I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin

Fast Learner

One-Shot, drabble

Headcanon: Due to Ymir's absence from humanity, the language had changed enough to where she could hardly understand the gist of what is being written. She, like a handful of illiterate recruits (education is low in the poor towns), has to learn how to read.

Going to Sasha Braus had barely done a damn thing.

The girl barely knew how to sign her own name last time she checked.

Ymir kicked away a rock as she stood outside of the barracks. She excelled in the physical portions of training as it hardly broke a sweat, but it was when it came to looking at texts that she dragged herself through the mud. Often times she looked over at Krista to copy whatever letters she wrote on the page. She had little understanding as to what was being scribbled on the paper but whatever it was, it was always correct.

The girl could read.

Something Ymir couldn't do.

Sure, she could read the Old Tongue and speak it fluently but today she could hardly know what today's alphabet was- the language was the same but it was written differently.

Different enough to where she couldn't read it.

"Damn it," she cursed as she kicked another rock.

"Ymir!"

'That voice.'

Ymir perked up, she softened her usual glare towards Krista as she approached, three books at hand.

"Yeah?" Ymir asked her.

"I...I want you to come clean with me."

Ymir craned her head in curiosity, silently telling her that she was listening.

"I know that you've been copying off of me."

"So?"

"Why?"

Ymir shrugged. "No reason."

Krista handed her a book. She couldn't comprehend the golden letters embroidered to the leather. "Read that title."

"E-excuse me?" Ymir nearly laughed, brows creasing as she was taken aback.

That blond had that determined look in her eyes, she had seen it before once when she was trying to master the Gear's simulator. She wasn't going to back down until she learned the truth. Ymir's pride couldn't slacken at this. She glared at the letters, the loops and dots made little sense to her than did a stubborn stud did. She tossed it to her, Krista caught it with great difficulty.

"Nah."

"Why?"

"...tch," Ymir scoffed, she glanced around and lowered her voice,"I can't read."

Krista didn't mock her, didn't laugh, and she certainly didn't question her.

Instead, she simply told her,"It's not that big of a deal. Sasha couldn't read neither did Connie but I helped them out- why don't you let me teach you?"

Ymir's lips curled in displeasure, but she definitely needed the lessons. How else was she going to stay in the camp? Her whole reason of being there was breathing the same air as her, flunking out would make this a waste of time. She sighed and admitted to her,"Alright, but on one condition; don't let Reiner know, I won't hear the end of it."

"...it's not that big of a deal," Krista repeated quietly.

"Whatever. How do we go about doing this?"

Krista sat herself at the porch, excited for some ungodly reason. She patted the ground next to her, gesturing for her to sit. Ymir flopped herself next to her and comfortably rested her forearms against her knees. The other girls were out and about, either in the nearest village or at the river to bathe. Ymir let out a long huff as Krista presented the same book to her.

"Alright, here we go..."

The alphabet, the vowels, the consonants, and the phonetics, it was all covered until the lamps were lit at dark.

By then Ymir had a better grasp on it all.

The language of today's time derived from her own.

The only difference were the change in scriptures and sounds, though the meanings were the same.

She didn't understand why her own didn't carry over to the people in the Walls, but no matter, she learned it in the end.

Krista spent her time sitting by her, helping her read. As it turned out, it was a story from thousands of years ago, one of the few texts that survived and was permitted to be printed by the government. It was teeth grinding at first to get through the first chapter as it endlessly described a foreign place- at the mention of overseas, Ymir lifted her brow in interest.

"Do you know what an ocean is?" Ymir asked of her.

"...um, not exactly. I heard Armin talk about it, but other than that, not really."

Ymir finally stood up to stretch. Once she relaxed her muscles, she leaned against the post and looked onwards to the vast space of the empty field in the darkness. "Think of a large lake, a lake that goes for miles on end in all directions except land. It's damn near impossible to see the other end too."

"Had you ever been to one?"

Ymir laughed.

'Yes.'

"No. I heard stories about it from some old man back in Trost."

'No, I've been there myself.'

She looked down at her; those blue eyes were the same as the sea as far as she could remember.

"Well, maybe when you can write, you can write stuff about it and share it with me." Krista had began to pack up the books.

Ymir snorted. "You're moving a bit too fast there, my vocabulary is barely anything of recognition."

"But the way you talk, sometimes it's different than most people. It's like you're from another time."

'That's the truth.'

Dreamily, she went on,"I bet you that people back then spoke rather poetically, just imagine being one of those authors or poets who just write those classics."

'They did speak differently.'

Ymir gingerly laughed and scratched the back of her neck. "I think writing novels is more of your thing, writing is the last thing on my mind really. Besides, why would I write anything? I could just tell you everything. A lot of things."

"...you're right, but you still need to learn to write."

They turned to enter the barracks, for once they were the first ones in there. Ymir climbed up to her upper bunk and laid on her back, eyes strained from reading for so long; she closed them to rest herself while listening to Krista tuck her books away in her trunk.

"You learned much quicker than Sasha," Krista praised her,"just one afternoon and you caught on."

"I'm a pretty fast learner. That or you're a good teacher. I'd say the latter."

She felt the bunk creak under her, then a small pair of hands appeared at the edge when she opened her eyes. Within seconds, the smaller girl swung herself up onto the bunk and sat by Ymir.

"Anyway, now that you can read, I want you to promise me something."

Ymir rolled her eyes, then again, Krista took the time to teach her. "What?"

"No more cheating off of me, you need to study too."

'Ugh, work.'

"Is that good?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's good."

~Bonus~

About a month after her lessons with Krista, tragedy struck Shadis's office.

Painted in red along the walls near the door was the vulgar phrase of:

"I like to sodomize my unborn son."

While it caused bewilderment among everyone as the insult made little sense, Krista had an inkling of who wrote it. She scoured the camp left and right, up and down, and eventually found the culprit laughing uncontrollably in a storage house.

"Ymir! Why on earth did you write that!?"

Ymir was clutching to her stomach, she wheezed out,"W-what makes you think it was me!?"

"One, you're laughing; two, the word 'sodomize' is there and that's not a common word; three, what does that even mean!?"

Ymir waved away her question. "Oh, you don't have to know about it, you just...you just do it!"

"For the love of..." She shook her head. "I can't believe you! Why?"

"Man failed me on the last test!"

"He failed me too but I'm not writing insults left and right!"

Ymir was never caught for this.

Training increased tenfold, much to everyone's agonizing displeasure, but that didn't stop Ymir from slipping insults here and there for the rest of their time.