stars & moons - jean kirstein

part 1

Lunar 

My ankle aches under the table, the swelling beginning to push against my boots. Of course, the only thing I could've wanted to do after getting my leg clipped by an artillery shell was sit in a meeting full of greying men discussing Marley's future in war. My elbow rests on the table in front of me, a pen twirling in my finger as I listen to the General discuss his subtle disappointment in our efforts, despite our successful mission to destroy the port at fort slava; a plan they never would have considered if I hadn't pointed out its significance in it being a trading dock for war supplies. My father sits beside me, Zeke across from me, both tuning in depth to the General's words.

"Our two main battle titans were nearly shredded by the guns of the enemy fleet. The headlines across the world's media reads 'the weapons of mankind have at last grown strong enough to sunder Marley's armour.'  Speaking of the armour, where is Reiner, shouldn't he be here?"

"With all due respect he is quite injured sir, please I think it would be ideal to just let him sit this one out for now, I can catch him up when he wakes up." I pipe in.

"we made him vice chief for a reason need I remind you. I hope you're not letting personal commitments cloud your judgement Magath." Calvi says lowly to me. What an asshole.

"No sir, I feel he has endured quite a lot more than is expected of him since he came back from paradis, so missing one meeting won't be too much of a loss if it means he has time to recover." I can see Zeke's lips slightly form into a smile, but quickly fades away before anyone else has a chance to see it. General Cavi's holds my gaze as he flings the newspaper back onto the table. I don't break eye contact with him as I take a sip of my coffee, "this battle held up proof of our weakness. So, it can't truly be called a victory for our nation, can it?" his eyes are cold, expressing his obvious disapproval for the plan I devised.

He holds his hands up, ushering me to give him a response, "well speak? What do you make of this magath?"

I swallow the coffee, the warm liquid seeping its way down my throat, "frankly general, we all knew this time would come and it has; the power of the titans has been surpassed. We've been too content to rely on the power of the titans, and our complacency has come to bite us in the ass." My words make his eyebrows raise slightly, "Our enemies who had to fight titans had to come up with their own solutions to oppose them." 

*

"Lunar! Reiner!"

Marley's military princess, alongside the vice chief. I smile towards the voice calling to us.

I limp slowly towards the four kids, my leg still tender from the war, the morning of meetings and paperwork not proving to be of much benefit to my recovery. Reiner's strong arm hooks around mine gently to avoid watching me fall. His eyes have big pools of black underneath them, indicating his exhaustion, and his own injuries crippling him. the general was right about how close we got to Zeke and Reiner being completely blown out; I read in the reports that Reiner had taken that first wind of the enemies' bullets to protect Zeke, something he wasn't given enough credit for in the meetings.

Gabi runs the rest of the way towards us, gripping onto my shirt tightly when she reaches me. Reiner's sweet little cousin, I always saw her as a little sister and wanted nothing more than to stop her from indulging in the same fight we had given our lives to. I knew Reiner felt the same.

"You're okay to walk again?" she asks me, beaming

I smile softly, "Yeah, are you guys alright?", Reiner and I look between them, his soft hand of reaching down to pat each of the kids heads, "Gabi. Udo. Zofia."

My eyes move to Falco who stands a few feet away from the group, "Falco?"

"Hello." He gestures his hand in a wave

Gabi steps in front of him before I can continue, "They said we're going back to Liberio soon! Let's walk around while we wait!" Gabi pulls onto both of our arms, I wince slightly at the unexpected movement

"Shouldn't Mr Braun and Miss Magath be resting?" Falco pipes up behind me

Reiner's face softens as he approaches him, bending down and placing a hand on his shoulder, "We're all right, don't worry."

"Yeah Falco, come on, I'll buy you all a hot chocolate." I add, giving them a smile. They squeal, and Falco comes running to catch up. I turn to see Reiner with an unreadable expression.

"Hey, you okay?" I ask, giving him a confused look.

He shakes his head quickly to snap out of it, "Yeah, I just.. thought I saw something. Let's go." He rests his hand on the small of my back, and he never brought it up again.

*