The End ⋆ Attack on Titan

004 moral sacrilege

CHAPTER FOUR.
MORAL SACRILEGE

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Clara has to stay in Trost, unfortunately. There isn't a choice, not when the kids are there and can't leave, not when her duty lies there. She's in the city itself, not Wall Rose, and is given a room once they are given the all-clear that every last Titan has been killed. Clara had asked Mike, just to make sure, and he said that he'd made sure himself.

After that, she sleeps for thirteen hours straight. She's in someone's house, someone who probably won't ever return home. There are paintings of a woman everywhere, someone named Lily, and the table is set for dinner. A perfect house that will sit vacant, most likely, until someone comes along and clears it out for the next person.

She wakes up to someone shaking her shoulder. It makes her jolt, because she's supposed to be all alone in the house, but she comes face to face Eren. It's a relief.

"T'fuck you doin' here?" she mumbles into the pillow, shielding her face from the light coming through the window. "Turn that out."

"That's the sun, dummy," he says, flopping onto the other side of the bed. There's a woman's imprint on that side, and Clara tries not to think about how they're lying in what was someone's life. "You've slept a long time. I had to ask that scary guy from earlier where to find you, no one knew. He said no one could know because they'd come wake you up to help."

"Mm. Probably."

"How are you friends with that guy? He has the personality of a rock."

"'S not that bad," she defends, turning over to him. Her eyes are still shut and she doesn't really want to open them anyway. "And we're not friends. Acquaintances. He gets injured a lot so it's hard not to talk to him."

"I almost went to find Commander Smith, I know he'd know where you are."

That makes her eyes open. She tiredly slaps Eren's chest, groaning.

"No! You can't say it like that, you make it sound weird."

"The Commander, Clara! I didn't have time to think about it when everything was happening, but—" He blinks incredulously. "The Commander, Clara?"

"He's—He's nice!" At Eren's wide-eyed look, she hits him again. "I won't listen to this from you, you don't know anything about relationships. That's adult business."

He doesn't miss a beat. "So, how long?"

"What did I just—" She huffs, turning onto her back to stare at the ceiling. "Two years. And don't give me that look, I don't even have to look at you to know what you're going to say. It's not your business, not when you're away at training. It isn't something I talk about to most people. It isn't exactly against the rules, it's a grey area, but a lot of people don't like that Erwin's dating someone with a rank like mine. I can't go writing that in letters to you, not when the wrong person could see it."

Eren doesn't say anything. He turns to face the ceiling, too. She's missed this. "So everyone knows, then?"

"A lot of people do. A lot of the Survey Corps. It isn't exactly a secret, really, but we don't go around telling people. That means you don't go telling your little friends that I'm dating him, got it?"

"They wouldn't believe me anyway," he says. "They didn't believe me that my sister was in the Survey Corps. They said you'd be dead if you were in there that long. Most people think I'm stupid for wanting to join."

"You are," she says, without hesitation. "Very very stupid. Oh, that reminds me, I met one of your little friends. They're part of your training corps. I can't remember all of their names, but I worked with this kid named Jean, we didn't have enough hands—"