A Beautiful Façade┃Reiner X Reader

Epilogue

A sing-songy trance. A beautiful distraction. The sound of birds chirping from a windowsill as a piece of light drizzles down and out, past every little surface. It's mundane, suburban, and so, so peaceful.

You pick apart all of these little details as you sit by the window, on a patchy little sofa piece. It's rough and a little ugly, but still so comfortable. Ironically, that's how your life has seemed to be, from the beginning to the end.

Well, you're not quite at the end yet.

As you focus wistfully on the glass, you can hear the fine sound of a knife chopping away. Tedious and continuous. One short swipe at a time. It makes you smile, not because it's a particularly nice noise, but because you feel a connection when you hear it. Like you're not alone.

The birds and the sunsetting sky and the man in the kitchen a metre away - all the sounds and the sensations that tell you you're home.

"Ow!" A harsh voice echoes through the room, and suddenly, the chopping stops.

You turn your head, catching the sight of your blonde beloved holding his bloody fingertips. It doesn't take you a second to spring to your feet. "Reiner? Are you okay?"

"Ah. Yeah, yeah, don't worry. I'm fine." You can practically see his finger throbbing as the bright red colour starts to pour out. That poor idiot. He's still trying to adjust to his human body. "Crap. I guess I need to dress it." 

Reiner turns in the direction of the bathroom, but you stop him before he can get too fast. "Sit down. You know I have to disinfect it first."

He pouts but agrees, "okay," and you immediately zip off down the hall to the bathroom.

As you sift through the medicine cabinet, you can't help your smile. As it turns out, the sadist who seems to love cutting you up has zero actual knife skills. There are already three healing cuts on his hands and a make-shift bandage on his bicep (don't ask why). It's only been two months since the war ended, and yet he's already managed to cut himself up like Swiss cheese.

At least this whole turn of events has given you the chance to be a nurse. You wanted to do that for a living when you were growing up, before unfortunately learning that Eldians couldn't be nurses. Something about their syringes and blood.

It's yet another thing that's definitely not the case anymore... thanks to Reiner's genocidal compadre. 

You return to your bleeding puppy of a man with a bottle of alcohol, tissues, and a band-aid. Dropping to your knees, you gently begin to dab his finger with a tissue soaked in liquor. He squirms at the sensation.

"I'm sorry, there's a shortage of disinfectant," you explain tenderly. "This is all I can use..."

As you dress him, you wait a bit for Reiner to reply. Strangely, he stays dead silent. You look up, and it seems like he's in a bit of a daze.

"Reiner?"

He snaps out of it just like that, glancing back at you with his big, wide pupils. "Sorry?"

"Why did you space out like that? Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine, I just... I don't know." As he tries to explain, his voice becomes quiet. "Something you said reminded me of the past, that's all."

"Oh, right." For some reason, hearing that simple reply irritates you. "Your fabled past that I'm not allowed to hear about."

"'Scuse me?"

"Oh, you know just what I mean, Reiner. When you got back to Liberio after the mission, you acted like you were tortured by a bunch of crazy devils. Then we all got to learn that you actually made a lot of friends. Friends..." you add with a biting tone, "including the Eren Jaeger."