the other side of the sea - reiner braun x reader.

Better Judgement.

I am standing at my front door with my dad's arms wrapped around me. "Come home to me." He remarks. "I will, dad." After he releases me from his hug he looks to Reiner.

"I know you are the big bad armoured titan and all, but if anything and I mean anything happens to my little girl over on that island, there is no amount of armour that could save you from me." Reiners cheeks go red and my eyes shoot open. "Yes sir." He says in response. I hide my grin.

About a half an hour later, Pieck, Porco, Reiner, Magath and I are all standing on the dock, waiting for them to be ready for Pieck and I.

"You girls know your mission. Track down Falco and Gabi, and find a way to get Eren vulnerable. We will arrive in 2 days time to commence scorched earth. We expect you to have found a safe place to keep the kids while we are at war." Magath debriefs. "Yes sir." We say in kind back to him.

"Alright. She's ready to go when you are!" We hear a sailor yell from the ship. I suddenly feel like I'm 12 years old again. Standing on this same spot, saying goodbye to my friends for the last time.

Porco comes over to me and I wrap my arms around him. "I'll see you soon okay?" I say. I feel his head nod in agreement. "Take care of Piecky for me alright?" He asks. I let out a small sob. "Of course." I release my grip from him and take a step back.

"Pock, I just want you to know that I'm sorry if I pulled away from you. If I wouldn't have had you through- well, all of this. I don't know what I would've done. So thank you." Porco nudges me with his elbow. "Don't talk like we'll never see each other again. You can tell me later." He winks. "Okay." I agree. I watch him look over at Pieck and smile at him as he walks away.

My chest feels like I have a 700 pound weight on it when I walk over to Reiner. I caress his face with my hand and he wraps his arms around my lower back and pulls me up into him. "Be safe. I'll be there in 2 days, but I don't know when I'll be able to see you so don't die." He commands. "Is that an order, captain?" I tease. He sighs. "Asshole." I giggle.

"Alright you two. It's time to go." I hear Magath yell. "We only have a short window to infiltrate the wall and we need to leave, now."

Reiner releases me from his grip. "Don't die." he repeats. I pull his face down to mine and kiss him deeply. He squeezes me tightly against him and I feel tears start to slide down my face. "Gotta go." I whisper. He nods. I squeeze his arm once more before walking towards the ship.

Pieck and I get on and we just set sail when I yell. "Reiner!" "What??" He replies back, leaning over the railing. "Hold down the fort while I'm gone. Okay?!" I scream back. Repeating the same words he said to me 9 years ago. "O - okay. I will!" He yells back. I wipe the tears from my face and watch as Porco and Reiner become small blips on the horizon.

Pieck and I take a seat on a bench on the upper deck. The plan is to sail in this ship until about the halfway point, where we will the switch to a smaller fishing boat, to lessen the chances of us getting noticed. We still have about 2 hours before we have to switch so we might as well get comfortable.

"How are you feeling?" I ask Pieck.

"About us going to the island? Not too bad. But about scorched earth? Terrified." She replies. "I know I was down and out for most of the fight between Eren and Reiner, but I saw how easily Eren subdued Porco at the beginning. He is strong. Real strong. That's what scares me the most." She huffs out.

"Do you love him?" I ask, not sure where the question came from. "Porco?" Pieck responds. "Yeah." I answer. She takes a deep breath beside me.

"More than anything in the world." I try to muster up a smile but feel like I don't have it in me. "Why does it feel so terrible?" I ask. "Because we're heading to war. Imminent death. We have so much to lose this time around."

"What about you?" Pieck mutters. "What about me?" I ask. "Do you love Reiner?" She clarifies. I tilt my head down and close my eyes. "Yes."

Pieck sighs. "Oh, Y/N." I lean my head onto her shoulder. "Does he know?" I shake my head. "I didn't want to say it now, if I...die. I didn't want to put that on him." Pieck rests her head on mine.

"I think you should tell him. As soon as you can." I don't reply for a few breaths. "I know." I admit.

We don't say anything else, we just sit on the boat and lean into each other. Letting the push and pull of the waves lull us to sleep.

Soon enough, we're being woken up and we're both given 2 long green coats with an emblem of a horse. "To blend in." The sailor tells us. We load onto the small fishing boat and finish the rest of our ride to Paradis.

Pieck and I watch as we pull into a small clearing. The sun has begun to set, meaning our opening to get into the walls is quickly approaching. The land before us vast and green. There's no structures in sight, just open terrain.

"Ready?" Pieck asks. "Ready." I confirm. I step back as Pieck transforms into the cart. I climb aboard and we set off to follow the route Magath told us to take. "Just shoot straight." Was all he told us. The straighter we go, the faster we get there. According to him. We weren't allowed to bring anything with us, for fear of losing our items and getting caught.

We have been travelling for almost 2 hours when I see the walls. They're gargantuan. Atleast 40
metres tall. It's hard to imagine that the entire population of Paradis lives inside of them.

I am starting to feel fatigued when we finally reach our entry point. It's a small gate. We go inside and keep going for about 45 more minutes when we find a small village. It appears to be abandoned. We assume this is where we're supposed to camp for the night before we head closer into the walls. We find an empty home and fall asleep in minutes.

...

The next day, we don't want to risk the cart being spotted so we travel on foot. It's only about 4 hours until we finally make it to the innermost wall. There is people all over the place and nobody seems to notice us.

"Okay. We need a game plan." I say. My nerves are starting to act up and I'm feeling out of my
depth with this. "Pieck!" I exclaim.

"Shut it! Don't say my name and stop freaking out. It's going to be fine. We will go scout the place out for a bit, and if you see anything that could lead us to Gabi & Falco, just use your better judgement. They could be anywhere. Listen for any intel on Jaeger as well. Either one." Pieck directs me.

"Use my better judgment?! What the hell does that even mean?!" I say in a whisper-yell. Pieck winks at me. "You'll know." and I watch as she turns and strides away.

Fuck.