The Beginning of Something Beautiful

It was a normal day for the Warriors in Training, with Porco and Marcel Galliard training with each other, wrestling around while occasionally hitting each other with a hard punch. Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover were running laps around their designated training area to train their stamina, Annie Leonheart was doing nothing of note aside from stomping on a nearby anthill, and Zeke Yeager was sitting on a nearby wall, watching the Warriors train. All the focus on training was cut short when the sound of shrill crying assaulted their ears, causing the Warriors to turn around, revealing a bruised and crying Pieck Finger.

"Pieck!? What happened!?" Marcel asked as he, Porco, and Bertholdt ran up to her.

"A couple of Marleyan boys beat me up by the bridge, and took my lunch," Pieck said in between hiccups and sobs, trying to wipe her tears away without wincing from the pain of the various bruises on her face. Porco looked furious when he saw Pieck's bruised and crying figure as Zeke came up to them with a first-aid kit. Porco's fist clenched as his teeth began gritting in absolute fury.

"Those pieces of shit Marleyans! They think they can just treat us like dirt as if our lives aren't hard enough!" Porco started ranting as Marcel patted Porco on the shoulder to calm her down as Bertholdt gave Pieck a tissue to help wipe away her tears. However, before Porco could attempt to calm down, Reiner decided to make his presence known just as Bertholdt has started putting bandages on some of Pieck's wounds.

"Are you sure you didn't provoke them somehow, Pieck? I mean, I don't think a Marleyan would attack us for no reason," Reiner asked causing Pieck to look up at him in shock before Porco marched up to Reiner with a look of fury on his face. Reiner looked as though he was waiting for an answer from Pieck before Porco grabbed Reiner by the collar and lifted him off of the ground.

"Shut the fuck up Reiner! No one asked you for your fucking bootlicker opinion!" Porco screamed in his face before pushing him down to the ground as hard as he could. Reiner always irritated Porco, with the way he would always go through these mental gymnastics to defend the way the Eldians were treated by the Marleyan dictatorship. Porco wouldn't have even been so annoyed if Reiner was actually useful in battle like the rest of the Warriors, but Reiner was, in his eyes, a pussy that tried to get out of fights as much as he could, and even when ordered to do combat training, was as useless in a fight as a one-legged man. And hearing Reiner try and imply that it was somehow Pieck's fault that she got attacked made his blood boil.

"No…No! I didn't mean it like that," Reiner tried to defend before Porco stomped on Reiner's chest a couple of times, causing Bertholdt to come up and grab Porco from behind. Given Porco's opinions on Reiner and confrontational personality, everyone in the Warrior program knew that if Porco and Reiner weren't separated, a beatdown was going to happen, and Reiner was going to end up in similar shape to Pieck.

"Yes you did, you bootlicking piece of shit!" Porco yelled back at Reiner as Bertholdt dragged Porco back slightly before Zeke patted Porco on the head.

"Come on Porco, calm down. You're scaring Pieck even more," Zeke said, pointing to Pieck, who had begun crying again while hiding her face with her hands. Porco looked at Pieck with sympathy before taking several deep breaths to calm down before shooting Reiner one last hate-filled glare. Bertholdt, sensing that Reiner was no longer in any physical danger, released Porco, who simply nodded thanks at Bertholdt before walking over to a still crying Pieck. Porco patted Pieck on the top of the head, causing Pieck to stop crying and look up at Porco. Pieck stared at Porco before he turned around and faced the rest of the Warrior candidates, including a staggering Reiner.

"I'll be right back."

"Wait, where are you going Porco?"

"I'm going to get Pieck's stuff back, what else?" Marcel grabbed Porco by the arm and tried to pull him away from the exit of the training station.

"Porco, please just calm down about this. This isn't going to solve anything, we'd be better off just-" Marcel tried to explain in an attempt to calm Porco down, but Porco responded by swiping his arm away from his older brother.

"And what good will just sitting around and taking it up the ass like that little bitch Reiner going to do!? We should be able to stand up to ourselves once in a while from bullshit like this! I mean, what the hell did someone sweet and innocent like Pieck ever do to deserve getting the shit kicked out of her!?"

"Well nothing, but just going to beat up these guys is just going to make the problem worse," Marcel countered.

"Well you all can stay here and do nothing about it, but I'm going to get Pieck's stuff back and show those guys that there are some Eldians that aren't just going to lie down and take it!" Porco exclaimed as he stomped away from the trainees. Pieck grabbed onto Porco's sleeve, causing Porco to stop in his tracks and look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Porco, it's OK. I don't want to see you getting hurt. Please just stay here and forget about it," Pieck said, still hiccupping from her crying. Porco sighed and patted her on her hair once again before walking away. Pieck, Zeke, and the other Warriors looked at Porco's disappearing frame in shock before Annie looked up for the first time since this whole fracas started.

"Well, he's dead," Annie mumbled before going back to squishing her anthill.

At the Bridge…

It was a short couple of minutes walk to the bridge, and when Porco got there, he saw two boys without Eldian armbands laughing and lounging around the bridge. Upon closer inspection, Porco noticed that they had a brown lunch bag with the word 'Pieck' scribbled in black marker. Knowing that he had found his targets, Porco glared at the two boys and marched up to them.

"Hey losers!" The two boys looked up in surprise as they saw Porco marching up to them.

"Wow, it must be our lucky day, Johann. Another Eldian scum for us to beat up," one of the boys with short brown hair said as he got back to his feet, and walked up to Porco. The long-haired brown boy, who Porco now knew as Johann, stood up and followed his friend to confront Porco.

"Man, these guys must love getting their asses kicked or something, Günter," Johann responded. Porco didn't back down and continued to give his two adversaries steely glares while briefly gazing at Pieck's lunch bag.

"One of my friends in the Warrior program told me that two Marleyan assholes took her lunch and beat her up. I'm assuming that's you two."

"Well, no shit. What, you Eldians think that you should get some sort of special treatment because you joined the Warrior Program?" Günter asked as he pushed Porco, causing him to stagger back.

"Yeah, you guys are just trying to solve a problem you caused for brownie points. My Dad said so!" Johann agreed as Porco responded by pushing Günter with enough force to send him falling on his ass. Johann attempted to punch Porco, but Porco blocked the punch and kicked Johann in the gut before sending him falling down to the ground with a Snapmare Takedown before kicking him in the back.

"Tell your Dad he's as big a loser as you two. Now, are you going to give Pieck her lunch back or not?" Porco asked as Günter and Johann looked at each other, nodded, and got back up to their feet, attempting to run at Porco. Porco chuckled to himself before dodging Johann and punching Günter in the face while he was mid-tackle. Johann attempted to grab Porco from behind, but Porco hit him with a Mule Kick to the groin before leveling him with an uppercut to the chin. Before Günter could escape, Porco grabbed Günter by the leg and put him in an Ankle Lock.

"OK, so I'm gonna ask again! Are you going to give Pieck her lunch back or not!?" Porco asked as he started turning Günter's ankle into an unnatural position, eliciting a shout from him.

"OK! OK! You win! Just…take the damn thing and get lost!" Günter yelled. Porco, true to his word, immediately let go and grabbed Pieck's lunch. Porco looked into the lunch bag and noticed that nothing was missing from the bag. Porco turned to leave but gave one last glare to Günter and Johann while Gunter was trying to pick his best friend off of the ground.

"Now, as much fun as it was beating you two racists up, I'm going to warn you right now; if Pieck tells me that she gets attacked by you two again or if you so much as look at her the wrong way, I'm not going to let go and break something. Hell, maybe I'll throw you off the bridge just to get the point across. Are we clear?" Porco asked. Günter responded with a quick and fearful nod before running away, dragging Johann with him. Porco nodded before walking back to the Warrior Training Area with Pieck's lunch bag clutched firmly in his right hand.

Back at the Warrior Training Area…

"Woah, you actually came back," Annie said with fake interest as she continued to squash another anthill. Porco rolled his eyes at her and flipped her off before the rest of the Warriors came to greet Porco, including Pieck, who was covered in bandages and gauze and had dried tears all over her cheeks.

"Are you alright Porco?"

"What the hell were you thinking!?"

"I hope you didn't hurt those guys too bad, Galliard."

"I'm fine Bertholdt, I was thinking of defending Pieck's honor Marcel, and jump off a bridge Reiner," Porco responded to everyone as he walked away from the group before walking over to Pieck, who was sitting by herself on a broken piece of wall. Seeing Pieck downtrodden with multiple bandages all over her face and legs made Porco want to go back to the bridge and beat those two idiots up even more, but those thoughts left his mind when he saw Pieck look up at him.

"Pieck! I got your lunch back from those two morons!" Porco exclaimed as he ran over to her, handing Pieck the punch bag. When Pieck looked into the lunch bag, she found that everything was in order and that Porco had gotten to the culprits before they could take anything. Pieck smiled at Porco before taking a banana out of the lunch bag and began opening it.

"Thank you, Porco," Pieck mumbled as she appeared to have some trouble opening the banana. Porco responded with a nod before taking the banana and opening it for Pieck, who responded to his help with a smile and a light blush on her cheeks. Porco then jogged over to his locker, grabbed his lunch, and ran back to sit next to Pieck, who smiled at her guest for lunch. Zeke shook his head with a smile before turning to the rest of the Warrior candidates and backing them away so that he could give Porco and Pieck some space.

Later in the Night…

"Man, what a day," Marcel mumbled as he stretched his arms, the rigorous training that the Warrior Candidates would go through daily making its presence felt just as their training had come to an end. Marcel, Porco, Pieck, and Reiner were walking together back to their homes. Porco was not happy about walking with Reiner and insisted that he, Pieck, and Marcel leave him behind. Pieck, however, was able to convince Porco to let Reiner come with them, but Porco was quickly regretting that decision as Reiner responded to Marcel.

"It was hard, but it's gonna be so worth it when we all become Marleyans," Reiner responded. Marcel couldn't help but chuckle at Reiner's innocence, but Porco didn't find it amusing and just growled at him. Porco was about to insult Reiner but stopped when he felt himself being pushed by his side. When Porco turned to confront the assailant, he found out that it was only Pieck, holding onto his side, burying her face into his shirt.

"P-P-P-Pieck! What…what the hell are you doing!?" a now blushing Porco yelled out as Pieck tilted her head up slightly as she tightened her grip on Porco. Marcel and Reiner had stopped, turning to face Porco so that they could see and hear what was going on.

"We're getting close to the bridge, and…I'm still a little scared," Pieck mumbled, looking away from her friends as she was also scared they were going to make fun of her. Instead, Porco robotically started patting Pieck on the head, not exactly sure what he was supposed to do in this situation.

"I don't know why you're scared, those guys aren't going to mess with you if I have anything to say about it."

"I know, but…I'm still scared something like that's gonna happen again, so…can you please just let me stay close? At least until we leave the bridge," Pieck asked. Porco didn't know what to say, but he knew he couldn't say 'no' as Pieck was looking at him with puppy dog eyes with tears beginning to pool in the corner of her eyes. Marcel and Reiner looked on, wondering how Porco was going to respond and were shocked when Porco grabbed a firm but gentle hold of Pieck's hand. Pieck looked up at Porco with sparkles in her wet eyes, but couldn't see his face as Porco had turned his head away from Pieck so that she couldn't see the blush that was covering not only his cheeks but pretty much his entire face.

"Thank you, Porco," Pieck mumbled before leaning the side of her head onto Porco's shoulder. Marcel nearly burst out laughing when he saw Porco's face glow like a Christmas light.

"N…no problem Pieck," was all Porco could mumble. Porco knew that if he said any more, his voice would crack and it would be embarrassing as hell. However, Reiner didn't have the same knowledge of social cues as Marcel had and chimed in once again.

"Hey Porco, why's your face glowing like that? And why are you looking at the side of the bridge?" Reiner asked innocently, causing Marcel to finally burst out laughing, further confusing Reiner. Porco immediately stopped walking and glared a hole through Reiner with Pieck looking up at Porco, wondering why he stopped.

"FUCK YOU REINER! MIND YOUR OWN GODDAMN BUSINESS!" Porco screamed at the top of his lungs, causing Pieck to jump slightly. Porco took quick note of this and started rubbing her hand with his thumb out of instinct to calm her down. It worked like a charm as just as Reiner was sure Porco wasn't going to beat him up again, Marcel stopped laughing, took several deep breaths, and patted Porco on the head.

"Don't worry Reiner, I'll tell you later when Porco's not around," Marcel said with a joking smirk as Reiner smiled at the opportunity to learn something new.

"The fuck you are! You're not telling that loser anything, Marcel!" Porco yelled at his brother. This went on for another five minutes before Pieck finally reminded the trio that their parents were probably worried about them and that they should get going. Despite Porco's embarrassment of this entire situation, he agreed as everyone started walking over the bridge, with Pieck and Porco's hands remaining intertwined well after they crossed the bridge and their hands stayed that way until they made it home.

Little did Porco and Pieck know at the time, but this was the beginning of something truly beautiful.