Chapter Text
The sea. A body of water so big, people could spend lifetimes and never get all the salt out. The calm, the restlessness, the flowing, pushing and pulling of the dark blue waves, the creatures that swam through the depths…they were all reasons why he loved the sea. It was always so calming, so beautiful to look at. He breathed and the humid salty air filled him with calm and focus. He reached his hand out and the water rippled around it, gently enveloping him with its warm, comforting embrace. He listened, and he could hear nothing but the softly rolling water lapping at the sides of his boat and the interspersed call of a gull. He could taste the sea on his tongue when he wasn’t there, the distant essence of salt and damp air beckoning him to return to the place he longed to be. It never mattered how bad of a day he had had, or what kind of mood he was in: the moment he set himself out to sea and dropped anchor, Armin was in paradise. He always, without a doubt, felt most comfortable on the waves.
Armin pulled his hair back into a small bun before pulling his camera out of its case, hooking the strap around his neck. He peeked over the side of his boat, looking to see if the fish had returned yet with the water calming from the jostle of the heavy anchor that had been dropped moments before. Spotting a small school of fish passing by, he deemed it safe to start setting up for today’s photos. Armin stood up gently and padded barefoot across the deck of the Titan to the jumping platform and short ladder at the stern. Smiling as the breeze brushed through his hair, he gently kneeled down on the platform, dipping his legs into the warm water and kicking softly.
Documenting the wildlife in the water surrounding Shiganshina was one of his favorite pastimes. Always present were the more common species, but sometimes he would find some seahorses bobbing around away from the reef or starfish climbing rocks to seemiongly catch some sun, and one time even an albino manta ray almost the size of the boat! Ever since he got his first underwater camera for his sixteenth birthday, he took pictures of everything he saw. After every outing he would race home to plug the small SD card into the computer and scour each individual picture, editing and saving them all. The ones that were fitting for the theme of next month’s issue of Oceanic Wildlife Monthly would be sent off in an email attachment and, with any luck, Armin would get paid in the next few days for the pictures.
The real winners (at least in his opinion) were printed off at the local print shop, and given a place of honor in his office: the largest room in his home, covered in all the best photos of the most interesting and beautiful wildlife he could capture. The multi-wall collage featured almost every animal he has ever seen in these waters, and slowly was beginning to come to completion. Three of the four were finished, with one large picture at the center of each wall, the most recent of which being that gorgeous albino ray. While it took years to fill those walls, the last one has seemingly taken even longer. Something about the last spots open really made him think about what could possibly be special enough to place at the center in the large, golden colored frame. That was really what his heart was after, wasn't it? To fill those walls with all the beautiful creatures he could find! This last piece felt...final. It had been his heart's want for so long. Years he has spent searching out creatures and admiring their beauty, researching how they live and move, loving how they did any little thing. How would he ever choose what goes in the crowning center of that room? What could even be the most special thing in the sea?
Out of the corner of his eye, Armin spotted a flourish in the water, bringing him out of his train of thought. Floating through the water was a translucent pink and white blob, which caused Armin to jolt upright in excitement, "A barrel jellyfish!" he said in elation, leaning closer to get a good look at it. There didn’t seem to be any others around, and he hadn’t gotten a good picture of a barrel jelly yet! Readying his camera and sliding his goggles down into place, he plunged himself into the water. He swam, kicking himself underneath the jellyfish, and snapped a few underwater pictures of the little beast. He admired its tendrils, splaying and clenching, moving its little body through the water. It took a few tries, but soon he had the perfect shot, the pink and white jellyfish spread majestically against the blue sky above, as if flying freely in the air. Emerging from the warm water, he shook the few loose strands of hair away from his face and paddled himself back to the boat. The deck rocked slowly as he hoisted himself back onboard and checked over his pictures, smiling at the brilliance: the framing of the sun making the skin appear more iridescent and vibrant. His smile widened as he resumed his position at the stairs of his boat, searching for more specimens.
~
There he was again, just like almost every other day. Anchor dropped, hooked on one of the larger boulders at the bottom of the ocean, the gentle bobbing of the big floating transportation device allowed Jean to track the blonde haired human across the top from below. It was like this almost. Every. Day. When the sun began its descent, he could almost always expect to hear the distant puttering of that vessel and find it rolling in just to stop and drop anchor near the reef.
He couldn’t really put his finger on when this had begun. A year ago maybe? Maybe longer? It seemed so fresh in his mind, that first day he stumbled upon this human plunging himself into the water with that strange device. It had been a day like almost any other, Jean swimming around and checking in on a slow moving pod of dolphins, when he noticed a chain leading from the bottom to the surface. Looking up, he first saw that large unsteady mass, and a smaller turtle making its way underneath. He raised an eyebrow in suspicion, as those from above that trap fish normally venture a bit further out. The waves in this area weren’t high enough for those that ride on boards, and the presence of vessel-sinking rocks tended to keep swimmers and the like out of this space. Jean withdrew behind one such rock and slowly started to make his way to the surface to get a good look at the situation, before there was a rather big splash not too far from the turtle. Jean felt pure fear jolt in his heart for that little turtle, and quickly readied to speed over and attempt to free it from whatever net was just tossed- but there was none. Instead, soft, flowing blonde hair and bright blue eyes accompanied a smiling face. This person was under the water for mere moments, pointing his machine at the turtle, to capture it? To stab it? He should get ready to dart- and then he submerged himself back into the air above. This was…troubling. Not for the turtle, who was unfased and kept swimming on. Everything seemed alright and unharmed. There was seemingly no danger from the blonde human at all. The troubling part was...
Did Jean just see an angel?
That first visual…the blonde suspended, his hair flowing around his head, that beautiful way his lips turned upward as he used that strange item…that image has been etched into his mind for eternity. The most stunning thing he had ever laid eyes on.
Jean started coming back to that spot regularly, watching as the one from above would jump off the mass or shove his machine into the water and press that button while perched like a bird over the side. He was just…so interesting and quiet and graceful. It became a habit faster than he’d like to admit. As the sun began to descend, he would make his way to the clearing and watch his angel arrive. He even peaked above the water level and watched him work on the platform of his vessel. He would watch as his fingers moved around on the complex pieces of his instrument, as he would put his hair up and concentrate hard on the task at hand. Other times he would make sure to steady the human's floating platform from underneath when particularly large waves would threaten to destabilize it. He would watch him the same way his angel watched the wildlife pass by.
To say that he enjoyed the time he spent watching this particular human would be an understatement. He waited anxiously for it. Listened for it, his ears always perked to catch the distant rumble. The outside world had always harnessed this…majesty about it. Each new thing that he was able to see would always spark this deep, instinctive ping in his gut, like he was discovering a new world. He would pick up found objects off of the ocean floor if he saw them fall, and thoroughly inspect them, trying to decipher how they worked, messing with the gadgets. Only after he had spent too long playing with the object and exhausted its capabilities did he bring it to the surface, set it on a nearby rock to hopefully be found by the owner, and return to his wanderings in the deep. The sheer amount of excitement he obtained from doing this was enough to satisfy his hunger for the above…
Or was it? Each time this blonde boy showed up and used his device in the water, he wanted more. He wanted to look at that device, study the large platform he floated on, see the intricacies of the items he kept on board, feel his clothing and see how it was made. He wanted to see him up close, feel his hair, understand how he swam with no tail…and with each visit that pit in his stomach grew bigger…what was that feeling called?
Yearning.
And as he watched his angel leave for the day, he realized he loved that feeling.