𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛, 𝙷𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛, 𝙵𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙴𝚗𝚎𝚖𝚢 |𝙰𝚘𝚝 𝚏𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟾: 𝚁𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

It turned out that both Mikasa and Armin were correct about which activities they would be doing over the next few weeks. The cadets were put on a rotation between hand-to-hand combat, theory lessons in the classroom, and one day a week of using ODM in the forest. They were split into groups of twenty depending on their ability; Mara was part of the group that were in the top twenty of the division, which she was pleased to see included all her new friends, as well as a few others she recognised from her dorm and the mess hall. She was not pleased to find that the game of Nine Diseases continued, creating a sense of paranoia amongst the cadets that were present at the lake that Sunday. They eyed each other suspiciously every time they met and flinched every time someone got too close.

"...Mara," Jean said icily as they met before class.

"Jean," she met his aggression with narrowed eyes.

After a few moments of intense staring, they backed down and continued as normal, chatting away as if nothing happened. And that summed up the majority of their groups' interactions with each other.

Mara thought to herself she should've just kept it after Reiner had passed it to her at the end of their trip, but Sasha had seen their exchange and asked for it. She had wanted to give it to Annie, so she was included in their game despite having bailed on them. Mara was surprised when Annie walked up to Reiner in the mess hall at dinner, tapped him and told him he had Nine Diseases. The girl hadn't seemed like one to participate but she had eyed Reiner meaningfully as she did it and Mara knew she had underestimated the girl's competitive spirit. As Annie walked away from Reiner, high-fiving Sasha on her way, Mara knew this was definitely going to be a thing.

She lost track of it after that, apparently, it had passed around the boys that night. She knew she was over it as soon as she came to breakfast that morning and felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning to see Marco's apologetic face she rolled her eyes at Eren and Jean's loud guffaws (the latter shut up pretty quickly as she hit him on the head, only making Eren laugh harder). It was discretely passed around the class as they learnt combat theory, eliciting some confusion between the other cadets but no explanation was offered to them on why their peers kept tapping each other followed by loud sighs and groans.

Mara did admit to herself that the game added a fun energy to an otherwise boring month. Apart from the day of using the ODM through the trees, the weeks dragged on. Even then they were only allowed to do simple movements that had them itching for more. They had a lot more work to do now that they had written assignments to do in their own time. The hand-to-hand combat was monotonous and exhausting. The passing of Nine Diseases allowed them to harbour a running joke that let them be silly and free like Mara imagined people their age would usually act. She certainly felt a lot closer to her comrades after that weekend and that closeness grew as they continued the game. She had a reason to start conversations with people she would normally feel awkward around.

"Hey Bertholdt," she tapped his shoulder as they walked towards the combat training grounds, "guess what?"

"I have Nine Diseases?" he asked with a groan.

"You guessed it," Mara grinned up at him.

"How are you finding classes?" he fell into step beside her.

"Oh, you know, fine I guess," she answered, "the homework is a bitch though. I can't believe we have three essays to do for next week."

"And that doesn't include the group project."

"Urgh, don't remind me," she complained, "actually could you let Reiner know to meet up with me and Mikasa after dinner? We still haven't sorted anything out about it."

"Sure, I'll tell him."

"Thanks, Bertholdt."

"No problem," they had arrived at the grounds, "Hey, do you want to partner up with me?"