Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine.

This is my first story and I've always loved merEren so I figured why not write my own story. Constructive criticism is welcome wholeheartedly. That being said...ta-daa! My first story.

Taking a deep breath of fresh air, Eren leaned back on his hands, ignoring the jagged edges of the rock pressing into his palms. The sun felt wonderful on his wet skin and scales. Eren's favorite past time was coming up on the rocks to lay in the sunshine. His mother and father didn't really like him up above the ocean. They feared humans, for good reason. The humans don't like what they don't understand. They often injured merpeople, mistaking them for big fish. The humans were also known for their disregard to the ocean. They were always polluting it with thick oil and trash. Eren was always freeing his fellow sea creatures from the floating debris. But no matter how much his parents voiced their dislike of Eren going to the surface, he couldn't stop himself. He was too curious and too stubborn headed to listen.

The young merman opened his eyes to the sky. The sky was one of Eren's favorite things to look at up here. It felt so open and free, especially since he was raised in the cold confined depths of the ocean. Don't get him wrong, Eren loved his ocean. There were so many colors and creatures to see and so many caverns and ravines to explore and play in. However, something about the surface world always fascinated him. There was a certain charm to it that kept dragging him back.

Eren looked down at his tail pensively. The sun glinted beautifully off of his blue-green scales. He loved his tail. It's color was rare among merpeople as was his flowing silk-like caudal fin. These traits were only typically found in royalty. Eren wasn't a prince though. He came from a common family from the outskirts of a small village. So his tail and caudal fin were always gawked at when they went into the village. He poked a blue webbed finger at his tail and wondered what it would be like to move around on those split scaleless tails the humans called legs. The differences between merpeople and humans were curious. Humans didn't have tails or fins. Their fingers were separated unlike the merpeoples' webbed ones and the humans didn't have glittering scales crawling up their forearms.

What struck Eren as most odd about the humans was their apparent lack of gills. From a distance, Eren had observed the humans swimming in the ocean but he couldn't find anything resembling a gill on their necks. How did they breathe under water? Did they not breathe at all when submerged? He had seen once when a small boy had went under for a long time and his parents were freaking out and came after him. When they got him out they child was lifeless. The father proceeded to kiss the child and push on the child's chest until water came out of his mouth. How strange, Eren had thought. They must not be able to breathe under the waves and this strange kissing ritual must be how they cure one who stayed under too long.

Eren flopped onto his back with a huff. Humans were confusing and weird. A splash and grunting interrupted his cloud gazing and thoughts about humans.

"Eren! There you are!" Said merman looked over. His friend Armin was attempting to use his feeble arms to pull himself up onto the rock Eren was sunbathing on.

Eren smiled fondly and reached over to help pull Armin up onto the rock. Armin's golden tail flopped gracelessly next to Eren's blue green one.

Armin had been his friend since the day they could swim without assistance from their mothers. Armin 's tail was smaller than Eren's with a sharp stiff fin.

"Mikasa... is going into a frenzy... looking for you," Armin panted out once he remember to close his gills and use his nose to breathe. "She's interrogating everyone in the village."

"I've only been gone a short while, why is she into a frenzy already?" Eren asked. The sun hadn't moved far in the sky since he'd been up here, signaling that he'd only been up here for an hour at most.

"...This is Mikasa we're talking about. You know...obsessive about Eren Mikasa."

Eren grimace. Ever since Eren had saved Mikasa from those sharks when they were little, she had clung to him swearing to protect him with her life. She had followed him everywhere and watched over him despite Eren's protests. He loved Mikasa, he really did. She was like a sister to him. But he really didn't appreciate the way she would treat him like a child.

"Well, I guess we should go save the village from her interrogation spree. The last time she did that no one would let me leave the village so she wouldn't put them through her harsh interrogations. I couldn't come up here for an entire month," Eren sighed. Armin nodded in agreement and slipped into the ocean.

Eren took a deep breath of salty air and looked at the sky again as a white bird flew over head, trying to gain a few more moments of peace before having to face Mikasa's wrath.

"C'mon Leviiii! I can't pull myself up there as easily as you, help me up!"

Eren snapped his head around at the voice. His ocean green eyes met steely gray ones. Eren was frozen. He was seen. His blood was running cold through his veins. How could Eren not have heard the man climbing onto the rock? He must have been focusing too much on the bird. The man stood there, seemingly as frozen as Eren was. Neither of them moved. They only stared. One frozen in fear, the other frozen in stunned curiosity.

"Leviiiiii!"

A woman's voice called over the edge of the tall rock. Eren glanced from the raven haired man to the voice and back again. He felt his fear easing away slowly, giving way to curiosity.

Without breaking eye contact, the man opened his mouth and a silky deep voice slipped past his lips, "Wait down there for a second, shitty four eyes!"

"Wha-...why?!" the voice retorted

"Because I said to!" The man had a commanding presence about him Eren observed. The voice huffed and grew silent.

The man, who Eren had deduced was named Levi, took a step forward. Eren jerked back, his fear returning, and hissed in warning, flashing his pointed teeth that were perfect for tearing into flesh.

Levi held his hands up in a peaceful gesture and took another hesitant step forward. Eren tensed, ready to dive into the ocean at the first sign of hostility. He knew he should have dove in the second he heard the woman's voice. But curiosity had gotten the better of him. Plus, despite the man's stong and commanding presence, he seemed gentle and kind.

"Eren, I thought you followed...me..." Armin's sentence trailed off as he peeked over the rock.

Levi froze his advance. He was only standing about seven feet from Eren.

Eren, his protective instincts taking over, grabbed his friend by the arm and dove into the ocean, ignoring the human's plea to wait.

Eren opened his gills, feeling the water rush into them as he swam heard and fast away from the surface and away from the man with the steely gaze.