Chapter 21: Guilt

Reiner awoke bleary-eyed a few hours after he had discovered Priss on the floor and beckoned her back to bed. Without even having to look he could still tell she was nuzzled up in his chest, leaving her gleaming hair if his immediate view. He breathed in the smell of it, a scent that could only be described as 'pure,' and exhaled with great content. Reiner didn't want to wake her up, but he was feeling a bit greedy in the sense he wanted to touch her in some innocent way and he figured if he did it gently enough then he could indulge in his desire.

With great care he placed his hand on her shoulder and very lightly rubbed it. Oddly enough, this made his body and mind relax even more than it already was; her silken smooth skin was one of those many magical aspects of her that left him utterly stupid in love. A smile grew on his lips and he started to move lower on her arm with the intent to stroke it up and down, but it didn't take long before he felt something 'off' that left him frozen. Reiner had expected nothing but her delightfully delicate skin to pass under his fingertips, but not far down below her shoulder he felt the texture of something that was far from what he knew her skin was like.

What is that?

He let out a nervous breath quietly as he battled between just leaving it be for now or risk waking her up by making too much movement by trying to pull the blanket down; he was worried enough to want to get a look at what he was feeling on her right away, but he held back on just impulsively giving into seeking it out immediately – despite the fact that not knowing was bothering him, killing him even. Reiner pulled his arm back to himself and tensed up his jaw as he laid there and considered whether tugging down their blanket just a bit would be enough to wake her up, but even if it didn't rouse her, was it still selfish of him to even try? Even if doing it was fueled by overwhelming concern for her?

Reiner stayed motionless as he considered such a simple thing for longer than seemed reasonable, but took comfort in feeling her steady breathing against him. He gulped and raised his hand back up and slowly pulled down the blanket they shared, and he didn't have to pull it far to find what he was looking for. When the abnormality was revealed to him, Reiner's stomach dropped and his jaw fell open. There was no mistaking what he was seeing: there was a bandage on her arm that was covering a fresh wound, evident by a small blotch of blood staining the bandage from the underside.

Reiner bit his tongue to stop himself from exclaiming something in shock that would carelessly and rudely awaken her. His heart and mind were racing at wild speeds; He started asking himself questions as his eyes lingered, unblinking, on that mysterious injury: What happened? When did it happen? How? Was it an accident? Did she clumsily hurt herself somehow or did someone else do this to her? He was dying to know every detail of what lead to this, and to know how bad she was hurting, but he wanted her to rest too. Reiner wasn't going to wake her up and start bombarding her with a frenzied interrogation no matter how badly he wanted to get to the bottom of the situation. For now, he pulled the blanket back up to where it rested on her previously, and made his best attempt to keep himself calm. He so badly wanted to hold her tightly, but he feared he could somehow hurt her by doing that – and that was the last thing he ever would want to do. He chose to stay there, keeping his hands to himself and lie awake since his racing mind was preventing him from sleeping. Reiner would wait as long as he needed to for her to wake up on her own...

"Do you really think this will work?"

"Yes Yeager. Your position in the military will be a swaying factor to those fools."

"But I'm just a cadet, Fredrik."

"Yeager, how many times do I have to tell you... Call me by my true name."

"Right, sorry... Anteros."

"Anyway, a little bending the truth never hurt anyone. You'll tell them your superiors want to meet with them, that you were considered a very trusted messenger for such an important task. They won't know or care. Like I said, they're a bunch of fools."

"But then what?"

"Leave the rest to me. It'll take an immense amount of my power to achieve, more of it than I've ever even attempted to tap into before, but I should be able to do it... No, I must. There is no questioning it or room for uncertainty. Exhausting myself to that extent is a small price to pay for our long term goals. I hope you're ready Yeager, once we complete this task there is no going back."

Reiner remained dedicated to his unmoving, and damn near close to unblinking, vigil he kept over Priscilla. He watched for any sort of movement that could indicate she'd be waking soon, but she had been entirely still the whole time since he had been awake. With how her head was positioned he couldn't see anything going on with her face, between it being nuzzled into his chest and her hair falling over it left her face obscured. Then, he finally felt something: her body abruptly shuddered against him and she inhaled swiftly and sharply as she went stiff.

"Priss?" Reiner whispered quietly, just in case this wasn't an indication of her waking up.

"Reiner..." he heard her tiredly respond. The initial rigidity of her body slowly began to relax, but she still felt the bitter sting of her wound. The girl inched away from him so she could gaze at him as she greeted him sweetly. "Good morning."

Instead of being met with something similar, Reiner's face had instantly shifted into one of shock when he looked at her. Priscilla's brows furrowed as a sense of confusion sank into her, but she didn't have a chance to ask him what was wrong before he went in with his own questioning.

"Your cheek!" He exclaimed, his eyes unblinking ever since he got a look at her. "It's bruised, how... how did that happen?!"

Now Priscilla was wide awake and her heart was pounding; too much had been going through her head the night prior for her to consider Zeke's slap leaving a mark, but given the fact that he didn't hold back with how hard he hit her, it wasn't surprising at all that she was left with a bruise.

"And your arm..." Reiner continued woefully. His voice was a mixture of concern and a growing anger over the idea that someone had hurt his cherished princess, but he kept his volume down in an attempt to control himself. He didn't want to make it sound like he was angry at her, since he obviously absolutely wasn't, so he kept himself in line and calmly asked. "Who did this to you?"

Priscilla quickly sat up and in what seemed like a single fluid motion, she swung around so her legs hung off the edge of the bed. She rested her elbows on her knees and grabbed her head that had fallen forward – she was feeling the same despair and anxiety from the night before emerge again in full force now that she was finally faced with telling Reiner about it. Her fingers gripped her hair and she felt her nails start to dig into her scalp from how hard she was holding. Reiner immediately sat up and scrambled to sit beside her on the edge of the bed, but once he got there he didn't know what to do. Should he hold her? Keep his distance? He didn't know what to say either since all that was going through his mind were the things he already said.

After a moment of both of them in a painful silence, Priss spoke in an uncharacteristically meek and broken voice, "I did something bad last night."

"...Something bad?" Reiner's repeated – he was half in disbelief and again still in some state of shock over everything being presented to him.

Priss pulled her head up from her hands and nodded rapidly before she took a deep breath to continue, "Yes. I was dumb. I was awful. And I have nobody to blame but myself..."

"Priss, just..." Reiner said, finally feeling it was the right time to put a comforting hand on her leg. "Just tell me what happened."

Priss laid her head down on his shoulder before she went on to confess what she saw as her grievous sins, "I woke up and I was feeling sick. I tried to just ignore it and go back to sleep, but that wasn't working. I didn't know what was wrong but I knew I would feel better if I just got to see the moon a bit. It was still night so..."

"Wait, hold on..." Reiner stopped her. "I'm sorry for interrupting, but what does the moon have to do with this?"

For a moment, Priscilla's woes came to a screeching halt when she realized she hadn't told Reiner about her connection to the moon – or anything she read in those musty old books for that matter. She remembered how during their journey in the cart that they agreed to talk about what she did in Hyperia when they were alone, and they very much were now. Zeke was still absent, but to where and for how long he would be gone... there was no way to know, so now seemed like the best time to lay out some quick basics for Reiner.

She raised her head up from resting on his shoulder, turned to him and took his hands in hers and looked him right in the eyes, "This is going to sound totally crazy, but just trust me. The short version is my race has some connection with the moon. I read about it in one of the books I took from Hyperia. The extent of what the moonlight can do to me, I don't really know entirely... but I've noticed things that back it up," She explained, "When I learned about the moonlight thing, I thought back to some things... like when I was able to lift you and carry you in the blizzard, the moon was out that night. I always found something soothing and just helpful about standing under it's light. I can apparently even go without food or water as long as I get enough exposure to the light of the moon."

"...For the sake of honesty, that does sound pretty crazy," Reiner admitted. "But I remember that night when you carried me through the storm... I was wondering how the hell you could have possibly managed that."

"And remember the Goddess of the Hyperians, Priska... she was a moon Goddess, and we Hyperians all carry a part of her in us or some nonsense like that." Priss went on, "But it's not unbelievable considering the Eldians and their connection to Ymir and her curse."

"It definitely doesn't seem like exactly the same situation but I think I see what you mean... That there's things in this world that go beyond us and our understanding," Reiner said. "Or... something like that."

"More or less," Priss confirmed. "It's so strange. We both carry our own ancient curses, ones that partially are meant to keep us apart..."

"We don't have to let them though," Reiner insisted strongly. "We found each other, we've come this far – all that and the fact that you're carrying our child, I think that proves that there's no curse strong enough to have ever kept us apart."

"And nothing ever will!" Priss exclaimed, feeling his passion flow through her and wash away the unsavory emotions involved in her dark history.

"Uh, but one more thing... What happened to the books?"

"Oh I burned them," She answered simply as if it wasn't a big deal. "I don't know if it'll do any good, but I wanted to at least try to keep that information away from the outside world if I could. There's more I found out that I will elaborate on sometime, but that can wait."

"Yeah, I'm way more concerned with why you're all beat up."

Priss took another deep breath before she returned to going on the difficult story of the past night, "Like I said, I went to go look at the moon. I was standing on the deck when some Marleyan guards showed up. They asked me questions but I didn't answer, so one of them started harassing me since he assumed I was Eldian. He threatened to kill me or at least harm me, but his partner kept insisting I was some important cargo that can't be damaged," She explained, "They bickered, and I kept getting angrier with how they talked about me. I kind of lost my shit when the one soldier started smoking right in my face, laughing at me... The moon made me stronger, I accidentally broke the hand rail and then I very deliberately attacked the soldier. He defended himself, he got his gun out and tried to shoot me and he hit me a bit..."

She nodded in the direction of her injured arm, but she then kept her eyes away from Reiner as the shame of her mistakes started to overwhelm her again.

"They shot at you..?" He asked in disbelief.

"Can you blame them?" She replied flatly with her eyes still averted. "I attacked a soldier, I couldn't contain myself and should have known better... I shouldn't have even been out there to begin with."

Reiner hung his head and let out a long, deep sigh as he pulled his hands away from hers to rub his face with. This got Priscilla to look back his way, where she saw him slowly shaking his head behind his hands. Eventually, he dropped them so he could speak clearly.

"I'm not going to defend what you did or say it was ok, because it wasn't. You definitely made a bad choice," He began as he raised his head up again to look at her. "A good soldier will protect themselves when threatened, no matter who is attacking them. But it's even worse since they think you're an Eldian..."

"Are..." She began, then swallowed hard,. "Are you mad at me?"

"What?" Reiner asked with a puzzled look but quickly launched back into his tone of concern. "No, of course I'm not mad at you...! You owned up to your mistakes so I don't have reason to be mad... But I do worry about you. It seems like you really didn't understand the amount of hatred the world has for Eldians."

"Until now," She added.

"Until now..." He repeated. Reiner glanced down and saw her hands were shaking, so he reached out and clasped them tightly to comfort her. "How bad are you hurting?"

"It's not horrible or anything, but it definitely hurts. Especially when I move my arm. It could have been way worse though," She said. "If Zeke didn't show up and save my skin I'd be a goner."

Reiner's eyes narrowed in confusion, "Zeke helped you?" Priscilla nodded in confirmation. "How?"

"Well let's just say he was awake by the time I left because you and I 'weren't exactly quiet,' so he just pretended to be asleep for who knows how long," She explained. "Then he followed me and just lurked in the shadows until the gun went off. He begged for mercy, and the commanding officer from earlier told the men to stand down. The details there are a bit hazy since I was so..."

Her voice trailed off since she couldn't find the right words to describe entirely how she felt in that critical moment. There was no doubt in her mind that her rage was the catalyst, and she had to wonder if this took place in broad daylight, would she still have taken the actions that she did? It was difficult to say, since a major aspect was the cigarette smoke bringing her back to a terrible place emotionally. Priss fidgeted as she wondered if she should tell Reiner about why that detail was so important, but the deeper reason for her meltdown wasn't something that seemed beneficial to revisit. She knew he wouldn't want to dwell on that, and frankly neither did she.

"And they slapped you too..." Reiner said.

"Oh uh," Priss coughed. "They actually didn't."

"What do you mean? I can see the hand shaped bruise on your cheek..."

"...It was Zeke. He took care of my gunshot wound but then he hit me and yelled at me for making him look bad."

Reiner went silent and his caring expression went stone cold instantly while his hands on hers got tighter in his grip. He quickly noticed he was starting to grasp her harder than he should and pulled away, also turning so he faced forward on the edge of the bed. Priss watched him as the anger started to visibly build up in him – the scowl, the gritted teeth, it eventually culminated in him jumping from the bed and punching the nearest wall.

"Urgh!" He yelled, despite being a shifter he could obviously still feel pain, and he didn't exactly restrain himself. Reiner backed away from the wall, shaking out the hand he had punched it with. His breathing was heavy as he started to speak with the most vitriol ever had in his life. "That... fucking bastard... I'll make him pay for that."

"Is it really surprising?" Priss asked calmly. "With how he's treated me before?"

"That's not the point..." He muttered with his fists shaking from how tightly he had them balled up. "He should know better, but I guess he just can't help himself from being a piece of shit... I knew you two had your problems, but I didn't think he'd just go and beat you like that."

"And he's stupid if he thought I wouldn't tell you..." Priss added in.

Reiner quickly turned around and grabbed his clothes so he could start getting dressed and track Zeke down to make him answer for this. Priscilla's natural way of thinking was encouraging of this, but she thought back to her lengthy introspection from the night before. As much as he wanted to see Reiner pummel Zeke, the rational side of her that she was doing her best to cultivate knew it was wrong and would only end badly for everyone involved. However, it was hard to fight that desperate urge she had to make sure Zeke suffered consequences of his actions against her, even though one could argue he was partially justified – except for his violence, that was of course inexcusable. It's true he shouldn't have struck her, but he saved her and put her in a position to critically reflect on herself and inspire potential change in her – he didn't do it in the best way possible, not even close. Unfortunately, it was easier to give into the lust for revenge that Reiner intended to carry out against the man who wronged or hurt her in any way

As she fought with herself internally, Reiner had finished dressing himself and made for the door, which prompted Priss to act. She leaped up and grabbed him by the hand, "Wait!" She exclaimed. "Do you really think it's a good idea? The damage I did last night might have already put you in a position to be punished, going and picking a fight with Zeke could make things even worse... And I don't want you to be hurt because of me!"

"I just can't stand it," Reiner murmured in a low voice that was tinged with sadness. He looked over his shoulder and Priss swore she saw his eyes glisten with tears. "I can't sit back and just let you be harassed and abused. You choosing to be with me is part of the reason that you're being treated the way you are..."

Priss held his hand tighter as she started to feel warm tears stream down her cheeks and her emotions started to spill out uncontrollably, "It sounds like you're saying I made the wrong choice!" She wailed. Reiner quickly turned to her and saw her face contorted with despair, "But I know that I absolutely didn't! Any other option I had in life would have been shit if you weren't there by my side! Don't you understand that there was no other 'choice' for me? You're all I ever wanted, and if this path leads me to being hurt sometimes then I will endure it... because I love you and you love me. Those two things are what I need more than anything. As long as we have each other, there's no pain that would make me regret being with you.

"Love can be hard sometimes, but working through whatever difficulties that face us proves this bond we have is unbreakable. So what if some assholes treat me like trash because I'm with you? At the end of the day, being with you makes it ok because we keep each other safe. They can think whatever they want about us, and I'd never leave you just because things are tougher to deal with in this new world I've never been to before... And you said it yourself before, not even some old curse can keep us apart, so why should anything else? Shit, if this curse nonsense is true, then I will go through hell and back to break it! You and I, we're stronger than the gods and monsters that are long gone, if they ever even existed at all. There's nothing and nobody who will stop us; not the spiteful will of some moon gods or a curse from the devil himself... Reiner, I love you! And I never will stop loving you!"

Reiner stared at her with his tearful eyes starting to dry as she panted heavily after giving her impassioned speech, but once she caught her breath there was more to be said, "You said you can't stand to see me hurt, well I can't stand to see you get hurt either, you know? There's some things we can't avoid, but we can do our best from making anything worse... and I think you going after Zeke right now will do exactly that. We just gotta handle it peacefully and keep things as civil as we can... if you get into deeper trouble than you may already be in for me being an idiot, I'll... I don't know what I'll do. "

The blonde stared at her in astonishment; the last person he ever expected to stop him from exacting revenge on Zeke was his darling future wife. With a pleading look in her eye, she placed her other hand on his as well while one last tear fell from her eye.

"Let's just go back to bed, lay around and be lazy..." She said while she tried to crack a smile for him and sniffled loudly. "Is there really anything better to do?"

"...You're right," Reiner agreed. "But what am I supposed to do when I see that bastard again?" He added with a touch of uncertainty. He searched her eyes for an answer, but she didn't have one. Priss stifled her urge to say something like 'well I can't stop you if you want to go punch him' which was the easy answer, but despite it's tempting nature, it was very much the wrong thing to say.

"Just focus on me instead," She spoke after a period of silent thought. "Like my breathing or my heartbeat, my voice... something that'll keep you grounded."

Reiner breathed deep as the volatile anger towards Zeke in him started to subside. She encouragingly nodded to him and finally got a proper smile on her face after her struggle to shift from crying and despairing to being positive. Priss then started to lead him back to their bed where they sat themselves down on the edge of it.

"Heh, you know..." He said as he scratched his cheek, which had a hint of a blush creeping across it. "You did that thing again."

"Hm?" Priscilla raised her eyebrows.

"That face you make when you're trying you damnedest to smile for me when it's difficult to," He laughed lightly as he looked her way. "Just like when we were kids."

"Oh, I did?" She asked, and her grin grew wider as their eyes locked. She too felt the tension substantially lifting.

"Yeah..." He confirmed in a dreamy voice as he reminisced. "That's another good thing to focus on. Those great memories we have. At that point in my life, that smile was the greatest thing anyone had given to me. The best damn thing I'd ever seen... Then not too long after that you went and gave me a kiss too."

"Hmm so do we count that as our first kiss or...?" Priss wondered out loud with a goofy smirk, and Reiner let out a hearty laugh.

"Well it sure as hell was the first time anyone but my mother kissed me! And it was you, so I say we count it."

"Mm, good..." She murmured and laid her head down on his shoulder. "Say, Reiner... I know it was just on the cheek and all, but did you wanna kiss me back?"

Reiner carefully slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her into him tightly, "You kidding? Of course I did, but I was nowhere near brave enough to do it at the time. Not for a long time..."

"Maybe I should have been more encouraging?" She asked as she fully relaxed into him.

"Who knows... And I wonder how much different things would have been if I didn't deny myself for so long... I wanted you for ages too, but I thought it was better to stifle my feelings to protect you... " Reiner said, but he noticed his tone growing slightly grim, so he decided to get back to keeping things light. "I'll tell you one thing though, you sure as hell made that hard."

"Ohhh me? I made it hard?" She asked with feigned innocence, causing both of them to laugh. When their laughter died down, Priss just couldn't help herself from taking that comment a bit further. "I think I made more than one thing hard for you."

She pulled away and the two of them turned to look at each other with almost the same exact devious looks on their faces.

"...Remember how you asked if we had anything better to do than lay around?" Reiner asked, and Priss responded by biting her lower lip and nodding. Reiner then ran one of his strong hands across her thigh and down between her legs for a quick tease that made her shudder. "I think I have a good idea."

Priscilla shuddered again when she felt Reiner apply light pressure to that sensitive spot between her legs, giving her as much of a stroke as he could without her legs being parted.

"I mean, I am already naked, so..." She said as her face began to flush. "It seems like a... very good idea."

"Oh for the love of God..." Came an irritated voice.

Priss and Reiner were both too distracted by each other to notice Zeke's sudden return to their dismal quarters. Reiner quickly removed his hand from between her legs as they both pulled away from each other, he then stood up to block Priss from view with his broad, muscular body. Priss worriedly looked up to him from the bed, he had his back to her so she couldn't get a read on his expression, but his posture was stiff and his fists were clenched. She breathed in deeply, hoping that Reiner wasn't going to do something reckless after they had such a lengthy talk about the situation at hand.

"You could have knocked first," Reiner said flatly.

"I didn't think I would need to do that," Zeke replied. "But in all honesty, I should have expected this..."

Reiner's golden eyes narrowed at his superior, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Tch," Zeke scoffed and peered behind Reiner. "Just look at that. I know what I walked in on here. She's shameless as always."

Priss hurriedly stood up and grabbed the sheet off their bed to wrap around herself before she strode over to stand between the two men. She kept her head down because it was brutal enough for her to do what she was about to do, so she did what she could to minimize the feeling by not looking directly at Zeke.

"I have something to say," She declared calmly. She heard a curious hum from Zeke and she could feel his condescending gaze on her. She was only an inch shorter than him, but for the first time she felt considerably smaller than him. Priscilla swallowed hard, took a deep breath and thought back on all the recent events before she did her best to eloquently continue. "I would... like to say I'm sorry to you. I was ungrateful for the help you gave me last night. You saved my life so I also want to say thank you for that. I'm also sorry for putting you in a position that could hurt the standing of you and your unit's reputation with the Marleyans."

A silence fell over the group, one that was so uncomfortable it was almost palpable. In fact, Priss damn near felt like throwing up at that point, but she was sure she did what could be considered the 'right' thing – and to surrender her pride for the sake of doing what she could to correct her mistakes was no easy task for her, but she did it.

"Well now..." Zeke said after he let the silence linger for a moment. Priss tilted her head up just enough to be able to see him stroking his bearded chin through her bangs. "Isn't that interesting..."

"Huh?" Reiner grunted from behind while the woman between them remained silent. "What kind of answer is that?"

Zeke put his hand on Priscilla's shoulder and casually moved her aside so he could address Reiner, "She would never say that on her own. You obviously must have put her up to it."

Reiner gaped at Zeke in disbelief while his commander just stared at him blankly, "So, you're saying I put words in her mouth?"

"It's more believable than her suddenly learning to be decent and reasonable," Zeke responded flatly.

"She has a mind of her own, if she didn't honestly believe in what she was saying then she wouldn't say it," Reiner said through gritted teeth.

"Hm, I guess you'd know better than me," Zeke said in an insultingly dismissive tone. "But that doesn't mean I am obligated to accept an apology from her. What value is there in the words of a self centered whore?"

Things all went silent again, but this time it was more painful than plain discomforting – not for Zeke though, he stood tall and basked in the looks of shock on Reiner and Priscilla's faces. A smile exceeding a disgusting level of smugness started to tug at the corners of his lips; driving a knife into the heart of this poor girl on top of his 'victory' moment over her from the previous evening compounded into a sense of double satisfaction for him. Zeke Yeager was finally winning. To the side of him he heard a shuddering gasp that was almost inaudible, followed by whimpers of a devastated woman trying to hold it together.

"Oh knock it off," He spat as he glanced to the girl with uncaring eyes. "You claim to love him, that you both love each other so much, but from all I've witnessed is that you are only good for fucking. It's literally all you can offer."

"You..." Reiner growled.

"And you know what else?!" Zeke continued with his voice rising. "I truly feel bad for that child of yours. It deserves better than parents who are too obsessed with each other to think about anything else, but that fact mostly goes for you Ziegler! I can already tell that you will be a horrible mother. Negligent, would only use it for your own selfish purposes whenever you could find a reason to... You could never really love a child, it'd be better off dumped in an orphanage or even d-!"

Zeke's hurtful words were interrupted by Reiner's huge fist colliding with his jaw while Priss burst out into a crying fit. Reiner grabbed Zeke by the collar of his shirt and slammed him against the wall with his eyes blazing with fury like never before.

"You goddamn piece of shit!" Reiner shouted. "Who do you think you are?! What gives you any right to say that?!"

"What?! I'm right, you know I'm right!" Zeke shot back as he tried to get Reiner's hands off him. "I'm just stating facts! What does she do besides fuck you, Reiner? You want a whore raising your child?!"

Reiner let out a beastly scream as he threw Zeke to the ground, all the while Priscilla was hysterically sobbing. She struggled to breathe through how hard she was crying while the two men fought and shouted over each other, but it was all just white noise to her that she couldn't decipher with how upset she was. She already had to deal with the reminder of her unsavory past not even 24 hours ago, and now here Zeke was not only using a word associated with that, but also claiming she would not be fit to raise her and Reiner's son. She wanted to start screaming at him too about how wrong he was about everything he had said, that he was a bitter and jealous dirtbag.

"What the hell is this?!"

A group of Marleyan guards had been drawn by the mixture of shouting, fighting and despaired wailing coming out of the room that Zeke had carelessly left the door to open. They dove into the fray and pried the two men off each other to put a stop to the senseless fight, it took several of them to pull Reiner away due to his sheer size combined with his emotionally driven rage. Zeke was tossed to one corner on his knees, his face battered and bleeding in several spots, while Reiner was on the opposite side of the room on his feet with only a few injuries – he was in the advantageous position for most of the fight, but Zeke was able to get some decent hits in on him. The wounds they sustained steamed as they began the process of regenerating back to their former states while they both panted heavily.

"Fucking Eldians, I swear..." One of the guards muttered once they had defused the situation. "Do we report this to the Commander?"

"Is it worth reporting a couple of dogs fighting?" Another responded.

"Not just any dogs, that one is the one they call the Boy Wonder. Warchief Zeke Yeager himself," Said the other guard with no attempt to hide how he was mocking Zeke with those words. "The higher ups might wanna know about the Warchief acting up..."

The guards started to walk away feeling convinced that their job there was done. Their chatter could still be heard as they departed, like one man bringing up how there was an uproar last night involving Zeke. Priss was caught in a distraught cycle of gasping and sniffling while she tried to get herself to stop crying, which included wiping her face on the sheet she had wrapped around her.

Zeke peered over his shoulder at the weeping girl, who didn't notice his gaze since she was hard at work attempting to pull herself together after having slumped down onto the floor – she wasn't very successful in her attempt though. Her apology from mere minutes ago played again through his mind and it lead him to feel unexpected remorse bubble inside of him, especially when those words of hers were paired with looking at the aftermath from the chaos that had erupted thanks to his needlessly callous response. Zeke stood up but stayed facing away from the other two as he straightened out his roughed up clothing; it was a miracle his glasses weren't broken in the brawl.

"I'm going to spend my time elsewhere for a while," He muttered and then showed himself out, closing the door behind him. He couldn't stand to linger with the other two after all that, and frankly, they didn't want him around either. Once Zeke was gone, Reiner hurried over to Priscilla, scooped her up and carried her to their bed where he carefully set her down.

"Deep breaths, ok?" He advised her. She rapidly nodded and continued wiping her eyes and sniffling. Getting into a pattern of deep breathing was tough at first since she had even started coughing a bit from her unbridled sobbing, but she made a concentrated effort to follow Reiner's advice.

She looked deep into Reiner's eyes, the anger had disappeared completely and he looked upon her with distraught worry. She took several deep breaths and asked in a meek, raspy voice the only question she could muster about what just happened, "Why?"