Summer's swelter melted the ice cream down the waffle cones in their sticky hands, dripping onto the sand below the lifeguard tower. They swung their bare feet over the edge. School was out, and the days had also melted together under the hot sun. Now, the sun was setting on the summer before their last year of high school.
Atop the lifeguard tower, the two sat and watched the same sunset they'd been watching for all their lives. As always, the waves turned gold and the theater of the sky dimmed. And, right on schedule, the same Fourth of July fireworks officially ended summer with a boom and a bang.
As they savored their last licks of careless freedom, Mikasa kept glancing to Eren. He was looking into the sky a little sadly, as though he was only seeing the ash and not the spectacle.
"Eren," Mikasa whispered.
Eren didn't answer right away, so she yanked the tangled bun that kept his hair from his eyes now. He looked up, marginally annoyed at this old habit.
"Truth-or-Dare?" Mikasa said.
"Uh," Eren said. "Dare? Wait, wait, no, you'll just have me do something weird like get my nose pierced or something."
"So Truth?"
Eren gnawed on his lower lip. Mikasa let him squirm for a bit, then asked her question.
"Who do you like, Eren?"
"I knew you were gonna ask that. Everyone asks that when you pick Truth."
Mikasa's patience outlasted him. He looked her in the eye. "Nobody."
"Nobody?"
"Yeah."
"Eren, it's not called Lie-or-Dare," Mikasa said, and tweaked his ear. He cupped them protectively.
"Okay, okay, stop it. Jeez," Eren complained, and tucked his knees into his chest, staring far, blue and red fireworks pulsing in the darks of his pupils like cerebral strobes. A deep calm came over him. Finally, Eren untucked his limbs.
"Look, it's… I don't know. Confusing? Yeah, I'm just kinda confused, y'know?"
Mikasa was quiet. People talked more when your own mouth was shut, she'd discovered.
Eren turned his face to her. There was an appeasement on it. His vanilla ice cream had nearly melted entirely.
"Well, what if I don't like girls?"
Mikasa's face folded like origami paper. Gravity crushed her heart into a dense, black-hole mass. She glanced away.
"O-oh," she said. "T-then, I guess we're both weirdos."
"Tch," Eren scoffed. A smile haunted his cheeks. "Thanks, Mikasa."
Mikasa nodded, unable to talk anymore. Don't cry, she told herself. No more crying over Eren. The day was gone, beneath the waves now, where all the other days had gone and where all the other days would go, one after the other, forever.
School was starting again in a couple of weeks. Mikasa, who was scrambling for volunteer hours to tally up, went to help Reiner at the local pool, where he worked as a lifeguard. She changed into the red bathing suit and sat down beside the pool. She didn't notice Reiner sidle next to her.
"Mikasa," Reiner said, standing over her.
Mikasa didn't look up. "Hi."
"Hey, you wanna say 'hi' to my buddy?" he said, and Mikasa thought he was talking to her. She looked up and spotted four kids behind Reiner's legs.
Reiner leaned over and whispered, "These are the kids from swim camp."
"Oh," Mikasa said. She waved. Her silver bracelets jangled on her wrist. "Hello. Nice to meet you."
The kids shied away, whispering among each other. She's scary. She's definitely weird. Is she a witch?
"Zofia," Reiner reprimanded, crossing his wave-chiseled arms. "Be nice. We'll be playing games with her until lunchtime, okay?"
They looked at her reproachfully, but accepted Reiner's word. Mikasa watched them play in the shallow end, splashing and giggling and wrestling Reiner's ankles until he toppled and swamped them in a tsunami wave. A small hand tugged her fingers and she looked down. Falco had bobbed over to her on his ducky floaties.
"Hello. My friend— my friend says you're a witch," he said.
Mikasa tilted her head. "I am a witch," she said.
"Whoa!"
"Uh-huh. I'm a sea witch," Mikasa made up. She pointed to Reiner with a purple pool noodle. "And he's my enemy. Um, the accursed Captain Braun."
And so Reiner became a shipwrecked sailor of the seven seas, engaged in an epic battle with his monstrous foe, Mikasa the sorceress. She had inky octopus tentacles like Ursula, and an arsenal of black magic at her disposal. They crossed swords in a great duel, whacking each other with pool noodles until Mikasa groaned and died and sank beneath the waves, defeated. Then it was lunchtime, which meant break-time for the adults. So Mikasa and Reiner sat panting beside each other on the poolside lip.
"Whew," Reiner breathed. He ran his hand through his hair. It was stiff and white in the sun, like a whale's baleen. "That was fun."
"Mm," Mikasa agreed.
"Y'know, you've got a great imagination. Keeping up with those kiddos like that."
"Oh," Mikasa said. She laughed, embarrassed. "You did a good Captain Braun."
"You think, matie?" Reiner said, grinning a gold-toothed buccaneer's smile. He leaned back on his hands and looked wistfully to the cabanas. Mikasa followed his gaze. The children were squabbling over the last slice of pizza. Nostalgia oiled their heartstrings. They sighed, remembering. Not quite able to remember when everything changed.
"You've been quiet lately," Reiner said, then amended, "Well, even quieter than usual. I thought the kids might help cheer you up."
"Yeah," Mikasa said.
"And, I wanted to spend the time with you. All you guys. 'Cause… I'm moving back to California before school starts."
"California?"
"Yeah, you didn't know I lived there? For, like, the first eight years of my life. It's where my dad lives. He's uh," Reiner blew out a breath. "My mom said she's giving him another chance."
"Oh."
"Yeah." Reiner squinted into the sun, his brow quivering. His face was sturdy as ever, though. "I don't really know how to feel about it. I guess I miss my dad. He wasn't the greatest parent, but I have some good memories there. Maybe it's just 'cause I was little, and everything seems fine when you're a kid."
Mikasa thought about all the words left unsaid to Reiner. She began to cry.
"Hey," Reiner said, startled. "Hey, c'mon, you have my number, don't you?"
Mikasa enveloped him in a breathless hug. Reiner patted her back with his large lumbering hands. They broke apart. Mikasa sniffled and wiped her nose.
"I'll miss you," she said.
"Nah," Reiner said, smiling. "You'll have Eren. Besides, sea witches have cold, shriveled hearts of coal." He stood to go supervise the kids' unadulterated mayhem.
Summer really is ending for good, Mikasa thought, watching him go.
Karina Braun's minivan sat loaded in the driveway. The house that the driveway belonged to was now barren.
Mikasa's dad and Eren's mom hugged Reiner's mom goodbye. The women were tearful. Reiner stood beside his mother, shifting with an awkward urgency, as though he couldn't bear any more goodbyes for the day.
He ruffled Armin's unruly mop of hair and graciously accepted Carla Yeager's going-away card and presented his cheek for her weepy kiss. Mikasa gave him a side-hug, and a torn page from her sketchbook.
She'd been up all night drawing. Captured on the page, the fateful battle between Captain Braun and Mikasa the sea witch. Waves, whirlpools, a tempest raging overhead. And, rising above the surf, a gentle giant, the captain of the seven seas, welding his trident like lightning. Mikasa wrung her hands behind her back as Reiner stared at it. Her face was hot.
"Do— do you like it?"
Reiner looked at her with a flabbergasted expression. "Dude! This is crazy good! Wow! You sure that you don't wanna hang this in, like, an art museum or something?"
"Nuh-uh. It's yours."
Then it was Eren's turn. He stepped forward. Mikasa saw the apple in his throat roll as he swallowed. Reiner held his knuckles out for a fist bump. Eren stepped close and embraced Reiner fiercely instead. They stood there interlocked for a moment, in the jigsaw misplacement of a hug between two boys. Eren whispered something into Reiner's ear, and his eyes widened. Then Eren stepped swiftly back into line.
The three friends stood in the road, the breaths of a dying summer cooling their faces, waving as the waves of change swept Reiner away to his life. At one point, he'd been the biggest thing in Mikasa's life. A monument in the tides. Now he was growing smaller and smaller.
The car melted into the golden sunset in the road. He was gone completely now.