Swimming Lessons

Pairing: RiRen (Rivaille x Eren)

[ Notes ]: Eren with an attitude? Rivaille with a rule-breaking streak? Humorous crack, maybe? Oh, definitely.

As for me? I think I'm reading too much SnK/Rivaille x Eren/moe!Eren/submissive!Eren comics for my own good, otl. I think I'm just as crazy as the fandom, really. Nevertheless, enjoy, and please leave a review for me! ;)

And last but not least, I am not a professional swimmer or instructor, so my knowledge may not be accurate. Therefore, no arguments or things should be pointed out. Thank you. :3

Swimming Lessons with Rivaille

"Corporal," Eren sulked to himself, clad in red swimming trunks; his reflection imitating the same sullen expression scrawled on his face. "Can we just not do this?"

All he received was a very forceful and intimidating, "Don't give me that, you brat" as he brought his right hand up over his eyes, shielding himself from the blistering sun that seemed to be keen in being just a tad bit hotter than usual. The summer heat really was unbearable, but as he looked around, the others seemed to have no qualms with the heat.

"Cannon ball!"

Eren heard from not too far off, and as he looked towards the left side, he found himself victim to a small wave of water that splashes him from head-to-toe, hearing a whistle sound a second later.

"No cannon balls on the three feet side of the pool!" He heard the lifeguard call out, and on that cue, a medium-sized blue blur appeared under the pool surface, making its way towards Eren, who stood directly at the 5-feet point of the pool. Connie's head popped out a second later, a grin sprawled out on his lips as the male spit some pool water.

"Hey, Eren, you're not gonna get in?" Connie grinned widely, soon getting into backwards prone position, water inflating his swimming trunks. "The water's great, you know."

"No, thanks." Eren murmured, more to himself. "I don't really feel like swimming today.

"Right, that's the reason." From behind him, Jean gave a haughty smirk as he walked towards Eren and towered over the brunet. "I bet that you're just scared, aren't you?"

Eren clenched his fists. "I'm not scared of anything."

"'Course you are," Jean taunted. "You're scared of the deep, deep, deep water."

"Why would Eren be scared of water?" Sasha came in from the side—really, Eren didn't know why they were coming in at this point—clad in a bikini, with her mouth stuffed with a piece of bread, her voice muffled. "Unless," Her eyes then widened as she stared from Eren to Jean and back before pointing accusingly at Eren. "You don't know how to swim!"

Though her words were barely audible, the accusation was hit spot-on as Eren reddened slightly, the tip of his ears effectively turning pink as well, making him look more sun-burned than anyone at the pool. Sasha's words indeed caused a round of laughter from both Jean and Connie, to which Eren pointed a glare towards. Meanwhile, Armin swam towards the group with Mikasa in tow, both having come from the 12-feet end, the deepest depth of the public swimming pool.

"Then, do it." Jean smirked—and few could only guess that he might have been trying to look cool in front of Mikasa—while he pointed towards the water. "Go right ahead and jump in."

Eren snarled as he glanced the water from underneath him, the same scowling expression reflected. The water didn't look too bad, he thought; it was rather pretty and beautiful that it seemed unbelievable that he should even be afraid of swimming in it.

It'd be just like taking a bath. Eren decided to himself as he took a deep breath and jumped forward.

Yeah, that's it.

He coughed harshly as he slumped over the ground, the cement flooring feeling cool but a little hot to his touch. His lungs were burning from being attacked and flooded with the chlorine-infested pool water. The last thing he could remember was taking Jean's challenge of jumping into the pool and that was it, because He was still busy gagging from his lungs being attacked by that he barely noticed the shadow of a man looming over him. However, the rounding kick to the right of his abdomen he received not a minute later forced him to tumble over on his back, the sun beating down on him next.

"What the—" Eren winced, as he tried to peer his eyes open. Beads of water from his hair dripped onto his forehead, lightly making him flinch as he looked over to his side. "Sheesh, Corporal! What was that for?!"

The man kneeled beside him, his sunken eyes looking more darkened with his back against the sun. He reached out his hand towards Eren's head and—

SMACK!

Eren yelped, rubbing at his forehead over the spot where Rivaille had smacked him. He shot the older man a glare, teeth bared with a scowl. "Quit hitting me!"

"I hit idiots who don't know how to swim."

Rivaille stared him down, expression speaking more volumes than his words.

Despite his scowl, Eren flushed back in embarrassment. He tried not to put his attention on the bare-chested man , clad in forest-green swimming trunks, looming over him or even realize that his superior was dripping wet in a way that shouldn't even be the least bit enthralling to him.

"I was going trying to teach myself how to swim." Eren muttered, diverting his eyes away from the man, who had fully stood up and away from him by this time.

"By drowning."

"Yes, by drowning first."

Even with his indifferent expression, Eren could tell that Rivaille wasn't the least bit amused.

In fact, Rivaille said not another word before he grabbed Eren by the arm and began to drag him towards the 3-feet end of the pool. Struggling to follow Rivaille in tow, Eren could see the others—Mikasa, Armin, and such—on the other opposite side of the rectangular pool, swimming happily along and having fun without him. It bummed him down a little that he couldn't join in with them, but that realization alone forced him to remember why exactly Rivaille was dragging him along in the first place.

"Alright, get in the water."

Before Eren knew it, he found himself kicked into the pool, the surface of the water slapping him right in the face. He heard the sharp blast of a whistle not too far off and a distant yell of 'No kicking or shoving people into the pool!' but he knew that Rivaille wouldn't give a damn about that. The water got into his mouth before long and he gurgled at the in-stream and loss of air that he hurriedly tried to resurface back, momentarily forgetting to stretch his legs out and push himself up.

Eren gasped as he spit out the water from his mouth, flailing his arms around with his eyes shut. "H-Hey, Corporal! Help!"

"You're an even bigger idiot than I thought, Eren. Just stand up, brat."

Duh. Eren wanted to smack at himself as he moved his feet down to the pool floor, feeling the tiles under the soles of his feet. Now calm, he looked up and was expectedly met with the sight of a glare before him, so much irritation and annoyance held in the eyes of his superior.

"You're not supposed to kick people into the water like that, sir." Eren scowled between gritted teeth as he challenged the other with a glare of his own. However, that glare couldn't even hold a candle against the stare-down that Rivaille held towards him, the man's expression once again louder than words.

"Well, idiots should know that they're taller than 3-feet." Rivaille crossed his arms, looking as unimpressed as ever.

"Why do you have to be the one teaching me how to swim?" Eren mumbled to himself as he huffed and glared at the water. Though, he was glad Rivaille didn't hear it, as the man always had a weird knack for catching the things that wasn't supposed to be heard.

However, his assumption proved wrong when Eren felt himself pulled up by his arms above the water for a moment and thrown back in just a little farther than the pool's edge.

Along with the distinct "No throwing people into the pool!" that he heard—by this time, Eren was sure that Rivaille was certainly one of those people that deserved those pool time-outs—he could hear the faint sound of Rivaille clicking his teeth and the man's next words.

"Apparently, I'm in charge of handling the special cases."

"Float."

"Why?"

"Do you know how to float?" Rivaille said, with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

"Kinda." Eren ducked his head down a bit, avoiding the other's eyes.

"Then float."

Hearing the warning in the man's voice, Eren gritted his teeth together as he looked behind him, reminding himself that he was in 3-feet area so he could surely catch himself—and if he didn't, then there was the lifeguard, since he was sure that Rivaille would ignore him. With a deep breath, he lifted his feet off the floor, feeling himself sink lower and lower and the water rising higher. Once the water lined up with his neck, Eren's eyes flew open as he quickly brought his feet back down to the floor, pushing himself up to stand above the water once again.

"You don't know how to float." Rivaille's tone was sharp and blunt.

"Yeah, well, what is floating anyways?" Eren defended. "Who needs to know how to float?"

The look Eren received was just as sharp, and when Eren had expected for the man to attack him with another string of insults, it shocked him to feel the water slur against him and find that Rivaille had gotten into the water, swimming to his side. Once Rivaille had stood close enough in front of him, Eren had to definitely control himself from mentioning the noticeable difference in height between him and Rivaille, finding the man a good ten centimeters shorter.

"Alright, fall into my arms."

"Huh?!"

"Say Eren," Rivaille began. "For someone who doesn't know how to swim, you've got guts to think it's your right to complain against the person who's teaching you." And Eren felt himself shrink back a bit from the intense and definitely un-amused look that he was getting from the man. "Get a clue, brat. This is how most people teach kids how to float, so fall."

He didn't need to be told another time, as Eren immediately turned around. With a silent countdown to ten, Eren took another deep breath as he forced himself to fall back. He felt Rivaille's hand underneath him, holding his body up and lightly grazing him. For a moment, Eren felt himself relaxed in the water, the sun actually hidden by clouds and not pouring down intense sunlight onto him.

"Hey, get over yourself. I'm not carrying you the whole time." Rivaille spoke, looking down at Eren for the umpteenth time. "Straighten yourself and float now." It came as an order.

Doing as told, Eren straightened himself out while still being held up by Rivaille, not quite sure understanding what the man meant. He felt himself still 'floating' in the water, only barely feeling Rivaille's hands underneath him, so he thought that he must be floating.

—that is, until he actually felt Rivaille's hands no longer supporting him up, to which he promptly found himself submerged underwater not too long after.

When Eren got back on his feet and resurfaced from the water, he shook as he shivered from the unexpected cold, thoroughly damp once again. "What was that for?!" Eren scowled.

Rivaille simply crossed his arms. "You were supposed to float." His tone rather blunt and indifferent, to which Eren's 'But I didn't!' was largely ignored. "This kind of stuff is for kids, Eren. You may be a brat, but you're not a kid." Rivaille finished. "So get on your back again and start floating."

"But—!"

"I said float."

Eren grumbled as he held onto the poolside and began repeatedly kicking his legs in the water.

It seemed that, by the time he began to master the art of floating, the others had all gotten lunch already without him. Eren continued to grumble as he felt his stomach gurgle from being empty.

He eyed Rivaille, who was now sitting on a swimming pool lawn chair underneath an umbrella.

"Corporal, can I stop doing this now?"

"No. Give me another one hundred kicks now."

Eren groaned, as he completely ignored Rivaille's order and just let himself fall into his back to drift on the water's surface. It felt nice to float; it was such a serene feeling to laze around as if it were like flying.

However, this reverie was short-lived as Eren eventually bumped his head against the wall of the poolside and soon found a shadowed figure hovering over him. It didn't take him long to realize that it was an irritated Rivaille, and that, as soon as Eren cracked his eyes open, that the man was holding a red buoy ring in his hands and over him.

"Say Eren, you've got some nerve ignoring my orders."

For the umpteenth time that day, Eren found himself submerged underwater, and yet again hearing the faint blow of a whistle along with a lifeguard's cry of "No dropping the buoy rings onto other people!"

"I don't want to do this." Eren huffed with a glare at Rivaille, who simply remained undeterred.

"Oh, sorry. I thought you wanted to know how to swim." With Rivaille's usual expression, Eren couldn't tell if the man was being sarcastic or not. But Eren had to bet it was most likely the former, since it did spite him enough to continue.

Bringing his arms alternatively in-and-out of the water, Eren clicked his teeth. "When am I actually going to start swimming, Corporal?" His tone sounded like he was annoyed. It was true at the least; for a long time, he's been practicing basic arm strokes without moving in place.

"Get the basics down first."

That was all Rivaille had answered, but Eren wouldn't have none of that, especially having been under his 'swimming instruction' for about three or four hours, and not having successfully and completely swam yet.

"But Corporal, I think I've had enough of this."

"Shut up and do it, brat."

"Start swimming."

Eren furrowed his eyebrows together, shooting the man an incredulous look. "You're allowing me to actually swim?"

The look he received back was on a whole other level than his own, as Rivaille crossed his arms and stood at the edge of the pool.

"Say Eren, when did you get the guts to actually talk back to me?"

Remembering the numerous times during this day that he did talk back to Rivaille, Eren clamped his mouth shut, effectively barring him from speaking for now. Instead, Eren pointed out towards the rest of the pool.

It felt like an extreme rush to feel himself push off against the poolside's wall and glide through the water, his feet no longer touching the floor but instead repeatedly kicking together to keep him above water. Even if he wasn't the best at swimming so far, it felt nice to know how nice it felt to actually swim.

"Eren!"

In front of him, Armin waved him towards them, sitting on the pool edge with Mikasa swimming nearby. Eren gave a proud grin before swimming towards the two, but just a bit uneasily for a moment.

"You know how to swim!" Armin's eyes lit up brightly as Eren neared them. "Do you have the hang of it now?"

"Kinda." Eren nodded, as he rubbed at the back of his neck. "But I'm still trying to get used to it."

"Well, it just takes practice." Armin said. "By then, you'll be able to swim on the 12-feet end of the pool. Have you tried swimming in the 5-feet part yet?"

Eren scrunched his face a bit. "A little. I've been bordering between 3-feet and 5-feet for a bit, and it doesn't look that hard, so—"

"Eren."

Rivaille had called out, and when Eren looked back behind him, he found Rivaille gesturing for him to return back. With a curt nod to Armin, Eren swam back to where Rivaille stood, eyeing the other man suspiciously. After all, if Rivaille called for him back, then everything wasn't done just yet.

"Yes, Corporal?" Eren then dipped himself a little underneath the water as soon as he got near.

"That's enough for now."

Eren perked up slightly at that. "What do you mean?"

Rivaille stood straight, arms crossed over his chest as he urged Eren out of the water. "Get out of the water. It's enough for now."

Blinking, Eren did as told, and once he got out of the water, he cringed. He rubbed his hands on his arms, feeling the muscles ache slightly. Rivaille tossed him a towel, which Eren had taken and began wiping down his body. However, he was still curious.

"So we're done for today, Corporal?" Eren asked, as he trailed after Rivaille, who had already started walking down the side of the pool. As he walked, Eren noticed that not a lot of people occupied the deep, 12-feet end of the pool. Nevertheless, Eren continued to chirp happily. "Well, that's too bad! I was cause kinda looking forward to taking on the 5-feet some more, maybe even the 12-feet too! But I guess we'll save that for next time, since we're done for now, right, Corporal?"

"We're not done."

"We're not?" Eren repeated, and after a while, he noticed that the two of them had stopped, particularly next to the 12-feet deep end of the pool, just a few steps away from reaching the exit.

In front of him, Rivaille had his arms crossed once again, as he stared at Eren.

"What do you mean we're not done, sir?" Eren blinked. "Are we taking a break and going back to the 5-feet part later?"

"We're skipping the 5-feet." Rivaille answered. "It's pretty much the same as the 3-feet, and we don't need that." He then pointed towards the water. "Get in the water."

Eren backed up a bit, several shivers running through him at the thought of what Rivaille was implying. Getting a glimpse of the 12-feet end, electric shocks and shudders continued on when he saw that he couldn't see the feet of the people who were currently swimming at this end as well as the deep, deep blue.

"You're not telling me to go and swim in the 12-feet deep water, are you, sir?"

All he received was a rounding kick to his side as the Rivaille replied, "I don't know. You tell me."

And once again, Eren felt that same slap against water and found himself underwater. This time, however, witnessing a more deeper, eerier blue shade, as he heard the distinct whistle sound off and the same cry of "No kicking or shoving people into the pool!" just before blacking out.

"Eren! Oh, Eren!"

Eren stirred a bit, his eyes opening to the sun beating another batch of sunlight against him. His head was aching, pain pounding wildly against his skull as he could only see nothing but spots of different colors in his line of vision for a moment.

"Yoohoo! Eren, over here!"

Lolling his head to his left, Eren was then met with the sight of Hanji, idly floating and lying on a swimming ring, between fluttered eyes. She was waving towards him, lips pulled out into a grin.

"Back to Earth now, Eren?"

"Guh," Eren gripped at his head as he tried to sit up. However, the pain still not cease—though it did ease down slightly—and he found himself coughing a bit.

Looking back at Hanji, Eren's lips drew into a thin line, "What happened?"

"Hm?" Hanji blinked. "Oh, you drowned." Then she blinked again. "Well, not really. You blacked out after Rivaille kicked you into the 12-feet deep part of the pool."

Oh, yeah. Eren sulked to himself as he looked around. Armin and the others were still in the middle of the pool, the 5-feet middle, Hanji was chilling on a swimming ring in the 12-feet area, and Rivaille—

Eren blinked in bewilderment and shock. He couldn't help it, really.

Near the lifeguard's station, there lived a small open-boxed, caged area with a sign that read 'time-out,' and in that little prison was Rivaille, humanity's strongest soldier, sitting with one leg crossed over the other. His arms were crossed as well, and his expression seemed blunt and un-moved, but Eren could tell that the man was annoyed. Beside the 'time-out' sign hung a small sign that read '30 minutes' and Eren didn't want to dive in further into that thought.

Beside him, right by the poolside, Hanji snickered. "Funny, isn't? It kinda serves him right." She turned towards Eren with a wink. "I mean, he's breaking rules left and right the entire time. While you were unconscious, the lifeguard finally snapped and demanded that Rivaille get into the time-out box."

It looked like she was about to burst out laughing, but she held it in, and Eren could only suspect that Rivaille was looking towards them. "'Course Rivaille refused, but I guess the lifeguard pretty much lost his insanity, because the guy almost broke down into tears begging Rivaille to stop breaking the rules and just accept the time-out!" Her will broke and she laughed like crazy.

Eren, however, could only huff. "Well, it serves him right. Sure, he thought me to swim, but he's been hounding on me the whole time." With a scowl, Eren then clicked his teeth. "He didn't nothing but torture me."

"Oh? What are you saying, Eren?" From between her laughs, Hanji peeked at Eren. "It was obvious that Rivaille did care about you."

She then snickered once more.

"After all, he was the one who gave you mouth-to-mouth both times you drowned!"

Fin.

[ notes ]:

Oh, gosh. What is this crack. Anyways, here's a confession: the part where Eren started swimming was where I started getting lazy, so you can tell it's a little OOC and written so…meh. Aside from that, I hope you enjoyed it and I would very much hope that you review! :)

On another note, I completely butchered Rivaille this time. Dx I'm sorry. More SnK fics will be coming, by the way!

I'm planning for pairings like…JeanxMarco, JeanxMikasa, YmirxChrista…

It'll come soon!