UNCAGED SOUL || Attack on Titan x Reader

In Between || Jean Kirstein

Pt. 2 of "A Little Fear" Mini-Series

content; manga spoiler, marleyan!reader

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ༶•┈┈⛧┈〄┈⛧┈┈•༶ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Just a few more minutes before they arrived.

They needed to stop him, that little suicidal blockhead who wanted the world squashed underneath him. Eren Yeager and his unpredictable way of thinking, Jean could never understand what filled that mind ever since they were just a cadet.

It used to be so simple back then, when what they were worried about was just the titans outside the walls or the gamble they had to reclaim back Maria. But now as everything was revealed, as the mystery finally unfolded, every single day was just filled with questions about why the world had to be like this.

Jean used to have a simple dream, wanting to live peacefully inside the innermost wall, Sheena. He wanted to be in the military police, climbing to the highest rank so he could live comfortably and enjoy his life, bringing his family along after that. Perhaps someday he would find love, and every day he would come back home to a house where his wife and children were waiting.

But that day when Trost was breached, and he lost one of his closest comrades, he couldn't live inside Sheena without knowing his best friend would be there too. For years he just wanted to know the truth, about what happened to his kind friend, he wanted to know the last moment of Marco's life.

After four years, he finally found his answer. Reiner and Annie told him everything, all the details and even the unnecessary apology that the armoured titan kept going on and on until Jean couldn't take it anymore and lashed out.

He was tired, to always be the one who lived. The past few days he lost so much, and perhaps he lost his last chance to have a life inside Sheena with how he joined Hange to embark on this impossible plan a few days ago.

After knowing the truth, he almost left. He already knew now what happened to his friend, now he just needed to go back and rest. If Floch asked him where he was these days, he could always say that he needed time alone. Yes, he could have done that.

And yet he stayed, he continued fighting even until this day. He sat there in silence, listening to the flying boat engine that was oddly comforting as they all waited for the signal to get down.

He knew the reason why of course. Not just because he felt responsible over the fact that Eren was his friend, not just because he couldn't accept genocide too, but because there was still someone that he needed to meet at the other side of the sea.

"I almost left back then." He spoke up, startling the others who were deep in thought. "When Hange said they were waiting for me outside, or last night when Reiner and Annie told everyone the truth about Marco's death, I decided that it was enough for me."

"H-Hoi, Jean, you didn't mean that." Connie swallowed a huge lump, not believing the words that his friend just spewed. "No way you even think about leaving us—"

"But I did, Connie." Jean's voice was stern as he said that. "For a short period of time, I could have just lived and let the world be destroyed, right? There was no downside for me anyway." He sounded like a maniac right now, letting out a small chuckle under his breath.

Reiner and Connie looked at him with horror, while the others just kept their mouths shut and let him speak whatever he wanted. No one knew why Jean seemed to be so agitated, and they never questioned what was the silver key that he now wears as a necklace. They didn't know the origin of it and were just minding their own business because somehow the male didn't like to share the whole story.