Chapter III - For the First Time in Forever
~Three Years Later~
(Eren's POV)
"Prince Eren?" I woke up with a start at the voice calling to me from the other side of the door. "Prince Eren?" The voice asks again.
"Huh?" I questioned sleepily before waking up a bit more to think clearer. I clear my throat quickly. "Yeah?" I ask.
"Sorry to wake you, sir."
"No, no, no, you didn't." I replied sleepily before yawning. "I've been up for hours." I add between yawns, stretching. I rubbed my face. I slowly start to drift back to sleep before I catch myself and speak again. "Who is it?" I ask loudly.
"Still me, sir." The voice stammers. I rub my face some more to wake myself up. "The gates will open soon. Time to get ready." They add.
"Of course." I reply, pausing for a moment. "Ready for what?" It's too early for me to think straight.
"Your brother's coronation, sir." They answer.
"My brother's corneration." I think, trying to figure out what's going on through the fog that is my still half-asleep mind. I look over and notice the suit sitting on the side of my room. It all starts clicking into place in my mind then. I gasp excitedly and jump out of my bed. "It's Coronation Day!" I exclaim excitedly. I hurriedly get dressed and ready and run out of my room, almost tripping in my hurry.
As I rush through the halls I notice the servants opening the windows. I gasp in surprise. "The window is open! So's that door." Noticing the doors being opened as well. "I didn't know they did that anymore." The servants walk through carrying a bunch of plates as I walk past them. "Who knew we owned 8,000 salad plates?" I continue past them and run through the hall. "For years I've roamed these empty halls. Why have a ball room with no balls?" I question, sliding through the large ball room. The servants are on ladders, trying to get to the high up windows.
"Finally they're opening up the gates!" I run through the hallway connected to the ballroom and slide down the stairs railing. I reach the bottom and look at the knight statues. "There'll be actual, real, live people." I pretend the statue is a person and shake its hand. I accidently break the arm off and awkwardly put it into the body before walking away quickly. "It'll be totally strange."
"But wow! Am I so ready for this change!" I look out the window to see the sails of the boats near the dock. I notice a swing stage by the window and climb onto it, swinging on it slightly.
"'Cause for the first time in forever." I pull the swing stage up to get a higher view. "There'll be music. There'll be light." I can see the ocean now. As well as the boats coming into the port. It's an amazing sight and I absolutely love it. "For the first time in forever I'll be dancing through the night." I swing further on the swing stage.
I head back inside and then to the garden outside. "Don't know if I'm elated or gassy, but I'm somewhere in that zone." I see a bunch of ducklings following their mother and I skip over to them. "'Cause for the first time in forever, I won't be alone." I kneel beside the ducklings and offer my hands. Some of them jump into my hands and look up at me. I smile back at them. "I can't wait to meet everyone!" I tell them. I gasp suddenly, thinking of something very important. "What if I meet The One?" One of the ducklings quacks at me in response and I smile down at it. I sit them back down before heading inside again.
"Tonight imagine me suit and all, fetchingly draped against the wall." I lean against the wall exaggeratingly. "The picture of sophisticated grace." I twirl the cord to the drapes next to me, accidently smacking myself in the face with it before moving away from it.
"I suddenly see them standing there. A beautiful stranger, tall and fair." I look over to the head statue standing on a pedestal near the wall. I look to my other side and notice a table full of different sweets. "I wanna stuff some chocolate in my face!" I snag a few chocolates and shove them in my mouth before turning back to the statue. "But then we laugh and talk all evening, which is totally bizarre." I pick up the head and spin around with it as I go. "Nothing like the life I've led so far." The head slips out of my hands and flies onto the cake on the other side of the room. I cringe at my mistake. Though, the head did land quite well on that cake if I do say so myself.
I carry on my way and enter the gallery. "For the first time in forever, there'll be magic, there'll be fun." I copy some of the poses of the paintings as I walk by them. "For the first time in forever I could be noticed by someone. And I know it is totally crazy to dream I'd find romance. But for the first time in forever at least I've got a chance!" I sigh, staring up at one of the paintings I had stopped near.
(Levi's POV)
I look out the window and take a deep breath, trying to calm myself down a little for today. "Don't let them in. Don't let them see. Be the good boy you always have to be." I walk over to the painting of my father at his coronation and take off my gloves, setting them on the table in front of me. "Conceal, don't feel." I grab the candle holder and the small box I have sitting on the table. "Put on a show." I turn around and act as though I would at the coronation, holding the two items. "Make one wrong move, and everyone will know." Ice begins to slowly cover the box and candle holder. I quickly turn around and set the items back on the table.
(3rd Person POV) Eren and Levi are in different places so it's going to switch back and forth between them. It might be a little confusing if you've never seen Frozen before.
"But it's only for today." Levi states, looking at his ungloved hands in his room.
"It's only for today." Eren announces excitedly, looking out the door to outside.
"It's agony to wait" Levi puts his gloves back on.
"It's agony to wait." Eren runs down the front steps of the palace, jumping as he goes.
"Tell the guards to open up…" Levi opens the doors to his room and walks out, speaking to the servants waiting out in the hallway for him. "The gate."
"The gate." Eren jumps excitedly at the front gates as the guards begin to open them slowly. "For the first time in forever." Eren walks out the gates and greets the people walking in.
"Don't let them in. Don't let them see." Levi whispers to himself as he begins walking down the aisle.
"I'm getting what I'm dreaming of." Eren continues to walk across the bridge that had led to the castle. Walking underneath a large cake that is being carried by a couple servants on his way. Most likely to replace the one he had ruined earlier.
"Be the good boy you always have to be." Levi opens the doors to the balcony.
"A chance to change my lonely world." Eren jumps up onto the wall of the small bridge, hanging on to one of the light post on it.
"Conceal." Levi looks down at all the people walking in the gates from his balcony.
"A chance to find true love." Eren swings around on the light post.
"Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know." Levi closes his eyes momentarily to calm himself and then opens them again.
"I know it all ends tomorrow." Eren walks along the ledge of the bridge. "So it has to be today!" He uses a man's hand to get off the ledge of the bridge before walking away. People watch him, amazed, as he goes by.
(Eren's POV)
"'Cause for the first time in forever." I run around the town excitedly. I can't remember ever being outside the castle before so it was amazing to finally be here. "For the first time in forever." I run through the market stall to look out at the dock. Running down the stairs leading to it. "Nothing's in my way!" I run down the small walkway next to the docks.
I'm suddenly shoved by something strong and I grunt at the impact. I stumble and my foot gets caught in a bucket, making me trip and fall into a small fishing boat near me. The boat starts to slide off the dock before something stops it. "Hey!" I call them out, moving a piece of seaweed away from my eyes. The thing that I had run into and had stopped the boat from falling was in fact a horse. The horse was accompanied by a girl I had never seen before. Of course I haven't been out much but still. The girl had black shoulder length hair and she was wearing a red scarf around her neck. She was dressed quite nicely for being on a horse.
"I'm so sorry." she apologized. "Are you hurt?"
"Hey." I chuckle nervously. "Uh… No, no, I'm okay." I stutter, throwing the seaweed off my head and sitting up in the boat.
"Are you sure?" She asks again, getting off her horse and walking towards me.
"Yeah. I just wasn't looking where I was going." The girl begins to get in the boat carefully as I'm speaking. "But I'm great, actually," I finish.
"Oh… Thank Goodness." She offers me a hand and I take it. "Oh! Uh… Princess Mikasa of the Southern Isles." She pulls me up and then bows to me. She doesn't seem like a very lady-like women but I shrug that off for the moment.
"Prince Eren of Arendelle." I bow as well.
"'Prince'? Your Majesty!" She kneels suddenly in respect, realizing I am the prince.
"Oh-" I don't really know what to say, I've never really been in this situation before. Her horse snorts in surprise before bowing as well. Who would have thought I'd ever see the day where a horse would bow to me. It moves its leg off the boat and the boat begins to tip towards the water again.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" We both exclaim, the boat slowly tipping with us in it. It stops as it hits the horse's knee, still not quite out of the boat completely. She falls on top of me.
"Um…" she says above me.
"Hi. Again." I say awkwardly. The horse notices the boat and sets its foot back down again, putting the boat back on the ground. We both yelp as Mikasa falls back and I fall forward, this time me on top of her.
"Oh dear." She says and I quickly push myself up with my arms so I'm not lying on her.
"This is awkward. Not 'You're awkward,' but just because we're…" I stammer, pushing myself up more into a standing position as she stands up as well, taking my hand. "I'm awkward. You're gorgeous. Wait, what?" I start blabbering as we both stand up.
"I'd like to formally apologize for hitting the prince of Arendelle with my horse. And for every moment after." Mikasa apologizes sheepishly.
"No! No, no. It's fine." I try to assure. "I'm not that prince. I mean, if you had hit my brother Levi, it would be… Yeesh! Because you know…" I ramble, walking around her to get off the boat, almost running into her horse in the process. "Hello." I say to the horse I had almost run into for a second time, scratching its chin before getting out of the boat. "But, lucky you, -it's just me." I finish. She laughs quietly before speaking again.
"'Just' you?" She asks. I nod in reply. We kind of just stare at each other for a bit before it dawns on me that the bells are going off.
"The bells. The coronation. I-I better go." I stutter backing away and running into a railing before stepping to the side. "I have to go. I better go. Uh… Bye!" I stammer before turning around and fast walking away awkwardly. Mikasa and the horse wave as I run off. Mikasa falls into the water as the boat took her weight and tipped, due to her horse moving its leg once more. She comes back up sputtering.