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honeyypotato · 2 years

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The Girl in the Woods, Chapter 7: Outside the Forest

Here's the link to the rest of the chapters!

Word count: 2,791

AN:

This is the chapter where I need a trigger warning for non-consesual kissing and threats of rape. It’s just one bit by a very minor character who doesn’t even have a name, but I’d rather put up the warning than have people get hurt by my writing.

You’re all wonderful, breathtaking people for sticking with me and the story this far :)

On a different note, I'm graduating university today :D ya girl is officially Educated

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You and Reiner had opted to take watch the second half of the night this time, sitting together as the sun rose over the horizon. You were grateful that each night so far had been peaceful, you weren’t sure what the four of you could do against multiple people or titans, and you didn’t really want to find out. Part of you was thinking about the friends that Reiner, Bertholdt, and Ymir had left behind. Why did they leave? Were they thrown out like you for being different, or was there something they knew that they weren’t telling you? Whatever it was, you felt confident in placing your trust in the three of them. They didn’t seem like the kind of people to turn their back on a friend, but who were you to tell that? You’d never had friends like this before.

This internal war of yours tugged back and forth in your heart as you traveled with the others for the next week. Since you were traveling through mostly open countryside, Reiner could use his titan form to cover the distance faster. But when possible, you opted to go on foot as humans, noting the relief in his eyes when you did so. Being in his titan form wears him out more than he lets on.

Finally, your group reaches a small town a couple days out from the wall. The four of you have very little money between each of you, so you settled for laying low in one of the abandoned houses on the outskirts of the town. The house you stopped in had two bedrooms, and as much as you wanted to share a room with Reiner and chat the night away, Ymir refused to sleep in the same room as Bertholdt. Apparently he snored worse than Reiner. You tried to ignore the puppy eye pleading looks Reiner was shooting you as you mouthed “I’m sorry” at him and Ymir tugged you into the room you two would share.

You could hear Reiner and Bertholdt arguing in the other room and you shake your head, stifling laughter. Ymir sighs next to you. “You know, as much as I want to see things work out between you and Reiner, I really needed the night to myself, or at least with another girl. Traveling as the only woman is hard shit.”

You smile at her. “If you ever need a break, I’ve got your back–wait, what do you mean seeing things work out between me and Reiner?”

She props herself up onto her elbows in her bed. “You haven’t noticed? That man is so head over heels for you it’s making me dizzy. I get it, you haven’t been around too many people. That’s why I’m telling you. He walked into that forest whining about his failed plans and walked out of it a half normal guy, and I don’t hate to see it.”

“Is all of what you’re saying…is that a good thing?” Ymir was right, you didn’t really have this kind of interaction with people every day.

“For Reiner, I don’t know. He’s got orders from people way up the chain of command that he has to carry out, and if he doesn’t, it won’t end well for him or his family. But I have a feeling that he’s gonna try and convince them to let you help him.”

You’re silent for a minute. “Ymir, did you want to spend the night in the same room as me so you could tell me all of this?”

“Kinda. And Bertholdt really does snore.” You smile a little at her response. “I’m surprised you haven’t asked about their plans yet.” She continues.

“Honestly, I asked Reiner the other day, and he didn’t seem too excited to share them. If that’s how he feels, I don’t want to press the issue or pry it out of someone else behind his back. If he doesn’t think I need to know, I’d quite honestly rather not know. I’m fine just going along with you guys. This is the closest to living I’ve done in my life, so at the end of the day I don’t really care what kind of people you are. I’d like to think I have a decent moral compass, but maybe I don’t know enough about the world to even have a moral compass. So I guess that’s what I’m doing as I travel with you guys, is forging that compass.” You take a breath, not realizing that you felt more comfortable with Ymir than you had originally anticipated. She was a pretty intimidating woman.

On the other side of your bedroom door, Reiner and Bertholdt stand with their ears pressed against the wood. As you and Ymir stop talking and fade into sleep, Reiner gives Bertholdt a pointed look and nods. He was trying his best to see you from the others’ point of view and not think with his dick completely, but he knew you could be trusted. Your background made you nearly immune to any prejudices people inside the walls would have towards him, and if he explained everything there was almost zero chance that you’d be upset. He would tell you everything in time, he just wasn’t quite sure when that would be yet.

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You wake up to what you think is daylight streaming through the window, but as sleep fades from your mind you realize the light is way too orange. The moment after you realize it’s torchlight, someone bursts into your room. You fly out of bed, the small knife you had taken to holding while you slept was now held at their throat–it was Reiner.

“Reiner! What are you doing?!” You gasp, pulling away from him.

“Sorry! There are people surrounding the house, I think they know we’re here.” He’s eyeing you cautiously after you jumped out of your bed holding a knife, but his face softens when he realizes how badly your hands are shaking.

You feel his hand wrap around yours, and for a minute you’re the only two people in the world.

Then, Ymir clears her throat. “Psst! Lovebirds! You two can have time to yourselves later!” Her nickname made Reiner’s face flush red, but all of you crouch and turn to the window when you hear yelling begin from outside.

“Does anyone have stuff downstairs?” Ymir asked, hoping that you concentrated your belongings in your rooms. If that was the case, maybe you all could grab your stuff and make a quick escape out a second-story window.

“The food is downstairs. Along with the map.” Bertholdt remembered back to when the four of you had huddled around the table downstairs, planning the rest of your route to the city.

“Shit. Okay.” You know if whoever is outside goes in and finds your map, the four of you were not getting out of this easily. “Maybe I could sneak downstairs and grab everything?”

“No, what if they enter when you’re down there? They’d kill you.” Reiner still had a solid hold on your hand.

“Well then two of us could go down there and the other two could stay here?” You don’t know what else to do, you need that map or you risked getting lost again. “We can’t kill them or you’ll be wanted criminals. We’re losing time. I’m going. When they hear me downstairs they’ll come inside and leave an opening for you to run.” With that, you let go of Reiner’s hand and begin to sneak downstairs.

You hear Reiner hiss your name after you as you crawl downstairs. You grab your bag and stuff the last pieces of food and the map into it, and then stop for a minute underneath the table. You were hoping the people outside would think you were just a small rodent foraging for food or something. Your hope for that scenario flew out the window when the door was blasted inward off its hinges.

A tall man enters the abandoned house cautiously, followed by two more. You didn’t know how many were outside still, but there had to be more than just these three. Suddenly, a hand wraps around your ankle, dragging you out from under the table.

“Well, look at what we have here! This is better than I expected to find, Boss!” Before you could react, the man behind you had already pinned your wrists behind your back, and was holding a knife at your throat. The first man that had walked in approached you.

“Ohhh, isn’t she a pretty thing? We’re gonna have fun tonight, boys. Tie her up and let’s see what she can do.” You got a good look at the “Boss”. He had a hat covering his eyes, but he had a thin-yet-muscly frame that you guessed probably helped him move faster than he looked like he could. You counted two guns and three assorted knife-like weapons on his belt. This was really, really bad.

The men shoved you into a nearby chair, binding your hands and feet. You tried to wiggle out of the restraints but the rope just cut deeper into your skin every time you moved too much. The boss strode forward towards you, and stooped to grab your face in one hand, forcefully kissing you on the mouth. Your stomach twisted into so many knots you wanted to throw up.

In that same moment, Reiner had gotten to the bottom of the stairs, half pissed at you for expecting them to leave you behind and half pissed at the men who ruined his peaceful sleep. He rounded the corner just in time to see the boss’ lips hit yours and his vision goes red. He grabs a nearby chair and throws it as hard as he could at the boss, and the entire room breaks out into chaos. The man who tied you to the chair reaches for his gun but by the time he had pointed it to shoot Reiner was gone, already throwing punches at the third man in the room. You weren’t going to let him take everyone down himself, so you begin to grow spikes of bone around your wrists, trying to ignore the pain of bone piercing through skin. After a minute, you broke free. You reach down to untie your feet just in time, as a bullet whizzes past your head. You untie your feet to a deathly silence, as you realize Reiner had knocked out all three of the men in the room. You stand and pace over to him; he’s leaning against the table, holding his side–you panic for a second. Was he shot??

“Ymir and Bert, did they go?” You’re trying to get a sense of whether or not the rest of the group was safe.

“They left, I think the rest of the men followed them, we should catch up–” Reiner falls against your body. He’s bleeding badly from a bullet wound on his side.

“Reiner what the hell?” You scramble for the bandages in your bag, trying to pry his hands off the wound.

“Why are you asking me that?! I should be asking you what the hell you were thinking risking your life while the three of us ran away.” You could tell he was pissed but in that moment you didn’t care. You narrow your eyes and continue bandaging him with the scraps you pulled from your bag. “I’ll heal quickly, let me rest for a minute. Then we need to follow Ymir and Bert, I don’t know how long they can keep the rest of them off their tail.” You finish bandaging him up and grab the scraps of bandages from the table, shoving them in your bag.

He sighs and tears begin to spill from your eyes as what just happened hits you. Nausea washes over you again, and you run out the door, throwing up over the side of the porch at the memory of the boss kissing you like you were something he owned and not a person with feelings. You lean over the railing for a minute, sobbing, when you feel Reiner’s hand at your back.

“We should–we should go,” you say between hiccups, “before they wake up.”

“They’re not waking up.” The darkness in Reiner’s voice makes you realize what he’d done. “I wish they would though. I’d gladly kill them all over again.” You gasp softly as his arms wrap around you. “They hurt you and I let it happen.”

“I’ll be okay.” You put your hand over his, knowing he did the exact thing you were trying to avoid, but it also made you feel oddly warm that he had gone so far to protect you.

The two of you start running in the direction Reiner had pointed Ymir and Bertholdt in. Neither of you said a word for a long time.

“I’m still mad at you for going alone.” Reiner’s face had not relaxed once since you had left the house, whether from pain or anger you couldn’t tell.

“We didn’t have time to choose–”

“They hurt you! And they would have done worse! And if they had, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself for letting that happen to you!” Tears run down his face, and he stops moving to stare at you. “Sure, we haven’t known each other for a long time. But I do care about you.”

“Reiner, I can handle myself. If I was the only one there, they’d all be dead. You know that.” The three of them were obviously of some importance, you didn't want them to get blood on their hands.

“Y/n.” He puts his hands on your shoulders. “I have done far worse than kill a few people. There’s no need for you to try and avoid casualties, especially out here. Most people in this world are not as kind as you. Sometimes you have to be the one to kill first.”

You nod, and for the first time you see fear in his eyes. He drops his hands from your shoulders and resumes walking. You note the bodies you see here and there sticking out of the undergrowth. Ymir and Bert had ignored your request as well, but instead of feeling annoyed with them there was a growing disgust inside you at yourself. Who were you to tell your friends what to do? What made you think you knew what was best, you had never worked in a team. You’re consumed by your thoughts until you hear voices up ahead. The light from a campfire hits your face as you enter the clearing where Ymir and Bert were sitting. Bertholdt gets up and runs towards the two of you, giving you each a pretty solid bear hug. Ymir nods at you, and you nod back over Bert’s shoulder.

You turn to Reiner and ask him to lay down so you can take a look at his wounds. He protests until you threaten to knock him out and do it yourself.

“Y/n, I’m fine, please.” Reiner looks exhausted as you poke around the bandages you haphazardly wrapped around his stomach. You sigh when you realize the wound was almost closed–it had healed way faster than you expected.

“Ymir, can you and Bert take first watch? I think Reiner needs more time.” You wanted time to sleep too, you were exhausted. Ymir nods and grabs Bertholdt by the arm, leaving you and Reiner some space in the clearing.

“I’m still mad.” Reiner was glaring up at you.

“Don’t do this now, please.” You can’t manage any more than a whisper, and you feel tears prick your eyes again.

“Hey. C’mere.” He holds his arms out, letting you curl against his uninjured side, wrapping his arms around you. Warmth spreads through your body as you feel him bury his face in your hair.

“I’m sorry.” You sob into him quietly as he runs his hand through your hair. “I thought I knew the right thing to do and I didn’t and it got you hurt.” You sniff.

“You’re still worried about me? Baby, you have no idea what those men were about to do to you.” You curl into him further.

“I’m trying not to think about that.” You say, although you can’t help but smile a little.

“Hmmm, next time don’t make decisions for everyone and then run off, alright? We’ll talk about what we could do to get ourselves out of a sticky situation later. Get some rest for now, alright?” His voice softens and you feel exhaustion wash over you again. You wake up to Ymir tapping on your shoulder for you to take watch for the second half of the night.

#reiner x reader #attack on titan #reiner brainrot #reiner braun #reiner braun x reader #reiner braun x you #reiner x y/n #shingeki no kyojin #aot #reiner x you #aot reiner #reiner fluff #snk reiner #this is kinda fluff ig #he's SOFT #reiner please hug me #the girl in the woods

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