Chapter two.
Crap, crap, crap, crap! Sigh. You did this to yourself, Eren Jaegar, now just accept the consequences like merman.
As soon as the demon was out of his sight, Eren suddenly realized that it was starting to get dark. He swam up to the surface of the water and saw that the sun was already setting. Cursing, he dived back in and continued to swim as fast as he could, back to where he was before.
Why hadn't Armin woken him up? Had he already left? No, that's impossible. Armin would never leave him alone whenever they ventured up to land. Neither would Mikasa for that matter. Speaking of Mikasa, where was she? Eren remembered hearing her say she was going to call for his father, but knowing His Majesty, he'd have other more important things to do. So wouldn't Mikasa have returned?
When Eren finally reached the area, he found no sign of either of them. He surfaced again, listening very carefully for sounds of movement up on the rocks. Convinced that there was no one there, he sunk back into the water and simply stood thinking for a few minutes. Finally he gave up, and decided to simply return.
Deep Sea Gorge, Maria Palace.
"Eren where have you been?!" Simultaneously with that, another voice was busy stuttering, "Y-y-yo-y-you-r f-f-fin-fi-"
Ah, what a warm home welcoming indeed. Upon arriving at the palace, Eren had immediately went to his room. As soon as he pushed the door open, two pair of eyes shot almost instantly towards him. Recognizing the mer who had just entered as the one they both thought were missing, these the exact words that started on Eren.
"I had been at the exact same spot I was at when you left this afternoon, and, god damn, relax, it'll disappear soon enough. Do I have to remind you every time of how fast I heal?! Sheesh!" Eren swam past the two and threw himself on his large, wide bed. He felt totally drained for staying too long out in the sun, the blood lost from earlier and also for having to swim around so much. "Where were you two anyway? I'm surprise I was actually left alone, not that I'm angry or anything.." He snuggled his head into the soft pillow, his arms under it pressing his face in. A content sigh escaped Eren's lips.
"Eren," Armin's voice called out, hesitant. "that scar.. you were attacked, weren't you? And I don't mean by titans." This captured Eren's full attention, and he sat right up to look into Armin's eyes.
"Were you attacked, too? Are you hurt anywhere?" He sounded concerned now, his face suddenly serious. If Armin was hurt, Eren was going to blame himself for not listening to Armin when he so desperately asked that they return so many times earlier.
Armin shook his head though, "When you were suddenly so silent, I was about to climb up and check on you but these.. these birds.. a group of them, these really large birds were flying right above me, when I saw them, I-" he looked down, then continued in a softer voice "I ran. I'm sorry.. I left you there... I just- my fins moved on their own and I-" giving up on words, he sighed and looked further down, his bangs covering his eyes.
"I bumped into him while he was on his way back." Mikasa continued, "Uncle was meeting some important mer from across the ocean, so I couldn't really get to him. I decided to return to where you and Armin were, and when he swam right into me blurting out about what he saw and that he just left you there, I was going to go back and get you.."
"No!" Just as Mikasa was about to speed off, Armin had grabbed her arm and held onto it tightly. "There were six or seven of them! Strong as you are, Mikasa, you can't just fight them off on your own!"
"Well I can't just leave him either, can I?" Her voice was still controlled and calm, but if anyone were to see her face at that moment they'd find a darkness in her eyes screaming that she was ready to kill.
Mikasa tried to shake off Armin's hand but failed. His grip on her arm only tightened as he said, "Call the palace guards, alert His Majesty, do anything but go out there on your own.." his voice got softer near the end. Mikasa turned around and saw that his body started to shake. When she made no more attempts of freeing herself from his grip, Armin's hand slowly released Mikasa's arm and dropped back to his side. In her own way of comforting, Mikasa placed a hand on Armin's shoulder and silently watched him sob.
"Armin, why don't you go call for the palace guards?"
Armin sniffed and wiped away his tears as he looked up to meet Mikasa's eyes. "What..?"
"Hurry. I'll wait for you right here." Her hand that was on his shoulder shoved him back, urging him to go.
"But-"
"Hurry." Armin could feel her eyes on him as he wiped away more of his tears. He nod once, before meeting her eyes again. In the next second, Armin had sped right past her and towards the palace.
The mer that was left all alone closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry, Armin," with that she turned around and started heading towards land.
"When I arrived, I didn't see any of those bird creatures around so I called out for you. You didn't answer, Eren, I got so worried. I climbed up the rocks and you weren't there," her eyes narrowed as she recalled how she felt throughout the happenings of earlier. "Armin arrived within the next few minutes, with the palace guards. We didn't know what else to do so we returned and alerted uncle."
Eren, listening to Mikasa and Armin and who had felt sad and guilty before, now was taken aback. His eyes widened as he looked up at Mikasa. "You told father?!"
Well, shit. This was the end for him. He's never going to be allowed up to land anymore now.
Eren was busy cursing silently under his breath when Mikasa swam forward and said "We didn't know what else to do. You were missing, Eren!"
"We were desperate.." Armin added softly in the back.
Suddenly the doors burst open revealing His Majesty looking ever so pleased. Eren's head snapped upwards as he took in the sight of his crossed father. A soldier must have seen him enter the palace and told His Majesty.
"Leave us." The rough, husky voice echoed within the room. Every mer there knowing full well who 'us' meant, one by one they slowly left including Mikasa and Armin who shot a sorry look at Eren before closing the door behind them. Eren sighs once more, bracing himself for the upcoming wrath of an angered King Trident.
The silence dragged on, and Eren begun to wonder if there was a storm coming his way. He silently hoped on even a tiny chance that maybe there wasn't one. But of course, his hopes were in vain.
"You are to not enter titan territory again." Grisha's voice spoke with authority, power, and a final decision made.
"You can't just stop me from-"
"I can stop you from leaving this palace, I can stop you from leaving this room and I can even stop you from moving an inch." Eren stood, his eyes bravely meeting with and challenging his father's.
"I wasn't in titan territory," he tried.
"You were out of the waters,"
"Yes, bu-"
"and you were in danger."
"I wasn't in danger!" Eren exploded, not having control over himself anymore and slipped out a lie. He regretted it immediately. Not because he felt bad about lying to his father, but because he knew of the consequences if his father found out. Eren winced. He could only hope that Mikasa and Armin had informed his father of a missing Eren, and not of an Eren-in-danger-before-going-missing.
Grisha looked down on his son with the most cold eyes. He felt that this whole conversation was meaningless and a waste of time. All his words should be taken as an order, and never to be fought against. Yet here was his stubborn son, the one he was supposed to pass responsibility over the whole ocean down to, going against his every word.
"Well then," his voice resonated within the room once more, and he spoke in the same voice that Eren recognized as a king's. "You are to not leave where the mer do not rule." Having brought his point forward, Grisha turns around without waiting for another word from Eren and was right at the door about to leave before Eren's anger really burst.
"I will not be caged in like cattles!" He sped past his father pushing him aside in the process, and swam as fast as he could leaving the palace. A shout of his name could be heard, but he ignored it and continued swimming letting his fins take him wherever. He wouldn't mind living his life out on land even if it meant a vast amount of years cut from his life. Anything but having his freedom taken away from him.
Sina Island, The Forest of Giant Trees.
"But he was right in front of you!" exclaimed a brunette in glasses.
"Calm down, Hanji." a voice belonging to a ginger sighed. She then went to pat Hanji's back in an effort to relax her a little.
"How can you tell me to just calm down, the Lord is freakin' missing!" Hanji threw her arms up in the air as she said this. She then throws herself into the ginger's arms and starts crying.
"I really think we should inform the Demon Realm. Who knows, he might've gone back on some urgent business?" A different voice suggested.
"I agree. I mean, its not the first time he just takes off on his own like that." A male with blonde hair nods once in agreement.
"B-b-but what if he isn't back at the Demon Realm?!" The earlier brunette added in, still sobbing in the arms of the ginger.
"Calm it, Hanji. Right now." yet another voice snapped, losing patience. This hectic situation has been going on for awhile now, neither one present knowing what action to take upon the absence of their Demon Lord. A few hours ago they were in the skies together, flying high above 'ugly ass titans' and looking for a meal when they realized that the person leading them had just vanished. All of them then proceeded to land close to one another on branches of tall trees within a forest nearby and there started the current conversation between them.
"Why don't we just inform Erwin? We'll ask him to not tell anyone else -just look around and see if he can find Lord Rivaille back at Demon Realm." Another suggestion was thrown in, but then the sound of ruffling leaves and the breaking of branches from above grabbed all their attentions. A shadow swooshed past them, and then a thud sounded from the opposite direction. Turning their heads, they saw a figure with the same large wings as them land in a crouching position on a branch a little distance away.
He then stood up, spreading his wings wide and said, "There's no need for any of that." Levi descended and lands on the ground below. He calls out to the group still above watching his every action in disbelief, "Have you guys gotten food yet?" acting perfectly normal as if he'd just return from going away for five minutes.
It was one of them namely Oruo who was the first to respond(and not in a tone of voice lliked by the Demon Lord), "You could have told us before disappearing like that" Oruo descends, landing behind his superior then kneels down on one leg, an arm folded behind him and the other a fist over his heart. He presents himself lowly before the Demon Lord, half apologizing for his earlier tone.
"I may do whatever the fucking hell I please," the raven hair reminded his underling. The rest of them followed Oruo and now were all kneeling behind their Lord, waiting for orders. However none was given, as the said Lord walked ahead ignoring all of them behind him. It was the brunette with spectacles who was second in command among all of them there, who dare stood and asked,
"Where are you going, Levi? It'd be wise to let us know." It was rare that anyone used this informal name of his instead of Lord Rivaille, but when anyone did they were simply saying aloud 'I'm not only by your side as a subordinate of the Demon Lord, I also worry for you as a friend'. Not many were allowed to call him with this name, and even fewer were forgiven for actually doing so.
Nevertheless, Hanji sounded purely concerned, and the way that she had asked was how you'd ask a question to someone you respect and look up to.
Levi came to a standstill. He turned his head slightly then simply said, "Just get our meals prepared." He spread out his wings again and, within the next second, had took off to the night sky.
Right off the coast, Sina Island.
Eren felt his heart thundering in his chest and heat rising up to his face. He was panting, feeling tired all over again. Not only physically now, he was tired mentally as well. Tired of everything. Tired of having people babysit him all the time. Tired of having to act so perfectly as the mer prince. Tired of his father who never simply understood. Tired of being reminded everyday how big a responsibility he was going to be given one day. Most of all, tired of being a prey to those damn titans fucking everything up for him. If only they never existed, if only they never existed, he'd be free to wander the land above the sea as pleased.
Eren sighs. He knew he was just looking for faults in everything that he could blame, but he simply didn't care anymore. He kept on swimming, never slowing down. That was until he realized where he was; where he had ended up at.
He surfaced, the water leveling mid of his chest. Eren look up towards the night starry sky -one of the many reasons he loved this other world opposite to his'. He took a deep breath, held it in for a moment and then exhaled loudly. Eren begun climbing the same rocks, slowly, his arms and tail feeling sore and aching to rest.
Just as his eye passed the ground level above the rocks, he saw a pair of feet standing inches away from his face.
Eren yelped, surprised, slipping one of his hands and almost fell back into the water but was caught by strong arms and carried bridal style. The next thing he knew, he was floating in the air once more.
Yaaayyy I'm done!
I'll be honest this chapter took much longer to create than expected. That's probably because I find it boring to write a chapter without any fluff or lemon. Basically, its boring to me when I have to write stuff happening when the main pairing are apart from each other.
Oh admit it, its boring to read, too, right? But don't worry, I promise things are gonna heat up in chapter three ;)
Though right now I'll be focusing on the publish of a new story; Prisoner(Eren/Levi). It's gonna be a fic full of lemons ohoho *drools*
Check out the summary, publish date and also the estimated update for Of Scales and Bones on my profile!
Till then!