"I still don't get why I couldn't fight today," I say nonchalantly while crossing my arms over my chest and pointing my nose up in the air.
"Because I said so, kid," Levi says from beside. The shorty lets out a tch in annoyance when Commander Erwin lets chuckle deeply from across us in the carriage.
Today Eren, Armin, and Mikasa would try to lure Annie- who was the female titan bitch that killed my squad and many others- and attempt to take her down and imprison her. If I wasn't still hurt from the expedition I would've helped the three, but Levi said I was still injured and rendered useless with my ribs and leg still slightly fractured and banged up pretty bad.
Let's just say I made him pay with my annoying antics for not letting me go.
"How much longer?" I whine out and slump against my seat. The bumps in the carriage against the stone road inside the walls of Wall Sina were starting to make my ribs ache up.
No one answers me. I poke Levi in the side and ask again and again and again until he whips around and flicks me in the head.
"Be fucking pateint," he seeths out.
"Fuck off, Levi! That hurt!" I yell agitated now. I glare at his emotionless face, besides from his eyes that held a quiet rage in them, and begin to fidget in my seat even more than I already was.
"Hey, Levi?" I ask in a sweet tone, switching tactics.
"What?"
"What if I promise-"
"No."
"But I'll be careful and-"
"If you say one more word I'll throw you outside of this carriage myself," he bites out in an aggressive tone that makes even Commander Erwin shrink back in his seat.
I let out a huff and crossed my arms over my chest dramatically while declining into my seat even more.
"You're no fair, short-stack," I mumble out sadly. But my frown quickly turns into a loving grin when he throws a book into my lap.
"Thank you so much, you scary little munchkin!" I shove Levi's face away when he turns it quickly towards me in shock and anger while he tries to take the book away.
"Nope, mine now," I snicker while beginning to read my book. The shorty just lets out a tch (his twelfth of the day) and goes back to staring out the window, watching all the luxurious houses go by.
A few long minutes went by until there was a loud boom that resonated in the lavish Stohess District. The book I was reading seconds ago fell out of my hands and I pushed Levi aside to look out the window and towards the direction of what could've either been Annie's or Eren's transformation.
"Oi! You can't just shove me-"
"Shush!" I quiet the captain and rip the tiny curtains on the window straight off it and throw it to the ground as if I could see the titan from all the way from where the carriage was. I ignore Commander Erwin's displeased sigh as the thin curtains fall atop his feet.
"Annie transformed," I informed the two soldiers even though they were right behind me and looking outside the window for any sign of the female titan, only to see nothing there.
"How are you sure?" The commander asks with slight doubt in my words.
"I can sense Annie's thoughts, Commander," I say while still pressing my face to the window. "They're muffled, but I can tell they're definitely not Eren's."
"Oh, just Erwin is fine Y/n, but I trust your word, so let's-"
Right as I'm about to fangirl about how Commander- I mean Erwin- just permitted me to call him by his first name, the carriage comes to a sudden halt and my hand slips, making me press down on the door's hatch and fall out of the carriage and onto the ground.
"Tch, idiot," Levi says while hopping out of the carriage behind me and lending me a hand. I take it reluctantly with a scowl and look up to see a bunch of MP soldiers milling around in confusion in front and behind our carriage, along with the one holding "Eren" in the other. And by "Eren", I mean Jean in a wig that took me five minutes to force on him before we left.
Right now, Erwin, Levi, and me- as his new second- were all supposed to be headed to a meeting in the capital in Wall Sina, with Eren in tow, to discuss the change in which branch would have custody over him. At least that's what I think we were supposed to come here for. I didn't really know, I wasn't paying attention when Levi was telling me.
"Nile," my head shoots towards Erwin who began to address the MP Commander. "Deploy all troops immediately. We should assume that a titan has already appeared."
Levi knocks me upside the head when I stifle a laugh at Erwin's blatant lie.
"Are you out of your mind?" Commander Nile Dawk says to the Survey Corps commander with a stern face. "This is Wall Sina. There is no way a titan could show up here!"
"But one has," I say smoothly from behind Erwin and loud enough for the MP commander to hear me.
"What-"
He's cut off when Eren, I mean Jean, jumps out of his carriage and shoves an MP soldier out of the way while snatching his wig off his head and throwing it to the ground. I make a dissatisfied face at his carelessness with the wig. Who knew if we ever had to use it again.
As if sensing my vexed glare Jean meets my eyes and picks up the wig with an eye roll.
"Commander, what's the plan?" Jean asks after chucking the now dirty wig in my face.
"Ask Squad Four for equipment," Erwin replies. Lucky bitch, no fair he got to fight and I didn't.
"Sir!" Jean slings on his green Scouts cape, making it let out a satisfying whipping sound.
"Don't die, Jeanie!" I yell out to his retreating figure as he runs towards a group of Survey Corps soldiers. Jean just turns his head and gives me a wink with a cocky smirk.
"Hold on! What the hell-!" Commander Dawk yells out. Oh, I almost forgot this guy was here.
"Commander, here!" A random Scout flew down from the roof of a nearby townhouse, cutting Commander Dawk off and placing down a wooden case. The soldier fips open the lid to reveal all the shiny pieces to Erwin's ODM gear. In a flash, the blonde soldier slings on all his gear and looks ready to go into battle.
"Wait just a damn minute!" Commander Dawk yells out in objection.
Erwin began to yell out orders to the other Scouts nearby, saying when and where to go and such, only to be halted by Commander Dawk when he was just about to leave
The MP Commander held out a gun, pointing it straight at Erwin's chest, making him stop in his steps.
"No! Like hell you're leaving!" Commander Dawk yells out roughly.
Suddenly, a bunch of other MP soldiers all have their guns pointed at the Survey Corps Commander in a wide arc, some even pointing it at Levi and me from the side.
"This is outright treason," Commander Dawk says. "I am well within my right to shoot you where you stand."
"Think Nile, I find it hard to believe you're actually as thick-headed as you look," Levi says in a bored tone from our place a few feet behind Erwin. "You're a pull of a trigger away from making the biggest mistake of your life."
"Take off the gear before I shoot you!" Commander Dawk says to Erwin with a stern face while moving the gun closer to his face.
"Oi. If you shoot the commander, you won't be too far along in death you idiot-" I'm cut off on my mini rampage when Levi knocks me upside the head with a withering glare, either concerned for my safety or just outright mad and annoyed at me as usual.
"Commander, she- she just threatened you!" A soldier said while jolting closer towards Levi and me while pointing a gun right at my head. Levi shoves me behind him and holds an arm out in protection.
From out of nowhere a green flash of lightning strikes the ground inside the walls of Wall Sina for the second time today.
"Eren," I breathe out, relieved. With everyone distracted and looking toward where the lighting just appeared, I scurry back into the carriage we came in. I picked up the seat that I was sitting on earlier and take out the gas tank and hook components to my ODM gear. I bring it out of its hiding place and place it behind my feet.
"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Levi asks in a harsh and accusing tone as I took off my jacket that was buttoned up to my color and shrugged off the loose pants that I wore all day to cover up the straps of my ODM gear. I quickly put the rest of my gear on in a flash.
"Joining the fight," I say a smirk then go to shoot my grappling hooks into a nearby wall, only to be stopped when Levi pulls me into a hard embrace. My arms lock around him but then I'm pushed away a few seconds later.
"Don't overdo it too much," the stoic shorty says with a glare but I could see the care in his eyes.
"I'll try not to, short-stack," I say with a salute and leave Levi and Erwin, along with the other MP soldiers who their mouths hanging open at my escape.
I launch the grappling hooks of my ODM gear into the nearby siding of a townhouse and cast myself into the air. I go as fast as my banged-up ribs would let me as I swing through the air, following the destructive path Eren left in his titan form.
I stop in my tracks when I see Eren with only just one leg and arm on opposite sides with Annie right next to him. I change my directions when I catch sight of Mikasa, Armin, Jean, and Hanji on top of a roof together, watching the scene in front of them play out.
"How's our Titan Boy doing?" I say once I land by their sides. Their eyes widen at my presence there and I'm tempted to take a bow for some reason.
"Y/n?! What're you doing here? I thought Levi said you weren't allowed to fight!" I shrug at Armin's words and turn to face Eren and Annie's titan forms.
"He changed his mind," I say nonchalantly and smile to myself as Hanji grips my shoulder in her hand and pulls me into a hug.
"I'm so glad you're here! I tried to convince the shorty to let out, but he threatened to break all my glasses-" She's cut off when Annie starts to shriek as she did during the Expedition as Eren claws at her face.
"Shit!" I mutter and fall on my knees, not being able to silence the female titan's shrill screams. It felt like a thousand knives were poking at my brains all while an ice-cold fist was squeezing it in its hand.
Hanji's hands rub at my back sympathetically as the screams start to subside, but my hands still come away blood like before. I mutter profanities under my breath at the sight and rub my palms against my pants.
"She's headed up the wall," Jean exclaims. My attention goes to Annie as she starts to climb the walls with her ice blue, crystallized fingers.
"She's trying to escape!" Hanji says with her eyes wide.
Eren, seeing this, launches himself at Annie's legs and bites straight into her calf. I waste no time and shoot my ODM gear into a nearby building and fling myself towards Wall Sina, making sure my ODM gear hooks dig themselves nicely into the stone material of the walls. I see Mikasa, right beside me and it only takes one glance to know what we both had to do.
I swing myself at Annie's left hand, cutting through bone and muscle, right as Mikasa swings below me and does the same thing to her right hand.
"It's over, traitor," I say with venom in my tone as Mikasa and I land on her forehead. I don't show any empathy at the sight of her aghast expression.
Mikasa's face is emotionless as she speaks up from beside me. "Now fall."
Annie's eyes open wide from our words as she plunges to the ground with a reverberating thud. Eren immediately launches into action and starts to plummet Annie with all sorts of jabs and punches, knocking her arm clean off, along her head soon after.
My eyes widen as Eren starts to decline his head towards Annie's neck.
"Eren, you dumbass! Don't do it!" I start to go towards him but Mikasa pulls me back.
"No. Look," she says while pointing at Annie's titan form as it started to glow from below Eren.
"What the fu-" A blinding light shines from Annie's body, and through the smoke and haze it looks as if both Eren and Annie's bodies were starting to merge as one.
"Oh, fuck it," I say and shoot myself towards Eren's body, not even caring about the consequences of heading straight into that mess. I just had to make sure Eren didn't die as his dumb ass would do. I'm a few feet away from Eren's nape, ready to rescue him, but Levi steals the show by cutting straight through Eren's skin and reveals Yeager himself still in a state of comatose.
"Levi! You stole my moment-" I begin to say angrily but Levi cuts me off.
"Shut up and grab the damn kid." I don't hesitate to do so and haul Eren's hot body into my arms with a grunt.
I make sure Eren's safe and sound with Mikasa and Armin before stalking over towards Jean as he begins to strike against the hardened surface Annie cocooned herself in with his blades. His swords did nothing against the crystallized material as the shiny metal broke down to the hilt with every few hits.
"Move aside Kirsetin," I grumble out with a menacing glare towards Annie's sleeping form inside her temporary haven.
Instead of using my own blades, I grab a nearby ax out of a random Scouts' hands, ignoring their exclamations of protest, and swing it down on Annie's protective shell. It does nothing so Jean and I result in yelling at her.
"This is all we get!? Wake up, Annie! Wake up!" Jean screams out with narrowed eyes. I don't hesitate to scream my own things at her.
"We trusted you, Annie! We all trusted you, and this is what you fucking do!" I scream harshly at her sleeping form while hitting her cocooned shell again with the stick on my ax- it still does nothing but at least it makes me feel better.
"I know you can hear us, Annie! Just wake up and face us!"
"You're a coward Annie! You're a fucking coward!" Jean and I ready ourselves to take another swing at Annie's unconscious form but a hand on both of our shoulders stops us.
Jean looks back, and I already know it's Levi from without turning around.
"That's enough. It's over," the captain says in a somber, but authoritative tone.
"Like hell it is," I mutter and shrug off Levi's hand and take more swings at Annie, hoping to put at least a dent or scratch into the crystal surface.
Levi places his hand on my shoulder again and rips the ax from my hands and throws it a few feet away from us.
His eyes widen a fraction when they see my watery eyes. Hanji walks over towards us, but I don't listen to her words as she speaks a command to her soldiers; I just stare at Levi with sadness and regret in my eyes.
"I want her dead, Levi." He just nods with understanding and drags me over while placing my head onto his chest. Agitated tears start to leak out of my eyes uncontrollably. "I just want her to pay," I say, my voice cracking at the end with emotion.
"I know," Levi says empathetically while walking us over to somewhere more excluded. I sniff against his shirt, not even caring if I got it dirty, and Levi just holds me tighter, but he releases me when we stop walking.
Suddenly, I'm shoved to the ground and into a pair of warm arms. I instantly know it's Eren who's gripping me now.
"Hi," Eren says. I chuckle into his shoulder but reply.
"Hey, Yeager. Your fighting wasn't shit for once today," I say with a trembling voice, muffled by his shirt.
Eren grips me tighter at my wavering voice.
"You okay?" He whispers into my ear with heavy concern in his words. I just nod with a sigh and dig my fingers deeper into his muscled back.
"Now I am."
..................
After Eren took his much-needed nap, it began to grow late with the sun starting to set, and deciding we all needed a pick-me-up, I dragged everyone towards where Hanji used to sneak us up to on the walls. After slipping past Levi and the rest of the soldiers, we all walked through the near-empty streets inside of Wall Sina.
Making sure no one was following us I ushered us all into a cart and paid soldiers to carry us up to the top of the walls, making sure to tip them so they wouldn't snitch under any circumstances.
Once we reached the top, Connie, Jean, Sasha, Mikasa, Armin, Eren, and I all scrambled out of the contraption and took seats all along the wall, making sure to stay a foot or two away from the edge. We all spread out, meters in between each little group, and before we knew it the sun was already beginning to set.
I leaned myself back on my hands and watched the view in front of me, savoring the amusing taunts going between Connie and Jean, the calm voices of Armin and Mikasa as they talked, the joyous laughter coming from Sasha, and the quiet breathing from Eren who was right beside me. My cheeks heated up at our closeness and great distance away from everyone else.
I suddenly grabbed Eren's bicep as the sun started to disappear behind the flat land in the distance. Soft yellow and deep oranges and reds started to blend all as one, making an ethereal hue in the distance. Then I saw it. The green flash.
I only saw it for a split second, but I still saw it nonetheless. It was breathtaking.
"Did you see..." My words die off when I turn to look at Eren, only to see him gazing at me already. I cleared my throat and faced away from him in embarrassment, but he pushed my face to look at him again. His fingers were wrapped around the bottom of my chin, gripping it softly into his grasp.
"Y-You missed it..." My sentence trails off again as Eren's green eyes stare into mine.
My heart begins to beat loudly in my ears as Eren dips his face closer to mine, while also bringing me towards him his grip on my chin. I make no move to move away, rather, I inch closer to the brown-haired boy next to me and connect our lips in a kiss.
A thousand thoughts enter my mind once our lips hit each other with a soft and sweet impact, but I just focus on one feeling and thought. Love.
I love this boy so damn much.
Those thoughts and feelings started to heighten as Eren slips one hand along my jawline, slowly caressing one of my cheeks with his thumb. I sink into the kiss, gripping my hold on his arm tighter in balance and just wanting to feel him. Butterflies swarm in my stomach when one of Eren's hands shifts to my hip and grips it tight in his hold, pushing my skin down with each of his fingers.
His lips were soft, and his kisses were tentative. He smelled like soap from his bath from earlier and his hair tickled my forehead as the wind brushed it against me. After a couple of long, blissful seconds, we both pull away and rest our heads against each other.
Our breath mingles together at the close proximity between us and I can't contain the large grin etched onto my face. I take a quick peek at Eren to see him mirroring my expression, a soft blush clear on his cheeks.
We stay like this for a few moments, but then Eren breaks the short silence.
"Y/n," he says while moving his hands to cup my head by my ears, slightly ruffling my loose (h/c) hair.
I just hum in response while placing my hands onto his wrists and forearms.
"Promise you'll never leave me," he says to me softly.
"I promise."
Eren tilts my face up and we both stare at each other with soft, content smiles. My hands drop to his neck and my thumbs brush the soft skin below and behind his ears. He moves his own hands to cup my face.
"Y/n, I know I didn't ask before, you were just so beautiful and I just really wanted to kiss you, but... but can I kiss you again-" I cut him off bringing his face close to mine again and connecting our lips once more. That tingling feeling in my stomach resonated in me again and I welcomed it with open arms.
Just as Eren was about to slip his tongue into my mouth I break the kiss when I heard multiple whistles from around us. My cheeks heat up and I hide my face into Eren's broad shoulder as, who I could only guess to be Connie and Jean, whistle again as Eren wraps an arm around my shoulder.
I lift my head from Eren's shoulder to see Jean, Connie, and Armin- yes, Armin- sporting shit-eating grins on each of their faces. I just throw up a hand with only my middle finger showing and grab Eren's face kiss him again.
Once I pull away Eren's face is beet red and his bashfulness surprisingly eases my own as I smirk at the blushing boy. His face reddens even more at my uneven grin, but I decided to let him catch a breath as I turn to face the already fading sun. I grip my hand in his that was slung over my shoulder, and my smile deepens when he grips it back.
With an even sigh, I rest my head onto Eren's shoulder, leading him to rest his own on top of mine, and I just enjoy the moment- savoring the peace I knew we probably wouldn't experience in a while.
𝐚/𝐧
𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐲'𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 😏😋😋