Within the walls

45

Nyx's pov

Other than my coughing fit the night went rather well. Reiner had assured me that his family had all loved me especially since his mother had insisted on me staying the night. Reiner and I were laying in bed together just talking about the day.

"You're an idiot, of course my mum loved you. She wouldn't have insisted on you staying the night if she didn't. She doesn't let just anyone stay the night, especially since Gabi stays here." Reiner said, stroking my hair.

"That's hard for me to believe, your mum seems like the type to help out everyone." I said.

"She is but that doesn't mean she'll let someone stay here and risk Gabi. My whole family have hope that she'll inherit the armour." Reiner said.

"She has great potential for it. Did I tell you Zofia was confirmed as my successor? She's going to see my whole life and I don't know if she's mentally prepared for that. I Don't know if she'll ever be mentally prepared for that. I know I was never prepared when I inherited the command." I said.

"Her and Gabi will inherit together. They can look out for eachother." Reiner said. "Their families will make it easy on them, make it all worth it."

"I never had anyone to help me cope, noone I felt like I could go to without bothering. In the end I became a warrior for no reason, noone gained anything from this. The only thing I accomplished ended up being for nothing, a failure." I said.

"Don't talk like that. Here I was thinking I was the one needing cheering up but now I think it's you that needs it." Reiner said. "So what becoming a warrior didn't have the effect you thought it would, things went to hell quick. If you didn't become a warrior then we'd have never met, you would have never met Annie or Pieck or Porco. You wouldn't have known Bertholdt, Marcel or Zeke either. You'd still be stuck in that awful place with those people, forced to do everything they said. Forced to work until you died, running around after people that treat you like dirt. It didn't do what you thought it would but it still did some good."

"You've always been a comfort since I first met you. The only person I knew I could go to no matter what. I never had to be embarrassed or ashamed of anything involving you. I've always loved you for that." I said.

Reiner smiled and kissed my forehead.

"Ewwww." Gabi's voice came from the door.

"Gabi? What are you doing in here?" Reiner asked.

"I wanted to make sure miss Betzner was fine now." Gabi said.

"I'm okay Gabi and please just call me Nyx." I said.

"What was wrong?" Gabi asked.

"I don't always take the best care of myself, that's what happens when I forget to look out for my health." I replied.

"You haven't been eating, have you? That's why that happened, it's because you're starving." Reiner said.

"I had been getting better at taking care of myself but then I got busy and zeke stopped coming around to remind me and I stopped eating again. It's not like I try to I just forget." I said.

"But you're gonna start eating again and get better, right?" Gabi asked.

"Of course I am." I said.

"I'll make sure of that." Reiner said. "You know I'll take care of her Gabi, you don't need to worry."

"You should get back to bed now. You'll have training tomorrow and you need your energy." I said.

"Okay, goodnight." Gabi said.

"Goodnight Gabi." Reiner said.

"Sweet dreams." I said.

With that Gabi turned and left, closing the door behind her. Once she was gone I turned back around to face Reiner, burying my face into his chest.

"You tired?" Reiner asked.

"Yeah. It's been a long day." I said.

"We've got to get up early tomorrow too, get some sleep." Reiener said before placing a kiss to the top of my head. "I love you."

"I love you too." I muttered.

I felt myself drifting off as Reiner stroked my hair, talking under his breath about how much he loved me. It was just soothing. The first time in a long time that I felt at peace.