Work Text:
Jean never wanted to go to this stupid Christmas market. It had been organised by the arts department at Trost University and Jean didn't really have high hopes. He grew up in Germany, for fuck’s sake, how could anything his university create compare to the things he had seen all throughout his childhood?
“Stop pulling that face,” Armin chided the taller boy from where he was walking beside him.
Jean rolled his eyes, “What face, Armin? I’m not pulling a face.”
“Trust me, you are,” Armin challenged. “Eren and everyone else in the arts department have worked really hard on this. The least you could do is try to enjoy yourself.”
Jean opened his mouth ready for another retort and looked to his companion.
The tiny blonde had buried his face into his thick blue scarf to indicate the conversation was over; Jean huffed and turned his eyes back to the snow dusted path.
The university campus had been buried in snow for a week now and many students were becoming bored and irritated with the cold weather, not Jean though. Looking around at the other students, watching the path for hidden ice and wrapped in all the winter clothing they owned, Jean had to smile even in his admittedly grumpy mood. The various structures on the campus were all sparkling with frost and covered in a thick sheet of snow, Jean loved it.
He inhaled deeply, loving the way his breath created a tiny cloud before him on the way out. When he was little Jean had always been fascinated by the way the water vapour had glistened in the sun before quickly disappearing, almost as if it had never been there in the first place. It was magical, the science of it completely unknown to a child. Jean still got a little thrill the first day of each year when he stepped outside and immediately his breath fogged up in a delicate little cloud.
Armin’s nose and cheeks were glowing a bright red and Jean could only assume he looked the same, especially since he could actually no longer feel his nose. The chances he looked like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer were high… Almost too high for Jean’s liking.
He pulled his red beanie lower, effectively re-covering his numb earlobes, and tucked his mitten-clad hands into his coat pockets.
~*~*~
The walk to the market wasn’t much further and Jean was actually surprised by how… great it looked. Still nothing compared to home but it was more than the student had expected, way more.
Judging by the way Armin’s blue eyes widened, the taller student could assume Armin hadn’t expected that much either.
The department had used the largest courtyard on campus to set up the market. Right at the centre of the commotion was the usual fountain. Even though it was only just beginning to get dark, fairy lights decorated the structure. The water was no longer flowing but frozen over, reflecting the lights and glimmering brilliantly.
Around the fountain, dancers put on performances. Jean admired a group dancing jazz for a while before they switched with students dancing ballet, he couldn’t help but wonder how none of the dancers seemed at all affected by frostbite in their skimpy Christmas themed outfits. The music being played travelled throughout the courtyard and many people were jiggling and bouncing merrily to the beat as they walked around.
Then beyond the dancing was a copious amount of desks and work benches that had been hauled out of classrooms to create stalls. Each was decorated in colourful table cloths, glitter, fairy lights and bunting. Every desk was laden with an array of items - Christmas cards, potential gifts, decorations, food and a shit tonne of other things. Most of the items on offer were handmade, created by delicate and practiced hands. As Jean and his companion walked past more of the stalls the student picked out other items for sale - paintings, statuettes, jewellery, hand knitted hats and scarves.
Jean took in a deep breath, the whole area smelled great. Stalls everywhere were selling beautifully scented products that filled the air with the smell of festive spices and fresh pine. He spotted a stall selling handmade candles from where he was standing and another selling body care products. Of course there were also the multiple students selling delicious looking food.
Everything was covered in snow and fairy lights that sparkled in the slowly darkening afternoon. It was beautiful. Jean was still incredibly cold but his chest filled with an unexpected warmth.
At last Armin breathed out a little, “Woah.”
Jean nodded and chuckled, “Yeah… woah.”
Both boys’ attention was quickly away from the pastries they were currently longingly staring at as they heard a familiar voice calling out to them. Jean turned to see Eren running towards him and Armin, waving his arm in a wide arc above his snow-dusted head.
“You made it!” Eren said, his mouth pulling up into a huge breathless grin from all his running. The expression made Jean's heart flutter slightly.
“Yeah, turns out I didn’t have as much revision to do as I thought,” Jean replies. That was a complete lie, by the way. Jean had next to no revision to catch up on and he’d known that when he texted Eren earlier that week telling him it was why he couldn’t make the market. He didn't really like lying to Eren but it was only a tiny lie.The excuse was working out just fine until Armin had walked in on Jean having a movie marathon that afternoon and definitely not revising. In the end, a lot of blackmail from Armin had finally convinced the taller blonde to come along.
“Well that’s great!” the brunette enthused. “Really, I’m glad you made it.”
Jean was instantly thankful for the cold-reddened state of his face as he felt a blush rising at Eren’s words.
He shrugged and played it off, “Sure, um, it’s no problem.”
“Hey, shouldn’t you be getting back to your stall?” Armin chimed in.
“Oh…” Eren pulled up the sleeve of his, truly disgusting, Christmas jumper and checked his watch. “Yeah, actually. Connie said he could only watch it for five minutes…”
“How long ago was that?” the shortest student inquired, one blonde eyebrow arched.
“You probably don’t want to know,” Eren commented with a wince. Jean chuckled, trust Eren and his overly-excited nature to get distracted while under a time limit.
Armin turned his eyes on Jean, “You coming with us? Back to the stall?”
Eren looked to him also, gesturing in the direction of his stall, “Come watch me draw for a bit? Please?”
Jean smiled, “Yeah, okay. Why not.”
Eren’s relaxed smile became a little wider and nodded to Jean before turning and leading the way to his market stall, a bounce in his step.
~*~*~
Jean ended up staying at Eren’s stall way longer than he expected he would. The way Eren’s stall worked was that people came, they sat down on one of the stools set out and Eren sketched them. But obviously, this being a Christmas market, the portraits weren’t just normal sketches. Every drawing was tweaked to turn each customer into an elf.
Watching Eren work was absorbing, Jean found himself studying Eren just as intently as the brunette was studying his customers.
Eren’s bright eyes were captivating as he scanned the faces of the student’s he drew keenly and his hand flew across the page at the perfect angles to recreate the person before him. Jean was truly impressed with the speed at which his friend could create such incredible copies of each new face he saw. His face was never the same for more than a minute, always unconsciously copying the customer’s expression as he mapped it out in his sketch book. He was constantly pulling his thick eyebrows in together when he couldn’t quite get something right before he would smile triumphantly and Jean knew Eren had mastered the tricky feature.
Eren was in his element while drawing the elf-like features onto each portrait, in his spare time Eren constantly drew fantasy characters and worlds of magic and myths. Ask Eren about fantasy and you'll be listening for longer than you bargained for. His relaxed grin pulling upwards as his pencil gave each student a pair of pointed ears and various Christmassy accessories – a sprig of holly in their hair, hats, anything the student requested if Eren could draw it.
It was nice. People stopped by every now and again to watch the sketching and Armin made conversation with everyone. Jean wasn’t really one for chatting so he mainly listened and nodded, but having the company was enjoyable.
Eren had just finished drawing a portrait of a sweet red-headed girl named Hannah when the next student stepped up.
“Marco!”
The customer grinned, the action highlighting the dimples in his rosy cheeks. “Hey, Armin!”
Jean and Eren watched the exchange between the two boys in confusion.
Jean had no idea who this boy was but he couldn’t help wishing that he did.
It really wasn’t unusual for the taller student to not recognise Armin’s friends since he was way more social than Jean, but from the look on Eren’s face, the brunette didn’t know this delightfully freckled stranger either. Now that was weird. Eren knew all of Armin’s friends and Armin knew all of Eren’s friends. How could they not? Thy were joined at the hip most days.
Jean looked to his green-eyed companion with a delicate eyebrow arched in question, Eren shrugged as if to confirm he didn’t, in fact, know ‘Marco’ at all.
Seemingly after noticing his companions’ unsure glances, Armin paused his chatting with Marco. He pointed a gloved finger to the dark-haired boy, dressed stylishly in a navy blue pea coat and teal bobble hat.
“This is Marco! I met him that year Ymir and I went on that study trip to Texas!” the small blonde introduces.
Marco waves politely and smiles in the direction of the two other boys. “Hi, that’s me, Marco,” is all he says, the words quiet and unsure despite his large smile.
Jean can’t be sure but he thinks he may have swooned in that moment. Marco’s strong Texan accent was so smooth and his voice was the nicest deep tone, Jean’s now mostly faded German accent couldn't even compete.
Marco was tall and well built. He had tanned skin like Eren’s and freckles were scattered across every inch on show. The glow of the fairy lights around the boys reflected in his eyes, peppering the rich brown with colour. Framing his wide eyes were thick lashes that Marco fluttered every now and again to expel any snow gathered in the light shower.
Marco was so gorgeous. Like… Eren Jaeger levels of beautiful. Jean was, admittedly, stunned.
“Hi,” was all that came from Eren’s mouth, and really, it sounded more of a squeak than an actual word. Jean couldn’t help wondering if it was because the brunette felt the same way as him.
“Yeah… I’m Jean and that’s Eren,” the blonde supplied, waving his hand in Eren’s general direction.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Marco comments. “I even sort of recognised you both.”
"Really?” Eren piped up. “How?”
A nervous chuckle bubbled out of Armin and everyone turned to him. “Well, I’m pretty sneaky, I suppose… When it comes to Snapchat…”
“Oh my gosh, Armin, why?” Eren asked, incredulous. A massive smirk spread across his face, “And you sent enough of them for Marco to recognise us, oh m-”
Eren’s sentence broke off as the brunette started laughing, Jean couldn't help but join him.
“Okay, right,” Eren took a few breaths to calm himself. “You want me to draw you?”
Eren held up his pencil and sketch book before gesturing to the stool in front of the one he occupied.
“I’d love it,” Marco said, a grin on his face.
“Any accessories?” Eren asked, gesturing to the table behind him. “You could choose between some holly, a hat, anything on there?”
“Really, I think this one would suit you great,” Jean said as he unceremoniously pulled Marco’s blue beanie off the boy’s head and replaced it with the most hideous hat Eren had lying on his table.
The hat stood up off Marco’s head in a huge, 3D, knitted monstrosity. It was green in colour and decorated with woolen baubles from the bottom to the knitted star on top. Marco sat still, a look of horror on his face while the other three boys laughed at his expense.
“Jean this is the most disgusting thing I have ever had upon my head, and having three younger brothers who love to play pranks, that’s saying something,” Marco commented as he looked at himself in the front camera of his phone. “Please, please remove it. Now.”
“No, dude, you have to keep it on,” Jean said, unable to hold back the smirk splitting his face.
“For one pound extra, I’ll tweak it in the picture so it doesn't look so ugly,” Eren said, his face lit up with the biggest smile.
“One pound?” Armin, chimed in, his voice full of mock-shock. “Making that look good is gonna take way more than one pound’s worth of work.”
Jean pulled his brows inwards and made a stroking action beneath his chin, as if stroking an imaginary beard, “Hmm, I see what you mean.”
“Really, who could miss it – look at that thing,” Eren managed before he burst out laughing.
“Fine… Just do it. Draw it how it is, too. I can deal,” Marco said, finally giving in.
“Brilliant,” Armin commented.
“Excellent,” Jean agreed, still snickering at Marco’s resigned features.
And with that Eren got to work, sketching Marco – mapping out the freckled boy’s features on the page with precise lines. As the green eyed boy drew they spoke about various things and soon Jean, Marco and Eren were engrossed in easy conversation.
Marco, who turned out to be cousins with Ymir, had met Armin when they were in Texas last year and the freckled relatives had met up. He liked living in Texas but hoped to come over to England permanently; apparently the money was slowly coming together. He studied photography and drama. He enjoyed baking, although not so much when his younger siblings ‘helped’. Swimming too. They knew Marco Bodt - not 'butt' as it was pointed out - pretty well by the time the drawing was done.
~*~*~
When Eren finished the portrait he handed it over to Marco who was more than pleased with the result. He gushed about how good it was to Eren for what must have been almost ten minutes and Jean lost count of how many times Eren said thank you, always one to take compliments gracefully.
“Thanks again, it’s really amazing,” Marco grinned as he took the rolled up portrait and turned to leave.
“Hey!” Eren called out.
Marco whipped back around to look at Eren, “Yeah?”
Eren gestured to his own head, “If you liked it that much I may have given it to you, but stealing? Marco, I thought you were better than that.”
"Hmm, are you sure? I thought he had the feeling of an outlaw from the moment he showed up," Jean joked.
Marco’s hands flew up to his head to find he was still wearing the knitted Christmas tree on his head. “Oh! Shit! I’m sorry, I’ve had my beanie on all day and it just felt the same!”
Eren chuckled and waved his hands in dismissal of Marco’s apologies, “It’s no problem, haha, but I would like it back.”
Marco smiled sheepishly and gave the hat back to the brunette, “Uhh, where did my hat go?”
All eyes turned to Armin. Marco’s hat sat nicely upon his blonde head, the teal hue matching that of his scarf and highlighting his bright eyes.
“What? I was cold, okay?” Armin begrudgingly removed the hat and gave it to its rightful owner.
Marco smoothed his black hair down, cutely mussed from switching hats, and pulled the bobble hat on.
“Thanks again…” Marco’s cheeks gained a dusting of pink before he choked out the next part, “Why don’t you two maybe come see me at my stall later? I’d like that.”
And with that Marco was hurrying away, his bobble hat a bright spec in the sea of people.
“Wait, Marco’s helping out at a stall?” Eren asked of Armin.
“Yeah,” Armin confirmed with a nod of his head. “He’s putting in a helping hand with Ymir and Christa’s.”
“Oh… He seemed really flustered,” Jean pointed out.
Armin smiled knowingly, “It’s a kissing booth. Mistletoe, cinnamon lip balm, the full works. Guys, girls and non-binary folk alike ready to pucker up... Including our freckled friend.”
Eren and Jean looked to one another with wide eyes before looking back to their blonde friend.
Almost simultaneously the words left their mouths and they were off:
“Armin, watch the stall.”
The hat Marco's wearing: x
Gaia's tumblr (You should check out their beautiful art): x