Chapter Text
Birthmarks were supposed to be romantic. They said your soulmate would have a matching one, and that when you met said soulmate, it would glow and feel warm. So, romantic, right?
A unicorn. A god damn unicorn.
That was Jean's special symbol. He cursed his luck for it, wondering what sort of soul mate he would have if that was the birthmark.
Not that he was all that manly and tough himself, as an aspiring artist. His specialty seemed to be landscapes at the moment, with canvases and sketchbooks full of clear blue skies full of lines of colored smoke, a bloodstained forest floor, an unbelievably tall wall with beautiful little purple flowers scattered about the ground before it. Many were awed, both by his talent, and by the haunting beauty of them. Such works had only recently started being produced, just in his Senior year of high school, varying greatly from his former works. It was an improvement though, so he certainly never questioned it, especially as it won him a lot of praise--and scholarships.
And so, Jean did have his plate full with plenty of big decisions at the end of his final school year, and little time to worry about soulmates and unicorn birthmarks. And still he did somehow find the time to worry about such things, in between college applications and final exams. Little did he know, all of that would seem insignificant soon.
Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Jean's phone vibrated in signal of a phone call. It wasn't out of the ordinary--he'd received plenty of calls from schools asking him to make a decision or to wanting him to apply to their school. But this one was a little bit different.
"Th-The Survey Corps University! No way... they're... the best of the best!" It was his dream school, and they were calling him? It was beyond his wildest dreams, he had figured he would be lucky to even be considered. Quickly, he picked up the phone, sliding his finger across the screen to answer it. "H-Hello, Jean Kirschtein speaking." He said, his mouth suddenly dry as he tried to speak.
"Hello Mister Kirschtein. Or may I call you Jean?" The man spoke with a strong commanding voice of a leader.
"Uh, yes, sir, you may." Jean said, sounding more intimidated than he probably should have been.
"Okay Jean. My name is Erwin Smith. Oh, and you don't need to call me sir. Just Erwin will be fine."
"Yes sir! I-I mean... Erwin." Jean replied too quickly.
There was a heavy sigh on the other end before there was the sound of the phone being moved, and Erwin's voice, muffled, speaking to another. "Guys, I'm no good at this. I sound like the Commander, not some potential friend. You talk to him!" Jean furrowed his brows, confused by this. Was Erwin once in the military? And why would he want to come off as a friend. Another voice, more annoyed, and more muffled, spoke.
"Don't look at me. I'm not dealing with the brat!"
"He was part of your squad for some time you know." That was Erwin speaking again, and confusing Jean ever more than the man had done previously.
"Have the blond talk to him then. They were in the cadets together, right?" That was the annoyed sounding man again, but after a moment of shuffling, there was another, younger voice speaking to Jean.
"Jean?"
"Uh, hello?" Jean's voice showed his confusion.
"Hi, sorry about that. I'm Armin. Do you... know me at all?"
Jean was definitely confused. "No...? Should I?"
"It's okay Jean. I didn't expect you too. They were the ones with high hopes for the memories somehow being triggered randomly. I guess your paintings didn't help with that."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"
Armin did not explain further. "Does the name mean Mikasa mean anything to you Jean?"
"Mikasa?" Jean really didn't understand what was going on. "No."
"Damn it, I thought for sure it was the soulmate thing--and that Mikasa was your..." The other trailed off, so Jean tried to further the conversation, and to help Armin, though he wasn't sure how much he cared for this school and getting in anymore.
"I, uh... If you wanna know about my... soulmate... thing... Does a unicorn mean anything to you?"
"A unicorn? That's stran--" Armin sounded confused, but then stopped suddenly, "Wait like the Military Police? Is it like a profile of a unicorn's head?"
Jean scowled, but was somewhat impressed. "How do you know that?"
"Oh my god I had it all wrong. It's not Mikasa. It's--Jean, are you sitting down? This might be hard to take."
"What?" Jean didn't know what was going on, but he stopped his nervous pacing for a moment to sit down. "Uh, yeah."
"Marco." was all Armin said. But it was all he needed to say, as with that word, Jean was attacked with a barrage of memories, a strange foreign world, where people didn't have soul mate birthmarks, where man-eating giants called titans ruled the Earth, and Erwin and Armin were familiar names--hell, Jean even recognized the other voice on the line--Corporal Levi; it had to be him. Even more though, memories of Marco, Marco, Marco rang through his mind. Meeting him, plans to join the Military Police, always spouting words of encouragement, and worse, his death, his death, his god damn death! "Jean! Jean! Are you alright? Are you still there? Jean?" Armin's voice called to him from far away.
But all Jean heard was Marco's soft voice speaking to him gently. "Jean! We graduated in the top ten! We get to join the Military Police! We did it!" "You always seem to know what's right Jean." "Jean, you're not strong. So you understand how the weak feel." "Jean." "Jean." "Jean."
"Jean!" With Armin's shout, Jean suddenly came back to reality.
"Shiiiiiiit. Ughh." Jean was now more collapsed in the chair than he was actually sitting, and his head was throbbing.
"Are you okay?" Armin asked. "Do... do you remember now?"
"Yeah, I'll live. And yeah, sorry about that Arlert." How could Jean not have remembered? "I don't know how-"
"It's nothing to worry about. From what I get, it takes either the name or the sight of your soulmate to trigger the memories. So far it's always been someone we knew from that life, for us at least."
Jean chuckled. "So Erwin and Levi then? Who's your true love?"
"I-It's n-no one important!" Armin protested, stuttering.
Jean laughed even louder. "So is that all then? Just you three?" He had to ask.
"Unfortunately." Armin said, sounding a little sad. "Well, four of us now, right?"
"Yeah, I guess so." Jean agreed. It wasn't like he could abandon them now that he'd found them. "So does that mean that I've been accepted th--wait a minute! Am I joining the god damn Survey Corps again??"
Jean could hear loud laughter from the others as the phone was handed off to Erwin. "Yes Cadet Kirschtein, welcome to the Survey Corps!" The man teased. Jean groaned, but laughed along with them. He might pretend not to enjoy it, but he really appreciated the bunch of people he grew to care about in the Survey Corps.
If only Marco had been there too.