Hello, Stranger (Hange Zoë x f!reader)

Part seventeen

It was a stupid idea. You were crouched over, half dressed, trying to ignore the slick warmth of blood beneath your fingers as you held the wound. The world seemed to spin. While the wound to the scruff wasn’t much on an animal, humans didn’t have that same loose skin. The slit in your flesh was now on the back of your neck, aggravated by your transformation and throbbing. You stumbled blearily to where you had concealed your pack, fumbling for bandages and salve. Clean it first, if it got infected it’d be an even bigger pain.

You snarled as you pressed the mixture herbs to the lesion. The blood was sticky now, having slowed and started to clot now that your body was still. That was a good sign, it hadn’t hit anything vital. You’d be dead otherwise. Rubbing in the final remnants of the salve, your free hand rummaged for the bandages. They weren’t military grade by any means, but they would do. You might be able to redress it in the infirmary later. It was an awkward spot to treat, you wrapped the cloth three, maybe four times around you neck, slipping in a wad to cover the wound itself. You winced as you tied the ends tight. Once confident it was secured, you sighed. One hand was stained red, but you were able to see straight now, passing out from blood loss was officially off the table.

You attempted to slip back into your uniform, wincing. It should heal in a few days, until then you needed to come up with a good lie. Training accident. That sounded feasible enough. You couldn’t bring yourself to be angry at Moblit despite your predicament. He was just doing his job, you were doing yours. Hange should be safe with him at least. Your head lolled back against the wall. If you stayed here much longer the exhaustion would get the better of you. You needed to get cleaned up.

So you did.

By the time the sun was starting to set, you’d removed practically any suspicion, careful to be seen heading out to ‘train’ and back in to get showered. The nurse had been mildly horrified by the state of your neck when you showed them, stitching the wound closed and rewrapping it. Perfect. You were still sitting as the woman behind you finished tying the final stitch in place when you heard the thundering of hooves in the distance. It took the nurse another minute to realise, and upon doing so, offered up a hurried goodbye before dashing off with their medical bag. They were expecting the worst.

You shuffled through the throng of gathered individuals to the forefront. You were thankful you hadn’t eaten. The sheer volume of human pain and suffering before you, it was beyond anything you could’ve imagined. People ambled forward leaning on their comrades, some had lost legs, arms, fingers, and yet others, you diverted your gaze. Those in the carts had been gored. Flesh torn, organs exposed and wet in the fading sunlight, heaving with laboured, uneven breaths. They’d given their all, and were clinging onto what little life they had left. Hange. Where was Hange? You tried to scent them, but with the cacophony of people it was impossible. Wounded were hurried off to the medical wing where possible, the rest, you could see in the faces of their caretakers, they had accepted their powerlessness. They were simply trying to ease their passing.

You continued through the crowd. You couldn’t see the captain or commander either. Something flickered in the corner of your vision. Moblit. Your head snapped left, and sure enough there he was, immersed in conversation with another soldier you didn’t recognise, and without Hange. His gaze darted up to you as you drew closer.

“You alright?”

“Yes,” the other soldier gave you a nod before walking off, “ran into a rather, abnormal, titan. I need to report to Erwin. Hange’s in the infirmary.”

Your face fell. They had seemed alright to you, save their arm. Moblit however, seemed visibly shaken. There was a distance in his eyes, as if he could still see the beast hovering over his squad leader, whilst he tried to eliminate it. Despite the throbbing on your nape, you couldn’t bring yourself to be angry at him, nor had you wanted to inspire the fear evident in his posture.

“Thank you, Moblit,” you reached forward to awkwardly clap him on the shoulder. You were happy to see he seemed to appreciate your meagre comfort. You didn’t want to imagine what he’d do if he knew you were the monster he had tried to kill. Before you could become burdened by that thought, you turned back in, determined to busy yourself.

The medical wing was bustling with soldiers, patients and helpers alike. You scented the air once again. Now you could smell them, towards the back beds. Their head was low, goggles amidst their hair, with a nurse binding their arm with a splint.

“Hange?”

They looked up squinting, reaching out their free arm into the kaleidoscope of blurriness.

“Y/N! You’re invisible,” they chuckled, giddy. Had they hid their head that badly?

“It’s the pain killers, the section commander needed something strong. It just takes them out of it for a while,” the nurse, seemingly sensing your concern, assured you. There was blood dried on his uniform. “If you’re able, I can discharge Hange to you, but they’ll need supervision whilst under the drug’s influence.”

Hange was repetitively pinging the back strap of their goggles against their head now.

“Can do sir, thank you.”

Hange threw their free arm towards you in a disjointed hug, still giggling. They buried their head in the crook of your neck, humming softly.

“Missed you,” they purred, “didn’t see enough titans. Didn’t get to touch them. They were mean.”

You couldn’t deny that you were amused by an almost drunk Hange, but you needed to get them back to their room first. And bathed. As fond of them as you were, they smelt like they had been fermenting at the bottom of a pond for months.

“Why don’t you tell me all about them, hm?”

You hoisted Hange up by the waist, with them wrapping their free arm over your shoulders, whining at being removed from your embrace.

“Where are we going?” They blinked at you innocently. You prayed no one noticed the heat in your cheeks as you began to lead them out.

Hange was lopsidedly walking beside you, cooing at soldiers as they passed and generally seemingly doing everything to make it as awkward as possible to move them. You tightened your grip on their waist to stop them as they threatened to slip, and they giggled once more, raising their eyebrows suggestively. You had just sighed. At one corner, they had stopped to try and latch onto the wall, huffing as the cool brick hit their face. You tried to manoeuvre them away from it, to no avail.

“If you don’t stop, I’m gonna have to carry you,” you warned, trying in vain again to pull them free.

“No! Y/N, the wall is cosy. It’s my wall now,” they pouted at you. Damn them. You cursed under your breath. This better not pull your stitches.

Against your better judgement, you scooped them up, ignoring their yelp of protest as you wrapped your arms around them. Hange was just as heavy as you remembered, compactly muscled and now nestled against your chest, one of your hands supporting their back, and the other the back of the knees. They were blinking as if dazed, trying to come to terms with what was happening and how quickly they had been lifted. You took advantage of that confusion to resume walking, ignoring the stares from passing soldiers. You’d promised to get Hange back to their room, and you’d be damned if you didn’t.

The rest of the journey was a quiet one, you were thankful, as you kicked open the bedroom door. Hange had been uncharacteristically quiet in your arms, simply staring at you as you set them down on a chair.

“I’m gonna run a bath, ok? Just stay here.”

They nodded, still watching you. You slipped into the bathroom, starting to run the water and testing the temperature. Just nice, you mused, running your fingers through.

“What do you want in it? There’s lavender here, it smells nice –“

“You.”