More Than a Whole Brigade

Reader x Eren Jaeger

The rain pounded against the slippery and muddy dirt trail. All around you you can hear the heavy breaths and smacking footsteps of your comrades running, carrying their bundle of supplies and their green hoods drawn over their faces. You were shivering, but you felt hot all over. You guessed it was the exercise taking its toll.

You looked at each and every one of your friends, taking this opportunity to clearly analyze their traits. It was always a habit of yours to stay observant, especially in such a tragic world as this.

You looked at the short blonde next to you. Her name was Christa Lenz. She was always going out of her way to help people. She was fast and used her size to the utmost advantage; you knew this because you had sparred with her once and had underestimated the short girl, ending up getting a mouthful of dirt. She was always apologizing for the littlest things, even if it wasn't her fault. You held a deep respect for Christa and liked how she was the only one you could be yourself around.

Well, she was the only girl you could be yourself around. You had a close friend, Eren Jaeger. You looked ahead of you, where you saw him running past Jean with a determined glint in his eyes. You and Eren met the first day when you had discovered that the training barracks held a library (you went gaga over any kind of text you could your hands on). You had kicked open the door because your hands were holding a mound of books (the librarian was an eccentric and boisterous woman and was all over you when she found out you loved to read, showing you many recommendations) a little too hard, and the dark haired boy happened to be standing right outside it at that moment. He had fallen on his butt and you had rushed to see if he was alright, dropping the books you were carrying. You kinda leaned a little close when he put his head down, groaning, and when you asked if he was alright, he lifted his head and collided with yours.

You both took a trip to the nurse to get ice for the bruises. He had left, forgiving you. Later that day he stopped by your dorm to give back your books. After that you two just started talking at lunch an during training, finding many things in common. You learned a lot about his past, and he learned much of yours. He had later introduced you to his childhood friends, Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Alert. They soon became your friends as well, for you and Armin shared a passion for literacy and Mikasa liked that you were the only one who could keep up with her in training (or maybe it was because she was the only girl in the trio and just needed someone to talk to).

You liked Eren as a friend. He tolerated your sour attitude in the mornings and liked to talk with you at night outside in the garden. He was funny and you both had common enemies.

You breathed in and out slowly, forcing yourself not to breath too quickly or through your mouth. You read about stamina in one of the books you read in the library. Your lungs were screaming to take in more air, but you fought over it with sheer willpower and urged yourself forward, now taking fourth in the run. Now Jean ran next to you. You rolled your eyes because he was a total dick.

He would tease you and annoy you until you couldn't take it anymore and would start picking a fight with him. You respected the fact that he wouldn't go soft on you just because you were a girl. You liked that because you wanted everyone to see how you can make Jean fall on his ass with him giving it his all. Though he was a dick, he was a natural leader and a great soldier. There was no doubt he would end up in the top ten.

You pulled the hood lower over your face as a new figure loomed over you from behind. The hair on your neck stood on end and you shifted slightly to let the huge blond boy run in front of you. You really didn't associate much with Reiner. He did help show you a move you were having trouble with one day and often sat at your table at lunch and made jokes, and he did laugh the loudest, making the other teens in the room glance at your table. You didn't even know what to consider him as.

He always hung around Bertholdt and Annie. You only talked with Bertholdt once while cleaning your gear. He was very socially awkward, and the conversation was going nowhere, so you both just kinda cleaned in awkward silence. You never actually met or talked with Annie, though you knew to stay clear of her.

You looked ahead of you as you heard whoops and shouts. You had almost reached the end of the track and you could see your instructor, Keith Shadis, the former commander of the Survey Corps, standing under an umbrella with a stopwatch. Hit in the face with a new burst of motivation and glee, you took a big breath and forced your legs to take longer and faster strides. You rushed past Reiner and Mikasa, leaning closer to the ground to make yourself go faster. You passed Annie, who seemed quite surprised that you had surpassed her, and ran faster.

Faster, you thought. You reached Eren, who turned to you. Your lungs screamed and your legs ached from the strain. He looked at you with those big turquoise eyes and you grinned wickedly at him and snapped your fingers, gun pointing at him. He faltered for a moment, and you used that moment to force yourself to run ahead, the end of the track deadly close. You ran past it without stopping, and only until you realized that you hadn't was when you collapsed.

The mud bubbled around your face. It was cool and slick, and you were too tired to get up from its sticky clumpy-ness. You closed your eyes, panting through your mouth, hearing the raindrops hit your hood. Squashing footsteps made you look up. It was Shadis.

"Well done,_. You came in first." He walked away to check on the other collapsed trainees. Sasha lay close to you, already asleep and butt in the air. You heard her stomach growl and she stirred. You liked the bubbly and high spirited girl. She was fun to hang around with. You often found yourself standing next to her during training, or flying through the air to catch up with her. She was quick with her gear and always left you biting the dust.

You were getting really sleepy, and you heard someone call your name. It was Eren. You ignored his calls and you closed your eyes, breathing hard and still gasping for air. The last thing you saw before you passed out was him sliding on his knees to reach you.

"_!"

—-

You felt before you could see. You could feel the heavy fabric around you, a blanket you guessed, and sleek sheets below you and a pillow under your head. You also felt something moist and sticky on your forehead.

You opened your eyes and tensed up, groaning due to the strain of your muscles. You took a deep breath and found it to be raspy, the back of your throat itchy. You reached up to touch your forehead, fingers collided with a wet towel. You brushed a strand of (h/c) hair from your eyes and looked around the room, taking in your surroundings.

You could see the edge of the arm of a chair next to you; you didn't want to move much because every part of your body ached from the running. There was a door on the other side of the room. A cabinet stood on the other side of your bed. You could see the edge of your shirt peeking out, and that's when you realized you were in a gown and entirely dry, completely the opposite of what you remembered you last being.

The door opened and a nurse peeked in. She inhaled sharply when she saw you staring back at her and shut the door. Moments later a woman in a doctor's coat strode in, closing the door behind the shy nurse. "How are you feeling,_?"

Being the child you were, you demonstrated how shitty you felt by blowing a raspberry and pointing a thumb down. The doctor chuckled. "Young lady, you overworked yourself. You have bruises all over your body, and I'm pretty sure you'll be aching all over for days."

"I guess I got a little too confident…," you replied quietly, your voice brusque. You cleared your throat, but the itch didn't go away.

The doctor drew nearer to you and took the towel off of your head. "You had a little of hyperthermia. That rain took its toll on you. You'll have to stay in bed for a few hours before I can let you out."

You nodded. The doctor turned to the door and gave you a little smirk and sideway glance, "There's a boy outside who's dying to see you. He's the one who carried you here." You watched as the two left out the door, only to be replaced by Eren.

"Hey,_," he said, closing the door behind him. You watched from your bed as he made his way around the it and sat in the chair beside it. You propped yourself on your elbow and turned to him, wincing.

"I heard you carried me here."

"Loose some weight,_. You're goddamn heavy," he said jokingly.

"Shut up. Where are Armin and Mikasa?"

"Armin is still recovering and Mikasa is in the lunch room, getting you something to eat." It was then that you noticed the twisting pang of hunger in your stomach.

"Hey Eren."

"Hmm?"

"Had fun eating my dust?" you said, grinning.

He gave you a playful shove, but all that did was make you hiss in pain and smack his hand away. Eren pouted and took a strand of your hair and tugged at it lightly, making you more annoyed. You growled and tried to swat his hand away, but he deflected it with the back of his hand. You grabbed his hand and growled, "Eren, you little shit…"

The door opened and you both turned to look at who came in. Mikasa stood there with a tray of food, a half of bread sticking out of her mouth. Her dark gaze loomed over you two amusingly, taking in Eren's hand in your hair and your hand on his. Whoopsies.

It took you two a moment to realize what was wrong and your both sprang apart hurriedly, you blushing crimson red while his cheeks were pink. Mikasa laughed a little and closed the door behind her with her foot and set the tray of food on your lap, taking a seat on the cabinet.

"Thanks, Mikasa," you said, staring hungrily at the tray of food. She munched on her bread in reply.

"What time is it?" You chewed on your piece of bread, waiting for an answer.

"It's almost eight,"Eren answered.

You continued to eat, talking with your friends until Armin came in to tell them it was curfew. You set aside your tray after bidding them goodnight and watched them leave. You couldn't stand being cooped up in bed and would rather much prefer if you were in your room, devouring a book, but you were stuck here. Your fingers itched to feel the leaf like pages of a book and the leather of the spine.

You lay awake in bed, trying to get rid of the thought of your books from your mind. You were at a really great part in one you were reading; all the sexual tension between two characters, the protagonist and her friend. You closed your eyes tightly, trying to get to sleep.

Goddammit.

You whipped off the blanket from your bed and swung your legs over the side, your muscles screaming in protest. You ignored the ugly throbbing, you get aches and bruises everyday, you could deal with this. You stood and reached for your shirt and tore off the scratchy gown and put on your shirt, buttoning it up. You slid your feet into your pair of dark boots and grabbed the lantern that sat on the floor beside the bed and flipped the switch, watching as small flames flickered inside the glass.

Since it was past curfew you could get into trouble for being out this late. You quietly snuck through the halls, being careful to listen intently. You passed the boys' hall, where you heard muffled laughter and a loud 'shhh!'. Something fell and someone cursed. Jean. You were about to continue on your way when you heard someone suggest, "What about Annie?"

You realized they were gossiping about the girls. Being one, you snuck closer to the door, Reiner's door (of course the big blondy would invite all the guys to his room just to gossip, disregarding the rules of curfew), and flipped the switch on the lantern, watching as the flames were covered by a metal dome, engulfed in darkness once again. You immediately forgot of your original quest of books.

"The girl is a total bitch." Connie. The little twerp was always the one to speak up or say whatever was on his mind.

"I feel like she could kill me with her stare." Jean again.

"What's wrong with Annie?" a voice spoke up quietly. It was Armin. The room became quiet. He went on. "She's nice."

"Dude," Connie said. "She's not nice."

"Hey, Armin has the hots for Annie," Reiner laughed. Everyone joined with him. You frowned in disgust. Poor Armin, being harassed like that, he must be embarrassed.

"Did you see how fast _ ran today?" asked Eren.

You felt the urge to just burst in there and glower at all of them while snarling, 'Heard you were talking shit about me,' but then you were over thinking everything and became overridden with anxiety. You decided to just stand still and listen.

"She ran faster than Annie and Mikasa!" Eren said.

"Tct. I could run faster," Jean muttered. Suddenly the room was filled with shouts of doubt. You smiled and covered your mouth to muffle your laughter.

"Didn't she pass out?" Marco asked. You were friends with the freckled boy. You didn't talk with him much though because Jean was always around him.

"Yeah, she did," answered Bertholdt. "And Eren carried her bridal style to the infirmary."

The room was filled with, "OOOOO!?" and you pinched the bridge of your nose and blushed, feeling as if you were actually in the room. You heard Reiner laugh and say, "Eren, aren't you, like, really close friends with her?" The room quieted down. You guessed they wanted to know too. Even you wanted to know his answer.

"Yeah…," Eren said slowly. Again the room was loud. "B-but," he said loudly over the noise, choosing his words carefully, "we're not that close. We're only friends."

You sighed in relief. That was what you were looking for. You think. Maybe? No-shut up. The room was filled with a chorus of 'aww's. Jean spoke up. "Blah. Eren and _ would make a horrible couple."

"What makes you say that? I find them very compatible,"Armin asked.

You imagine the scowl on Jean's face as he replied, "Well for one reason, she's so much smarter than the dumbass over there. She's like the female version of Armin. And two, she's extremely quiet. Shit, some of us can't even talk to her. She just stares blankly at you and walks away."

Both reasons were very true. You were very smart and sometimes engaged yourself in a hardcore conversation with Armin. And you were very shy. You didn't do well around people you just met. You didn't like meeting people at all. You were very socially awkward and literally giving off anxiety.

"I couldn't even flirt with her," said a disappointed Connie.

That was true, too. You were in an awful mood that day after being chewed out by Shadis for picking a fight with Jean for the first time. And Connie had to sit at your table at lunch, though you preferred to sit alone. He kept trying to win you over or at least try to get you to show some emotion. He even followed you on your way to throw out your lunch. You got fed up and took his hand, smiling at him, and he blushed. But then your smile turned into a growl and you swept your foot under his legs, tripping him. You were still holding onto his hand, and he looked at you pleadingly, for it was the only thing holding him upright or he would have fallen. You let his hand drop.

You snickered quietly at the memory. You were stuck cleaning the bathrooms for a month. Though you felt very superior when you did that and regretted absolutely nothing.

The room exploded into laughter as they all remembered what had happened. "Why do you think that, Jean? You think she's not good enough for Eren?" Marco pressed.

"Or maybe you like _!" Reiner exploded. You blushed at the thought of dickwad Jean liking you. "O-of course not! Why would I like someone with a sour personality like her?" Jean spluttered.

"Whatever, but Eren totally likes her," you heard Connie say. Fuck off of Eren

"N-n-no I don't! I-well-I guess-wait!" Eren stuttered. The room exploded into laughter once again. Your eyebrows furrowed. "It's getting late, let's go-"

That was all you needed to hear. You mouthed, Oh shit!, and stumbled away from the door as you heard people shuffle inside. You managed to make it around the dark corner just as the door opened and boys piled out. They were whispering and laughing quietly, making their way to their rooms. You looked around the corner and caught a glimpse of a blushing Eren rubbing the back of his neck walking with Armin. You looked at Reiner's door and found him staring at you in the dark. You stared back threateningly until he closed the door.

You stood up after a few moments of silence. Well that was interesting. You turned the lantern back on and made your way back to your room, more flustered and confused than ever.

—

This is my first Reader x Character Fic, so if you may please tell me how to improve. I absolutely suck. I'm not sure how to portray Eren's personality in this Fic. Should I make him some oblivious cutie or someone close to Jean's personality? I seriously don't know. Anyway, I think I'll continue this. I don't think there are many Reader X Character fics on tumblr but wahteves. I hope you can relate to some of the things in here, like the overridden with anxiety think. Boss reader is boss. I hope I have the hyperthermia thing right, I only have some vague knowledge of it.