Jaw

Chapter 21

For a week and a half, everything was quiet.

All the Warriors except Porco were in Paradis, so there were no assignments from Zeke or errands to run with Pieck. Of course, it had been like this for the last few months, but was abrupt after having all– most, because it would never really be 'all of them' ever again– of them back at one time.

The Tyburs were unnervingly silent. After missing her meeting, Zeke had chewed her out via letter like she'd never been chewed out before. But Isabelle had said nothing, hadn't even invited her to tea like usual. The family's silence– mostly Isabelle's– was its own psychological warfare, Silena realized, when her anxiety over the matter caused her to feel physically sick upon thinking about them. She'd had more than one nightmare involving Isabelle, Willy, and Willy's unborn child.

Bettina found out about Porco and Silena in the worst way possible: while Porco was in the house. Thankfully, Aunt Adele was Aunt Adele, and managed to hold her back long enough for Porco to haul ass away. It was a sore subject and the house was wintery, but what was new about that?

In lieu of the revival of the Lehmann Cold War, Silena spent most of her days and nights at the Galliard household. How far had they fallen for Mr. and Mrs. Galliard to be warm compared to Bettina? But Porco's parents spent more time at Marcel's grave outside the Interment Zone than they did at home, making it the perfect place for the pair to get used to being a couple.

With the constant activity of the last few days, the week of nothing but lounging in the sun was a nice change. But the rain always had to come.

The news that the Warriors were back from Paradis had come from Porco. He'd stopped by to pick her up on one of the rare occasions she was at home, having heard about it from his parents. Silena needed nothing more than the headline. She barely slipped on her shoes before hurrying out the door, and moved so quickly Porco had to hold her hand so as not to separate from her.

"You're bored of me already?" He grumbled. His attempts to slow her had been pointless. Giving into his fate, Porco matched her speed.

The kiss may have been meant for his cheek, but in her haste Silena landed it on the tail of his eyebrow. "I miss Pieck! It's not like I can talk about you to you, can I?"

Porco had the gall to pout. "You can talk to Adele."

He was arguing just for the sake of arguing- and it was a ridiculous argument at that. "I'm pretty sure following my aunt's advice is what got my mom pregnant," Silena reminded him. Porco had nothing to say to that.

They came upon Reiner first, tucked into a corner of the market. Silena almost walked past him, but Porco had his fuckin' Braun radars on, and stopped so abruptly their hands dropped.

Reiner looked up when he heard Porco call his name. When asked, he told them that the rest of the Warriors were trying to get back to Luis and Cybil Yeagers'-- Zeke's grandparents'-- house. But their attempts at keeping a low profile were failing: one need only follow the masses to find them.

Porco was more than ready to leave Reiner behind, but Silena stopped and told him to go along without her. He cast her and Reiner a suspicious glower before heading on his way.

"You're not with them," Silena noted. "What did you do to be exempt from a Zeke meeting?"

Reiner shrugged. "I wasn't at first. Just managed to slip away in the crowd."

"You never did like a fuss, did you?"

"We don't deserve it this time." He let out a sigh to shake the buildings around them. She didn't know when she had moved to lean next to him. "The mission was a failure: we didn't get the Attack Titan or Annie. And we– we lost Bertholdt."