The Adventure on-board the Maria

Jealousy

January finally came to an end, allowing Spring to arrive at last. February sped by, and before anyone realised it, it was March already. Levi still kept his word about guarding Melody twenty four seven, which drove her crazy, but she soon got used to it as the sunny weather helped her cheer up. The days became less dreary, the sun revealed itself more, flocks of birds flew passed the Maria as they migrated back to the colder countries, while various sea creatures did the same beneath the waves. During the end of February, Melody got to see her first whale, that's what Hanji called it anyway. It was a large, beautiful, yet graceful creature. It swam right beside the ship, introducing itself by spurting water above the surface, scaring the crap out of Eren while he was mopping the deck. Melody watched the creature swim by as it sang its beautiful song, inspiring her to write a few songs of her own. Both she and the Shiganshina trio were amazed by the graceful beast and gawked at it while Hanji rambled random trivia about them and showed off information she had about them in her scrapbook. Not long after, a pack of dolphins swam by the ship as well, deciding to perform a show for the crew, causing them to get distracted. Levi got annoyed about this and began giving out, but this resulted in a dolphin jumping out of the water playfully and squirting water in his face. Everybody's injuries from Sina faded away, and they were all soon back to their healthy selves.

However, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. During the beginning of March, Hanji made some calculations and managed to predict that the ship was possibly going to sail though a storm by the beginning of April. This resulted in both Hanji and Levi having to go through plans on how to prepare for the storm, or even better, avoid it. Melody had never witnessed a storm on a ship before, so all this talk of possibly sailing through one was making her scared. It didn't exactly help that one of the worst nightmares she would have was one about drowning. Mikasa and Petra both did their best to keep her spirits up, but sadly, they too were feeling anxious about the situation. Then there was Eren. He and Melody had not spoken since Melody's little hermit mode, and that was a one sided conversation. To Eren, it seemed like Melody was beginning to hate him. This made him angry, sad, irritated, heartbroken, worried and a whole load of other emotions. For Melody, it was a depressing matter. She still hadn't forgotten Levi's threats to lock her up if he caught her talking to Eren, so she continued to avoid the brunette. The final thing that seemed to dampen the mood, was a small rivalry that was beginning to form.

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Mikasa furiously swept the deck as she glared in Levi and Melody's direction. Levi was teaching Melody how to steer the wheel of the ship for the first time. As expected, they both were bickering with Levi giving Melody some very rude hurtful insults , but that wasn't what made Mikasa angry. What made her angry was when Levi decided to go behind Melody and grip her hands, so he could get her to move the wheel properly, standing unnecessarily close to her. Mikasa gritted her teeth at the sight, gripping her broom extremely tight. "Mikasa you're going to end up breaking your broom if you hold it any tighter" Gunther warned, noticing Mikasa's angry behaviour. Mikasa turned to glare at him for a second, then glared back at Levi, then glared at the ground, then back to Levi. "Mikasa stop looking at them if it makes you so angry, you look scary when you're angry" Armin spoke up from behind her. Mikasa lost the scary look in her face and glanced back at Armin, giving him an apologetic look. She went back to sweeping, managing to calm down her temper. There was a short silence, where the only ones speaking were Levi and Melody, who were getting into another fight. "You know if you really like her you should just say" Gunther spoke up. Mikasa turned to look at him in shock, her cheeks going slightly pink. "How do you..?". " Come on Mikasa, lets be realistic, it's pretty obvious you like her. I'm terrible at relationship stuff and even I can tell you like her". Mikasa turned around, covering her face with her scarf. "Same to you too Armin" Gunther added. Mikasa glanced over to see Armin going completely red in the face. "That was supposed to be a secret" Armin mumbled, hiding his face as well as he stared at the floor.

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"Eren stop staring at Melody, she's never gonna notice you if you keep acting like an over obsessed stalker". "Hanji, I'm not an over obsessed stalker". "Then stop looking at her like that". The two of them were currently controlling the sails on the masts, along with Petra and Olua. Eld was in the crows nest. Hanji had notice both Petra and Eren glaring down in Levi and Melody's direction. "You two are so jealous" she giggled. "I AM NOT!" they both yelled in unison. "You are" Eld called out from his post in the crows nest. There was a small silence as both Eren and Petra gradually excepted what the others were confirming. "Ok maybe we are" Petra admitted. She honestly felt bad about being so envious of Melody. After all, they were close friends, besides it wasn't like she and Levi were all over each other. If anything they were the complete opposite. She glanced down at them again, confirming her theory when she saw Melody pushing Levi away from her, yelling "FUCK OFF LEVI!" at the top of her lungs. Yep, Levi wasn't going to stand a chance with Melody if he was able to make her, of all people, swear. "You know Petra" Olua began. "If they do end up together, you could always find someone else like Captain". "Smooth move Olua" Eren sarcastically commented. "Shut up brat!" Olua retorted. Eren rolled his eyes. "Don't worry guys" Hanji butted in. "I can help you. You're talking to the ultimate matchmaker here". "You should worry" Eld shouted out from where he was. "This doesn't concern you" Hanji snapped back.

"First thing's first, a little birdy told me that Melody likes French guys" Hanji began, beginning to march along the yard they were on. "First of all Hanji, I have no clue how to speak French, second, Melody won't even speak to me anymore, so how is speaking French going to help" Eren added. "Then I'll teach you how to speak French. I'm part French myself so it should be easy. As for her not talking to you, well........We'll find a way through that eventually" Hanji explained. "Second of all" she continued. "You need to be more classy". "Classy?". "Yes. We all know Melody is a neat person, and likes things to be proper when possible, so you need to work on your manners. Olua can help you with that, since he spends all his time copying Shorty". "I do not!" Olua complained. "You do" confirmed Eld. "Finally" Hanji went on. "We all know how Melody loves music, so I suggest you try winning her over with a song". "Nope! Not doing it! I sound like a dying rooster when I sing!" Eren refused. "Okay, then scratch that last part" Hanji suggested. "What about me?" Petra added. "Well, my lovely Petra, it just so happens that Shorty is planning to have a meeting with all the long experienced crew members soon, to plan for this upcoming storm. When it's over, stay behind and try flirting with Shorty". "Flirting?!" Petra exclaimed, going red in the face. "But Hanji....". "Get to work, and stop gossiping will you!" Levi barked, finally noticing them slacking off. "Sorry Captain!" they all apologised in unison, doing what they were told.