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Being inside her titan form for too long has always put a strain on Pieck’s body, as well as mental state. At times she would find herself unable to walk upright without her crutches, crawling around on all fours. At other times she was incapable of sleeping without waking up from feverish dreams, where she lost her comrades to an unyielding battle against their great nation’s enemies.
When Pieck resurfaces from her titan’s body after months of being inside this time, she can’t seem to move her legs. Now matter how hard she wills herself to just move her legs, they won’t listen to her. This leaves her at the mercy of her teammates' kindness, always having to ask someone to carry her around all day, until her body recovers. However, the 2 month mission fighting against the Mid-East forces has left all of the Marleyan warriors exhausted, so Pieck oftentimes didn’t want to disturb their well deserved time off.
This leaves the female warrior with just one option, napping away the time in her room until she can walk again on her own. Pieck’s room mirrors her stance, there are clothes thrown on almost every vertical surface, as well as empty bowls and cutlery from when she bothered to ask someone to bring her food.
That’s the state, her guest witnesses when he enters the room. He had visited his parents for a couple of days, to do some catching up. Room messy, air stale and Pieck sleeping on the floor. She most likely rolled out of her bed again, he muses in his head. The blond then moves to open up the window, letting in a fresh summer breeze. He watches her content state for a couple more minutes, until he decides to wake her.
“Hey Pieck, what are you doing down there, sleeping on the floor?” He asks as he shakes her awake carefully.
“Pokko, you already came back from your parents house. Don’t you want to join me here?” Pieck asks him, the sleep still evident in her voice.
“I told you not to call me that Pieck,” he grumbles, but there is no malice in his words, just fondness. “I wanted to stay longer but they told me to go back to the barracks, said I was so fidgety without you around.”
Pieck’s melodic giggles break through the pregnant silence that followed Porco’s statement. “Did you miss me that much Pokko? It’s only been a week since you last saw me.”
Incomprehensible mumbling is heard from where Porco sits, his head buried inside one of Pieck’s beloved pillows. To confirm her hypothesis of him blushing she tries taking the pillow from him. Sadly, she fails, he’s still stronger than her.
“What was that just now?” She asks, trying to be more serious this time.
After another moment of silence he speaks. “I said it has been ages since I last saw my girlfriend in her human form. Can’t a boy miss his girlfriend he hasn’t seen in almost 3 months. Or is it that reprehensible?”
“Of course not Porco. Frankly, I missed you too. A lot. I felt so close yet far from you. Whenever we fight alongside another you are with me, but not really.” The smile on her face is rueful.
“Let’s not worry about this too much, we should enjoy the time we get to spend together. Our time together is limited after all,” he whispers, taking her hand and squeezing it gently.
Pieck stays silent for a moment before she leans in to capture Porco’s lips in a sweet kiss. It’s their first kiss since the start of the colonization mission, they had only seen each other briefly since it finished. Afterall, Porco decided to visit Liberio and his parents as soon as possible.
Their magical moment is broken when Pieck’s stomach starts rumbling. She smiles at him sheepishly when she notices his irritated expression. “Have you been eating Pieck?” He asks with an irritated tone to his voice.
“I may have forgone eating in favour of not bothering anyone, but when I was really hungry I ate something, I promise.” There is a guilty expression on her face as she utters the sentence.
“That good-for-nothing Reiner. I told him to make sure you were eating enough. I know how you get after missions. You always forget to eat because you got so used to not eating food while in titan form. Pieck, this harms your recovery. You need to eat if you want to be able to walk on your own again,” he sounds quite irked now.
Now she feels even more guilty, she didn't mean for him to worry about her so much that he got angry. She didn't have any bad intentions, she just wanted for her friends to be able to rest.
“I’m sorry Pokko. I didn’t mean to worry you. I will try to ask for help next time.”
“You better! Otherwise I have to take you with me next time. I can't have you die from starvation while I’m not here to feed you, ” he says, trying to sound nonchalant. But the tone of his voice reveals his concern.
“How about we eat something now? We can cook something together and you can carry me to the kitchen.” Her excitement is dangerously contagious at times.
“Weren't you just taking a nap, are you not tired anymore?”
“I was just sleeping the time away, don’t worry. I’m not actually tired.”
“Then we can, cook something together, I mean,” he fumbles with his words some more. “And if you want, I can carry you downstairs and hold you while we cook, but only if you want to of course.” The blush on his face is evident once again, but this time he doesn't try to hide it.
“I would love to do that Pokko.”
He motions for her to cling to his back, to which she complies after some coaxing. After, they swiftly move downstairs into the warriors' shared kitchen, which has been left in a clean state, most likely courtesy of Zeke.
“So, what would you like to eat today sweetheart?”
“I see you’re back with the nicknames again too. Well, what would you like to eat then, something sweet or...,” she purrs into Porcos ear. He almost drops her as she sultrily whispers into his ear.
“Stop it with the messing around Pieck, or do you want me to drop you onto the floor and go back to my own room?”
“You wouldn't do that Pokko, you love me too much. You couldn't bear just leaving me on the floor, hungry and helpless.What if that “giant-oaf” Reiner comes back and accidentally tramples over me in his haste to escape Gabi’s clutches? I wouldn't be able to move properly for another week and you wouldn't be able to get busy with me.”
The wicked smile on her face is enough for Porco to know that she already knows she won the fight. “Fine by me,” is all he utters while placing her onto a chair close to the stove.
“So, how about we cook some seafood pasta? You brought some clams and mussels from the market or not? You always do. Because you and I both know this is your favourite dish.”
Porcos response is just a mumbled, “yes”.
As they start preparing the clams and mussels to boil them in the water he suddenly appears behind Pieck, supporting her body. This makes her relaxs against his chest instead of trying to balance herself with the help of the counter. She smiles thankfully as she says, “you always keep me from falling don’t you?”
“It’s my job sweetheart. Who else will keep you from falling?” There is a playful smirk on Porco’s face this time around.
“You already made me fall, but only for your charms. Gravity had nothing to do with that happening. It was you, solely you. You always helped me, even when you were still part of the panzer unit before you inherited the Jaw.”
When Pieck mentions their shared history, they both pause for a moment. Just reminiscing the time where they still danced around another, both too shy to address the growing feelings between them. There were a lot of stolen glances, shy smiles as well as seemingly unprompted blushing, whenever someone mentioned the both of them in one sentence.
She remembers the day he confessed as if it was yesterday. It had been a cloudy spring day, a rare day not spent on another ship on their way to attack their nation’s enemies or on the battlefield. Just a quiet day inside the walls of Liberio, with children running around, people in the streets and her visiting her father at the hospital. When she left the hospital she found him waiting for her at the exit. In his arms a couple of flowers, clumsily tied with a ribbon.
“Are those for me,” she asked him back then, unsureness evident in her voice.
“They don’t have to mean anything,” he said. “Only if you want them to. But if they mean anything to you, please go out with me Pieck Finger. I promise I will make you happy. I might not be a warrior like you and my brother, but I am still an honorary Marleyan, just like you.” His voice, still that of a teenage boy, had cracked during his little speech. But Pieck found it all the more endearing.
“Hey Pieck,” is what disrupts her daydream. “The seafood will be overcooked if you don’t take it out of the pot this moment.”
After a moment of confusion she immediately complies and dumps the cooked seafood into the readied pot of sauce on the adjacent stove top. “Sorry, I was just daydreaming for a moment.” She says as she mixes the tomato sauce with the seafood.
He seems to think for a little moment until he decides to be brave and nuzzle Pieck’s neck. “Do you know how domestic this all is? It feels like I’m coming home after a long day of work, my lovely wife in the kitchen cooking my favourite meal.”
“If only it was that easy Pokko. If only we were ordinary people without responsibilities to our commanding officers. If we weren’t born as Eldians,” she sighs.
“But we might have never met each other then. The world is so big, and I wouldn’t change who I was born as, even if I could. Because even though we face hardships nearly every day, there are still things that make life worth living.”
They keep a comfortable silence while they eat Pieck’s seafood pasta, occasionally feeding each other little bites and just enjoying the time they have together. When it’s time to wash the dishes Pieck complains about doing all the cooking so Porco should do the dishes. Whipped as he is, he complies.
Porco carries the then sleepy Pieck up to his room. After he has laid her into his bed, he attempts to leave to shower but is held back by his girlfriend. “You can’t just leave me alone here, I will get cold you know, do you really want that?”
He sighs, “you really are spoiled you know? Let me just take a quick shower and change my clothes, I don’t want the bed to get dirty.”
“But I already am in here with my normal clothes. You can just take off yours and join me,” she whines cutely, while trying to drag him into the bed.
The silence that follows is broken by Porco stripping out of his clothes, leaving him in his underwear, while Pieck’s eyes follow his every move.
“Can you not stare at me like that! Makes me feel watched.”
“I’m just admiring the view,” there is a dopey smile on her face as she says that.
When he finally climbs into bed with her and under the covers, she wraps herself around him. “I’m never letting you go again, you can be my personal heater now.”
“Is that my only purpose to you, your personal heater? I feel attacked right now, after all the things I’ve done for you.”
“There are other things too, don’t worry.”
While they continue their bickering, their faces move closer and closer until their lips meet for another kiss. And another. And one after that.
Pieck whimpers as he trails a line of kisses up her throat and neck, momentarily stopping to bite and suck on the skin. “Magath will kill you if he sees those, you know that.” she says, her voice strained.
“I don’t care right now. He can keep nagging us, I haven’t been with you in ages, he should lay off a bit. We aren’t little kids anymore, we know how to handle things.”
“But we should wait until I can fully move again okay? I don't want to miss out on the real fun you know?”
He laughs, “you always manage to rile me up and leave me hanging, you know? But it’s okay, it’s not like you don’t have a reason for wanting to wait.”
“Thank you, Porco. You really are the best boyfriend I could have imagined having,” she yawns, while laying her head on Porco’s naked chest.
“Sleep tight, sweetheart. I will still be there when you wake up, tomorrow up until your last day.” He presses a chaste kiss to the crown of her head, letting himself succumb to dreamland too.
~
When Reiner enters the room later that day, after having searched for the missing Pieck, he finds them sleeping on the bed, still entangled. There is a small but wistful smile on his face as he watches their content expressions. How often had he wished to be able to bring his special person back to life. To hold his lanky form while they slept, cook him food after his taxing transformations. He would give anything to have Berthold back.
As he slowly closes the door he notices Porco’s form moving closer to Pieck’s, the two so close, nothing could come in between them. A sole tear escapes his eye.