I don't really know?

Disclaimer: I don't own SnK because IRVIN YOUR ARM and ARMIN HOW and REINER THROWING TITANS and IT'S THE TITAN THAT ATE THEIR MOM.

Note: contains stuff from the latest chapter (SnK 49) so if it doesn't make sense...read the chapterrr.

Three Warriors

xxx. persevere .xxx

There was blood and steam seeping from what seemed like his heart, like the gears inside his core had screeched to a halt and were malfunctioning. He hung there, not quite thinking, not quite comprehending. The straps of his stolen gear pressed into his thighs and his arms and his back, reminding him that he was still here but she was not.

There was a powerful gust of steam, and Bertholdt turned to look at Reiner, whose titan body radiated an incredible heat.

But the boy lay there, limply suspended by his 3D Maneuver Gear.

Hang in there, Bertholdt.

"Reiner," he managed to croak — was that his own voice? — "Reiner, they—"

But Reiner knew, the moment he gently cradled his best friend into his hand and settled him onto his massive titan shoulder. Bertholdt watched as the armored titan elbowed a league of flesh-hungry monsters out of his way, pausing to scoop up a smaller one like a wrestler.

And then there were flying titans.

When he was young, there used to be a small black cat in his village. He would leave a bit of bread out for it every day, and if he got lucky, a strip of wild turkey that they had managed to catch. It was dangerous, sparing food like that, but he was a kindhearted boy that could not bear to see anything starve.

And then one day, while the echoes of Berik's sobs and howling roars thrummed through his bones and rattled his teeth, and they ran for miles and miles, he saw the cat sitting by his house, waiting for a few meager scraps.

Hoping.

Living.

Continuing.

And when Reiner grabbed his hand and she grabbed his other, he, too, kept going.

Bertholdt wondered what she would think. Would she ignore them, would she praise them, or would she look down on their idiotic actions with the same, detached gaze that made her so beautiful?

He touched his chest; there was hardly any blood, save for the crusted red on Irvin's blade. Mostly healed on the outside, though the inside was a different story.

A titan's body crashed down beside — his friends? His enemies? — his former fellow trainees, and he watched Armin's expression particularly carefully.

Armin, who, at the Commander's hoarse cry, looked as if he could have been the leader of the Scouting Legion.

Armin, whose penetrating blue eyes could recall every moment and every detail.

Armin, who knew who Annie was with a single gaze.

Armin, who could simply look into Bertholdt's face and know.

And Bertholdt didn't know whether to hate him or thank him. The first because his heart was so anguished, and the second because he knew she was alive.

He imagined a dank, dark cell, blood and screams, her screams.

But he'd never heard Annie scream, for she was cold as ice, the glacier queen. He had never seen fear in her stoic expression, in her chilly cyan eyes. He recalled the odd sense of reassurance she gave him, holding his hand and running from the titan, the titan that ate Berik.

And they were exactly like the eyes of the little black cat, sitting on the porch, waiting for them to come home.

And maybe, they would.

Someday.

/chapter

Bertholdt, bby.

Anyway. I didn't know how to do this one.

But it came across eventually.

Kind of. lol.