Brief mentions of biphobia, voice hearing, disassociation, and underage drinking!

~~~

A loud bang! sounded through the air of the shooting range, along with the shattering of a glass bottle when the bullet collided with it.

Natalie cocked her shotgun once again, crouching to the ground and holding it at eye level, before letting another shot ring out.

A low, impressed whistle sounded from behind her, as she hit another bottle.

Setting her gun on the ground, and turning the safety back on, she turned her head and caught the dark green eyes of her brother, and the bright ginger hair of her sister.

Natalie rolled her eyes subtly, standing up and hoisting her gun on her shoulder.

"Anything I can help you assholes with?" She asked.

Maliath shrugged, taking his own gun off of his shoulder.

"Nah, just thought we could all have some sibling bonding time." He said jokingly, with a smirk.

Natalie leaned back against the barrier as her brother readied his gun.

She scoffed. "Yeah, hard pass. I came out here to take my anger out on something that wasn't a person's face."

Adri leaned next to her, shrugging off their jacket.

"What, baby sister doesn't want to spend time with her amazing older siblings? I'm hurt, Nattie."

The dark haired girl scoffed again, subconsciously scratching at her scar.

"Like I said, just want to blow off some steam."

Another gunshot rang out, then Maliath spoke.

"If you wanted to blow off steam, you could've just stayed in your room with your hand down your pants-"

The butt of Natalie's gun collided with the back of his head, making him curse out in pain.

"Ow! Jeez, I was kidding!"

The ravenette scowled at her brother.

"Then shut the fuck up and stop talking to your kid sister about masturbation you freak."

Maliath rolled his eyes.

"Kid sister, my ass. You're gonna be eighteen in a few months. Besides I think you should be smart and aware when exploring your sexuality-"

She hit him on the head again.

"I'm plenty aware of my sexuality, jackass. And I'm smart about it. Keep talking and I tell Captain Levi about your diary entries."

The man's cheeks turned a soft pink as he glared at his sister.

"You don't know what you're talking about, shut up." He said, hurriedly.

Natalie leaned against her gun, rolling her eyes rather dramatically.

"Please, if it were up to you, the Captain would have been my brother in law years ago."

Natalie glanced up at the far end of the shooting range, noticing how all of the bottles were now shattered on the ground.

"By the way, what are you shooting at? All the bottles are broken." She said.

Maliath cocked his gun again, and aimed it.

"I'm imagining the wooden polls as Yelena's face, so I'm shooting at them."

Natalie glanced at her sister, who only shrugged, before turning back to her brother.

"What's your problem with her, anyway? She hasn't done anything to cause mistrust."

Maliath scoffed, putting his gun to the side and turning to her.

"You only say that because you're so desperate for any kind of pussy that looks your way."

The ravenette's cheeks flushed bright red.

"Hey, chill the fuck out, man. I don't think of her like that, and you know it!"

The brunette scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I just don't understand how you could like her out of literally everyone else. Hell, that combat practice with Armin last month seemed pretty heavy with sexual tension. I really think you should just make up your mind on what gender you want to like and stick with that-"

Suddenly, a hand slapped itself across his face.

Both Natalie and Maliath stared in shock as Adri brought her hand back to her side, glaring at the older man.

"We get it, you don't like Yelena, but don't you go around invalidating our own sisters sexuality. You and I of all people should now how shitty that feels, so don't you dare tell her that she needs to 'make up her mind.' Don't be that kind of asshole."

Before he could respond, Adri wrapped their arm around Natalie's shoulder and pulled her away from the shooting range.

The ginger ran her hand up and down her sisters bicep, keeping silent as the two of them walked through the grass and back to the Scouts Headquarters.

"Y'know, you can be honest with me." Adri started. "If you do have a crush on Yelena, I won't judge you for it."

Natalie sighed, fiddling with the sleeve of her cropped uniform jacket.

"Mal seems to think it's just a lust kind of thing, but I think I genuinely have feelings for her. Me and her have talked about it a few times, and I think she might feel the same way? Maybe? I'm not sure, but she said she wouldn't pursue anything because of my age. Besides now you, Armin and Mal are the only ones that actually know."

Adri let out a noise of acknowledgement, removing their arm from around their sisters shoulder.

"I know you and I don't get along most of the time, but I'm here if you need me, alright?"

Natalie looked up at them, since they were slightly taller than her -standing at about 5'9- and nodded.

As they both continued to walk, Natalie stopped suddenly, putting a hand to her forehead when a static like sound began to ring through her mind again.

Adri turned back, looking at her worriedly.

The black haired girl barley registered the woman speaking, barley heard it, as her eyes focused on the grass at her feet.

Second blended together like hours, and her vision faded every now and then.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up when a chilling voice spoke in her ear.

"She'll never love you. You should probably just give up at this point, you waste of space."

Natalie clutched at her hair, banging her other hand against the side of her head once, before taking a deep breath and kept walking like nothing had happened.

~~~

Natalie once again found herself in the workout room, though this time, she let out a strained grunt as she lifted weights above her head.

The muscles in her arms and back ached. She'd been doing this for hours, just to get her frustrations out. So far, it only helped a little bit.

For some reason, working out always seemed to calm her down after a tiring and strenuous day. The feeling of her sore muscles and fatigued mind always put her at ease.

Letting out a defeated groan, Natalie gently lowered the weight bar onto it's holder and sat up on the bench of it, man-spreading and holding her head in her hands.

She breathed heavily into the heated and musty air of the enclosed room as she stared at the wooden floor, her bare feet tapping occasionally against it.

Reaching to the ground, she grabbed her water canteen and popped it open, guzzling it's contents, and letting the liquid drip from the corners of her mouth and down her neck.

Pulling the canteen away with a breathy gasp of air, she wiped her mouth and set it back on the floor, before standing up with a push on her knees and a grunt.

When she stood up, she noticed a figure standing near the door holding a bag over their shoulder.

"Do you always try to be so unintentionally hot?" The blonde asked.

Natalie narrowed her eyes, trying to recognize them, before her eyes widened.

"Armin?"

He grinned at her, "surprise."

She blinked, owlishly.

"You cut your hair." She said, eyeing the blondes now short hair styled into an undercut.

Armin smiled sheepishly, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck.

"Yeah, Hange mentioned a few days ago that the new ODM gear wouldn't do so well with long hair, so I decided to cut it. What do you think?"

She smiled at the slightly taller male.

"I like it, it suits you." She said.

His pale cheeks flushed a light pink, and with a small grin, he set the bag he was carrying next to her folded clothes on the benches lining the walls.

"So," Natalie started. "I'm unintentionally hot?" She teased.

Armin immediately turned red all over.

"I'm sorry! I know you have a thing for Yelena and I probably made you uncomfortable with that comment, I'm so sorry!"

The ravenette let out a husky laugh, sitting on the bench next to her clothes.

"I'm teasing you, Min, don't worry. Besides, I think you're the only person who has ever found me even remotely attractive besides Yelena."

Armin pursed his lips, staring at her with a sympathetic look.

"Don't say that, there are plenty of people who think you're pretty."

Natalie looked away from him, smiling shyly.

"Going back to the subject of hair," she started, changing the topic of conversation. "What's Eren got going on with his? Is he growing it out or something?"

Armin shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure. I'm pretty sure he's just stopped caring about his appearance."

Natalie hummed in acknowledgement, before grabbing a long sleeved grey shirt from the folded clothes she brought with her, and pulled in on over her head, then took the black sweatpants and pulled them on over her shorts.

She rolled her sleeves to her elbows and stood up.

"I think I should get going, you gonna stay in here?" She asked.

Armin nodded.

"I gotta build up body stamina, just in case I ever need to use my Titan. You go ahead, I'll see you later."

With a smile, Natalie left the workout room.

~~~

Warm water ran down her shoulders as she stood under the shower head, her head lowered with her short, dark hair hanging in her face. She watched as water fell from the conjoined strands, falling to the ground.

Maybe standing alone in the Scouts public showers was a weird thing to do, but Natalie could care less.

Her hands gripped at the border walls on either side of her, taking deep breaths.

Hearing the door to the female showers open, she moved her arms to cover her chest, still standing under the water.

"Oh, I didn't know anyone was in here." A familiar voice said.

Natalie glanced up, catching the eyes of Mikasa, before she looked back down at the floor.

"S'fine, I was about to get out anyway."

That was a complete lie, she probably would've stayed in there for hours until passing out from exhaustion, and drowning on the tile floor, but she didn't want to make things awkward with her friend by staying in there when it was just the two of them.

She watched out of the corner of her eyes as Mikasa left to get undressed in the girls locker room of the shower, before reaching her hand forward and turning off the water.

She stood there for a few seconds, staring at the floor, letting the cold air take chill over her body, goosebumps raising on her skin.

She stepped out of the shower, grabbing the towel she had set aside on a bench next to her clothes, and quickly drying her body.

Putting on her sleep clothes in a haste, she left the showers before Mikasa even left the locker room.

She walked down the dimly lit hallways, the orange glow of Torchlight casting eery shadows at every corner.

As she walked, she passed by a window and stopped to look out if it, eyes zeroing in on the setting sun.

The occasional drop of water fell down from her hair, dripping onto her cheek and down her face.

Too distracted by the orange scenery outside, she failed to notice someone coming up behind her.

"Natalie?"

She flinched at the sudden voice, and turned around, immediately scowling at the sight of her older brother.

She turned away from him.

"What, come to insult me some more?" She asked, sarcastically.

Maliath sighed, coming up beside her and looking out the window as well.

"No, I came to apologise. What I said, I didn't mean it. I shouldn't of said anything at all. I'm sorry."

Natalie huffed through her nose.

"Yeah, well, apology not accepted."

Maliath turned to her in shock. "Wha-?"

She side eyed him with a glare. Piercing blue eyes holding an icy gaze.

"You think you can just be blatantly biphobic and expect me to forgive you just because you said you were sorry? Not only that, but you try and tell me that my feelings towards the girl I like are invalid? Big 'Fuck You' right there."

She tossed him the middle finger before walking off.

She didn't care if she made Maliath feel bad, she couldn't give less of a fuck. He didn't get to be rude and expect forgiveness right off the bat.

She made her way to her room and shut the door, not even bothering to go down to the mess hall to get herself food.

She went and sat at her desk, propping her elbows on it and holding her head against her fists.

Lifting up her head, she opened a drawer and took out a half full bottle of caramel colored, see through liquid.

She held up the bottle to eye level, a tired smirk coming onto her face.

"Ah, bourbon, my old friend. You and I are gonna have some fun."

Popping the lid of the bottle onto the top of the desk, she gave a half hearted toast to the sky then brought the bottle to her lips.

"Time to get shit faced." She mumbled, taking a large gulp from the bottle.