Eren, Armin, Mikasa and I walked down the streets of Trost, trying to remember the exact location of the orphanage where Isabelle lived. None of us were quite sure of which street the orphanage had been one, and none of us were familiar enough with the city to navigate it ourselves. After getting directions, and taking several wrong turns, we found the right building.

I stepped up and knocked on the front door and was greeted by an older lady whose name I did not remember, but somehow, she remembered us. She didn't remember our names, but she did remember us as the young teenagers who had visited two years before to see Isabelle, and were about to join the Cadet Corps. We reintroduced ourselves as she brought us inside and back to the same common room we had sat in before and ate tea and cookies. The woman's name was Mrs. Harry, short for Harriet, and in the common room we reintroduced ourselves to another woman named Mrs. Jones.

Mrs. Harry offered us tea and cookies again while Mrs. Jones offered to go get Isabelle, saying as she went out, "I think she was playing in the garden.

We refused the cookies, but accepted the cups of tea while Mikasa asked, "You have a garden here?"

Mrs. Harry nodded, "Oh yes, you probably didn't see it last time, but we are lucky enough to have secured a space for a backyard for the children behind the building. We allow the older children to wonder around the city more freely, but we like to keep the younger ones closer. We try to have days where take them around the city and out of the walls."

Mrs. Harry didn't seem quite as exhausted as she had been the last time we had visited, but I guessed from the way she spoke that the orphanage was still very full.

"How has Isabelle been, though?" Armin asked, and Mrs. Harry smiled.

"She's fine, still as polite and a delight as ever. She's started to learn how to read recently, and she's progressing well."

As she finished her sentence, a little blonde head with wide, curious green eyes, followed by Mrs. Jones, who said, "Isabelle, you probably don't remember these young ladies and gentlemen, do you?"

She shook her head while she followed Mrs. Jones around the corner and sat down in a chair across from the sofa the four of us were seated on. I took the lead in telling her who we were.

"My name is Alex Arlert, and this is my brother Armin Arlert, and our friends Mikasa Ackerman and Eren Yeager. We're cadets in the 104th training squad."

"I'm Isabelle, just Isabelle," she responded. "Why did you visit me for?"

"Isabelle!" Mrs. Jones whispered in a scolding tone.

"I'm just curious!" she exclaimed, defending her bluntness. "I've never met them, and I've never had visitors before."

"That's not true," I interrupted. "We've visited you before a few years ago, and we met you before that."

"We're from the same hometown," explained Eren.

Isabelle tilted her head a little before asking, "I thought I was from the place that got taken over by titans?"

Armin nodded, "You are. That's why we're visiting today. Alex was the one who helped you escape the titans. She found you as a baby and carried you to Wall Rose."

"What about my parents?" she asked, looking at me.

I hesitated, and Mikasa answered for me, "It was too late for them."

I cleared my throat, and said, "We're not here visiting you to tell you about all that, though. We're here to see you! I brought you here, and I'd feel bad if I didn't check on you."

She looked surprise, and all that came out of her mouth was, "Oh."

"You look happy. Are you friends with a lot of the other kids here?"

"I'm friends with most the girls in my group," she smiled, "except for Sally and Hestia. They're really mean."

I assumed by 'group' she meant age group, and laughed, "How are they mean?"

"They make fun of everyone else, and say they're the prettiest and the smartest, but that's not true. Jasmine is smarter than both of them, and Sally isn't even pretty."

"Really?" I asked with a smile. She was adorable, and the way she rambled was charming in a way that only a child could be.

"Yes!" she nodded. "And Hestia pulls my hair all the time. She's says its's because she doesn't like my hair, but I really think she's jealous of my hair."

Eren, who had been looking sort of bored at her talk about the other girls, said, "You know what you should do about that? You need to pull the girl's hair back, or just hit her good and hard. That'll make them shut up, too."

"Eren!" Armin and I hissed in unison, in the same scolding tone Mrs. Jones had used for Isabelle.

"I've tried that," Isabelle sighed. "It just made Mrs. Harry really mad."

Mrs. Harry had moved to the next room beyond the common room, but had left the door, and from what I could tell it was some sort of office. She could still here our conversation and added, "I'll be mad if you try it again, too!"

"Mrs. Harry said they have a garden here. Do you like playing in it?" Mikasa spoke up.

Isabelle looked at her, smiling wide and nodding, "I help take of the flowers and vegetables, too!"

"Can we see it?" asked Mikasa, and Mrs. Jones, who had stayed in the room with us, stood up and nodded.

"Follow me."

We all got up and followed Mrs. Jones and Isabelle through the house, past what looked like a kitchen and large dining room, and to the back door. The backyard was a good size for young children, and the left side was open to make room for kids to run around a play games, and the right side of the yard there was a garden, two benches, and a sandbox. In the far-left corner of the yard was a tree just big enough to hand a wooden swing from. A small herd of children Isabelle's age or younger were currently running around it, making the yard look impossibly busy. Some children were kicking around a ball, some of the younger kids were playing with wooden toys in the sand box, and some of them seemed to be playing a game of tag. The chaos of it all was overwhelming.

Isabelle was unaffected by all the kids, and we allowed her to lead us to the garden, where she took her time naming each type of plant, and what she liked and disliked about all of them. Eren wasn't very interested, but still acted like he was and stayed patient. Armin and I smiled and nodded, happy to encourage her rambling, and Mikasa looked genuinely interested in the garden. After a while, Armin announced, much to Eren's delight, that we had to go soon to make it back to the HQ for dinner.

"Will you come visit me again?" asked Isabelle as we headed back to the door that exited the yard.

I smiled and promised, "Next time we're in Trost!"

We left after thanking Mrs. Harry and Mrs. Jones, and after we got a few paces down the street from the orphanage, Eren turned to me and said, "That kid is just like you."

"What do you mean?"

"She talked for an hour straight."

"It was not that long!"

"It was that long," corrected Armin.

I rolled my eyes, and said, "But I don't talk that much!"

"You do talk that much," Armin corrected.

I huffed, and Eren added, "She has the same attitude as you, too."

I heard Mikasa laugh on the other side of Eren and Armin, and I bit my tongue to keep from proving Eren right.

When we got back from our visit, dinner had already started. I worried that we might be in trouble for showing up late, but no one said anything to us. After getting our plates, I could see Reiner waving at me to come sit with him at a table with Connie and Bert, and I motioned Eren, Mikasa, and Armin to come with me.

As we sat down, Connie asked, "Where have the four of you been? No one seen you since lunch."

"We went out to visit the orphanage here in town," explained Eren before starting to stuff his face with the bread.

"An orphanage?" Reiner repeated, looking down at me.

I nodded, "I didn't tell you about that?"

He shook his head, and Bert asked, "Why an orphanage?"

"We were visiting a girl that Alex saved four years ago when Maria fell. She was too young to stay with us, so she ended up going to an orphanage here in Trost," Armin explained.

"You saved a girl?" Connie turned to me, and Reiner and Bert looked back at me.

"I just carried her with us when Armin and I ran away from the Titans," I said. "We ran right passed her."

Armin shook his head, "The girl's parents were crushed by a rock from the gate that had been kicked in. By some miracle, she wasn't killed with them, but we didn't run right passed her. Alex changed routes because she could hear the mother crying, and wanted to help."

"That's… That's brave, Alex," said Bert softly.

"She was in an alley just off the main street. It's not like I ran back towards the titans to get her," I said, nudging Armin. I was getting a little embarrassed.

"Stopping at all while running from titans is brave," Reiner commented, looking at his hands. It was then I remembered the story Reiner once told me about his friend who had been ate by a titan while he, Bert, and Annie ran away, and I realized why Reiner and Bert looked so guilty. I wasn't sure of what to say, or if he would want me to say anything, so I settled for squeezing his leg under the table.

Eren must've sensed Reiner's and Bert's tension, too, which surprised me. Eren never noticed things like that, "What's been going on here all afternoon?"

Connie answered, "People have been talking about going out tonight. Apparently, they're not enforcing curfew as harshly here, either."

"Going out and doing what?" asked Armin.

"You're smart, Armin, what do you think?" responded Connie. "We're going out to the bars."

"But not a lot of cadets are over fifteen, yet," I pointed out. "I don't know if any bars will let us in, much less sell to us."

"They'll let you in," assured Reiner. "And if enough go at once, they'll sell. They won't miss out on making money like that."

As we were talking, Mina and Sasha, who looked to be done with their dinner, joined us as well. "That's right," said Mina. "A few people went out dancing last night, and they said they had no problems. They didn't even get in trouble with the superiors."

"I've heard it's because they want cadets to like it here," explained Sasha. "After what happened at Maria, this is the most dangerous city in the walls, and they have trouble getting people to agree to be stationed here."

"Really?" asked Eren. "I thought people couldn't chose where they were assigned, anyway."

"They can choose to quit the military," Armin pointed out.

"That's sad they have to do that," commented Mikasa, "but we could still benefit from it."

Mina grinned, "My thoughts exactly! So, are you all going to go, too?"

Connie, Eren, Armin and Mikasa all said yes, and I looked at Reiner to see if he was too. He looked back at me, and said, "I was going to go if you were."

I nodded and said, "Let's do it."

After dinner, Mikasa and I stayed in the barracks for the cadet girls. Many of them were primping and picking out the bet outfits they had with them to wear. I wasn't sure why some of them thought to bring nicer casual clothes with them. Maybe they were more aware of how relax it would be here than I was, but the only civilian clothes I brought were two skirts (one brown and one maroon), a plain green shirt, and a cream-colored blouse. I decided on the maroon skirt and cream blouse. They were probably the newest things I owned anyway. None of my clothes were that nice.

Mikasa, like me, was wearing modest looking clothes: the same white shirt and red scarf she always wears, with a pink skirt. Other girls like Krista and Sasha were also dressed similarly. Mina, however, along with a few other girls like Hitch, had nicer skirts and blouses made of better material and had patterns on them. I ran my hands over the sleeves of Mina's light blue shirt, which was covered with designs of little pink flowers.

"If you like it so much," said Mina as she combed her hair. "I can have another one I can lend you for the night."

"Oh, no, I'm fine," I said, and I retracted my hands. "I just like the feel of the material."

She nodded, "You should let me do your hair, though. You have someone to look nice for tonight."

I crinkled my nose, "Don't you?'

She sighed and shook her head, "Thomas and I have parted ways, and decided to be just friends. It was mutual, of course."

I thought to point out to her that parting ways and remaining friends were two different things, but she turned to Annie before I could say anything more about the matter, "What about you? Aren't you coming?"

Annie was wearing her normal white hoodie, and still had on her white pants from her uniform, curled up on her and Mina's bed reading a book, "I haven't decided yet."

"Well you need to decide," Mina replied as she motioned for me to sit on the bed, too. "We're leaving soon."

Mina crawled behind me, pushing Annie's legs out of the way, so that she could have good access to the back of my head. Annie looked slightly annoyed, but didn't say anything. I had already brushed out my hair, and decided to leave it down instead of putting half up like always, but there was also no harm in letting Mina do what she wanted.

Sasha joined us, asking, "Are you all ready to go?"

Annie got up off the bed and started digging through her bag, "Almost."

"You're still in your uniform," Sasha pointed out, confused as to how they counted as almost ready.

Annie shrugged and started changing as Mina said, "Glad you decided to come, Annie. We'll be ready to go as soon as I finish with Alex's hair."

"She's got to look good for muscle-head," Annie said with a roll of her eyes.

"He's not a muscle-head," I protested, and Sasha laughed.

"So, have you dealt with your problem, yet?"

"Uh, I haven't talked to him about it yet, or really done anything, so no," I said sheepishly.

Sasha shook her head, "Don't wait so long. After you talk to him about it, it won't make you so nervous."

"What are you talking about?" asked Annie as she pulled her blouse over her head.

I shook my head at her, implying it wasn't important. I didn't want to go through the embarrassment of that conversation again, especially with Annie. She'd definitely make fun of me.

"I'm done," Mina announced. I reached around to touch my hair, and she smacked my hands away, "You'll mess it up, stop."

"What did you do it?" I said, trying to resist the urge to run my hand over it again.

"Made four braids and then a bun. It looks good."

Sasha nodded her approval, as Mikasa came over to the bed, "Are you read to go now? Everyone else has left."

"One second," said Annie as she pulled her boots back on. I reached over and pulled the hair tie out of her hair, and she glared at me, "Don't touch my hair."

"It looks better that way," I shrugged, tossing the hair tie back at her. She caught it, and put it on her wrist instead of putting her hair back up.

Half an hour later, the five of us ended up on a crowded street outside of one the local bars, and Sasha lead us inside, "C'mon! This is where Connie said he was going, so I'm sure everyone else went here too."

The inside wasn't as crowded as the street, but there was still a good amount of people inside, along with a small band playing in the corner. It was easy to tell the locals apart from the soldiers, and the locals didn't look particularly happy about their place being taken over by young cadets. The two bartenders seemed to like the extra business, though, and greeted as with a smile as we walked in.

"Hello ladies! What can I start you off with tonight?"

Mina and Sasha ordered beers, and I followed their lead. A beer was all I had tried before anyways, I didn't want to buy something and end up spitting it out. On the far side of the room from the band, I heard a loud, deep laugh I recognized as Reiner's. He sat at a table with Connie, Eren, Bert, and Thomas. Jean, Marco, Armin, Krista, and Ymir were sitting at the table next to them, but they all seemed to be a part of the same conversation. Krista noticed us first out of the group, and waved us over.

As I walked up, I could make out more of the conversation, and it seemed like Ymir and Thomas were arguing about something while everyone else laughed. Thomas already had a few glasses sitting in front of him, and his face looked a little red.

"I'm telling you, oranges are called orange because they're orange!" yelled Thomas, to which Ymir yelled back.

"Oranges are where the name for the color orange comes from, so they can't be called oranges because of the color!"

"Are they serious?" I mouthed to Krista, who rolled her eyes and nodded.

I pulled up a chair between Eren and Reiner to listen. Eventually the argument changed to whether oranges tasted good or not, and then to what was the best tasting fruit. At that point, almost everyone had joined in.

"Okay, but Thomas," I laughed. "Have you even had a fig before?"

"Yes?"

"Apparently not cause they're amazing and they should be everyone's favorite."

We sat around the table for a long time, all of us several refills of our drinks, before Sasha stood up and dragged Connie towards the center of the room, where other patrons had started dancing. I had been so caught up in our conversation, I had forgotten that there was music playing, too. I thought it was sweet that they went to dance together, but their half-drunk dancing skills was less than sweet. I giggled loudly as Sasha and Connie continued to make fools of themselves. Mina grabbed Thomas' arm and begged him to go dance with her, although he agreed as soon as she asked.

"I thought they were 'parting ways'?" I asked the group in general.

"That really doesn't mean anything when it comes to Mina, she's always been too indecisive," said Mikasa, to which the table agreed.

"Who cares if they broke up? Let them dance!" exclaimed Reiner raising his glass. He caught the attention of some the men around us, who raised their glasses and echoed his cheer, even though they didn't know what he meant.

I shook my head with a laugh, and normal conversation started around the table with the absence of Thomas. More of the group started the pair off to go dance, including Ymir and Krista, and to my surprise Marco and Annie. I watched Marco spin here, and move her from side to side, and couldn't help but giggle at how uncomfortable she looked. Eventually, she started to move more in rhythm with the music and looked more like she was having fun.

Jean also convinced Mikasa to dance with him, although I suspected that was because Mikasa knew Eren had no interest in it. That left Reiner, Bert, Eren, Armin and I alone at the table. Armin and Bert carried on their own conversation, while listened to them and nursed his glass. I wasn't sure what he was drinking, but I was pretty sure it was the same think Reiner had gotten, and it tasted awful. I was more interested in watching our friends dance and have fun.

"Did you want to dance?" I looked at Reiner and realized he had been watching me. "You haven't said anything."

I shrugged and said, "I'm happy just sitting here. They're all much better at it than I am. I'd fall on my face."

"So? Everyone's drunk right now."

"Reiner, I'd fall on my face trying to dance while I was sober."

"Aw, c'mon Princess, you can't be that bad. Besides, even Annie went. Do you think Annie knows how to dance?"

I sighed. I wasn't drunk, but I wasn't sober either. If I was, I wouldn't have stood up, grabbed Reiner's hand, and lead him to the middle of the bar with the others. When we got there, he wrapped one arm around my waist and started moving us along to the music in a similar fashion as the other couples. The music was upbeat and happy, and most of our "dancing" was just skipping and spinning around. The locals who got up to dance had more fancy feet work, and they were probably doing an actual dance that went with the songs. I still enjoyed dancing with Reiner, and by the end of the first song, I felt drunk without anymore alcohol. I was constantly tripping and stepping on Reiner's toes, but he just grinned and held on to me to keep me from falling.

I had no clue how long we were dancing when Reiner leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Let's get out of here."

I looked at him, confused. "Why?"

He winked at me and pulled started to pull me away from the dancing. It was then that I realized that the only others still her from our group were Sasha, Connie, Jean, Mikasa, and Marco and Annie. Marco, Annie, Jean, and Mikasa were sitting around the table that we had left Eren, Bert, and Armin at, but they were gone. Sasha and Connie were still laughing and dancing, although they were just as bad at it as me and Reiner.

"Where are you wanting to go?" I said, a small laugh still in my voice from the dancing.

"I don't know. I didn't think about that far. Somewhere private?"

My buzzed brain tried to think of somewhere, but came up blank. The only place private that we could go to was headquarters, and we were bound to be eventually caught by someone on duty no matter where we went.

"Does anyone patrol the wall at night?" Reiner asked, and I shook my head.

"Alright, let's go."

"Huh? But, we'll get in trouble for that!" I protested as Reiner held my hand and guided me through the street towards the southern edge of the city.

"Only if we get caught," he replied with a handsome, roguish smirk that ended my protests.

We took the pulley up the side of the wall, and I held on to the one of the sides while Reiner pulled us up. I had been up the wall before, even before I joined the military as a child, but never at night. Trost was lit up by firelight from torches and moonlight. The higher we get, the less I could distinguish the individual buildings and lights, and it looked more like a giant maze lit up fire flies. When we reached the top, we got off and Reiner secured the pulley to make sure it would fall back down and abandon us.

I left the side of the wall that overlooked the city and went to the edge that overlooked the wilderness. It was lit by only moonlight, but none the less beautiful. You could see trees that made up edges of a forest, and how the tops of them swayed in the wind. You could also see, at the bottom of the wall, a group of mindless titans clawing futilely at the wall. Just like Shiganshina, Trost is an outlying city that served to concentrate titans to one area of the wall to keep maintenance down.

I stepped back from the edge and stood more towards the middle of the wall, so that all I had to focus on was the sky and Reiner. "What did you want to come up here for?" I asked.

Reiner had also been looking over the edge of the wall, and stepped away when I spoke, "I said I wanted somewhere private." He smiled at me and joked, "I also needed to give my feet a break from stomped on."

"I told you I wasn't any good," I laughed while sitting down. "And that's when I haven't drunk anything."

"I'll remember to listen better next time," he chuckled, "but, dancing with you is worth getting stepped on."

I sighed and leaned against him. I was slowly getting more accustomed to his constant compliments and flattery that I didn't bother blushing or saying thank you every time anymore.

"Seriously though, Reiner," I said. "What did you bring us up here for?"

"I've told you before, I just like being alone with you," he responded. He pulled back away from me and kissed me, and I leaned into it gladly. As always, his kisses were sweet and passionate, and made my heart beat speed up several paces in my chest, and my head spun even harder than before. The alcohol still running in my system made me braver than before, and I decided to skip talking about my nervousness to him and just get over it. I brought my hands down from his shoulders, and started to work on undoing his shirt, fumbling with the buttons while trying not to break the kiss.

Reiner broke the kiss instead and stayed still, letting me get the first two undone before grabbing my hands to stop me, "Alex, no. Not right now."

I leaned back to get a better a look at his face, a little confused and little hurt. Hadn't been hinting that he wanted to go beyond kissing for a while now?

He brought one of my hands up to his face, and kissed the back of it, and explained, "I know you, Alex, you wouldn't do that if you weren't half drunk. I can wait until you're comfortable and sober."

"Aren't you half-drunk, too?" I asked.

"No. I only had one glass, and you drank part of it."

"Oh, sorry," I said a slight blush of embarrassment creeping onto my cheeks.

He shook his head, "It's fine, I don't mind."

"But, that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about yesterday."

"What? When Connie and Sasha interrupted you?"

"Yeah," I situated my legs and crossed them, so I was fully facing him. "It was about me not being comfortable with things." I reached out and ran my fingers over the bit of exposed skin on his chest where his shirt was still unbuttoned.

"Like I said, Alex, that can wait until you're sober."

"Reiner, I'm not even that drunk."

"You're more drunk than you think you are. You stumbled all the way here, and I almost didn't take us all the way up here because I was scared you'd fall off."

"I've been stumbling?"

"Yes, and slurring your words."

I laughed at him and rolled my eyes, "I have not been slurring my words."

"You just did."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"You did, and if you're too drunk to talk and walk correctly, you're too drunk to make decisions like that. Especially for the first time."

I snorted and rolled my eyes at him again, which admittedly made me dizzier than it should've, "Whatever. You're such a stubborn gentleman."

He chuckled, "I thought being a gentleman was a good thing?"

I shrugged, "I guess it is sometimes."

"That doesn't make any sense, but either way let's talk about something else."

"Like what?" I asked, and I felt sleep weighing on my eyes, but I ignored it to pay attention to him.

"How was the orphanage?"

I shrugged, "A little awkward, to be honest, but that little girl was happy to have visitors. She was very talkative, and pretty."

Reiner smiled, "Sounds like you. I can't believe you didn't tell me about you saving a kid."

"Why? It never crossed my mind."

"I told you I want to know all of your stories. Or, as much as possible."

I rolled my eyes, "You haven't told me any stories about yourself lately, either." Reiner scooted away from me a little bit, and I stopped for a second to wonder why, but then he stretched himself out on the floor of the wall and laid his head on my lap. "Why don't you tell me some of them?" I continued.

"You tell me one first," he mumbled, and I could tell he was getting tired as well.

"Okay," I agreed. "But you have to tell me what you want to hear. I don't want to decide."

"That's gonna be hard," he mused, comedically rubbing his chin. "There's so much I want to know about the mysterious, interesting Alexandria."

"I'm the opposite of mysterious, and you know that."

He shrugged, "Do I really, though? I just learned today that you saved a baby when you were a child from titans. Does that kid know you saved her? I bet she worships you, even if she's only met you twice."

"It really wasn't that big of a deal, Reiner. It's not like the titans were right behind me when I stopped. I ran in the opposite direction as soon as they got through the wall," I shook my head, not wanting to think too much about that day, not in that moment. "What do you want me to talk about?"

"Tell me more about your parents. Last time you talked about it you said you had no memories of them, but your grandpa told you stories about them. Tell me those stories."

I thought for a second, and nodded, "I'll tell you about how they met, since that's the main story I remember."

Reiner closed his eyes and relaxed his body, and he reminded me almost of a child settling down to hear a bedtime story. I reached out and ran a hand through his hair before I continued, "Well my dad was a baker, like my grandfather. Grandpa said that Dad saw baking as more of a way of making money than as something that really interested him. He had side hobbies that he liked to study and practice. He was a good help to Grandpa, though. When he grew up, he became Grandpa's business partner. My mom was a blacksmith, which I think was also a career she inherited from her family, but I never met any of them. She loved building things, and not just weapons and tools. She loved inventing new things, or studying how already invented mechanisms worked. That's what her and dad liked to do together. Mechanics, and new inventions was something he also loved. They never made anything profitable, though it was more for fun."

Reiner hummed. I was still running my fingers through his short hair, "How'd they met, though?"

"I'm getting there, don't be impatient," I chided before continuing. "It's a short story. The way Grandpa told it, was that one morning Grandpa was nagging him about getting married and settling down, so he could have grandkids. Dad had us a little later in life than most people have kids. I think Dad was 33 and mom was 24."

Reiner picked his head up a little bit to look at me and raise his eyebrows.

"Yeah, there was an age difference," I nodded. "They were already adults, though, so it didn't matter as much. Anyway, Dad told him not to worry about it. It would happen eventually, but not anytime soon. So that evening after they left work, Grandpa asked him if he would go pick up some tools that he had ordered from a blacksmith in town, which was mom. Grandpa expected him to bring the tools to him right away, but it was several hours. He spent the whole time talking to mom in her shop, and he brought her to Grandpa's house the next day. They married really quick, too, only six months later."

"We've known each other longer than that," Reiner commented.

"Yeah," I agreed. "It's crazy to think about getting married to someone you just met a few months before. But we're not adults yet. We're still teenagers."

"I'm sixteen," he corrected. "Technically, I'm an adult."

"Technically being the main word. No one really thinks fifteen is adulthood. It's fifteen so kids can go into military sooner, or contribute to the workforce."

Reiner rolled his eyes, "I know that, but fifteen is legally considered an adult. You'll be fifteen in November."

"I know that," I repeated Reiner's words. "What about it?"

He shook his head, "Nothing."

"What?" I moved the leg that his head was laying on, just enough to nudge him. "What were you going to say?"

"Technically," he said, "we could get married before the end of this year."

My hand in his hair stopped moving, "You want to get married?"

"No, no, not now. We're still in the training corps. Your parents just made me think that, you know? Like I said, we've known each other longer."

"But, you want to get married?" I asked again, very surprised Reiner was talking about it.

He shrugged, "It was just a comment, princess, don't worry about it. What story do you want to hear?"

" I want to know about your mom."

"My mom?"

"Yeah. I told you about my parents. Tell me more about your mom. Who she was, you know?"

Reiner nodded, and relaxed again, "I guess I can tell you about her. She was a good mom, overall. She was a single mother, but she provided for me well enough, and she loved me. She used to like to tell me stories before bed or sometimes just sit and room and talk, and that's probably the most time I remember spending with her. I spent a lot of my free time with Bert, and all day in school while she worked."

"She sounds like a good mom," I said. "She must've been strong to raise you by herself."

Reiner shrugged, "She was… but like I said before, she clung to the belief that my father was going to come back to her one day, or even that he wanted to come back to her. I guess she was a bit delusional."

"Maybe she really loved him."

"Maybe…. Let me tell me a happier story. I'll tell you about when I met Bert."

I took my hand out of his hair and laid my body back so that I could relax more, too. When we got comfortable again, he continued, "So it was the first day of formal schooling. I was nervous. I was a wimp, and not well liked by other children my age, like I've told you before. I didn't leave my house much before I started school, which is why I only met Bertholdt then. Anyway, I remember after school, I got in a fight with this boy in my class. We fought on a weekly basis, like Eren and Jean. When I saw 'we fought', I mean we yelled at each other, he hit me, and I cried about it."

I chuckled, "Poor baby Reiner."

"Haha," he replied sarcastically, and I could almost hear him roll his eyes. "Anyway, that day, the kid I always fought with basically made fun of me because it was the first day, and I was already at the bottom of the class. So, after the whole, him hitting me and me crying about it happened, Bertl was the one who helped me and cheered me up. None of the other kids cared. He walked home with me, and we started walking together every day."

He trailed off for a second, like he was deciding what to say next. I had already closed my eyes and was slowly going out of consciousness. The last thing I heard him say before I fell asleep was, "Bertl always waited on me when I couldn't keep up…"

A/N: It's been almost two months, and I'm finally updating. There's no reason it took two months, other than I got really busy at the end of the holidays, and my classes this semester hasn't given me much time to work on side projects. Also doesn't help that I started over on this chapter at least three times. I haven't lost any enthusiasm for this story, though.