Childish Games

Childish Games - Fourteen

-Chapter Fourteen-

Jean didn't know where he was. Didn't know what was happening, and most certainly didn't know what the sharp pains shooting through his body were from. He could hear voices around him but he couldn't find the energy to move nor to open his eyes, though the grimace shown on his features must've gone noticed by somebody, as he heard a yell of 'he's awake!' followed by the feeling of someone's hand in his own. 'Jean?' The voice said. 'Jean, can you hear me?' Jean managed to nod his head without too much trouble, though he realised that it hurt a lot more after he had moved a part of his body.

'Yeah..' He muttered, 'I can hear you.' He pushed his tongue out a bit to wet his lips, frowning in the slightest. 'Can I get some water?' He asked, slowly opening his eyes so he could actually feel like a living, breathing person again. As he opened his eyes, he glanced around, trying not to strain himself all too much though, as he took in his surroundings.

'Yes, of course!' Came the response, and Jean tried to look for who had darted off in order to get him the drink, but they were gone before he could even lift his head. He tried to push himself up with his hands but hissed as a searing pain shot up his arm, causing it to give way underneath him and send him right back down again.

'What-? What happened to me?' He asked, scrunching his nose. 'Someone help me sit up.' He grumbled, and soon enough he had someone looping their arm around him so he could sit upright against a wall, seething through his teeth to try and hold back any groans or other expressions of obvious pain.

'You were thrown to the ground by a Titan in last week's expedition.' Reiner explained, as he was sat across the room filling in some sort of report about Jean's health. 'You should eat when you get the chance, since it's been near impossible while you've been asleep.' Jean nodded softly and lifted his left hand up to wipe across his forehead as he felt a bead of sweat drip down, looking to his hand afterwards. Wait. That wasn't sweat. As he looked at his hand he noticed a smudge of blood on the back of his hand and then looked up when someone tended to the bandage on his head, making sure it was tight enough to clot the blood flow. He lifted his other hand to touch at the bandage but winced when the contact sent a sting almost like a burn through the hand. He looked closer at it and couldn't quite comprehend the reality of it all.

'I've... Lost my fingers..?' He whispered, beyond shocked to see only three of the original five fingers on his hand, his middle and pinky finger being the ones that were absent.

'Jean.. Are you alri-'

'How am I supposed to double-flip people off now?' He muttered, unintentionally adding light to the situation, earning a rather loud laugh from Marco.

'You can still use your other hand.' He suggested, and Jean nodded but it soon changed to a shake of his head.

'Not as intense, doesn't truly express the emotions.' He stated. He rested his hands in his lap until someone arrived with a glass of water for him, which he gratefully accepted with his good hand, taking a steady but long gulp of it. 'Is everything else alright with me? Am I healthy, aside from the missing fingers and bleeding head?' He asked, to which Marco shrugged a tiny bit.

'At least we know now that you don't have long term amnesia, since you know who we all are.' He said, 'And I think the bleeding on your head may have almost stopped but it just slipped out when you sat upright.' The boy pondered for a little while on that point and offered Jean a gentle smile as he pushed his hair away from his face.

'Oh, thank god.' Jean breathed out. 'I don't want to die any time soon.'

'I don't want you to either.' Marco agreed, looking up when a deeper voice sounded from across the room.

'Not to mention it'd be an inconvenience for everyone.' Jean squinted a bit as he tried to look across the room and into a shadowed corner, attempting to figure out just who could've said such a thing. Levi. Of course.

'Well, you'll be glad to hear that it's not my intention to die.'

'Pay more attention to what you're doing on expeditions, then.' Levi grumbled, 'You were lucky that you rolled after being knocked down, if you'd just hit the floor dead on, you would most likely have died.' Jean nodded along as Levi spoke, enduring yet another lecture before the older man was called out for a meeting of sorts.

'I guess he's right, it's a miracle that I didn't severely damage anything.'

'Jean... You lost two fingers.'

'I know that, but, it could have been much worse.' He reasoned. He could have broken ribs, punctured vital organs, and so on. Marco nodded in understanding and sat himself against Jean's side properly, allowing the shorter man to rest his head on his shoulder.

~

'He won't be able to fight again for weeks.'

'Even when he can, won't he only be able to use one of his hands? How the hell would he be able to use the 3DMG properly?'

'It'd take some intense training for him to learn how to use it with just three fingers on one of his hands..' Erwin pinched the bridge of his nose as they all exchanged thoughts and ideas about the situation, Levi situated adjacent to him on the conference table, and Hanji, Mike, Petra and Oluo seated around it with them.

'Whatever we do, he's a good soldier, he's determined, we can't just let him go like that.' He said, 'We can try the training to see how he manages, but if it's obvious that he'll be more of a hinderance than a help in the long run, then we should consider cutting him out.'

'It's not like he asked for this to happen to him, I doubt he wanted to be injured at all.' Hanji added, to which Levi scoffed.

'When that piece of shit was standing over him, all Kirschtein did was lie there. Looked to me like he was just giving up.'

'Did you not consider that he was too injured to move then?'

'... Maybe.. But that wasn't my poi-'

'Whatever keeps you happy, lil' fella.'