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All at once, they realized that they'd made a mistake. Bertolt was pinned to the sheets by Reiner, quietly groaning as he bit his neck, and Annie was-
-she was sitting off to the side, looking distractedly away. Reiner looked up and sighed, while Bertolt turned his head to one side, startled by the lull in the action.
"Annie?"
The girl didn't make eye contact.
"Is there something we can do for you?"
Annie leaned back and looked over her shoulder, eyes cold. "No." Even in the nude, she cut an imposing figure, all sharp angles and muscle and disdain compacted into a five-foot-tall frame.
Still straddling Bertolt's hips, Reiner pushed against the bed to get himself into more of a sitting position. The boy underneath him twisted around awkwardly to lie on his stomach, now looking over at Annie rather than a half-glimpsed blur of wall through eyes half-shut in pleasure.
Silence hung over them for a few seconds, before Reiner spoke again.
"I thought you wanted this." His tone was accusatory, aimed at both Bertolt and Annie. The frustration he felt was palpable, but not as apparent as the confusion registering in the eyes of both of the other two people on the bed.
For the first time in what must have been minutes, Bertolt spoke. "I didn't know what to say, back then..."
"About what, Bertl? I know you have problems speaking up, but-"
"You thinking he and I wanted this, obviously," Annie interrupted. "It seems to me like you were seeing what you wanted to again."
The girl pivoted her waist to face them a little more, expression somewhere between irritated and grim- in other words, her standard expression. Reiner felt as though he was rooted to the spot.
"You've had it in your head for a while now that I'm the one Bertolt wants, but you still want him for yourself, of course... has this just been your little compromise, to make him happy while still getting to be selfish?"
Her words covered the room like a blanket of cold air. Everyone was frozen in place for a moment, only thawing when Reiner's eyes began to flick between Annie and Bertolt. He let out a noise that was less than even a word, slouching back to sit on Bertolt's legs, still staring at the other boy's face.
"That's... I mean... didn't you want this, Bertl? You're always looking at Annie, and-"
"N-no! That's something that you thought of yourself, Reiner!"
Bertolt's eyes were wide, not quite teary but stormy in a way that suggested that forecast was not far off.
"You always do this, too..." he continued, voice shaking. "I don't... is this because you wanted to make people happy? O-or, was it-"
"Hey, Bertolt, what're you saying? This isn't the time to bottle up your feelings. Annie's right here, it's fine now," he said, cutting the other boy off. Confusion welled up in his mind like murky water, and even his voice wavered. "I know you're not the kind of guy I am, and that it's hard for you to say what you feel, but she's here now. You guys can..."
He awkwardly moved aside, getting off of Bertolt entirely to sit on the edge of the bed opposite Annie. "You guys can go at it without me here. I get it. It was shitty and selfish and fucked up that someone like me would-"
"No, you unbelievable moron." Annie moved across the bed in a fluid motion, side-stepping Bertolt and arriving at the other side to grab Reiner's shoulder, pulling the boy over to look at her. "That's not what he meant. And besides, it's not what I want. Did you even once try to stop and think about that?"
Reiner tensed up, and a flicker of something unreadable crossed his face. He almost tried to pull away from Annie, but thought better of it just as one of his legs stretched out to give him balance to step off the bed. "I tried to play nice with you two, because god knows you need it. But I was under the impression that one of you also had any need for me to be here. And you clearly don't."
"Wait, Annie, you- I mean, don't you-"
"I'm not interested in this sort of thing, if that's what you're asking," she said, dispassionate. "You just seemed desperate."
Like a cat, she slipped quietly past Reiner and stepped off the bed, only stopping to dip down and grab her cast-off hoodie and pants as she walked to the door.
"Annie!"
With one last look over her shoulder, she opened the door and stepped beyond. "I'll let you two figure this out. There are more interesting things I could be doing right now."