up with dread. He knew what she was going to say.

"When Ymir's Curse began to kick in," Annie replied.