#scouting legion

He turns back to where Levi is lying on a beach towel underneath an umbrella. Unlike everyone else, Levi doesn’t seem to be enjoying the sunshine. Even though he’s beneath the umbrella’s protective shade, he wears sunglasses and a straw hat with a large brim. He’s covered himself with a thick layer of sunscreen, the white cream still visible on his skin because he hasn’t bothered to rub it in, believing that anything less would never be able to protect him from the sun’s rays. On Levi’s face is his ever-present frown.  

“Levi, why don’t you come out from under there? Don’t you want to enjoy the sunshine like everyone else?” Erwin calls, but Levi just scowls in response.  

“And be burnt to a crisp? No thanks,” Levi says. He curls up his legs so that they’re further away from the sun even though he’s well-covered by the shade already.  

“Oh, ignore him. He’s always such a party-pooper,” Hanji says. They pop up from behind Erwin with a grin on their face. They hold something behind their back but proudly present it to Erwin. “Look at this, Erwin! Have you ever seen anything so magnificent? It washed up on the shore.”  

Erwin isn’t sure he’d call it magnificent. It seems to be a crustacean of some kind, dark with a shell in a half-dome and an odd tail that looks like a stinger. It looks interesting, Erwin will admit, but it also looks like it could be dangerous if not handled with care. Its strange appearance must be why Moblit is breathless when he catches up with Hanji, a panicked expression on his face. 

“Hanji, put that down! We don’t know what that is!” Moblit looks torn between risking his life to wrench the potentially dangerous animal from Hanji’s hands or preserving his own safety. 

“That’s a horseshoe crab! They’re harmless!” Armin Arlert calls from the shoreline. He’s ankle-deep in the ocean where he had been admiring the seafoam that comes and goes as the tide pulls in and out of the shore, but now he’s turned towards Hanji and company with his hands cupped around his mouth so that they can hear him better. “They’re harmless, but you should return it to the ocean! It probably got lost on the sand. You can just make sure it’s facing the sea and it’ll find its way back!” 

“Alright! I’ll listen to you, Mr. Marine Biology Minor,” Hanji says with a laugh and Armin turns pink at the mention of his old undergraduate studies. Hanji kneels and places the crab facing the sand just as Armin had advised and gives it a few encouraging words before it leaves. “Go on, Moblit. Go and explore the ocean just as you were meant to do. The whole ocean is waiting for you.”  

“Why’d you name it after me?” Moblit squawks.  

As the trio watch the horseshoe crab into the ocean, other members of their party are splashing about and having their own fun in the water.  

“Mikasa, watch this!” Jean calls as he whizzes past on one of the jet skis that their group had rented earlier. It had taken some time for him to get used to riding it, learning how to keep his balance while still looking cool as he rode it, but he finds that he’s taken to it pretty quickly. He’s pretty proud of himself.  

“Too slow, Kirstein!” Eren cackles as he zooms past on his own jet ski. He’s too busy laughing to notice that he’s riding towards an oncoming wave and he doesn’t navigate himself in time to avoid it. He crashes into it and it sends him flying off the jet ski and into the water. 

Jean chuckles as he rides to where Eren had fell into the water. He’s smirking as he looks down at Eren who’s clambering to the side of Jean’s jet ski so he can catch his breath.  

“Slow and steady wins the race, Jaeger,” Jean says. 

Eren had been sputtering and coughing out water, but Jean’s mocking tone is enough to make him forget that he still has water in his lungs. Without warning, he clamps a hand around his friend’s ankle and drags Jean into the water screaming.  

“Should we be worried about them?” Sasha asks as she watches Jean and Eren fighting to dunk each others’ heads in the water. She yelps when a stream of water from Connie’s water gun hits her neck.  

“Nah, they’re fine,” Connie says with a laugh. He hops around from foot to foot, not standing in one place so that it’s more difficult for Sasha to get him back. He gives Sasha a wide grin. “Both of them could swim. If Eren were in any real trouble, Mikasa would have dragged him out of the water and given him CPR by now.”  

Mikasa is lying on her stomach on a surfboard as she waits for a decent wave to ride on. She’s gone surfboarding a handful of times and had even taken a class with the rest of the girls during one of their previous beach outings. Unlike the rest of them, Mikasa had taken to the surfboard easily. Getting back on one was like riding a bike for her.  

She observes the waves of the ocean, comparing the size of the ones out in the distance to the ones closer to her. Slowly, she drifts out to the sea where the larger waves are and when the perfect one comes, she stands up on her board and takes the proper stance. The ocean wave curls up and Mikasa seems to disappear behind the tunnel of water. Jean and Eren have ceased their fighting to watch her with wide eyes. Mikasa’s small audience watches as the wave reaches its height and then falls in on itself. Everyone holds their breath as the end of the tunnel begins to close ... and then Mikasa appears riding easily out of the wave looking just like a model on the cover of a sports magazine. 

Her stance relaxes on the board as she rides the rest of the wave to shore where she meets a beaming Armin. 

“That was amazing!” Armin gushes. His hands are clenched into fists as if he’s trying to contain his excitement. “There really isn’t anything you can’t do.”  

Mikasa laughs at Armin’s compliments and stands up in the water, tucking her board under her arm. She tucks a lock of wet hair behind her ear. “Did you want to learn?” 

“O-oh, I’m not sure I’d be any good at it,” Armin says. He looks down at his bare feet in the sand, suddenly bashful.  

“Come on, I can teach you,” Mikasa says. She extends a hand towards him and Armin takes it with a smile. 

Historia, Ymir, Reiner, and Bertholdt have set up a volleyball game in the sand. It was meant to be a casual game  — more volleying back and forth across the net than an actual competition — but Ymir and Reiner enjoy winning too much to just play without keeping score.  

With a wide grin, Ymir jumps towards the net and spikes the ball towards Bertholdt’s feet. Bertholdt, too mild-tempered to really understand aggressive competition, yelps in alarm after nearly being hit. Sand comes flying from the impact of the volleyball. Some of it even gets into Bertholdt’s mouth and he splutters as he tries to get as much of it out of his mouth as possible. Ymir cackles at the sight of him, sparing her opponent no pity. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll avenge you, Bertholdt,” Reiner says without even glancing at his teammate. He’s picked up the volleyball that Ymir hit so hard it had partially burrowed itself into the sand instead of bouncing back up. He jogs to the end of the court, a grin on his face that’s as wicked as Ymir’s. “Get ready to get your ass absolutely obliterated, Ymir.” 

“Can’t we just play a normal game? You’re scaring Bertholdt,” Historia complains, gesturing to Bertholdt who’s still trying to get sand out of his mouth. Just as Historia had said, he looks absolutely miserable.  

“It’ll be over in a minute. It’s a game of life or death now, and we can’t just stop in the middle of it,” Ymir says. She takes a defensive stance and her eyes are plastered on the ball as she waits for Reiner to serve. 

Historia sighs. She doesn’t move from her spot even when Reiner serves in her direction. She doesn’t have to move a muscle to protect her side of the court because Ymir has her covered even though Historia should be the one defending the front half of the court. Rather than help Ymir protect their side, Historia walks over to Bertholdt and holds out a hand to him. 

“Come on, Bertholdt. Let’s just let these losers duke it out themselves,” she tells him.  

Bertholdt takes Historia’s hand gratefully and lets her lead him away from the volleyball court until they’re a safe distance away to observe without worrying about being pelted by sand or volleyballs.  

Pieck sits in a beach chair with a smile on her face as she observes the intense volleyball match taking place in the distance. Unlike Levi, she doesn’t feel the need to hide beneath the shadow of an umbrella, choosing to let the sun kiss her skin as she bathes in its light. Although she wears a serene expression on her face, Porco doesn’t look as if he enjoys lounging in the sun as much as evidenced by the sour expression on his face. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to do anything else? I don’t really see how this is any different from what you do at home. Isn’t it just lying around?” Porco asks with a frown. 

Pieck stretches, yawning sleepily. “I’m usually indoors. Lounging around outside is a completely different experience, and lounging around in the sun on the beach is especially enjoyable,” Pieck purrs contentedly. She turns her head, lowering her sunglasses to look at Porco. “If you don’t want to sunbathe, go ahead and do something else. I’m not stopping you.”  

Porco pouts, mumbling, “I want to hang out with you.” 

Pieck smiles endearingly at Porco. She slides her sunglasses back up the bridge of her nose before reaching out to ruffle Porco’s hair, messing up his meticulously gelled hairdo. She smiles even wider when she sees that he’s scowling at her. “So cute,” she coos. 

Auruo is fishing on the rocks near the shore with no luck aside from the occasional small fry that he tosses into his fish bucket with a scowl. Every time he fishes up a new catch — usually no larger eight or nine inches at most — Petra snickers at him. Each time she lets out a giggle, Auruo finds his temper rising even more. When he finally reaches his breaking point, he stands up from his fishing spot abruptly so that he can tower above Petra and glower at her. 

“Is this really so funny to you? I’m catching more fish than you are, Petra!” Auruo says. He puffs his chest out with bravado, but Petra only lets out another scoff.  

“It’s quality over quantity, and all the fish I’ve caught are much larger than yours,” Petra laughs.  

Auruo is about to make a snarky comment to defend himself, but one of his poles jostles and he rushes over to attend to it. He shouts excitedly when he tugs at his pole. Whatever is at the other end feels substantially stronger than anything Auruo has caught today. He knows if he tugs too hard the line will break, so he does his best to be patient and tries to reel it in gently. Oddly, the closer his catch is to the surface, the less it struggles. 

“I’ve got an absolutely massive catch on the other end. It’s going to be enough to feed the entire group!” Auruo says gleefully. He gives his pole one last tug before his catch surfaces ... only to find Eld holding onto the other side.  

Eld removes his snorkel, one hand still holding onto the end of Auruo’s line. He shakes some water off before he speaks. “You got this hooked on one of my flippers. I had to get it out, but you kept dragging me up.”  

“Goddammit,” Auruo curses as Petra breaks into a fit of giggles. 

Gunther surfaces from the ocean next to Eld. Like Eld, he had also been scuba diving. In his hands is a lobster, which he had picked up off the ocean floor when he had been exploring. He adds it to one of the buckets filled with the shellfish and Eld had managed to gather during their ocean dives. They have an impressive two buckets filled, almost three, while Auruo’s isn’t even half-filled. 

“You don’t have to catch anymore, you guys,” Petra says, a giggle or two escaping her lips as she speaks. “Auruo says he’s going to feed the entire group with all the fish he’s caught.”  

Eld glances at Auruo’s half-empty bucket, a doubtful frown on his face. “With that? Auruo, that could barely feed a child.”  

His comment sends Petra into another fit of laughter and Auruo snatches the bucket away in anger. 

“You’re going to starve!” Eld calls after him, and it only makes Auruo hug the bucket against his chest even harder. 

Niccolo is busy preparing dinner for everyone. He’s enlisted the help of Mike and Nanaba. He had expected them to be helpful, at least more helpful than when he asks Connie and Sasha for help. To be fair, Nanaba has been a wonderful assistant in the kitchen, taking care of all the tasks he asks of her and showing adept cooking knowledge. Surprisingly, it’s Mike that’s the problem.  

“He eats as much as Sasha. I didn’t think there would ever be someone who eats as much as her, but he could give her a run for her money,” Niccolo mutters. He’s had to resort to keeping all the finished dishes on his side of the kitchen and delegating only the preparation tasks to Mike, who doesn’t seem to enjoy raw ingredients as much as the final cooked product.  

“The guy’s a giant. Of course, he has to eat,” Nanaba says with a laugh. 

“At this rate, I’m not sure we’ll have enough food for everyone,” Niccolo grumbles even though he has a habit of cooking too much food. There’s never been a meal that Niccolo has prepared where there weren’t leftovers, and that’s after everyone has eaten their fill twice over.  

“You should take it as a compliment,” Mike says from where he’s chopping vegetables. “I love a good scent, and your food smells amazing. I can’t be satisfied until I get a bite of your food, and it tastes as good as it smells. Everyone is going to lick their plates clean.”  

“You’re taking far more than a bite,” Niccolo mumbles, but the tips of his ears turn red at Mike’s compliment. 

When dinnertime comes, everyone is ravenous and they eat until their stomachs are full to bursting. Still, there is food leftover and Niccolo and Nanaba pack it with care so that everyone can have some leftovers for breakfast tomorrow morning.