Never Trust Me

Chapter 11

Crystal woke up, and the soft breathing of those around her filled her pounding head. 

'I can live freely now...'

Crystal sat up and looked at the bloodstain on her bed, "Well, that's not right. I forgot to wash my hands." Getting up she was grumbling about how filthy her sheets were now and that seemed to make someone stir. 

"Crystal...?" Armin questioned as he sat up, and rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Oh, I didn't mean to wake anyone, I just woke up and saw that my bed has blood on it, where I didn't wash my hands." 

"Oh..." Armin looked down at her blankets and noticed the amount of blood, then back at her, "Crystal...? Where did you get that wound?"

"What wound?" Crystal asked curiously, but then the warm sensation of blood seeped onto her side, and then it struck her as odd. The memories she had was of her father being killed by her, but did she get shot? No, she couldn't get shot, "I think... an old wound reopened. I'll wrap it." Crystal assured, and disappeared into another room. She took off her top and looked into the reflection of the window, knowing that any reasonable person would be asleep. She was right, an old scar had busted open due to all the stress and fast movements, "Shit..." Crystal grabbed some gauze and began to wrap her shoulder, before looking again. The look of her body made her feel super uncomfortable with showing her skin, the scars that littered her body sung out several different stories of her tainted past. That's when she accidentally dropped the gauze, and when she went to grab it, someone else did. She looked; it was Hanji.

"You should have woke me up..." Hanji smiled softly, but the serious look she gave Crystal made Crystal nod in silence, and Hanji began to wrap her shoulder for her, doing it in a far more neater way than she, "So... He did this to you...?"

"He did..."

"Crystal... I'm so sorry..." Hanji sighed softly, but Crystal just merely looked at her stomach, and a few tears started to stream down her face.

"Hanji... can I stay with you guys...?"

"What? Why are you asking? You practically are one of us." Hanji assured, but Crystal turned to her with a desperate, but serious look.

"Hanji... I haven't received my own uniform..." Hanji looked at Crystal's uniform on the table, before picking it up to read the name.

"I see. I remember her..." Hanji looked at Crystal and nodded, "Well, I suppose we can order one for you."

"Thank you Hanji." Crystal slipped on her undershirt and Hanji handed her the uniform top.

"I'm gonna head back to sleep, but don't do anything too drastic." Hanji walked out and Crystal nodded.

"Got it." Crystal followed after and began to wash her sheets, putting on a pot of tea for Levi whenever he would wake. The smell of Lavender filling the air, she couldn't help but wonder why life suddenly felt very free, and even as she thought this, she struggled to hang the sheets on the line as the wind blew, until another, a more masculine hand grabbed the corner she was struggling with. A click of his tongue sounded before he clipped it into place.

"I thought Hanji told you not to do anything too drastic."

"Sorry..." Crystal walked over to a bench and sat down. Looking up at the sky before a certain short, black-haired man blocked her view.

"Excuse me... Why are you smiling?" Levi asked with wide eyes, he's seen her smile before, but this smile was different. It sang out the freedom she felt inside her heart.

"It's nothing. Sorry." Crystal looked back down and then got up slowly before she saluted. Surprising Levi, as he stared at her with his normal stoic expression, "I was wanting to ask... Since I joined the scouts... could I be a part of your squad...?"