Findings

Chapter 4

Reiner got out from his bedroom around eight o'clock and tiredly made his way into the living room of their apartment. From the corner of the eye Pieck saw him waving at her absentmindedly, while yawning and getting to the coffee maker. His appearance got her back into present time. She took her nose out of Levi's letters and stretched out.

-Slept well? Reiner asked as he took two mugs.

This made Pieck snorted. She had been unreasonable. She had got like three hours of sleeping in the couch, and then was dragged back into her discovery. She even felt like she hadn't stopped thinking about Levi's words anyway during her sleep. Awakening with the rising sunlight she even doubted for a moment if she had imagined all of this. Finding back all those letters spread on the coffee table and the couch just as it was when she fell asleep sort of repeated the chock and excitation of the first discovery.

- Had longer nights... You?

- Same.

Reiner went to sit next to her, handing her a mug she gladly accepted. For the last hour she had started feeling eager to either he or Porco getting up, considering how she wanted to share her discovering. Reiner had seemed curious about it the evening before, but he had been still worried more about his driving exam and was exhausted. He had gone to sleep sooner than usual, and Porco had imitated him, hoping some sleep would heal his ankle more than actually getting to a doctor. There Pieck had spent her evening and night, alone in the living room, devouring the correspondence. By the morning she clearly needed to talk about it.

Reiner started checking his mails, and she asked:

- No good surprise from the driving school?

- No, they said tomorrow.

- That's okay. You're gonna succeed. After all, Porco did.

It made Reiner smile briefly, but this smile then faded away in a sigh.

- I hope so. I want all of this to be done, like, I don't want to hear even again about driving exams, driving schools, driving at all... About cars.

- Well, Pieck added with a sympathetic smile, you'll need to deal with Gabi's projects. I heard her the other day saying how she couldn't wait for you to have your license so you could teach her how to drive.

- Ugh, please no, he said sinking into the couch, which made her laugh.

She patted his shoulder empathically.

- See it as an opportunity to get to see Bertholt and Annie more often. And to shut Porco up. And to take us for more urbex, or to take your dear, old friend Pieck to the campus...

- Hey, he teased, if it's so great, why don't you start your classes at the driving school?

- Hmmm, 1-0 for you, she smiled taking refuge behind her mug.

This made Reiner smile. He put his phone down and looked at all the letters.

- Did you sleep here?

- Yeah, when I thought about moving to my bedroom you were both already asleep and I didn't want to make noise.

- But did you even sleep?

Pieck took Reiner's arm.

- No, but, Reiner, it's insane. It's not just old letters to make good aesthetic with. I spend all the night reading it, and, well, it's intense, I'm honestly feeling like an archaeologist! We never found anything as incredible as this mess! Look...

She handed him her own notebook, almost bouncing up and down.

- I started taking notes, because it's like a police investigation, and I want to solve it. Wanna hear me rant about it?