There was a wisp of silence surrounding Rivaille and Eren as they walked slowly out of the village together. Rivaille was regretting the fact that he didn't bring soap, or any kind of cleaning supplies along, because he was sweaty and godamn sticky from last night's events. Eren wasn't faring much for the better, awkwardly plodding along like a penguin. Each time he took a step, he winced in pain, and a sadistic part of Rivaille congratulated himself for that.
"I'm hungry." Eren groaned, putting a hand over his stomach, which let out a faint grumble; proving his fact. Rivaille rolled his eyes and beckoned him over to a sparse tree that was overhanging the plains. They rested together there, breathing evenly against the sky. Rivaille rummaged in his bag for the piece of bread that he'd found at the village site, then broke off a small corner and gave it to Eren, who devoured it on instant. "Save some for later." He absentmindly chided, eyes wandering to the continuous outstretch of sand. Eren just grumbled something irritably back, but slowed down nevertheless, following Rivaille's instructions.
Rivaille frowned as he looked ahead, wincing at the thought of no cover or protection, in case a titan did come. And since there were barely any trees anywhere, they would have to use their precious gas supply to fight, if a titan did appear. He brushed himself off and stood up, offering Eren a hand. The boy took it and heaved himself up, stifling a yawn from behind his mouth.
"We're going to have to be extra careful out there," Rivaille mentioned, motioning to the plains.
"Yeah, Yeah." Eren flippantly replied, still gnawing on his bread like it was a lifeline, and Rivaille guessed, that in some ways, it was.
They both approached the bleak outstretch of sand together, which Rivaille later learned from Eren, was called a desert. Pretty ironic, he thought. For the words dessert and desert to be so similar. For all we know, this could mean our deaths if we don't approach it the correct way.
And, no way in hell that there'll be a stream here. Which means..we'll have to..ah..restrain ourselves from certain "activities." He looked at the person beside him, who had finished part of his bread and was currently tucking the rest away for later. "You ready?"
Eren nodded, brushing his sweaty bangs out of the way and squinting at the sun. "It'll probably be really hot out there," Eren told Rivaille, "So it would be better if we wore loose, comfortable clothing."
Rivaille blinked at him, then smirked. "are you implying something?"
"What?! No!" Eren violently protested. "Stop twisting my words!"
Rivaille just thumped him on the back. "You know I was joking."
Eren smacked his hand away playfully, ignoring the part of him that secretly wished he wasn't.
~X~
Only three hours had passed, and they both were dying. Never had Rivaille experienced such a severe heat wave as this, even in all his years in the Recon Corps. Poor Eren was even less accustomed to the heat, but thanks to his semi-titan form, he didn't mind for it that much.
"Oh, screw that!" Rivaille stopped and yanked his blade carriers out from his pants; the sand made a muffled clunk sound when they dropped.
He then proceeded to throw off his jacket, much to Eren's dismay, throwing that on the sand as well. Taking off his shirt was going a little too far though, Eren thought, and he was about to open his mouth and say something, when Rivaille threw off his pants as well. The fabric hit Eren in his face, and he awkwardly opened and closed his mouth against the dry fabric. When he finally threw it off, he saw Rivaille tugging on the gigantic shirt that he'd given him a few days ago, wincing at the size. The arms were far too long, going all the way down to his slender wrists. He solved that problem by rolling them up, stretching around his elbows.
The shirt dragged all the way down to his ankles, which Rivaille was grateful for, because that meant that he didn't have to put his pants back on again. Those stifling pieces of clothing..god, if Eren wasn't there, he would've stripped naked and went on that way. Why couldn't he do that? He mused. It wasn't like Eren hadn't seen it all already…..
He dismissed the thought quickly and bent to gather up his other items of loose clothing, brushing and shaking the sand that fell out of them in lumps. He debated weather or not he should put on the maneuver straps around his bare legs, but decided against it. It would do too much damage instead of efficiency anyway. He pulled his blade carriers up, deciding what to do with them. He couldn't really strap them to his shirt, but his bag was too small to fit such a thing. He groaned and got out his maneuver straps again, untying them from their position. Holding one blade container to his hip, he strapped the maneuver leather around it, doing the same to the other one, rolling it back and forth a couple times. Once he was satisfied with the result, he tested it by jumping up and down. What he didn't know was that Eren had snuck up behind him, staring.
"So, are you going to flash every titan that we come to? I'm sure they'll fall right then for the ugliness" Eren dog-whistled appreciatively. Rivaille rolled his eyes. "More like they'll fall because of the sexyness..you know you want it." He waggled-waggled his hips slightly for added effect. Eren swallowed and gulped, shifting slightly.
Suddenly, Rivaille expression turned serious and he tugged down the other boy to plant a quick kiss on the lips. "If you die out there, I swear to god, Eren Jaeger, I will come to your grave, dig your heavy ass body up, and reconstruct you as Frankenstein. Eren shivered at the prospect of a "mad-scientist" Rivaille and quickly nodded.
Rivaille started heading forward then, wincing as the cold metal of the blades shivered by his bare thighs. Eren just followed, stretching one arm above the other in mock laziness.
~X~
It was approximately the afternoon, and even Eren was burning up. Rivaille had taken to hitching the shirt up, allowing for more air to travel through. And, to make matters worse-
"I'm fucking thirsty." This time it was Rivaille who'd complained, snapping his eyes at Eren.
Eren held up his hands in mock defense; he was thirsty too. 'What're you looking at me for?"
"What happened to the water I had?" Eren winced as he remembered.
The sun was hurting Eren's eyes as he woke up from the bed; Rivaille's arms had come undone sometime in the night, and now he was sleeping peacefully on his back. Eren winced as the taste of morning breath hit him, foul and sour.
He rummaged in the bags, smiling in triumph as he found half-a bottle of clear water. Not seeing the white strip that said- RIVAILLE in bold letters, he chugged it down, sighing in relief as his thirst was resolved. It was only when he sat on the edge of the bed, flipping the bottle around, that he saw the label with the other's name on it. "…Fuck."
Eren'd quickly stuffed it in his bag, hoping that the latter would be none the wiser. Eren's bottle that he'd filled two days ago, became empty on the first day. He was used to normal living conditions, where all you had to do to get water was pump it from a well.
Eren massaged his forehead as he remembered. He'd vaguely thought of pissing in it, even though the substance would be a faint yellow, but decided otherwise, because Rivaille would be even more ticked off. "Um..well..maybe squirrels stole it?" Rivaille narrowed his eyes, and in a split second, Eren found himself facing the sky, a thin foot perched on his chest. Rivaille yanked his bag out of his hands, sticking a hand in and feeling around it. Suddenly, he came to a hollow container to pull it out in self righteous. It was his bottle, all right, the sharp words standing out pointed and clear.
RIVAILLE'S WATER BOTTLE. DO NOT TOUCH.
Well, someone had ignored the rules. The water bottle was as empty as Rivaille's mouth right now. He threw it down with a groan of desperation and went over to a prickly plant. Eren tried to stop him. "Hey Rivaille, don't-"
Too late. Rivaille had roundhouse kicked it, causing it to split in half and topple over. However, some of the prickly "leaves" had come off, and were now embedded in Rivaille's foot. His face barely changed as he looked at them; they had started to ooze blood. Eren came forward worriedly, looking at his leg with concern. Rivaille promptly stuck his leg out to the boy, saying. "You. Fix it."
Eren gulped and gingerly clasped the foot his arms, examining the amount of damage. Thankfully, it wasn't a lot, and easy to fix. He clasped his index finger and thumb together, and gripped the first spike, pulling it out. It was stuck there, forcefully refusing to budge. He tried for a moment longer, too afraid to twist it. He sighed then and opened his mouth, gripping the spike with his teeth. It came out that time, dripping a little excess blood on Rivaille's leg. Eren spat out the spike, wincing as he looked at the rest of Rivaille's leg. "..Only ten more to go.."
As he was doing this, he noticed something. "Are your legs hairless?" This was a strange question to ask his partner, and especially when they were in a position as awkward as this, but Eren couldn't help noticing it. Rivaille rolled his eyes and grinded between his teeth. "Shut up."
Eren shut up, even though he couldn't help admiring the smoothness and softness of the limb. Finally he got to the last one, pulling it out with a yank. "Done!" He spat the leaf out.
Rivaille nodded and calmly walked over to the fallen cactus, a little blood dripping on the sand.
He knelt down and examined the fallen plant, circling around it to see if there was a hole anywhere. There wasn't. The whole cactus was covered in millions of tiny spikes. He hummed, debating how to do this. "Eren."
"Yeah?" Eren was massaging his stinging teeth.
"..Can you help me pluck all of these out too?" Eren looked at the plant. "No way in hell!"
In the end, they had both decided to just cut the cactus neatly in half, trying their best not to blunt their swords. The cactus was surprisingly tough, gnarly all the way through. The inside was a wicked green color, which Eren hesitantly poked. "..And what are you planning to do with this?"
Rivaille stepped carefully around the plant, sticking his sword in the middle of it and twisting. Little drops of liquid dew dribbled out, and Rivaille carefully caught it in his water bottle. They'd been doing this for three minutes, and the only evidence of their labor was barely a millimeter of water in the jar. Finally Eren snapped in frustration. "Screw this!"
He planted his feet firmly on the sand and started kicking it, little grits flying everywhere. Rivaille coughed and rubbed his eyes as some of it got in his face. "what the hell?"
Eren just continued, using his sword as extra leverage as the sand became clumped and heavier. It was turning a dark brown color now, which he took as a good sign. Sure enough, there was a little shallow pool of water that he dug. Eren quickly swooped down and scooped as much of the water as he could get in his water flask, hastily kicking sand over the spot. Even though the water was slightly muddy, he'd gotten more water in half a minute than Rivaille's four minute cactus drain. Rivaille blinked, impressed against his will. "..Fine. We'll do it your way."
After a while, they'd both gotten a good half bottle of water in their flasks. Rivaille had discovered the wonders of cactus flowers and fruit; shoving them mercilessly in his sack bag. After they'd discovered a little rodent in its hole-god knows what it was but it looked edible-they'd speared that as well, preparing it for a later meal.
Rivaille had stripped the poor animal of its fur, and Eren had built a fire, which they cooked it over. Soon the tender aroma of fresh meat filled the air, and both of their stomachs were rumbling.
That had also caused the arrival of coyotes and snakes, however. Rivaille had lazily killed them in spite of Eren's protests. After a brief squabble, they were tired, stomachs and mouths full, so they laid back on the soft desert sand and watched the stars. Eren started pointing out what he thought were the star signs. "And that-" He pointed to a pathway of arched stars. "I think that's the big ladle."
Rivaille squinted at it. "..Isn't that the big dipper?"
"No, big ladle! It looks just like one too!" Eren protested, peeved.
"No, dipshit, it's a dipper. See how it's dipping?"
"..Forget it. Anyway, I think that that's a…goat fish?"
"…C-C-" Rivaille tried to remember what it began with. "Cap-Cap-screw it. I don't know anymore."
He rolled over on his side, cursing as Eren got out the fucking cube again. "Let's give it a name." Eren proclaimed, twirling it around in his hands.
Rivaille suddenly yawned, looking at Eren. "How about the-oh holy fuck I can't 'match the colors up' because I'm an idiot?"
Eren scowled at him and playfully swatted his arm. "No..how about..the Rivaille cube?"
"Why?" Rivaille asked, propping his head up on an arm.
"Well..you were the one who discovered it." Eren shrugged.
Rivaille scratched his head. "Since we techinally discovered it together, how about the..um..Rivaere cube? Like a mix of Rivaille, and Eren."
"No, I think that Ereri sounds better."
"What the fuck is that name? It sounds like something a donkey would make. And why is your name before mine? I discovered it, after all. Shouldn't my name go first?"
"Fine!" Eren huffed. "We'll go with Rivaere."
"That's better." Rivaille slapped his ass teasingly, leaving a red Eren as he turned around. "Good night."
Eren huffed quietly, hiding a smile. "Good night."
Owowowowo. My hand has this huge bruise on it, it's almost like a ring.
And my arms are killing me. I typed this chapter just for you guys! Woke up at 4:45 am~
Yes. I'm trying to get a lot done before I go to Yellowstone..just realized that the first episode of the Free! Anime is coming out while I'm on vacation..QAQ I'll have to wait to watch it! No! OTL
(that's a person kneeling on the ground. See it? See it? Hun hun? XD)
But today my friend asked me-"What're those weird bruises on your hands and arms?"
Me-"THOSE ARE MY BATTLE SCARS FROM MY RIFLE, FLAG, AND SABAR."
*holds up items dramatically*
Yes. Colorguard is actually freaking badass. I thought-"Oh, I'll just have to look pretty (ewww not possible) and spin a flag and smile! No. WE GET FREAKING GUNS AND SWORDS. I'm like a pirate and someone out of a James Bond movie at the same time! Wahhya!
So if I ever see a rapist in an alleyway, if I'm holding my colorguard equipment…I'll..
Smack him with my pilot gloves.
Knee him in the crotch with my metal flag pole (ouch)
Try to give him a concussion with swinging my rifle around his head.
Hit him with my saber over and over just because I feel like it.
Yes. Okay, to recruit colorguard members…COLORGUARD IS AMAZING. Give it a try! :D For me, at least? *puppy dog eyes*
Anyway, thanks to Loveless for volunteering to be my smut beta! (EVERYONE GIVE HER A VIRTUAL HUG) Whew..maybe the smut will be sexier now. XD
And the winner is…*dumroll*
IsyPerolla! Gosh, thank you so much for all the long reviews and comments..they make me so happy. Thank you for following me on Tumblr too! I love you! So, I'll PM you, or you can PM me, and request your 4,000 word one shot, or a 4,000 word long chapter to add on to this fanfic, theme your choice. :D It has to be snk though..I don't think I've read all the anime mangas that you have. XD
If I reach 200, I'll do two oneshots for two reviewers! Remember, the number of times you review, the number of times you'll be entered in the "raffle!" May the odds ever be in your favor….*dun dun dun!*
Sorry this chapter was so slow..I mean, all you got from it was that they're traveling across a desert and now Rivaille's going to flash every titan he kills..(MOONMOON) Yeah. Two thousand something words just for that.
Haha..Rivaere cube. Ship names FTW! :D I swear, there are so many ship names for these two I don't know which ones to pick…. .
(OJO)
Sorry about the long author's note.
Until next time! Ja Ne~!
K.K
Reviews will make me do the karaoke around my room like a penguin high on caffeine, and will make Eren grab Rivaille and try to do him in the desert..(ouch. Sand. Poor Rivaille.)
