Bertolt nods, his arms tightening around the larger man. After knowing him for over twenty years, he knew when to stick a pin in something and come back to it later. Reiner listened to him, and that was all that mattered.

Even the mention of Shadis gets another laugh, though it's not on the same level as the first. This one's nostalgic. "I can still hear him yelling at us to stop screwing around." As strange as it was, Bertolt admired him. "But he was a great instructor. We came out on top because he pushed us so hard." All of them. He even remembers writing home about it to his parents the day they were promoted.

...God, he missed everyone.

"Do you think he'd be proud of us? Now, I mean."