The Turquoise Cure (Eren X Reader)

Chapter 8: The Camping Mission (pt. 1)

    The brief period of time following the initial task of balancing ODMG equipment had been weeks ago. Instead of balancing on a suspended belt, you and your comrades were now practicing soaring through trees and embedding your hooks into the bark, gliding amongst the forests surrounding the compound like eagles.
    Each day was different: some days, you would practice hand-to-hand combat with fellow peers; others, you would run until your legs felt like dismembering themselves from your body through the mountains and hilly tufts of greenery that erupted and flourished in the woods; however, your favorite activity (by far) was using the 3D maneuvering gear. Soaring and zipping past your other peers, you felt free, and the wind hitting your face made you feel like you were going somewhere... like you had a destination and weren't just existing and wandering around aimlessly.
    Over the first few weeks and months, all of the trainees had worked to achieve a system of homeostasis on the compound. A period of discerning who your real friends would quickly take place. Along with Eren, Armin, and Mikasa, you had managed to befriend many other people at the corps, which had made you greatly surprised. Annie had seemed to gravitate towards you because of the comfort in routine that she found with you: you were determined, trained hard, and you had a dark humor. Not only that, but you had dark experiences; this, you thought, was the real reason that she tagged with you, although she never shared- only listened.
    As for you and Eren, over the first few months of training, your closeness had only intensified. You two spent nearly all of your free time talking and engaging in absurd tickling fights, of which you always won when he sneak-attacked you from behind. This closeness attracted attention from one of your other new friends, Jean Kirsten. You hadn't expected yourself to become friends with such a sadistic, insulting, and condescending individual, but he had a leadership quality that made you feel that there was more to him that what he showed. Eren always rolled his eyes when you would wave to Jean or merely ask him how his training went. However, training is another topic...
    Although you excelled at all of the skills that you learned, there was one that you were particularly notorious for: hand-to-hand combat. It wasn't your favorite, by any means; even the long runs up the mountains had some appeal: at least you could think about something other than how not to fatally knock out one of your peers for a good grade. Nobody had wanted to partner with you on the first day, and since there was an odd number of trainees in the camp, you felt pretty stupid being the only one without a partner. To make things impossibly worse, however, Shadis challenged you to a combative practice. "You have to learn somehow. You can't just let everyone else work while you sit." You knew that he was aware that it wasn't your choosing to be left alone: he knew as well as you did that nobody wanted in the way of the girl notorious for taking down almost all of the infamous Kenny Ackerman's squad in one fell swoop. If only Shadis had obtained just a little less confidence in his combative skills... You had tried to go easy, but he surprised you with an unexpected quickness, and you panicked, kicking him in the shins and flipping him over your shoulder, making him land with a thud on the ground.
    As the weeks progressed and you had been training for almost a year, many cadets left: some quit, some flunked out, and some even passed away: the skills taught were sometimes deadly to endure. All the same, you found your strength in the new-found family that you had. Even when Eren and Jean bitched at dinner over nothing vaguely important, it always made you smile. At least you had people that could make you feel responsible for someone other than yourself. It made you vulnerable, but it made you much stronger, too.

    [1 year after joining the Cadet Corps.]

        The mission was simple: you were assigned into a group to go for a "reconnaissance mission" through the forest. It would take approximately two days and one night to complete. Each person in a group was given a designated role and would be graded on the group's collective evaluation of their performance. You were in a group with Eren, Armin, Mikasa, Jean, and Krista. You had been skeptical about having Jean in the same group as Eren, but after pleading with Eren to bite his tongue and be nice, you forced yourself to believe that your worries were misplaced.
    "Please, Eren, all I'm asking is for you to try and stay out of trouble with him. We need this mission to go well: it's worth 30% of our grade!" you had said, feeling responsible for the turn-out of the excursion. "Fine, but it depends on him, too," Eren had whined. Looking at Jean, who seemed unconcerned a always away, Eren seemed flustered. "Why don't you say this to him?" he asked, seeming agitated with your apparent favoritism. "Because I don't find him nearly as cute as I do you when you get all pouty at me and your chest gets all puffy." At this, he smiled, pouting dramatically, playfully punching you in the shoulder and then settled for meeting with the rest of the group on the other side of the training grounds.
    In all truthfulness, the mission had started out fairly well. The only squabble between Eren and Jean was when Jean insisted that Eren had went the wrong way (Eren was the scout), and Eren had told him that he needed to mind his own title (resource manager). After shooting him an inquiring look, he dropped it, and continued to plow further ahead through the forest.
    Armin had had nothing negative to report of their mission other than encountering a tree that had markings on it that seemed intentional and rather suspicious, at least to you. "They're probably just from a deer's antlers," Mikasa had said, always remaining calm (she was the assistant team leader). I don't think that deer know how to form a triangle with a strange letter in the middle. Not wanting to sound too paranoid, you said, "Let's just keep our eyes peeled for anyone." You distinctly heard Jean mutter about you being obsessed, but you ignored it. As this mission's leader, you were responsible for around 70% of the group's success or failure. Whatever happened in the following night and preceding morning would fall heavily on you.
    After stopping for a small meal of the packed rations provided by Jean, the six of you decided to get a little further past the nighttime check-in point. You had managed to make up some time by picking up the pace, much to Armin's struggle (the pack full of spare writing utensils and flares seemed to bore into his frail shoulders), you had made it about three miles past it. "And why are we doing this?" Krista asked. Catching herself inquiring, she immediately sputtered, "I wasn't trying to be mean or undermine your duty as leader; I-I was just wondering!" You smiled at her. Although she was extremely short, you two were around the same height, and your builds would have been similar save for the muscle that assisted your otherwise bony frame. "Calm down; you're doing great as medic," you had tried to reassure her. She hadn't had to do anything yet, but the pack that she was carrying looked rather heavy on her small body.
    As the sun fell, the moon arose, and the stars speckled the black night sky like sugar, Eren had used some logs to make a fire, illuminating the faces peering over it and the trees that encased the clearing. After finishing off the last of the allotted rations for the first day, the six of you began to lay out your sleeping packs on the forest floor. The group had managed to partake in easy conversation until the hike took its toll on its victims, leaving Jean, Armin, and Krista fast asleep in ten minutes. Mikasa has hesitated after seeing you remaining awake, but she eventually caved in to her exhaustion after seeing Eren supposedly sleeping. You had suggested having one person every two hours or so act as a guard out of concern from the marked tree, but your idea was vetoed. "That's unnecessary; we'll likely be too low on sleep to make good pace the next day," Eren had said, trying to sound as supportive as possible of your idea that he clearly didn't like. His eyes had given you a pleading and sorry look that had said Please don't be mad at me. However, as you sat up on your sleeping pack, eyes wide open and glancing around, you knew that he was still awake. He was turned facing you in his pack, but every time that your eyes flicked over at him, you saw a minuscule, but fleeting movement: the son of a bitch was faking.
    "Eren, if you're going to pretend to sleep," you started, glaring at him parentally, "then you may as well stop blinking so damn loudly." He chuckled, then rose from his cocoon, shaking his shaggy hair from his eyes and fluffing it with his hand. Please never cut your hair. "Did you think that I was going to let you stay awake all night, by yourself?" he asked, now moving next to you on your sleeping pack. "Honestly, I figured as much," you admitted, leaning into his warm chest and looking up at his chiseled jaw and glittering eyes. "However, I'm enjoying the view, so I hope that you don't mind too much." He smirked down at you, grinning, and you felt something click in your chest. You knew that he felt it too, because his face became more serious and more conflicted. Then, he leaned his face slowly into yours, kissing you on the lips softly, but making them tingle with excitement.
    After several seconds, you both pulled away, blushing and smiling awkwardly. "I've wanted to do that for a year," he said, smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of his neck, acting quite as nervous around you as the first time you'd met. "Damn," you said, touching your lip where the tingling sensation still fluttered, "it took you long enough."
The two of you had been close, playful, and definitely flirty ever since he had suggested kissing you a year ago. You were definitely much to touchy with each other, but you still retained the title of friends. Now, your body tingling, you wondered whether that was apt to change.
    After joking and conversation that lasted hours into the late night or early morning- you couldn't tell- Eren fell asleep with his head on your lap, and you could have gazed at his peaceful, lineless face perched on you, eyes lightly closed, forever. You, however, were pulled away by a rustling sound from not far away. Getting up and gently laying Eren's head on your sleeping pack, you stood up, surveying the grounds carefully. Krista was sitting up in her pack, but she had seemed to notice the noise, and was looking confused and nervous as well.
"I was having trouble staying asleep, so I was just watching the stars," she began quietly, "but I definitely just heard something come from over there." Krista pointed to the brush-filled forest to her left, and you nodded at her in appreciation as you ambled over. Krista getting up and following behind you, you clutched the knife that had been to be used for hunting or, as Shadis had emphasized in a light, unlikely manner, "in extreme peril."
After several minutes of shuttling cautiously around the outskirts of the camp, you and Krista had begun to relax. She had started to embrace you in hopeful conversation. "It was probably just a rabbit," she said, her voice now a bit more confident and gaining volume. You agreed, and started to head back to the camp, which was now a couple of hundred feet away. "So..." Krista said, smiling and playfully tickling your arm, "what's up with you and Eren." You couldn't help but laugh; you were sure that you two hadn't exactly been discrete in your feelings, but you were still embarrassed by the prospect that other people knew what you still felt so unconscious about: Eren's feelings towards you.
"Oh my god," you laughed, giving her a you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me look. She smiled and started to speak, but you never made out what she was trying to say. You had turned before you even knew why you were turning. The noises were approaching from every direction, but you didn't see anyone. "Krista, RUN!" you shouted at her, but a large figure had just come out of the shadows from the top of a short tree and clamped his gun to her temples.
The man's deadened eyes were not of someone that you knew, but it didn't take an expert to know who such a petty criminal would work for. "So," you said, spinning your knife to the ready at your fingertips, turning to ensure you weren't being surrounded closer, "where's Kenny?" As if answering, another set of hands wrapped themselves around your back, a knife licking at your skin.

Author's Note
I hope that this chapter wasn't too short. I've been trying to figure out where to continue this story, so I made a jump to the next significant event. I do, however, want to add bonus chapters that are similar to training flashbacks later on in the story, which may give more details and insight to other aspects of training and the gaps that were left vacant between chapters 7 and 8. Sorry if it's inconvenient! It's not to say that i won't go back and edit at another time, so I hope that you enjoyed and stay tuned for future works!