Souls Of Sorrow || Eren Jaeger X Reader

Chapter 13 - You

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"Hange, what the hell are you doing?" I ask as she hauls a crate towards her lab. She responds with a concerning grin and kicks open the door. I sigh and take a sip from my teacup as I follow her in.

For a temporary placement the lab setup is rather nice. There's some of the books from Hange's main study, along with some beakers and formulas sheets. A table with three stools sits in the middle of the room, piled high with papers.

"What's in the crate?" I ask, sitting down on one of the stools.
"Some extra stuff I asked Moblit to bring." she responds, shoving the wooden box into a corner.

She grabs a crowbar from a shelf and pries the top of the crate off. I take a sip of tea. "You got a crowbar too?"
"Of course, never know when an experiment could go wrong and you gotta destroy it." she replies, setting the crate lid down.

"Of course." I mutter.

"In fact, you can help me with one." Hange grins, taking out a microscope and a smaller box from the crate. I purse my lips. "Yeah, as tempting as that sounds I'm gonna have to pass."

Hange clasps her hands together. "Please? All I need is a sample of your blood."
"...yeah, no." I reply, propping up my elbow on the table.

"Oh c'mon, you have so much." Hange pleads.
"Why don't you just use yours?" I ask, setting my cup down. Hange grabs some more stuff from the crate. "I have, but for this experiment I need more than just one person's, and besides, your dad already gave me some of his."

I find that hard to believe. "Knowingly?"

"...That's not the point. Just please, you won't miss it."

I raise an eyebrow, "if you have my dad's, why do you need mine?"
Hange sighs, "why so speculative? It's just an experiment."
I tilt my head back in consideration. Taking a sip of tea I set my arm on the table, "fine."

"Yes! Thank you." she grins, grabbing a syringe and rolling up my sleeve. Hange sprays my skin to clean it before the thin needle pokes my skin. Blood fills the plastic tube slowly as she draws it from my arm.

"Beautiful." Hange murmurs to herself as she sets the syringe aside.
"Is that all you need?" I ask, peering down at her work. She nods, "mhm." and doesn't say another word.

"Alright then, suppose I'll let you get experimenting." I say, drinking the last few sips of tea from my cup as I hop of my stool.
"Okay, I'll see you later." she smiles as she puts a drop of blood onto a microscope slide. I turn away to head out. "You can leave that here." Hange says without looking up.

I glance down at the cup in my hand and raise an eyebrow. "Should I ask why?"

"Can't I just put something away for a dear friend?" she asks with a bat of her lashes.
"No." I reply, "but since you're so caring, sure." I leave my cup and head out the door, leaving Hange to her work.

It's fairly early, so not many of the other Scouts are awake yet. I heard Eren come upstairs around three in the morning last night, so my guess is Hange kept him awake with an overload of information and he probably won't be up anytime soon.

There's a couple windows open to let in some fresh air and cool the castle down. Every step I take echoes softly through the hallways. Sunlight floods through the entire building, casting a yellow hue over the floor and along the walls.

I listen to the faint sound of birds chirping outside as I make my way towards the kitchen. I stop myself when out of the corner of my eye I catch someone sitting at the table in the opposite room.