Preparation
Karina was ecstatic when Reiner told her about staying at Eren’s for the night. She was a little surprised that Reiner had made friends within a few days of them moving to a new town. She didn’t seem to notice Bertholdt hovering behind him. Reiner managed to escape to his room after telling his mom that he needed to sleep after last night. Reiner locked his bedroom door behind him and flopped onto his bed. How was this happening? He walked into that house with a rational explanation for everything and when he walked out, he had a ghost buddy. Maybe he was just dreaming all this up and he’d wake up and forget about it later. Reiner sat up and scanned the room for Bertholdt, only to see him crouched on the floor with his back facing Reiner.
“Whatcha lookin at?” Reiner asked as he tried to sit next to him without his arm or knee going through Bertholdt’s body. Bertholdt was staring at his laptop sticking out of his backpack.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.” Bertholdt said.
Reiner pulled the laptop out and started it up.
“It’s called a laptop.” Reiner said.
“You can communicate with people through it, listen to music, watch movies, do shopping, read, and lots of other stuff.”
Bertholdt stared in awe as Reiner pulled up different tabs to show Bertholdt examples.
Reiner was interrupted by a Discord notification on his screen.
Not_Sangw00: Hey Reiner.
He didn’t recognize the username.
“What’s that?” Bertholdt asked over his shoulder.
“It’s called Discord. You can talk to people all around the world.” Reiner said as he typed a reply.
You: Who is this?
Not_Sangw00: Jean
Not_Sangw00: I can see your ghost buddy
Not_Sangw00: I have the link to Eren’s OnlyFans account
You: How’d u get my discord?
Not_Sangw00: Gabi
Not_Sangw00: We trade manga
Not_Sangw00: ask her if she has any Jujutsu Kaisen
You: Can I have ur number?
Not_Sangw00: XXX-XXX-XXXX
“Who’s that?” Bertholdt asked.
“Jean from the diner.” Reiner replied as he grabbed his phone and texted the number Jean gave him. He and Jean texted for a bit. They agreed on leaving their houses at 10:00. Jean would meet him outside his house and they’d walk to Eren’s place where he, Levi, and Mikasa would be waiting. They’d probably screw around for five hours until the seance started.
“You wanna watch something?” Reiner asked
Bertholdt tilted his head.
Reiner tried to think of a way to explain this to Bertholdt that would make sense to him.
“It’s like a play but you can watch it anytime anyplace.” Reiner said as he opened Netflix. Bertholdt looked like he kind of understood. He scooted over on the bed so he could sit by Reiner to get a better view.
“What’s Supernatural?” Bertholdt asked as he looked at the screen.
“It’s about two brothers that hunt ghosts and demons.”
Bertholdt looked intrigued.
“You wanna watch a few episodes?” Reiner asked.
“Wait so killing Lilith was a bad thing?” Bertholdt gasped.
“I know, major plot twist there…” Reiner said as he shook his head. He checked his phone as the next episode began. Almost ten. Jean would be here any minute now. Reiner paused the episode when he heard a knock on his bedroom door. He turned his head to signal Bertholdt to hide as the door opened.
“Reiner? There’s someone at the door for you.” Karina said.
“And he has an...interesting fashion sense.”
When Reiner got to the door, he could see why his mother was a little surprised about Jean’s appearance. In the few hours that passed, Jean’s hair had turned from sandy blonde to cotton candy pink. He was sporting his signature black leather jacket with a shirt that had Hannibal Lecter’s face on it underneath. He was wearing combat boots with silver steel tips and acid washed torn, black, skinny jeans. He noticed he was wearing a spiked dog collar that didn’t cover a few purple hickeys scattered around his slender neck. He was also wearing a black chain cuff earrings with ouija planchettes as the studs.
Marco must have had some fun last night.
“What’s with the hair?”
“I had to dye my hair whatever color Marco wanted if I became a believer in ghosts.” Jean sighed in exasperation
“Don’t worry, it’ll be out in a week. I need to be blonde if Marco and I still wanna do our yearly psychopath couple costumes for Halloween.”
For some reason Reiner could visualize Jean and Marco cosplaying as Hannibal and Will.
“Guess you’re stuck on laundry duty, right?” Reiner asked.
“Yeeeep.” Jean said as he tugged on his collar.
“What’s up, Casper the Friendly Ghost?” Jean said before taking a sip of the can of Monster that appeared out of thin air. Reiner looked beside him to see Bertholdt hovering next to him.
“Who’s Casper the Friendly Ghost?” Bertholdt asked with a curious look on his face.
“Oh you poor soul, what was life like before Star Trek?” Jean said.
The walk to Eren’s was surprisingly short. His house was almost identical to Reiner’s. Bright red door and all. Jean hadn’t even knocked on the door when a woman with a ponytail shot out of the door and pulled Jean into a hug.
“Jean! It’s been so long since you’ve visited!” The woman said as pulled away from the hug. Reiner could see that she was an almost carbon copy of Eren except she was a few inches shorter. She turned towards Reiner and pulled him into a tight hug before looking up at him.
“You must be Reiner! I’m Carla, Eren and Mikasa’s mom!”
Reiner could see Bertholdt standing behind Jean with sweat rolling down his forehead. Could ghosts even sweat? Carla pulled Reiner and Jean towards the door and seemed to be completely unaware of Bertholdt’s presence.
Once they got inside, Reiner could see Levi sitting at the kitchen island holding a cup by it’s rim in his hand. His well toned, tattooed body was visible through the white tank top he was wearing. He gave them a curt nod before going back to his drink.
“Hey Horse Face? Did you bring my Ultra Rose?” Eren asked. His messy brown bun and eyes were peeking over a large couch behind Levi. Jean unzipped his backpack and hurled a pink can at Eren’s head. Levi sucked in the nick of time before the can made contact with Eren’s forehead. Eren yelped in pain as he fell off the couch with a thud. Reiner had a hard time holding back laughter as Jean began sniggering next to him. Even Bertholdt was grinning.
“Nice toss, asshole!” Eren sneered as he prepared to throw a teal houseshoe at Jean.
The shoe barely missed Jean and flew through Bertholdt’s chest.
“Oh, sorry!” Eren said with an apologetic look.
“You call that a throw, Yeager? You throw like a girl!” Jean snickered
“Why thank you.” Eren said as put a hand on his very tiny waist and winked at Reiner. Reiner felt his face going red until he could see Levi giving him a deadly glare. He could have taken out Thanos with that glare, Infinity Gauntlet and all.
“Where’s Mikasa?” Jean asked.
“She’s downstairs doing a cleansing ritual.” Eren said as he popped the tab of his Monster.
“You guys wanna watch Criminal Minds while we wait?” Eren asked as he slurped his drink before turning and strutting to the couch. Reiner had a hard time not staring at Eren’s shapely ass that was brought out by black booty shorts. Reiner could see a small tattoo saying “Lucky You” sticking out underneath. Reiner was yanked back into reality as Jean kicked him hard in the shin. Reiner looked down to see Levi staring up at them. His steely grey eyes were brought out by his black eyeshadow and heavy black eyeliner. Reiner made a mental note to ask him for makeup tips sometime. His arms were folded across his chest, showing off heavily tattooed biceps. Reiner thought he was about to lose the chance of ever having children in later life until Levi turned his attention to Jean.
“You got any Pacific Punch?” He asked.
Jean fumbled around in his backpack before pulling out a tan colored can. Levi took it from his hand and shot a glare at Reiner before walking away.
“Dude. That was lucky.” Jean whispered.
“I thought he was gonna beat the shit outta you.” Jean handed Reiner a green can before zipping up his backpack.
“So they’re courting?” Bertholdt meekly asked over their heads. Jean cocked a brow at Bertholdt. Reiner was impressed that Bertholdt was so chill about Eren and Levi’s relationship.
“Sort of…” Reiner said as he took a sip.
Reiner was surprised that he actually liked Criminal Minds. His mom tried introducing it to him a few years back but he was too preoccupied trying to get caught up on My Hero Academia before the next season. Bertholdt was plopped down on the floor and seemed to like it too. Reiner thought he could see a blush on Bertholdt’s cheeks whenever Morgan would appear on screen. They had just finished the Bone Windchime episode when the basement door burst open.
“My Tarot have been cleansed!” Mikasa announced as her earrings swayed back and forth.
“So where is Bertholdt?” Mikasa asked as she scanned the room. She must have not been able to see him either. Reiner looked down to see Bertholdt’s head tilted up and gazing into his eyes. Reiner swallowed hard before pointing down at where Bertholdt was sitting. Mikasa slowly walked towards Reiner and Bertholdt before sitting down next to where Bertholdt was. She was staring right where his chest was supposed to be with a gentle smile on her face.
“Tonight we’re going to do something a little strange.” Mikasa said to Bertholdt’s chest.
“We’re going to try and have you manipulate a few objects so those of us that can’t see you can talk with you.”
Bertholdt looked up at Reiner with a puzzled expression.
“We’ll start in an hour, so save up your strength!” Mikasa cheerfully exclaimed before jumping onto the couch next to Levi. Reiner turned his attention back to the new episode before a small gust of wind on his exposed ankles made him look down at Bertholdt. He looked like a scared kitten.
“Reiner?” Bertholdt whispered.
“Everything ok?” Reiner replied
“I-it’s nothing…” Bertholdt muttered as he fiddled with a string on his sweater.
“Bertholdt.”
“I-I’m just a little nervous about tonight…”
Reiner was confused.
“What are you nervous about?”
Bertholdt started sweating again.
“What if I mess something up? I always mess stuff up…” Bertholdt said under his breath as he held his head in his hands.
“You won’t.” Reiner said
“Just listen to Mikasa and you’ll do great.”
Bertholdt slowly nodded and seemed to perk up.
“You promise?” Bertholdt quietly asked as his big green eyes blinked at Reiner.
Reiner smiled.
“I promise.”