PRAY FOR ME ,,, ᵐʰᵃ ˣ ᵃᵒᵗ!ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ

i. warriors

The soldiers were tired. Tired, wounded, dead. The ones who had survived the battle in Utgard Castle stood at the top of Wall Rose, some grateful to see another day whilst others wished they could trade their lives for the ones lost that day.

"Stay seated," Eren grumbled, pressing the wet cloth in his hand against Y/n's forehead.

"Eren, it's just a scratch." Y/n pushed the hand away from her and although her muscles were sore and screaming for her to rest, she stood up and went over to help Armin make it over the wall. Eren pouted childishly, trailing behind Y/n.

"Thank you." Armin breathed out, using one hand to grab onto Y/n's extended arm, and the other to push himself up.

"Are you okay, Armin?" Y/n asked meekly, not catching onto the blond's burning cheeks, which weren't red because of the sun or the fact that he had just made it up a fifty-meter wall, but red because of the close proximity between him and Y/n.

Eren began to drag Y/n and Armin away from the edge of the wall, but stopped at the sound of Reiner's groaning, "Are you okay, Reiner?"

"No! A titan chewed through my arm! What do I do... I might be done..."

Y/n let go of Armin (much to his dismay) and kneeled down beside Reiner, placing a hand on his heaving shoulder. Reiner looked over at the h/c girl who was awkwardly smiling at him. She and Reiner were never too close, and everyone knew Y/n wasn't the best with words, especially not when put in emotionally draining situations like these. And yet, Reiner let her small action of reassurance ease him, even if he knew deep down he shouldn't be.

"So even someone as strong as you can get like that..." Said Eren.

"What are you talking about? This is the second time this has happened to me. Right, Armin?" Reiner asked the blond who was well confused, and partially still out of breath. "I was stuck inside a Titan's hand before. I've already had two near-death experiences. I'm not going to be around much longer at this pace. I know I chose this path for myself, but it seems like being a soldier... wears your mind before your body. Well, I guess there's no time to whine when we still have a hole to plug."

"Yeah... you guys just keep getting pulled farther away from your hometown... We need to stop that here." Eren furrowed his eyebrows and Y/n nodded in agreement, standing back up to walk with Eren and Armin towards Mikasa, but before they could, Bertholdt shot up.

"That's right, Reiner!" Bertholdt egged on, being uncharacteristically louder than usual, "Our hometown! Compared to everything we've been through, it's just a little bit farther!"

Y/n definitely found the interaction between the two friends weird. Sure, everyone wanted to restore humanity, that was why they were all there, and everyone had their own motives, everyone wanted to go home, but that didn't make Bertholdt's robotic monologue and Reiner's own confused face which slowly changed as if he had been knocked out of some trance any less strange.