━━━━ 𝟖𝟓𝟎
The two years you've spent in the Cadet Corps came and went faster than you expected, and each of them only made you stronger physically and maybe mentally for the long run. Figuratively and literally.
You were older now, and more collected because of that. You and Annie were at the momentous age of sixteen, while your counterparts, Reiner and Bertholdt, took up the big age of seventeen.
After some training in the woods with the ODM gear, you all finally touched on hand to hand combat. It was highly possible you were having more fun than anyone else. You found yourself pinning down and flipping your opponents over with ease.
After you pinned Jean down maybe three times.. okay, more than three times, it was Reiner and Eren who walked up to you two proposing a challenge.
"The commandant not working you hard enough?" Reiner chuckled lightly, but what you didn't catch was the slight darkening of his golden irises as he stared down at you and Jean.
You were casually straddling Jean's hips, holding his arms in place as you pinned them to his chest. You were starting to get bored of winning every round so you opted to take a mini break. Jean, on the other hand, didn't know wether to be scared or flustered at you sitting on him.
"You could say that, yeah." You shrugged, giving Reiner a 'what-are-you-up-to?' look as you released your grip on Jean's wrists who sighed in relief.
"Or maybe you're just not pushing yourself hard enough." Reiner challenged, a sharp edge to his voice, "I suggest you think back to why you enlisted in the first place, (Y/n)."
He was testing you. What may have sounded like a playful tease to the other two boys, was a completely different message for you.
"And what do you mean by that, Reiner?" You dusted yourself off as you stood up, never breaking eye contact. He knew you'd take the bait.
"Why don't you give yourself a real challenge?" The boy smirked, crossing his muscular arms over his chest. "See if you can beat Eren."
"Just because he put you on the ground countless times doesn't mean he'd do the same to me." You laughed in Reiner's face, diluting his proud smirk to a pursed line.
"Then prove me wrong." Reiner pushed a surprised Eren towards you.
You quickly got into stance, using your balled fists to guard your face while spreading your legs slightly apart. "And if I win, you have to go against Annie."
A smug look revealed itself on your face at seeing a seemingly spooked Reiner stiffen up at your words. Ha! Two can play at this game.
Eren's eyes were as big as they could get as he stumbled in your direction before catching himself. "Uh— Alright. Don't expect me to hold back then."
And with that the boy charged forward.
Eren was a bit faster than the others, but his strategy was sloppy. The wooden knife in his hand swung wildly at your body to which you quickly dodged. As soon as Eren grew close enough, you quickly grabbed ahold of the wrist belonging to the current fist swinging at your face, before using your free hand to grab a handful of his collar to keep him from moving.
And with a quick swipe of your legs, Eren was officially on the ground. You took the wooden knife from his hands without a problem. Jean, who decided to stick around and watch, let out a loud cackle as he watched Eren struggle to sit up.
"Shut up, horse face!" Eren yelled.
"So," You dusted your pants off before stepping over Eren's body to get closer to a baffled Reiner. "Let's go find Annie, shall we?"
A nervous laugh bubbled up from Reiner as he placed his hands on your shoulders, "C'mon, (Y/n). You know I was just teasing you."
"Oh! There she is." You spotted Annie's sunflower-blonde hair flash amongst the other groups of cadets fighting. You hurriedly called out to her, wriggling out of Reiner's grip as she approached. "Reiner told me that he could beat—"
Your words were soon muffled as Reiner quickly placed a hand over your mouth before he stepped in front of you, a sheepish smile quivering on his face. "(Y/n) was just kidding! I didn't say a thing of the sort."
"Don't you dare."
Both you and Reiner looked down to see Eren finally sitting up, but still on the ground nonetheless, as he stared daggers at Reiner. "You have to give yourself 'a real challenge', right?"
You slapped Reiner's hand away before adding on, "Yeah! Show us what you're made of, Braun!" You slapped the knife into Reiner's sweaty palm before shoving him towards Annie, which wasn't very far considering the boy was pure muscle.
You could see the dark glint in Annie's arctic-blue eyes as she got into her signature fighting stance, making that your cue to run for your life. You quickly jogged over to Jean before you both were watching the two in amusement.
"This is gonna be good." You snickered to Jean.
"Oh, trust me, I know." He replied. He already watched Annie knock her past opponents flat.
"I guess a soldier can't really afford to back down." Reiner stretched his arms and legs before firmly holding the knife in his grasp. After working up the courage, the boy decided to finally stride over to Annie, "Get ready caus—"
In the blink of an eye, Reiner was practically a big human pretzel on the ground while Annie walked away untouched. You and Jean were howling with laughter, hanging onto each other's arms as you gasped to catch your breaths.
Even Eren was laughing, though he turned away when Reiner attempted to look at him, just to continue his laughs facing you two instead.
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"You son of a bitch!"
"Bring it on, dumbass!"
You didn't have to look up from your meal to know who those words belonged to, but you did anyways. A dinner and a free show. What could be any better?, you thought sarcastically as you watched an angry Jean and Eren bark into each other's faces.
"You rip my shirt, you're dead!"
"I don't give a damn about your shirt! You piss me off!"
Your eyes eventually wandered to the table beside them, where a familiar blonde was seated. He quickly caught your gaze, flashing you a smile and a little wave to which you happily returned.
You pointed to the shouting duo before spinning your finger around in a circular motion towards your head; the universal motion to say 'these two are absolutely nuts'. Armin chuckled before mirroring the boys' angry faces as he crossed his blue eyes. You quickly followed his lead, making a face of your own before you both burst out laughing.
That was until Eren slammed Jean into the floor with a loud thud. You gasped when you recognized the stunt Eren did. You noticed Annie's eyes widening at the sight as well, as she sat across from you.
Eren successfully pulled off her signature fighting move.
Jean sat up, clutching at the pained spot on his head as he stared daggers up at Eren, "Dammit! What the hell was that move?"
"Little something I picked up this afternoon while you were busy cackling like a horse on the sidelines." Eren jabbed, "You really think the Military Police is your ticket to the good life? You're not a soldier. You're a joke."
The mess hall grew intensely quiet. Every pair of eyes in the place was locked on Jean and Eren, who only glared at each other with each passing second. This was the first time you've seen Jean not give a comeback to Eren's snarky remarks. You had to assume that Eren's comment must've really hit home.
The silence was quickly broken by the slow creak of the mess hall's entrance, the door opening to reveal the darkened figure of a bald man as he peered in.
"Would someone care to explain the little commotion I heard just now?" Commandant Sadies glowered, making the whole room feel uneasy with his menacing stare. "I do hope everything's alright."
Eren and Jean quickly scattered back to their tables, looks of dread painted all over their faces as they sat down. It was dead silent yet again as everyone's eyes darted to and from each other in anxiety.
"Sasha passed some gas, commandant." Mikasa declared, earning a loud gasp from Sasha across the room.
You slapped a hand over your mouth to conceal your giggles as Annie subtly did the same across from you. The room was filled with hushed snickers and laughs as everyone willed themselves to hold it together.
"Why am I not surprised?" Sadies grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose as he walked back into the night. "For the love of god, Sasha, learn some self control."
As soon as he left, the room erupted into howling laughter. Mikasa took it upon herself to deliver a loaf of bread to Sasha in apology to which Sasha happily accepted. It seems all was well.
━━━━━━
With a backdrop of the dark forest and the moon beaming bright against a dusky night sky, you were only being coaxed further into sleep. Nothing but the distant sounds of crickets and possibly an owl hoot or two filled the space as you all waited for Annie to bring up what she dragged you all outside for. It was nearly dawn.
You all were just outside of the camp's barricade, using piles of chopped trees for your seats as you made yourself comfortable. You sat beside Bertholdt, resting your head on his shoulder while he rested his head on top of yours. You both were halfway asleep at this point while Reiner glared at you two through his sleepiness.
"Bertholdt, (Y/n), wake up." Reiner grumbled, earning nothing but sleepy groans from the both you in protest. At that, Reiner officially gave up, opting to lean his head back against another chopped tree as he began to doze off.
Meanwhile Annie watched you all with an apathetic face. If you bothered to open your eyes to look, you'd be able to tell that she was calling all three of you an idiot in her head. But you didn't have to because she made it clear.
"Wake up, idiots."
The three of you instantly jumped from her loud voice, being slightly startled that she actually spoke instead of just coldly staring you all down.
"While you all slept like babies after a long day of playing with your friends, I was crawling around the royal capital's sewers." Annie yawned, stretching her arms above her head. "I ran into a man in a black coat that was different from the rest of them. He's the real deal. He almost caught me, and might've seen my face. If I join the MP's and he's there, I'm through."
"So that's it, huh?" Reiner groaned, scratching at his short blonde strands in frustration.
"Let's just go back to Marley with all the information we have so far. It's been five years since we came here, I think they'll be happy to hear anything at all, at this point." Annie suggested.
"Do you really believe that?" Reiner scoffed, earning no reply from Annie as she stared down at her shoes. "I'm sure Marley will be more than disappointed with us if all we can bring back after five years is little information. Especially with one less Titan."
It grew exceptionally quiet as you all thought about it. Hell, you nearly forgotten about the mission itself, the end goal had wandered far from your mind the past years. You found yourself actually .. enjoying your time in Paradis? Who would've thought the evil devils you all were afraid of would be so fun and well.. human.
And besides that, you felt that Reiner was right for once. You all gained little to none when it came to information about anything actually important to Marley like where the Founder Titan resides.
"I know you don't wanna hear it, Annie, but Reiner's right." You added on, rubbing at your eyes to will the sleep away.
"Then what? What should we do?" Annie asked. She seemed desperate, almost, as arctic blue irises darted to and from each of your faces.
"... We'll breach Wall Rose." Reiner declared. His words instantly made your head perk up, throwing Bertholdt's off in the process.
At seeing your worried expression, Reiner quickly went to explain himself, "That's the only way left for us to lure out the Founding Titan. If we just sit around playing this game for the rest of our time here, we'll never find it."
Your slumped shoulders told him that you knew he was right. And you did. You just hated the thought of disrupting more lives, especially when you came to know so many people affected by the first breach. It made things so much harder now that you let yourself get comfortable with them.
"The day our class is in the Trost district is the same day the Survey Corps will be going on a expedition beyond the walls." Reiner continued, "If we create as much chaos as possible, even our class will have to get involved somehow. We can disappear through all the commotion. Even if they never find our bodies, nobody will suspect that we made it out alive."
"A lot of your friends will die." Annie said bluntly, "Maybe even all of them."
You all watched as Reiner stood up from his spot to walk over to Annie, squatting down until his face was mere inches from hers. "How many times have I told you? They aren't our friends. This camp is full of Eldian devils. They're nothing like us, but it doesn't hurt to gain their trust. If anything, you always isolating yourself is way more—"
"I'm going to puke." Annie blurted out, "Could you please not put your face so close to mine?"
It was like watching a totally different person talk. This person was the one you forgot about years ago; the one who put Annie in a choke hold to continue the mission, the one who stomped over corpses to break through Wall Maria's gate, the one who couldn't even view the Eldians as nothing more than monsters, was right before your eyes again.
But if you all had to pick the closest person to the others here, it would be Reiner. He took on a new role for himself in that camp. He had become something that was entirely different from his true self. Someone strong, wise, a leader. Reiner made himself a role model, someone the others could lean on.
Had it really been all an act?
Reiner stood up and moved away from Annie, "You must be tired. I'm sorry for always putting the burden on your shoulders."
He took a look over at you, and he could instantly tell that you were looking at him with different eyes. The look of analyzation on your face said it all.
He heaved a heavy sigh before walking away, "Let's just leave it at that today."
You all slowly followed suit, shuffling through the grass as you made your way back to camp.
"Ive been having the same dream over and over." Bertholdt said suddenly, "I keep dreaming of that old man who hung himself in that camp... I always wonder why he told us that story before he put the noose around his neck."
You all were quiet as you thought over what it meant.
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ONLY A FEW DAYS LATER
You stood in a hall with heigh ceilings and tall stone pillars, each one adorning a lit candle to give the space a warm golden glow. Chatter flowed through the hall loudly, accompanied by the occasional clink of mugs clashing together in toast.
It was finally graduation night.
The official ceremony happened earlier in the evening. You, Bertholdt, Annie, and Reiner all successfully managed to make it to the top ten of the class, in the top five spots actually. But you didn't expect anything less; you would've been more surprised if you all didn't make it to the top. All those extra years of training in Marley had to have been good for something.
Tonight should've been a happy moment, a time to give yourself a pat on the back in congratulations. But being surrounded by everyone's smiling faces, giddy with excitement at choosing a regiment soon, you only felt sad. You felt bad for them, to be more specific. You knew that Reiner's plan would be coming into effect soon. It'd be like Shiganshina all over again.
You wished there was another option to find the Founding Titan without having to end more lives in the process, but you knew that the wall breaching plan was the only way. You had a mission to carry out, after all, you should be more urgent about doing anything to get you back home. But you genuinely liked it in Paradis.
There were no guards hounding you for no reason, you weren't being taunted for your 'filthy blood', no military officiants belittling you to nothing more than their personal weapons. Hell, even the armbands seemed a little dumb now. I really went through all that just to get a damn piece of fabric?
But you knew you had to go back to Marley eventually. You couldn't stay in the ignorant bliss of Paradis forever, could you?
"Hey."
You blinked out of your deep stare into your mug of water, your rippling reflection looking back at you until you looked up to see your favorite blonde.
"Hi." You smiled, watching Armin sit down across from you at the table.
"You okay?" He asked, concerned blue eyes studying your face for any hints. "You're sitting all by yourself."
"Oh, I'm okay! I chose to sit by myself." You chuckled. "Everyone else seems to be a little busy, so."
Reiner and Bertholdt were so wrapped in a conversation with a group of guys, it felt weird for you to stand around them, Annie was nowhere to be found as usual, and everyone else was with their own little friend groups, so you sat by yourself.
"But thanks for checking in on me." You said, "It means a lot."
"Of course. I'll never be too busy for you." Armin's eyes bulged out as soon as the words left his mouth, like he hadn't meant to say the sentence out loud. He hurriedly turned away, pretending to take a look around the hall, "So, uh, what regiment do you plan on joining?"
You giggled at his bashfulness before answering, making Armin's lips pull up into a sheepish smile. "I've actually been leaning towards the Scouts."
Your answer should've been the MP's to go with Reiner, Annie, and Bertholdt, but that didn't match up with what you told him in the woods that night so long ago. You told him that you joined the ranks to fight back against the Titans, how would you do that if you joined the Military Police? The Scouts were all about fighting back and reclaiming the lost land, so it made more sense.
Just as you expected, Armin shot out the question. "While I'm not surprised that you'd wanna go for the Scouts, why not go for the MP's? You made it in the top ten, so you're eligible to live a comfortable life behind the walls."
"It sounds nice, but being an MP would mean sitting around. I'd rather be on the frontlines, fighting back." You answered, "Sometimes being comfortable isn't always a good thing. Just like everyone behind the walls. They've become too comfortable with being cooped up in a stone cage when they should be out fighting for their freedom. This place'll never grow if they don't push beyond."
You weren't even trying to rant, but the words spilled from you nonetheless. You grew quiet as you realized just how much you talked, but Armin seemed to enjoy hearing you talk. He liked the way you think, the passion in your voice, the determined glint in your (e/c) eyes.
"You sound a lot like someone I know." Armin laughed softly before taking a sip from his mug.
"Uh oh. I can't tell if that's a good or bad thing." You laughed before taking a sip from your own mug.
"Hmm." Armin put on a fake look of thought, furrowing his eyebrows up as he tapped a finger to his chin. The corner of his lips curled up slightly as he watched your expression go from playful to worried.
You reached over to move his finger away from his face with a whine, "Armin. Say something."
"I'm just kidding." He laughed, wrapping the rest of his fingers around your hand. "I think it's a good thing. You're very passionate."
You were sure that your stomach did a full somersault. "Took you long enough." You grumbled, the corners of your lips giving you away as you willed yourself to stop smiling.
You didn't want to let go of his hand just yet, so you took the courage you had left to grab onto it with both hands. You busied yourself with tracing shapes, etc. into his palm as you continued the conversation, "So what about you? Which regiment are you thinking about joining?"
Armin's cheeks were slowly growing their signature shade of light pink as he stared down at the both of your hands. The slow drag of your fingers against his palm was enough to make his brain malfunction. "I— I, uh. I-I'm thinking about joining the Scouts."
You were genuinely surprised by that, "The Scouts, huh? Why the Scouts and not the Garrison regiment?"
"My reason is similar to yours; I don't want to sit by when there's an overwhelming threat to humanity from the Titans." Armin explained, "It wouldn't feel right to not fight back.. I'm through with letting other people fight for me."
"I think you'll do great in the Scouts. They'll be lucky to have you join them." You complimented him with a smile. And you were being honest. Armin was a very smart individual, and it showed. Through every test and drill in the Cadet Corps, Armin had an idea to win. Whichever regiment he decided to join would be gaining a valuable asset.
"Thanks, (Y/n)." Armin's voice grew dreamy-like. His hand curled up against yours as you two continued to hold hands, too lost in each other's eyes to even worry about what was going on around you.
"Ahem."
You both instantly jumped, turning to see Bertholdt and Reiner standing at the end of your table.
"I'm sorry. Were we interrupting something?" Reiner scowled, not even trying to hide the disapproval written on his face. His darkened golden hues were trained on you and Armin's hands, making you slide your hand out of Armin's grasp.
"Hey, Armin." Bertholdt greeted him with a look of worry before turning to you, "Hey, (Y/n), could we talk to you for a minute?"
"Sure.." You drawn the word out as you stood up, turning to give Armin an apologetic look.
Armin could feel the tension and knew not to push it, but he definitely didn't like the idea of Reiner pushing you around. Armin wasn't oblivious, he noticed Reiner's mannerisms way back on the cliff that night.
Armin stood up as well before reaching over to give your hand a final gentle squeeze, in spite of the subtle twitch of Reiner's jaw. "It's okay. I'll talk to you later, 'kay?"
"Okay." You smiled, squeezing back before Armin turned to leave, headed towards Eren and Mikasa. He subtly took peeks over his shoulder to keep an eye on you the whole walk there.
Reiner and Bertholdt led the way towards the back of the hall where there were less people, since everyone was mostly crowded towards the front near the tables of food.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" You asked, furrowing your eyebrows up at the duo.
"Do you like Armin?" Reiner burst out, turning to face you with an unreadable look. Bertholdt just stood there, anxious green eyes darting between you and Reiner's tense statures.
You scrunched your nose at him before answering, "And what does that have to do with anything? Why don't you mind your own business instead of snooping around mine?"
"(Y/n). Armin's an Eldian devil. He's—"
"Oh, brother. Here you go." You groaned, rubbing a hand down your face in frustration. "Now they're devils, but just earlier they were your comrades. Your friends. You were just laughing it up minutes ago with the damn devils—"
"That's not the same!"
"Oh, but it is! So you can kiss everyone's ass but I can't talk to Armin? What happened to 'gaining their trust' huh?" You snapped.
"So you do like Armin?" Bertholdt chimed in, earning you and Reiner's attention. "... You never answered the question."
You stared daggers at Bertholdt, your (e/c) eyes darkening with a murderous glint. If looks could kill, Bertholdt would've dropped dead. Dammit. Of course, he'd notice. I was almost in the clear.
"No." You grumbled, "I don't see Armin in that way."
Liar.
You held Bertholdt's gaze. Who do you think you're fooling? You knew that he knew you were lying, you were just wondering if he was going to make you admit it. After a couple seconds (that felt more like hours) of staring, Bertholdt eventually heaved a sigh as he surrendered.
His face softened before he turned to Reiner, "Well if she says she doesn't like Armin then there's your answer."
"Thank you, Bertholdt." You muttered before you turned to walk away.
Reiner quickly walked after you, "Wait, (Y/n). I'm—"
"Are you insane?!" Someone yelled out on the other side of the hall.
The chatter went dead silent as everyone turned to the source of the noise. Thomas Wagner. He was in the crowd of people surrounding Eren, Armin, and Mikasa. He took a look around the room at first before lowering his voice to talk.
At this point, you, Bertholdt, and Reiner were intrigued, the past conversation long forgotten. You all walked closer to the spectacle before taking a seat at your original table, a little closer to the group. Annie sat just across already, sipping from her mug of water as she watched on.
"Things have changed. Maybe not a helluva lot, but enough. Titans aren't the mystery they were five years ago." Eren voiced loudly, everyone hanging onto his every word. "Every battle we've lost taught us a lesson, gave us the tiniest push towards hope, and you're telling me that you wanna just throw the towel in? Let all the death and destruction be meaningless? Not on your life! Humanity's future lies outside the walls, and I'm gonna clear the way! I'm gonna take back what was ours!"
It was dead silent again as Eren finished up his speech, finally noticing how every eye in the hall was locked on him. It wasn't long before he suddenly ran away, bursting through the double doors with all the urgency in the world. Armin and Mikasa immediately ran after him while the rest of you stared at each other, dumbfounded.
Sasha took this moment of timid silence as an opportunity to voice loudly, "Well... I call dibs on the last piece of bread."
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It was a bright and sunny day in the lively city of Trost. There was an excited buzz in the air at the sight of the Survey Corps trotting through the streets. Children and adults alike lined the sides, cheering on the soldiers draped in pine-green as they embarked on yet another journey beyond the walls.
They rode on chocolate brown steeds, their pine-green capes flapping in the wind to show off the Survey Corps emblem on their backs. A well-built man with bleach-blonde hair and bold blue eyes led the way, followed immediately by a giddy person with auburn-brown hair and thick glasses, and a shorter man with jet-black hair and a deep scowl. Your group's eyes lingered on the latter.
"So that's humanity strongest soldier, huh?" Annie scoffed.
"Where's the rest of him?" Reiner chuckled.
You all stood out amongst the crowd of smiling bright faces, apprehensiveness etched into your features while your counterparts took up apathetic expressions. You watched as the Survey Corps inched closer to the wall's gate, oblivious to what would happen as soon as they're gone.
As soon as they were out of sight, your group was on the move. Using the cover of the streets busy celebration, your disappearances were barely noticed. Annie led the way, pulling you all further away from the busy streets and into the empty backstreets and alleys.
You eventually came to one empty alley in particular, tucked away behind some buildings. The distant sounds of loud chatter and laughter was still echoing past the empty streets to your ears when Annie reached down to lift up the cover to a sewer canal.
Everyone but Annie immediately pinched their noses, seeing as she's grown used to the smell.
"Bertholdt, you'll have to go out this way." She instructed, "I'll go with you so you don't get lost."
"Okay." Bertholdt uttered nasally. He looked queasy as Annie slid through the opening in the ground to climb down the ladder, before he soon followed suit. A squeal echoed through the opening immediately afterwards.
"What? What's wrong?" You yelled as low as you could, without causing an echo.
"Nothing. Bertholdt's just being a baby." Annie deadpanned.
"That rat was the size of your head!" Bertholdt shrieked.
Reiner rolled his eyes as he grabbed the covering to the opening, "We'll meet back here after you're done." He voiced loudly into the opening before positioning the cover over it loosely.
"C'mon. Let's go before the others notice we're gone." You said, already speed walking for the end of the alley.
"Or do you just wanna get back to Armeen." Reiner taunted with a snicker. You shot him a cold glare, quickly cutting off his laughter as he followed you. "You've grown up to be so mean."
"I wouldn't be mean if you'd stop picking at me." You quipped, not even facing him but choosing to continue walking.
"We used to be close." He continued, ignoring your remark. "And then Por— Armin came along and it tore us apart."
"It went to shit way before I met Armin." You muttered to yourself. Your bond with Reiner split a long time ago, five years to be exact. The moment he put Annie in a choke hold, the moment he crashed through that gate in Shiganshina, was the moment you looked at him with new eyes, a new perspective. "You're not the same person I knew."
Reiner caught only the last part, striding to make it to your side, "(Y/n)—"
"There you are!" Sasha yelled out. She was practically glowing, her smile so big that her eyes were squeezed shut by her pink tinted cheeks.
"Hey!" You yelled back, relieved for the interruption. You jogged up to meet the auburn-haired girl. "Where's everyone else?"
"Oh! They're already on the wall. We've been looking everywhere for you guys." She replied. "I was just heading there now if you wanna come with."
"Sure!" You turned back to Reiner to give him the details, but he was already gone. With a shrug, you turned back to Sasha as she soon led the way through Trost.
You soon noticed that Sasha would only display her left side to you. To test your theory, you slightly leaned forward as if you were taking a peek at something past her. She swiveled slightly with your movements, but not quick enough. You still caught the big lumpy object under her jacket.
At your curious stare, she heaved a sigh of defeat. "Oh, fine. You caught me." Sasha lifted her jacket to reveal a big hunk of tied meat casually being held against her side.
"What the he—!" Sasha immediately slapped a hand that reeked of meat over your mouth.
"Shhh!" She whisper-yelled, her brown eyes cautiously darting around her surroundings. "I got it from the officer's pantry. I promise I'll share with you if you be quiet."
You snatched her greasy hand away from your face before you whisper-yelled, "Sasha, you'll get in trouble! You need to take that back before they realize it's missing."
"Hell no!" She whisper-yelled back, her brown eyes soon growing watery. "I won't let them take my precious Meaty away."
"... You named it?" You deadpanned.
"... Yes."
At that, you burst out laughing; a loud, hearty laugh full of amusement. A relieved Sasha soon joined in, giggling until her laugh was just as loud as yours. You two looked like giddy idiots laughing loudly in the streets side by side as you walked.
Your laugh soon subsided into chuckles as you took a closer look around you.
Stands lined the busy streets, filled with jewelry, clothing, food, fruit, etc. Whatever you could think of, there was a stand for it. Little kids raced each other, weaving through the small gaps between people to reach their finish line. Mother's held their bouncing babies close as they shopped, some dragging along a jittery toddler or two.
Life.
Sasha noticed your wandering eyes and smiled, "First time here, huh?"
"Yeah." You answered, "There's just so much going on. So much to see and so much to do."
"Yup! Trost's a busy city." Sasha chirped, "There's always something going on around here."
"For this town to be so close to where the breach was, you would think nothing ever even happened. Life is bustling here." You comment.
"Well it has been five years now. Can't live in fear forever." Sasha shrugged, "Plus, I like to think we've made the walls a lot stronger these past years. Maybe that Colossal Titan's given up on us."
Her words made you frown, an unsettling chill running down your spine as you grew quiet.
I'm sorry, you wanted to say. I'm so sorry.
The feeling of guilt settled on your shoulders like an old friend, curling up to make itself comfortable as you inched closer to the walls.
══════════════════
You stood atop Wall Rose now, giving you a birds eye view of either side of the wall. You were closer than ever now to the blue skies above, not a cloud in sight to hide the glaring sun. Sasha was practically skipping as she led you closer to the group: Thomas, Mina, Connie, Eren, and Samuel. They were cleaning the newly installed cannons when you two finally made it to them.
"Can you guys keep a secret?" Sasha was giddy with excitement as everyone turned to look. She lifted her jacket open to reveal Meaty, a smile dancing on her face as she bounced on the balls of her feet. "I totally just helped myself to the officer's pantry!"
Just as you expected, a chorus of shocked gasps was given in return to Sasha's statement.
"Sasha, they could throw your butt in a cell for that!" Eren exclaimed.
"Seriously, what is wrong with you?" Samuel burst out.
"What isn't wrong with her?" Connie didn't look the least bit surprised as he leaned against a cannon lazily.
"I tried to stop her." You shrugged.
"It'll be fine. I'm willing to share with all of you." Sasha was drooling at the mouth now, her eyes lidded as she daydreamed, "Just imagine all the sandwiches we can make." She shuddered, an animalistic noise escaping her mouth as she smiled.
Yeah, this girl's too far gone.
"Go put it back!" Connie demanded to no avail. Sasha was too busy in lala land.
"Do you have any idea how rare meat has been since the Titans took down Wall Maria?" Mina exclaimed, a look of worry settled into her usual enthusiastic face.
"Um.. a little bit. Sure." Sasha halfheartedly agreed, earning annoyed groans from everyone else. "Just look at it this way: pretty soon, we're gonna take back all the land we need for livestock. We'll be swimming in meat."
At that, everyone grew quiet. Anxious glances being exchanged throughout the group before Samuel finally broke the silence, "I would really like a slice, please!"
"If he gets some then I do too!" Connie burst out immediately, his annoyed mood completely diminished.
"Me too! Save me some too!" Mina added on excitedly.
You laughed as everyone battered Sasha to make sure she'd hold them a slice. I'm gonna miss this.
As everyone got back to work, you decided to take a peek over the wall. You looked out over the empty grass plains loitered with trees and tall hills in the distance. But more importantly, you looked directly below. No signs of Bertholdt. That's weird—
"Whatcha' doin'?"
You flinched before turning around to see Eren behind you, a grin curled up on his tan face, his teal-green eyes practically glimmering in the sun's light. You plastered a grin on your own face, "Just enjoying the view. It's interesting to look at things from up here."
"Yeah, that's one of my favorite parts about being up here." Eren replied; walking towards the opposite end, facing the city, as you followed him. "Kinda makes you feel like you're flying."
You hummed in agreement, feeling the warm breeze slither around your bodies. You both looked up just in time to see a flock of birds soar through the expanse of blue above you.
"I can't believe it's been five whole years since it happened." Eren breathed out. His smile grew bigger on his face as he studied the city below him, "Now look at us: ready to stand tall again."
You were just about to reply when a loud clap of thunder cut you off. You sucked in a breath, Dammit. A familiar yellow glow enveloped everything around you before it was suddenly nothing but the sky again. It was eerily quiet for those few seconds. Seconds that you felt dragged on forever as you spun around to come face to face with the Colossal Titan.
Everyone was frozen to their spots, not moving an inch, as they stared at the Titan with the widest eyes you've seen yet. The Colossal's beady black eyes soon flickered to you, looking down slightly before landing on your (e/c) hues again. Bertholdt might not have said a thing, but you heard the message loud and clear: Move.
"C'mon!" You yelled, practically pushing Eren off the wall as you moved to jump off. You figured you could at least do Armin a favor and not have his best friend killed.
Just as your feet left the wall's edge, a powerful surge of hot steam shot across the top of the wall followed by a loud boom that nearly made your ears ring.
As you latched into the wall, slamming into it's hard surface, you looked down to see Bertholdt successfully kicked a gaping hole in the wall's gate.
"Sasha!" Mina yelled out.
You turned just in time to see Sasha half running, half falling as she chased after Samuel's limp body. She shot a grappling hook out to anchor herself to the wall before shooting one down to Samuel, anchoring right in his leg.
"Try not to move!" Sasha yelled down.
Your eyes hastily dragged across the wall, making a mental note of everyone currently hanging by their wires. It seems that everyone got off the top of the wall in time. Good.
"Look at the wall!" Connie shouted, just now noticing the crumbled gate. He was growing deranged as he stared. "They're gonna get in... They're gonna get in!"
"Let's go back to HQ for the others!" You yelled out as a suggestion. Anything to get them away from the walls and to safety.
"No! This is our chance people!" Eren shouted, whipping out his blades with a face of sheer bravery, "Do or die!" In the blink of an eye, Eren was speeding for the top of the wall. "We need to take out the Colossal Titan! This is our chance! Don't let it slip away!"
You were stunned as you watched him fly up into the thick smoke billowing over the wall. No, no, no. What is he doing?! Is he crazy?! You were conflicted on what to do next as you and the others still hung from the wall. Do I go after him? Do I stay and just hope for the best? You heaved a heavy sigh before finally coming to a decision.
to be continued.
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