Chapter Text
"Krista!" a bright voice calls.
Historia immediately plasters on a smile and turns to face the speaker.
Her name is Gabi Magnolia, and she is the only person among the cadets who may be more of a fake than Historia herself.
"Have you seen Eren?" Gabi asks.
"I think I saw him heading toward the dining hall," Historia says. "I could help you find him, if you like?"
"Nah," Gabi says before grinning at her, bright and wild. "Thanks, though! You're a lifesaver!"
Her comrade trots off toward the dining hall, and Historia is careful not to let herself frown as she watches her go. She does stare after her for a moment though.
That moment is enough time for someone to sneak up on her.
"Looking at anything interesting?" a voice breathes into her ear.
Historia jumps, and is already scowling as she turns to face Ymir. Ymir, meanwhile, is grinning like the cat that caught the canary. The expression makes Historia's own soften.
"I was just talking to Gabi," she says.
"Interesting enough, I suppose," Ymir replies.
Historia can't help herself. "You suppose?"
Interesting is one of the easiest words to use to describe Gabi. The fifteen-year-old had joined the 104th training corps during the very last weeks of their training. Not to be scored among them, Shadis had assured them, but just to take the final tests. Rumor has it that she had been scouted by the survey corps and would be joining them immediately after graduation.
No, "rumor had it" isn't the right term, not when Gabi openly admits as much to anyone who asks. She is already set to join the survey corps after graduation and is only even with them for this last leg of training because she had begged. She claimed that she wanted to take the final tests to ease her anxieties and prove to herself that she was capable of facing titans.
(Odd. She doesn't strike Historia as the sort of person to be slowed down by anxiety.)
The rumor is that Gabi was scouted by the survey corps after she was caught scaling the wall with stolen ODM gear.
No one knows anything about her beyond that, her past as much of a blank slate to the rest of the cadets as Historia's. And even though they've gotten to know her over the past few weeks, Historia just can't shake the feeling that they don't really know her.
She doesn't know why. It might be some sort of liar's intuition. It could be that she sees another outwardly nice girl with a secretive past and can't help but project. Either way, whenever she speaks to her, something feels off.
So, yes, "interesting" is a good way to describe Gabi.
Yet Ymir just shrugs, then grins in that sneaky, half-predatory way of hers. "If you think she's interesting now, wait until I show you this."
Ymir grabs Historia's hand and is dragging her toward the dining hall before she has a chance to protest.