𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑨𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍. AotxMaleOc (Attack on Titan X Tokyo Ghoul)

No Rest For The Weary

At last, the remnants of the Scout formation had returned behind the Walls thus marking a sorrowful and painful end of the 57th Expedition. At the forefront of Scouts' concerns now stood the identity of a person inside Female Titan. Not only did it escape from them, but also killed many of the comrades. Not only that, they had to abandon the bodies of their dead brothers by arms to not get killed too. Commander Erwin, Petra, and Armin were going to head up the mission of identifying it. For Petra, this held a personal significance since she had borne witness to the Female Titan's rampage that had claimed the lives of her comrades and almost claimed hers, fueling her pursuit of justice. Her hatred towards the Abnormal was slightly dulled after seeing her father in Karanes District after coming back, the exception from the whole district populace that lashed out at the failure of Scouts to reach their goal. The weariness permeated the ranks as they traversed back to Scout HQ.

Upon their eventual return, sheer exhaustion propelled nearly everyone, making them retreat to their respective quarters, coinciding with the Sun's descent beyond the horizon. One Scout profoundly affected by fatigue was Joseph, who had expended all his energy in battling Titans, navigating the forest with agile bounds, and even enduring a titan transformation for a significant duration of the day. Accompanied by Christa and their companions, they had just secured their horses within the stables and were presently trekking slowly back to the headquarters.

Ymir: Can you believe we survived it?

Sasha: Barely.

Connie: Yeah...

Jean: Wow...I can't believe that we made it out alive.

Connie: But will we survive next time?

Reiner: We will, Connie. I can tell you for sure. Plus we have ourselves to cover and help each other.

Joseph: That's right, we've got this. How did you do, Reiner?

Reiner: Pretty good, although that Female bitch almost got me once, thankfully I got out of her grip. I'm more interested in how you did.

Joseph froze for a moment from the anxiety as he couldn't say right away what happened in the forest. Christa noticed it and slightly stroked his side to bring him back to reality,

Joseph: Me? Well...I got a few kills myself and helped my squad too. Not much else though.

Bertholdt: Really? From what I heard there was a lot of action.

Joseph hesitated again, feeling a sense of inquiry directed towards him. He couldn't divulge the complete truth, and this puzzled him momentarily. However, before he could come up with an adequate response, Christa stepped in, taking his hand and positioning herself by his side, leaning on him slightly.

Christa: Come on, you shouldn't push it, guys. Joseph's very exhausted.

Reiner: Oh. Sorry, Christa, my bad.

Meanwhile, Armin, Mikasa, and Eren were absent from the group, engaged in discussions with Commander Erwin and Levi, strategizing their next moves. As they all walked together, savoring the relief of being away from Titan-infested areas, Ymir took it upon herself to walk up to Christa and lean against her side like she used to do all the time. This essentially sandwiched Christa between Ymir and Joseph, and this made Joseph smirk at Ymir. He always liked how Ymir was close to Christa, they were very good friends and Ymir loved to tease Christa.

Ymir: Looking for a good story, Reiner? Look no further than Christa here. She's a little protector of her boyfriend this one.

Christa gave Ymir an angry look and a small blush while Ymir just smiled and continued to lean against her and smushed her into Joseph. Joseph was hiding his smile as best he could but enjoyed having Christa against him like this and he always found Ymir's teasing funny, and so did everyone else. The white-haired young man put his arm around Christa and held her against him just a little.