Chapter 35
"Hey!" A familiar voice calls out to Crystal as she is walking out the doors for lunch, she turns her head to see the black haired boy running up to her.
"Oh hey." Crystal smiles sweetly at him.
"I was hoping I'd catch you before you disappeared for lunch, can we talk?"
"Yeah, come with me to my lunch spot." Crystal continues her walk outside and looks up at the sky as it seems to shine.
"Wow." Sebastian breathes next to her, and Crystal looks over at him, "Your eyes are really pretty."
"O-Oh thank you!" She feels her cheeks warming up as she looks back ahead of her, as she approaches the circle she sits down on the grass and scoots to where he can sit between her and Levi.
"Wow you have a lot of friends." He says as he scans the group, and Hange is the first to say something.
"Nice to meet ya! Are you a new friend of Crystal's?"
"I sure hope I will be!" He grins, "We'll see if I got what it takes."
A soft 'tsk' can be heard from beside him, and Crystal simply looks at Sebastian as if she didn't hear it, "So, what did you want to talk about?"
"How will we be going to the Arcade after school?"
"Oh, I figured I'd hitch a ride off Erwin again and come back with my car, or we could meet at the Arcade itself."
"I've got my car here, if you don't mind riding in something normal."
"That's fine with me, normal tends to be comfier." Crystal pulls her lunch out of her bag and starts to eat, she watches as Sebastian does the same.
"You have really pretty eyes." Sasha says, "They're a really pretty Emerald Color."
"Oh well shucks! Thanks, but I personally feel as though Crystal's eyes are prettier." Crystal tenses up a little, "They're absolutely stunning in the daylight!"
"Oh yeah they are," Hange smiles, "She's got those 'Crystal' blue eyes that captivate anyone who looks into them, ain't that right, Levi?" For some reason Crystal felt nervous as silence filled the air.
"They're just regular eyes. We all have them, no one pair of eyes is more special than the other. So stop spewing nonsense."
"Harsh, man!" Sebastian hisses at Levi, "You're supposed to compliment ladies whenever you get the chance."
"Sorry, I don't get how giving someone weightless compliments means anything." Levi gets up and walks back towards the tree behind them, leaving Sebastian to groan.
"Some guys, I'm telling you! They don't understand how to appreciate pretty people."
"Levi has a hard time complimenting people like that, it's not really in his nature." Farlan says, "So you two are going to the arcade after school?"
"Yeah, she told me about it and honestly I had no idea there was an arcade here!" He chuckles.
"How can you live here and not know about the arcade?" Connie asks with a raised eyebrow.
"I just moved here for this academy, I'm not familiar with the city."
"Makes sense, I feel lost at times myself." Erwin says, "It's nice to see her making new friends."
"Especially after the week she's had." Hange agrees and Crystal ignores them as she finishes up eating, pulling out her journal and opening it.
"What's happened in the past week?"
"Oh I had a crazy seizure." Crystal says simply as she flips to the newest page and smiles as she sees the newly written letter.
"What?" Sebastian gapes.
"Yeah, turns out I had a really high fever." Crystal starts to read the letter.
"Pen Pals sounds really cute, and sure. I guess I can start with what Titans were. There's a certain race of humans known as Subjects of Ymir, or otherwise known as Eldians, and we're the only race who can be turned into Titans.
What is a titan, you may ask. They're giant human-like creatures, basically immortal until you cut the nape of their neck. They killed hundreds, maybe thousands of people within the walls. But what the people inside the walls feared the most was what was keeping the outside world from crashing down on Paradis, until one day 3 of the nine Intelligent Titans came to Paradis in search of the Founding Titans powers.
There are 9 intelligent titans; The Founder, The Attack, The Armored, The Beast, The Cart, The Colossal, The Female, The Jaw, and The Warhammer.
They each had their own individual powers and for a time, everything but the Attack and the Founder were passed down every 13 years in Marley.
That's a lot of info for someone who has never seen a titan. How about your world? Are Marley and Paradis Island at war?"
Crystal shook her head and pulled a pen out of her bag, she began to write as the sounds of people talking drowned out into nothing but mumbling.
"Marley and Paradis signed a peace treaty about 10 years ago. Who knows how long it'll last though.
Titans sound really scary, but if Eldians are the only ones who could turn into titans, it seems that all the titans outside of the walls were really just humans and, I bet that took its toll on people.
My world also doesn't have anything like titans! That would be horrifying!
How did you and Levi find out you had feelings for each other? Could you have Levi write out when he first realized? Or if that's too weird, maybe you can tell me why Eren wasn't around in your world."
"Hey, what are you writing?" Sebastian asks, leaning over her shoulder and she slams the journal shut before he could see what was inside.
"Oh, it's my journal. My therapist said I should start journaling more."
"Wait, did you go see Dr. Yaeger?" Levi raises an eyebrow from the tree he leans against, "I thought he said you were good."
"I- uh… I emailed him." Crystal smiles back at Levi nervously, who gives her a skeptical glare, "Anyways, I'm going to head in early! I'll see you later Sebastian." Crystal shoots up and starts to walk towards the door quickly, she looks back quickly to see that Sebastian had returned to chatting while Levi kept his eyes fixated on her.
She avoided Levi for the rest of the day, she knew he was suspicious of her, she messed up not having her story straight to begin with. As she walks out of the school, her anxiety lowers as she sees Sebastian waiting by his car.
"Hey! Sorry I ran off earlier." She says as she walks up to him.
"No you're fine." Sebastian smiles at her, "Let's go?"
"Yeah."