uh still procrastinating lol
Disclaimer: not mine not mine not mine
Three Warriors
xxx. broken .xxx
The dining hall is impossibly loud and impossibly busy, because if Connie isn't bumping into him, then Eren is starting a fight, and if Eren isn't starting a fight, then Jean is causing a ruckus. If Jean isn't causing a ruckus, then it's because Marco is holding him back and Sasha is stealing all the food and is that Bertholdt cowering silently in the corner?
Oh, and Annie looks like she's going to kill someone, but she doesn't, because she hates it when it gets too crowded, and usually slips away.
Interestingly enough, none of that happens.
It's a rather docile afternoon; lunch has just wrapped up, and Jean actually does the dishes like he's supposed to.
He attempts to yell at Connie, who runs incredibly fast as he collects dirty plates, weaving in and out of the table aisles as if he's got wings on his feet. He does manage, however, to scold Sasha for stealing someone's bread — who in their right mind would leave a piece of bread out? — but Mikasa stuffs the loaf into her mouth just to torture the poor mountain girl.
Eventually, they tire of cleaning up, though Shadis is on their tails within seconds, and upon finishing a majority of the cleaning, it must've been Thomas or Dazz that just gave up and left the building, everyone else trailing behind them eagerly.
It's the laughter that gets to him, really.
In their own little world, they are, because Reiner remembers nothing except that he's wrapping his strong arms around Eren and Connie and they wrestle each other until they get outside, and one of them breaks into a run and suddenly it's a game, a game before training. Even if it's only tag or hide and seek, children's games and foolish play, each and every one of them enjoys — sincerely or not — the rare moments of false peace and happiness.
Because Mina is actually good at this game, and Dazz is hilarious to watch, and Marco is surprisingly devious. It doesn't matter whether or not Dazz is freaking out or Mina is catching everyone, or if Marco finds you in hide-and-seek but purposely whispers that he hasn't seen a thing just so he can find Jean and make the poor horse-face despair in his ineptness at hide-and-seek.
It only matters that people are smiling, and that's what gets him.
Every single time.
He notices today, though, when Bertholdt and Annie do not leave the kitchen. Firstly, because the entire trainee group has left the rest of the dishes to the two of them — and Bertholdt honestly feels obligated to finish them, and Annie just keeps company because she holds a high disdain for crowds and group activities — and secondly because there is a loud crash and the breaking of a plate.
Reiner catches a glimpse of shattering china, and the thin shards that scrabble across the floorboards. Breaking, broken.
Confusion.
Breaking, broken, confusion.
It's the laughter that gets him, and he's trying to decide whether he should haul Connie over to the water spout and douse him or try to figure out why a broken plate pulls his chest taught with anguish.
Why is it painful?
Reiner, who pieces himself back together, who cuts himself with the shards of himself and doesn't correctly remember which piece goes where. And he's missing a part, a vital chunk, and he doesn't know because it's the laughter and the smiles and the people that get to him.
So he pushes Connie's head under the spigot and lets the water splash across the smaller boy's head, gurgling laughter and resonating giggles rushing to his ears.
He is lauded for his ability to make people laugh; even the haughty Jean cracks a smile, and the cold Mikasa's eyes soften.
Why?
Because Reiner doesn't need that piece of himself, the missing part, the slab of life he can't remember.
As he scoops up Armin and tosses the spindly little boy in the air — as Eren shouts and Mikasa tries to grab the skinny blond from Reiner's grasp — he knows that he can't remember, but he doesn't care.
The two inside, sweeping up the broken glass, will remember for him.
They'll hold onto his missing piece until he is ready for it.
/chapter
I wanted to include more 104th trainees.
I have massive Marco feels.
Can you imagine if Marco titan existed and when he approached Jean he just laid down, rolled over, and started purring and doing this rrrururuuuurrrr rrrrururu sound until Jean pet him?!