Always want to be WITH YOU || Reiner x Historia

Chapter 9

Reiner POV

It's midnight, but I'm still awake with Bertholdt. I kept his promise not to fall asleep. We had to wait for Armin and Eren for them to sleep first, and they only fell asleep at 2 am.

I looked up, staring at the high ceiling of my room. The cold hit the skin, but luckily we were given a soft mattress with a thick blanket. My little hands automatically pulled the blanket to cover my whole body because suddenly there was a cold coming in, I shivered. And waiting for Bertholdt to speak even though it's been 30 minutes since Eren and Armin fell asleep.

"Bert, were you asleep?" I asked to be sure.

"Mmh? No, I just-... You know. Just thinking about it." Bertholdt answered from the bed below me. I just sighed, he seemed confused about where to tell.

My gaze shifted to the brown teddy bear beside the bed. When I went to the market earlier, I had time to play a few games and finally I won the arrow game, until I finally got this teddy bear. The size is not big, maybe it will fit in an adult's trouser pocket. But this doll is very cute.

I took the doll, hugged it. While looking down and confirming Bertholdt's state. But not visible, because Bertholdt seemed to be sitting in a corner on the wall above his bed. Finally I made sure to go down and meet him.

And sure enough, he sat curled up, hiding his whole body under the thick blanket. From a distance, he looked like a lump of snowball because of the white blanket. Ah right, he's not crying right?

My body slowly climbed onto the bed, "... Bert?"

"Ah, R-reiner?" He looked shocked when I touched his head. But there were traces of tears on his cheeks. I stared at him intently, forcing the blanket that covered the slender body.

"Take off your clothes."

He immediately crossed his arms across his chest, panic. "A-ah, R-reiner, what do you want?"

"I just wanted to see how many bruises you got." I tugged at his shirt, he panicked even more.

"B-but this is embarrassing- My shirt could tear!"

"We're both boys, what are you ashamed of?"

"B-but-!!"

"Hnggh, I'll kill all those damn Marleyans ..." We both immediately held our breath when we heard Eren's voice. Our heads were in unison, looking up at the top bunk if there was any more movement. But it turns out that Eren is still taking shelter in his dreamland.

“Shhh, didn't you hear that? I-I can take off my clothes by myself…” I let go of my hand that was tugging on Bertholdt's shirt, and looked into Hazel's eyes. He slowly undressed. And all the purplish bruises were clearly visible on her tan skin, leaving me dumbfounded. But not only bruises, there are even cuts with dried blood and the surrounding skin area is still red. It must still be sore. Didn't he treat it?!

"B-bert..."

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Class is closed today. We are free to work all day. I chose to sit alone under a shady tree, in the middle of the forest. Because our hostel is in a remote part of the forest, it's quite far. Maybe with this I can put my mind at ease.

Since morning, I avoided Bertholdt. I don't want him to see my worries and my uncontrollable emotions. Even though I know that he's been really worried about me ever since he told me everything. I was really angry to hear Bertholdt's story. I also had time to meet Annie to match the story, even though she only uttered one word, confirming. but Annie never lied. Everything Bertholdt told me was true.