blank open eyes | reiner braun x reader

chapter one

The lighting in your room seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer in the passing moments, a storm on the horizon just outside of the internment zone. Miles away, there was a flash of lightning, but you made no move to close the window. You welcomed the storm, and there was still some time before the rain began.

You were sitting at your desk, flipping through a novel that you hadn't had time to finish over the weekend. Despite usually having the two days to relax, your superiors had decided that you were slacking off, and needed to put more focus into your studies. Your genius military tactic would be needed soon, depending on the outcome of the Warrior's mission. There was no time to get lazy.

If only they knew your plans simply came from instinct, not from honorably studying the historical battle plans of the empire.

You sighed as the breeze fluttered through the window, a cool, humid one that seemed foreboding at best. The pages of your novel wrinkled against each other, growing damp from the air and the oils of your fingertips. With a frown, you closed the book, not knowing why you couldn't focus, when you had suddenly been graced with all the time in the world.

For nearly half a decade, you had been part of the Marleyan military, working as a brilliant tactician who had gotten the troops out of many situations that had seemed doomed. You'd been a warrior candidate once, but your dreams of venturing out of Liberio—if even to destroy an entire nation—were crushed by a near fatal injury that had put you out of commission for a year.

Despite regaining your health and consciousness, you'd never fully recovered from the injuries. There were scars along your sides and sometimes, you walked with a limp that become even more obvious after strenuous activity.

For a while, back when you were young and full of a lot more life, you had hoped that you would be able to pick up right where you left off, as if no time had passed. Perhaps, if you worked hard enough, you'd be back at the top in no time, able to go with the other Warriors to Paradis as planned.

Of course, hope like that was a fickle thing. By the time you were back on your feet, and truly at a point where you could even begin building your strength back to where it had been, the candidates had already been chosen. They'd landed on the island across the sea, and you were left behind.

Even still, you returned to training with the other candidates, the ones who also hadn't been chosen, but it was months before you recovered fully. Unfortunately, no matter how much training you participated in, you had not been able to catch back up to the others.

Your dedication had quickly begun to wane, and your drive to become a Warrior had almost diminished completely.

When Pieck Finger was chosen to inherit the Cart titan, the Commander approached you with a proposition. Although you could grow strong enough to be a successor to a new titan, which would naturally heal all your injuries altogether, they believed you to be too valuable of an asset, and that your skills could be focused elsewhere. The conditions were that you would be indefinitely eliminated as a warrior candidate, but you and your family would be granted protection from war. You could earn the status of Honorary Marleyan, so long as you came to work for the Marleyans in tactics and strategy.

Which, you supposed, was all you'd ever wanted in the first place. Two years ago, you'd been delighted that you'd gotten such a rare and valuable offer. In your age, though, you had grown to hate the war and bloodshed of your job. The way that people were so willing to kill one another. And while there were times that you felt you didn't do much, really, it was enough to almost make you regret accepting the offer in the first place.

You pursed your lips, not daring to think about that anymore. Doubt was a dangerous thing to have, and once it clawed at your mind, it wouldn't let go. This was the way the world was, and there was nothing you could do except protect the people you cared about.