Chapter Text
“Yoohoo!” an eccentric voice rattled through the two-story town house I called home.
Mikasa and I were sitting in front of the television watching Supernatural as our “guardian” dropped bags of McDonalds on the coffee table in front of us.
“Dinner is served.” She smiled and plopped herself down right in between us.
I grunted as I moved over to make room for her. “Hanji, you don’t have to bring take out home every day for dinner, you know. We’re old enough to take care of ourselves,” I huffed.
She turned to me and gave me slight shove before reaching into one of the bags and pulling out two burgers.
Hanji had saved Mikasa and me when we were kids. Our mom had died of breast cancer when we were ten and our dad was nowhere to be found, so we were left in the hands of foster care. Mikasa was fine; she was the perfect child. Me? Well, I got into loads of trouble. We ended up moving from house to house for the next two years—some good houses, some shitty houses.
I ran away at some point during our last house and, of course, Mikasa had followed me. She had absolutely refused to let child services separate us. We had ran far, and no one could find us for around six months. Until I literally ran right into Hanji, who was just fresh out of college at the time with a major in aquatic science. She was the most talkative person I had ever met. Mikasa had apologized for me and was trying to pull me away when Hanji stopped us.
“You two look hungry, why not come and eat something?” she had offered us. We didn’t want to, but we were starving, so we had gone home with her. Hanji had managed to figure out that we were runaways. At that point, Mikasa and I were a little freaked out; we didn’t want to be reported. Then, when Hanji proposed that she adopt us, it caused more fear. Though she didn’t seem all that bad, so after a little talking and Mikasa warning me about the dangers, we decided that if everything went downhill we would run away again.
A lot of legal issues later and we were living with Hanji. She already had a job lined up, so financials were no problem. On top of that, she decided to homeschool us (I assumed because we didn’t want anything to do with other people and hadn’t seen the inside of a school in years). When I look back on it, behind her smile, she must have been really exhausted. I’m grateful to her, though.
I leaned into the couch and brought my burger to my mouth, taking a large bite.
“Mikasa, Eren,” Hanji started, gaining both of our attention. “I’m going on a journey, so I won’t be home for a while!” She lifted her hands in the air and laughed.
I rolled my eyes. “Have fun, Hanji. Just make sure to pay the bills before you leave.” I put my burger down in its cardboard container and grabbed my drink.
She quickly turned to me and grabbed my shoulders, that insane look in her eyes again. “You don’t even know, Eren!” she hollered. “There’s been rumours of mermaids!”
I snorted and shook her hands off. “You’re nuts, Hanji.” I scoffed, shoving fries in my mouth as Hanji grumbled about mythical creatures and no one believing her. When I finished, I grabbed my garbage and threw it in the trash bin in the kitchen before heading upstairs to work on a paper that was due on Monday. Hours passed and soon it was passed midnight, Hanji and Mikasa had gone to sleep and my eyes were starting to blur. Closing my laptop, I pushed my chair back and got up, stripped myself of my uncomfortable jeans and socks, and fell into bed. I closed my eyes and groaned when I realized I forgot the light, pushing myself up I switched the lamp off and plopped back down. Letting the darkness consume me.
I rolled over countless times before I actually opened my eyes and got out of bed; it was noon and Hanji was already gone. I threw on some sweat pants and shuffled downstairs. Seemed Mikasa was either still asleep or had gone out, but the latter seemed more likely. I poured a bowl of cereal and was just crossing the hall to the living room when a knock at the door sounded. Shoving a spoonful of frosty flakes into my mouth, I made my way down the hall and opened the front door.
The bouncy blonde didn’t even ask as he walked inside. “Hey, Eren!” he cheerfully said as he took his shoes off and walked into the living room.
I mumbled a greeting back to him and followed, shoving another spoonful into my mouth. “I gotta love your random visits, Armin.” I said through the food in my mouth.
Armin gave me a disappointed look before smiling. “Of course you do. Hanji at work?” he asked and I nodded swallowing my food before speaking again.
“Yeah, she won’t be home for a while. On some sort of trip. I wasn’t really listening, but she said something about mermaids.” I chuckled and Armin laughed a little, too. I finished up my cereal while Armin watched T.V. Mikasa was definitely out ‘cause if she were at home she would have shown herself already.
“Hey, Eren, you’re gonna be twenty-one soon, aren’t you?” Armin asked me and I looked at him questioningly for a moment before I realized that it was the end of February.
“Holy shit, yeah, I am.” I laughed at having forgotten the date. I stood up and brought my empty bowl to the kitchen and rinsed it out before throwing it in the dishwasher. “Wanna do anything?” I called from the kitchen, I heard the T.V. turn off and Armin was soon in the kitchen with me, grabbing a bottle of water.
“Yeah, sure,” he answered. “Going out or staying in?”
I thought about it for a moment. There wasn’t really anything I wanted to do here, so I shrugged and said, “Let’s go out. I’ll be right back,” before heading upstairs.
I stripped out of my sweat pants and ratty t-shirt and traded them for black jeans and a grey t-shirt, slipping on my watch. I grabbed my dark blue sweater (Mikasa would argue that it was ‘Prussian blue’ since she was an art major). I was about to leave the room when I realized I forgot my wallet, turning back I grabbed it and shoved it in my back pocket. Catching myself in the mirror, I didn’t realize that I probably had bed-head, so I ran my fingers through my hair and smoothed it out.
“Okay, ready to go!” I yelled as I hit the bottom step.
Armin came out of the kitchen and slipped on his shoes while I reached for mine. “I was thinking maybe we could check out this bookst-”
I waved my hands around, cutting him off. “I wanna have fun Armin, not fall back to sleep!” I laughed and he gave me a little glare as he swung the door open.
We ended up going to the mall, lounging around and looking through shops for hours. I did eventually give in and let Armin drag me into a bookstore and shook my head as we left with ten books on archeology and deep sea creatures. I bought a couple of things, as well, but nothing big or necessary; just things I thought were cool.
“Man, I’m hungry,” I groaned and rubbed my stomach.
Armin laughed and grabbed my arm pulling me in the direction of the cafeteria. “Then let’s go eat. My treat,” he sang.
It took us a bit to decide on a place to eat but we ended up at Subway. In the middle of our meal Armin jumped a little and pulled his phone out, I’d realized then that I’d forgotten mine. Armin laughed and handed the phone to me.
“It’s Mikasa, she’s wondering where you are,” he said with a smirk.
I grabbed the phone and typed back that it was me and that Armin and I were at the mall. I didn’t get a text back, so I figured she only wanted to know where I was, but before I knew it she was sitting down next to us at our table.
I looked at her and gasped. “You cut your hair!” I exclaimed.
She nodded. “Does it look okay?” she asked, reaching up and touching it.
Both me and Armin nodded.
“It looks awesome,” Armin said.
I offered Mikasa half my sub and she took it, before she took a bite though she looked at me. “You also need a haircut, it’s longer than mine now,” She observed.
I shrugged and brought my hand up to my hair it was pretty long but I didn’t mind it. “I like it like this,” I retorted, biting into my sub.
She sighed quietly and started eating her half. “Hanji said she’d be back on Monday night, right?” Mikasa asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, something like that.”
We threw our trash out and started heading towards the exit of the mall.
“Oh, Mikasa, I bought you something.” I stopped and reached into the shopping bags and she turned around and looked at me questioningly. I pulled out a light pink jacket and handed it to her.
“I thought it would look nice on you. Think of it as a late birthday present… even though I already got you something,” I said sheepishly.
She took the tags off and put it on. It went just past her waist and hugged her slim frame nicely, and with the white dress she was wearing it looked exceptional. She flashed me a rare smile and thanked me before we started towards our cars.
“Were you with Annie earlier?” I asked her as we walked toward our cars.
She nodded, not really bothering to say anything.
Annie and Mikasa were together and I honestly had no idea how they communicated their emotions to each other since they both seemed to keep everything bottled up. I didn’t care much for gender; if I liked someone I liked them, simple as that. Though I’ve never actually been with anyone. Mikasa seemed pretty happy with Annie, so that was good. We didn’t bother saying goodbye as we were both heading home, and we’d see each other in ten minutes.
Armin and I talked about meaningless things to pass the time on the drive home from the mall. I dropped him off at his house, and by the time I made it home Mikasa was already in the house. As soon as I walked in the door, the house phone rang, so I rushed over to grab it only to instantly pull the phone away from my ear as that ever-so-familiar, over-joyed voice rang through.
“We spotted them! We spotted them!” she sang.
I laughed, never failing to get caught up in her mania. “Spotted what Hanji?” I asked.
Her voice dropped really low and she whispered, “Mermaids,” she paused for dramatic effect, “and mermen.”
My eyebrows furrowed and I couldn't help but think that this had to be a joke. Mermaids didn’t actually exist, but Hanji sounded dead serious right now.
“What are you planning on doing now that you’ve found them?” I asked.
She giggled. “I plan on capturing one! I’m going to bring it back and study it!” she cried. “Of course, I can’t do anything to harm it, nor will I let anyone else harm it. When I get back you can come and see it if you want.”
I smiled and gave her a hurried “yes” before saying goodbye.
“Was that Hanji?” Mikasa asked from the top of the stairs.
I nodded and started heading up with my shopping bags. “She found mermaids,” I said and Mikasa looked at me with doubtful eyes. I just laughed and shrugged before heading to my room to finish my paper. Mikasa called me down for dinner at some point and I took it upstairs to continue working. I don’t remember when I fell asleep but I know that I didn’t make it to my bed before I passed out.
The next few days didn’t go nearly as eventful as the previous, all I did was finish my paper and watch television. When daytime T.V. started to lose its appeal, I decided to try watching the fourth Pirates of Caribbean—the one about the mermaids. Mikasa joined me on the couch to watch it, too, along with a bowl of popcorn.
I turned in early, hoping I would get enough sleep for my classes tomorrow, so I said goodnight to Mikasa and headed up to my room, reading over my paper one more time before getting ready for bed. I couldn’t help but wonder if Hanji would actually be able to get a mermaid. I rolled onto my stomach and soon darkness had me.
When I woke up, I could still remember vague depictions of mermaids and sailors from my dreams. There was no doubt that I had mythological sea creatures on the brain after yesterday. However, I could also remember that they were not pleasant. They sang and screamed and tried to kill whoever they could. It was a nightmare.
The next day was even more unvaried than the previous. I spent some of the day on campus, handed in my paper, sat through my classes, and took notes. I knew that Hanji would be home soon, so I tried to get some rest before she inevitably barged into the house with a cacophony of rushed sentences and laughter.
“Eren!”
I groaned and rolled over.
“Come on, Eren! He’s at the lab!”
I grumbled and sat up, rubbing my eyes and staring at Hanji’s euphoric face.
“What are you even talking about?” I growled, extremely unhappy I was woken up, since I didn’t have class today until three o’clock. It was nine in the morning. I should’ve expected she would barge into my room—well, I did expect it, actually—but I still wanted to sleep. Sleep was great.
“I caught a merman and he’s quite a looker!” she cried out while dragging me out of bed, turning us into a mass of limbs as I tried to fight her off and stay on my feet at the same time.
“Okay, okay!” I screamed as I pushed Hanji out of my room before she could notice my morning wood. I flopped back down on the bed face first and almost fell back to sleep when I remembered that I really wanted to see that mermaid. Or merman. Whatever you want to call it. I pushed myself back up and got dressed in a light gray long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, and a black vest.
I tried to get something to eat in the kitchen, but Hanji was dragging me out the door before I could even try to open the fridge. I did manage to holler a goodbye to Mikasa right as the door shut, though.
“Mmm, I think you’ll like him. He’s very pretty. Well, his facial expression could use a little work, but I just assume he’s not very happy.” Hanji went on and on about things I didn’t feel like listening to, so I zoned her out as we made our way to the lab under the aquarium.
We parked in the back and went through the “employees only” door. Inside, there were another two doors, one with a keypad lock and another that was left wide open. Hanji led me to the keypad-locked door and typed in a series of numbers that I could never catch no matter how hard I tried. Almost immediately after the door there was a set of stairs leading down that Hanji started to pull me down.
I nodded greetings to the other workers as we passed them, none of them really seeming to mind that I came to see what they were doing.
“He’s in here,” Hanji announced and grabbed me by the arm pulling me into a side room.
As soon as we walked in, I was met with a large wall of glass that looked into a large tank. My eyes widened when I saw what was inside. A dark blue tail, accompanied by long black hair, with a torso that looked surprisingly muscular, as well. He had come towards the glass when we came in and Hanji was right, he didn’t look happy at all. I could see thin webs between his fingers as I walked over to the glass and his eyes followed me warily. Bringing my hand up, I pressed it to the glass, but that only seemed to upset him as he bared his teeth—which gave me a view of notably sharp incisors—and swam away. I looked at Hanji and she was just delighted; she looked so proud of herself.
“He’s definitely something,” I said as I turned towards the stairs that would bring me to the top of the tank. I looked back and saw that another scientist had came in and was talking to Hanji.
“Eren, don’t touch anything. I’ll be back,” she called up to me.
I waved her off and told her I’d be fine, and I heard the door click shut as I reached the top of the stairs. Looking down into the tank was a lot less clearer than looking into the glass, but I could see that he was swimming around languidly. Sitting down at the edge of the platform, I folded my legs and brought my hand out toward the water.
“Wonder what it feels like,” I whispered to myself, moving my fingers around. I saw black peek out of the surface of the water and dropped my hand into my lap when I noticed that he was looking at me. Now that his hair was flat, I could see small pointed ears. His glare hadn’t lessened one bit from earlier and that only intrigued me more.
“Do you understand me?” I asked carefully. His eyes narrowed and he disappeared back under the water. There was a possibility that he did understand me, he looked like the type to ignore people.
“Eren!” Hanji bellowed from the bottom of the stairs.
I jumped at the noise, having forgotten she was here. “Yeah?” I replied, getting up and heading down the stairs.
“Has he said or done anything?” she inquired, pulling out a notebook and a pen.
I shuffled from one foot to the other, glancing at him before replying. “He acknowledged that I said something to him.”
Her eyes lit up and she scribbled furiously in the book. Snapping it closed she looked at me, something seemed to be processing in her mind as she stared at me. “I’ve got it!” she shouted and handed me the book and pen. “I’m going to put you in charge of him.” She smiled at me and my stomach dropped.
“I-uh-er-I… what?!” I stumbled over my words. “What am I supposed to do?” I questioned her.
She simply laughed and looked through the tank glass at the merman. “Just observe him, see what he does, try to interact with him if you can, figure out what he likes to eat.” She stopped for a second and looked over at me, noticing my horrified expression. “I’ll check in on you, obviously, Eren. Think of this as an internship. In fact, that’s exactly what it is. Spend as much time here as you can.”
With that, Hanji nodded and was gone again. I looked at the book and then at the merman in the tank. He had been looking at me until I met eyes with him, which caused him to look away and start swimming around again. Was he just as interested in us as we were in him?