Chapter Text
“Here, close your eyes and hold out your hands.”
“Wha- augh! What was that?” Reiner screams and drops the slime that Jean had placed in his open hands.
Jean cackles. “Just seaweed. Here, close your eyes again. I actually did find something cool down there.”
Reiner immediately closes his eyes and holds out his hands again. Jean places the shiny shell he had found into Reiner cupped palms. Reiner opens his eyes.
“It’s pretty,” he says.
“It’s an abalone shell. Armin taught me about them.”
Speaking of Armin, Jean hears him shriek and giggle when Sasha flips her tail upward and splashes the inhabitants of the boat with a wave of saltwater, to Connie's cheers. Levi is yelling grumpily and Hange is yelling cheerfully. Reiner is already soaking wet, drifting on his surfboard a little ways away from the others with Jean in the water beside him, clinging to the edge of his board.
Jean didn’t think they would get to this point - hadn’t even imagined it in his wildest dreams. But then again, he never imagined he would turn into a merman every time he touched water either, and that happened, so. Maybe he just isn’t imaginative enough. Really, the weirdest part is Levi and Hange being here.
It’s been three weeks since the incident with Zeke and Yelena. Things have turned out well enough, after the initial whiplash of the situation.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, after Yelena was completely restrained, Finely was released from the cave, and all injuries were treated, Levi had sat down with the rest of them and explained.
Apparently, Armin had quickly figured out what was going on and that Jean, Sasha, and Connie were being led into a trap. He had run to Levi’s and shouted for a boat to borrow in a moment of desperation, and Levi had immediately agreed.
“You four are not subtle at all,” Levi had said in the cave, voice echoing judgmentally. “The bathroom shares a wall with the kitchen. It’s not soundproof. Plus, you guys talk about weird things too often in front of Hange. Shitheads. We knew something fishy was up from what I’m guessing was the beginning.”
That was a bit of a blow to the ego. Jean can only guess what embarrassing conversations had been overheard. Turns out, though, that Levi and Hange were among the best people to have overheard them.
“We’re part of an organization called the SCOUTS,” Levi had explained. “Specialists in Creature Observation, Understanding, and Threat Suppression. And no,” Levi had said when Connie took a breath in to ask a question, “I’m not a vampire. They are real, though.”
Jean still wasn’t convinced he wasn’t messing with them on that front. But the remaining people were ushered out of the cave and onto a boat that Hange was captaining and they were taken back to the mainland, and Jean had neither the time or energy to question things too much. Levi and Hange had taken Yelena away - Jean isn’t sure where to, though he was assured she was still alive - and Armin, Sasha, and Connie had given Jean and Reiner space to talk.
Jean had sat down with him (on a beach he was sure was private. Never let it be said that Jean Kirstein didn’t learn his lessons) and explained everything, starting from the beginning. Reiner had sat quietly and listened, silent except for the occasional question. When Jean was finished, Reiner had simply smiled, hugged him, and told him he would see Jean tomorrow.
And he did. Their relationship didn’t pick up exactly where it left off; there had been too many bumps in the road and breaches of trust for that. But the relationship felt fresh and unsullied, like a clean breeze coming off the ocean. There were no more lies or secrets between them and the issues they did still have were in the open air and able to be dealt with rather than being let fester.
Jean doesn’t know what the future holds. Levi and Hange had offered for the five of them - Jean, Connie, Sasha, Armin, and Reiner - to join the SCOUTS and help with conservation efforts for the creatures of myth. One day, Jean will join. He knows this the same way he knows the others will, too.
But in the present, Jean hands Reiner the shining abalone shell that reminds him so much of the one he had given Armin at the beginning of this mess. Reiner wipes a thumb over it to clear the sand and muck from the surface, and smiles broadly at Jean. For now, they’re content to simply swim in the ocean and listen to the seabirds cry overhead.