After one year into training, we all had improved and learned a lot. Constantly training with Mikasa caused my fighting skills to improve dramatically. When I did spare with other people, I was amazed at easy I bet most people. Of course, I still had a long way to go if I ever wanted to be as good as Mikasa. I knew it would never happen, but I still set her as a goal.
Using 3DMG was also a lot easier than before. Gliding through trees and flipping over and under branches became like second nature. We still weren't even halfway through training though, so accidents still happen. One evening, on one of the first days we used titan dummies to practice our slices, I was involved in such an accident.
I had already found and cut through three fake titan necks. The goal was to cut at least five before our twenty-minute window was up. I found a fourth fake titan, one that hadn't been touched yet. "Yes!" I cried and prepared myself to make the slice. Just before I flew over the neck, something large and hard slammed into me from the side. The force sent me flying the perpendicular from my original path and dislodged my anchors from the nearby trees. The anchors and wires tried to recoil, but instead wrapped around me and the person who had ran into me. From what I can tell, the other person's wires had done the same thing. We hit the ground hard, wrapped together like a burrito. Thankfully the fake titan we had been going for wasn't that tall so the fall didn't hurt too bad.
"Oh damn, I'm so sorry Alex, I thought I could make it."
I looked up and saw the person I was trapped with was Reiner Braun. I tried my hardest not to blush. Ever since I first met the guy, I tried to push down my crush and not be obvious around him. Generally, the more I got to know and like him, the less I blushed because I got more comfortable with him, but this situation was particularly embarrassing.
"What, exactly, were you trying to do Reiner?"
When I looked back up at him, I saw he was blushing too, "Well, I saw that fake titan and saw you were already going for it, but I thought it could beat you to making the first cut, so I was racing you there."
"Racing me?" I said incredulously. "I didn't even see you."
"It was a still a race," he countered.
"Well then, we both lost terribly," I said, looking up to see other cadets finding the fake titan and slicing through the neck, and laughing when they also found us laying stuck below it. "Why would you try to beat me to it, anyway? This drill is just about who can make as many cuts the fastest, not who cuts them first?"
He gulped, "Uh, bragging rights?"
I rolled my eyes and heard out names being called from above. It was Connie and Sasha.
"Alex, you're supposed to find titans, not a man!"
"Woot, woot, get it Reiner!"
We both blushed again, and I yelled back, "Haha, very funny. Mind cutting us loose?"
"Nah!" they both yelled before speeding off to find the next wooden titan.
"Those little shits," I said, "I'm going to go get them as soon as I'm free."
"Are you really in that much of a rush to get rid of me?" he asked with one sided grin.
I smirked back and said, "I'm in a rush to keep these wires from cutting into my arms and legs anymore."
"Arlert, Braun! What do you think you're doing?" I could the horse gallop up behind me, but I couldn't turn my head to look at Commander Shadis.
"We're had an accident with the equipment, sir," answered Reiner.
"I can see that, Braun, I want to know what happened."
"I was headed for the fake titan above us, sir, when Reiner came and thought he could beat me to it. He ran into me from the other direction," Reiner didn't look pleased with me throwing him under the wheels.
"I see. The both of you can run five laps around the perimeter when we get back to headquarters, and when you're done with dinner you can use your evening hours to rewire your equipment. Braun for being arrogant, and Arlert for being unobservant."
He cut us free and we both stood and saluted him, "Yes sir! Thank you, sir!"
He got back on his horse and said, "If you start walking now, you can make it back to headquarters the same time as the rest of us."
We started walking back towards the direction of the training camp while Shadis got back on is horse and galloped away.
"Unobservant," I muttered under my breath while rolling my eyes.
"You did fail to notice me coming at you from your peripheral," he said.
I frowned. It was true, but I had never been called unobservant before. It was just one more thing I had to work on.
"Yeah," I said, "and it's amazing I didn't. You think one would notice a giant ox coming flying at them from the side."
He laughed and said, "How unoriginal. Connie and Jean have called me that a million times already, pipsqueak."
"Okay. How about… humongous pain in my ass?" I smiled up at him to show I was joking with him and he grinned back.
"That's a little better, but unfortunately, I've heard that before, too."
"Damn. You're going to have do better too, you know. Pipsqueak is very cliché," I teased.
"You'll have to give me time to think of a good one," he said, smirking.
We walked back to headquarters and did our laps while bantering and laughing.
"Wait, so what's the system they came up with? Like how do they tell what means what?" I laughed. We were talking so much it was taking us twice as long to run our laps.
"Well, when Bertholdt's hands are above his hands it means it might rain, if his hands by his side then it'll snow, and if his arms are across his body then it'll be dry. If his legs are spread, then it'll thunder, and if they're up in the air then it means hail. There's more signs that they have meanings for, but I don't remember them all."
"Up in the air?" I scoffed. "No way he's actually slept with his legs in the air. You're exaggerating."
"I am not. He's sleeps like maniac and he has since we were kids."
"Who shares the bed with him?" I giggled though I was sure already knew.
"Me," he deadpanned. "But it's not that bad. I've woken up with him on top of me before, but I'm a heavy sleeper anyway."
I laughed so hard I had to stop running, and Reiner slowed down to wait on me. "Come on, shrimp. I don't want your slow, short legs to make me miss dinner."
"These short legs outrun your titan legs everyday during training, so don't get snippy with me," I shot back with a smirk.
The smile on Reiner's face fell and stared at me shocked. I frowned back at him, "What's wrong?"
"N-nothing. Sorry."
We only had half a lap left after that and Reiner didn't talk to me again until we were done. "I'll meet you in the equipment storage room after the bell to rewire the gear."
"See you then!" I called, but he was already walking away.
I huffed and followed him to the mess hall. When I had gotten there, he had already taken his place next to Bertholdt at a table full of boys and I started to walk towards the table with Sasha, Ymir, Christa, and Mina but I when I got closer I noticed them all waiting for me with smirks. I turned around and sat next to my brother across from Mikasa and Eren.
"So how did the rest of 3DMG training go?" I asked while I started to tuck into my meal.
"What? Weren't you there?" said Eren.
Mikasa saved me from answering, "Her and Reiner got in an accident with the gear and had to walk back."
"How did that happen?" asked Armin. "I saw the two of you stuck on the forest floor together."
I gave him a fake angry scowl, "You mean you saw your own sister unable to move on the ground and you didn't stop to free her?"
"W-well," he gulped, not noticing that I wasn't actually angry, "It's not you were actually in trouble. And the time was almost up and I had only gotten three titans…."
"Not like you wanted to be free from Reiner anyway," muttered Mikasa.
I choked, and so did Armin and Eren.
"Excuse me?" exclaimed Armin, "Alex doesn't think like that, right Alex?"
My face was so red I didn't even try to answer him, I just hid my face in my hands.
"No," said Eren. "You're not allowed to talk to boys. You either Mikasa."
Mikasa's cheeks turned pink, but Eren didn't notice. Instead he just kept glaring at me.
"Who are you to tell me what to do? Both of you?" I countered, looking both Eren and Armin in the eyes.
"I'm your brother!" said Armin.
"Right," nodded Eren, "and the four of us have been through hell together, so I'd like to think I count as your brother now, too. And as your brothers, who know how the other boys think, we say you're not allowed to flirt with them."
I didn't know whether to be touched or angry. Eren had never said he'd considered me as a sister before. Mikasa picked up the argument for me, though. "Brothers or not, you can't tell her what to do. Or me."
Armin broke in, "We just don't want either of you to get hurt. Like, Eren said, we know how the other guys think. Reiner doesn't talk about the girls with the other guys, does he Eren?"
Eren shrugged, "I can't recall. But I guess if it was anyone, Reiner wouldn't be that bad…"
I rolled my eyes, "Don't worry about it. My flirting didn't go over so well, anyway. He was cold to me for the last lap."
"That doesn't sound like Reiner," said Mikasa.
"What did you say?" asked Eren.
I put my head in my hand again. I sat with them for the purpose of avoiding this conversation. "Well, we were making fun of our height difference. You know, he was making fun of my short legs while we were running our laps, and so I said that my short legs could run faster than his titan legs, and then he stopped talking after that."
Armin sighed, "Alex, don't you remember where Reiner and Bertholdt came from? Their village was in the mountains in Wall Maria. They had even less warning about the titans than we did."
Eren nodded, "They never opened up like we did about what exactly happened before they escaped. So, they probably things worse than what we did. Even hearing about the titans could still give them flashbacks."
"I still get flashbacks," murmured Mikasa, and Eren put a hand on her shoulder.
"Oh my god," I said, mouth open in horror. "I can't believe I didn't realize that. How could I be so insensitive?"
Eren shrugged, "Reiner's not the type to hold grudges. He probably didn't say anything because he didn't want to admit it made him upset. I'm sure if you apologize it'll be fine."
I nodded, and then narrowed my eyes at him, "You were just complaining about me talking to boys, and now you're helping me talk to a boy?"
"Reiner's one of my best friends. If you're going to flirt with boys, I'd rather it be one I trust."
"It definitely could be someone worse," said Armin. "You should hear what Daz says about all of you at night. Actually, no, you shouldn't."
"Do the two of you talk about girls with them?" I asked, curious.
"Well, I don't mind saying if I think someone's pretty," said Armin. "But having a sister, two sisters really, makes me not like the way they talk about girls' bodies. Especially since the two of you are a part of the main girls they talk about."
"Really?" I said, looking at Mikasa, who also looked surprised. I wasn't surprised that the boy talked about Mikasa, she was gorgeous, but me?
"Yes," scowled Eren. "It's disgusting. I got into with Jean one time about it. Reiner was actually the one who broke that fight up."
I didn't have to guess which one of us Jean was talking about. It was no secret he liked Mikasa. I thought it was terribly sweet that Eren stood up for her when she wasn't even there. Based off the pink tinge of her cheeks, I could tell Mikasa realized this too. Eren was an angry little shit, but you couldn't say he wasn't a loyal friend.
"Well, I'm supposed to meet him in the supply room to rewire our gear after dinner, so I'll apologize to him then."
They all nodded and smiled. As much as I loved my new friends here, spending time with my three childhood friends was something I could never have enough of you. Then I remembered what I had originally wanted to talk about, "None of you ever told me what you did for the rest of training."
"Oh, right!" exclaimed Armin and then went on to explain in detail the rest of the drills and what skill sets they were supposed to target.
After the bell rang, I left the mess hall and went to supply room to find Reiner already inside working on his gear.
"Hey," I said as I entered. "How was your dinner?"
"Bland as always," he answered.
I shrugged, "I guess that's expected when you're getting three free meals a day."
He nodded and I pulled up a stool to sit across from him while I worked. As I started, I said, "I'm sorry."
He looked up at me finally, and gave me a confused look, "For what? I'm the reason we have to do this."
"No," I shook my head. "I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I was being insensitive. I never had to face the titan head on like you, Bertholdt, Eren, and Mikasa. And, in times like this, it's easy to let yourself forget how terrible they are. Especially when you want to."
His eyes widened and he sat still for a few seconds, just staring at me.
"Reiner? Are you okay?" I reached out and put my hand on his, and thought, whoa, he really did have it worse than Eren and Mikasa three years ago.
The weird look left his face and he nodded, "Yeah. You're right, it is easy to forget, especially when you want to."
"You know you can tell me anything, right Reiner? I'd never judge you or think less of you," I was hinting at him telling me about what happened at his hometown, but he shook his head vigorously and changed the subject.
"I bet I can get this done faster than you," he gave me a devilish grin that made me melt and forgive him for changing the subject so abruptly.
"What are we betting?" I smirked.
"Whoever loses has to say 'fuck you' to Commander Shadis' face tomorrow."
"What? But that's suicide! Haven't you ever gotten a headbutt from him before?" I yelled.
"No," he smirked.
"Well you're about to when you have to say that to him tomorrow," I said, and then went to work as quickly as possible.
"Hey, wait, no fair!" he picked up his gear from where he had sat it down on the ground during our talk and tried to get back started as quick as me.
"You had a head start on me anyway," I laughed. There was a lot of things Reiner was better than me at. He was better than me at 3DMG, he was stronger than me, and even though I had said I was faster than him earlier, I could barely keep my place next to Mikasa at the front of the pack during runs. If Reiner tried hard he probably could outrun me. But he wasn't smarter than me, and my better knowledge of mechanics allowed me to work faster with fewer errors. Even with Reiner starting before I got back from dinner, I beat him.
"Damnit," he cursed when I stood up and started to put away my tools and out away my gear.
"You're the one who suggested a bet, Reiner. You shouldn't bet when you can't win," I teased.
"I'll get you next time," he promised and I laughed.
"Only if you survive Shadis first."
We walked together back to the barracks and parted ways to walk to our respective buildings when we got just in front of them.
"Goodnight, Reiner. See you tomorrow."
As I turned to head the to the girls' building I felt him touch my shoulder and say, "Wait."
I turned to face him and met his eyes, "Yes?"
He opened his mouth and closed it twice before saying, "Nothing, sorry. Have a good night."
He turned abruptly and walked towards the boys' building. I wasn't sure what that was about, but didn't have much time to ponder it when I got inside.
Sasha, Ymir, Christa, and Mina were waiting for me just inside the door, and when I walked in many of the other girls turned to look at me as well.
"So how was your evening with Reiner, Alex?" smirked Mina.
A few "Oooo's" were heard around the room. I rolled my eyes and tried to play it off cool, but I could feel the heat on my face betraying me.
"We just ran laps and fixed our gear together. No big deal."
"Oh?" said Ymir. "And what about the part where you were pushed against his body on the ground? Was that a big deal?"
My face got even more red and the girls around the room were laughing. One of the girls that Mikasa was sitting with across the room called out, "I saw you running with him, Arlelt. You were flirting so bad that I think even the birds noticed."
"And Reiner was flirting back," said Sasha, wiggling her eyebrows.
I decided to ignore them and made my way to mine and Mikasa's bed so I could change. Mikasa walked over to sit on the bed and Sasha, Mina, Christa, and Ymir followed me and sat with her while I changed.
"Come on, Alex," whined Christa. "Surely there's something interesting to tell us. We all know you like him."
"Well," I said. "You're all going to get to see him make a fool of himself tomorrow."
"What?" said Mina. "How?"
"He lost a bet," I smiled. "You'll see."
"I saw you checking him out while you were running, too," said Ymir. "You were running slightly behind him the whole time, on purpose."
"Well, what can I say? His ass is thick as hell."
Before I could respond, a voice called out to me from the next bed over. "You're pathetic, you know?"
I looked over to see Annie laying on her bed. I hadn't even noticed her before, but I walked over to stand next to her while the girls watched.
"What makes you think that, Annie?" I said, keeping my smile up as best I could.
"We're here to learn how to fight, not flirt with boys. Weren't you there at Shiganshina? I thought you said you saw the Armored and Colossal titans? How can you justify sitting here flirting with unimportant people when there were probably people who died for someone as pathetic as you to live?" she sat up and scowled at me.
"Yeah, you're right," I said, thinking again of that soldier who stopped to talk to me. "There were people who died for me to live."
"Then how can just waste your time like this? People died for you and you're here making friends and talking about boys and hair. How can you-"
I cut her off. "There were people who died for me to live, Annie. Not just survive, but live. I'm here to honor their sacrifice, but I want to live my life, too. We spend all day training and working to get better, what's wrong with setting aside our evening time to relax? If we all just went through cycles of dying for each other, what would be the point? If I had given my life for someone else to escape the titans, I wouldn't want that person to work themselves to death. I'd want them to enjoy the life that I sacrificed myself for."
She stared at me with an amazed expression, and I kept going, "You do know the difference between surviving and living, don't you Annie? I survived the titan attack, but if I do nothing but train and sit off quietly to the side, then why would I have survived? That would mean that those people gave their lives just for me to grow up and do what they did anyway. If I think talking about boys and hair, and Reiner Braun's ass makes my life worth living, then what's the harm in that?"
She scowled at me again, "I know the difference between surviving and living."
"Then come on, sit with us. Talk with us and be our friend. Being happy is important too, Annie."
She looked at me for a second longer before saying, "Maybe later," and laying back down to face the wall.
I shrugged and walked back to Mikasa and the rest still sitting on our bed.
"That was a very inspiring speech," said Christa.
"Almost a little too serious for me," yawned Ymir, who looked unimpressed.
"I think it's a good step in the right direction for her, though," I said. "She's going to open up to us soon."
"You're still on that?" laughed Mina. "That's not going to happen."
I threw my pillow at her and said, "Just wait. You'll see."
A/N: So I'm not sure how apparent I made it, but Reiner's hot and cold reactions to Alex is supposed to be his split personality disorder. I'd imagine that would've showed about a half or year or so into their time in the Cadet Corps, which would be around the time he truly realized that the people of Paradis aren't demons.
