Eren found that getting his guest into the tub wasn't hard at all.

No sooner had Irwin left then the mountain of filth waddled over, climbed the tub's walls in two easy steps, and plopped himself down with what might have been a sigh (sounding more like a bubbling gurgle). It was a simple task for the likes of him but the extra weight settling into an already full container sent a small river of water rushing through the room—a room already damp from the previous mishap. With a shout Eren was only just able to grab hold of a door-frame and avoid being washed away. As it was, a wave of scented water rose all the way up to his chin and he spluttered when it fell away, groaning down at his soaked clothes.

"Human!"

Hanji again. She was still at the back of the crowed, valiantly trying to push her way through. Eren forced himself to turn away. Up above him Irwin was regaining his usual smirk… and no wonder. Their guest was just sitting here, supposedly happy enough, but there was now hardly any water in the tub. Even if there had been, how exactly was Eren supposed to get him clean? Washing this guy would take twice as long as cleaning the tub itself, probably longer actually, and that wasn't accounting for anything weird—like the guy literally being made of trash or something. That'd be just like Irwin, to give him a customer impossible to clean.

Hell, what Eren needed was the fire department with their truckloads of waters. Or at the very least a power hose. Or… or…

Or something with an equal amount of pressure.

With a fierce grin Eren turned to his customer, giving a little bow. "Just one moment, please," he said and ran for the far wall. There, a few panels up, was the hidden latch that let down the water chute. Eren recalled the violence the last time he'd used it, the rushing roar of gallons of water pouring out in an instant. That was perfect.

It was like a flip being switched for no sooner had the chute itself tumbled out then the long silence was broken. Spirits all around them—crowding up the entrance, leaning over balconies, standing on one another's shoulders to get a look over the walls—began whispering in earnest.

"He's gonna fill the tub again!" One cried, to which Eren's grin grew. Yeah, he was.

"But you need bath tokens for that…"

"Irwin won't be giving the human any."

"—he might, he might for this client."

"—no, no, he's done for—"

"Gonna waste all our water, honestly…"

"Shh!"

Eren ignored them, focusing all his energy on getting the chute centered over his client's head. It wasn't easy given the chute was nearly as long as the walls were tall and probably twice Eren's weight. He glanced over and luckily found that his guest didn't seem to be in any hurry. Instead to Eren's surprise he even lifted one massive, dripping hand and lowered the chute the last inch or so to the left. Gazing upside-down Eren nodded his thanks.

"Just one more second, sir…"

Well, a little longer than that. The room had well and truly flooded now, making it rather difficult to run. What was worse, his client's own liquid nature had begun to add to the mess; like a slow but unstoppable oil spill. Brown seepage rose up from out of the tub and oozed down the sides, thinning as it hit the water. It still retained its sticky properties though and Eren found that he needed to pull each leg out of the muck in order to move forward. It was like wading through quicksand—only smellier.

"Don't know what he thinks he's doing," a spirit muttered as Eren determinedly pushed his way to the far corner. "Making a client wait like that. Either you have the tokens or you don't and he don't so he might as well stand aside and let someone else do it right—"

"Do you want to be in charge? Of that?" Another hissed. It was a woman's voice and Eren saw a fat arm pointing out towards his guest. "You want Irwin on your back instead of his?"

"Well, uh…"

"That's what I thought, you—oh! Oh ho ho. This human; he's a tricky one, isn't he?"

The murmurs rose exponentially as Eren finally reached the corner and, pushing aside the slime, uncovered his unintentionally hidden bucket. He nearly sagged in relief when he saw that they were still here, all twenty-some of the tokens he'd been given. That was more than enough for even a guest this size and Eren gripped the bucket protectively. The other voices rose in a roar as more and more caught sight of the colorful bounty. Eren chanced a look back at Irwin… and found that his expression had curdled like milk.

Hell yeah.

"Thanks, Armin," Eren chirped. A couple of spirits nearby cocked their heads in confusion.

Back through the water, back through the slime, this time with the bucket held securely against his chest. The last thing Eren needed was to trip and loose the tokens beneath the dark water and wouldn't that just be a laugh riot? He'd never find them then. Luckily he managed to reach the chute without incident, a slight gurgling behind him the only indication that his customer might be getting impatient. The first token he tried to send off slipped right through his fingers, the victim of wet and slightly shaking hands. Eren gritted his teeth… dropped the second… nearly dropped the third… but the latch caught at the last second and he triumphantly sent it shooting up, then back down towards Connie and Sasha. Panting, Eren turned to the tub.

"It'll just be one more moment, sir." He said. With a grunt Eren climbed up the sides, slipping more than once. His chin took a nasty hit when his foot hit a particularly slimy patch but he just kept talking around it. "I just sent down one of our best tokens,"—lie. He hadn't a clue which one he'd sent; something with lots of stripes on it—"and Sasha, she's head of the boiler room, she's real quick about getting the water up here." Also a lie. Whatever. "I'm really sorry about the wait…"

With a gasp Eren leveled himself up onto the rim. Now he was nearly at eye level with his customer. Not that he had eyes exactly, just indentations within the sludge. Nevertheless, he thought he saw the area around those indentations crinkling… and then his customer sagged forward in what could only be a nod. Eren puffed out a relieved breath.

"Thanks. Here you go, sir," and he tugged hard on the rope.

Nothing.

Tug, tug….

Still nothing.

"C'mon, Sasha." Eren pulled down with all his might. "C'mon don't do this, not now—I'm gonna—I'm gonna kill you when I next see you—no. No, no, I'm gonna starve you that's it—fuuuuck—that's what I'll do I swear, c'mon, Sasha, c'mon pleeeeease—shit!"

The water came all at once. Not through the chute in a single stream but bursting out through the top and spilling erratically off from the sides. It was a waterfall, forcing itself into the room with such strength that Eren never stood a chance. There was no luck in falling backwards this time and keeping his feet wasn't an option. The second the water came Eren was falling forward into its depths—dark and dank, so dark, as dark as an ocean at night—and he had just enough time to realize what was about to happen, to well and truly understand his situation. So caught up in beating Irwin—in keeping his family safe— it had hardly occurred to Eren that he'd been slowly trapping himself in a room filling with water. It had just been a slight shiver at the edge of his mind, something he could ignore. Now though… now there was nowhere else to hide. Tick tock. Tick tock. Too late.

Eren opened his mouth to scream and the water rushed forward.

There was a time, almost a year after it happened, when Eren tried going back in the water.

Their village was a small one, comprised of thirty-five, maybe forty houses and only half that many public buildings: one school, one library, an arcade that consisted of games from their grandparents' age, and no one really bothered to question any of this… except perhaps young boys in need of adventure.

Grisha Yeager, well liked and respected by the community, was the only "real" doctor in the area—with knowledge beyond how to bring down a fever or set a clean break—and because of this his family was one of the few that bothered owning a car; everyone else preferring to bike. It allowed him to reach those normally out of reach, just as it allowed him to pick up and leave their village with horrifying ease.

But that came later.

At that point in time he was still just a small-town doctor and father. Really more father than anything else considering that just a few months before he'd watched his son plunge into an ocean and would have sworn, standing there with wind and sand whipping his face, that that was it. The last he'd ever see of his son… Yet Eren had returned, miraculously, carrying with him a little girl who'd quickly become his daughter. A true, genuine miracle.

Despite the happy ending though, can you blame a father for keeping his son close from then on? Smothering him even?

Can you blame the boy for running away?

Eren had spent some nine months reacquainting himself with dry land. There were good things about life now, like Mikasa, but there was also his father's deep voice telling him, "No, you may not go off alone," and then his crying at night when he thought Eren couldn't hear. His mother wasn't much better. Playfully disappearing behind hanging laundry, Eren would reappear to find her face marred with panic instead of the indulgent smile she'd worn a hundred, a thousand times before. It made him sad and then when their expressions refused to change it just made him angry. Should he have just left Mikasa there? Sacrificed her to keep himself safe?

If they'd ever actually said that out loud… well, Eren wasn't entirely sure what he'd have done. Something awful.

Things did get better of course. They almost always do when time's involved but before that Eren broke. One day, with little provocation other than what had been building for months, he ran out of the house, down the dirt road, past the library, the houses, even beyond Hannes' where he'd normally go to scream… all the way down to that little cluster of woods and the stream that trickled there. It had always been a (theoretically) peaceful spot.

Eren had once gone there all the time. Now he hadn't been there in weeks and weeks and that was only partly because of his parents' house arrest. Things were just so different now.

In more ways than one.

"Your mom's going to be really mad when she finds you gone," Mikasa said and Eren jumped with a surprised squeak. The creek wasn't exactly nearby but during the entire journey he hadn't once noticed her following him. Hannes said she moved like a cat and yeah, the pretty much covered it.

"She's your mom too," he said automatically.

Mikasa inched forward a little. Now Eren could hear the crunch of leaves as she stepped. Her breathing too, just barely labored.

"My mom's dead."

Eren winced. "Well yeah but… can't you have more than one? Your mom's still your mom but now my mom's your mom too and…" Eren trailed off, growling at the words that weren't coming out right. "My mom's going to be worried when she finds you gone as well," he finally said. Eren shrugged. "That makes her your mom too, okay? The worrying."

To his shock Mikasa actually smiled, like all that mess was something she actually agreed with. Tiptoeing forward she came to stand at Eren's side and took his hand in hers. It was a habit she'd gotten into. Or rather, one she'd never broken. Eren had grabbed her hand on that boat and he'd barely let go since. Maybe they were both a little afraid to.

Together the looked down at the water. It wasn't anything impressive: just a stream, hardly deserving the name given how often it dried out during hot summers. It was at its best now though, with a steady flow of debris-ridden water moving past over rocks and into the mud of the surrounding bank. If Eren were to step down the water would just cover his ankles—maybe not even that. If he fell he'd get his shorts and the edge of his shirt wet, at the most. Nothing scary at all, right?

Right.

He didn't move.

"I used to play in this all the time," he whispered.

Mikasa nodded. She hadn't known that, Eren hadn't told her that until just now, but she nodded anyway.

"There are tadpoles sometimes. You can wade in, try to scoop 'em up, but it's not easy with how quick they are. There's also a drop down that way." Eren pointed a few yards down the stream where the water was too murky, hiding a suction hole of mud and sand. When he'd discovered it he'd been trapped for a while—you could really only find it by getting trapped—and that had been an awesome adventure. Eren had spent a good ten minutes trying to free himself and the only screams he'd let loose were those of laughter. Coming home muddy and bruised had been a treat.

"Do you want to go over there?" Mikasa asked. Her fingers were like ice against his.

"…Not really." Eren swallowed. "Do you?"

"No."

"Okay. Um but… should we anyway?"

It was a question Eren had wanted to pose for nine months now. It had occurred to him, in the fuzzy sort of way that dreams sometimes come back, or memories from photographs resurface, that maybe their parents couldn't stop being scared so long as he was. Maybe, if he and Mikasa both came back muddy and bruised once more, it'd all be okay. Just one step in, that's all it would take.

Eren took the step, his sneaker pushing into the grass along the bank. Mikasa followed. The water rose up to touch the toe of his shoe and he shivered. He couldn't feel it—not yet, not quite yet…

"I'll go in if you go in," Mikasa said. She turned and pressed her cold nose against his neck. The feeling contrasted sharply with the warmth Eren could feel from her scarf, overheated from the spring sun. He didn't know if she was seeking or offering comfort, so he settled on giving back in the best way he knew how:

"No. No…we don't have to go in," he said and they both sagged.

That was probably a lie though.

Eventually they decided on a compromise of sorts. Using his shoe Eren scooped up water from a safe distance and splashed it over them both. This was easier, comfortable even. Laughing they took turns soaking one another on dry land, bits of leaves and wood sticking to their skin. They pushed themselves, continuing it long enough that by the end they were shivering and the long walk back home wasn't nearly enough time to dry their clothes. Eren entered his kitchen still holding Mikasa's hand, both feet squishing.

"Eren!"

His mom's voice overlaid with his father's call of "Mikasa!" Their voices died though when they found their children, not just home, but positively, irrevocably wet.

"Did you go in the water?" Kalura breathed. Her gaze wavered between them, shocked and proud.

Eren fiddled with his sopping shirt. "Yes," he lied and things got a little easier after that.

Maybe.

Here and now there was nothing for Eren to hold onto.

Mikasa's hand was too far away, malformed and vicious; the safety of the bank was in another world entirely. Even his shoes were gone, presumably still in the care of Hanji.

Briefly, right before the water filled his ears Eren had thought he'd heard her calling out to him again… but she too was out of reach: over the tub walls and beyond the crowd of spirits watching him drown; remote.

Eren tried grabbing anyway. The sides of the tub, his guest, anything. All his hands met with was water. He was blind down there, the dirt and grime obscuring every hope of escape. He didn't even know which way was up anymore, only that if felt like he was heading down. Turning in a darkened void Eren could hear the pounding of water around him, more and more pouring in over his head, burying him alive. The thought alone made him scream and what a mistake that was as the water was finally able to reach Eren's lungs.

He panicked, he thrashed. Eren screamed for his family and for Corporal. He wanted him here, now, using his swords to tear and slash through the water with the same ferocity he'd shown on land—and surely Corporal would come for him, surely. Eren knew this feeling, knew it well: the numbness in his limbs and the fire in his throat. This was familiar… but something was missing too. Someone was missing and it wasn't Mikasa. It wasn't a hand in his but one latching around his arm. Not a hand at all, was it? No. Colder, slick. The touch of scales…

Torn between memories and the present Eren was still aware enough to realize that Corporal wasn't coming. If he had been he would have been here by now, with swords and a scowl and maybe a kind word if Eren was lucky. He cried, curled into a ball as best he could and just hyperventilated against his knees.

It took Eren a long, long time to realize what was wrong with that.

Drowning boys didn't hyperventilate.

With a gasp—a literal gasp that drew air into his lungs—Eren sat up. Or rather, he twisted out of his ball. He was still in the water, still bobbing, but the roaring had become a gentle murmur and the water itself was clearer now, with hues resembling a crystal lake rather than the sludge Eren remembered falling into. Even as he thought these things they became more distinct, defining themselves around him. Eren could open his eyes without feeling the sting of cleaning solutions and he continued to breathe—in out, in out, it made him tremble and shake—each breath just a little calmer than the last. When there was no more grey impeding his vision Eren realized that he wasn't dreaming… and he wasn't dead. Not yet, not yet. Slowly he extended his arm in a daring search.

He'd been wrong before. All the water hadn't gotten clearer, just a portion of it. Eren was literally in a bubble, a pocket of water within water, something safe amidst all that terror. He could touch the boundaries of his world and see where the filthy bathwater began—to his left and right and up and down, just a foot or so in all directions. It was still close though and Eren tried to fit himself within the very middle of his sanctuary, where it was safe. A good decision.

Eren sighed in teary relief. It was warmer here too. The cold in his limbs was slipping away while the fire in his lungs dulled to a soothing temperature. He could breathe again. It made Eren laugh a little crazily and feeling himself laugh made him cackle all the harder. He was laughing. Laughing! Around him the water rippled like it was laughing too.

Then Eren began to rise.

At first the movement, the feeling of water swaying gently over his body, made him try to snatch at the 'walls' of his bubble and stop the momentum; which was useless of course. But then Eren caught a glimpse of light overhead, the size of, say, the opening of a very large tub, and he laughed again at the realization that he was actually rising—going up. When he broke the surface Eren only realized this because that light grew stronger and there were indistinct shapes to his left, like a group of panicking spirits. He was still in a bubble of water… but in an instant that too disappeared. It pulled away from Eren starting at the top of his head, like he was a chick being peeled from an egg. It sort of felt sort of like a birth too. Eren sat there, coughing, feeling wet and warm and still a little bit shaky.

He was sitting on someone's hand. His guest's. Eren blinked up into where the eyes should be.

"Thank you," he tried to say but it came out only as a croak. The spirit hummed anyway.

Then it pulled him forward again.

Eren tensed. There was still water everywhere: flooding the floor, pouring from the chute, rising in unnatural waves around the tub. Off to the side he could just make out the other spirits amidst the chaos. Hanji had finally pushed her way to the front but she like all the others stood in shocked awe at the power thrumming through the water. It defied gravity, rising up to create a barrier between the workers and Eren, between Eren and his guest, with just his brown head peeking up above like the tip of a mountain. Said guest was pulling Eren directly towards one of those waves and Eren froze. With a cry and two slipped tears he squeezed his eyes shut, resigned to being submerged once more… but then they stopped, right at the edge, with Eren's nose just an inch from the column of water. He took a beloved breath even as his throat kept making squeaky noises. Hesitantly he looked up.

"Muuuurrrrh."

His guest's voice was deep, the sound rumbling through the sludge of his body and up into Eren's. He drew his hand towards the columns of water again, bumping Eren lightly against the wetness. Eren flinched.

"What do you want?" His voice came out a scratchy whine. Eren wanted to reach out a hand and let some of the water spill into his palm. He wanted to take a drink… but he didn't dare. He couldn't. Instead he swallowed five quick times and tried breathing in the damp air.

"Please put me down," he said.

"Errruh," That was a no and Eren smacked a fist down on the creature's hand. It made another noise, this time sounding slightly pained. At first Eren thought that he'd hurt him… but that was ridiculous. He peered upward confusedly and took a few deep breaths.

"What is it?" Eren asked, deliberately calm.

Silence. Nothing but the sound of water surrounding him. Still shaking, Eren dug one hand into his thigh and forced the other to rise, heading in the direction of the spirit's massive, engulfed body. His guest nodded.

"You want me to reach in there…?"

Another nod.

"No." Eren said. "No, no, no, no—" He shook his head wildly, droplets flying from his hair. "I won't. No!"

His guest grunted again, sounding slightly disappointed. He didn't pull Eren back into the water though. They just sat there a moment, the spirit staring, Eren giving the best glare he could.

It was warm here though and slowly, ever so slowly, Eren began to relax. The firm feeling of his guest's hand helped too—unmoving; just a bit like land. It wasn't forcing him to go anywhere he didn't want to go. They were just two beings, sitting together. Breathing.

As Eren's body well and truly fell out of the panic he'd been in he was finally able to catalog what else was around him; what else he could feel. Beneath him his guest's hand was harder than he'd imagined. Sludgy yes, just liked it looked, but Eren's fingers brushed along with the confidence that came with touching something solid… until they encountered a sharp prick. With a soft 'oh' Eren drew his hand back and found a drop of red on his pinkie. The blood quickly washed away with the rest of the flood and returning to that spot Eren carefully dug and pulled out a shiny piece of… metal?

He held it up. "Is this what hurts?"

"Eeeeeh." His guest nodded. Shook his head.

"More?"

A nod, a nod.

Eren set to work. The spirit's hand was enormous and in Eren's little spot alone he found three more bits of metal buried in the muck, along with candy wrappers and the core of a pear. He let it all drop bemusedly into the water below. Hesitating, Eren looked back up at the body.

"There's something else caught in your chest?" He asked. Eren didn't need a verbal confirmation that tiem. The water was still a rush of power around them but for just an instant—a millisecond—it thinned and Eren could see through the few layers of grime that had already been washed away. There, at eye level to him was something else long and shiny sticking out from the spirit's side. Despite his fear Eren leaned forward just a bit and then grimaced. It looked painful.

"You need to put me down," he called up. Embolden, Eren turned on the edge of a finger, gesturing frantically to be set down on the edge of the tub. "C'mon trust me. Put me down!"

He was—carefully—and balancing there Eren could just make out the crowd in the doorway. A few had tried to rush forward when he'd slipped, Hanji chief among them, but the majority had backed up out of the way. Whatever insanity was going on down in the boiler room must have be letting up because the chute slowly tapered its endless water supply, then finally stopped. The floor was still a foot deep with murky bathwater and the columns around his guest were still going strong but now Eren could actually see through the mist, well enough to hail his friends.

"Hanji!"

Hanji rushed forward at the sound of his voice, clomping through the water. She kicked up quite the spray.

"Human!" She shrieked. Making it to the tube she reached up. Eren dared to lean forward and they were just able to clasp hands. "You—you—you scared me to death, you stupid—what happened? Are you okay?!"

No. Absolutely not. Eren was soaked and still shaking and absolutely none of that was due to being cold. The water Sasha had sent was hot, hot, hot and now the room was beginning to feel like a sauna. Eren swallowed, his throat going dry again.

"I'm fine!" He shouted. "But I think he's got a thorn." Eren pointed back to the spirit.

"A thorn?"

"Yeah, or something. Do we have any rope?"

"Rope?"

It was probably the only time in her life, dead or otherwise, that Hanji looked at someone as if they were the crazy one. Before she could answer though someone else emerged from the steam. After some struggling Eren was able to look down into the relieved face of Marco. He was as wet as anyone else and behind him came Jean, crashing through the water like an errant bull.

"We got here just as…" Marco trailed off. He didn't need to say it. Jean's hands pulling at his hair said it all. "Never mind. We're glad you're okay." Marco too reached up, placing his hand over theirs. Water still spilled over the sides of the tub, running over their grips, and Eren resisted the urge to pull away from it because he wanted to feel this—them—even if it meant feeling the water too. He smiled at Marco the best he could.

"Jean?" Marco didn't take his eyes off Eren. "Have we got rope for the insane human boy?"

"Rope," Jean echoed faintly. "Yeah. Sure." He finally looked at Eren. "I'm going to kill you."

"Later," Eren quipped, but he knew that they could see it. The three of them stared as Eren shook like a leaf under their gazes. He didn't want to turn around, back towards those rushing, unnatural walls of water; he didn't even want to step down into the calm, gently sloshing water below. Neither. No more water. Eren was happy right here, suspended between with his friends as an anchor.

Then Jean joined his hand with the rest. His nails found Eren's fingers on the bottom of the pile and dug harsh crescent moons.

"You finishing this, kid, or what?"

Was he? Eren looked at Hanji, Marco, Jean… Corporal was somewhere off in the distance… his family was even further… but they were there. Still there.

"Don't call me kid," he growled and that was answer enough. "Go get the fucking rope, horse-face."