Author's Notes: I was inspired to write this fic after watching a Tiktok of someone describing how her father is gay and doesn't know it.
Immediately, I was like, yup this is definitely Gabi telling the internet that Reiner is gay lmao. And thus this little ficlet was born.
I initially wrote it as a fic-thread on Twitter, and recently decided to clean it up and upload on ao3 (and !)
I hope you enjoy this! I certainly enjoyed writing it hehe.
Gabi was aware that patience wasn't her strong suit — she was pretty impulsive — but this became especially obvious to her after she lost to yet another marksmanship competition with Bertholdt.
"Being observant is important, Gabi," Bertholdt had cautioned. "Be attentive to the wind's direction, the number of people around you ... even their emotions, if you could help it."
"To be Marley's next shield ... your situational awareness could make or break a skirmish."
Gabi remembered Bertholdt patting her on the head as he said, "Patience yields focus, Gabi. I know you can do it."
With Bertholdt's advice in mind, Gabi made it a point to be extra alert on her road trip with Reiner that weekend.
The Braun cousins were headed to a resort outside of Liberio, nearer to the seaside, after Reiner managed to wrestle the weekend of leave from Magath.
You sent me to a devil-infested island for four years when I was 12 but can't spare me for a weekend?!
Gabi first noticed it when they were checking in to the resort when Reiner handed the receptionist their IDs.
The man's hands lingered on Reiner's a few seconds too long while not breaking eye contact. It was certainly more friendly than professionally required.
"Thank you mister Braun. You are checking in with your ... daughter?" the man inquired while giving Gabi a wayward glance.
"Oh, I'm not that old. This is my cousin, Gabi," Reiner replied, chuckling. "No ring, see?" He flashed his ring-less left hand at the man.
"I see, sir," the man smiled enigmatically, and resumed looking through his files.
"Oh, one of our premium suites just had a last-minute cancellation, and our management decided to gift it to you in addition to your existing twin room booking."
"Oh really? We get one room each, Gabi!"
"That's nice, Reiner. What a ... coincidence a free room opened up the moment we arrived," Gabi said with furrowed brows at the receptionist.
"Nobody ever complained of extra room space or more privacy, miss."
While the receptionist's smile remained the same, Gabi was pretty certain that the temperature dropped a few degrees when it was directed at her.
"Sure ... I wasn't complaining ..."
"Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth, Gabi!"
"Nothing but the best for Marley's shield, Mr. Braun. In fact, here's my number — in case you need anything during your stay here."
The man handed Reiner a small slip of paper in addition to their room keys.
"Anything at all."
As Reiner walked Gabi to her room before heading up to his complimentary suite, he looked at the piece of paper he was given.
"Oh, this isn't the reception desk's number. It looks like it's his personal one. How nice! I think we can find our way around this place fine though."
"We went through a lot of shit in the past, Gabi — I'm glad the warriors are finally getting the recognition we deserve."
Having reached the room and put down her things at that point, Gabi regarded her older cousin carefully.
Did he really believe all this fanfare was because he was the Armored Titan?
Gabi spent the afternoon napping, something she always needed after traveling.
The receptionist wasn't wrong — it was nice to have the room all to herself. Still, having grown up in the circumstances she had, she could not help but be suspicious of this latest turn of events.
"There's no such thing as a free lunch," Udo once read from one of his books while the foursome was having lunch.
"Huh? What does that mean? We have free meals at the barracks all the time," Falco asked, mouth half full with his food.
"It says here … If you're offered something for free, you're the product — the meal, as it were."
"We're being fed because we're the meal? I'm confused." Udo adjusted his glasses awkwardly.
"You know, like livestock that's fed only to be slaughtered later—except we're more like weapons of war."
Falco had stopped eating, distraught.
"So warrior candidate training is like a farm? And we're being fattened up as free food?"
"That's right, especially when you become titan food," Zofia quipped, biting into a chicken wing.
Gabi swore her friends could be weird sometimes.
But that conversation sprung back to Gabi's mind as she sat with Reiner at the beach-side restaurant.
Reiner had changed into a button-up shirt patterned with coconuts — the top few buttons were left undone due to the heat.
Moments after they had taken their seats, they were immediately served free drinks (non-alcoholic for Gabi).
"On the house, sir," the server said with a not-very-subtle wink. "With compliments from the bar."
"Oh really! Any occasion?" Reiner asked.
Gabi noticed how her cousin's golden eyes brightened at the sight of the bright little umbrella and orange slice on his drink.
Reiner sure could be … innocent, sometimes.
Perhaps due to being conscripted at an early age? But none of the other warriors were as naive …
"Oh, no special occasion," the server replied coyly. "I suppose you can take it as … all of us at the bar buying you a drink?"
"Oh, that's nice, thanks!" Reiner said while waving to the rest of the bar staff — who acknowledged him with borderline flirtatious gestures.
Winks, blown kisses — the works.
Gabi recalled Udo's words.
"If you receive a free item—" in this case, Reiner's tall glass of Long Island iced tea, "—then, you are the meal."
Gabi looked at her cousin and his exposed pectorals laughing heartily at something the server said.
Oh, and what a meal they were having.
Gabi noticed the same pattern emerge throughout their trip — Reiner being the recipient of various offers by generous strangers.
When they were at the beach, a tanned passer-by offered to rub sunscreen on Reiner's back
Just to be sure you're fully covered, handsome.
After every nook and cranny of his back muscles were slathered with sunscreen, Reiner was then invited to play beach volleyball with the man's friend group.
"You sure you don't want to join, Gabi?"
"Nah ... this doesn't feel like my crowd, Reiner. I'll go for a swim. Have fun!"
The next few hours saw Reiner in an intense beach volleyball competition.
Gabi had her suspicions with Reiner's teammates being handsy with him without hesitation — with their pats on his back, arm ... or even sometimes his bum after a successful rally.
At the same time though, Gabi had to admit she had never seen her cousin so carefree or laugh so liberally.
Sure, the warriors played sports sometimes during their downtime (especially baseball, initiated by Zeke), but one could never fully put down their guard when under the surveillance of the Marley top brass. Certain ... appearances still needed to be kept, to be sure. Perhaps, this was a well-needed vacation after all.
Later over lunch, Reiner regaled Gabi about the receptionist bringing him complimentary room service in the middle of the night.
"I had just showered, and there was a knock on the door. I went to check with only my bathrobe on. Guess who was there?"
"Who?"
"The receptionist from yesterday afternoon! He had a bottle of champagne and two glasses in a bucket." Gabi's eyebrows almost shot to her hairline.
"Reiner ... are you sure this is an age-appropriate thing to tell me?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Reiner asked in between bites of his steak, confused. "I told him that you're obviously too young to drink champagne, Gabi. Who else was the second glass for?"
"Plus, I thought he would've remembered he gave us two separate rooms."
"Anyway," Reiner continued as Gabi stared at him wordlessly, "he got embarrassed, said he mistook my room for another VIP suite, and left. He still gave me the champagne as an apology though. Funny guy."
Gabi internally debated whether she should have burst her cousin's bubble there and then.
"Reiner, I think he wanted to share the champagne with you," were the words that Gabi wished she had the courage to say ... but she didn't know whether she could deal with what came after.
Not all of Reiner's admirers were so up-front though. When the cousins were in the nearby town area to buy souvenirs for their friends, Gabi noticed many lingering stares — from store-owners and pedestrians alike.
Reiner would have easily dismissed his celebrity to his being the wielder of the Armored Titan, but Gabi just wasn't sure if he was that famous.
They did have that parade when they were, what, 12? Were the citizens of Marley even familiar with what aged-up Reiner Braun looked like?
At any rate, they ran into their fair share of admirers in town.
Starstruck shopkeepers who insisted on gifting them with freebies, small children who came up to Reiner and asked to take pictures with him. My mommy thinks you're handsome!
Before they knew it though, the Brauns' weekend getaway had come to an end.
As Reiner loaded up their things in his jeep, the resort's staff came out to bid them goodbye.
"Come again soon!"
"We love you, Mister Braun!"
From the corner of her eye, Gabi saw the receptionist seemingly holding back … tears? Huh.
As he was driving, Reiner asked, "did you enjoy the weekend, Gabi?"
"Oh for sure. Thanks for bringing me out here Reiner! It was fun hanging out with you."
"The locals out here sure are nice, huh? It was a much friendlier reception than I expected."
Gabi glanced at the mountain of souvenirs in the backseat they were bringing home. Yup, they had much evidence of Marleyan "friendliness".
"You know what mom always says about Marleyans and Eldians … with what dad did," he said more softly. "It's nice to know that times are changing, y'know? Maybe there is a future worth fighting for."
For the rest of the ride, Reiner hummed to the tune of the pop song on the radio.
Beside him, Gabi stared out the window, internal conflict bubbling even more as she watched the rural landscape slowly morph into towns, bridges, and walls.
The following Monday, Gabi burst into the warriors' HQ and headed straight for the armory.
There, she found Bertholdt carefully inspecting and polishing his rifle.
"Oh hey Gabi, how was—"
"That's some big talk coming from you about the Armored Titan being observant!" Gabi shouted somewhat accusingly while thrusting a paper bag full of souvenirs at Bertholdt's chest.
"Huh?"
Gabi brought Bertholdt up to speed on what she noticed about Reiner over the weekend while noting the unease slowly building up on his face.
Halfway through Gabi's updates, Annie came into the armory.
"Bertholdt, Porco was asking if you made lunch for us today—oh hi, Gabi."
"Lunch is in the pantry, Annie. Gabi here was just telling me about Reiner being hit on last weekend—by both men and women."
"Oh," was Annie's response for a moment, as her clear blue eyes glanced at Gabi.
"That's not much of a surprise, isn't it? Reiner's bi."
Gabi's eyes were as wide as saucers.
"You all knew?!"
"A-Annie!" Bertholdt stammered. "I'm not sure it's our place to out him..."
"She'll find out eventually after she inherits the Armored—might as well know while he's still here."
"But, well—"
"I mean, there was that obsession with Christa—Historia—that we never knew was real or part of his whole act for the mission."
"And, everybody had their suspicions about him and you," Annie continued, making deliberate eye contact with an increasingly sweating Bertholdt.
"—but those rumors have ended since he's now dating Marcel."
"WHAT? Marcel?"
"—oops. I'll see you at lunch, Bertholdt. Bye, Gabi."
Annie disappeared from the armory as abruptly as she came, leaving poor Bertholdt to deal with the new barrage of questions from Gabi.
Bertholdt reassured Gabi that her cousin wasn't as clueless as he may seem—that he always came in clutch in defending them when things went dire. Although, the years spent in Paradis seemed to hit his psyche harder than it did for Bertholdt, Annie, and Marcel. But his loyalty to his friends and loved ones, and the role of being Marley's shield was something Reiner never took lightly.
"He probably didn't notice everyone's advances because his heart was set on Marcel."
"You weren't there, Bertholdt! You didn't see what went down."
"Yeah, you're right, I wasn't ... well, as I mentioned, it's not really Annie's place or mine to talk to you about Reiner's private life."
Seeing Gabi pout due to her unanswered questions, Bertholdt patted her head lightly.
"He'll tell you everything in his own time, I'm sure."
Gabi sighed. "Yup, I know he would. I'll be patient then. Sorry for shouting, Bertholdt."
"Don't worry about it, Gabi."
As Gabi left the armory to look for her friends, she thought about how Reiner wasn't an open book as she thought.
What else didn't she know about him?
Author's Notes: Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it!
You can find me on Twitter canditoast for more regular fandom nonsense from me :')