Chapter Text
Ymir sits nervously at the hospital. It was just a little thing for fun. Health class goes over finding and detecting cancer including the breasts. So why not try it out while in the shower. Yet you end up finding something’s off… and now your medicine freak of a dad has dragged you to the hospital.
It had to be something small… something unusual but safe! It had to be… it had to be. She’s too young to die!
“Ms Ymir Fonseca.” Ymir snaps up as the doctor approaches. She watches as her parents hang her heads low. No… no! “I have some bad news… it’s cancer.” Ymir’s ears start ringing. It feels like her life is crashing down upon her. What… what the hell? No… no this shouldn’t be happening! “Ms calm down.” She hears the doctor say faintly. “She’s having a panic attack!” Panic attack!?
“Dear… dear calm down.” Eventually after a few very long moments, she hears her dad. Why does her face feel so wet? “You’ll be fine… you’ll be fine.” Right… dad is a big shot medicine guy… he can save her!
“Re…really?” Ymir stutters out. “Will I be okay?”
“Are you calmed down now, miss?” The doctor was still here. Ymir wasn’t sure what to say. She looks at her mom with a warm smile.
“I've calmed down enough.” Ymir says through some bated breath.
“Good, would you like to hear the prognosis?” Ymir nods. “Wonderful. While the bad news of cancer is still there, there is some good news. It is an incredibly small cancerous tumour causing breast cancer in your right breast. We’ve caught it incredibly early.”
“What does that mean?” Ymir aks.
The doctor finds a chair to sit in. “In short, you’ve got a 99% chance of a five year survival rate and an extremely good chance that the cancer could be entirely annihilated thanks to advances in cancer treatment and research.” She smiled as her mom came to hug her. Guess in part she has to thank mom for this.
“I still have to go through chemo though… right?” Well, it wasn’t exactly all sunshines and rainbows.
“Correct.” The doctor says in an affirmative voice. “I’m not going to sugar coat it, chemo is a difficult period and treatment.”
“If I have to… I’ll do it.” Ymir says confidently.
“Wonderful, we’ll schedule your first appointment soon.” Ymir nervously nods.
Well… her life has certainly taken a turn.
~~~~~~
Of all the people she gets to tell her prognosis to first, why was it Sasha and Connie!? “Yo Ymir you look… distant.” Sasha notices.
“Yeah, did something bad happen?” Connie says while dribbling a basketball.
“I got diagnosed with cancer last night.” Ymir’s statement causes Sasha to do a spit take and Connie’s throw to go wildly off course.
“Holy shit.” Connie says darkly. “Are you… going to die?”
“What!? No!” Ymir says. “Well…nine point nine infinity repeating out of ten I’ll be fine.” It seems that went over Connie’s head a little bit.
“Really?” Sasha was still reeling from her spit take. “What kind of cancer-.”
“Hey baldy! Watch where you throw the ball!” Jean comes marching in nursing his head while holding Connie’s basketball. “You could’ve seriously hurt someone.”
“Oh shit sorry Jean!” Connie sincerely apologises. “I tried throwing for a three pointer but Ymir tellin us she’s got cancer threw me off.”
Ymir nervously watches as Jean’s face morphs into shock as he turns to look at her. “He’s jokin right? That’s just another one of his bad jokes right?” Ymir shakes her head no and defensively grabs her arm. “Holy shit, sorry to hear that.” It wasn’t long until Jean gets hit by a flying empty juice canister thrown by Sasha.
“Jean, you interrupted me!” She turns back to Ymir. “Now what I wanted to ask ya is, what kind of cancer is it?”
Ymir sighs. “Breast cancer in my right boob. It’s apparently pretty small though.”
“So good chance you make it?” Jean says nervously.
“Extremely good chance.” She says and she sees Jean’s stress deflate out of him.
“Oh thank goodness. After the Mina, Thomas, Hannah, and Franz situation I don’t think I could’ve handled another classmate of mine dying.” Oof, yeah. Jean brought up a bad memory of a certain drunk driving accident over at Trost.
“I still gotta go through Chemo though.” Ymir says partially defeated. She’s gotta go through it, but the things she’s read about it… yuck.
Jean and Sasha give an appropriate reaction of their condolences but Connie just marches up to her. “So we’ll be bald bros then huh?” He says with a big dumb smile.
Ymir laughs. “Yeah… yeah I guess we’ll be bald bros then.” She raises her hand which Connie immediately takes to dab her up. She’s got good friends. They’ll be there for her.
~~~~~~
Ymir wanders the halls… wondering who to tell next. Well… it has to be Historia right? No… no she can’t do that! Why though!? She doesn’t know… just that she can’t do it! Oh man, she is dreading Historia’s reaction.
So she instead tells the Eren, Armin, and Mikasa trio, with an added Marco. “Hey guys.” She waves at them as she walks towards where they were walking. School was over so they were probably heading home. Unfortunately being part of the school’s elite meant that Ymir… had no such chance.
Armin was the first to notice her. “Oh hey Ymir? What’s… up?” Oh right… nerds like him generally aren’t very responsive to someone who comes from the school’s elite. Marco also nervously turns around.
“Oh hey Ymir.” He says nervously as well. After that Mikasa and Eren also turned around… but didn’t say anything.
“Hey you still got that video of Historia acting like an idiot while we hid from the police right?” Ymir was gobsmacked. Off all things to mention… why that of all things?
“Uh yeah… I can send it to you, if you want it.” Eren made a fuck yeah noise. “Look anyways… this is just about me.”
This caused the group to raise some eyebrows.
“You want some tips to get into Historia’s skirt?” Mikasa mentions off-handedly. Wow, these people are weird.
“What!? Nonononono.” She felt herself get flush. “No… actually it’s pretty serious, I’ve got cancer.” She watches as their reactions are fairly sombre.
“That’s terrible to hear!” Marco says in a worrisome tone. “Do you know what kind?”
“Yeah… it’s breast cancer.” She says sheepishly.
“That’s rough, but you’ll make it through right?” Eren asks.
“Yeah, the doctors say I have an extremely near guaranteed chance of surviving, if not outright cancer elimination.” Ymir says and she sees a wave of relief wash over them. “Still… gotta go through chemo though.”
“That’s alright, because we’ll be here for you… right fellas?” Mikasa says while walking up to her. Ymir peeks over her shoulder to find Armin and Marco nodding while Eren just shrugs.
“Thanks guys… see ya later!” Ymir walks off as the five say their goodbyes.
Man…is she glad Historia isn’t here today.
“Hey ‘Mir.” Oh great… Annie Leonhart.
“What do you want, Annie?” She turns around to find the punk walking up to her.
“Heard ya got cancer, that sucks.” She says… surprisingly sympathetically.
“Yeah, but if you've heard that, you’ve heard I’m making it out alive.” She says.
“Of course, but I’m more sayin that because you’re missing this year’s orienteering tournament season.” Oh shit right!
Ymir slaps her forehead. “Shit! You’re right!” She removes the hand. “Yeah… I know you don’t do favours, but could ya win it for me?”
Annie laughs. “Yeah… all right, sure, but our rivalry is continuing next year, got it?” She holds out a hand.
Ymir snorts and takes the hand. “Yeah… roger roger.” She laughs a bit with Annie. “Anyways… see ya.” She waves off the punk. Ahhh, the pleasures of knowing the school delinquent is actually a softie dork deep down all that edge and holding that fact like blackmail. Well, more concern over her own safety.
She’s scared of what Annie can do if Ymir ever revealed her secret… to just about anyone.
~~~~~~
Ymir nervously stepped into the classroom where the school’s elite gathered. Bertolt and Reiner were playing chess while Hitch and Marlowe were being an obnoxious couple. Wonderful, things are normal. Just missing a resting bitch face Historia with her… lovely body. Shit not the time.
“Oh hey Ymir.” Reiner says from the chess match. It was clearly close. “Sorry, no Historia scalp for you today you lesbian simp.” Reiner teases.
“Har har… very funny, but I’ve got some serious news.”
“So did you get together with either Mikasa Ackerman, Annie Leonhart, or Historia behind our backs?” Hitch says offhandedly.
“Okay no Hitch!” Ymir stomps over to her. “Mikasa is practically dating Eren plus both Annie and Historia are straight!”
“Annie is, but not sure about Hissy.” She says filing her nails. “Anyways, what’s up?”
“I’ve got cancer.” Ymir growls out. She watches as the entire room gets silent.
“Oh…
shit
!” Reiner gets up from his chess game. “Any more details?”
“It’s breast cancer in my right boob, it’s really small and detected early and the doctors are giving me a near guarantee of survival, but I still have to go through chemo.” She rambled off.
She watches as Reiner also deflates the room and takes a breath of relief. “Oh thank goodness.” He puts a hand on her shoulder. “We’re here for you, got it? Historia as well most likely!” He says with a big dumb smile. “Speaking of her… you should tell her at some point.”
Right… eventually.
~~~~~~
“Connie, could you stop rubbing my head?” She sighs. Thank god her family’s apartment was fucking huge.
“Oh right sorry, but how does it feel to be bald?” Connie inquires.
“It sucks as much as chemo, no offence Connie.” She says.
“Ahh none taken.” He pats her on the back. In celebration of her cancer already being half gone she’s managed to invite everyone… well except the notoriously anti-social Annie. She’ll meet up with her when she’s not breaking Armin’s pelvis. How did that happen anyways?
Eventually Bertolt arrives, with no Historia. “Historia has gone fucking insane.” That was blunt of Bertolt.
“Why’s that Bertolt?” Eren lazily looks up from the dining table as he, Jean, Armin, and Hitch for some reason play uno.
“She thinks Ymir over there is fucking dying .” Ymir feels shock going down her spine. “Doesn’t believe the cancer is half gone and instead thinks it’ll roar back and kill Ymir over here.”
“That’s not good.” Ymir says from the couch. Has Historia lost it that much?
Explains why she’s been avoiding her like the plague the past month. Ymir gets up to grab some food, feeling her weak limbs creak as she does so. Fuck… she hates chemo. Too bad it’s the only thing she can do unless her dad’s miracle MRNA cancer vaccine gets going anytime soon.
~~~~~~
“That doesn’t sound so bad babe.” Historia says as the two hang out at a restaurant for a date. “Really it doesn’t.”
“Do you want me to go over in detail about how much chemo fucking sucked and how much not having you fucking sucked?” Ymir says with a particular distaste.
“No no no no. You don’t have to.” Historia says sheepishly as she looks at her burger. “If it brings up bad memories and stuff.”
“We’ve been dating for a year, Historia.” Ymir says bluntly. “I just don’t care to tell you because it’s boring.” She takes a sip herself. “Plus we’ve been over this, what’s in the past is in the past.”
Historia sighs and picks at her fries. “You’re right.” She grabs her drink. “To the future?”
Ymir smiles and grabs her drink as well. “To the future!”
The two glass meet and Ymir and Historia laugh. Cancer was probably the worst thing that has happened to Ymir so far in her life, and she wouldn’t want to do it again even if it resulted in the same result of her dating the love of her life.
Sure… it probably would’ve happened regardless, but, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth about these sorts of things. The past is the past and the present is the present. She lives in the present, therefore… it’s best for all to just… move on from it and live in the now. Although, looking back for some funny stories is a fine activity in itself.