written to the tune of "love, love love" by of monsters and men
are yoU READY FOR UNREQUITED REINERBERTL FEELS?
well, maybe i'm a crook for stealing your heart away
and maybe i'm a crook for not caring for it
maybe i'm a bad, bad, bad, bad person
Reiner looked at him like he put the stars in the sky.
And that- that breaks Bertholt's heart more than maybe anything else, because he knows that he can't return that feeling, that faith and love and devotion that Reiner shows to him. The last thing he had ever wanted to do was hurt Reiner, but that's all he's doing by keeping him so close.
The best course of action would be to let him go, to distance himself, but Bertholt had always been selfish.
So he keeps Reiner close to his heart and pretends he doesn't notice the tender glances or the way he wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of his name being whispered like a prayer from a bunk away, over and over and over.
He shifts subtly so the drunken kiss that Reiner intended to give him falls on his cheek instead, and he sits close enough to Annie at mealtimes that the edges of their thighs brush. He tries to hide the blush that spreads across his cheeks when she glances up and gives him that tiny, secret smile, but his hands are shaking and Reiner's always known him better than anyone else. He can't meet the other boy's eyes for days afterwards.
And when he wakes from a nightmare only to find himself in Reiner's arms, he pretends that the whispered apologies are for thrashing in the night.
Reiner loves him, and Bertholt's biggest regret is that he can't love him back.