Chapter Text
When I first saw Jean, I was sort of awestruck. To me, he looked like a model straight off the runway even though he was wearing distressed jeans and a Pink Floyd shirt. His shoes weren’t any better; he had these ratty old high tops that he couldn’t seem to live without, as I soon came to learn. When I first saw him, I was sitting in the rec room in our dorm, talking to my friend from high school, Connie.
This tall guy strolled past, slouched over with a hand tucked in his pocket and the other carrying his bag over one shoulder. He had earbuds in, and just had that total aura of “don’t look at me/I hate everyone.” So of course, I was attracted to him, because as Connie said, I was a “shy nerd” while he was the “school’s bad boy.”
Perfect analogy, if you ask me.
Then he passed through the room and I returned my attention to Connie, who hadn’t even noticed that I stop listening for a second as he rambled on about something or another. I hate to admit it, but it’s best to just nod along whenever Connie talks; you can listen, but you literally get an earful.
After doing nothing in the rec room, for an hour, I left to go to my dorm, which I learned I was sharing with this other guy, Armin Arlert. He was a little blonde guy, who, like me, was studying in the medical field, both in neurosurgery. So we might just be perfect as study-buddies.
When I was opening the door, I noticed that the guy I had seen earlier had entered the room to the left of mine. Storing that information for later, I entered the dorm and sat down on my bed, thankful that I had come by earlier in the week to unpack. Seeing as it was only three in the afternoon, and that I had nothing left to do, I decided to take a nap since I was tired from driving five hours straight.
[-x-]
I woke up at five, and only because Armin had just come into the room. He apologized when he saw that he had woken me up, but I just laughed it off. “Don’t worry; I needed to get up anyway. ‘Sides, it’s almost time for dinner.” I sat up and stretched, yawning, before getting up and walking over to the bathroom in our dorm (we were one of the ones to live in the hall that didn’t have communal bathrooms and one inside of every dorm).
While in there, I combed my hair to get rid of the flyaways that came from sleeping and took my contacts out, because my eye was starting to irritate me. I put my glasses on, blinking to get used to the feeling of the black specs instead of having things in my eyes. Exiting the tiled room, I noticed that Armin was on his bed, phone in his hand. He looked up when I entered and smiled.
“Let’s go down together, ‘kay? I have a few people I want to introduce you to.” I nodded as I followed the short guy out of the room and down the stairs; he looked pretty confident in where he was going so I assumed that he had explored the campus while I was out. After walking for about five minutes, we arrived at a bench where two people were already sitting.
“Eren, Mikasa,” he said, and the two looked over at us. The boy had brown hair and bright blue eyes, and his face split into a grin when he saw Armin beside me. The girl had chin-length black hair, and had a red scarf wrapped around her neck, despite it being over eighty degrees. Seriously, I was way too warm in my shorts and shirt.
“Hey, Armin,” said Eren, before he looked over at me. “Who’s this?”
The blonde beside me said, “this is Marco, my roommate. He’s studying neurosurgery with me, so it’s pretty good.” I blushed slightly at his introduction; most times I had to introduce myself, and if not, it was a simple “this is Marco.” So the fact that Armin had actually described me flattered me.
“Hi.” I raised my hand and the two nodded at me.
Eren looked to Armin, saying, “so we’re all going to Sina?” He nodded, and the two on the bench stood up. We all started walking towards the restaurant Eren mentioned, the three asking me questions as we went.
“So where’re you from, Marco?” This time, it was Mikasa who spoke, her gray eyes boring into mine. Her stare was intense, but I didn’t break it as I replied, “Jinae.” She nodded before facing forward again, leaving Eren and Armin to ask me questions.
“Got any siblings?” Eren asked.
I smiled. “I have a little sister and brother, who are twins.”
Armin became very interested in that. “I’ve always wanted to know twins,” he gushed. “So are they identical or fraternal?”]
“They were identical until Anne turned sixteen and pierced her ears, as well as dying her hair maroon.” The two laughed, and I smiled, having already gotten a laugh when I first saw her after her transformation.
“You sound like you have a pretty cool family,” Eren commented, but I saw the glance he threw Mikasa.
I shrugged, saying, “well, my dad skipped out on us when we were younger, but it’s been pretty good still.” No one didn’t say anything for some time, but they continued to ask me questions.
Once we had reached our destination, all three seemed satisfied with the interrogation they put me through, and we ate while talking about trivial things.
The place, Sina, was a cool little dinner that looked like one shown in movies from the 50’s. There were checkered floors, red, vinyl seats and chrome finishings. It was all pretty cool, especially since there was a working jukebox in the corner that I could see little kids crowding around.
I had ordered a plain burger, which seemed to have come with large fries and a large soda, and the burger was large itself. But it still tasted pretty good, despite being extremely large. I finished it, and after a while everyone else was finished so we walked back to campus.
Before we parted ways at the same bench we met at, both Eren and Mikasa gave me their numbers, and I entered them into my phone as Armin and I walked back to our hall. It was almost nine when we entered our dorm, so the two of us decided to get ready for bed even though I knew I would stay up later.
I did, stripped down to just my boxers and a shirt, getting on my laptop and just doing nothing until my eyes felt heavy and I finally fell asleep.
[-x-]
I woke up around seven, having finely tuned my internal clock to wake me up at that time over the years. Remembering that I had my first class at nine, I decided to laze around for a few minutes before getting ready. Thankfully, I was one of those rare people who can function properly in the morning without caffeine, so I didn’t go back to sleep.
When I decided that it was time for me to officially get up, I first stretched before heading to the bathroom. When I was out, I saw Armin was just waking up, blinking his eyes in a way that reminded me of a newborn kitten opening its eyes for the first time. I almost cooed at the adorableness that was him, but I stopped myself just in time. Something told me that he disliked being thought of as adorable.
Or maybe I was afraid of Mikasa, because she seemed protective of him and Eren.
“Wake up, Armin,” I said to him, watching as he yawned and stretched in bed.
“Ugh, what time is it,” he said before looking as his clock and realizing that it was almost eight. When that fact registered in his mind, he leapt out of bed as fast as lightening and became to hurry around the room.
“Oh God how did I sleep in I meant to set an alarm for six-thirty Jesus Christ where’s my phone.” He rambled on and on until he seemed to have it under control. I had been watching him, amused, for the past five minutes as he scurried around.
“Relax. You’re first class is at ten; mine’s at nine, so I have to get ready, on the other hand.” I walked over to my dresser, pulling out a pair of cargo shorts and a plain white shirt, ducking back into the bathroom to change. As much as I knew I was a guy and Armin was one as well, I wasn’t the most comfortable with changing in front of people.
It probably stemmed from the gigantic scar that ran the length of my back.
I changed my pants and pulled my shorts on, running my fingers through my hair so it returns to its natural part. Deciding that I looked good enough, I exited the room and found Armin sitting at the small table in the corner, dejectedly eating from a packet of Pop-Tarts.
“You okay?” I asked as I sat down across from him. He looked up, his eyes brightening.
“Yeah, just really tired. And I’m kinda not looking forward to meeting new people. I was terrible all throughout high school when meeting new people, and this probably wouldn’t be any different.”
I smiled at him. “You’ll be fine. I can’t imagine anyone who’d be mean to you; you’re so adorable and innocent.” He looked at me, cocking an eyebrow while I just grinned at him.
Sighing, he said, “well, I guess you’re right. I’m gonna go take a shower. See you later, Marco.” When he entered the bathroom I just realized that it was eight-thirty and I had yet to eat breakfast and class started in thirty minutes.
Grabbing the uneaten Pop-Tart out of the package Armin had been eating from, I slipped on my shoes as I grabbed my laptop case, which I stuffed with my laptop and three textbooks, making it bulge. And making it thirty pounds heavier.
I exited the dorm, being sure that I had my phone and keys with me. As I was doing so, I noticed that the guy I saw yesterday was exiting his own dorm. He had a scowl on his face, and he moved away, walking towards the stars. I took the moment to look at him, noticing how he was wearing a flannel shirt with another one under it, and ripped jeans again.
After a few moments, I started walking to my first class, hoping not to get lost on my way.
[-x-]
When the day was finally over, I headed back to my dorm, ready to collapse under the heavy workload all of my professors thought it was necessary to give us. I had been using my laptop during all of my classes, wasting almost all of its battery so I was excited that I could finally charge it. And I wouldn’t even have to use my laptop for part of the homework since the professor wanted to be totally juvenile and make outline an entire chapter.
I did, however, have to use it because one decided that we needed to write a paper on a recent court case and determine why the judge gave his ruling and everything. I was seriously beginning to rethink my decision to become a lawyer.
As I was halfway through the outline, the door swung open and the blonde boy I was rooming with rushed in, launching himself at me. I dropped my pencil just in time to catch him, feeling very confused as he began to hug me.
“Uh, hello?”
“Thank you, Marco!” He pulled back ,looking at me with those impossibly bright blue eyes. “Thank you for the advice you gave me this morning; I made two new friends!”
“You don’t need to thank me,” I told him, chuckling as he hugged me even harder.
“Still,” he said. I let him hug me for a few more seconds before he got up and went to do his own homework.
It was ten when I finished mine, cursing the one who made us write a five-thousand-word paper on that court ruling. I realized that I hadn’t even had dinner, so I decided to go get some food at Sina, since it was so close by and the food tasted absolutely awesome.
When I finally got to the diner, I took a seat and waited to be served, my gaze wandering over everyone in the place. My eyes stopped when they landed on a familiar guy, it being the one that keeps showing up. I watched him for some time, watching how he would run his hands through his mop of hair before smoothing them over his undercut. After some time he picked up a phone, and started to text someone on it. I wondered who it was, but before I could, he looked up and his eyes traveled over to mine.
I averted my gaze after a while, blushing madly when I ducked my head and hid it within a wall made from my arms. When the waitress came, I was barely able to order my food; I was that flustered. But after ordering my food and eating as quickly as possible when it came. When I was finished, I left my money and my tip, casting one last glance to the guy that has me so enraptured before walking away.
When I reached the dorm, it was eleven and I was more tired than I’ve been in a long time. Armin was already asleep in his bed, so I just crawled into mine and closed my eyes, thankful for sleep when it came.
[-x-]
Armin and I had three classes together, but today we only had one. We sat beside each other in all three, and wasted the time by passing notes and making jokes about those around us.
Like today, I saw that Connie was sitting between Reiner Braun and Sasha Blous, so I wrote down a joke on a sheet of paper.
Connie seems to be getting some, I wrote, motioning towards the two. Armin looked, and laughed at how uncomfortable he looked whenever he looked up at Reiner. We both laughed silently, and continued to do that for the rest of our classmates.
Finally the class ended, and I waited for Armin to catch up so we could walk out together. “I’m sorry, Marco, but Eren and Mikasa want to meet at this place. I’ll see you later, though.” I called out my goodbyes as he raced away, towards the stairwell as I walked at a much more leisurely pace.
Realizing that it would be an hour before my next class, I debated on where to go. I had a break, but since I had nothing to do during my break, it was sort of idiotic to have it. After some thinking, I decided to go to this little park area I saw while walking with Armin that first night. I saw an open bench and made my way towards it.
I sat down on the bench, picking up my pen and writing down some things that I remembered from my lecture. I did that for a few minutes, absolutely bored out of my mind as I waited for an hour to tick by. I didn’t want to go back to my dorm, because I wouldn’t have anything better to do there, so I just stayed in the little park area until my next class was going to start.
“Hey, you like Green Day?” I looked up when I heard the voice, and saw the guy from that very first day here. He was standing in front of me, dressed in a shirt with an open flannel shirt over it and ripped jeans. It seemed like that was his basic wardrobe choice.
Looking down, I noticed that I had chosen to wear my shirt with the American Idiot album art on it. “Uh, yeah. Why, do you like them?” On the outside, I sounded (I hoped) cool, though I was really squealing on the inside. This dude was hotter than hell, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to him. God, I sounded like a little school girl but I felt like one, which was practically the same thing.
He sat down beside me, smiling widely. “Fuck yeah! I love them. What’s your favorite song on the album?” I had to consider my options, because we both seemed to take music seriously and also because I wanted to impress him.
“Well, my favorite song on the album is Jesus of Suburbia. Yours?”
“Holiday. Totally love the reason why he wrote it.” I nodded, remembering that Billie Joel had written the song about the war in Iraq, saying it was anti-war.
“What’s your favorite song overall?” He thought for a second, before saying automatically, “21 Guns. Love the song so fucking much that I barely listen to it. Y’know, taking it in moderation.”
I nodded, totally getting what he means. “Mine is Sex, Drugs & Violence.” He made a noise of approvement before we lapsed into a comfortable silence. After a few minutes, he jolted up, like he’d been stung.
“Shit, I gotta go. Hey, here’s my number. Text me later.” And he left after producing a Sharpie from the pocket of his jeans (I wondered how he got it in there) and scribbled his number on my arm.
Realizing something extremely important, I picked up my phone and entered his number, composing a new message.
You do realize I don’t know your name? ~ Green Day boy
SHIT. it’s jean kirschtein and that’s wat ur goin down as
Just so you know, my name’s Marco Bodt.
pleasure to meet ya marco