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They grew up next door to each other which meant their parents tried to force them into being friends. With the two of them constantly finding something to argue about, the whole friendship thing never quite worked out, and it wasn’t uncommon for one of them to be sent home with scrapes and bruises when their shouts turned to fists. More often than not it was Eren’s sister, Mikasa, that would break up the fights, and wasn’t it cute how Jean had a little crush on her?
But sometimes they wouldn’t fight with each other when there was something more important going on and they had to work together. There was the time they were paired together for a science report and scrambled together everything the night before and managed to get a B. Another time a small gathering at Annie’s while her parents were out of town turned into a full-blown house party when half their classmates showed up. Eren and Jean stayed up with her to clean up the mess before her parents got home. The first day of high school, Armin was shoved into a locker, and the two teamed up to beat the crap out of Reiner for doing it. (After a few tense weeks Reiner quickly became another close friend.)
Still, most of the time, it was hard for them to get along. Their viewpoints often conflicted between Jean’s cynical realism and Eren’s black and white moral idealism. It wasn’t like they wanted to fight but Jean said whatever popped into his head with no filter and Eren wouldn’t let things just slide and both had to prove themselves in the right and as always, when words failed them, their fists did the talking for them. It was all part of their normal routine.
The week it happened there were no fights. Eren was avoiding everyone, even Mikasa, and Jean didn’t even know what to say, let alone anything that would piss off Eren. And he definitely didn’t want to piss him off, especially not now. It wasn’t like he knew where Eren was anyway. He hadn’t been to school since the funeral. There had been trouble enough considering the ground was still frozen and the gathering at the cemetery had been delayed while they worked to break through the soil. The light from his room was never on whenever Jean looked over to the other house.
All of this was weighing heavily on Jean and he felt guilty for thinking about himself. It wasn’t his mom who’d gotten in a car crash or his dad that had left town for a medical conference the night after the funeral. It wasn’t like he wasn’t mourning as well; Carla was a bit like a second mother to him. She was a bit like a mother to anyone who came to her. But that wasn’t what was weighing on Jean. Without Eren around, he didn’t feel like he could go along with his normal routine. He felt off and he didn’t like it. He needed to clear his mind.
So in the freaking below freezing weather, Jean went for a walk. Walking around, trying not to get frostbite, he spotted a dark figure in the park, lying on top of the snow. Curiosity got the better of him and it turned out to be a good thing, because it was Eren. He was staring up at the sky and wearing nothing warmer than his stupid green hoodie that he wore even in the summer. The guy didn’t even have gloves on and his body heat probably melted the snow, soaking the back of him.
“Eren, get up.”
Eren ignored him.
“Come on, you’ll get frostbite or something.”
Again, he didn’t answer, but he did turn his head away.
“Mikasa’s going to worry.”
Jean shuffled his feet a bit, digging a little hole in the snow. “I’m worried.”
“Go away, Jean.”
“No.” Instead what he did was sit next to Eren. Now his ass was going to freeze off for Eren’s sake.
“What are you doing?”
Jean snorted. “If you’re going to be stupid enough to freeze to death, I thought you might want some company.”
Eren turned on his side, back facing Jean. The darkened fabric indicated that Jean was right about it being soaked. “I just want to be alone.”
“Well, go be alone somewhere you won’t lose a limb from frostbite.”
Eren shot up, getting into Jean’s face. “Why do you fucking care anyway?”
“Wow, sorry, I thought we were friends.” Eren was a little too close to him; he never had much respect for personal space and once voices were raised, any semblance of respect for that sort of thing was gone.
Eren scoffed. “Yeah, friends totally beat the crap out of each other every other day.”
“Okay so we don’t have sleepovers and talk about our feelings or whatever. You’re just annoying. It doesn’t mean I don’t like you.” He looked at Eren, who could have been shaking in rage, but given the circumstances it was likely that it was mostly from the cold. With a disgusted noise, he shrugged off his coat and flung it onto Eren. “Let’s get inside somewhere. I can feel the snow soaking into my pants and I can only imagine how you must be feeling.”
“Wet and cold,” Eren mumbled, slipping his arms into Jean’s coat, and he was glad that his cheeks were already flushed from the cold. Jean stood up and held out a hand for Eren. They were done arguing and there was only so much numbness Eren could endure before having to face his feelings, physical and otherwise.
They walked together and Jean opened the door to Eren’s house and led him inside to his room. Jean began rifling through Eren’s dresser to get dry clothes for the both of them. Eren’s clothes were a little small for him, but a pair of sweatpants with forgiving elastic would work. He threw some clothes at Eren and started changing out of his wet pants.
“Jean?” Eren’s voice was soft. He sounded so defeated and that put Jean on edge.
“Yeah?”
“Do you really like me?”
Jean turned around and was met with a half-naked Eren looking just as determined as he ever did. Jean made a few sputtering noises before answering. “What a stupid question. I said I did, didn’t I?”
“Why?”
He let out a frustrated groan. Eren really was a lot of trouble. “Because even though you’re an idiot, you’re kind of cool. You’re not willing to put up with anybody’s bullshit, including mine, and I respect that. Now shut up before this gets mushy. I don’t want to talk about our feelings in our underwear.”
The first smile Jean had seen from Eren in a couple weeks played across his face. “You’ve got feelings in your underwear?”
Throwing his pants at Eren, Jean rolled his eyes. “Shut up.”
“Okay, okay.” Eren flopped onto his bed and looked over at Jean. “You staying over, then?”
“Yeah. Someone’s gotta make sure you don’t go running off into the freezing cold again.”
It would be a while before things were more or less back to normal, but Jean didn’t feel so off-put by it. Maybe it had to do with the fact that instead of running off to freeze to death, he’d come over to Jean’s. Sometimes they’d play video games or do homework, but other times Eren would just sit quietly or nap in Jean’s bed. There was something about being around each other that made everything seem okay.