Risk: Chapter Six
The very next day, Rose had awoken bright and early, just as Hange had entered her room – well their room, she was just borrowing it. Hange appeared surprised to see Rose sitting up in bed, hands on hips and a broad smile on their face.
"Well, aren't you bright eyed and bushy-tailed," they commented, now sitting beside them, if only for a moment. "I actually have a favor to ask of you: can you go to Squad Levi's again?"
"What, why?" To be frank, now that the town was starting to get fixed up, Rose wanted to get familiar with it to some degree. It appeared she would be spending some time here – how much and how often was still up in the air, it appeared, but she still wanted to venture out.
"Levi said you did a good job yesterday, and they're going to be working on the stables and outside today."
Now Rose full on frowned at that. "You're lying." Making her wash up the kitchen sink area three times didn't seem to reveal that one believed one did a good job.
But Levi is a weirdo, she thought.
"No, he really did. He was impressed with how easily you picked up on his methods. So they could use some more help today."
"And you?" Rose asked flatly, blinking once.
"I have some research to do with those titans we captured."
Right, Sauney and Bean. Rose was mildly curious about that – but she also didn't want to go anywhere near a titan, chained up or not.
"Fine," Rose sighed, relenting, standing up from the bed and going to the spare wardrobe that was filled with Petra's old clothes. "But I'm going to silently complain the whole time."
"That'a girl," they said with a bright smile. "And wear long pants and boots – you're going to thank me later."
No, I'm not.
It was Eren and Rose who ended up stuck with stable duty – emphasis on duty, pun intended. Rose was starting to wonder if her only reason for being here was to babysit, cook, and clean. She did enough of that back home; she didn't want to do that if she was several timelines away from home as well. But she didn't outwardly complain; instead, she shoveled away, grateful for Hange's boot advice. She wore overalls with a long-sleeved shirt as well, just to cover her skin as much as possible. She didn't want any of this mess to get onto her, if she could help it.
But, boy, did it make her hot quickly. Still, she didn't groan about it. She went about her business, making small talk with Eren and getting to know him just the tiniest bit.
His mother had been taken by a titan, and his father had disappeared, leaving him essentially an orphan. She could relate to that, if only a little bit. Her own parents were killed in a boating accident, but she didn't bring that up. It wasn't nearly as traumatic as watching your mom get eaten by a naked, insatiable giant.
"I hear a lot of noise in here," Levi said as he entered the stables, and Eren nervously tucked his head down and shoveled just a little faster. Rose, not so much; she continued working at her own pace, peeking through her bangs to glare at him but not saying anything at his comment.
"Well, don't stop talking on my behalf," he muttered with a short tch of his teeth, giving the area a once-over before leaving them to their own devices once again.
"Doesn't he make you nervous?" Eren asked after a couple of minutes of the Lance Corporal's disappearance.
"Not at all," Rose admitted with a shrug. "I've met meaner."
Eren's eyes widened. "You have?"
"Yeah – they're called 'high school teachers', and they're relentless." Sure, they didn't beat the ever-loving breath out of you, but they sure made you feel like you couldn't catch your breath. And if you even thought about giving yourself a semblance of peace – they called your parents on your laziness. She was such a strict student on herself, however, her uncle never received those calls. He was too busy working to pay attention to that sort of thing, anyway.
Not that he didn't love her, or care about her education or well-being. He just had to keep up with a lot in order to keep them afloat. Once she'd gotten a job and at fifteen and started making her own income, he'd eased up a bit, but still stressed about bills. She helped where she could, but she was saving up to move out on her own – which would help them both out.
Anyway, high school teachers –
"They give you work that keeps you up all night, and sometimes all day the next day. And you're expected to do not just the work of one teacher – but like eight of them. So you practically have to live off caffeine and hope in order to get through the day."
"Oh, wow," Eren muttered, seeming truly fascinated. "How did you do it?"
"Determination." She shrugged, scooping up another small pile of dung and putting it into the bigger pile to be used as fertilizer. Eren followed suit, working quickly to keep up with her pace. "I just wanted to finish school."
They didn't talk for awhile; and maybe that was for the best. She felt kind of silly comparing her school background to that to Eren's military background – they weren't comparable in the least bit – but it seemed to make him feel better, at least, and they could focus on their work better.
After a couple of hours, Levi came in to them wiping down the stalls.
"Hey, Rosemary – are you cooking again tonight?" It honestly was barely a question.
"Sure," she answered, glancing back at him.
He was leaning against one of the stalls, looking around at their work, no doubt trying to come up with something that appeared wrong. But they'd been working rather tirelessly to get the place spick-and-span for the Lance Corporal.
"I'll get started now so it's ready by the time everyone's done," she continued, heading toward the entrance of the stables. Instead of pocketing her rag, she extended it to Levi with a small smile. "Maybe you could help Eren?"
Levi narrowed his icy gaze at her a bit, but took the washcloth nonetheless and replaced her at the other end, opposite Eren. She wished Eren a silent apology before heading inside to begin dinner.
Tonight, she decided on baked potatoes. She bought a plethora of them the other day and thought she would use them before they started growing spuds and going bad. They didn't have the luxury of butter, but they did have oil and with a splash of that on each potato, it did soften them. Next she steamed them, cutting up some of the extra vegetables to broil to eat alongside them. That savory smell from before filled the kitchen again, and soon people started to file in as the aroma probably wafted outside.
"I am starving," Eld said, holding his stomach for emphasis.
"You always say that," Oluo commented, holding his chin up. Rose noted that the man tried to emulate Levi a lot, down to the ascot, but she never said anything about it. She actually thought it was sweet. No one else thought it was, however – actually, he got endlessly teased for it, especially by Petra.
Though, part of Rose felt that Petra teased him for another reason. But that was once again a woman's intuition talking.
This time, Eren got the courtesy to eat with them at the table. Everyone, except him and Levi, spoke animatedly to one another. It was nice. Rose would take the dishes as people finished their food and cleaned them, putting as much elbow grease as possible into the task. She was not going to do it over again.
Hange came in shortly after, loud as ever, slamming a hand on the table to get everyone's attention. "We're going to start on experiments tomorrow."
Rose paused in her dishwashing to look at them.
"Eren, are you ready to show us your true abilities?"
The room grew instantly tense, the tension so thick it could be cut with one of these dull knives. Slowly, Rose returned to her task at hand, but not so loudly that she couldn't hear what was said.
"Is that a good idea?" he asked, sounding hesitant. Rightfully so.
"We've already gone over a strategy that will keep you tame, should you go apeshit," Levi replied instead of Hange.
When had they done that? It must have been after she'd left yesterday.
"So, what do you say?"
Everyone waited for Eren's answer, even Rose, who had stopped washing dishes again to watch the boy. Finally, he said, "Let's do it."
"Alright! Operation: Titan Shifter is a-go!"
They didn't want Rose to come along at first, but she reminded them that they still didn't know her reasoning for being there in the first place. She obviously was sticking between Levi and Hange for a reason, so why be separated? That argument seemed to win her some brownie points, as it at least convinced Hange to let her stick around. Levi, not so much.
"You're going to stay here," he demanded, leading her to a picnic table. "Do not move from here, no matter what."
"Yes, Captain," she answered, grimacing. She wanted to be closer to Eren, to make sure he was okay, but understood that it could be quite dangerous. Still…
He leered at the word "captain" but didn't comment, just left her to walk to Hange's side.
"Alright, Eren, are you ready?" That was when Hange fired a flare into the air.
And they waited, the other soldiers at the ready, their blades drawn. Something about that didn't feel right to Rose, mostly because she didn't like the idea of hurting Eren. She also knew that it was a necessity if he rampaged like he did the first time he turned into a titan.
She really could rationalize both sides, but she didn't have to like it.
They continued to wait for another several minutes. Was something supposed to happen by now? Rose looked to first Petra, then the men to either side of her. They didn't ease up at all, but their faces appeared just as confused as she felt.
Hange and Levi, after a few more minutes, approached the well that Eren was in and peered in. He apparently had said something, but Rose couldn't make it out. How frustrating.
"At ease!" Levi called, firing a second flare, indicating the end of the experiment.
They got Eren out of that well, and Rose's eyes widened at the sight of him. His hands and mouth were covered in blood. He truly was trying to injure himself for the sake of Hange's experiment, poor boy. Reaching for the bandages and dressing behind her, she stood up and met Eren halfway as he was approaching the picnic table she was previously sitting at.
"I told you not to move –" Levi had begun, but Rose didn't let him finish.
"You said 'at ease', didn't you?" she reminded him. "Besides, if he was a threat, he'd prove it by now." Slowly, she started cleaning at the boy's wounds and wrapping them up. She noticed him wince, and tried to be as gentle as possible, but also tried to finish as swiftly as possible.
Levi stayed close, though, as if he anticipated to turn into a titan any second just by these simple actions alone. When she was done, she stepped aside to allow them to lead the way back to the rest of the Squad.
Sitting down again, the other men commented that maybe Eren couldn't do it. And they seemed relieved about that fact. Quite frankly – and Rose wouldn't admit this aloud – but so was she. She didn't like the idea of seeing a titan, shifter within or not. It made her unbelievably nervous, to say the very least.
Eren had dropped his spoon while picking it up, undoubtedly due to the pain in his hand. Rose had bent over to grab it, but Eren had beat her to it. And just as she was sitting up again, there was a flash of light – like lightning, not white like the portal – and she was blown away from the picnic table and toward the well behind her.
She let out a short scream, not because she was frightened but out of pure surprise, and she lowered herself to the ground, eyes closed as the smoke and debris started to subside around her. She felt someone wrap their arms around her middle and help her to her feet, rather quickly – and as she glanced behind her, she noticed it was Levi, but he wasn't looking at her, but beyond her. She fixed her eyes ahead again, though she barely got a glance of the abstract horror that was Eren's arm before Levi shoved her behind him. "Stay here," he told her.
She had no intention of getting any closer.
Levi left her – at her silent behest – to approach not his Squad, who had suddenly redrawn their weapons and faced Eren with malice and apparent fear on their faces – but instead went straight to Eren. "Stand down."
"Captain, you need to get away from him!"
Then they were suddenly talking at once – asking why he'd done what he'd done, demanding answers, wondering what he was thinking. Amidst all this, a cry of excitement could be heard and Hange came back from their mourning walk to approach the grotesque arm. They even touched the thing – and screamed in pain at how hot it apparently felt. Moblit warned them not to do such a thing, but stubbornly – for science, undoubtedly – they did so.
Just as chaos seemed to ensue – Eren had pulled himself from the arm and fell backwards onto the ground, and just like a regular titan, it started to disintegrate. Hange gave out another cry, this time in frustration as their experiment seemed to be cut short.
Maybe that was for the best.