Risk: Chapter Twenty-Four
Rose wore an apron to try and cover herself up at least a little bit, but it only did so from the front, of course. Nothing to help with the back. She ignored the occasional glances and stares she got from the others – especially the boys – while she prepared dinner. Though she felt more than covered in her time period, here she felt absolutely exposed, and it was beyond embarrassing.
She was just grateful she wore shorts today.
She allowed the young soldiers to serve themselves, taking the apron off and hanging it up. Levi entered the dining room, followed by Hange; either they got word she had arrived back in their timeline, or they had intuition akin to Lily's.
Or they just liked to bother Levi.
"It smells great in here," they commented, moving passed Levi to approach the stove of food Rose had made. "I think I'll be overstaying my welcome, if you don't mind."
"Don't you always," Levi countered, taking his rightful seat at the head of the table, not bothering to get a plate of food.
Did this man ever eat?
Just as they were all finishing up with their food, Rose at the sink washing dishes – as always putting her whole body and soul into it – there was a hard knock on the door.
The bustling amongst them ceased, and they all became very alert. They didn't say anything, just waited for a voice on the other side to speak first.
Finally, someone yelled through the door, "We're here for the girls."
Rose carefully set the plate she was washing down into the sink and stepped back, her eyes landing on Lily. No way he was talking about them, was he?
"Give us the time traveler and her sister, and we'll be on our way."
That confirmed it, then.
"Go check the back door," Levi commanded Sasha and Connie, who silently nodded and left immediately.
They came back a short time later, looking panicked. Sasha spoke up, "They're everywhere. At the windows, the back entrance."
"Shit," Hange muttered under their breath, looking down at the ground as if they could find an answer there. Then they said, "What if we hide them?"
"What good will that do, if they do what they normally do and ransack the damn place?" Levi said, also appearing to try to assess the situation to come up with the best possible solution.
Rose came up with a sudden thought – they could scare them. What if Lily and Rose demonstrated what they did to those guards down in the basement when they rescued their mom –
"No," Lily exclaimed, her expression almost angry as she looked over at Rose. "Absolutely not."
"What choice do we have? We're sitting ducks, either way," Rose said, crossing her arms, feeling a little dejected.
"What are you two going on about?" Levi demanded.
"Rose wants to do that zap thing with whoever is on the other side that door to scare the rest of the guard."
"It could work!" Rose whispered-yelled. "Do you have a better plan?"
No one spoke up. That would affirm that no one, in fact, had anything better for them to attempt.
"Lily…" Rose held out her hand for her sister to take. "Come on."
Taking a deep breath, Lily crossed the room and placed her hand within Rose's, that bit of lightning shocking through them both like it normally did – but this time much faster than usual. Then Lily took the liberty of opening the door for officer on the other side.
"You girls surrendering –" He barely had enough time to finish his sentence when both women pushed their hands against his chest, watching as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
It felt like a cold wind was rushing past and through them, filling them with chilly air. It was refreshing – and they understood that it had to do with the fact they were taking a bit of his life force away from him. Amidst doing so, there were flashes of his mind, a man that Rose recognized – Nathan – giving orders to find them, to bring them to wherever he happened to be hiding now – neither of them could tell from the how fleeting and blurry the memory was.
Finally, they released their hold on the guard, watching him crumble to the ground at their feet. The officers that were nearby stepped back from the building, their weapons aimed at the young women.
"Stay right there," one of them ordered. "We don't want any funny business."
"What did you do to him?" another seemed to almost cry out. "Did you kill him?"
"Leave," the girls said simultaneously, squeezing their hands tighter together. "Now." At the same time did they take a few steps forward, out of the safety of the headquarters and now vulnerable to the weapons pointed in their direction.
"Men, regroup!" a man in the front ordered.
"What about Reynolds?"
"Leave him – we can't get near him right now."
Quickly, sporadically, they filed out. Only when it appeared they were all gone did the girls let go of each other's hands, their minds their own again, collapsing to the ground near this Reynolds.
"Lily! Rose!" It was Hange calling out to them, but Rose was too busy choking on air to acknowledge them right now.
"What was that?" asked Jean, first observing their surroundings before bending down to Lily to help her to her feet.
"It's… complicated," Lily answered through cracked breaths.
"Lily – did you – did you see –" It was so difficult to speak, but Rose needed to confirm that her sister had seen just what she had.
"Yes," Lily choked out. "Who is… Nathan?"
"Nathan?" Levi was by Rose's side, holding her long hair as she coughed, probably believing she was about to heave up her lungs any second. "What does he have to do with this?"
"We were in… this guy's head," Rose explained through gasps. "He works… for him."
"Isn't he the guy who took you guys hostage before?" asked Connie.
Rose nodded, wiping her eyes of the involuntary tears that had formed in them.
"Damn," Levi cursed. "He has to be a rogue MP. Historia, is there anything you can do about him?"
"I can try," she said, sounding determined. "These Military Police are getting out of control, and I've had about enough of it."
Rose couldn't agree more. If only she could say so.
Hange came to her room later that night just as she'd finished changing into her pajamas.
"I have a question… kind of related to that whole 'Nathan' thing."
Rose didn't know if she liked where this conversation was headed, but she simply nodded once, inviting Hange to continue.
"Who is Jake?"
Oh, for the love of – "He's a friend."
"But you wear his jacket," Hange commented, pointing to the very jacket laying on the floor by the mirror.
"I do, because he gave it to me," Rose answered simply. "He was being nice."
"Is that it?" Hange tilted their head knowingly, a small smile on their face. "I'm not trying to pry, but it seems to me like he might be more than a –"
"Hange," Rose interrupted, holding a hand up. "I promise you. He is just a friend."
Something about that made the other person chuckle, and they turned on their heel to leave. "Alright, I'll take your word for it. But also, I was wondering – do you like anyone at all?"
"Goodnight, Hange," Rose said dismissively, going to crawl under the blanket as if to shut this conversation down. She didn't want to answer that question at all, especially to someone who was as close to Levi as Hange seemed to be.
"Okay, okay, goodnight."
The following day was Historia's coronation. People gathered from all over to witness it. Rose opted to stand way in the back while the soldiers, of course, stood up front, greeting their new Queen. It went as well as one could have hoped, boringly so. Rose could have fallen asleep, to be honest. But she had to admit, watching someone you know become royalty right in front of you was also mildly exciting – how often did one get to say they got to witness something like that?
Afterward, the crowd dispersed, refreshments being served. Rose wasn't interested in any of that, however. She searched for her friends immediately, finding Levi first.
"That was riveting," Rose said as she approached him.
"I guess," he said, hands in his pockets of his long jacket. The Scouts got new jackets for the winter, and she had to admit, he looked rather nice in it.
Short. But nice.
"Are you going to go find your Queen? Say your greetings and all that?"
A shadow of a smirk appeared on his face, but it disappeared rather quickly. "I guess I should, shouldn't I?"
They walked together down the corridor, instantly finding the Queen and her entourage of the 104th cadet squad surrounding her. She looked rather determined, for some reason. The next moment, it was revealed as to why. She lunged toward Levi, her fist balled up, and a punched him on the arm. It didn't seem to phase him at all, though. He didn't appear angry or annoyed.
In fact, he smiled. Really smiled.
"Thanks, guys."
The others looked just as shocked as Rose felt. She stared at his softened face, and it occurred to her she really did have a problem.
She was truly falling in love with this man.
Two months.
They would be going back over the walls to reclaim Wall Maria in two months.
Something about that filled Rose with existential dread and sadness, but she never expressed as much to the Scout. In fact, she tried to be her normal, happy self, trying to go about the day to day as if they weren't about to be sent to their death, more than likely.
Lily visited her while Hange was away, given leave by Levi, it seemed.
"So…" Lily began slowly, cautiously, as if trying to broach the next subject like she was about to step on glass. She was helping Rose organize Hange's office – to the best of their ability, anyway. Hange seemed to have a type of system, but Rose was opting to use medical tape and pieces of paper to label certain parts of the office; so Hange could find her precious journals and findings, but also so it could be tucked snug away in a drawer or on a shelf.
"So…?" Rose enticed, not looking up from writing the word "Titan Journals" on a piece of strip paper.
"Who… is Jake?"
You have got to be kidding me. "My friend." She didn't feel she owed anymore of an explanation than that. Because that was all there was to it – he was her friend, point-blank-period.
"That's it?"
"Lily –"
"Because when you pushed him out of the way of that portal thing a few days ago, you were kind of snuggly, so I was just wondering…" Lily was putting books away on a shelf, not daring to look down at Rose.
And maybe that was for the best, as she was now glaring at her sister's back. "I was trying to save him from coming into titan territory. And yes, that's it. He's just my friend. Nothing more."
"Okay… well, what about the Captain?"
Rose was ready to throw one of these journals at the back of Lily's head. "What about him, Lily?"
"Look, I don't mean to be all up on your head, but I heard you at Historia's coronation."
Oh.
"You're not going to say anything, are you?" Rose pleaded, all the previous ice now having melted, thanks to the heat that had risen to her face and neck.
"Of course not," Lily said, getting down from the small step ladder to bend down to Rose's level on the floor. "I just… want to let you know I'm rooting for you, that's all."
Rose gave a tight smile. "That's nice and all but he's kind of… Levi. I can't read him most of the time, so as much as I'd like to know what he's thinking about me I just… can't tell."
"Want me to ask him?"
"Do not dare do that," Rose warned, waving a journal toward Lily.
"Fine, fine. Our little secret."
