A/N: Since I missed the sweet OTP so bad I put a little treat at the end. A flashback to a scene intended for use in it's proper time in the rewrite, Enjoy!
Chapter 32: Only The Purest of Hearts...
Only those who are pure of heart
Will be the one to catch a unicorn
"Oh, you won't stay for dinner Warchief Zeke?"
Karina followed Zeke's moves as he prepared to make his leave from the Braun home; Karina felt quite honored and privileged for him to be making personal visits there, even if his purpose wasn't with her specifically.
"What you cooked smells wonderful," Zeke assured her as he made for the door with her at his heels, "But I have important business to continue working on, I don't have time to sit down for something delicious to eat when there's work to be done. Maybe next time."
While Zeke was trying to make his exit, Priss had slowly hobbled halfway down the stairs and was observing Karina's insistence that he stay and eat with them. Priss furrowed her brows and pursed her lips.
She seems like she's a bit of a social climber... Priss thought.
"Oh, there you are!" Karina exclaimed, noticing Priscilla's presence, "Maybe he'll listen to you if you ask him to stay for supper."
Zeke hung his head and sighed in annoyance, but Karina didn't notice it; he didn't approve of Karina's attempt to involve someone else in this non-issue. Karina also wasn't aware of the ordeal that the poor girl was dealing with, as far as anyone knew, she didn't even want to eat – or at least not with others around. It wasn't his place to tell Karina about Priscilla's troubles so he didn't even know what to say at all – and neither did Priss with how tremendously awkward it was for her getting dragged into the dinner debacle. The repeated insistence by Reiner's mother to get Zeke to stay made Priss want to yell at her to let it go, but she knew that wouldn't help things. Their relationship was already on the complicated side and yelling at her mother in law wouldn't do anything to help the behind the scenes strain.
"I really have something important to get to," Zeke spoke again, desperate to get out of this awkward situation.
But Karina couldn't be convinced, however her mind numbing babbling was filtered out as Zeke rubbed his temples and thought about just how late it was. Once he quit his mini head massage, he took a look at his wristwatch and wasn't sure whether he was relieved or disappointed.
"The courthouse definitely is closed for the night..." He mumbled to himself. His 'important task' was getting the signed legal documents and marriage certificate submitted, but he didn't make it in time to do it that day, "I should have started earlier."
"Hmm?" Karina hummed curiously, so desperate to be apart of whatever Zeke was up to.
"Some poor time management on my part," He began, "It turns out I don't have to hurry. I can't do what I need to do until tomorrow."
Priss made her way the rest of the way down and stepped into the kitchen and with a smile she said, "Ok, well why not then? You have any place better to be?"
It was true that Zeke didn't have anywhere else of importance to go, and if he were to stay here a bit longer that meant he wouldn't have to go meet up with Anteros as quickly as he otherwise would have. Karina was pleased and clapped her hands together, then immediately started to get to work setting the table. Priscilla's smile was locked onto her face, but Zeke was smarter than Karina by far, he could tell what a forced and fake smile it was; she was trying to feign normalcy, but Zeke had seen her genuinely smile plenty before, whenever she was with Reiner that is... that's one of the few times she would offer an expression of sincere sweetness.
"Sit down, I'll take care of making everyone's plates," Karina instructed.
It was safe to assume Karina would take the head of the table like she had previously, so Zeke and Priss sat opposite each other on the longer sides. She felt fidgety and wanted to do things with her hands, but didn't want to be disruptive so she awkwardly shoved her hands between her thighs to make it impossible to flap them around or tap things annoyingly. She kept her eyes anywhere but on the other people in the room, continuously looking in different directions – but she could only go through the same cycle of moving her head to avoid eye contact before she looked foolish, so Priss was eager to get food in front of her to focus on.
True to her word, Karina placed all the utensils and whatnot down in front of her guests and at her seat placement as well before doling out servings of the food she prepared: seasoned chicken breasts with vegetables on the side and mashed potatoes.
"You made an awful lot for not knowing you'd have an extra mouth to feed," Zeke noted light heartedly.
"It's better to make more just in case," She explained, "Light tonight, and there's always room for leftovers. I was optimistic that maybe Reiner would be here by now too... have you heard anything about when he's going to be released yet?"
Zeke shook his head, "Not a word," He lied effortlessly to her, "The only thing I've spoken to him about is his lovely bride to be here."
"Is that so?" Karina asked, pouring out water into cups for everyone, "So is that the business you're up to? I thought I heard you muttering something about the courthouse."
Zeke raised up both his hands with a shrug, maintaining the tone of levity, "Guilty as charged, Mrs. Braun."
"Ohh please do call me Karina!" The older woman laughed as she finally sat down. Priss could hardly stomach their behavior so she just quietly munched on her food and tried to ignore them, though Zeke would have loved someone to bail him out of talking with Reiner's mother, "So, it's all official then? That's just lovely... Although a mother can't help but worry about letting her son go in such a way."
Zeke's eyes darted straight to Priss, who's expression fell into one of hurt that she didn't even try to hide. Zeke wasn't aware of their strained relationship and how much more deeply that comment cut Priss, but he could still see it bother her despite not knowing the depth of how much it stung.
"Karina, don't you think you're selling your son a bit short?" Zeke began sternly, "Reiner is a fine, intelligent young man and a strong Warrior. He wouldn't choose a woman to be his wife unless she was truly above and beyond anyone else."
"Ah, well, you're right about that..." Karina said, but Zeke wasn't done yet. Far from it.
"And I can attest to that, I've seen it. Her loyalty to your son is like nothing I've ever seen before, I've never seen another couple love each other as much as they do. This girl will do anything in her power to protect Reiner if she had to, and I know she damn well will give it her all to make him the happiest man on Earth," Zeke orated passionately, he paused to take a breath, but didn't dare wait too long before he went on with his unbridled support, "Karina, your son is easily the luckiest person out there to have Priscilla as his wife. She is his one, his only shining star, and I pity any man who would covet that. Because there's no chance in hell for a man like that, any man who isn't Reiner, to get her to even look his way."
"Oh my god!" Priscilla shouted, stunned and embarrassed by Zeke's monologue, "Knock it off, Zeke! What's up with you all of a sudden?"
"I'm just making sure your mother in law knows she has nothing to worry about." Zeke defended himself calmly, "Was I wrong about anything I said?"
He stared her down and it didn't take her long to shake her head and say, "No, you weren't wrong..." She admitted, but promptly added with a huff, "You were laying it on thick, though."
Karina could only force Zeke to stay for so long and once he was finished eating there really was no reason for him to stay. Honestly, he was relieved to be away from Reiner's mother – he too saw she was emanating opportunist vibes over getting to spend time with something of a local small celebrity.
"I'm sorry about her," Priscilla said quietly, having exited the house to see Zeke off privately, "She's, erm... I don't know even know how to describe her. I barely know her."
"It's not your fault, don't worry about it," Zeke said, "We'll have you out of here in no time. Once the marriage is seen as legal by the court, I can start helping you move into a military provided housing for a spouse of a Warrior."
"Should be easy, I don't have anything to move except myself..." Priss replied.
Zeke started to fumble around in his pockets looking for something, "I'll be sure to do it first thing in the morning..." He promised her. After more brief searching, he let out an 'aha' and produced two things. One slim cylindrical thing he put between his lips, and the second which produced a flame that lit it up. Priss froze, save for her eyes widening, once she smelled that scent again – that of tobacco like on the ship, but worse, what it all connected to: the traumatic period of her life she wished to forget.
Zeke inhaled and then turned his head away from her when he exhaled the smoke, "I hope you don't mind. I really needed a cigarette after dealing with Karina."
"I do mind," Priss said viciously, "What a disgusting smell that is."
Before Zeke even had a chance to process her response or put out the cigarette as a courtesy, she had swung the front door back open, stormed inside and slammed it back shut. She said not a word to Karina either, who she definitely heard say 'what's wrong?' as Priss passed through the kitchen to go back upstairs to where she was staying. Zeke simply stood dumbfounded outside of the home by her sudden shift in attitude, but ended up shrugging it off as one of her famous bouts of moodiness.
"It's a bigger house than I thought you'd get," Zeke commented as he and Priss stood side by side in the kitchen of her new home, "I expected just one floor."
"It seems like it's roughly the same size and layout of Karina's... Maybe a bit bigger... I don't know," Priss responded flatly, then turned to Zeke, "But now I'm closer to your headquarters, right?"
Zeke nodded, "That's correct. I don't think you'll have any business there while Reiner is gone though."
"Just making sure."
Zeke saw her turn her head away again out of the corner of his eye, something about her exuded a potent sadness still, despite how swiftly the marriage was declared legal; but when thought about for not even a second, what was there to be truly happy about? She was unable to see her new husband, the child they had conceived was gone – both she and Zeke were haunted by the painful reason behind why it occurred – and she was alone. She had her own place to stay and her last name was legally "Braun" now, but these things were clouded from being celebrated by everything else that had occurred.
"You should be able to find it alright," Zeke said, "But I'll walk you there and back a few times so you know the best way to get there if you need to. As many times as you need me to."
"Ah, thanks..." She murmured in response, "That'll be helpful."
He tilted his head slightly to get a better look at her, but didn't want to move too much to make it obvious he was stealing a glance. Zeke's dull blue eyes wandered down to her hand; an impulse to reach out sparked in him, and for a second his hand twitched towards hers, but he came to his senses before he did something that she would find hugely awkward – or rather, wildly inappropriate. His hand returned to his side and he plunged it into his pocket to imprison it, keeping it locked away from giving in to the temptation of reaching out.
"...By the way," He began, "Did I say something wrong the other night?"
Priss fully turned to him and had a puzzled look on her face as she searched her mind, but the light bulb went off soon enough, "Oh, no you didn't. It was the smoking thing that bothered me," She explained, her tone of voice was still rather flat but Zeke could sense a hint of emotional escalation, especially when her 'light bulb' expression tightened into discomfort as she went on, "Could you please not do that around me?"
That's what it was? Zeke thought. He was surprised, but more so at himself for not realizing that could have been what got her all moody.
"Yeah, I can do that. I know it's a nasty habit..." Zeke reached over and scratched his ear, "I don't suffer poor health consequences since my body can just repair itself as needed, but I know it isn't pleasant to be around a smoker."
The girl crossed her arms and shifted her eyes away and added with a pout, "No, it's not..."
"That's fair enough," Zeke conceded, "But more importantly than my terrible habits, you may have a house here, but it's pretty bare bones at the moment."
"Hm?" She arched an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
"You need food, don't you? Extra pillows and blankets... Oh and clothes," Zeke rattled off, "You're still wearing the same clothes I met you in. Maybe you should ask Karina and Gabi if there's any hand-me-down lady's attire in the family somewhere. Maybe my grandmother could help you out too. Not just with that, but in general, I'm sure she'd be happy t-"
Priscilla raised a single finger to her pillowy pink lips and gave him a loud 'shh!' – which he didn't expect, but it definitely shut him up so she could interject, "You're rambling, Zeke, and it's weird. Still, you're not wrong. That thin sheet and single pillow won't make for a comfy night's sleep."
"Perhaps we should go out together sometime?" Zeke blurted out, then tried to recover from his awkward word choice, "I, ahem, do feel responsible for getting you settled in and comfortable since Reiner isn't here to help you."
Priscilla once more crossed her arms with a huff, "You really don't have to."
Suddenly he thrust his arms forward and planted both his hands on her shoulders as he looked down into her eyes intensely, "I know you've never been open to my help before, but please, accept it now. You deserve to have things made a little easier for you. I'll be gone soon too, and for both yours and Reiner's sake, I need to make sure the younger Missus Braun is taken care of before he and I deploy. It's the least I can do for you both."
Zeke fully expected another dismissal from her, but he got exactly the opposite. She leaned in closer and grabbed his coat, "Fine. You can do whatever you want to help me on one condition!" She responded, exceeding his intensity.
"Name it!" He urged.
"Get me to Reiner!" She passionately begged and her grip on his coat tightened, "Just for a passing glance if that's all you can get me. I'll take anything at this point."
Her head fell and her hands loosened up and slid down to flop at her sides once more while Zeke still had his on her shoulders, hoping it brought some sort of comfort to her. Both were frozen in silence for a minute until Zeke finally decided to speak, leaning closer to whisper it in her ear.
"I'll make it happen," These words made her eyes light up with shock and glee and she turned her head back up once more with hope swelling within her. Priss had no reason to believe he really could get them in even the same vicinity, but she didn't want to think with facts and logic right now – she just wanted to believe.
"Thank you, Zeke," She replied, "I won't forget this."
Just then came a knock at the door, but the banging was accompanied by an unmistakable voice announcing her presence: Gabi. Priscilla's face lit up upon hearing Gabi shouting 'PRISSY! IT'S ME!' from the other side and dashed away from Zeke to go let her in. The Warchief zoned out, thinking about the gratitude she sincerely showed just now – he fell into such a deep focus on it that the rest of the noise around him to be muted. Any positive reaction she had towards him was something special at this point.
"Hey," The girl's voices in unison snapped Zeke out of his stupid crush-induced haze. Priss continued speaking on her own with a cheeky grin, "Would you scram? I've got a date with my favorite girl here."
The blunt and brash nature of how she asked him to leave was something of a relief – saying 'scram' was far more Priscilla than if she politely asked him to leave. Despite him being happy to snatch up her newly distributed crumbs of gratitude and niceness, this was close to a comforting return to normalcy.
"Ah yes, of course," Zeke nodded, "I'll come back later. You ladies enjoy yourselves."
As he made his exit, the girls followed him with their eyes until he was out the door and out of sight. Once he was gone, Gabi whipped her head back to look at Priss with an exaggerated frown on her face.
"I wanted to be your first visitor..." Gabi said sadly.
"Aw, I'm sorry Gabs," Priss apologized as she reached out and gave the young girl's head light pats and a rub, "I'll be sure to give him a talking to for ruining your fun."
Gabi beamed with joy as Priss kept patting her head lovingly, but the child was eager to get to the point of her visit, other than trying to claim the glory of being the first one to come by.
"I brought a surprise!" The child announced
Priss knelt down in front of Gabi, who started to rummage through the brown satchel she had at her side with the strap slung across her body, "Oh? What's that?" Priss wondered as she watched Gabi.
"You didn't have a name for the baby yet, so..." Gabi said as she produced a book from her bag, "So I found this to help!"
Priscilla's face instantly went sickly pale and her heart felt like it stopped for a second; Gabi was proudly holding up a baby name book in front of her with the same big smile painted on her face. Priss was beyond shaken by this innocent action from a kid who had no idea what had happened. Sweat started to bead on her face and her lips quivered as her brain tried to work out what to say. Gabi, not being stupid, noticed the long and uncomfortable silence that had fallen.
"Is something wrong?" The child asked, lowering the book.
"I, ah..." Priss choked, quickly standing up. She turned her back to Gabi and took a few steps away, "I-I don't need that."
"Huh?" Gabi jogged her way to Priss and got in front of her, "What do you mean? The baby needs a name, I thought maybe we could pick one out together."
Priscilla, again, turned away, "No, we don't have to do that now."
"Eh? But the baby needs a n-"
"Gabi!" Priss shouted, whipping herself back to facing the child. She was red in the face and her eyes were already watering. In her hysterics and the traumatic event being so recent, she couldn't help but brutally explode, "There is no baby anymore!"
Gabi jumped back, holding the book to her chest and shaking a bit. This was far from the reaction she expected; Gabi thought she was doing something good and helpful, bringing her something they could bond over together. The kid not knowing about the miscarriage, however, proved to be a fatal flaw – but how does one go about explaining the loss of a pregnancy to a 10 year old? Well, now there was no choice but for Priss to talk about it in some way, but she was in such grief that a calm talk about it was out of the question.
Tears formed in Gabi's eyes as well, "You're... you're lying!" The child exclaimed, "That's not possible, a baby can't just go away like that, s-so stop lying!"
"Gabi..." Priss murmured through a tightened jaw, looking down to the ground.
"Lying is bad, Prissy! Why are you lying to me?!"
"Gabi!" Priss full on shouted, and with no grace the most blunt explanation fell clumsily from her lips as her head snapped up to look down at the child, "Sometimes... babies die before they're born! They just do! And nobody knows why, but it just happens! I'm not lying, there is no more baby because he died..."
She was breathing heavily, her face was still flushed and the tears in her eyes had finally started to fall. Gabi was hurt and in disbelief over the news, she was also in shock over being yelled at by this person she had quickly grown attached to. The impact of the baby no longer being alive was made so much worse due to the fact that Priss just couldn't control herself due to her insane grief, she didn't even try to make an effort to lay it down calmly. Gabi was shaking and tiny tears started to stream down her cheeks too before she ran towards the front door, bursting into loud sobs as she threw the book to the floor, swung the door open and ran off without closing the door.
"Shit!" Priss cursed, "Gabi...!"
She smacked herself in the face and jogged out, making sure to close the door behind her and frantically looked around, but the kid surprisingly already was gone. The white haired girl panted in her frenzy as she tried to decide on a direction to search in; Priss didn't know the way to Gabi's house, which is where she figured the kid would run back to at a time like this.
"GABI!" Priss shouted, then took off running through the streets without knowing the best way to go, "GAAAABIIII! I'M SORRY!"
Between her continued crying, heavy breathing and wild shrieking for Gabi, she was quickly exhausting herself – but she didn't want to stop or take a break, finding the sweet girl who just wanted to help and apologize to her was too important, so she just tried to ignore the toll being taken on her body from exerting herself so hard. The sun was setting, but it was still too early for there to be a moonlit sky to give her a boost that would help her as she ran through the town.
The Eldians out and about on their own business looked her way with disdain, and Priss figured it was due to the commotion she was making, but the real reason people were giving her dirty looks was made more clear when she finally had to take a break. She nearly fell over forward, but caught herself by putting her hands on her thighs as she tried to catch her breath. There were murmurs surrounding her, so she looked towards where she heard the indistinguishable chatter. She saw two women nearby, they were looking at her, but not at her face. The two women looked back at each other, and Priss could see that one of them mouth 'should we report?'
Priscilla scrunched her face up in confusion, but looking at the women and their attire made her realize something. Her eyes darted towards her left arm, but she didn't need to see to what exactly she did to warrant the stares and whispers.
My armband! She thought, I forgot to put it on before I left the house... Shit!
She knew it was against the law to be out in public without her armband, but she was far from accustomed to wearing it, so it was no surprise that she forgot it in such a frantic moment. She didn't know what kind of punishment was in store for her if any of those people on the street chose to report her, but then, help ended up coming.
A hand on her arm gently guided her into standing upright.
"Hold still," Zeke said. He slid off his armband and quickly put it on her arm instead. Since she had the same status as an honorary Marleyan, they both would be wearing the red armbands, so there was no discrepancy there.
"Gabi, I yelled at her..." Priss breathed, "I have to find her..."
"I'm sure she's gone off back home, you can worry about that later," Zeke insisted, "We have to get you home and fetch your armband."
"I feel so stupid," Priss said angrily, "Forgetting my armband on top of yelling at the poor kid."
"Would it make you feel better if I brought you to him?" Zeke swiftly offered. Priscilla's head rose up to look at Zeke with wonder, "To see Reiner?"
"Wha... really?"
"I told you I'd make it happen," He replied, "We have to hurry back to your new home before going to HQ. Get your armband so I can take mine back."
In the most unexpected turn of events ever, Priss shifted and wrapped her arms around his left arm, clinging tightly and using her upper body to cover up where his armband would be in he were wearing it. Zeke was shocked at her sudden move into such a cozy position and stared down at her in disbelief.
"Don't know if this will help, but since you're covering for me, I'll return the favor..." Priss explained, then looked up at him to add in a snarky tone with her eyes narrowed, "Don't go getting any weird ideas. Just get moving."
Zeke silently nodded and the two of them casually started off towards her house, however, it was a bit hard for Zeke to not get 'any ideas' when his unrequited crush's tits were pressed up against his arm, but he just kept quiet and made an attempt to keep a low profile as they made their way through the streets, avoiding people if they could.
"Don't you ever get tired of running laps?" Reiner asked.
The sun had set on the training grounds and Reiner was carrying the limp body of Priss bridal-style towards the barracks. Whenever she got caught sharing his bed, Sadies punished her with laps for breaking the rules about a girl being in the boy's barracks. She didn't always get found out, but when she did then a whole lot of running was her punishment. Priscilla giggled and raised her head up.
"It doesn't bother me much," She assured him, "Not when I always have you to crawl next to in bed at the end of the day."
Reiner scoffed lightheartedly and grinned, "You'll never stop running laps then, Sadies doesn't respect a rebel without a cause."
"Without a cause?" Priss echoed, "Don't be silly, of course I have a cause."
"And what's that?" The blonde cocked his head to look at her with that grin still on his face while she smiled sincerely up at him and replied in a sultry whisper.
"Love, of course."
Reiner gasped and his face instantly turned beet red. He turned his head away from her sweet smiling face as a sweat drop rolled down from his temple.
"D-Don't say weird stuff like that..." He awkwardly stuttered out. Reiner heard her let out an even louder laugh while he had his head turned away. She sounded downright joyful over his bashful response and it got him wondering if she could see through his best attempts to deny his own feelings.
"Mmmm..." She hummed, lightly kicking her legs as she let her head fall backwards again, "Wanna hit the showers real quick? I know I could use one."
"Then a late dinner?"
"It'll put us back at the barracks while the rest of the boys are asleep, or they should be at least," Priss reasoned, "So less trouble for me sneaking in."
The showers were also separated for boys and girls, but since nobody was around, Priss did whatever the hell she wanted and chose the shower stall next to the one Reiner went into – which was totally expected of her. Ever since they made it to the military all those years ago, they had been inseparable; graduation was just on the horizon and Reiner was immensely concerned – he wanted Priss to graduate in the top 10 so she could join the Military Police, that way he knew she'd be safe for the rest of her life. However, they both knew she was at the bottom of the class, which meant she had no chance at a life of luxury and safety.
From the first day they enlisted, he asked what she wanted, and she mysteriously said something about "going outside" which meant she had her eyes on the Scouts. As much as Reiner tried to sway her towards aiming for the Military Police, she had her mind made up – that the outside world was a place she needed to go for some reason. Knowing she'd be going out into dangerous territory worried him, but it also made his decision about what division of the military he was going to join much easier.
His gaze drifted to the side where he caught her washing her hair vigorously with her eyes close and a goofy grin on her lips. The dividers between the shower stalls came up to about their shoulders since they were both so tall, between that and the steam of the hot water, it kept any naughty bits out of view.
If she's going to risk her life by joining the Scouts, Reiner thought as he kept his eyes locked on her, Then I'll follow and make sure she stays safe. I can't change her mind, but at least I can watch her back and protect her.
"Ohh, trying to sneak a peek, Reiner?"
In his trance of imagining life in the Scouts, he didn't realize that she had suddenly taken notice of his not-so-subtle, but also not at all lecherous, gaze. Again, his face went red, which it already was thanks to the hot water so his embarrassment wasn't quite so obvious.
"Of course not," He insisted, "What am I, some kind of pervert?"
"Mm that's true, I know you're no creep," She hummed, turning the water off and stepping out of the shower stall. She took the towel she had hung over the door and first started to dry her hair, followed by giving her wet body a rub down and then dropping the towel to the ground once she was sufficiently dry. She looked back over her shoulder towards him as she made her way over to the clothes she discarded with a sly smile, "I can't help but tease though."
"Boy do I know it..." Reiner agreed under his breath, keeping his eyes fixed forward in the shower while she got dressed, "Guess I'm just about finished here too."
"Ohh wait! Did you wash your hair?!" She asked, running up to the stalls again. She grabbed the shampoo from the one she was previously occupying and then dashed over to stand in front of the door to Reiner's stall, "Hold on, let me do it!"
Reiner had no idea why, but Priscilla really loved washing his hair for him whenever she got the chance. She squeezed the shampoo into her hands, stood on her toes and reached over to start lathering it into his beautiful blonde hair. Her slender fingers worked the suds around, making sure to get all of his hair washed up. The way she gently massaged his scalp as she went about her business with this was beyond soothing. If it weren't for her, he'd be a bit lax on giving his hair more than just a rinse that day, but the joy she seemed to take in washing it for him was something he couldn't bear to take away from her. Reiner could hear her humming some random melody, likely one she just made up on the spot, and despite him having his back to her as she worked, he somehow could sense she was smiling broadly.
"Go ahead and rinse," She instructed once she was satisfied with her soapy lathering.
Reiner gladly obliged, dunking his head back under the running water; he ran his hands through his short blonde hair to move the suds along, but eventually lowered his arms back down and let the water from the shower head finish the job on it's own.
What did I do? He asked himself internally To deserve this... to deserve her...
He slowly turned and saw her still standing there outside his stall; Reiner noticed the ends of her sleeves were wet from her washing his hair, but he knew she didn't mind – she cared not if her clothes got a bit damp in the pursuit of doing something nice for him, plus they'd be slipping into bed clothes soon anyway and she could hang her shirt off the edge of his top bunk bed. Seeing Priscilla's glowing aura had him torn between being uplifted by her loving spirit and being hard on himself for being a piece of shit, the reasoning as to why he was a piece of shit being unknown to her. For his crimes that affected her life back when he broke through the Wall, Reiner knew he didn't deserve the angel who was right there in front of him. To look upon her divinely beautiful face filled him with an unbearable longing but also a painful guilt.
"Ready?" She asked softly.
She backed away before turning around to allow him privacy as he himself got dressed. He went about it more like a normal person: he dried himself off, wrapped the towel around his waist, retrieved his clothing and then returned into the stall and closed the door to dress himself. It was common courtesy, and he followed that code even when it was just him and the one he painfully longed to call his lady. Priscilla, however, clearly had little care for the rules.
The two of them had their late dinner quickly at the mess hall and then made their way back to the barracks. It was dark, no lanterns on since the rest of the boys were asleep, so Reiner took his companion's hand and carefully lead her to his bunk. She went up first so she would be the one against the wall when they laid down and he followed. Before he even made his way up, she had shimmied out of her pants, revealing her white panties that seemed on the tight side. He too made a quick change of clothes into ones more comfortable to sleep in.
"Reeeeeeinerrr?" He heard her ask, "Your shiiiirt?"
Reiner quietly laughed to himself, "Of course, how could I forget?"
The muscular blonde grabbed the shirt he had been wearing during the day, a green one. He had specifically chosen to wear green since Priscilla's eyes were green, it acted as a subtle, unspoken tribute to his affection for her in a way only he knew. The pale girl took it and then adjusted so she had her back to him; Priss unbuttoned her wine red shirt and let it slide off her, and then her bra followed. The thought of her bare breasts being just out of sight left him understandably titillated, and it only spiked further when she twisted her upper half slightly to set her bra off to the side, which meant he got a side view cast in shadow.
Once she pulled his shirt on, she laid down next to him and cuddled up to him while he pulled his blanket over the two of them. Reiner was happy that they were like this, but he was also horny thanks to the temptress who had attached herself to him. He just had to hope Priss didn't end up realize it; he feared how she might react if one of them moved the wrong way and she felt his hardon. As much as he wanted to release all that pent up sexual tension between them, he knew he couldn't get away with it with her sleeping right next to him. So, he did the only thing he ever was able to do, just close his eyes and ignore it.
"Good night, Reiner," She soothingly whispered, "Sweet dreams."
"They'll only be sweet if I see you there."
He heard her let out her final, tired giggle for the night as she rested against him. The warmth of her body was intoxicating and he selfishly craved more of it, eventually reaching a point where he didn't care if she felt anything 'suspicious,' rolled onto his side and scooped her up in his arms to squeeze her tightly. She let out a shocked gasp at first at his sudden display of affection before she went ahead and brought her arms around him and tightened them too so they were left in an intimate embrace.
"No matter what," Reiner whispered in her ear, "I won't let you be alone. I'm gonna join the Scouts and we'll face the world together, I swear it."