Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

- Eren’s POV –

Even if I’m completely underwater, I can hear the pounding of my heart and blood in my ears, and I swear that thing can hear it too. My breathing is erratic, my chest is heaving, and all attempts to collect myself have utterly failed. There’s no way that I can get myself together with the ground shaking with every step that monster takes. The tremors are getting stronger, but the constant beat doesn’t stop. I feel the vibrations through the rocks in touching, and it almost makes me sick, but I cant find it in me to want to move from my hiding place.

My breathing at this point is all over the place; I’m panicking and hyperventilating. I’m shaking, like I’m freezing but this is from total fear. My grip get stronger on the rocks in front of me, and I press my chest closer to the rock, squeeze my eyes shut and try to steady myself. I breath in, and I feel the oxyen in the water flow into me, and I exhale slow and quiet, letting as little and few bubbles rise and make it obvious where I am.

It won’t find me, they never have! How many times have you ran into a Titan? Too many too count. How many have caught you? None! Do you have anything to be afraid of at the moment? Absolutely not!

The footsteps have stopped and I snap my eyes open and hold my breath. It’s stopped? But where? There’s nothing but silence. Complete and utter silence. Did it leave while I was panicking? That seems logical…it had to been…yeah! It left! Then there’s a loud huff and almost like a current of warm water comes at me from above. I’m still stuck to the rock in front of me, and I feel myself grow rigid once again. My heart is pounding harder then before and it’s all I hear. With my cheek still stuck to the rocks, I tilt my head backwards, ever so slightly…and there it is. Its weird translucent skin and visibly red muscles, its gruesome and horrifying face is all is see. It’s not even two feet away from my face, and those beady eyes stare into mine and I can feel my blood run cold. My mind goes blank and all there’s only the titan and me. It feels like forever that we stay like this, its breaths send warms water towards me and I’m holding my breath. I look to my right where I see a small hole, big enough for me to fit. My eyes whip back to the grotesque being and almost as if it read my mind, a wide, disgusting grin creeps across its face. I feel my eyes grow wide and my mouth hangs open. And at that moment, I threw myself to the side, the titans hand coming up to grab me, and it misses, and I’m swimming as fast I can, the whole isn’t that far, I can make it! Just a little more…

I feel a warms sensation wrap around me, and it squeezes me, I gasp and I suddenly can’ t move. I feel myself being pulled backwards, and then up, my inside feel like there pushed against the bottom half of my ribcage when I’m swung upwards. I break the top of the water, and the sunlight hits my eyes and my arms come up to block it out. I can feel myself hoisted up and hot air is blown from beneath me this time, and I feel my hair blown out of my face. I lower my arms and my I suck a harsh breath in. The titan’s hand is wrapped around my waist, squeezing me slightly, but not enough to hurt me, but enough to keep me in place. Its ugly smile is still on its face and now, there are wrinkle at the corner of its eyes. It looks ecstatic that it caught me and I’m so struck with fear I’m completely frozen and I can’t even think. The titan moves its head, so I’m dangling above its face at arms length away.

Oh goddesses.

It takes me with its other hand, hanging me from my caudal fin. Intense pain shoots through my spine and I scream, my body feels like its on fire and I honestly feel like it’ll rip off. I hear a loud rumble like growl and my head shoots up, and I see the titans face again. I feel my stomach drop another mile, and I realize im failing around, thrashing about trying to free myself. The titan changes hands again, now holding my high from my fin, but it grips me and I cry out in pain. Then I see it slowly drop its jaw, exposing its yellowed teeth and disturbingly long tongue lulls out of its mouth in such a casual way.

Poseidon no! NO NO NO NO NO NO!

I started screaming, when did I start screaming? My throat is on fire and I can feel and hear the water around us ripple and waves crash against the titan’s feet. I’m still thrashing, punch and scratching at the giant hand that’s holding me. My heart is pounding way faster then I thought possible, its all I hear besides my own screeching.

“LET ME GO! NOOO!”

It’s eyes look almost amused, the gall!

“NO! NO! STOP! RELEASE ME!"

It raises its arm high; my body seems impossibly far away from the water, I want to go back! I want to go back the warmer waters, to the old caverns where my people once stayed, I want to listen to the old echoes of the songs and hymns that bounced of the rocks into my ears. I have to find Mamae and Father! I don’t want to die! I cant die!

“PLEASE NOOOO!”

I feel time slow down, and all noises are gone, there’s a ringing in my ears, blocking everything out as the grasp slowly lightens, and I slowly fall downwards into the black abyss. I know I’m screaming, I feel the burn in my throat, yet I don’t feel anything at all. Its all numb and silence as I fall…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Piercing whistling noises followed by massive explosions seems to bring my back, I’m still falling but the titan, being hit by what seems like a thousand cannonballs was blown backwards and fell back into the water. Just before I hit the water, the water is no longer its bright, vibrant blue…the ocean below has turned blood red.

SPLASH!

Chapter Text

Red. Everything is red. And the taste is…why is it red?

Before I get a chance to even get my thoughts together, my body seems to act off of instinct. My tail thrusts me upwards, I break the water and I’m blinded once more by the immense sunlight. My eyes dart around to everything, taking it all in, what happened? My eyes take in the red water, is a dark red, crimson? And the titan is…it sprawled across the small island. The sand is deep red, and it’s not moving...its body is turning to steam. Something it killed it, was it the explosions? The whistles? What were those things? I let my eyes search around me, slowly taking in my surroundings, I haven’t been here before, and this archipelago doesn’t look familiar. Whatever took out that monster and saved me must be somewhere nearby. I turn around and I freeze. There’s a ship. A ship! And it’s coming right towards me. I’m not sure if I’m shaking from pure excitement or from fear. A ship means humans! But ships could also mean nets. But the humans! I’ve never met a human before. Or even seen one! what are they like? I feel myself swaying side to side a my excitement takes over, before I dip my head and swim off back towards the more shallow area with rocks high enough to cover me. My breathing has speed up and my heart is pounding again, but not like before, oh no, this feels very different. I latch on tot the rocks, and peek around the side, one side of my face is out. I flare out my ears (that’s what humans call them) and I watch as the ship passes close to groves and the fallen titan. I lots of footsteps, and there’s a deep alluring voice yelling over it all. I close my eyes and focus everything on my hearing, slowing my breaths and relaxing my shoulders.

“Hange, how does it look?”

Hange? Whats a ‘Hange’?

“We hit it too well…I cant study anything now! Why did you hit so perfectly Levi?!”

Is that what a ‘Hange’ sounds like? It’s so…loud? Like thunder, but whiny like a whale with a stomach ache.

“Shut it shitty glasses, that thing look like it was going berserk, and if those brats hadn’t spotted it, it could’ve sunk us.”

That voice sounds so…angry and bored. Whatever a Levi is I don’t want to see it.

“Buuuuut Levi~ we could learn so−“

“Fuck. Off. Before I beat your ass.”

That ‘Hange’ thing makes my ears hurt, and this ‘Levi’ honestly scares me…

“What’s with that face, Erwin? You look constipated.”

“I could’ve swore I saw it holding something, like it was playing with its…”

“OOOOOH!? I saw that too! It looked like a shark or a giant fish or or−“

“A mermaid…”

That snapped me right of my concentration. Do the humans still now about us? Are they still searching? It’s been so long since….I would’ve gone back to listening but I noticed they were heading deeper into the archipelago. They must have not really seen me if their not coming for me. I slowly creep from behind the rocks to get a better look at the ship; it’s sailing towards a small gap, which means…are they stopping for the day? Those mini islands and rocks cover their ship perfectly, so perhaps their hiding. I left a loud huff and slump down into the water. I kind of wish they would’ve seen me. I’ve always wanted to talk to a human. They look amusing to talk to, and their so called ‘legs’ look like they’ll just break in half, they’re so small, and thin, how do they move around, it actually looks really gro−

I’m pulled from my thoughts when I realize I can’t hear the ship cutting through the waves. Crap! They must have gone further into the islands already. I speed off to where I last saw them, and sticking to the coral and making note of where I am, I don’t want to get lost, and I’ve never been in the part of the ocean before. I reach the edge of what seems like a mouth of a river. I’m continuing on, rising high in the water so closer to the surface. I can that the sun has started to set, and the shadows are growing across the waters from the high cliffs and vegetation. I swim for awhile longer until I see the ship. I hadn’t noticed it earlier, but this ship is actually quite big. It’s quiet fast, for its size. Poke my head up, so just my eyes are above the water to get a look, and I’m surprised. There’s a cave, its quiet spacious, and the ship has seems to have docked close to it, there a large piece of wood coming from the ship, and is connecting it to the rocks just above the cave. Humans (There’s so many of them!) are walking along the wood (How is it so strong?) and they’re heading into the cave from the side, and coming back down and disappearing inside. They must be staying there for the night; they don’t look like they’re leaving anytime soon. I swim down to the small underpass to the right, the rocks are in an arch, and I can see the humans clearly, but I know they can’t see me from where they are setting stuff up. Must be where they are staying, all their stuff is being placed in a circle around an…what is that? There’s a lot more wood in the middle and lots of rocks around it, and they’re setting big wire sticks to the side above it. So strange, it looks like so much work.

I sat and watched the humans scurry around and talk, they seem very nice with the exception of a few. One human keeps biting their tongue, when they kept attempting to talk. Another human, a pretty female, would bicker and make fun of him for it. I found it hard to muffle my laughter because these humans were funny. There’s young ones walking around too, one in particular looks like a seahorse. Seapony? He must be a merfolk. I try and control my laughter, which is getting harder because there’s two human, one that has almost no hair that’s really short and one with long brown hair pulled back, seems to be panicking. Well, the bald one, the brunette eating the round brown object pulled more things from their shirt and the bald one keeps panicking and glancing around. Even with my mouth in the water, it’s hard to keep absolutely quiet, and I keep blowing bubbles and sputtering out water. Humans are by far the funniest creatures I have ever seen. I calm down, since everybody seems to be moving back to where they were building that strange temple of sorts, and I realized how late it was, the sun was completely gone and the moon was beginning to rise already. Perfect! With it being so dark, I can get closer without them noticing me. I feel myself grin, as slowly make my way to the opening of the cave, and hide behind some more rocks. (Have I ever told you how much I love rocks?)

I peer into the cove, and I feel my eyes widen. First, there are so many humans! They all look different. Yet dressed similar, their colors seem to match. How strange! Second, that temple is glowing! It’s so bright! Is that what humans call fire? And third, there’s a mini beast over the ‘fire’ and they’re turning it? What are they doing to it? I’m sure the mini beast dead, because it sure doesn’t look alive. I’d hate to have to look like that and be alive. I bite my smile back, this so much! So many things I want to know. I feel a sudden urge to climb up the rocks and ask what the humans are doing, but something tells me that won’t go well. Can I even approach these humans? I shake my head, a large group isn’t a good idea, and two of them would still be dangerous. Then perhaps…just one human alone? I glance around the human gathering; it might be impossible to get one by itself. I let a small sigh escape my lips and I quietly make my way back out of the cave. Perhaps… I creep around to where rocks jar out, just about where the top of my head is. I slowly rise from the water, so my shoulders can feel the cool air. At this rate, I’ll never get to talk to a human and they will be gone tomorrow. I sigh again, and roll my neck slowly, but I freeze when I hear a small voice.

“Hello?”

Holy Poseidon’s triton! Is that...

I slowly edge to forward, and sink until my eyes are the only things visible. Where did the voice come from? Was it…was it a human?! My eyes art everywhere and to everything, the voice definitely came from here! My eyes stop on a small figure slowly moving towards the water, its posture is…it almost looks scared.  I continue to stare and the figure pauses at the edge of the rocks, and lets out a soft sigh, then fiddles with its bottom garments and sits at the edge, putting its legs into the water.

IT’S A HUMAN! A HUMAN CAME TO THE WATER BY ITSELF! ALONE!

I can hardly contain my excitement and joy as I plunge back into the water and dart over to where the human, has its…ITS FEET ARE IN THE WATER!

I come close to the objects, looking carefully at them. They’re feet! Real human feet! They look a lot smaller then thought they would be, but maybe the size is different for a human. I come mere inches away from the said feet, and I see that they’re moving in a strange way. They look almost…well they look kind of…gross. EW! I pull back slightly, and pause. The human is looking at me, I can probably see me, or it sees something but doesn’t know what it is. How do I approach this human with strange ‘feet’? I should’ve thought about this before hand because now I’m right in front of one and I have no idea what to do. Mama always said I should think everything through first. I shut my eyes tight and huff with frustration, rubbing my temples. I REALLY should’ve thought this through. I don’t want this human to run away and get the other and a big misunderstanding happen…

Aw fuck it.

With that thought, I slowly rise to surface, stopping my ascension when my eyes are looking up at the human. The human is now staring into eyes. It’s eyes are getting ever more wide, and I’m not sure how much bigger they will get. The human doesn’t look scared, but more shocked. I guess seeing something that’s a supposed fairytale will draw such reactions for humans. I slowly rise, my jaw and shoulders coming above the waters surface until its at my waist. Its still staring at me, but the humans eyes have left mine and are currently all over me. Is there something wrong with my chest? I tilt my head to the side, the human hasn’t moved and has said nothing yet. Maybe I should say something first. Perhaps I should repeat what he said before.

“Hello?” Did I say it right?

The human blinks several times and opens its mouth. I lean in slightly, Oh how I want this human to speak to me! It closes its mouth, swallows, and quite harshly might I add and opens it again. This time, words come out!

“I…Hi…”

I feel myself swell with joy once more and I know that I’m beaming at the human because he relaxes slightly and stares at me with eyes filled with amazement. I’m sure mine are just the same, as I inch forward slowly towards it. He hasn’t moved away from me, or said anything, so I move directly in front of him and I finally have a better look of what this human looks like. It has blonde hair, and it lies around his face and across his forehead, large blue eyes shine slightly in the moonlight and the fair skin seems the shine as well. This human, is pretty human. I would not be surprised if it was also a mermaid. Inch forward to its face and it moves to lean slight backwards. I feel my ears stretch outwards, fanning out and bristling and I straighten myself out, looking the human in the eyes once more.

“Hi” I smile, tilting my head again.

The human’s eyes light up and a small smile finds its way to its face. It also straightens up, and clears its throat.

“I’m…I’m Armin.” He quietly states. How cute!

“Eren.” I answer softly.

The human’s smile grows and it makes mine grow as well, although I’m not sure it can. I know my brain has yet to understand that I’m actually talking to a human, but I sweep those thought to the side because I’m talking to the human and it’s answering me and just slay me now.

“Eren…” He repeats softly.

His expression softens and he looks relieved? I wonder why. I tilt my head again and hum slightly. I’m not sure if its because it doesn’t know what to say or its just doesn’t want to speak but something tells me it the first one.

“Are you…what are you?”

I blink once, and shift my weight so I can bring my tail in front of me and lift out of the water. A small gasp leaves him and I cant help but giggle at that. Is it really such a shock? I notice his checks have turned red, THEY TURNED RED!? Before I even got a hold myself, I was in between the humans’ legs and my hands were on each side of it’s face. I began rubbing my thumbs over its cheeks, and gasp this time. His’ cheeks are so SOFT. I continue rubbing and giggle when his cheeks go even redder and I feel its face heat up against my fingers. Why does it do that? How?!

“Whys does it do that?” I ask, as I continue to rub the humans face.

“U-umm, why does what do…what?” he squeaks. He squeaked! Aw!

I giggle again, and let my hands drop to each side of the human.

“Your face! Its turn’s red. Is that warning?” I ask and he look a little confused.

“I…no its not. Our faces flush red when we feel certain emotions. Like…embarrassment.” He says.

I hum as an answer, and I star fiddling with his hair, its quiet soft. How interesting! I wonder if my face will do that?

“Um…are you a…” The human trails off.

I break out a few more giggles, I know exactly what it’s trying to ask.

“A mermaid? Yes.” I giggle again. His face is a cross between shock and bewilderment. It’s so funny!

“Beautiful…” he whispers. I chuckle at him.

“And you’re a pretty human!” I muse. “Are you a girl?”

He looks slightly taken aback for a second before replying.

“I-I’m a boy.” He says sheepishly. Ooooh~ this human is cute!

“Oh?” I pull back and start to swirl around; I felt a sudden need to move around.

The human watches me, and begins to slowly ask me more questions. Obvious things like “may I touch you tail” and “Are your hands webbed?”, and he was so polite about it all. In turn I asked him about his boat and the other humans he’s with. I learned that Armin is in fact the same as me. The other humans took him in after his grandfather died, and has been with them for 5 years now. I also learned he can navigate the ocean using a small thingybop called a compass, the wind and stars. The human can talk to stars! Who would’ve thought?! I also learned the name of the few human’s I saw earlier. The one that bit his tongue was called Oluo and the woman that was messing with him was called Petra. I asked if she was a mermaid but he said no but I’m not convinced. Either Petra or Armin is a mermaid, and that is final. Oh! And the shaved headed one (he is not bald said Armin.) was called Connie and the girl who was stealing food is called Sasha. I think she might be mermaid too. We do eat a lot.

Armin is nice, he very polite and when we talked about how he navigates with the stars, I couldn’t help but notice the determination in his eyes. He’s amazing! He told me that there are others on the ship that do different things, and are amazing too. I want to meet them! But I like Armin, I’ve only just met him and I feel like…is this what they call friendship? I realize that even with other the sea life around me; I’ve never had a real friend. We actually talk, and we’ve talked about so much, so does this make us friends?

I was just finishing telling him my run in with the titan, and how I followed the ship here when a familiar and dead tone voice called out to Armin, making us both jump.

“I have to go.” He looks at me with a sad look. I pout at him.

I was about to say something, when I noticed the black chord around his neck. I reached forward and brought it up to my face, inspecting it quickly.

“What is this? A necklace? You make jewelry too?” I asked in a hushed tone.

“Well, It was supposed to be, but I can’t make jewelry very well…” His voice is more sad then before. No! My first human friend cannot leave me sad!

I blink and remember a conch shell I picked up before. I smile and search through my satchel around my waist.

“Eren?”

I smile up at him and pull out my hand reveal the conch shell. It was a strange gold-ish pink color, and shone differently. I take the leather chord from his neck and attach the shell to it, before bringing it to my chest and I start to hum. I close my eyes and I feel the shell warming up. When I’m done, I put the chord back on Armin and lift it to his ear.

“Eren, what was…” his confused face drops to one that looks peaceful, almost sleepy.

I smile at him leaning on my back and floating.

“If you listen to the shell, you can hear the ocean singing. And you can talk to me when you feel like too.”

He looks at me with, at first, a face or disbelief before it changes to something that is absolutely adorable.

“Thank you Eren! Thank you!” he clutches it to his chest as I chuckle.

“It’s the very least for my friend.” I smile at him, and he looks almost close to tears.

“We…we’re friends?”

“Of course we’re friends Armin!”

At this Armin beams at me (He beamed at me!) and raises his arms slightly, and I rush over and wrap my arms around him. I’m hugging my human FRIEND! I nuzzle into his hair for a moment, before letting him stand to return to his ‘crew’ (That’s what Armin says they are, a sort of family thingy.)

Armin wasn't a step away, before he turns back to me.

“I’ll…will I see you again?” Armin has an almost pleading look.

I giggle at him once again. Goddesses, I’ve laughed an awful lot day!

“I plan on following your ship, because you’re on it, so yes, we shall.”

He smiles before waving at me, and hurries of to the fire with the others. I dip below the water and head to the bottom of the sea bad and find a hole I prop myself in to rest. The after effects of the events today have finally caught up with me. I ruffle into my satchel once again and retrieve a long red scarf and wrap it around myself. This scarf is made with special materials that mermaids use for clothing. It never wets, in the water, and when held on dry land is feels like normal cloth. And it’s very warm. I snuggle up into the cloth once more before relaxing and letting sleep take me away. I fall asleep with a smile on my face, thinking of the stars and a compass.

Chapter Text

My eyes are still closed, but I can see the rays of light twist and turn, bend and curl in the water. I would’ve have stayed there a lot longer, but there was a bell. That was what Armin said was the sign that they would be up and moving soon. I stretched my arms above my head and wiggled out of my sleeping spot, yawning with a few bubbles coming from my mouth. I slowly make my way towards the ship that is now making it way back out into the open sea. I’m still really tired, but Armin is on that ship so I can’t lose sight of it. Speaking of Armin, I wonder how he is? He hasn’t used the conch shell yet, but I remember he looked pretty tired last night, so maybe he just forgot to try. I let out a small sigh and continued to follow the ship. I was a little bored and honestly I wasn’t expecting to see dolphins. But hey, dolphins are crazy fun to swim with so I decided to join them.

I was bobbing and weaving along with my dolphin buddies, when a familiar voice filled my mind.

“Eren?”

I just about smacked one dolphin named George by accident because I was so damn happy and scared the air right out of them when I started squealing. Armin used the shell and is actually talking to me! TALKING TO ME! YAY!

“Armin~!” I sang. The dolphins literally sang with me too. How sweet~

“Oh wow! It works! I..uh…what was that?” he asks. Obviously he heard the dolphins clearly through the shell.

“Oh! That was George and co.! They said hello~” George and co. proceeded to sing back once again.

Armin was now giggling and I couldn’t but twirl and giggle too. Giggles are so contagious. I could hear slight chatter with Armin speaking back to them about a the town Trost, and then I heard the whale creature ‘Hange’. I started laughing again because I imagined a giant whale with legs. Tiny legs!

“What’s so funny Eren?” Armin asked, and I could hear the smile while he spoke.

“Hahaha! Haaaaangeee!” I belted out, my best whale impersonation yet.

Armin was obviously struggling to muffle his laughter and it sounded like he was trying to breath but he pushed the air out of his lungs before he could even get much in. I started cackling at this point because Armin, oh my sweet human Armin, snorted. HE SNORTED! I was holding my sides and George and Tiffany and to help me swim because it was just too much. Gods bless George and Tiffany. Armin and I finally settled down, a content sigh was heard through the shell.

“Right…phew, okay…” he said. I giggled again.

“Armin~ what’s it like in the morning on this ship?” I asked, I wanted to know how he interacts with other humans, and from what I heard about the others from his ‘crew’, it sounds so interesting.

“Oh! Well…my goodness, Sasha!”

I perked up, Armin is talking, or in this case scolding, his fellow human mate? I could hear another voice, definitely a female, but she didn’t seem like she was speaking any human language I know.

“Arbin! Yub chu slov wem eaming yom foourb!”

What language was that?

“Sasha, I just sat down! My plate wasn’t even on the table yet! And plus you have your own food!”

Armin can understand this strange language, and they’re talking about human food. I could hear my stomach grumble slightly and I grimaced. I hadn’t eaten anything since…well since I ran into the Titan yesterday. My stomach was trying create a tsunami of its self, in its self. I was pretty hungry.

“Bub Arbin! Shurming iv curving!” She sounded so distressed! I heard Armin sigh heavily.

“Sasha, your always—!”

“Sasha! You got extra food and you didn’t share?!” Another male voice? He sounded…offended and very upset that Sasha did not share.

“Seriously Connie? You too?”

“C’mon, I’m always climbing up and down the crow’s nest! That’s a lot of work! I need fuel~” He whined.

Connie? Those are the two I saw arguing over what Armin calls a ‘potato’. He must be the one with the almost shaved head. And Sasha is the girl, and I’m still convinced that she is a mermaid. There was more arguing and I couldn’t help but laugh at them because they were getting so worked up over food.

“Armin~” I whined, turning myself upside down.

“Sorry Eren…They just don’t know when to—Hey! Hands off!” there was a slap noise and a squeak. That wasn’t Armin, but I know it was Sasha.

“I’m huuuugraaay~ Do you have coconuts? Or starfruits? Ooooh~ I love coconuts~ May I have a coconut?” I begged. My reply was a chuckle.

“We have coconuts but you’ll have to wait, I can’t give it to you without the others getting suspicious and asking questions.” I pouted. I want a coconut and I want it now.

“Just chuck it over the edge! I’ll catch it!” Another sigh. Aw man.

“Eren…that would be really suspicious. Too suspicious.”

“Then pretend to slip and fall, and fling it over. Then say it was an accident.”

“Eren…I don’t think that will work.”

“UGH! NUUUUUUUU! MY COCONUT!”

And now Armin was laughing at me again. This time I sighed heavily before giving up. And George and Tiffany and the rest had returned from wherever they left to…I was wrapped up with all the drama that I didn’t even see them leave and get me seaweed. I hummed a thank you and stuck it in my mouth and began to chew on it slowly. I wasn’t even sure how long I was swimming for, but the ship had started nearing an area with more rocks and shallower water. They must be nearer to the town they call Trost! I rushed underneath the ship, sticking closer to the coral reefs. There were long wooden pillars in the ground, and a very long plank running down to the beach. I swam underneath the said planky thing, in the shadows of the ship, the ship itself spat out another plank and the humans began to walk down. From where I was hiding, they couldn’t see me, so I got a good look at who was walking off.

The first person that stepped of was…definitely Hange. I heard her before I saw her! She came running down the plank and started jumping up and down, and clapping her hands in front of her face repeatedly. She had brown hair pulled back into a messy ponytail, and had weird spyglasses stuck on her face. She had a huge smile that was ear to ear. Honestly I imaged something completely different, but I have to say, she is pretty, so she must also be a mermaid. A woman, Armin said her name was Petra, she walked down and was bickering with Oluo, the man that once again bit his tongue. Following behind was two men; I think their names were Eld and Gunther, though I’m unsure of which one is which. Then came Seapony and the man with all those little dots on his face, named Marco. Marco could be a mermaid, I’d believe that, but his ‘friend’ would be a merfolk. I don’t like merfolk.

Closely behind her were…wow. A tall young man that looked a little nervous came walking down, his eyes stuck to the ground. Then a tall women, her tanned skin, in a way like mine and her brown hair and those little dots on her face. Then a BIG burly blonde man walked down, and I have to say, he was…mhmmm. He was muscular. And I could help myself stare at him a little more then I should’ve because, by Posiden’s beard, he was an attractive human. I think that was Reiner, from how Armin described him, it did no justice. Berthold was most likely the tall nervous man and Ymir must have been that tanned woman. She looked…sneaky. I was eyeing that Reiner before another tall and extremely handsome blonde man came walking down the plank and everybody did a funny motion with his or her arms and legs. It was all at the same time and it sent shivers down my spine for some strange and exciting reason. He reminded me of those old statues I used to find in those sunken temples. He was seriously handsome, and those eyebrows.

It then occurred to me that the large eyebrowed man was Captain Erwin Smith of The Wings of Freedom. Armin said that the captain and his few higher ups used to be part of the navy, they were renowned for their great strategic power and every upgrading ship. They were feared by the Navy itself and pirates. Armin actually said that I should definitely make sure to stay out of site of him. I was about to dive back underwater, when I saw Armin come down he plank. He started to make his way down and I honestly had to force myself not to jump up and scream at him because I was so damn excited to see him. He walked slightly behind the captain as the crew made their way off the ship and onto land. I watched they’re figures walk right over head, footsteps and creaking being all I could hear.

“Eren, I’m going on land for a little while. Be careful and stay out of sight until I get back. Okay?” Armin’s voice resonated through my head.

I grinned, he doesn’t know he’s basically standing over me right now. I crept to a point where the long planks intersected, and waited until Armin walked back past me. I whistled, and splashed my tail, and Armin whipped his head around. I stuck my head out behind my little post and waved with both hands, and smiled at him. He stopped and narrowed his eyes at me.

“Get your little fins back in the damn water.”

I was struggling to muffle my laughter, because Armin was being so protective. I waved again, and he rolled his eyes before giving a brief smile and a small wave before following the rest of the crew on land. I was actually surprised the rest of the crew didn’t stop to see what he was looking at. I submerged once more and decided it would be an amazing idea to go to the nearby cliffs and see if there was anything in the water below. I needed to pass the time until Armin came back and not get seen. I couldn’t stay close to the ship, the ‘docks’ had other ships coming in constantly, so I had to lay low a little ways from the town. I swam next to the reefs humming a tune that reminded me of those old temples with those beautiful statues, searching for small treasures that might be hidden.

Chapter Text

I was resting in the coral reefs when Armin used the conch shell to tell me he was on his way back to the ship. The sun was just about set, and it was already pretty dark out. I made way back to the ship, to the side facing away from the town. I couldn’t hear many humans left on the ship, there was probably only 3 or 4, and they weren’t on deck. I occupied myself by doing small flips in the water until a little row boat was lowered in to the water, but still connected to the ship by ropes.

“Eren?”

I immediately shot upwards to the boat and jumped high out of the water with my hands as high as they could possibly go.

“ARMIIIIIIN!” I squealed.

Then Armin’s hand slapped across my mouth, ending my squeal/screech-fest before I even got to the good part. I froze, my eyes on Armin’s. He looked at me incredulously, and I was trying to keep myself calm because Armin is back and I’ve wanted to see him all day and now he’s here.

“Eren, what the heck?” he hissed.

Armin’s hand was now muffling my giggles and laughter. My shoulders shook and I was trying to stop but I was failing. He lowered his hand and let out a hefty sigh and shook his head slowly. My hands were over my mouth and I couldn’t take it. My giggling was accompanied with snorts and ugly cackles from the back of my throat. At this point, Armin was laughing too. Hurray! My human friend called Armin is laughing with me. Armin wipes away a stray tear before heaving a long breath to steady him. He looks at me and suddenly his face turns from happy to…nervous. I feel my own face do the same.

“What’s wrong Armin?” I feel concerned and nervous myself, I can feel Armin’s sudden change in emotions and that just smacked me right in the heart.

“I…um…what would you think of…maybe…meeting a friend of mine?” he asks.

I blinked.

Then again.

The twice more.

Then I’m sure my face split open into two with my smile.

“OH MY GODS! YOUR FRIEND WANTS TO…OH~!” I slapped my hand over my mouth when I realized how loud I was being. Then I continued in a much quieter tone, my mind gone off like those strange colorful explosions I sometimes see in the sky near ports. Questions were spat out:

“Where are they!?”

“What’s their name?”

“What do they look like?”

“Are they pretty?”

“Is it a boy or girl?”

“Do they like swimming?”

“What do their feet look like?”

“Do they like coconuts?! Armin, if they don’t like coconuts, I already dislike them.”

And a whole bunch of other stuff.

Then Armin blinked at me. By the time I stopped asking questions, our noses were touching, and his eyes were probably as wide as mine. I was breathing heavy because I was grinning from ear to ear. I was going to meet another human, a friend of Armin’s.

I WANT TO MEET THEM RIGHT NOW.

Armin opened his mouth to say something when somebody called out his name.

“Oi, Armin.”

Our heads snapped up to the ship, and I think I almost snapped my neck. Armin whips back around, and gives me a look. I’m not sure what it said, but I just dove back under water, swimming a little ways from the ship. It looked like I was going to have to wait again.

I sighed, and started my way back to cliffs when I heard a loud splashing sound. I look back to the ship, and I see the little rowboat Armin and I were talking on was now lowered into the water and was moving in my direction.

My first though was that Armin had come back but he would’ve used the shell to tell me. I waited until the boat passed over my head, before following it until it stopped. Who ever was on the little boat, was making me curious and I have no idea why. I slowly crept to the left side, staying close but deep enough to where they wouldn’t see me. At such moment like this, I’m really glad I have such amazing eyesight. I focused on the boat, and who was in it. Subconsciously, I moved upwards towards the surface, and I got a good look at the person.

This man had dark hair, some pieces falling in his face, but a hood covered most of it. His lips were pale and thin, and many scars sat on his said lips yet they looked so…

The man took his hood off.

Scars ran across his the whole of his face, where his hood had been. Some curved, others were straight across his face. Some were long, lasting from his left temple, to his right cheekbone, then some were short, small knicks in his otherwise smooth pale skin. I focused and realized some were deeper then others, some were faded but they were all visible. They seemed to glow in the soft moonlight, illuminating his ski and scars. He wore a sad yet calm expression, gazing out to where the moon kissed the ocean goodnight.

He sat still, and all tension in his those broad shoulder slowly disappeared. His face seemed to relax further, yet that sad glint in his eyes never left. I felt enraptured by this human, his scars did nothing to hide or even lessen his handsome face. I could see it. Past those unfortunate scars was a handsome face, a face that shouldn’t look so…sad.

Lost in my thoughts, I never realized I was already making my way up to the surface, exactly in front of the human. I swam slowly, my eyes never leaving his face. My heart beating in chest, it was the other thing I could hear as I came closer and closer…

“Eren?”

The sound of Armin’s voice brings me out the trance I had no idea I was in, and at the same moment, the man has put his hood back on and made his way back to the ship. The man was gone.

Why was I in a trance?

Who was that?

Armin had come back on the boat, and had…

A coconut. Armin brought me a coconut.

Son of Triton.

I wanted to kiss him but he quickly brought my attention to the women that was climbing down the side of the ship. She wasn’t facing me but she had beautiful black hair that was glossy in the moonlight. I panicked for a second and immediately submerged, causing them both to turn around. I wasn’t thinking and I submerged on instinct. So when she sat next to Armin, I waited. I know Armin trusted her, enough to want her to see me, but know that they were in front of me; I kind of went into a more protective state. I watched her eyes scan the water, looking for me, and she looked back at Armin who looked worried. Damn it, I didn’t want to worry Armin. I drew a long breath in, and exhaled slowly, release a small stream of bubbles up to the surface.

I slowly crept back up, poking my head out, only my eyes were visible. She looked at me, and blinked several times. I flared my ears out; the rustling sound startled her a little. My shoulders are now visible, and then my waist. Her eyes are wide and she looks at me with wary confusion. I let my tail flick out in front of her face, and she freezes her eyes becoming even wider. Now she looks at me in awe. I offer a small smile and she returns it, and reaches out to my tail. She stops to look at me, seeming to ask for permission. I bring my tail closer to her, and she lightly strokes my fin.

Her expression makes me laugh, and she stops being so shy and she starts really feeling my fin. And holy triton it tickled. I tried to muffle my giggling and utterly failed when my sweet Armin decided do it more forcefully. I didn’t know the other women and she was doing it too. AND ENJOYING IT?!

After I’m done flailing like an idiot and can finally breathe again, we finally calm down. Well, they do, my blood is pumping and I’m only showing the upper part of my face. The women smiles at me, and I she speaks.

“My name is Mikasa.” She gives me a small smile.

My eyes grow wide, and I shoot out of the water, and pull her into a huge octopus hug.

“Ooooooooh~! My name is Eren! It’s nice to meet you too!” I started to screech incoherent words while thrashing around. And Armin throws his head back with vigor while he laughs once more. We talked about how Armin and I met, and how life was under the sea, and I told them about the incident with the Titan just 2 days prior. Armin looked horrified but was relieved that his crew had managed to save me, although unknowingly.

“Eren, where do you plan on going now?”

I looked at Mikasa for a moment, before pondering to myself.

I had never thought about where I would go next, I always wandered and went with my gut feeling. It didn’t always lead me into the best situations, but I’ve never been able to…

Where would I go? I didn’t even…

“I’ve never…really thought about that. I don’t have anywhere to return to. I’ve always just…” I trailed off.

“Wandered?” Armin supplied.

He smiled at them. And I could tell it was a sad one.

“Yes…But…I have this feeling I should follow you guys some more. That’s sort of…maybe a place for me to go” I said, swimming in small circles.

Armin perked up and his blue eyes twinkled with happiness, Mikasa gave me a soft smile. I really liked talking to these two. Armin was bright and had such a hunger for knowledge and a thirst for the unknown, just like me. Mikasa was quiet but she was also so smart, sharp and very observant. I could tell she had both brains and strength, and she knew how to use them. I had only known them for maybe a day or two, and I was fairly attached. I don’t remember the last time I felt so…happy. Genuinely happy. If theses two made this happy, what would their…

I felt a grin creep onto my face and I slowly turned to them.

“Do you guys think…maybe…perhaps I should meet…your Captain?”

They stared at me for a moment. They blinked once.

Three times.

Armin opened his mouth to speak before Mikasa beat him to it.

“I think that’s a good idea.”

My grin grew ever wider and I lunged at them and went to speak before, once again, an interruption was made, making us all freeze and grow rigid at the unfamiliar voice.

“Armin, Mikasa? What the hell are you guys doing do—“

I inhaled, and exhaled a long shot of seawater from my mouth and it slapped the very human that interrupted us right in the eyes.

Bullseye.

That’s what humans say when they hit a target perfectly right? I think?

As soon as it hit him he stumbled back wards and let out a sound known as a squawk, a hideous one at that.

“WHAT THE FUCK?”

Armin’s mouth dropped open and he slapped his hands over it to stifle his laughter, Mikasa bit her right hand, on the knuckle, and her shoulders shook dangerously. I was failing to hide my giggling.

Then I heard a stampeded of footsteps coming from the other side of the ship. All this noise and the ugly squawking had drawn attention and more voices could be heard. I pulled Armin and Mikasa back into a hug; I needed to go before I was seen. They realized I was going, so they returned my hug full force. I pulled away and an idea sprang itself into my head.

Mikasa is very beautiful, I’d say she was a mermaid but I know she’s not. I couldn’t help but think she needed something. Her clothes were very boyish, and no hint of vibrant color made me want to internally cry. I rustled through my satchel and presented to them my red cloth. I could be used as a scarf and I honestly think that Mikasa would look even more beautiful in it, plus the fact that she would be able to use it in ways I probably haven’t thought about yet. I tossed it around her neck, wrapping it around her and flung the very end of it on the very top of her head, She started at me with an almost stoic expression, but one eyebrow was cocked upwards and her eyes shone with confusion. I smiled at her and pulled them into one more hug. I pulled back once again and pointed to the scarf as I swam backwards.

“That scarf, is woven from a very special material only found in the very bottom of the ocean, it’s a strong and durable cloth, stronger then steel, but softer then that cashmere stuff you humans have.” At that point, both Armin and Mikasa were stroking the scarf carefully, eyes wide with awe.

“Tis a present for you Mikasa, as was the conch shell was for Armin. I haven’t figured out how many uses it has, but I think you’ll be able to find them rather then me.” She adjusted the scarf around her neck and pulled up to her face. Her eyes softened and her cheeks turned a rosy color.

SHE BLUSHED!

I giggled and waved to them, they waved back as I submerged back underwater. I honestly didn’t need the scarf, I was never cold underwater or even out of the water, so I think giving it to Mikasa was a good idea. My thoughts drifted back to my idea of meeting the captain.

We still hadn’t discussed how we were going to reveal myself to the captain, and I was sure we were going to whip up an extravagant plan later on. I honestly didn’t know why I wanted to meet their Captain; it was yet another gut feeling, and I blurted it out. As excited as I am about meeting more humans, and maybe even getting to see the ship, I was nervous, scared even.

Humans haven’t always been the nicest to me and if their Captain and fellow crew members weren’t as good people as Armin says they are...

 I cringed at the thoughts in my head and swiftly shook the thoughts away. Some sleep would do me good; I could speak more of it with Armin and Mikasa later. I set off a little ways from the ship and found a comfortable set of rocks to lean on, laying myself down and watched the moonlight dance and twist from the surface. My thoughts returned to the man that was on the rowboat earlier. I realized that, his scars were not natural. It was more likely to be a curse.

My brow furrowed and a dark thought swept through my mind.

A human having a run-in with a sea-witch? And Living to see another day?

That was unheard of. And if my intuition was correct, those scars were from his encounter. I felt my chest clench and stomach lurch, because sea witches are spiteful and cold beings. They took every chance to make humans unhappy, causing harm, misfortune and, much to their glee, death. They despise humans. What ever this man did, it was obviously enough for the witch to evoke a curse.

I sighed, blowing tiny bubbles with swished and swayed upwards to the surface. I wasn’t even sure why the raven came to mind. Such dark thoughts were  keeping me awake. I rolled over and rested my head onto my arm and closed my eyes. It took awhile, but I eventually fell into dreams filled with sad raven with shining scars marring his handsome face.

Chapter Text

It was strange to dream about a human man that I’ve only seen once but even stranger when you’re woken up by George.

I’m not even sure how he managed to find me but he did, Tiffany was making a ruckus the whole time. If I wasn’t a morning person, I might’ve snapped at them but I’ve always been one for the rising sun.

I took a while to stretch out and seek out some seaweed; I would be waiting for a while more until Armin called me so we could speak more about out big plan. I felt myself getting twitchy; I just couldn’t sit still. I was excited to meet the rest of the crew, but meeting humans has never gone well before.

I still remember my first run in with humans. I had the worst luck of running into hunters. They were attempting to spear a humpback whale, and, being as upset as I was that they were hurting her, I messed with their ropes, and caused them to unfortunately drop her back into the water and she escaped. I was swimming away when it happened.

The hunter themselves weren’t like the other idiots. Oh no, these ones were far smarter. It was obvious they have seen many things, including mermaids because they quickly turned to chase me. I spent two whole weeks running from them, and they eventually had cornered me in a cut off cove. I had hid for maybe a day successfully, but I was seen while I tried to slip out, which ended with my tail getting sliced rather badly. It took 3 more weeks for it to heal so I could swim at a decent pace.

It hadn’t healed properly and I had to go as far as to make a deal with a sea witch to help it. It wasn’t anything crazy; the witch was actually rather nice. She gave me a healing potion just for a pearl necklace. She had collected the pearls herself and I fashioned them in to a necklace for her.

Remembering the wound when it was still fresh made the scar ache, my hand went straight to the old and faded scar on the left lower side of my tail.

I huffed and shook my head; there was no use of thinking of that. I wasn’t so careless anymore.

I waited with George and Tiffany until Armin called me via the shell, and I didn’t have to wait long in fact. Armin and Mikasa had spoken to me about waiting until it was dark to get into the details, but they mentioned the fact that I would have to expose myself away from the rest of the crew. I didn’t argue, I didn’t want to take any chances honestly. I sighed heavily, I would have to wait all day before we could talk again, so occupied myself with searching the seabed for anything interesting while I tailed the ship.

~*~*~*~*~*~

When night fell, Mikasa and Armin were finally able to slip away onto the rowboat. I surfaced in front of them, ready to say hello, but they seemed to be arguing. I could’ve sworn we were all the same page so what were they fighting about?

I only had to listen in for a minute or two to get what was going on. Armin was still very much for meeting Erwin like we planned, but Mikasa seemed to suddenly change her mind, or at least was worried about the risks of all this.

“Armin, Erwin might be a little more open-minded than most, but he is still ruthless. He could attack Eren before he even gets a chance to speak!” Armin shook his head mutely.

“No, he’ll listen first! Erwin would definitely want to talk to Eren. He’s a man of opportunity, such a chance to see and talk to a mermaid? He wont pass this up, Mikasa.”

“He’s also a cautious man, and once he makes his mind up, no matter what is said after, he wont change his mind. What if he sees Eren and just goes to attack?”

“He wouldn’t! I know Erwin, he’s a good man Mikasa, we just have to explain it to him before he gets in the boat, if we get him in the boat.”

Mikasa huffed loudly, and brought her hand to her face and rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes. I could tell she was frustrated, and so was Armin. All this talk wasn’t getting anywhere. I continued to look between the both of them as they spoke.

“He’s a ex military officer. He’s going to be cautious with everything he does, they were taught to assume everything in the ocean was an enemy. Meaning mermaids too. He’ll definitely react badly.” Mikasa crossed her arms and fixed Armin with a stare that made my skin crawl.

What I didn’t see coming was how unaffected Armin was and how he gave a exasperated sigh. That took me by surprise. I had no idea what to do, so I continued to stay quiet because even I was a little apprehensive to meeting him after hearing of his military past.

“Mikasa, he was officer, yes, but we both know how he likes to look at the facts, and collect information before making a decision. He was a great leader because he listened to his crewmates and smart decisions. This will work.” He said, with pure confidence and determination that I couldn’t help but believe him.

Mikasa and Armin stared at each other for a very long moment, each holding the others determined stare. I sank a little in to the water and my ears drooped a little because this was making me extremely nervous. My eyes shifted between the two, and I couldn’t help the urge to fill in the deafening silence and tension.

“Um…”

Perfect Eren. That’s just what you needed to say.

Shining blue and dark smoky grey turned and peered at me. I sunk a little deeper because these made me feel all the more nervous now. I took a deep breath before speaking.

“Erwin was a naval officer?” I asked. Everything was quiet for a moment and I thought they weren’t going to answer me, but Armin answered me.

“Yes, he was. Erwin was commander of an entire fleet. He had hundreds of men under his command and was considered one of the greatest and strongest in the Navy.”

I saw Mikasa nodding along, before she spoke next.

“He’s an excellent tactician, and is very good at rallying people to his aid. Some of the crew members on this ship actually served with him in the Navy as his officers and lieutenants.”

I couldn’t help but feel admiration for the man. He seemed honorable, like he took care of his crew and obviously had experience. No wonder Armin and Mikasa respected him so much.

“Although…I’ve heard that he was quite ruthless in cases and sometimes…indifferent in certain situations. Some of those rumors aren’t pleasant.” Her expression hardened, and I felt nervous again.

“Those were only in extreme cases, Eren. His life was in danger. There’s nothing to worry though, I doubt we’ll be running on the water at him with a cannon, so don’t worry.”

Running on water? I swear if we run into anything that can run on water, I run or swim the other way. That sounds scary!

“Eren, are you alright?” Mikasa said with concern.

I had to shake the image of those lizard monsters with those flaring necks with cannons out of head before I focused on Mikasa and Armin. Mikasa looked concerned and a little confused, while Armin had his eyes slightly narrowed and looked suspicion for reason.

“What were you thinking about?” His voice was definitely laced with heavy suspicion.

“Nothingdontworryabout…Heeeeeeey, You know what?!” I threw my hands up in hopes it would distract them away.

Stupid water lizards!

“I think we should just ask for an audience. Get it done?” I looked between them as they exchanged a look, before they sighed together, it sounded defeated.

Which means I am victorious.

Gods bless me.

“Well, we never know what could happen unless we try it…” Armin looked happy about my choice, though Mikasa had a little apprehension in her eyes, she sighed once more before nodding, although reluctantly.

I managed to suppress my squeal, and instead flopped in the water a little bit to show my excitement, when I finished I turned back to them, because I had an amazing idea. Grinning ear to ear, I let it out.

“Go get him now! Lets do it now! Lets go!” I thrashed my hands around, causing them to lean back to avoid getting splashed.

“Calm down Eren, are you sure? Tonight?” I nodded vigorously.

“Yes! Tonight! NOW! There’s no time to waste!” I hopped on to the edge of the boat, making it tilt, and I started to push them backwards.

Mikasa grunted and eventually got up, mumbling something about gutting a giant, she still had a little glint of nervousness in her eyes as she climbed the ropes. Armin just chuckled on his way up, although he still seemed a little nervous. I couldn’t blame them though.

When they reached the top, I watched their heads disappear, listening to their footsteps, until I saw a little tuft of blond peek back over the edge.

“Eren, swim out a little ways, keep your eyes out for the boat!” With that, Armin disappeared into the ship.

I was so excited to get this moving; I was going to meet their crew and a captain, an ex-naval commander at that. I swam out towards a small set of rocks and realized that, if this goes well, then we would be able to talk without hiding it; I would learn more of the human world. The captain, from what I was told, seemed like a reasonable man. If he did try and attack me…that wouldn’t end well seeing that he’s stuck in a rowboat, in the water…I shook my head from that thought, it won’t come to such things. My mind slowly wandered to the mysterious raven. He’d invaded my thoughts constantly today.

The raven came to mind as one of my most important things to do. I wanted to know what his scars were from, I wanted to know him. I thought back to the trance I was in when I first saw him and I remembered some thing my mother had told me. She would tell me that when we meet our mates, we feel drawn to them, like there is pull to that person, even if you don’t know them. We call it “The Pull”, a force that drives us to seek out them, stranger or not, no matter who they are. Mother said that there was no way to defy it, and if you did it would become stronger and might even physically hurt. She said feeling The Pull when she first made eye contact with Father was one of the greatest things she’s ever felt. She said for a moment, there was nothing in the world but you and your mate. I hadn’t made eye contact with him yet, but just seeing his face and those eyes, I think I felt it. Could it have been The Pull? My mate would be human, and male. Though that really wouldn’t really be a problem since I’m—

My train of thought was stopped when I saw the bottom of the rowboat slowly approach my area. I flailed my arms and my tail, it was happening! I could barely contain myself, but I knew I had to be calm about this. I had to go about this correctly, or it would end with somebody dead…though it wouldn’t be me…

The boat stopped right above me. And I could feel my heart pounding. This was it. I took breath, and let the bubbles rise to the immediate right of the boat before making my way up to the surface as slowly as possible.

And that’s when I saw him, sitting in the on the side of the little rowboat.

Chapter Text

He was there, sitting on the boat.

His hood was up, but I could just see all those little scars, crisscrossing, curving on his skin. I could feel my heart beating in my chest. It was like water around me would shift with every heartbeat. Every beat resonated in my skull and seemed to vibrate the ocean. My eyes wouldn’t leave his form as I swam closer and closer to the surface.

He must have sensed me nearing the surface because he shifted his body and now he was facing me and I was now facing him head on. And then I saw them.

His eyes. His eyes seem to hold a storm; its winds rushing, the waves crashing, and the sky a glowing grey; bright and vibrant yet pale. They were sharp and piercing, like a perfectly sharpened knife. Even under the hood, where his face was darkened by it shadow, his seemed to glow.

I hadn’t realized that I stopped swimming, and I was resting just underneath the surface. He could see me, and I him, yet neither of us made a move. I slowly let my head pop up, letting my eyes become visible. I had guessed he saw me below the surface but I was wrong, as soon as I emerged, his hands were quick to draw his knife that was tucked in his belt. His head spun again and his eyes were finally on mine.

He froze. His armed hand lowered ever so slightly, as his eyes stayed locked with mine as they widened ever so slightly. We sat for what felt like an eternity, with those sharp, piercing grey eyes gazing into mine. I slowly raised my head fully out of the water, till my chest and waist was exposed. I rested my hands on the side of the rowboat; he had lowered his knife while looking between Mikasa and Armin with a confused, shocked and somewhat wary expression in his eyes. He hadn’t noticed that I was now exactly in front of him until he turned back around to me.

We locked eyes again, and then I felt it. My heart felt like it was lurching forward, trying to break free from my chest. And it was trying to lurch straight to the raven. My mind only focused on those sharp grey eyes, seeing past the storm. Mother always said that when we first make eye contact, that our heart and soul would tell us what we want. We would feel everything pull towards them. It would bring us together. I remember her telling me about meeting father, about how all these strange feelings would leave her tingling, confused but so…warm.

Was this what she was talking about? Was this man…

I wasn’t sure when, but hands had come up and were now above and behind his head. I needed contact; I wanted him closer. I needed him closer. I had pulled my upper body on to the rowboat, and was closing the distance between us, my hands rested on his shoulders as I went to tug him closer.

But then I felt rough leather on my chest and I was falling. I smacked back into the water, and I was utterly shocked. I resurface quickly and locked eyes with the raven and saw something that made me flinch back from him. His eyes were hardened; narrowed and they held nothing but cold emptiness. His knife was raised again, and he looked ready to strike.

I couldn’t help but sink back until just my eyes were visible from the water, because I was genuinely scared. Even if I felt the pull, I was still scared of that look in his eyes. But even so, my heart clenched because he had pushed me away. Mother said that The Pull works both ways, no matter the species. Had I made a mistake? Had he not felt it? If it’s just me…

He had pushed me because, in his eyes, I was just some…creature from the water that suddenly came to him. Why wouldn’t he be wary of seafarer like me? Pirates…humans in general, never trust us seafolk.

“Armin, what the fuck is that?”

His velvety, baritone voice did nothing to hide the pure venom in his words. I hadn’t realized that he fixed me with a glare. If looks could kill…I would definitely be floating.

“Well this is…a mermaid. He’s…his name is Eren, Sir…” He stammered as the raven fixed him with a cold look.

“You wanted to show Erwin your pet mermaid? And you gave it a name?” He sounded so closed off and cold.

I couldn’t help but cringe when he said ‘it’. I already feel like urchins, but gods, this was really dealing damage.

I sunk deeper and deeper into the water, I felt so…hurt.

Mikasa must have noticed because her face went from her usual stoic façade to one of pure fury, as she turned back to Levi who was questioning Armin on where they had found me. She interrupted them with a cold and icy tone.

“He is not a pet, and he came to us. Sir.” The raven simply blinked back and answered in an equally icy tone with anger flashing in his eyes.

“Your pet is seafolk. They’re monsters. All of them.”

My chest felt like it had dropped, a ton of coral sitting in the bottom. I felt sick; I wanted to be sick. My breath hitched at his words, and I might’ve made a noise because they had turned to me as I tried not to cry. My eyes burned and I almost just submerged back underwater.

Next, I heard Mikasa spit out words, but I couldn’t concentrate on anything except the unbearable pain in my chest. Why did this hurt so much? I don’t even know his name, and he already hates me. I felt The Pull, but this must have been some cruel joke the gods decided to pull on me. Funny that the gods would choose me, of all mermaids in the ocean.

I didn’t realize how the raven-haired man and Mikasa had now pulled knives out. They looked ready to kill, trying to murder each other with their glares. I wasn’t sure what to do, or if I could even do anything to help. I was positive that the raven would kill me if I intervened, but Armin, his blessed self, stepped in first.

“Wait! Please, this is not what we brought you here for! Mikasa put that away!” He raised his hands to motion to Mikasa.

Reluctantly, she lowered her blade, her glare never faltered; nor did her eyes leave the raven. He lowered his as he saw her put the knife back on her belt. Before looking to Armin. He flinched slightly before taking a deep breath.

“Eren has been following the ship for several days now. There’s no malicious intent, he only wants to talk to us. He’s curious about humans, sir. He approached me first when we stopped at the cove, then he met Mikasa only a day ago.” Levi eyed him; his eyes seemed to be diving into Armin’s, looking for some sort of give away that he was lying.

He turned to me, our eyes meeting, and the feeling was back. I wanted to get closer, be near him, yet there was a pain in my heart. He stared for a moment before turning back to Armin.

“Why did you want it to meet Erwin?” He said in bored tone.

I could tell Mikasa was about to say something, or launch herself forward at the raven for calling me an ‘it’ again, but I managed to drift to her before she did so. I placed my hand on hers holding it down. She glanced at me and her face automatically softened and her posture relaxed. I gave a her a small smile before turning back to the other two, to find the raven already looking at me, well, looking at our hands. His eyes then flicked to mine before he gave Armin his attention again.

That did not go unnoticed.

I wasn’t sure where Armin was with convincing the man on letting me see the Captain, but when I turned back, I was greeted with Armin’s relieved eyes and a triumphant grin.

Relieved? Triumphant? Why?

He gave me thumbs up and I heard Mikasa sigh loudly before slouching and completely relaxing. I looked back and forth between them and when Mikasa smiled at me, I almost lost it.

It had worked. I was now going to meet the captain. I wouldn’t need to hide from the crew, and Armin and Mikasa wouldn’t have to sneak around anymore. I wasn’t sure where this would go but I couldn’t help but think this was going to be good.

I thought so, until my eyes went to the raven again. My heart clenched, and I felt so…helpless. The man in front of me was supposed to be my mate, but…he couldn’t be. It’s all in my head I guess. If things work out with the captain, then the only downside I see is that I’ll be around him a lot more. The same painful and extremely empty feeling, every time I look at him or even come near him. I knew I was smiling as I swam side by side with the little rowboat, but surely it looked sad, especially with the concerned look Armin gave me paired with Mikasa’s questioning hues. I smiled at them and continued on, making sure I didn’t look at the raven.

The swim back to the ship was short, silent and very awkward, honestly. They tied the boat back up quietly and I was sort of confused on how I would get up on the deck. But that didn’t last long because I was hoisted up on the boat. My tail was quiet big so half of it hung over the edge. I panicked for a second; it had been awhile since I had last been out of the water. I tugged onto Mikasa’s arm, getting her attention.

“M-mikasa. Can you dip your scarf into the water and wrap it around my tail?” She looked at me confused, but quickly complied.

The scarf would retain a little seawater, so I wouldn’t dry out to fast and getting on the deck would be less painful than the last time.

The boat suddenly drifted upward and I grabbed hold of Armin this time and froze. This sensation was beyond weird and I really didn’t like it. Armin placed his hand over mine and offered me a smile. It helped a little bit. As we rose upwards, I stole a glance at the raven-haired man. His eyes stayed above us, watching the ropes move. I felt that pain again.

I wish he would look at me.

But then again…why would he look at a monster?

The boat had stopped, and I could see the deck. And it was strange. More ropes, with lots of wood and metal. It was pretty, being up here. Then…I saw the other humans.

MORE HUMANS.

I probably would’ve squealed and started talking to them but I felt hard arms snake beneath my tail and back, before I was lifted again. I was confused and startled at first, but I felt my stomach drop and that painful empty feeling returned full force when I saw who picked me up. The raven. His face was still covered with that hood, but I felt his gaze. His eyes were on me. I held my breath and I felt myself go weak when he spoke.

“Levi.” His deep voice made me want to shiver; I could feel the vibrations from his chest and it shook me to my very core.

It took me moment to register what he actually said, but I didn’t know what ‘Levi’ meant. I cocked my head to the side, and looked at him. He sighed lightly before he began to walk towards across the deck.

“My name. It’s Levi. I know yours and now you know mine. Is that fair, brat?” His face was tilted towards mine, but I could tell his eyes were definitely on me.

Then it hit me. He just made an equal trade with me. A mermaid.

How did he know?

I simply nodded and his name slid off my tongue before I realized it.

“Levi.” I said quietly, almost whispering.

I loved the way it seemed to roll off my tongue and I couldn’t help but sigh. It was perfect.

It was small, but I could see his head turn ever so slightly to me. I wasn’t even sure if I was imagining it, but I swear he reacted.

I hope he reacted.

I let my head fall to his shoulder and prayed he wouldn’t react badly, and tried to push that empty, painful feeling in my heart to the side, as Levi carried me across the deck.

My heart pounded yet my chest felt hollow.

How bittersweet. This pain.

Chapter Text

I don’t even think we took a step forward before my tail started to tingle. I gasped suddenly and Levi had stopped completely and looked at me but I wasn’t sure what face he had on because I was too fixated on my tail.

My tail, was changing color, and was separating.

I was literally growing legs, as we stood there, and all I felt this time was a tingling feeling in my ‘legs’.

I couldn’t help but bring my legs up watch as my Caribbean and gold scales turned to my tanned caramel skin, and what used to be one tail, splits into two legs down the middle. My legs were a little thinner then I thought they’d be, but my hips were actually bigger and my waist quiet small. My fin was now split, and two webbed feet sat at the end of my legs.

I had no idea that I had attracted a crowd, too focused on my legs changing.

I managed to raise my right leg, and watched the water slowly trickle down like they were racing. I slowly raised it higher until it was vertical and I watched as the beads raced down towards my—

And then I heard it. That loud, dying whale noise was back and I remembered what they called it on the ship.

The Hanji.

Loud, thundering steps were heard and I felt fear grip me and I somehow managed to wrap my arms around Levi and tried to hide myself. I then felt a heaving breath next to me.

Being as scared as I was, I slowly turned my head, and found myself face to face with what could only be the Hanji.

It’s shoulders were moving up and down; its face was…covered in weird fragrant water that made my nose burn. It glistened on its skin and puffs of smoke came the mouth that hung wide open. The mouth was stretched into a wide and eerie grin that made me sink in further to Levi. I couldn’t see their eyes, there’s a bright shiny thing on each eye, connected somehow to a brown leathery looking strap on the face. I was confused on how it worked exactly but I was brought out of my thoughts by its strange hands touching my legs.

Poking, rubbing, fondling…

I jumped and my breath hitched, my legs kicked out and she made a weird screeching noise before doing it again. I kicked again; I wanted this thing off because it was seriously scaring me. Then I felt Levi tighten his hold for a moment. I looked up and saw something strange in those eyes. Then the Hanji spoke.

“OOOOH! You are just a cutie! And this skin! So soft and smooth…and your legs work just like ours! They seem to function just fine…you react great too…”

I tuned out for a second while the Hanji began to sputter out stuff; I wasn’t sure what they were talking about. I wondered if this person had knowledge about mermaids because they seemed pretty informed considering they described my tail structure perfectly.

“SOOOOOOO~” Hanji’s loud voiced jolted me from my thoughts. They were merely inches from my face and I was ready to cry because they looked SCARY.

“Does your reproductive system work the same? You’re male right? What about your dick?”

The deck went oddly silent. That’s also very uncomfortable. But I was confused about what she said.

“My what?” I wasn’t sure what her expression but they looked kind of confused too.

“Your…dick? Your thing in between ya legs? Right there.” They point down in my lap and I followed the direction slowly.

I blinked once.

Then again.

I slowly raised my head and fixed them with a stare.

“That’s what you humans call it it?”

More silence.

I watched Hanji’s face shift from confused to shocked to some something scary again before they blew up.

“Merfolk call it some DIFFERENT?!” They screeched and I was pretty scared again.

Then it hit me, they called me Merfolk?

I couldn’t help the anger flare as I glared at them. They went quiet when they noticed my look. I couldn’t help but raise my voice.

“I’m not merfolk, I’m a mermaid.”

Just saying the word out loud makes me want to rinse my mouth out. Humans must think mermaid and merfolk is the same thing, when we are clearly NOT. I could see the information being processed and when they figured it out, their faces shifted once again into something of understanding and excitement. Hanji bounced up and down while they spoke strange words I’m sure the others didn’t understand either.

Then something really weird happened. They started to leak saliva out of their mouth and their weird contraption on their eyes looked like they steamed up and they started screeching again. I yelped, and Levi took a step back while Hanji flailed around.

“You mean you’re a whole different SPECIES?!”

I was literally crawling up Levi’s frame because Hanji was seriously freaking me out. Like…what in Poseidon’s name is wrong? I then felt Levi’s arms wrap around my body more securely and I felt my chest fill with warmth. I couldn’t help but look up at his half hidden face because it felt right.

Hanji was panting and struggling with words, and I was ready to get away.

“Back the fuck up Hanji. You’re scaring him.” He growled, and I liked it.

“Aaaaw~ you’re so caring, Levi! Have you grown a heart?”  They cooed.

I think they were ready to lash out again, but then someone cleared their throat. A red faced guy with black hair and freckles was looking anywhere but me. I realized that everybody else was also blushing.

The humans are BLUSHING.

THERE’S SO MANY OF THEM.

And they’re all blushing.

Levi made a weird choking noise that made me snap my neck back towards him. Then a moment later I was spun around and a white sheet was pulled around me. It smelt like lemons and ocean breeze. I couldn’t help but snuggle into it, and I hadn’t seen Hanji rush away or even notice Levi was taking me somewhere else.

He continued to walk until we hit a door on the deck, he pushed through it and down a dimly lit hall way with rooms down all the sides, before stopping at one at the very end.

He lifted me up more before quickly tapping on the door three times and calling out to someone beyond the door. He peered down at me he spoke loudly.

“Oi, Erwin. I have something you might be interested in.”

He turned a small metal object on the door, and with a click, the door swung open and he took a step forward.

The lamp’s warm light bled out over the walls and caused the dark shadow to form over the wall behind the desk. At the said desk, sat a built man with an aura of dominance and pure respect. His eyes were bright blue, and his blonde hair was flawlessly combed on his head. Levi said his name was Erwin, and this was no doubt the captain of this ship. I knew I had to play my cards right.

Hanji had somehow snuck in the room and was standing to the right of Erwin with what looked like a black book and a writing utensil. Their eyes were bright and were on me, or from what I could tell behind those strange glass objects on their eyes. Erwin’s eyes were also on me and I could see them already thinking of scenarios and of plans. He placed the papers that were in his hands down before he laced his fingers together in front of him and rested his chin on top. He held my stare for a moment before he spoke in a voice filled with authority but also with peace.

“So I take it you’re the one the youngins’ wanted me to meet then?”

My eyes never left his as I spoke.

“I am, Captain.” I gave a small smile, which he seemed to acknowledge before he turned to Levi then Hanji.

“I heard something about him being merfolk…he looks very human to me.”

I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from correcting him, and I also know my eyebrow must’ve twitched, or my expression showed how I was really feeling because Hanji jumped in and corrected him for me.

“Mermaid, sir. He’s a mermaid. I found out that Merfolk and Mermaids are in fact different species.” They could barely contain their excitement.

Erwin raised one of his bushy brows before looking back at me with an interested gleam in his eyes. He sat back before he started again.

“Seeing that you willingly gave Hanji information without her prying it from you, I can guess you have peaceful motives with us? What would a gracious mermaid want with our humble ship?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. He was far more laid back then I anticipated, and this made it a lot easier to speak.

“I don’t really want anything other then permission to travel with you.”

Erwin’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. Hanji…fell. I’m not sure what happened actually. Her book flew up and papers scattered, and she went down. Gods know where. And I turned to Levi’s mouth had dropped open. Was this really a shock? Humans should know that we mermaids are very curious and would definitely take any and all opportunities to see the unknown.

“Travel with us? When did you decide this?”

I cocked my head to the side because I hadn’t really thought about it until now. I think the moment I knew I wanted to travel with them was…

“Several days ago…Your ship took down a titan.”

He looked confused by this, so I decided to elaborate.

“I was chased by a titan for days until it caught me in a small rocky area. I was about to be eaten alive, until it ate a cannonball instead.” I couldn’t help but giggle. Even though it was actually quite serious at the time.

Realization crossed all their faces all at once. Hanji screeched and babbled while they scribbled in their little black book, Erwin placed his hands down on the table and looked pleasantly surprised. Levi had his hand covering his mouth. I’m not sure what that meant.

I wasn’t surprised that Hanji was spitting question after question, with the occasional one from Erwin, but I was always glancing back at Levi. He hadn’t said anything at all. Hanji brought me from my thoughts when she said something that finally made some sense.

“So you want to travel with us as a way to say thanks? But what’s in it for you?” She had a knowing look in her eye.

I couldn’t help but grin at that. And I’m sure my grin had my fangs showing because she knew more then I thought.

“Mermaids never do anything unless there’s a favor for a favor, correct? So what are you getting and what’s in it for us?” She grinned too, hers more maniacal then mine.

“You get a mermaid on board to help. There are things and places you’ll never see unless I help. Treasures and artifacts you’ll want to see, adventures to be had…As for me, I need help.”

“Help with what?” Levi interjected.

I turned my attention to the window because my thoughts wondered somewhere familiar, and very dark. I kept my gaze out the window that was to our left while those thoughts seemed to run rampant in my mind. We sat in a moment of silence before I returned my gaze back to Erwin and the rest. I watched as their eyes widened.

“Help with finding those responsible for slaughtering my people and destroying my home. I want them to suffer like my brethren did.”

I slowly turned my gaze to Levi, and I could see the way his body stiffened.

“I want to know why a human has such a spiteful curse…and…” I turned my head back to Erwin, my body relaxing as I softened my expression.

“I want to the see the outside world. I want to see what the humans do, how they do it, and why. I want to learn and experience adventures and see what no other has before.” I said with an overwhelming amount of conviction.

Both Erwin and Hanji’s eyes gleamed with acceptance. Hanji opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by Levi stomping his way put of the room and slamming the door. I felt my heart jump to my throat, what did I do? Had I said something that upset him?

I hear a heavy sigh and turned to see Erwin pinching the bridge of his nose, while Hanji scratched the back of her head. Hanji spoke in a soft voice that surprised me.

“Don’t worry, that’s not your fault. He gets quite…upset when anybody brings up anything to do with his curse. And before you ask what happened, I’ll tell you. But later.” Hanji walked around the desk again before she propped herself against the sofa I was currently sitting on.

Erwin stood up and walked over as well, pulling a chair up in front of me. He sat down and looked me dead in the eye.

“I understand that we both get something from you being here, and I’d be quite honored to have a mermaid on board. But I must tell you we have one main goal on this ship.” Hanji stood behind as she fixed her ponytail.

“Our main goal is to lift Levi’s curse. We’ve searched for years now and have had no luck. But if we have you here, then maybe we can find a way. You knew it was a curse from the first time you saw him, and I know you have powers and magic that could help us do that.” His eyes turned hard with determination I felt respect for him. They obviously cared for Levi. And I know I did to.

“Then I think we have a deal.” I raised my hand up to Erwin’s chest, where raised his to engulf my own.

We shook hands, and Hanji brought me into a hug. Erwin and Hanji continued to speak of arrangements but I’ve already tuned out.

My thoughts drift to Levi.

I want to know what happened. I want to help. I don’t want him to be mad at me.

Chapter Text

Its always been shitty.

My life that is.

I don’t remember a lot of what my childhood was like. I barley remember what my mother looked like. I only remember her voice, the way she used to sing to me but that’s already fading. My life went from shit to absolute hell in a matter of days. But It started with me doing what I’m good at.

Espionage and stealing.

I grew up in a place called the Underground, the dirtiest and most dangerous place known in these seas. Death was always creeping around the next corner, and I’m honestly surprised that I even made it out. It wasn’t easy though; killing people was normal, stealing and backstabbing was a regular thing. Nobody trusted anyone, neither did I. The only reliable person you had was yourself. I followed that rule even after having escaped the Underground and starting a new life on the surface, things weren’t that different. I still stole and killed people, but feeling the wind blow and the sun on my face was something else.

It was maybe a little more then a year after I came to the surface, when I decided it was a good idea to jump on a random ship and rob them blind while they slept. And setting fire to all their gunpowder was pretty nice too, the ocean looked different when you had a giant fireball floating across the water.

After my first heist, I realized that doing that was:

1)   Incredibly easy for me considering my experience.

2)   Made me a lot more money then any other job.

3)   Those fuckwads called pirates got what they deserved.

I was doing a heist every night, ships were burning and I was getting richer. More money made it easier for me to travel, I didn’t need to hide in a hold for a couple days, and I could live comfortably in a small room with a bed and was given meals. I got better clothes to do my activities and I didn’t need to do too much more. Life was in fact going rather well. I was doing some dangerous work but it was easy, familiar.

Two years past, and I had made a name for myself. They called me ‘The lowland’s Phantom’. I came to a ship in the dead of night, and sent their ships to Davey Jone’s locker if you didn’t please me. They started to hang charms on their ships, a small metal crescent moon with a turquoise stone hanging form it. It was simple but I didn’t really mind. For some odd reason, they started hanging it, and since I actually turquoise stones, I decided to not blow up their ship, I just stole some gold instead.

The rumors started escalate and now everyone hangs those things up, but back then, I was just coasting, I started to get bored, and pulling heists was getting harder and harder. The navy started to look into the Phantom, and they started to not only look for pirates but for me too. I was having a hard time catching a good ship to steal from. I remember sitting on a beach of a small island one day, I had been stuck for a while, not many ships were coming around, and so I was sitting there drinking until I passed out. Well I was trying to, until I heard splashing. I thought I was imagining it at first but it was getting more frustrating. I ended up dumping my ale (which was shitty anyway) and marching myself to where the noise was coming from, to find something I wasn’t sure was real.

One word.

Her hair was short and pulled back into two short pigtails, her tail was a deep green color and the shells covering her breasts were a light cream color. I wasn’t sure if I was actually seeing this, but I guess I was because she was flailing around with a net stuck around her arms and neck. She probably didn’t even notice I was there until I was grabbing the net around her and cutting it. That led to me getting slapped in the face by her damn fin. Shit hurt.

After she eventually calmed down, I was surprised that I actually talked to her. I heard stories about mermaids, they either ate us or led us to treasure, or led us to our deaths. But this wasn’t what I was expecting. She was a ball of bouncing energy and I’m still not sure why I stayed on the beach with her, or why I kept going back to see her.

One day I came back and found that, this time, she wasn’t alone but with another mermaid. His hair was a sandy blonde, short, with silver eyes, a lot like mine. The two seemed close and not long after talking, I found that the two mermaids called Isabel and Farlan were not so bad.

The weirdest thing is that after two days of getting to know them, I was back on a ship, doing another heist, with the help of two mermaids. Things were running easier and I was getting things done quickly. So quickly, that I was doing two or three ships a night with those two. We were unstoppable, and my title grew and spread across the whole ocean of Maria.

But shit happens and things steadily went down hill from a fateful encounter with a man I hoped to never see again.

His name was Kenny. He might’ve been my uncle by blood but he wasn’t my family. He left me by myself on the streets at the age of 12, leaving behind the Underground for the surface world, without me. The same man just so happened to be the Captain of the ship I was trying to rob, and I was caught before I could leave. After a beating or two, he let me up and gave me the choice of death or to work for him and become a member of his crew. I was going to say go to hell, but then I thought of Farlan and Isabel. They were still waiting for me and I knew for a fact that if the crew got their filthy hands on them…

I agreed.

Isabel and Farlan seemed to understand when I talked to them. They stayed with me because they said we were family. I hate to admit it but I cried that night, because for once I found something that didn’t make me feel like shit. I felt fucking warm in the chest and I was at peace. I didn’t mind staying so much because I knew they were going to be there with me.

It was a few months later that Kenny gave me his first order. I was to steal form other ships and give the money to him. I thought this fair enough; I was getting protection and safety on this ship, in exchange for a quick swiping here and there. Isabel and Farlan got human food regularly and it wasn’t so bad, despite being on a ship with fucking psychopathic men and my ass of an uncle.

That is…

Until he asked me to steal from a sea witch.

I knew my uncle was crazy, but holy shit I didn’t realize he was an absolute idiot. I had heard stories of these witches, and the terrible consequences of crossing paths with one and getting on their bad side. Now I might end up like those men in the stories. Kenny believed that these stories were absolute bullshit, but he didn’t know mermaids were real. But I did, so I knew we were in for some serious shit.

Talking to my friends wasn’t easy. They didn’t want to do this, and neither did I. I wanted out, and I knew they wanted me to get out too. I had to tell them I only had a plan, to get me off that damn ship and for us to get away. My plan involved doing what Kenny asked, to an extent.

My plan ended with Isabel, Farlan and I making an escape with treasures from the sea witch and leaving Kenny to face the wrath of it. We had to be fast and silent, but I was sure that it was going to work.

How naïve I had been.

Kenny had located the sea witch and threw me in a small rowboat with stupid dagger and sent me on my way. Stupid fucker.

Isabel and Farlan followed me all the way to the caves, were we searched for the nest. Holy Maria, I was not prepaired for what I saw when we did. The room had mountains of gold and jewels piles everywhere, reaching and touching the ceiling. Relics sat scattered among the gold, wooden chests poking their way into sight through the shining masses. I did the typical thing and filled my small (if you want to call it small) personal pouch with gold and jewels before trekking farther into the caves. Isabel and Farlan had to stay behind because there was no more water to swim, and that made me anxious.

Venturing farther into the caves, I found some disturbing shit. Skeletons from humans, animals and sea people sat on the walls like trophies, making me more scared than anxious. I guessed that I was in her main chamber because there was cauldron in the middle of the room, black and cold with white smoke dancing over the sides. I didn’t want to stay here any longer then I had to.

Kenny told me to take one thing. He described a giant vial with a luminous liquid inside. It was the first thing I noticed when I walked in. It sat on a crudely made bench in the back, on a skull with giant tusks. I snagged it quickly, but paused as I was placing it in my belt. It felt like it was vibrating, alive and humming. I would’ve looked closer at it if I hadn’t heard bones cracking nearby. I didn’t waste time darting back out of the chamber and heading as fast as I could back towards the treasure room, and to Isabel and Farlan.

As soon as they saw me they knew something was wrong, and they didn’t ask questions as we headed back to the boat. Instead of me paddling my way back, they ripped my boat through the water towards Kenny’s ship. We were almost there, we would drop it off and leave as quick as we came, just a little…

My thoughts were cut off when the left side of the ship exploded.

The sails combusted and burned, the ropes snapping.

There was yelling, shouting.

Then there was screaming.

Then there were the Titans.

Like toys, the men were picked dup and tossed around, pulled apart, gnawed and eaten whole.

We were so lost in the sight that I never noticed the one behind us.

I never got a chance to warn them when I did notice the monster until it already grabbed Isabel and hoisted her up from the water.

I didn’t get a chance to react when Farlan was sudden in a giant mouth with revolting teeth clamping on his waist.

My mind drew a blank when I saw her head fall into the water, her lifeless eyes looking straight at me.

I couldn’t feel anything as I watched him wave to me before he snapped in half, his upper body dropping to the depths bellow.

I didn’t realize I screamed as I looked into the blood red water.

I still couldn’t comprehend it all as the sea witch grabbed me by the throat and spoke her language, the stinging and blistering pain spreading across my skin.

“You took what was mine, so now I took what was yours. You’ll never find that warmth again. Let this curse make sure of it for the rest of eternity.”

Pain was everywhere.

I don’t exactly remember how I got on the beach of Rose. I don’t remember following weeks of people looking at me in fear, the blistering touches and the angry mobs. People would look at those scars that the witch gave me in fear before they succumbed to the curse by looking me in the eye. When some would give the slightest of touches, fire would erupt underneath my skin and their skin would burn all the same. Years past, and I remained hidden. I wore my hood and gloves, my skin never seen by the naked eye because the pain of knowing would hurt too much. I would never get that warmth and acceptance from Isabel and Farlan, or anybody.

5 years passed and I realized I never changed in appearance.

25 years passed and the constant pain had receded to a dull ache.

40 years passed with no luck finding the damned sea witch.

65 years passed and I watched, as people grew old and passed.

83 years were gone and I felt nothing anymore.

92 years rolled round, and I had lost hope.

100 years later I found myself at a filthy tavern in Sina, drinking shit they called ale.

Then she came barreling onto my table. The freak glasses called Hanji. Messy brown locks in an even messier ponytail, glasses, or goggles sat on her face, and her terrifying maniac smile. She babbled on about how I shouldn’t be so grumpy, and how I must be boiling under the hood and jacket. I told her to shove herself, and she replied with a damn cackle that should’ve cracked her stupid glasses.

The only reason she lived was because a man by the name Erwin Smith came and pried her away from me. Fucking eyebrows had apologized and I thought they would leave me in peace, but no. They both sat down and talked about themselves. I honestly didn’t want to listen to them, but I found myself interested in Erwin’s tales of the Navy and Hanji’s weird theories on merfolk and such. The more we drank and talked the more I felt…something familiar.

The next several nights followed suite. I learned more about them and they leaned more about me eventually. In the end, I removed a glove and smacked Hanji on the forearm, leaving a burning handprint on her skin. I expected them to do anything but question me more in wonder and excitement. I definitely didn’t expect myself to explain how got these and how old I really was.

I sure as hell didn’t expect them to invite me on their ship, or offer their help with my hunt. I was going to say no, but the familiar feeling was back. That small warmth in my chest made it throb slightly and I didn’t want it to go. So I said yes. I left with them that day and sailed away on The Wings of Freedom.

I’ve been here for 5 years now I have to say I’m content. The warmth is back. Settling in my chest and after 100 years, I could say I felt right.

But a small feeling was always there. A small cold and painful feeling sat behind that warmth. It would come and go with fleeting thoughts of one day finding somebody to truly look at me and not see the curse, but Levi Ackerman. 

But after a few more years of those feelings, a small hope was placed in my cold heart at the sight glowing ocean eyes.