Light in the Dark: Bertholdt x Reader {AOT}

Graduation

(Warning: Smut)

It was finally the day. The day of graduation. You had done extremely well in combat, but lacked in the other categories. You lacked leadership and drive, those being your weakest traits. You were just as intelligent as Armin and as powerful as Mikasa. You often were paired with the weaker candidates, or at least you saw them as weaker; not like Mikasa or Reiner. These groups typically included Daz, Christa, Connie, Sasha, and Marco. Marco was pretty good at holding the team together, and you always got the most titan kills out of everyone in the group during those training sessions. You weren't great at working as a team, sometimes going off on your own to steal titan kills from Reiner or Mikasa to "show off". Mikasa didn't seem to take notice to this, but Reiner did. He saw it as a declaration of war and would make it a point to outclass you. Eventually he started taking your kills from you, eventually to be found by Bertholdt and brought back to his group.

Reiner always kept an eye on you specifically. He had been distant since the incident a while back, you keeping your distance from him. You didn't hate him for it. We all have our issues. You felt like he was someone trustworthy even after that. He never wore that glare that he had given you back then, in fact it seemed like his behavior, in general, had soften. Apart from you, he had started to be rather social, unlike Bertholdt who would still remain quiet or in the background during conversations with others. He was mysterious to you, but you still cared about the tall male. You would always try and sit next to him when the opportunity presented itself. You weren't used to sitting with others, as you weren't the most social of butterflies.

Bertholdt would avoid eye contact but still glance at you every now and again when you weren't paying attention to him. He wouldn't admit his feelings to you because he was too shy. Reiner was always in the back of his mind about not getting attached. Reiner knew Bertholdt liked her, but stopped harping as much after a while.

Reiner had grown a crush on Christa Lenz, so he couldn't really talk about not falling for people. Reiner kept his emotions all but hidden as Ymir was always hanging off Christa and flirting with her. Reiner didn't appreciate this, but kept to himself about it.

~~Back to Graduation Ceremony~~

You were standing in the third row back, waiting for the ceremony to be concluded. Eventually they started calling up the top ten. You weren't expecting to be called up as the only strengths you had were intelligence and combat. They went down the list, starting at first and going down to tenth. As their names were called, they walked to the front, standing down in line.

1st: Mikasa Ackermann

2nd: Reiner Braun

3rd: Bertholdt Hoover

4th: Annie Leonheart

5th: Eren Yeager

6th: Jean Kirstein

7th: Marco Bott

8th: Connie Springer

9th: Sasha Blouse

When they got to the last name, your eyes widened in shock, surprised at who they had called as the 10th.

10th: (F/N) (L/N)

You nervously stepped forward, standing next to Sasha. Sasha gave you a hungry grin as you stood beside her, obviously food being on the front of her mind. Although she did look happy for you. You all saluted as you were dismissed. You were still in shock about the entire thing.

As you made your way back towards the barracks, you felt a hand on your shoulder, but it was quickly pulled away once you spun around. You looked up, seeing that it was Reiner. He had a cocky grin on his face, happy that he topped over you no doubt. You were in shock at making the top ten period. "Looks like I won our contest (Y/N)." He laughed. This was the closest you guys had gotten since that incident.