Desiderium | Reader x A. Arlert/E. Jaeger/M. Ackermann | SnK

• Battle For Trost • 13

WE'RE BACK ON THE GRIND Y'ALL (we're literally not don't expect better of me)

•

"The middle guard?!"

You flinched at Eren's loud voice as you, Eren, and Mikasa walked away from the strategy meeting. Armin had excused himself as soon as you were dismissed. You were almost completely sure it was to have another breakdown.

Eren crossed his arms and sighed in disappointment. "The damn back-up.."

You shrugged, watching Mikasa's hair blow in the breeze as she led the two of you to.. honestly you didn't even know. You and Eren had a habit of just following her without any questions.

"If anything, we should be grateful." You looked away from the boy, knowing he wouldn't like your suggestion. "Though.. it is sort of stupid that the upper ranks are just aiding in the evacuation.. Doesn't it make more sense for us 'newbies' to do that?" You used your finger to air quote the words of the soldier from earlier.

"I guess." Eren mumbled.

You rolled your eyes at his bland response and sighed, "Though, I guess protecting the citizens of Trost is a more important job.. But, at the same time, if they were put in front it'd be less likely the titans would get past in the first place." You paused, furrowing your eyebrows as you looked off towards your fellow comrades getting their gear ready. "Well.. maybe not, they are pretty inexperienced after all. They're probably worse than us, it's been s'long since they've been in training.."

Your voice trailed off absentmindedly as your eyes scanned the area around, noticing how panicked and frightened all your comrades seemed to be as they were straggling around, fumbling with their ODM to seem busy.

"If we were assigned with evacuation we wouldn't be able to prove our worth as-"

Eren was cut off, making you finally look over at him, as he ran face first into Jean. Both you and Eren had been too focused on other things to even pay attention to where you were walking. You watched as the taller teen he'd ran into, who you realized was Jean, freeze up while Eren stumbled backwards a bit before regaining his footing.

Mikasa seemed to have let it happen as well, seeing that she was a bit behind Jean, watching silently as the scene came to life. You groaned softly, knowing she did it on purpose to probably get Eren to pay attention. To what? That you'd probably never figure out, she just liked knocking some sense into him sometimes.

"What the-?! What's the big deal, Jean?!" Eren angrily spat, obviously bitching about Jean not having any immediate remorse about bumping into him like that.

Jean, seemingly snapping back into reality, retorted just as sharply, "Big deal?!"

"Here we go.." You groaned and put a hand on your hip as you waited for the two boys to finish their daily quarrel.

Jean nearly pushed you out of the way as he harshly grabbed onto Eren's shirt, pulling the boy closer towards him so he could yell directly into his face. "You can march right to your damn death for all I care! But you don't have to act all smug and collected, there's people who actually care about their lives!"

"Let go of me, horse-face!"

You leaned into the teen's point of view, a confused expression on your face, "Remind me again.. who was acting smug?" You were genuinely confused at where this anger was coming from. But, he probably just needed to let his anger out somehow, that you could understand.

Jean only spared you a glance of pure adrenaline and aggressiveness before turning his attention back to Eren. You were pretty sure his look was to somehow scare you but it really only made you feel sorry for the boy. (He's so scared..)