────────────────────

↬ YOU AND EREN HEADED TOWARDS THE DOCK FULL OF ROW BOATS, your hand was intertwined with his as he had been the one to initiate the hand holding action. you sent eren a look and he only smiled at you.

"i rented us a boat for a couple hours when i came here," eren began when walking down the steps that led to the dock. a few others were gathered there already, chatting and getting ready to get onto their assigned boats.

"wow this looks fun," you said with a smile before reaching the bottom of the steps. "have you even ever rowed a boat before?" you added in the question, glancing up at him.

"not really, but i'm sure we'll be just fine. the water isn't that deep if we do ever fall in," eren answered, sending you a grin before speaking with the person who managed the row boats.

your eyes began to wander around the perimeter of the dock, glimpsing over at couples who were getting on a boat, a parent with their small child and so forth. it was absolutely peaceful and you felt eren gently tug your hand.

"come on, let's go," eren spoke with his gentle smile after you turned your gaze to look at him.

eren led you to one of the row boats, you examined it for a moment and realized how it was much larger than the others, eren was glancing over at you. his hand was still locked with yours, so he first got onto the row boat and guided you on. you hesitated at first, watching the boat move side to side when eren stepped in.

"don't worry, i got you," eren said, guiding you onto the boat and immediately wrapped his arm around your waist so that you wouldn't fall over and the boat wouldn't tilt much further towards the water.

"thanks eren," you said giving him a shy grin and he just nodded his head.

you sat down on the opposite side of him and watched as he also seated himself after. eren was in charge of rowing the boat, since he insisted and wanted you to relax. you also noticed that there was a guitar case inside the boat, along with a picnic basket that you didn't spot it at first.

after settling on the boat, eren quickly tied his hair up into a bun before beginning to paddle and the boat started rowing steadily along the river. you watched eren for a moment as he paddled, he didn't seem to be struggling but it still looked quite difficult.

eren noticed your gaze and flashed you a smile, to which you responded with a smile. your eyes soon wandered towards the distance on both sides of the river, watching people walk by with quick waves and more birds flying above.

since it was barely past noon, the sun was brightly shining down.

"so," eren began to speak and caught your attention, he continued once you looked back at him, "how do you like the date so far? hopefully it's not too boring for a first date."

"no.. it's lovely," you admitted before glancing around the surroundings yet again and eren smiled with delight.

i owe you on this one, mikasa, eren said to himself in his thoughts. rowing a boat down the river had been one of mikasa's plan, at first eren didn't seem to be interested in the idea but mikasa didn't stop convincing him and so, eren gave in.

"how did you manage to get such a huge row boat?" you questioned the moment after.

"well, i had some advantages as the son of grisha yeager," eren snickered lightly whilst his gaze was still pinned onto you, "my dad actually knows the owner of the place, mi— i told him that i planned to go on a date and he gave me this special row boat to use."

you grinned, placing both of your hands on your lap, "i'm quite surprised, my dad is only acquainted with the owner of this place and i never met him personally."

"my dad and the owner have been friends ever since they were seniors in high school," eren admits and you had a surprised reaction to which made eren chuckle. "ah, i also prepared some snacks.." eren added in, gesturing at the picnic basket that rested on the boat between you both.

your eyes traveled to the picnic basket and you reached your hand towards the lid of the basket, opening it and indeed there were a few snacks stuffed into the basket. you weren't craving for snacks just yet so you closed the lid.

in fact, armin was the one who prepared the basket full of snacks. he thought it would be cute, armin even placed a rose inside of the basket but eren nor you didn't notice the flower.

"also why do you have a guitar with you? do you play?" you questioned again when your eyes shifted towards the guitar case behind of eren.

"oh.." eren blushed, nodding his head. "yeah, i play the guitar... i was planning on playing a song for you later, if you don't mind."

"i don't mind at all!" you spoke enthusiastically, making eren blush even more. you were even surprised yet ecstatic to know that eren played the guitar. "i didn't think you would play the guitar," you added in.

"well, there's a lot of things you don't know about me," eren spoke giving you a quick soft smile, before looking away. "and you'll find out those things soon enough," he said when looking back straight into your eyes.

𖤐

"come on you two, we need to catch up to them," mikasa said with slight frustration when getting inside of the row boat, armin got in the boat after and sasha was about to get in.

but the rowboat was only accessible to two people, so when sasha stepped foot on the boat, the person who managed the boats immediately rushed over to the three.

"excuse me, miss! you can't do that!" the person said, reaching for sasha by hooking his arms under sasha's armpits to pull her out of the boat. both mikasa and armin gasped as they watched sasha get pulled out.

"no! i want to ride on the boat with armin and mikasa!" sasha whined while beginning to fuss, moving her legs and arms in the air and causing commotion around the area.

"m—miss! please calm down!" the person said with panic, but then he felt a pair of teeth on his arm. sasha had bit him and now the person was wincing in pain from the bite.

"security! security! i need security!" the person hollered.

𖤐

eren stopped moving the boat, you sent him a glance when you felt the boat come to a complete stop and watched as he grabbed the guitar case from behind him. eren unzipped the case and pulled out his guitar, resting it on his lap while giving you a grin.

the boat was slowly moving itself along the water and thankfully there weren't others behind nor ahead of you both. you watched as he began to move the chip he had between his fingers along the chords of his instrument for a swift moment.

it was a beautiful sound and your heart began racing.

"do you sing?" you asked leaning your body forward, the question randomly popped in your head when he started moving his chip along the chords.

"sort of," eren answered, he seemed sort of embarrassed or nervous.

"wanna sing for me?" you giggled, desperately wanting to hear eren's harmonic singing voice. but eren shook his head, his cheeks being in the color of crimson red.

"i'm not.. that talented in singing," eren said with an awkward chuckle following after, "i don't want to ruin your precious eardrums. maybe when i improve, i'll sing for you."

you huffed, quite disappointed but you didn't want to force eren to sing for you. at least, he would be playing the guitar for you and that was satisfying enough for you.

eren began contemplating on what song to play and after a brief moment of waiting, eren began to move his chip along the guitar chords making out a magnificent melodic sound that caught the attention of many others who were either walking or rowing a boat from afar.

the song seemed to be have created by eren, since you didn't exactly know what song he was playing to. either way, you were enjoying the moment and bobbed your head side to side to the song.

others who were around were quite addicted to the song eren was playing, smiles formed on their lips as they watched and more people began to gather around whilst observing.

eren's eyes was focused down at the guitar, but his eyes glanced up at you every once in a while and he had a huge smile on his face. you also were smiling, watching him move his fingers along the fretboard of the instrument.

"i have an idea," mikasa blurted out after seconds of silence, eren lifted his head up and looked at mikasa along with armin who tilted his head at her. a smirk raising onto her lips, "there's a few nice botanical gardens here in berlin, maybe you guys can meet up there and walk around for a bit. next, you can play tour guide and take her to your favorite spots in the city."

eren blinked a few times while pondering on what mikasa had just told him. the idea seemed interesting so far, indeed botanical gardens were enchanting sceneries and it was pleasant to stroll around in.

"later when it's near dinner, invite her to our house," mikasa said and eren blushed, leaning his body up and back. he was about to say something but mikasa spoke before he could, "you both can make dinner together. don't worry, your father will be at his meetings and your mom will be out with her friends. i'll be at armin's place."

"how did you even come up with these ideas?" eren questioned, scratching the side of his cheek with his index finger. he thought about it for a moment and nodded his head, "i'll ask her—"

"wait eren," mikasa stopped him, "you're first going to tell her where to meet— which is the botanical garden. since the place has a river where you can row boats, take her there."

"what if she says no?" eren raised an eyebrow.

"who would want to say no to that? it seems fun to do," mikasa huffed, "well just tell her that you want to take her somewhere and you're on your own after that."

"what?! why?" eren frowned.

"well, it's your date," mikasa retorts, crossing her arms and armin tried to stop the two before an argument happened. "anyways, when it's almost dinner time, take her back to our home."

mikasa's idea seemed to be perfect, but the only thing eren was worried about was inviting you over to his home for dinner. he was blushing and his expression suddenly became full of nervousness, and you noticed it.

suddenly, eren stopped playing and that was indicating that the song had ended. everyone around clapped their hands and cheered, which made eren blush yet again and he thanked everyone by bowing his head down.

"so, did you like it?" eren questioned once everything had became quieter and everyone else went their separate ways.

"i love it," you admitted, "you're really amazing eren."

"i'm glad you enjoyed it," eren spoke quite shyly, placing his guitar back into his case and zipping it back up.

all of a sudden, out of nowhere, another row boat was rushing up towards the boat you and eren were in. the both of you became startled, but after eren squinted his eyes to view the person in the other boat, his expression changed.

"yo! eren!" the person spoke out with high enthusiasm, stopping the boat right beside of yours. you examined the person, studying their features and noticed that they had light ginger hair with bangs that swept to the left.

the person had amber-colored eyes and were wearing a unique outfit which consisted of a white buttoned up shirt that was tucked in the pair of beige pants they wore. they fixated their gaze for a moment, before examining you and eren.

"petra!" eren spoke when realizing who it was.

"oh~" the person named petra said, her eyes still focused on you. she chuckled, "is this your date?"

"yeah.." eren answered quite flustered, avoiding eye contact with petra. "(y/n), meet petra. petra, meet (y/n)," eren introduced you both and petra immediately grabbed your hand, shaking it.

"it's nice to meet you! i've heard a lot about you from eren! not literally, i just heard him saying it to his two friends," petra admitted when shaking your hand and a large grin printed onto her face.

"it's lovely to meet you too, petra," you said with a smile before they stopped shaking your hand.

"what are you doing here petra?" eren questioned.

"oluo and i were boat racing but something happened at the dock and he went to help so i left before him," petra answered with a little smirk on her face, "then i heard the familiar guitar playing of a friend and i remembered that you were on a date! so i zoomed here."

"what happened at the dock?" you questioned next, tilting your head.

petra hummed, "i saw a chick bite on the boat manager's arm when trying to get on the boat that already had two people in it. they were causing commotion and didn't stop biting the person, and so security was called. they were dressed like some sort of spies."

sasha immediately popped in your mind, you had forgotten about her and her plan of stalking you and eren. you began to panic, wondering if the person that had caused the scene was sasha.

"well, i'll see you two lovebirds later!" petra began, picking up the paddles and began to row against the water with a quick pace. "have fun on your date and don't fall over!" she hollered before disappearing.

𖤐

WAAA i have a stuffy nose omg 🤕 and it's hard to breathe at night when i sleep

i'm also trying to update this book daily or so, i might even publish twice a day if i am not that lazy in writing lol 🤩

anyways baes, wherever you are i hope you're having a wonderful day or night