Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

When I look back on it now; the time I spent on that damn cruise ship was probably one of the best summer holidays I’ve ever had. It wasn’t good just because of the drinks and the food, or even the time I spent lazing in the sun like any other person. Hell, exploring other cities and towns wasn’t even enough to steal the limelight. No, it was downright awesome only because I met someone special. It’s quite ironic to me now how much my summer holiday sounded like that movie, Titanic. I mean, the sex was even as steamy as theirs! Maybe even hotter, if I do say so myself! Thank god it didn’t end like that either. Instead, it lead me to a much better future.

I’m not much of a sappy romantic. Generally I leave that off to the person you’ll soon enough meet. But, I do know when to admit that I met someone who changed everything within a single month of knowing them. Even now, months later from these events I'm about to share. As I laze around my room instead of studying, I can’t stop myself from dreaming back to the most unforgettable trip of my life...

I guess I should start where it all began. At the end of the school year, just after my group of friends and I graduated high school at the end of November, we decided that instead of going to the ultimate and crazy as ever schoolies that Australians always boasts about, we’d do something crazy on our own.

Now, to all you idiots who aren’t from Australia: Schoolies is this thing that happens at the end of your high school life. Like... right after your exams. It’s a week away from everything. Normally the school or region (or what the fuck, state?) has a special area where they all gather and drink themselves sick.

Fun? Sure, if you like hangovers. Memorable? Probably not. But apparently a whole load of fun before you come down and realise, fuck! I’m in university next year!

Anyway, I remember snorting at the idiotic idea that Armin Arlert, one of my friends, had suggested. He always had some strange fascination about travelling and seeing far off lands and what not (he’s way behind his time, I tell ‘ya. He’s even pursing it by studying history) so this idea wasn’t a big surprise.

But what the biggest surprise was that we all agreed to it. God knows how we all somehow gathered the money for this shit is beyond me. Especially since we had upcoming university fees to think about. Oh, and apartment rents. Somehow we all decided that spending a month on the sea and spending more money than what we would have at schoolies was a better idea than earning money with a summer job. Which I kind of regret now as I basically live off two-minute noodles. It sucks.

Armin found us a really nice 35 days cruise that went around Australia and down to New Zealand (yay, land of the sheep!) and came back to where it “ports” (thanks for teaching me that word, Armin) back at the beginning. What made this whole thing even better was that it ports Sydney.

Sydney is where I live. You know... the city with that Opera House thing and that giant bridge that everyone seems to rave about? Okay you know what; maybe Finding Nemo would ring a better bell.

So yeah, it was super close and why the hell not? We are young and why not spend some extra money and have a little fun?

The day finally came. First of January was our porting day (a Wednesday no less) and we were only meant to check in by like I think noon? But we all took separate cabs and got there early, so we could be some of the first to get on and feast on the glorious food they offered.

I, Jean Kirstein, of course, got dropped off by my painstakingly annoying parents. They couldn’t have been any prouder to have their glorious son take a cruise instead of drink his kidneys to death for a week. Thanks ‘rents. I appreciate it. And they even dropped me off early as hell.

The first to arrive was of course the “trio” as I like to call them. Aka, the three that are joined at the hips but not really.  Kinda reminds me of a centipede. Okay, that was a bad mental image; let’s not talk about the human centipede.

First up is oh-so wonderfully hot, straight from Japan and a step-sister to a little shit I’ll make mention of next, girl who took me to god knows how many highs with my right hand, if ‘ya know what I’m sayin’. Mikasa Ackerman is her name. Shoulder length black hair and always wearing some weird red scarf. There have only been a handful of times I’ve seen it somewhere else other than around her neck.

She’s the step-sister of this shit-stain that’s called Eren Jaeger. Always wearing this shit eating grin and getting agro over something every odd day. To be fair, I do feel bad for the guy. He did pretty badly at school... and you know, always got shit for being so bad at school. We don’t exactly see eye to eye, but he’s tolerable. He was the only thing that made me sceptical about this whole trip. You know, I have to share a room with this guy. I hope to god he grits his teeth a lot quieter doing the deed than when he’s pissing over something in class when he’s in an agro mood.

Lastly we have sweet Armin Arlert. A boy with blond hair and blue eyes and a brain that could fuck you up with just all the knowledge it holds. Needless to say, he was basically the reason I found myself being not only attracted to girls but also to men. I don’t know, he was in my class in the first year of high school and somehow I found myself gobsmacked at how cute (I seriously just used this word even though he hates it. Damn it!) And innocent he was. Boy, I got my words handed to me. Cute indeed... but far from innocent. We had a bit of fling and the rest was history. But I do thank him for being an understanding friend (and the only one, really) after everything. He even helped me hook up with a few other guys throughout school. Ah, what would I do without ya, Armin?

“Been waiting long, Jean?” Armin asked.

I just shook my head, “naah.”

“Aww, is this a re-enactment of your first date?” Eren’s annoyingly pitched voice found its way to my poor, poor ears. I would have just left it, but it was that fucking shit eating grin that made me retort.

“Like you’d know. I see you’ve still never had a girlfriend.”

“Guys, please.” Armin shook his head. Surprisingly enough Mikasa didn’t budge in. I guess maybe they had an agreement that she’d have a proper holiday from babysitting Eren.

“Guys!!!” We heard squeals. It was almost too obvious who that came from.

Meet my other two friends. I call them the “lovey-dovey couple.” Or better yet, “match made in heaven.”

Sasha Braus was an extremely hyper girl who I met once randomly while in line at the tuck shop. She’s a food-a-holic and does almost about everything and anything to get food. Following behind her with two heavy wheelie suitcases; her partner in crime and long term boyfriend, Connie Springer. He’s from America and apparently loved the US Army so much; he shaves his hair. But he’s a really good friend. Probably as loyal as Armin but knows how to chill and have fun. Plus, he throws the best barbies ever! He has a knack for cooking as well, surprisingly enough.

“I can’t wait until we get on! Dibs going to the buffet first! We have to!” Man, she was like a never ending ball of energy and it’s all because of food.

But I had to admit, I was pretty excited and nervous about this whole trip too. A whole month at sea. Porting at Australian cities and later on New Zealand ones. No worries. Free food. Ahh, it was going to be the life!

The building we had entered was not only massive but astoundingly packed with a bunch of people. Okay, in all fairness, the cruise ship was huge and could carry a shit-ton of people, so it made sense that there would already be loads of people waiting. Thank god they had seating and huge windows around the building to give us a slight sneak-peek at the monster of a ship we’d be on for 35 days.

We checked in our bags and about an hour later they allowed the first people to go up. We were luckily in the first stream. I had a backpack on me, as it was suggested by Armin, just in case our luggage didn’t arrive in time before we wanted a change of clothes or something.

We got given these really cool card things that hung from a lanyard. It had a barcode on it with our names and room number. Apparently all you do is get the card’s barcode swiped and all the drinks, gifts and classes were paid for. Of course, we all had a limit on our cards, so we had to make sure we didn’t spend too much on drinks. But it was more than enough to survive luxuriously, especially since we tried to get the cheapest rooms.

Before we even got the chance to climb the stairs to the terminal, we were all stopped as a group to get the fucking cheesiest photo ever taken. Armin ended up buying the photo as a remembrance and let me tell you, we looked fresh and pale, completely unknown to all the adventures we were about to have.

We walked in this terminal that reminded me of when you go onto an airplane except it was totally made out of glass. The view was out of this world! Only then did I realise how fucking huge this boat was. It was massive! Like holy shit. How many people could this thing even carry!? It would take a lot to sink this ship. Oh god, touch wood it doesn’t! The ship was mostly coloured white. It had many smaller windows on the lower side that eventually turned into what looked like awesome balcony rooms. It wasn’t hard to figure out what the ship was called either (I swear, could they have painted the name any bigger?) “Wings of Freedom.” Well that’s cheesy as fuck. It had been plastered at the front of the ship, on the side, in a dark green coloured that was impossible to miss.

We were greeted by these really nice ladies who showed us the way to these really, really well decorated and posh elevators. Seriously, the cruise ship was posh as fuck. The carpets, the white walls, the yellowed lights, the fancy elevators, what more could we even ask for? We were also given booklets and pamphlets and god knows what else, and then asked what deck we were on.

We were on deck 10; apparently the most comfortable one. It didn’t rock too much and it wasn’t busy at all. It just had rooms and that was it. The hallways were narrow and it took a bit to reach our two rooms. It also had the funniest name. “Trost.” Like, I know Armin gave us an insight as to how all the decks have names, but what the heck does Trost even mean?

Eren, Connie, Armin and I were to share a four bunk-bed cabin on the inner side and right across the small hall with a balcony view (ours don’t even have a fucking window) was Mikasa and Sasha’s twin bed cabin.

We were so excited that we all nearly ran into the small doorway at once, wanting to fight for the beds. I thankfully reached a bottom bunk on the left side of the cabin first. Armin was across from me. That left Connie and Eren on the top bunks. There were loads of drawers between the two bunk beds too for storage and well, whatever you wanted.

“Hope your drunken ass can climb up a ladder, Jaeger,” I laughed, placing my backpack onto my bed and checking out the small draws that separated my bed from Armin’s.

“Ha, you know I can. And if not, you’ll be stuck with my morning breath,” Eren smiled, walking away before I could even reply.

The cabin had a small desk and two really big mirrors and a flat screen TV in the corner of the room by the desk. Behind that wall with the mirrors was a giant closet with hangers and coverings (we were told to bring suits) and a very, very small bathroom. Like I shit you not this bathroom was tiny as. All you do is step inside and rotate a whole 360 to do just about anything. To the north you’re facing the basin and mirror. To the east there’s a small, cosy and dark looking shower; which has the best pressure. To the west was this toilet and back out is to the south. If that made any sense at all. It’s tiny, let’s leave at that.

Let me tell you, the first one to use that toilet was Connie. The screams that came from that first time were both hilarious and terrifying. So, to flush the toilet you have to close the lid. Do you want to know why? Because that motherfucking toilet sucks like nothing else. It made a giant caboosh noise to add to its sucking. I hope it’ll be able to suck all of Eren’s lincoln logs and shit stains. And I’m really begging on the hope part. I get enough of his shit eating smile. I don’t want an actual excuse to see his actual shit.

The booklet told us that if anything is caught in the toilet, the entire water system has to be turned off and whoever was the cause had to give in a huge sum of money. When we all read that part, every single one of us eyed Eren, making sure he knew the deal.

Anyway, it also had a mini fridge with a free water bottle supply. I was kind of wondering at this point if they sold any Powerade or sports drinks. Having our own mini fridge meant a lot of bad things, especially when it comes to drinking inside the room.

We didn’t stay too long in the cabin as it was getting a little stuffy. We all packed our cellphones and wallets away in the safe, since we wouldn’t be able to use them anyway. Reception was pretty bad when out at sea and only when you ported could you get any. Internet was expensive as fuck, as explained by Armin, so we didn’t bother to bring any laptops. Except for Armin (did I just smell hypocrisy?) He wanted to bring something along in case we needed it. Plus, we needed something to keep all the photos we were taking with our cameras.

Needless to say, I looked like a total hottie in my summer get up. Sunnies. Khaki shorts. White t-shirt. Thongs. A cowboy shaped hat to boot. Even my lanyard spelt out “ultimate holiday.”

We went from deck to deck, trying to figure out what was where. We had this girl giving a tour and telling us everything. The only notable decks bellow us were: Deck 5, also known as Mitras. There was a cafe, receptionist and gift stores. Also a mini super market (kind of) that sold daily items... including condoms, because holy damn I forgot to pack some! (Not that I really had that on my mind... but I heard it was common to get busy on longer cruises like these)

Deck 7 (Hermiha) was where the giant theatre place was. The one where it showed plays, comedian shows and movies. There were more bars and also this restaurant that was free but served food in more of a fancy way. I wasn’t too sure. Ah, it also had duty free shops on this floor. Deck 8 (Stohess) had the casino and that was pretty much the only interesting thing there.

Finally deck 12 (above us and also called Utopia), the place to be. It had two pools and spa pools, and all the amazingly comfy deck chairs. There was an outside bar, the buffet inside at the back of the ship and also the spa treatment area at the front. Oh, it also had an internet cafe at the front of the ship, where the spa area was. Just beyond the cafe was another bar with another stage. The spa area was three decks high for all the oldies in need of some me time, apparently. On the final deck (number 14 also known as Shiganshina) there was a gym and a few other things. Mostly just more space for deck chairs, viewing and a giant movie screen.

We got asked a couple of times if we wanted to plan activities or book special areas. We decided that we’ll leave the first week free and then go ahead and plan activities. We did sign up for a special outdoor deck area on our cabin deck level. It was a secluded area with a mini bar that only allowed a limited number of people (who signed up) to get into. Why did we decide on that specific area and not the unlimited use of sauna rooms? Because the area had padded deck chairs! That’s why.

That’s all the boring basic information about the ship. So, I guess without further ado, we made our way to the buffet, much to Sasha’s eagerness.

I don’t know who was more shocked. Me or Sasha. I was shocked to see how many people were eating already. Sasha was shocked to see all the amount of food. Connie just laughed as he was dragged away to the end of the line. I guess we all knew where he’d be spending all his time this whole holiday long.

We kind of just followed, sanitising our hands and pilling whatever food they offered. And man. Did they offer fucking food! It was unlimited! Desserts, salads, sandwiches, roasted meals and just everything that came to mind. It was literally a buffet of everything. Just too bad we had to pay for drinks. I was tempted to get a fizzy drink, but since both Eren and Connie was buying a beer, I decided why the hell not.

Now... this is the thing about being at the buffet during rush hour: seats. It’s like you have to fight for your life just to find an empty spot. An empty spot that’s also clean is even harder. But luckily there are waiters and waitresses everywhere to clean it for you.

Obviously we realised we found too small of a table when Sasha joined us. Fuck me. Holy damn. Is that three plates of food? Stacked!?

“I bet $10 that Sasha will eventually be having six or seven plates for lunch,” I whispered over to Armin who was sitting next to me. He choked while he was sipping on his vodka RTD.

“Jean! That’s not nice.”

Nice my ass. I wiggled my brows as he left out a giggle. “Why not.”

“I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t pick up weight,” Mikasa added. “Put me down for five plates, by the way.”

“I’ll be the odd ball and bet eight plates,” Eren spoke before biting into a really delicious looking sandwich.

“You guys, please. Don’t do this. You know she’ll only try and make you all lose the bet,” Connie sighed, rubbing the front of his head.

“Then what’s your bet?” I asked, taking a sip of my beer.

“He’s not allowed to bet. Plus I’m sure all the banging will counteract all the plates,” Eren grinned. I nearly choked at that.

“Hope to god it’s not in our room,” I hissed. Come on Connie. You cannot do that to us! You’re on the top bunk for Christ’s sake!

“Naaah, we’ll probably use Mikasa’s room,” Connie laughed, quickly eating away at whatever kind of meat he picked out. Mikasa just sent him a scowl, obviously not happy with the arrangements.

“Okay, okay. Why don’t we also make a bet on Jaeger’s virginity,” I quickly teased, knowing just the right buttons to push.

Eren laughed, “I could say the same thing for you.”

“Let’s not even go there,” Mikasa nearly growled. I could have sworn she was gnarling at her piece of sandwich. Eren just smirked, looking like for once he’s happy with Mikasa’s intervening.

We all finished up pretty quickly and made our way outside to find some deck chairs to kill time on. There were constant announcements indoors stating that at three’oclock they will be having a special rally where everyone had to get their life jackets from their cabins and make their way to some specific location. It sounded like such a bore, but I guess we needed to know how to save our asses if Titanic did end up happening to us. So we had another hour to kill.

Now, let me tell you. You know how I said that apparently kids drink themselves sick while on schoolies? Yeah... no... I guess I was wrong. It wasn’t just at schoolies. The amount of alcohol people were drinking and buying was astounding. Like holy fucking shit. We sat right next to one of the mini bar stands and you should have seen the constant line for people to buy alcoholic drinks. Whether or not they served any non-alcoholic drinks was beyond me... but god damn. The ship hasn’t even sailed and people were already drinking themselves sick. Watching all of them urged me on and I caved and bought myself this alcoholic fruit drink that they were advertising.

Damn this shit was good. I think out of this whole trip, this was the drink I bought the most. I do not have a single regret to admit that I got drunk, numerous times, on fruit juice and tequila. Trust me; if you could try this heaven-like drink, you’d be at it too!

I was happy I wasn’t the only one. Mikasa opted to buy one too, but she decided to go for a plain melon flavour, which looked really good too. She just murmured that she was really thirsty and needed something to sooth something or rather.

That’s how we wasted an hour. Laying in a row of deck chairs, sipping beer and cocktails in the midst of people splashing in the pool and laughing in the background. Of course there was music too.  Really catchy music that made you want to party hard but lying on the chairs made you too lazy for that. Thankfully we weren’t in the sun like those idiots in the pool. I would hate to get toasted on my first day on the ship.

I went down back to our cabin first and decided it would be quicker to take the stairs since the elevators looked extremely busy. By then our luggage had been wheeled into our cabins and took up a whole lot of space. A note was left to suggest pushing the suitcases under the bottom bunks, to save space. It made sense.

Eren came not long after, spouting out, “Connie suggested we grab everyone’s life jackets.”

I nodded, quickly getting up and helping him grab the giant ass life jackets. I was sneaky enough to hand him the one that looked messed up with the string coming undone.

“Thanks, jerk,” he replied sarcastically, walking out and meeting with Mikasa (who, might I add, looked a touch too pale compared to her normal paleness) who had Sasha’s and her’s in hand. 

“It’s okay Eren, I’ll give you mine,” Mikasa reassured. Way to spoil the fun Mikasa. I’m pretty sure Eren’s swimming skills would save him. Maybe his anger management would also chase away any sharks.

-

It was a mess. That’s what I’d call this life safety thing. Everyone was told to wear it and how to pull it on safely. If you ask me it was one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever worn in my life. It was bulky, tight and honestly, who designed this crap?

“They’re not a fashion statement. They’re meant to save lives,” Armin was quick to protest. Damn, must have said that out loud.

It turned out that the life jacket I gave Eren was pretty fucked up. So much that one of the rescue officers had to come fix whatever the hell was wrong with it. Now... this is the part where I tell you I believe in karma. And this is also a time to make mention, she does at some point along this trip (like really early on... you’ll see) make me her bitch because of this stupid life jacket incident. I should have known. I was a pretty unlucky bastard (but not as unlucky as Eren)

Getting out of the hall where our area had to meet was even worse. People were pushing and pulling, eager to get out to the top so we could depart. I lost the groupie at some point but luckily found them again when we all stacked away the life jackets in the cupboard. If we couldn’t get any more childish we raced to the top of Deck 14 (I won of course) which meant I had a really good spot. I eventually gave way though, just so Mikasa could film some of the surrounding scenery and grab onto the railings.

Music was blasting, laughter was in the air. People danced outside in anticipation for the ship to move. To tell you the truth, I was a little nervous at this point. I wasn’t too sure if I could handle a moving boat for 35 days. Of course, I’d have the option to get off. But the last couple of days I’ve had the honour to read horror stories of people who got almost too sick from the motion. I prayed to whatever fucking god that was up there to not to get those symptoms.

The sun was hot (I believe it was like just over 30 degrees Celsius) and I was sweating like I was in a sauna. Thank god for my hat. The added nerves must have made me extremely hot too. But that didn’t stop me as we all excitedly shoved to the beam that surrounded the deck.

Cheers were shouted as we finally set sail. It wasn’t too much of a weird movement, just a slight rock back and forth, but other than that, it was really relaxing. The ship moved surprisingly slow as we were still in the harbour. We passed under that tacky bridge everyone always boasts about (by mere centimetres, I swear!) and the Opera House. So many spectators on land were waving to us as we passed them. It was one hell of an experience!

Eventually we all grew tiresome and decided to head to our secluded area on our deck. It would be a good way to say goodbye to the city and hello to open waters. On the way there though, things got really, really trippy.

Like really trippy. And it was so trippy that it made Mikasa look oddly dodgy while we walked in the hallways. Like seriously, the ship slightly tilts upwards in the direction its moving and when you’re in the hallways it looks like you’re on an angle. It’s so trippy that you don’t even need to be drunk to feel fucking drunk. That’s how trippy it was.

This is the part where I tell you about how my earlier incident with the life jacket and Eren comes back to bite me. Damn you fucking karma.

We finally made it out to the little section with padded deck chairs and a mini bar. And I so happen to have been behind Mikasa. And I’d so happen to also be the one to notice how dodgy and green she looked.

Damn my luck.

“Mikasa, are you alright?” I asked, patting her shoulder. She really looked ill.

Before I even knew it was happening, it happened. She had tried (I think, not exactly too sure) to move away, but hell fucking nope. She ended up chundering what very little she ate at lunch onto my left foot and onto my fucking left sleeve before gagging the rest onto the wooden deck. With people screaming and shouting, you’d think there was something intense happening.

Nope. Just a vomiting girl.

A really, really green looking vomiting girl. That so happened to also get it all over me.

As any sane person, I screamed at first (a manly scream, I swear) and then I felt ultra-guilty.

“Mikasa! Are you okay!?” Eren had shouted, patting her back and urging her to get everything out onto the deck. Soon one of the workers (bartender, I think?) came along and shoved a bucket into her hands to wretch out whatever was left.

“I’ve asked for someone to get her,” the bartender reassured, telling us how he called up for a medical person.

Thankfully, after a painstakingly slow ride down the elevator and to the medical centre, Mikasa was finally okay. Only Eren, Armin and I dragged along with her, while Sasha and Connie had stayed. It wasn’t even that big of a deal, really. Mikasa just said she was sea sick and was given a whole load of medication to help her through it. Apparently it was totally normal on the first day.

But sadly for me, my shirt was still covered in vomit and as soon as we entered the medical centre, I had ripped it off. Of course they offered to wash it for me, free of charge. Thank god. It was one of my favourite shirts! Amazingly enough, Mikasa’s scarf was dirtied as well. You should have seen her face when she parted ways with it. It was like the scarf was going to go burn in hell and she’d never see it again. I felt sorry for her... not really. She did soil my shirt, after all. It’s the least she could have done. You know, part with her treasure. I was also thankful I could also finally wash my foot and thong clean afterwards, because that was fucking disgusting.

“I’ll stay with her for a while,” Eren had spoken softly as we helped her back to her cabin.

“Alright. We’ll check on you guys later,” Armin nodded, giving me a gentle smile. I nodded too and we left them once Mikasa was slid into bed.

“So, I guess with those to being bundled off together, maybe we should buddy up too?” I hinted at Armin as I pulled on a new shirt in our cabin. At this point I did feel just a touch out of sync. It would be safer to travel in pairs and since Armin and I knew each other as well as we did, it would be best.

“Hn. Sounds good,” Armin sent a bright smile towards me. But I couldn’t miss that worried look. Of course he was going to be worried about his dear Mikasa.

We made it back to the secluded deck chair area and were thankful that all the vomit was already washed away and people were back minding their own business.

And that’s basically how we spent rest of the evening. Drinking beer, fruit cocktails and laughing. At some point we went for dinner at the buffet after Sasha’s pestering. The food for dinner was just as good as lunch and holy damn. I don’t ever want to get off this ship! We brought some food down for Mikasa but she refused to eat anything.

“I’m sorry,” she had apologised after drinking some water. She just turned around and went back to sleep. This time Armin had stayed instead.

This time round we went back to deck 12 to buy a couple of drinks and laze around. Amazingly enough, it was already heading for nine’oclock and people were still lively as ever. I couldn’t help but wonder if the drinking ever stopped.

“Wanna see who can drink the fastest? There’s a cheap as deal for tequila shots. Ten of them,” Eren had nudged me in the shoulder. I looked up to see the advertisement. Without Armin or Mikasa here to stop us, I knew it would be fun. A real good challenge.

“Oh, you’re on, Jaeger! You’re paying,” I beamed. I knew five shots was way in my league. Okay, I lied. Maybe they would have been in my league if I wasn’t sipping on fruit cocktails all arvo and evening.

But even so, the fact that I won against shitty Eren Jaeger made me proud. But not that proud when I found myself wrenching it all out in our scary as fuck toilet. And let me tell you, the trip down there was trippy. It made you far drunker than you would believe.

I’m not too sure what else I did that night. The shower was amazingly good though. I just remember being told to get out, since I spent more than enough time in there. Someone also shouted to make sure I washed the walls too. (Like fuck I was going to do the wank with them in the room) But I can tell ‘ya one thing. I’m surprisingly a master at unpacking when drunk. Or at least, I remember that being my last thought of the night.

-

I don’t remember much of my first full day on the cruise. It was Thursday the 2nd, obviously, and we all had woken up late. Armin was the only one who wasn’t hungover and was nice enough to leave us be until there was just an hour left of breakfast.

Just sayin’, I don’t know if they drug up the food on this ship or what. At home, if I was hungover, I could never, ever eat any food that was shoved up in front of my face. But there I was, shoving a whole bunch of pastries into my mouth like my life depended on it.

They were so fucking good.

They made Baker’s Delight bread taste like shit. It was that good. And I knew I wasn’t the only one. Sasha was scoffing them down too.

Mikasa looked much better but not totally back to normal. She was a little pale, but at least she could fit food into her mouth. We all felt sorry for her and wished her well, and because of her not feeling well, we decided to take it easy.

Did I mention that we don’t have to make our beds? You know... like... we have a personal cabin cleaner? We were all really surprised when we had come back to a spotless cabin. Our beds made, new towels were hung (oh, we get towels and beach towels supplied for us) and our bathroom was even more spotless. We also had this really weird animal shaped figure on the desk, which we found out later that day was made out of all our supplied face clothes. Five star service. God damn I was going to get lazy. (And my freshly washed and folded shirt on my bed. It was the one that Mikasa soiled)

Rest of the day we spent in the sun. Shirtless and board shorts for pants. Thick layers of sun block rubbed into my skin. My hat and sunnies at the ready. Thongs next to my deck chair with a drink. Music in the background. Sounds of splashing kids and the slow side to side rocking of the ship. Life couldn’t get any better. I was in paradise and nothing, I swear to god nothing, not even Eren Jaeger’s snoring and Sasha Braus’ scoffing of food could ruin this moment.

Ahhh. It was good to be eighteen, recently graduated and ready to waste 35 days in the sun.

Best decision ever.

Except.... What I didn’t like at the end of the day was the hilariously painful sunburn I got. I blame Armin for not waking me up to apply new sunblock. What I hated even more was Eren’s whiny voice at dinner.

“You snored even louder than Connie! It was so fucking funny!” Man, his teasing could get on a guy’s nerves.

“You’re the one to talk, Jaeger,” I groaned, trying not to bend my arms too much. It looks like I’ll need to invest in a mini alarm clock or something. I would hate to go back home looking like a roasted potato.

-

After sleeping in on our first day at sea, Armin and I made a mutual agreement that we’d wake up earlier the following day, a Friday (January 3rd). We were apparently going to “dock” (again, thanks Armin for the word) at Brisbane (a place I’ve been to all too many times, only because they have the greatest theme parks and because I have another set of boring relatives living in the city) and although I wasn’t so keen on seeing it, Armin was. He was especially excited to drag me along to the museum. Oh lord, someone help me.

We set our alarm for seven in the morning, just so we could get ready, have breakfast and spend a decent day in the city. Of course that alarm only made Eren and Connie stir in their sleep. They slept like the dead. A bomb could go off and they’d still be snoring. Wait! Correction, the ship could sink and they’d still be sleeping.

Armin took a little longer and while I waited I grabbed our cellphones, just so we could text each other in case we got lost while in the city. (And also some other stuff like sun block, wallets and a backpack)

Heading up the stairs to the buffet was already making my mouth water. I was absolutely starving and the memory of how fucking good those heaven-like pastries were was still fresh in my mind. Since we won’t have to rush too much today, I knew I would be stacking my plate full. This time we also opted to just grabbing a free glass of fruit juice.

“Where do you want to go first?” Armin asked.

“Ahh... well... I ain’t got any idea. South Bank would be nice though,” I replied, it was the first thing that came to me.

“Is South Bank close to the museum? You’ll have to show me around! Ah but! I could buy a ma-“

“It’s fine, I’ll lead the way,” I grinned. At least there’s one city on this trip that I’ll be able to lead and show. Armin just nodded and smiled. Those eyes were still slightly glazed over in tiredness from our lack of sleep but damn they were pretty.

As Armin excitedly spoke about all the places he wanted to stop by today, I kind of zoned out and looked around at the other people eating in a hurry to get off as soon as they allowed us to.

And this is the part my dear, dear readers (well, those who have stuck around!) where the story finally begins. 

You know how I said I met someone? Someone who changed everything within just a short month? Well, this is where my eyes fell on them for the first fucking time. 

There I was, slowly chewing on one of the last pieces of a chocolate Danish pastry when suddenly my eyes loomed over a total beauty. I have never, ever considered love at first sight (holy damn that is cheesy) and I wasn’t about to. But it was his face. His fucking face tore me to finally believe in that bullcrap.

He was sitting two tables away to my left with three other people (two blokes and a chick) and he looked amazing. Wait no, better than amazing. Fucking hot. Short black hair parted in the middle, freckles speckled all over his cheeks, a square jaw, and what it looked like a mighty fine body under that definitely hot pink and navy blue polo shirt. 

I felt the danish pastry fall out of my mouth as I could only do one thing. 

Stare.