AoT - A bet with high stakes (Patreon)

It was lunch time for all new recruits at the training centre, and all of the trainees had assembled in the mess hall.

Sasha was walking back with her serving, sighing heavily.

“Why do we get such tiny portions?” The brunette complained. “Aren’t we supposed to train to become soldiers? How do we do that on a half-empty stomach?”

The young girl walked over to a free spot at a table which already had Annie and Mikasa sitting there, enjoying their own lunch.

“Complaining about lunch again?” Annie said. “You do this every time, just get used to it. Everyone gets the same portions, even men and women. We’ve been at war for over a hundred years, you should be grateful we even get this much.”

“But I burn up all of this by the time our first training session is over. Either they should make training less tough, OR give us more to eat.” Sasha said frowning.

“Training isn’t that bad.” Mikasa said after taking a sip of her drink.

“Exactly,” Annie confirmed, “growing up in a rural place like mine so close to the woods, my day to day life and chores were more difficult than this.” (Not to mention my training, Annie thought to herself).

“I can manage just fine too.” Mikasa said. “Other than escapology training, there’s nothing I find difficult at all.”

“Well I think it’s all difficult. But speaking of escape training,” Sasha said, “what use is that training for fighting giants? I mean, it’s sort of a fun change of pace compared to the rest of the training but other than that I see no reason to actually learn that stuff.” 

Mikasa looked at Sasha in wonder. “Change of pace? What do you mean by that?” The dark haired girl couldn’t help but notice her fellow recruit starting to blush slightly upon mention of the escape training. 

Mind you, Mikasa herself secretly enjoyed the feel of those hours too, since Eren had been persuading her to practice similar 'games' ever since their youth. She was however not about to let anyone find out about that.

“Oh, n-nothing in particular.” Sasha quickly responded. “I just meant that it’s so far distanced from combat that I can’t help wondering why we have to go through it at all.” The brunette couldn’t possibly admit she enjoyed getting tied up to a certain degree. Mainly because she herself didn’t yet understand where those feelings came from. She fervently hoped neither of the girls would press the issue.

Luckily, Annie then interrupted the conversation. “We’re not just training to fight giants, we’re training to become soldiers. And as soldiers, we need a very wide skill set. That means learning combat, first aid, and of course also gain knowledge on how to fight and restrain fellow humans. If we only learn how to fight titans, what’ll happen to us if we do manage to end this war?”

“Hmmm, I guess you’ve got a point there Annie.” Sasha responded.

“But…” the blonde then said softly, “If you really think that escape training is hard, Sasha and Mikasa, the thing to do is spend a bit of your free time getting better at it. If you want, I can help you get some practice in private concerning escapology.”

Both Mikasa and Sasha were startled for a second by Annie’s weird proposal. Neither of the girls were very sure of what to reply.

After a moment of deliberation, Mikasa declined.

“Not interested,” she replied, “just the escapology training sessions are plenty enough for me.”

That however, wasn’t strictly true. Her real reason for declining was because she didn’t want anyone to find out she secretly enjoyed the feeling of being tied. On top of that, Eren often enough requested private sessions, she had no interest in spending even more time trying to escape various precarious positions. 

Sasha was unsure about right out refusing Annie. Training was rough enough without spending free time doing the same, but she had to admit there was something about Annie’s offer that tempted her.

Annie could see through both girls with relative ease. The blonde instantly noticed Sasha’s hesitation, and had a hunch Mikasa didn’t really mean what she had said. She decided to give both girls an extra push.

“If you two need an incentive, how about we make a wager then?” Annie said. “If you can escape within an hour, you get my lunch the following day.” The blond girl said to Sasha.

Sasha’s eyes widened. “In that case, count me in!

Annie smirked. So easy, she thought to herself. The blond recruit then looked at Mikasa. She would probably be a tougher nut to crack, what could she offer that would pull Mikasa across the line?

Mikasa still had no intention of joining both girls’ private escape training. Even though she regularly ended tied up in ‘private training sessions’ with Eren, that was mainly because Eren requested it of her and not for her own enjoyment. Sessions without his presence didn’t really have the same appeal to her. The raven haired girl therefore didn’t really feel like taking Annie up on her offer.

While Mikasa remained silently in thought, Annie came up with the perfect incentive to catch her fellow recruit’s interest.

“Since I’m making a bet with Sasha, might as well offer you the same.”

“I’m not in need of more food.” Mikasa replied swiftly.

“I know that,” Annie said smiling, “but there is something else I can offer you.”

Mikasa now looked at Annie, who had finally succeeded in acquiring her full attention.

“If you get out in time, I will switch places with you for our sparring groups. I’m in the same group Eren is in, something you’ve been jealous off for a long time, right?”

Mikasa froze. She had sent out several requests to be transferred to Eren’s group, but had been refused every time, since it would affect the balanced arrangement the groups possessed right now. Annie was very similar to her in many respects, so switching with her would probably pose no problem. Except Annie always behaved too distant to even approach, let alone ask a favor of. So Mikasa never got around to asking to switch groups with her. 

For her to offer swapping was a golden opportunity for the dark haired girl. But as great as this offer sounded, Mikasa couldn’t help but feel suspicious. Why was Annie so eager to get her to join? It's not like she was going to gain any experience, being the one doing the tying. There should be no real reason for her to go to such great lengths persuading her and Sasha to accept her offer.

Even so, despite her reservations, Mikasa couldn’t help but be tempted. If she won the bet, she could spend her sparring sessions in Eren’s company. This would make the sessions more enjoyable for her, and she could help Eren improve at the same time.

The offer was simply too tempting for Mikasa to refuse.  "Very well, I will also join your practice session." She replied.

"Good." Annie answered. "We'll hold our first practice Sunday afternoon, at the training hall. The storage room there holds all of the rope. And during Sundays that place is deserted anyways."

"I'll be there." Sasha replied.

“So will I.” Mikasa added.

Sunday arrived. Mikasa started heading for the training hall, only to encounter Sasha half way. When both girls entered the hall, Annie had already laid out several coils of rope near the climbing walls and pillars.

“Hello there.” Annie said with a slight smile. “ready to start your practice?”

“Never mind the practice, I wanna win your lunch!” Sasha shouted.

Mikasa didn’t respond to Annie, but her motivation was the same. She was only driven by her desire to win the bet and get transferred to Eren’s sparring group.

“Fine by me.”  Annie said, “whatever your motivation, as long as you’re willing to go along I’m happy to oblige. Now, who’s up first?”

Sasha stepped forward. “Go ahead and do your worst!”

Annie told Sasha to have a sit down in front of her. The brunette complied, after which Annie pulled her wrists behind her back, crossing them.

Annie wasted no time, quickly wrapping a rope tightly around Sasha’s crossed wrists. After that had firmly been tied to keep the brunette’s hands in place, Annie moved on to Sasha’s elbows. The blond girl pulled her subject’s elbows together, until they were about 4 inches (10cm) apart and tied a rope around them as well. After wrapping the rope round Sasha’s elbows, Annie then looped it around the ends of rope bridging the space in between Sasha’s elbows, cinching it tight and keeping the brunette’s arms firmly in place.

After the tying of these two ropes, Sasha’s arms were now almost completely immobile. But the blonde seemed not yet satisfied, uncoiling a third rope and winding it around her fellow recruit’s waist and her lower arms. After tying that rope off in front of the young girl (obviously out of reach of her now fluttering fingers), the brunette’s arms no longer have any movement available.

After testing her bonds for a while, Sasha became slightly worried. This bet might be more of a challenge than I had anticipated, the brunette thought to herself. But no matter, I should’ve know Annie wasn’t going to hand me the victory, or her lunch, easily.

With the brown haired girl still testing her bonds for any slack, Annie had started cinching Sasha’s ankles together, followed by a similar procedure above and below her knees. With three coils of rope now binding the young girl’s legs, there was no longer any real movement possible for them.

Whilst the brunette was kicking her legs to discover this, she noticed a length of rope still dangling from her ankles.

“Guess you used too long a rope on my ankles.” Sasha noted.

“Not at all,” Annie replied, “I still need that end of rope. But that’ll have to wait until after Mikasa has had her turn.” 

The blond girl then looked at Mikasa, who had a sliver of doubt in her eyes after seeing how Sasha got treated. 

Annie noticed Mikasa becoming hesitant, and decided to remind her fellow recruit what exactly was at stake for her.

“You ready to try and win you bet? You can back out, but that also means losing your chance at sparring with Eren.” The blonde said with a smirk.

Mikasa glared at Annie. Not only did she feel insulted for insinuating she would back out, she also full well realized what she stood to gain. There was no way she was going to let a few ropes scare her off.

“Just get started, I know well enough why I’m here, and what I can win.”

Annie walked away from the already struggling Sasha, picked up several coils of rope and headed almost completely across the room, stopping next to a pillar supporting the ceiling.

“You can come and sit here. That way the two of you can’t distract each other.”

Mikasa followed Annie and turned her back to her, placing her arms behind her back as well.

“I’m guessing this is how you want me?” Mikasa said calmly. She wasn’t going to let Annie notice her nervousness, it would only empower the blonde.

Annie didn’t reply. Instead, she folded Mikasa’s arms so her underarms were placed horizontally on top of each other. She then wound a long rope around them several times and firmly knotted that rope off. Already Mikasa could feel her arms being pinned in place, but Annie was far from finished.

The blonde girl then took another, quite long piece of rope and began winding it around Mikasa’s chest, both above and below her breasts. After cinching the upper and lower rope together behind Mikasa’s back and tying off, Annie then pulled the leftover rope down, wrapped it around Mikasa’s arm bindings and pulled it back up to once again tie it to the chest harness. 

Pulling the rope up like that caused pressure to form at Mikasa’s heavily restrained arms, as well as limit their movement even more. What was worse, Mikasa noticed that if she now tried to move her arms even a little, she would pull on the ropes around her chest. The pressure this caused strangely excited her, and pulling those ropes tight also made her chest stick out more. 

The plain uniform normally hid nearly any curves and other female characteristics of the girls wearing them. No doubt this was intentional, to keep the minds of all male soldiers on their training or fighting. But thanks to Annie’s ropework, her chest was now very much noticeable. She didn’t know why, but realizing this made the raven haired girl blush slightly. Of course, the chest harness made her breast a bit more sensitive as well, so that could also help explain her flushed face.

Paying Mikasa’s red cheeks no heed, Annie then instructed her fellow trainee to kneel. The blond girl helped her do this, since Mikasa no longer had the use of her arms to balance herself.

With Mikasa kneeling down, Annie began winding a rope around the black haired girl’s left leg to keep it in place. The blonde repeats the frogtie for her right leg, after which Mikasa is forced to remain seated in her current position.

Mikasa tried stretching her legs a little, only to discover no movement whatsoever was possible. While the raven haired girls was still finding this out, Annie had already moved behind her with a short rope in hand. She began looping this rope around Mikasa’s ankles, tying them together. Annie then pulled the end of this rope up, and attached it to Mikasa’s arm bindings.

After Annie finished her work, Mikasa soon realized there was little left for her to do other than remain kneeled exactly where she was. Tied in the way she now was, she could no longer move her arms or legs at all. Basically, her whole body was now immobile. And struggling too wildly would probably tip her over for a not so soft landing on the wooden floor.

Annie then took one last rope and tied it round the pole Mikasa was sitting next to. She then walked back to attach that same rope to Mikasa's upper body restraints.

This action annoyed Mikasa to a certain degree, since it looked like she was being leashed (like a pet of some sorts).

“What's the meaning of that rope?” Mikasa asked, trying to hide the anger and embarrassment in her voice.

“It’s so you don't hop, roll or whatever it is you can still do, over to Sasha to help each other out… Speaking of which, now it’s time for me to explain to Sasha what that leftover end of rope at her ankles is for.”

And upon finishing that sentence, Annie headed back to the already wildly struggling brunette. Sasha had not waited for Annie to give her permission to start struggling. She figured since that rule was never mentioned, she had all the right to start escaping immediately. Sadly, even though she had now been struggling for several minutes already, she was still exactly as stuck as when Annie had left for Mikasa. Not only did the brunette make no progress whatsoever, these ropes were tied even more tightly than the instructors did. And to her surprise, Sasha noticed that the more she twisted and turned in her bindings, the tighter they seemed to feel.

The brunette couldn’t help but blush ever so slightly, as she realized the tightness of these ropes was stirring up that same feeling she sometimes got during escape training, but this time it was far more pronounced. 

Where the hell did Annie learn a thing like this? Sasha thought to herself. This is beyond the level of even the instructors. But even though the feeling is rather exciting, I’d rather get out and win my bet. The brunette began another escape effort, paying no attention to Annie walking back towards her.

When Annie arrived, she didn’t even bother cautioning her fellow trainee. She simply took hold of the end of rope and dragged the helpless Sasha over the floor, for a foot and a half (0,5m), towards the pillar closest to her. She then wound the leftover rope around said pillar and tied it off, effectively tethering the Sasha to it.

“You wanted to know why I had that leftover rope. Well, this is what I needed it, now you know.” Annie said to Sasha, who was looking at the blonde both angry and confused. That drag across the floor hadn’t been very pleasant at all.

Annie ignored the glare she got from the heavily bound brunette. “I decided to make your first practice not too difficult, but that meant you would still have plenty of wriggle room after I finished tying you up. In order to prevent you from rolling around too much, I figured I just needed to tie you to something. This pole right here will do for that.”

While Annie was tethering Sasha to the pole, Mikasa suddenly realized the true purpose of doing so: With both her and Sasha tied to their respective pillars, there was no way for both girls to get near each other to combine forces! 

Mikasa had only been struggling for around 30 seconds, but already it was clear to her this position was very strict, far more than whatever they had to endure during training. Especially the ropes enveloping her chest made trying to escape that much more difficult. She assumed Sasha had equally little chance to escape by herself, and by making sure neither would be in reach of each other, Annie had effectively won both bets before things even got started!

Damn it! Mikasa cursed inside her head, we’ve been fooled. Annie never showed her true skills during training, which made us underestimate her for these wagers. And now it’s too late to do anything about it.

However, something about all this still didn’t sit right with Mikasa. Sure, Annie had now won the bet, but she was the one who proposed these wagers in the first place. Had she not offered, there never would’ve been any reason to go through all this trouble to ensure her victory. What was Annie’s real goal??

Mikasa’s ponderings were interrupted, and answered, when Annie turned her back on Sasha and casually started walking toward the exit.

“Hey!” Mikasa shouted with wide eyes. “Where do you think you’re going?!” Even though she asked that, the raven haired girl had a very strong suspicion she knew the answer…

“Well, my work is done. We wagered I would tie you up and you would try to escape. You’re tied up… so go ahead and escape! Good luck you two, you'll need it I'm sure.”

“Hang on!” Sasha shouted. “You’re just going to walk away and leave us all alone for the next hour?!” what if someone else comes in?” 

The brunette started blushing. If someone entered now, he or she could help both girls escape and therefore win the bet. The brunette should therefore be thrilled by that prospect, but for some reason she only dreaded being found completely helpless like this.

Mikasa grunted. Sasha still didn’t understand their situation. It was never about the bet for Annie, this had all been a trap! She baited us into accepting her wager, just so she could tie us up and humiliate us. What was that girl’s deal? Sure, she acted cold and calculating all the time, but to go this far. Just what kind of mentality did that girl possess?

Mikasa’s fears came true when Annie turned around with a smirk on her face.

“An hour? No no, I’m not coming back at all. You girls will have to get out by yourselves, or otherwise just patiently wait until tomorrow morning, when the first group comes in for practice.”

Both Mikasa and Sasha froze in their place. They were going to be left overnight? This was even worse than what Mikasa had anticipated!

Both girls started struggling furiously, trying to find any knots in reach or slack in their ropes. Sadly, neither Mikasa nor Sasha had any success, and after about a minute of wriggling, both girls had to halt their efforts in order to catch their breath.

Annie had in turn remained in place, simply enjoying her victims’ futile efforts. She decided to rub some salt in the wound: “Of course, you two can always yell for help and hope someone sympathetic shows up.”

Mikasa glared at the blonde, who was obviously enjoying their distress. “What is your reason for doing this? Do you have some kind of grudge against us?”

The blonde shook her head. “ I simply wanted to 'have some fun'. I’d been wondering for some time how easy it would be to bait a few fellow trainee into something like this. Turns out, if you know them well enough, it’s child’s play.”

Sasha now looked foully at the smirking blonde. “You call this ‘having fun’?! This is nothing less than torture!” The brunette meant that, as she was already feeling slightly peckish. The thought of being stuck here until the morning truly scared her.

Annie feigned a look of compassion. “Ow, come on Sasha. It’s only until the morning. If you keep still, you won’t waste any energy and therefore won’t grow as hungry… Of course, it also means you’d definitely not get out.” The blonde girl chuckled.

“Don’t be mad at me.” Annie said when she noticed Mikasa was now glaring at her as well. “It's your own fault for getting dragged into this over some silly temptations.”

The blonde’s look then darkened. “Use this experience as a lesson, both of you. Learn from your mistakes and remain vigilant at all times. Our enemies right now may be the titans, but humans are and always will be the greatest threat to themselves.”

After those grand words Annie turned around, ignoring Sasha and Mikasa’s pleas, headed outside and closed the door behind her.

Both girls simultaneously began a desperate struggle for freedom. Mikasa started fluttering her fingers and pulling with her arms in an effort to create some slack or grab hold of a knot. But no such luck, all of the ropes held firm and she could not spot a single knot in reach.

Sasha wasn’t having any more luck, the brunette’s wild wriggling caused her to roll over the floor but to no avail. Her ropes won’t budge an inch either.  And the young trainee had already confirmed several times over not a single know was in reach of her tightly bound hands.

After several minutes of valiant (but futile) struggling, both girls slumped down, exhausted and breathing heavily. Mikasa and Sasha looked at each other.

“W-we don’t stand a chance of untying ourselves.” Mikasa said. “I hate to admit it, but Annie did too good a job. Our only shot is getting near each other.”

“I’ve been rolling around, but the rope tying me to that damned pillar will never stretch far enough to reach you, Mikasa... So, I guess the first thing we both have to do is off get off the ropes tethering us to our poles.”

Mikasa nodded and started shifting towards her own pillar, as did Sasha.

While both girls were having trouble inching towards their respective pillars, Mikasa at a slower pace because she had the misfortune that every move she made caused the chest harness to slightly arouse her. 

This is worse than even Eren’s handiwork, she thought to herself frustratedly.

Eventually both girls reached their pillars, and after more than an hour of infuriating picking at the knot, Sasha got the rope loose. She then began crawling towards Mikasa, who didn’t manage to get herself free from the pillar until Sasha was already halfway to her side. 

Mikasa, with her legs pinned underneath her, could hardly make any headway towards Sasha even after freeing herself from the pillar. This angered the raven haired girl even more, as all she could do was watch Sasha slowly grind in her direction.

Eventually both girls reach each other. And while Sasha is trying to catch her breath, Mikasa analyses her ropes and compares them with her own situation. Finally, she decided on the best course of action.

“I’m thinking our best chance is for you to untie me first. I’m sure I’ll be difficult with your arms pinned down that much, but I can’t use mine at all.” Certainly not without arousing myself even more, she thought.

“S-sure.” Sasha replied, still out of breath. “As long as you untie me afterwards.”

“Of course, we’re in this mess together.” Mikasa replied. She wanted to give her fellow damsel a comforting smile, but her anger prevented her from doing so. She was still far to annoyed at being caught so easily by Annie.

Several hours of frustrating wriggling and searching for knots later, Mikasa’s arms were finally freed by Sasha’s efforts. Both girls had spent the whole time turning around, stretching themselves as far as their tight ropes allowed them, all in an effort for Sasha to locate and subsequently pick at knots in reach of her nearly immobile arms. It took huge amount of coordination, and several infuriating near misses, to finally get the first two knots tying the chest harness to Mikasa’s arms. After that, Mikasa had an easier time moving her body to bring new knots within reach of Sasha’s fingers.

With her arms now completely freed, the black haired girl then proceeded to untying her legs, after which she immediately turned to Sasha and began untying her arms. 

Both girls finish managed to completely free themselves just as dawn broke. After hiding all of the rope back in the storage room, they slipped out of the training hall, carefully looking around so as not to get noticed, and made a run for their own barracks. 

When they finally reached their barracks, they finally felt safe enough to start chatting about what they’d just been through.

“I can’t believe we fell for Annie’s plan so easily.” Sasha said frowning. “I should’ve known something was up when she offered to give me her portion of lunch. That girl has probably never shared even a scrunch of bread all her life.”

“Same for me.” Mikasa replied. “I was too focused on getting close to Eren to think straight. Guess Annie really had a point when she said we gave in to temptation too fast.”

“And about humans possibly being their own greatest enemy. She sure has made an enemy out of me now.” Sasha said with an angry tone of voice.

“Don’t worry, we will pay her back for this one day.” Mikasa said with a determined look on her face. “I’ll never forget his for as long as I’ll live.”

“At least we made it out before anyone discovered us.” Sasha said relieved. “I’m sure she didn’t think that were possible, so at least we have that going for us.”

The brunette then started blushing a little. “And I have to admit, I’ve never been so excited as during these past few hours. What about you?” 

Mikasa looked at the brunette, amazed by the frank and honest comment she had just made. The dark haired girl then couldn’t help but begin blushing a little herself. “I too have to admit I felt quite exhilarated at times, albeit that was partly because of Annie’s ropework. Those ropes around my chest were something I wasn’t familiar with, even with my experience.”

Mikasa almost bit her tongue. Why did she have to say that?! She had let her guard down with the relief of successfully escaping washing over her, combined with the openheartedness of the conversation. And now she had basically outed both her and Eren’s secret! Even though she and Sasha had bonded going through this whole ordeal, she had sworn never to tell anyone about her and Eren’s ‘private sessions’. That was their precious secret, and Eren wouldn’t appreciate her telling anyone about it. 

Luckily, the brunette had stopped paying before Mikasa had been speaking, since the smells of the kitchen now reaching her nostrils.

“Breakfast!” Sasha screamed. “I’m starving, what about you?”

Mikasa smiled, both relieved Sasha hadn’t picked up on her confession, and because it seemed like the two of them really had gotten away from that predicament scot-free.

“Yes, I could do with a bite to eat right now.”

Both young girls started heading for the mess hall, imagining the look on Annie’s face when she will walk in, finding the both of them casually having their breakfast.