Beyond the Walls || L. Ackerman

Chapter 11: Empathy

The two boys shared a quick glance of pure hatred and began to walk after me. Our walk through the castle was one of mutual shame and that of equal unpleasantness. We walked straight towards our destination, not even letting a single word slip by as we made our way to the infirmary.

I grabbed the key from out of my dress pocket, then inserted it into the door lock and turned it to unlock the door. I pushed it all the way open and held it there, standing at the side of the doorway to allow Jean and Eren to enter. They stood outside the door, dumbfounded, very obviously having not caught on.

"Don't just stand there, you idiots. Get in!" I ordered with exasperation. They scurried to get inside the room, both trying to get in through the doorway at the same time. It couldn't fit more than one person so after a brief moment of uncomfortably squeezing against each other, Jean pushed Eren inside, sending him stumbling forward and followed him inside apathetically. I scratched my head dejectedly, realizing that they would probably always be like this no matter what anyone did.

"I'll treat Eren first because his injuries are substantial compared to yours as a result of you being an imbecile." I shot a blaming look at Jean to guilt him into comprehending the repercussions of his actions as I walked over to the cabinets for the medical supplies I needed. I rummaged through all the materials and helped myself to some cotton, a small piece of wet cloth, and tape-like medical adhesive. Eren and Jean were standing on opposite sides of the room, obviously not wanting to be in even the near vicinity of each other. I motioned my head towards the cot that was closest to me, gesturing for them to sit on it and I grabbed a stool to sit on as I treated their wounds. Eren's wounds being more apparent of course.

Eren was sitting on the far right side of the bed while Jean sat on the far left. I wonder what caused these two to hate each other so much. It seemed that they were both highly fond of Mikasa but that couldn't be the reason for it all, right? It had to be something more.

I scooted my stool closer to the right so that Eren was sitting directly across from me, then draped the wet cloth around my pointer finger to have better control of it and started lightly wiping away at the drying blood on Eren's face. He winced slightly in response at the stinging on his sensitive skin and I pulled back abruptly.

"Sorry... I know that hurts a bit." I grimaced before resuming, and dabbed at the cuts again, but more gentle this time.

"Ah, it's alright." He said, shyly looking away. I smiled sympathetically and began to patch up the deeper gashes on his face with cotton and bandages. As I was aiding Eren, I caught Jean studying me intently out of the corner of my eye. He looked so focused and lost in thought. I began to feel self-conscious and wondered what could possibly be so interesting about me that it would be enough to make him daydream. When he saw that I was aware of his evident observing, he scrambled to avert his gaze away from me. It seemed that the two, only people in the room were avoiding eye contact with me so I sighed dramatically, knowing they'd detect the sarcasm wafting from my action.

After I finished tending to Eren, I grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him closer to me to carefully inspect my handiwork. He was visibly taken by surprise, eyes wide with shock and a sudden sucking in of his breath. Now he had no choice but to look me in the eye. I chuckled playfully, feeling a sense of pride in having made him so uncomfortable by simply sharing eye contact with him.

"All done." I stated plainly through a wide grin and dropped my hands from his face, sitting back up, straight in my chair. He promptly stood up from the bed and bowed his head at me to symbolize his gratitude.

"Thank you, Mariam. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to help me." He thanked me sincerely. I sensed that he wasn't just talking about how I treated his injuries, and referring more to how I stood up for him against Jean. Though, I wasn't really standing up for him. They were both in the wrong, but I couldn't just let him get battered so severely.