under the moonlight

part three

midnight comes and you show up to the beach. the moon is full and bright, illuminating everything that needed to be seen. everything always came into light eventually, especially when it reached midnight. that was always the best time for the truth to come out as the sky switches from night and day, it's the only real neutral ground for secrets to be shared.

eren waits for you where he always does. you find him behind the large rock you both had carved your names into when you were little. if you tried hard enough you would be able to find the engravings of his name and yours still there after all these years. it had been dubbed as the 'meeting rock' after that day you both promised one another that you would always meet up there if you were ever lost or needed a safe haven.

eren sits there on a beach blanket in his swim shorts, curled up into a ball. he doesn't notice you approaching as he stares longingly into the crashing waves in front of him, too entranced with trying to beyond the dark horizon.

"hey loner," you greet him softly.

although nothing bad ever happened on paradis beach, you don't want to startle him. you'd learned a while back that he could be a bit jumpy when he got lost in thought, so you always knew that it was best to ease into your entrance.

eren looks up at you, green eyes almost glowing under the moonlight. his hair's thrown up into a messy bun to keep it from getting tangled by the ocean wind. he looks the same as he always does when you go night swimming. and your tummy churns at the realization that you would never see this eren after tonight.

he gives you a smile back and it seems like his usual one but it doesn't reach his eyes. his heart feels a bit too heavy to give you a genuine one. you don't notice that there's something off with him, head too occupied with mustering up the courage to finally tell him the truth.

eren pushes himself up, pulling off his sweatshirt to reveal bare skin and his physique. you feel yourself warm up a bit, breath hitching as you try to advert your eyes away from him. he turns towards you, looking at you up and down as if he was waiting for you to follow suit and take off your clothes.

"you just gonna stand there?" he asks you, brow quirked as he goes to pick up his surfboard from its place in the sand.

you let out a laugh and shake your head, "never that."

you take off your clothes, shedding warm layers to stand in just your bikini. eren steals a glance as he hands you his old board. he would never get tired of the sight of you, whether it be in a swimsuit, in PJs, or in your best formal wear.

"alright, let's go," you take the board, discarding your flip-flops as you make your way to the water first. eren's on your tail as he always has been since you were kids. while you were always best friends that stayed together, he couldn't deny that sometimes you would run further than him, faster than him, and sometimes, away from him.

he dives into the water, board pressed against the lean muscle of his body as he overtakes you. he's always been a stronger swimmer than you, it's child's play to him.

after all, he's a surfer and had always been in the water since the day he discovered it. he'd fallen in love with the freedom that the ocean provides and the feeling of being weightless. he likes that he's just another insignificant life in the vast depths; there's no real responsibilities to have and no one to tell him what he can and can't handle.

"let's go to the cove," eren suggests.

your eyes light up at the suggestion. you'd never turned down the chance to go there, especially on a night as pretty as this one. it'd be the perfect place to tell him, you know that. you could leave every negative truth there and you would never there have to come back to if you didn't wish to.