"Oh, you're not talking to me now?"
Ignored. You walk up the stairs and feel hear him walking right behind you. You hadn't opened your mouth since leaving the warehouse and for some reason, he was hell-bent on getting you to talk to him.
"Do you want me to apologize for killing a man who disrespected me? Because I won't, so you can keep playing this silent game and get nothing out of it."
"You have no loyalties to anyone, you killed someone who works for you, not against you." You accused and continued up the steps.
"No loyalties?! I choked Connie because he touched you, I just killed a man because he had the balls to speak to you. I keep my end of our deal! So don't tell me that I have no loyalties when all my loyalty has been given to you!" He shouted from behind you and you reached the top step.
"Don't you dare say any of that was for me! That was for you! Whatever loyalty you think you're showing me, you're not! You owe your men loyalty and I might be your wife but I don't love you and I sure as hell don't fucking like you." You claim with your arms crossed over your chest and you finally face him on the top step.
"Yet despite our hate for each other, I've shown you nothing but loyalty. So who's really the one with no loyalties? Me or you?" He steps up on the top step and you take a step back, his stare was intimidating and you wouldn't have him pinning you again.
He reaches into his pocket and you're almost positive it's some kind of weapon. He grabs your hand aggressively and opens it, he puts a box in the dead center of your palm and walks away with nothing more to say to you. You open the box and see a ring in the center of it, you'd really lost all control of your emotions today because you don't know what you were thinking when you did what you did.
You close the box and launch it at Eren's back as he walks away from you.
"I don't want your stupid ring, you probably stole it from some woman you killed anyway!" You shouted at him and for the first time in these last few months, Eren froze.
He completely freezes. The box is on the floor next to him and you're breathing heavily by the top of the stairs. He turns around finally and picks the box up off the floor, he walks over to you as calmly as ever but that only makes you more scared of him.
He opens the box when he finds himself in front of you and he takes the ring out, he snatches your hand and slides the ring on your finger.
"I bought the ring myself. I did not steal it, you accuse me and consistently have no evidence to back your claims. Stop." He takes his hand off yours and closes the box back up, he speaks to you in a calm manner but it doesn't make you feel any better.
He looked hurt by what you said, it was the first time you'd ever seen him look any kind of hurt at all by your words.?
You wait until he disappears down the hall before you rush to the bedroom and lock yourself in the bathroom. You run a shower because even though the blood isn't on your shoulder anymore, you feel filthy. You feel so filthy and responsible that you cry, you cry about what you've gotten yourself involved in.
You cry about how you'd gotten Connie choked against a wall because Eren has some strange need to be possessive with you. You cry because for a month you had Jean following you everywhere and staying in your apartment and the moment you did something about it, it brought you here.
You hated crying, you haven't cried in months and the last time you cried wasn't over anything nearly as serious as this. You were in the shower for so long that steam became suffocating, your shoulder hurt from scrubbing it so much and you eventually had to force yourself to get out.
The ring on your finger fit perfectly but it still didn't feel right.
You dried off with a towel and wrapped yourself in it before going to the closet to get your pajamas. You crawled into bed and covered yourself with the blanket, you didn't even want to go to the fitting tomorrow but knowing that you'd have someone to talk to as sweet as Carla put your mind at ease.
——
Once again, Eren is gone, and has someone else driving you to the bridal shop to meet Carla. You don't see Eren nor have you spoken to him since last night, you're brought to the shop and you get out of the car. You're dressed as you typically do with some jeans and a scoop neckline top tucked into your jeans with a leather coat overtop. You enter the shop and see Carla waiting for you, she wears a pale yellow dress and smiles when she sees you.
"I'm so happy to see you! I found the dress you wanted and I just eyeballed your measurements but if it doesn't fit, they can fix it." She informs and goes in for a hug the second she lays her eyes on you.
You follow along and you're brought to another section of the shop by a worker, Carla follows along before seating herself, and the worker tells you your dress is inside the dressing room. You feel a little on edge but suck it up and get yourself into the fitting room, the dress is just as gorgeous in person.
You undress and carefully get yourself into the wedding dress, honestly, you were shocked Carla eyeballed your measurements because it fit pretty much perfectly.
WEDDING DRESS^:
You step out of the fitting room carefully and reveal the dress to Carla, she immediately smiles when she sees you and for some reason, her smile makes you smile.
"You look...stunning. How does it fit?"
"Like a glove." You answer and look at yourself in the mirror behind her, she stands up to get a better look at the dress and you're feeling lost as you look into the mirror.
You don't really recognize yourself at all, you never imagined you'd be getting married this early or to the kind of man that Eren was. You were only twenty-two and you'd agreed to a marriage for your own benefit, you weren't getting married because of love like you thought you would be doing when the time came.
You look at yourself but you don't see yourself. The mirror just had to be showing you a different reflection, right? Your eyes were slightly puffy from crying yesterday, mentally you're shoulder was forever stained red with the blood of a man who tried to talk to you. What the hell have you gotten yourself into?
Suddenly, you can't breathe correctly and you feel as though your lungs are shrinking with every gasp for air. You try reaching to the back of the dress to undo the zipper, you need to get out of this dress and you need to now. You're panicking in front of Carla because you can't reach the zipper and a million other things are on your mind right now, the last thing you needed was to get married in the middle of all this chaos.
"Are you alright? What's wrong??" She asks at the sight of your eyes swelling with tears and you're shaky breath.
"I need this off...I need—" You're struggling to get out of the dress and you feel your airways closing so you start gasping for air while your tears begin to fall.
"Please...unzip this," you managed to ask of her and she hurries to the back of your dress and unzips it for you, you continue breathing deeply like the dress is the one confining you but it isn't.
You strip out of the dress, the door to the room is closed so it's just you and Carla and you can't even feel anything other than terrified for your future. You were just in your underwear but you didn't care, Carla hugged you out of nowhere, and at first, you guess that it's because she thinks you have cold feet but you're wrong.
You're finally able to steady your breath and that's what you're trying to do. It wasn't the marriage that was freaking you out it was how you were getting married and why you were getting married. All the research you've done, trying to track your father's footsteps but reaching dead ends could have all been avoided if you found Eren sooner. Why was he the one who held the answers? Why did you have to marry him just to get what you wanted?
"I know he can be a lot...to handle...I'm sorry about his behavior." She whispers gently, you didn't even know she knew how Eren was, you honestly thought she thought the best of him.
She holds you for a few minutes longer, helping you get yourself together. You should have been embarrassed about not being in the dress but Carla didn't seem to care at all, she looked more concerned with your tears and her comfort actually made you feel a lot better.
You agreed to this, you were paying the price for your own actions and felt there was no one to blame but yourself for this marriage.
"Do you still want to get this one?" She asks you and you nod your head, she looks smiles gently and picks the dress up off the floor for you while you go back into your dress room to change into your regular clothes.
You change back into your clothes and Carla brings over a worker to package the dress up for you once you step out. You wipe your face and try to look as normal as possible because after this you'd be heading back home. You leave the dressing room and out to the front desk where Carla is, she paid for the dress with Eren's card and when she saw you she gave you his card.
"Get yourself something with his card, please. If he says something about it to you then tell him to call me, alright?" She insists after handing the card to you.
"Thank you."
"Of course." She hands you your wedding dress that's packed up by the worker in a white box and a pink bow right on top.
You say your goodbyes and head back to the car where the man who drove you is waiting outside the car. He opens the door for you and shuts it once you get in, you set the box on your lap and stare at it the entire ride back to Eren's home.
When you arrived, you went upstairs first and left the box on the bed. You were hungry so you went back into the kitchen and got yourself something to eat. You eat leftovers of yesterday's dinner you made at the table in silence. Nobody is home.
You decided to not take the silence for granted, it was better than having a screaming match with Eren. You're eating your food and beginning to feel embarrassed about your breakdown in the dressing room. You've never panicked like that before and definitely not in front of someone else.
You heard keys jingling and looked to your right over your shoulder, Eren was walking into the kitchen and decided to sit right across from you with his glass you could smell alcohol in. You glance at him but don't hold any eye contact like he is, you stare at your plate of food and all thoughts in your mind disappear.
"How did the fitting go?" He questions and you can feel him looking at you but you don't look up from your plate of food.
"You're not speaking to me?" He asks and doesn't look away from you, you finish your food and get up with your to-go box, you throw it in the trash and exit the kitchen without a word shared with Eren but you feel him watching you the entire time you ignored him.
You walked to the stairs, ready to lock yourself in the bedroom when you heard Eren following after you when you were halfway up the steps.
"Why do you have to kill your father? Why are you going through all this trouble to find him if you're just going to kill him?" He questions and you stop on the exact step marking halfway up the steps.
You almost told him, you almost decided to be honest but that moment quickly passed. You walked up the steps again and ignored his questions like you couldn't even hear him.
——
EREN POV:
"How long had she been up there?" Armin questioned just before I walked out the front door.
"Since three this afternoon."
"She's been in that room for nine hours??" He whipped his head around at me like I offended him somehow and I nodded.
"She won't talk to me so she's locked herself up there." I explained to him but he was still standing in the foyer staring up at the hallway.
"You don't think you should check on her?" He turns around and questions.
"She would just hit me or scream, she doesn't want to be around me."
"Can you blame her? You're fucking terrifying and you've been terrible to her." He said and I just brushed it off again before walking out the front door.
Then, I stopped.
"Five minutes. That's it." I announced and heard him chuckling behind me before I turned around and went right back into the house, I shut the door after he walked out and walked over to the steps.
I was preparing for her to throw something at me the second I walked into the bedroom. I got to the door and put my hand on the doorknob, I was hesitating to walk into my own bedroom.
I opened the door and saw her lying on the bed, she didn't move when I opened the door and the longer I stared the more I realized that she didn't look like she was breathing. I walked over to her, just to be sure she was still alive and she looked at me when I got in front of her.
"You've been in here for nine hours and you haven't eaten anything." I addressed and she just ignored me again, she didn't scream at me or throw a pillow at me.
It caught me off guard, I came into the room expecting some kind of violence. I looked at the side of the bed she wasn't sleeping on and saw a white box wrapped with a pink bow, I walked over to it and anticipated seeing the dress she chose.
"If I look at the dress isn't that bad luck?" I stopped running my fingers over the bow and looked over at her.
"This marriage already is bad luck so go ahead." She mumbled.
"Is that what you think?"
"I don't "think". I know this marriage is bad luck." She corrected me and I sat down on the end of the bed staring forward because she clearly didn't care to look at me.
"If you don't like the dress, you could have gotten another one."
"You think this is about a dress?!" She perked up, sitting up on the bed and I finally felt those piercing eyes of hers looking at me.
"Is it not?"
"No, Eren. It's not about the stupid dress." She scoffed at me like any of what she was upset about was obvious.
"Oh. You're upset about the training...if it's that serious, I'll train you from now on." I offered but when I turned my head to look at her, she looked like she wanted to kill me.
"Why are you here Eren?" She sighs and looks like I'm the last person she wants to see, I was right about that at least.
"I came to make sure you were still alive." I confessed but she didn't look like she believed me, she went right back down with her head on the pillow and didn't say anything else to me.
Y/N POV:
—
Two full days passed and you'd gotten an update from Reiner. Eren hadn't returned home until today and Reiner asked if you could meet in person instead of talking over the phone. He was worried Eren would listen in to your phone calls or had some way to trace your phone calls. You agreed but the hard part would be trying to get Eren to take you and leave you alone with Reiner.
Asking Eren to leave you alone with a man at all was asking for him to kill somebody and that's not what you wanted.
You heard his car pulling up and you got out of bed and rushed out of the room to meet him at the door, you've never run down those steps so fast. There was no way you were telling him that you were meeting Reiner, you were going to tell him that Mikasa is the one you wanted to hang out with.
You waited by the door and saw him unlocking the door only to be greeted with you standing directly in front of the door waiting for him impatiently.
"I want to go hang out with my friend." You inform the second the door opens, you don't even bother to greet him.
He enters the house and clothes the door behind him with his keys in his hand and cocks an eyebrow at you for a second when he noticed you're just in front of him.
"Which friend? Mikasa?"
"How do you know h—...yes, Mikasa." You almost changed the topic by asking how he knew her name but that was a pointless question when you knew the answer already.
He pauses for another moment and thinks about it, you wait for his answer but find yourself growing more irritated every second.
"What time and where?"
"Right now at the park by my apartment." You glance at the gun he has just plastered out in the open against his hip since his shirt is tucked in and he thinks for a moment again.
"I'll give you forty-five minutes. That's all."
"That's fine." You agreed and he opens the door back up and you walk through first, he locks it after you and you head toward his car.
It's a bit cold out but you're too focused on whatever Reiner has to tell you that you don't care. You get into Eren's car and he does the same, you're still not really speaking to him and he's been gone for two days so there wasn't much to discuss. You were terrified that he knew you weren't actually meeting Mikasa but you kept your composure as best as you could for the entire car ride back into the city.
"I don't want you to come with me. You'll scare her." You blurted before he found a parking spot right next to the park.
"Okay." He parks the car and you were honestly a little shocked he wasn't putting up a fight.
You look at him waiting for him to disagree or insist on coming with you but he doesn't. He pulls out his phone and starts making a phone call, you get out of the car and start walking to the location Reiner said he would meet you, just next to the playground.
It took you three minutes to get to the playground, Reiner wasn't sitting on the bench he told you to meet him at so you pulled out your phone to text him and saw that he texted you he was almost there. You heard him approaching after another minute of waiting and you got up to greet him with a hug, you were far enough distance that you weren't worried about Eren seeing.
"How are you? Mikasa told me everything." You let go of him and you both sat down on the bench slightly sideways to talk to him so your back isn't touching the bench just quite.
"I could be better."
"Is he here right now?" Reiner asks and looks off into the distance for Eren.
"He's waiting in the car. Mikasa said you found something, what did you find?" You asked desperately.
It could have been anything but Reiner made it sound important over the phone so you trusted that it was. He parts his lips, ready to reveal whatever he knew to you but just as he does he pulls out a gun and aims it behind you in a matter of seconds.
There's only one reason for this and that reason is standing right behind you next to the armrest of the bench. That reason is Eren.
"Get the fuck up y/n." He orders in a tone only used on the men who work for him, you slowly turn your head around and find Eren with a gun pointed directly at Reiner.
You gulp at the sound of his voice, the authority in his tone that he's never used with you lets you know he was being dead serious.
"He is not who you think he is. Get up, now." Eren doesn't look at you, he doesn't take his finger off the trigger and he doesn't stop staring at Reiner like he wants to shoot him right here, right now.
"She is safer with me than with you. Stay here
y/n." Reiner commands and you're now stuck in the middle between two men who very clearly wanted to kill each other and had plans to.
What surprised you the most wasn't the appearance of Eren it was the sudden look Reiner had in his eyes. He looked satisfied when he saw Eren, as if he knew he'd show up and was betting on him. You didn't even know Reiner had a gun or intended on using it at all. Neither of them are looking at you but Reiner is the only one passing glances to you for seconds at a time.
Reiner was looking at Eren like he knew who he was, far before you even brought Eren up to Reiner. You never once considered the possibility that Reiner might have known who Eren was even before you did. It felt like your heart completely left your body, you had no doubt in your mind that Eren would shoot Reiner.
"I will give you the information you want but you have to trust me. Eren is dangerous, he can't be trusted." Reiner claims and you look at his finger on the trigger too, when you don't say anything he grabs your hand aggressively and holds your hand tightly.
It hurts. He's digging his nails into the skin on your hand and suffocating your hand. You look back over at Eren, you were in a public park but nobody was around. Eren's frozen like a statue, he glances at how tightly Reiners holding your hand and you knew the only way you were going to be able to deescalate the situation was by picking a side.
Who were you to trust? The man who's already shown you that he would kill anyone who even seemed like they'd harm you or the man you'd known far longer and came to for help?
"I'm the only one who has information on your father. It's information that even Reiner couldn't access so right now I need you to trust me y/n." Eren announces and his grip on his gun becomes more firm.
"How can I trust you?"
"Fine, don't trust me. Trust that I will shoot him in his fucking forehead if he doesn't let go of you right this second." Eren restates and that was something you truly believed, Eren could see that Reiner was starting to draw blood from how hard his nails were in your skin and that scared you a bit.
Without a second thought, you snatched your hand away from Reiner and rushed over to Eren because he'd already shown you that he would kill to protect you, as sick as it was, he had yet to bluff about it. Meanwhile, Reiner was the one hurting you, and looking at him, you didn't recognize him at all. You were very big on trusting your gut feeling and your gut feeling was telling you that Eren was telling the truth, Reiner wasn't who you thought he was.
The more you thought about the more you realized you'd never once questioned how he got his information, even that dah you went over to his house and he had all the files on Eren and the others...he failed to mention how he had access to those government documents. You're practically hiding behind Eren, he puts his arm back to push you directly behind him out of Reiner's view and you follow his instruction.
"She made her choice. Leave while I'm still feeling nice." Eren doesn't lower his gun, Reiner thinks about not lowering his either but he knows better.
He tucks his gun away swiftly and stands up from the bench, Eren watches him walk away and doesn't stop watching until Reiner can no longer be seen.
"You didn't shoot him..."
"You seem to have a problem with me killing people recently, so no, I didn't shoot him. Not yet at least." He turns around and just when he's about to grab your hand to lead you back to the car, he doesn't. He looks at the marks on your hand starting to bleed and decides not to grab your hand.
"Let's go." He insists and you start walking back towards the car, he walks behind you keeping a close distance.
You didn't know what to say or if you should even apologize for lying to him. He unlocked the car once you're close enough and you get in, you buckle up and try to sort through your own thoughts of what just happened.
"Reiner does the same thing I do. The drugs, the money, the weapons, and the dealings, all of it. He's been trying to sell in my part of the city for three years and I've almost killed him four times for it." Eren speaks as soon as his door shuts and he starts the car.
"You should have told me Mikasa wasn't the person you were meeting. Don't lie to me again." He starts driving and you're feeling extremely confused and unbelieving of the words that just came out of his mouth.
"I'd appreciate it if in the future you'd like information on me, I'm the one you ask. Don't go outsourcing for information, you're smarter than that." He sighs loudly and tightens his grip on the wheel.
You thought you could trust Reiner but now it seemed like the only person willing to give you answers was in the car with you. He drove fast but he was silent after he said what he needed to, he had veins perking out of his hand on the steering wheel and you looked down at your own hand that was bleeding a little.
You didn't even trust yourself right now, everything you thought you knew was wrong. Eren knew more but he was just keeping it to himself and you didn't know how much more you wanted to know right this second, all at once was too overwhelming for you. You sat in silence, going over everything in your head and how Eren was your best bet to staying safe. Keeping you alive benefitted him and as long as it did, you were confident you could trust your life with him.
"You have to pick a venue."
"What?" You snap out of your thoughts and look at him confused.
"A wedding venue." He clarified and while you didn't think this was a good time to be bringing that up, you use it as a distraction to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed.
Before you know it, you're so lost in your own head that you don't realize you're back home until Eren unlocks the car. He just glances at you and you notice he doesn't unbuckle.
"You're not coming in?" You unbuckle your own seatbelt and wait for him to do the same.
"No." He replies flatly and waits for you to make your way into the house.
"Are you upset?"
"Excuse me?" He tilts his head a little to the side.
"Because I was trying to find information on you...is that why you're upset?" You gulp, fearful that he might end up telling you off for even asking.
"No, believe it or not, I'm upset because another man fooled my wife and proceeded to put his hands on her but I'm not allowed to kill him at the moment. That's why." He confesses to you and all you can do is look at him.
His eyes told you that he was telling the truth, he wasn't very expressive anywhere else but looking into his eyes you seemed to be able to understand exactly how he was feeling. It was a scary feeling...scary because you saw pure anger in his eyes. Eren was not joking with you when he told you he couldn't hurt a hair on your head but what you failed to realize is that nobody else would be able to either. You failed to realize what Eren would do if someone so much as scratched you.
"I will give you the answers you want about your father but right now you need to get out and go inside." He wasn't joking with you, he wasn't asking, he was telling you to get in the house.
You unbuckled your seatbelt and he looked down at the crescent-shaped indents left on your hand from Reiner, his jaw clenched and you got out of the car like he instructed. Armin was at the front door, looking at you like he was waiting for you and the moment you shut Eren's door, he drove off.
"Is he going to come back?" You asked Armin and stepped up the stairs to the front door.
"Yes."
As much as you wanted to ask a million more questions, you knew Armin wouldn't give them to you. Him replying to you was already more than you expected so you complied and walked into the house after he opened the front door for you. Eren had a plan already in motion, a plan that was happening behind your back.
But he wasn't the only one.
Reiner was plotting just as much as Eren was.