Work Text:
“Ymir, what’s going on?”
“How should I know, there’s a damn tree blocking my view!”
Realizing he was the new topic of the conversation, Bertholdt Hoover couldn’t help but smile. He tried as casually as he could to move or crouch down in some way, but it was no use. Being almost 6ft 4 had it’s advantages, but it was also quite problematic. Take now for example. The cadets were currently gathered around in the training yard, after hearing the one and only voice of Keith Shadis causing a disturbance. Someone had clearly decided to get mouthy, and he wasn’t having it. Everyone wanted to get a good look at the drama, but unfortunately, that wasn’t working out. He wasn’t trying to make himself smaller for Ymir, but for Krista. She was just so tiny, and he felt bad.
Ymir was about to lose her shit. She was always low key one for drama, but it was impossible to see anything with Hoover standing directly in front of her. She also knew that if Krista wasn’t with her, Bertholdt would have had a nice bitchy comment to throw in. She was tempted to just knock him over, but sensing the oncoming trouble, Krista decided to interfere.
“It’s ok Ymir, it’s probably not that important anyway.”
“I doubt that. Shadis always like to be extravagant in these things. Hey Hoover! Could ya sit down or somethin’!”
Bertholdt could feel his ears burning. He could feel eyes on him, and he became very anxious. He started to crouch so that people would stop looking, but was stopped by Reiner.
“Man don’t listen to her, she just likes to be bossy. If she can’t see she can move somewhere else.”
“Don’t tell me what to do, Braun.”
“Please, it’s not like you would listen, considering you’re stubborn as a fucking-”
“Braun I swear to-”
“Guys please stop-”
“CADETS”
Having clearly won the argument, Shadis had turned his attention to the group of teenagers that had assembled to watch the show.
“Don’t you have training to do?! GET BACK TO IT!”
The crowd quickly dispersed, many relieved that Ymir hadn’t had the chance to get out of control. She was ready to tear Reiner a new one, but Bertholdt had turned around quickly and simply said:
“S-sorry…”
Then he was gone, trailing after Reiner so they could continue to spar together. Only one person was able to see the smirk on his face, dropping the shy act. Ymir just scowled in his general direction, before walking off to brood somewhere else.
The day had been long, and the cadets were grateful to be able to have dinner and then go the fuck to sleep. Ymir didn’t want to have to deal with Jaeger’s shit that evening, so she sat on the other side of the dining hall, at a table with Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt. She decided to listen in on their conversation, while keeping an eye out for Krista.
“-convince him that he saw a titan in the field.”
“That’s idiotic Reiner, why would somebody go through all of that trouble because of something that obviously isn’t true?”
“I dunno, probably wanted to delay training, was too tired to keep going.”
Ymir was over what had happened early that day, but clearly Reiner wasn’t, and felt the need to inform Annie of the rumors that were going around. Rolling her eyes, Ymir turned to Bertholdt. The big guy was hunched over his dinner, which was barely half gone. That was off, seeing as how they were barely even given a full meal to begin with.
“Yo Hoover, what’s on your mind?”
He wasn’t expecting any involvement, especially from Ymir. He thought she might be pissed about not being able to see earlier, but she was clearly over it.
“Oh. Um, nothing really, just tired I guess. I was a pretty long day.”
Ymir’s bark of laughter could be hear a few tables away. She never was discrete.
“Sure man, whatever. If you don’t wanna talk about it, just say so.”
“There’s nothing-”
“Well, I’m heading in for the night.”
Everyone watched as Annie abandoned her seat, Reiner and Bertholdt saying goodbye. Ymir was about to leave in search of Krista (Must be in the showers), but stopped when she heard a very audible sigh from the boy in front of her. She rolled her eyes again, sitting back down.
“Hoover you’re killing me! Just spit it out already, man.”
“It’s nothing-”
“If it was nothing I wouldn’t be giving a damn would I?”
Reiner looked up, slightly shocked at Ymir’s words, even though they came out pretty harsh.
“Wow Ymir, you have feelings?”
“Fuck off. Literally. Go away, I need to talk to the beanstalk for a minute.”
Reiner decided against pissing her off, and got up compliantly, bitching under his breath. When he was finally out of earshot, Ymir turned on Bertholdt.
“Cut the crap Hoover. Something’s bugging you, I can tell.”
“Why are you so worried? If it was something serious, I would tell you.”
“Ok listen up, I’m only saying this once. You’re one of the few people here I actually like. You’re not an asshole, you listen to people, and you’re genuinely kind. That’s some rare shit to come by, so I want to help you. Because you’re my friend….and I care about you.”
Bertholdt looked touched, and Ymir started to freak out. She was bad with emotions, and decided to backtrack real quick.
“And besides, all your moping is a huge buzzkill, man. Can’t have you constantly sucking the life out of the atmosphere.”
Bertholdt sighed again. Ymir was nice, nicer than she originally seemed. She was extremely cut off at first, but they had bonded quickly one day when Bertholdt had helped Krista out with a move she was having trouble with. Ymir originally stuck around to make sure he didn’t try any funny business with Krista, but she grew fond of the gentle giant.
“It’s just….I dunno it’s weird to talk about, I’m gonna sound like a 10 year old.”
Ymir grinned. There was only one explanation for this. And his behaviour was the last piece of the puzzle. She decided to let him tell her for himself, so she tried to egg him on.
“Well what the hell is it?”
“I….Ymir, when...when you liked a guy-”
That was as far as he got, because Ymir had let out a hideous snort that was followed by cackling laughter. Everyone in the dining hall had turned to look, and Bertholdt immediately regretted speaking.
“What’s so funny? Ymir everyone is staring-”
“Hahahahaha, sorry man. Oh boy that’s classic. Bertholdt.”
She had turned completely serious in a matter of seconds, and he became very uncomfortable.
“W-what?...”
She looked him directly in the eyes for a good 10 seconds before speaking.
“I’m super gay.”
His face went completely red, and she started to cackle again. He felt pretty stupid, it wasn’t hard to believe. In fact he was pretty sure that everyone already knew, even those who had never spoken to Ymir once. She was clearly pretty open about it. She was having a hard time breathing, and had started to go blue when she managed to calm down. She expected him to apologize or some shit, but that’s not what happened.
“Same.”
Ymir stopped all movement, and just stared at him, blinking. That took a very unexpected turn.
“Really? You’re serious? Man I could have sworn you had a thing for Annie…”
Bertholdt cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably.
“No not...not Annie…”
“Well then who…”
Ymir stopped dead in her tracks.
“No.”
Bertholdt just looked down at his hands, face glowing red. Busted.
“Are you SHITTING me? BRAUN?”
The whole dining hall spun around and the loud declaration, causing Bertholdt to fling himself across the table and slap a hand over Ymir’s giant mouth.
“Will you shut up! Nobody else knows, not even Annie!”
“Really?”
Ymir was slightly shocked. He was clearly close to the small blonde, but originally she thought it was for other reasons. Huh. She was the only one who knew? She almost smiled at that, the fact that Bertholdt had chosen to confide in her of all people. Interesting. A wicked grin was slowly forming over her face.
“Well big guy, looks like you need a wingman!”
“No. This is a terrible idea, and it’s terrible.”
“Bert, shut up! It’s a great idea, just do exactly what I told you.”
It had been a week since Ymir had started Operation Douchebag (Ymir do we have to call it that? Yes.). She had, with Krista’s help, come up with some excellent plans to get everyone’s favourite giant to hurry the fuck up and tell Reiner how he feels. She hadn’t mentioned any specific names around Krista, but the tiny girl was smart. She had pieced things together pretty quickly when she noticed Ymir spending a large amount of time with Bertholdt. And they weren’t exactly quiet when they “whispered” about Reiner. But she decided not to bring it up, as she respected Bertholdt’s privacy.
“Ymir all of your other ideas have been shit. I nearly got in trouble the other day with Shadis because of your-”
“Hey, it’s not my fault that you’re too big to be able to sneak around properly!”
She regret what she said instantly. She was the only one who knew that Bertholdt was very insecure about his height. She jokes about it often (because, well, it’s what she does), but often forgets to make sure he’s ok with it. Bertholdt sighed again.
“Maybe we should just call it a day and give up.”
It was Ymir’s turn to sigh. What she did next was extremely difficult, but she did it anyway.
“Bert, you are the kindest, most gentle person in this training corps. You’re also brave and strong, which means that you can do this. And if Reiner is too stupid to realize that then it’s his fucking loss.”
Bertholdt smiled. A real, genuine smile. It didn’t happen very often, so it made Ymir happy when it did. It was nice to see him happy. It added to his face, and if Ymir wasn’t a raging lesbian, she would’ve called dibs a long time ago.
“So, do you know the plan?”
“Yeah….I’ll be back soon.”
It was almost two hours later and Ymir was ready to rangle up a search party. Krista assured her that everything was fine ("It probably went well and they’re just spending some time together"), but Ymir wasn’t buying it. Bertholdt was most likely rejected and was curled up in a hole in the ground ready to die.
She kept gripping Krista’s hand for an attempt at comfort, and she nearly jumped out of her seat when she saw Reiner’s face coming in their direction. She hadn’t seen him all day either, and he had a huge grin on his face as he walked by.
“What happened to you, Braun?”
He didn’t answer her, he simply winked and kept on walking. What the fuck?
“Well I’m going to get a shower, Ymir.”
“Mmkay.”
The blonde girl frowned, clearly expecting Ymir to join her, but just rolled her eyes and walked away when she didn’t. She saw a familiar face on her way.
“Hi Bertholdt!”
Ymir whipped around at the sound of his name. She sprinted over and wanked him down by the collar. She kept dragging him away until they were somewhere secluded where they wouldn’t be heard.
“Man what the fuck took so long? I was ready to go on a hunt to make sure you were still alive!”
“Sorry Ymir, but-”
“You better have a damn good explanation! I was worried as hell Bert!”
He grinned at that, earning him a fierce “Shut up” from Ymir.
“It went well with Reiner…”
Ymir perked up instantly.
“Shit really? What happened?”
“Well I found him by the stables right after I left you. We were talking and I tried to say what you told me to but my brain shut down. He got concerned when I couldn’t think of anything to say so I panicked and….”
“Oh god, what did you do?”
“Well I kinda….just kissed him.”
Ymir couldn’t help herself. She threw her fist into the air with a victory cry and threw her arms around her giant friend. He really did have the balls to do it after all. Bertholdt hugged back hesitantly, not used to Ymir initiating contact. She finally detached herself from him, grinning widely. Seeing his face, she added quickly:
“Tell anyone about that and I’ll deny it and kill you.”
Bertholdt couldn’t help but laugh. He had never been so happy in his life, but now things were starting to turn out pretty great. He was exhausted, and wanted nothing more but to shower and sleep. Unfortunately, Ymir wasn’t done.
“Wait hold on! What in fuck’s name took you so long? A kiss doesn’t take two hours!”
Bertholdt went red in an instant, and suddenly refused to look her in the eye. He shuffled his feet uncomfortably, and couldn’t seem to remember how to speak.
“Um, well….well after I...um…”
Ymir narrowed her eyes, instantly suspicious. Something had happened, but he obviously didn’t want to tell her. Too bad.
“Bert, what happened after? And don’t you dare avoid me, we are not leaving until I get an explanation!”
The tall boy sighed, accepting his fate and sat down on a nearby rock.
“Well when I kissed him, he kinda freaked out, but like in a good way. He kissed back and told me it was about damn time- don’t give me that look. But things got out of hand and, um…”
Ymir raised an eyebrow, urging him to go on.
“We kind of, um….fucked behind the stables…”
There was a long pause before Ymir could no longer contain herself.
“WOOHOO! You slut, I love you!!!!”
Bertholdt was tackled with another hug, Ymir’s body shaking with laughter. It quickly became contagious, and soon they were both on the ground in fits of laughter. When they had finally settled down, Ymir stood up and held out her hand.
“C’mon Bert, let’s get some food.”
The boy took her hand and stood with her, and they made their way back to the dining hall. Bertholdt looked at her, wanting to show his gratitude for all of her help, but he was unable to find any words. So instead, he picked her up and flung her over his shoulder, ignoring the curses and death threats pouring from her mouth. And he smiled.