Friend or Foe... (AoT Reader Insert)

Chapter 29: Preperations

I'm not sure I've ever really liked early mornings.

Sure, getting up and out of bed was easy enough, but the idea of disregarding the day's activities and falling back asleep was quite tempting. I guess that was why on this particular morning, I felt as though I was walking around half asleep.

Yesterday had taken a lot out of me. Not just physically, but mentally.

Running into the Female Titan during the 57th expedition was enough to scare me half to death, but learning of Commander Erwin's suspicions, and by extension Armin's suspicions, had me tossing and turning all night.

I wasn't really the closest person to Annie, but the idea that she of all people was the human inside of the Female Titan? It felt surreal!

I mean, out of all the people in the world who could have been the Female Titan, it was someone who lived, trained and ranked among the top ten of the 104th Cadets Corps. They were the one who was suspected of being a traitor!

Thinking about it again only made the dread inside of me grow more apparent.

After wandering through the halls for what felt like an eternity I finally made my way to the mess hall. On most days this wouldn't have been the case but I guess getting a bedroom on the other side of the base did that to people. While some part of me was excited to finally have a room all for myself, being in a different part of the base was strange.

Nothing particularly changed in regards to the scenery but making my way around became slightly more difficult. Though, this morning's mishaps might have been due to my tired state more than anything else.

Regardless, the moment I felt my heart jump in my chest I knew I was in for quite the morning.

"Hey (Y/n)," I greet a certain (h/c) haired female. She sat alone eating her breakfast in silence. I couldn't help but notice the way my steps sped up ever so slightly as I approached her, but I doubt she'd notice. She looked about as tired as I felt, her eyes staring down into her food as though she held a grudge against it. "(Y/n)? Are you asleep or are you just ignoring me?"

"Sorry," (Y/n) apologized, raising her eyes for just a moment before returning to her food where she promptly began to squish a potato with the back of her spoon.

"Woah, geeze. What did that potato ever do to you?" I teased, taking a seat across from the girl.

"I- sorry, what?" (Y/n) stiffened for a moment. It was more than what one would consider normal but I wrote it off as nothing more than her being tired. That still didn't stop me from feeling discouraged, though.

I sighed, "I was just... trying to lighten the mood."

"Oh..." (Y/n) mumbled, "sorry."

In all of the time I've known (Y/n), which in hindsight wasn't all that much considering the two years I'd known her barely accounted for ten percent of her whole life so far, I'd never seen her so... dazed.

I suppose there was the off day where she would walk into trees absentmindedly, but this was different.

I could've chalked it up to the fact that she was only acting this way because it was still early in the morning, but I knew that wasn't the case. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I noticed that (Y/n) had been becoming more and more... distant.

In all honesty, I think she's been distancing herself for a while now. I just... I still didn't want to believe it. So I didn't.

I grinned, "Gosh, that's like, what? The third time you've apologized in the past five minutes?"