JAWS (Complete)

Chapter 16

                        *The Visit*

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For the first time he can remember, Galliard leaves a final exam feeling relaxed and optimistic. The test had been an amalgam of everything they’d talked about in class, and everything he and Reiner had gone over during their study sessions, and he feels weirdly confident that he’d done well. The professor had even met his eyes when he was handing it in and nodded, a faint smile on her face, and rather than sending Galliard into a spiral of anxiety and self-doubt, he’d nodded and smiled back.

He hadn’t used the whole testing time either, and decides to stop by the kiosk Starbucks in the student union. He can use his discount and grab a coffee for Reiner and bring it home to him. It won’t be much, but it’ll be something.

He’s waiting in line and silently judging the baristas working as being too slow when he hears a familiar tapping sound behind him, and then a warm hand slipping in around his elbow.

“Hi!”

Galliard turns and Pieck is standing next to him, holding his arm and beaming up at him. “Hey.”

“I haven’t seen you in awhile. Is everything okay?” She doesn’t look particularly worried. If anything, she looks smug, like a cat that just stole a pack of hotdogs out of a grocery bag and clawed into it before their owner noticed.

“I’m fine.” Even as the words leave his mouth, words he’s said countless times, Galliard realizes that, for once, he actually means them. For the first time in years, he’s feeling relaxed and unburdened, like he doesn’t have the entire weight of the world trying to crush down on his shoulders. He’s gotten enough sleep for once; he’s had a good breakfast and has prospects for a filling lunch too; he’s wearing new underwear that aren’t threadbare and tattered, so his jeans aren’t rubbing directly on his ass and upper thighs; Reiner has never asked for his scarf back so Galliard is still wearing it, and has at least one nice thing on that doesn’t make him look like a broke derelict; he feels confident that he just passed a final exam that, a few weeks ago, he was certain he was going to fail; he’s going back to Reiner’s apartment after this with a gift of coffee and good news.

That’s the crux of it, and Galliard can finally admit that, if only to himself: he’s going back to Reiner’s apartment, which feels more like home than his own shitty, empty apartment ever has, and Reiner and Sarge will be waiting for him, and he’ll feel… wanted. He’ll feel like someone wants him around, like someone cares, and Galliard ducks his chin down, hiding his smile in the folds of Reiner’s scarf. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah, you said that.” The line shuffles forward, and Pieck keeps her arm in his, casually cutting the line and not caring one bit. Galliard knows that no one will question her about it, and even if they did, she’d turn huge, wounded eyes on them and suddenly have much weaker legs. “You look good, Gali. Happy.”

“I’m pretty sure I just passed my final, of course I’m happy!”

“Is that the only reason?” She reaches up and plucks at his scarf, at Reiner’s scarf, and Galliard brushes her hand away. “Are you sure that’s the only reason?”

“Pretty sure.” But he can’t lie to Pieck, she sees right through him, and Galliard flashes her a quick grin. “I’ve been spending a lot of time with Reiner.”