Work Text:
Pieck was hardworking.
Jean knew that from the stories about how good of a warrior she used to be, stories that Reiner would usually tell them when reminising old memories sometimes.
He underestemated the Cart Titan for so long, even after Pieck proved herself agile and skilled with her titan powers, Jean still had in mind she couldn't have much of a chance against other Titan shifters. So how the hell was she so praised amongst the Warrior Unit?
He understood that once he got the chance to actually work with her.
It only took him 2 weeks and a few days being her coworker and comrade to realise that she was committed, diligent and demanding. Too much of a perfeccionist for someone who refused to make their own bed after claiming It was a waste of time, as she would turn the sheets into a mess all over again at the end of the day.
Jean had already observed enough of her to know she used the work as a escape route. And hell, he knew they all needed some sort of escape from reality... He himself was still trying to find some sort of escape, too
The taller man would notice how her demeanor would change once she entered on field, or a meeting, or anything diplomatic realated. Her knolowedge on history of the countries around the world -some countries he still didn't know existed- made her one of the best ambassadors of the Alliance in such a short time.
The reason why Armin had asked Historia to assign her as their superior on this particular job.
Jean was currently chopping off wood. Dress shirt untucked on, sleeves rolled up to his uper arms, sweat gathering up on his forehead, damping his hair. The ruthless sun of Solager Isle beaming down on him made him unvoluntarely unbutton the top of his white blouse.
"Why are you doing this again?" Reiner's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"That's what were here for" he answered as if Ii was the most logical statement ever.
The ambassadors of Pardis had succefully closed a deal with the another island country. One of the few nations that were still standing. A succefull trade was settled: food and places in Paradis for solagerian settlemets in exchange for coal.
Paradisian workers assigned for the job on the mines were busy building camp close to the ore site. Some of the strongest were also told to built a securty cabin responsible for the recievement of the soon to be mined coal.
Jean's briliant mind thought he could keep up with those construction workers.
"We're here to be the diplomatic bridge between the paradisian workers and the civilians of Solager. We should be supervising them" Reiner commented, almost roboticly. He clearly had had the hardest time memorizing exactly what they were supposed to say when asked what they were doing on that foreign land.
"You're just repeating Armin at this point" Jean answered wipping the sweat of off his forehead. " There's nothing wrong with giving them a little hand"
Reiner just shrugged, leaning on the truck in wich they were driven to the site, and kept his eyes on his folder filled with archives, mostly written in Marleyan eldian. Jean frowned. The workers were mostly paradisian.
Pieck was probably the one who gave him those papers.
"Walls! Why is it so hot?!" Jean whined out loud, while chopping off another piece of wood. Reiner just chuckled.
"I told you. You should be putting your disposition and energy into something you are actually supposed to do. Who do you think you're impressing by chopping off a bunch of wood just so you can show off your muscles, huh?" The blonde man teased.
Oh, that little shit.
"I'm not trying to impress anyone, what are you talking about?! I'm just trying to help"
Reiner suddenly seemed really taken aback by Jean's change of mood.
"Alriiight! I was just teasing you" Reiner even thought about teasing him further about his little outburst, but his realtionship with Jean had just started to get on tracks, though Reiner feared they would never be the same no matter what he did.
"You're the one doing nothing for the entire day and I'm the one who gets poked fun at" He mumbled to himself, annoyed by the small teasing Reiner only thought about indulding on him.
"Uh-oh. She's pissed" Reiner said out loud, but when Jean looked at him, he noticed the blonde man was most likely talking to himself.
He was staring a the horizont, finger fidgeting through the sheets of paper inside his folder.
Jean followed his eyes to see Pieck marching towards them. Hadn't the ash-brown haired man been wearing this fedora to block away the sunlight, he would've missed the scow on her face.
"Maybe she's squinting because of the sun..."
"Braun, we were supposed to meet the ambassadors at the front site five minutes ago!" She fummed at him, finger pressing up his chest.
Second name calling. That should be fun.
Jean had never seen her that angry, but again, he hadn't seen much of her to form a concrete opinion yet. Almost two months were enough to witness some of her quirks and calm nature. He was still not familiar with this side of Pieck.
At that moment, he couldn't help but laugh at the way Reiner looked so scared.
"We still have five minutes left actually" The blonde replied, poiting to his wrist watch.
"You were supposed to pick me up at the compond and drive us to the front site, they're gonna be there in five. And I had to walk all the way over here because you forgot to pick me up. Do you think this truck is here for you to lean on it, or for you to actually drive it?"
"I was going to get to you whitin the five minutes we have left." He defended himself.
"Five minutes is the time that it's going to take for us to meet them there! Did the sun fried up your brain?" Jean chuckes behind them, making the tiny woman glance at him.
His smile imediatly droped.
"Oh, care to explain what is going on with you?" Pieck directed the question at Jean, while poiting at his clothes.
"Hum... What's wrong?" Jean asked, genuinely confused.
"You're sweaty and filthy, your hair is a mess, and you better buttom up your damn shirt by the time they get here. Why do you have an axe? Are you, perhaps, assigned to work field?" She bombarded him with complained about his appearence. The unquiet hetic behavior looked weird on her. Jean was used to the calm, centered, paciente version of Pieck. And now he was being put up against the walls by a compleatly diferent version of her persona.
She was the person he knew the least among their group, so Jean had to constantly remind himself that he should stop being suprised by the other sides of her personality that would most likely show up sooner or later, as if he already had Pieck all figured out. Because he didn't.
She was, in fact, the most mysterious character he had ever come across... and he had met Levi for years. The fact that he was still on the process of getting to know her meant that he would definetly be suprised by her out of character actions more often.
"I was done with the welcoming, and most of these people don't even speak my language so I figure I'd help in some other way" he swag the axe to rest it's handle on his shouders.
"Do you even know how these workers are doing the construction? You might think you're helping when you're actually doing exactly the oposite!" Pieck tried to clarify.
"How do you know that?" Jean decided, against his better judgment, to spark the little argument further.
"Jean, are you an engineer?" She asked suddenly calm this time.
"20% of the train tracks of paradis were built by the scouts-"
"Do you know how to raise an entire structure from the ground and keep it standing for more than half a day?" She interrupted him, since the argument he was indulging on wasn't very convincing.
"Well, nome of us know how to be ambassadors and yet here we are"
Pieck's face changed from sligtly annoyed to compelatly concearn.
Jean figured that she was nervous. Anxious actually. She was supposed to be in charge of that expecific branch of the trade, and right now she felt like everything was out of her control. It made sense for her to snap like that. He could take the blame this time and stop arguing with her. Also impliying that she was not ambassador material when that was exactly the reason why she felt everything was going wrong probably wasn't the best call either.
Stupid.
Before he could open his mouth to apologize. She squinted her eyes shut, hands brushing the strands of hair that had loosen off of her ponytail.
''Just... please, can you try to look presentable by the time their prime minister get here?'' She pleaded, looking exalsted. ''it took us two weeks to get on their good graces, we can't afford any mistakes. You were the one who said first impressions are important''
Jean did understand her affliction. Everything need to be perfect. Just because Solager Island agreed with their terms - mostly because of Pieck herself by the way- It didn't mean that all ambassadors and ministers were on board. They had tons of expectations to fufill
He nodded silently. Putting the axe down and and fixing he wet strings of his bangs under his ferdora.
''Don't worry. I will'' He anwsred assurently.
Pieck smiled. Well, almost. He saw the relief taking over her features. She trusted him, more than he ever did her. Even in such a small thing like fixing his clothes before meeting higher ups of a different society, it was still good to know she had a little faith in him.
''Maybe start by taking off this stupid hat" She complained again, climbing up the truck bed, while Reiner mad his way to the passager door, but not before jean saw the smug smile on his face.
''it's a fedora...'' He replied whispering, making sure it was low enough for her to not hear him.
He already knew at this point that all politicians were dirty scumbags. It was little the ones who actually cared for the world or even their own people, and politicians were definetly even worse after the rumbling. Every minister caring only about the beneficts of their own country. Jean couldn't really blame them for that, the world governments that weren't in pieces would have to be very careful in order to keep standing.
But that was no excuse for one of the ambassadors of the Island use of his remaining prejudice towards eldians as an excuse to try and weaken the Alliance between the two nations.
He finally understood the perfectionism of Pieck when meeting ambassador Gustus, the one who looked at him up and down twice before accepting his hand shake. Even though he had already fixed his clothes as promissed, even putting back on his tie despite the heat, he still had the appearence of a worker who had been under the Sun for the entire day, as oppose as the fancy looks the solagerian ministers and diplomacts were wearing right now. Hell, as oppose as Reiner and Pieck themselves.
They weren't hostile, but Jean saw some resistance from Gustus part. The eldian ambassadors were glad the trade between countries was already settle by their prime minister and Historia herself, though It would still be hard for them to get into some of their polictians good graces. Everytime Jean remember he was some sort of a politician himself, he felt the urge to throw up.
After the fatige day, filled with meetings, welcomings and the hottest weather he's experienced in a while, Jean decided to worry about diplomacy and work another day.
He had bigger preocupations on his mind right now. Like his sunburn.
Jean was thankfull he only had taken off his shirt only during the morning period because he was sure the mid day sun would've roasted his skin.
But the aching of the burns was bothering him, especially now that he's finished showering.
That was the precise reason he was now walking amongst the tents around the camp, trying to find the especific acommodation where he could seek help for his problem. Acording to Reiner, at least.
All the tents were the same. The only difference is that dliplomats and ambassadors, as well as ministers, were set inside the compound while the worker's tents were scattered outside, the construction and mine workers also had to share tents amongst them, while the higher ups such as him had tents for all themselves. The hierarchy privilege also made him unconfortable.
The only hint Jean had that the tent he was standing in front of now was Pieck's tent, was themelodic humming coming from the inside. The younger man had also noticed that was a habit of hers; humming and sometimes even quietly singing when distracted.
''Hey Pieck, I need your hel-'' He flung the courtain tent open, and imediate regret washed over him at the sight of the woman in her towel.
Only in her towel.
Actually, some of the towel was failing to fully cover her upper body. When her hand snaped up to her chest in order to keep the towel in place, Jean finally understood the situation he was in.
''Oh shit! Sorry. I'm so sorry I should've asked before entering'' Jean flustered, turning around imediatly, putting his left hand in front of her small figure, as if that would've help him forget the image of her dripping wet body that was already attached to his mind.
''Yes, you should've'' He listened to her voice, and even though he couldn't see her expression, he could tell she was calm by the tone of her voice. As oposed to him, who was currently a flustered mess.
"The showers are all over there inside the compound, I never though you would be changing here'' He tried to justify himself, eyes closed shut.
''Jean...'' Pieck's voice broke his babling. She cleaned her throat before continuing'' Leave''
She still didn't sound mad. Just unconfortable. Understandably.
''Right...I'll go'' Jean answered, still with his eyes shut, making his way out of her tent, only to hit his head on the wood supporter. ''ouch, sorry, ha. I'm leaving'' He tried again, this time going direclty to face textile wall of the tent.
"Maybe open your eyes so you can see the exit'' Pieck said from behind.
''yes, maybe'' He replied laughing nervously, exiting the tent in seconds. The air was hotter somehow, even outside of the stuffed tent.
Jean needed a few seconds to process the embarassment of waking in on her co-worker pretty much half naked. He hadn't seen anything, but it surely was an awkward position. And he took some extra seconds to join all his forces on not repeating the moment on his head. Especially the few seconds his eyes ligered on her short frame.
Best to forget about that.
''What do you need?'' Pieck asked behind him, starteling Jean a little.
Jean turned to find her fully dressed this time, still barefoot, towel wrapped around her head, driplets of water roling over her cheeks.
did she just put on clothes on light speed or did he lost track of time?
Her face was blank, no evident embarassment whatsoever. Jean on the other hand, could barely hold his gaze onto her for more than 3 seconds, dropping his eyes to the floor so he could remember the reason why he was there in the first place.
''I don't know if you've noticed, but i'm a little sunburnt.'' He said lifting his eyes to her again, but still unable to meet her gaze.
''Really? I thought that was just you flustered'' She commented snarky. He almost choked up on his own spit.
Not sure if she was being sarcastic or if she actually meant it -he could never tell it with her-. Jean just ignored, yaerning for that whole embarrasment to end.
''s-so... Reiner mentioned you might have something that helps with the burns.'' He pointed to his face, as if the redness wasn't already obviouss to any ocular witness.
The same redness that made Reiner concerned enough to give him the intel that had brough him to the current situation. At the mention Pieck, Reiner decided to use the oportunity to also praise his old firend. ''She's isnt aways like that.'' ''she was nervous today'' ''She's the nicest person I grew up with in Marley'' ''I bet she's not even mad anymore''.
Jean thought that Reiner justifying Pieck's earlier reaction was his desperate way of trying and keeping things between ex-warrior and ex-scouts aways as friendly as possible. Annie had also grown up with the scouts and warrios, but things seemed different with Reiner. While Annie always kept her goal in her mind during Paradis mission, Reiner got lost, and the bound he's created with the group had aways been way stronger than Annie's.
Jean saw his attepts to aproach Pieck to the rest of the group as an act of conciliating of both of his worlds. And also he knew both former enemies were close, and Reiner wanted to keep Pieck close to them instead of the isolation state she put herself in the first months following the rumbling.
''I can help you with that. But first, did you put on the sunscreen gave you?''
His lack of response made her shook her head slightly. ''honestly, Jean...'' She whispered dramaticly.
The waiting was agonizing. Every single footstep he heard oustide of his tent would make him get up from his bed abruptaly.
After Pieck asked him to wait untill she got her things ready, and that she would meet him in his tent, Jean was left alone with his thoughts, and the only thought that came to mind was the embarassment from earlier.
And the fact that Pieck was about to meet him again made his heart pound. He wanted to hide. He didnt want to reminissen on the shame by seeing her again, knowing his mind would betray him and replay the scene over and over as long as he had his eyes on her. He didn't want to see her until the shame had dissapeared compelatly.
But also... he was expecting her. Jean wouldn't have agreed to her coming over to his tent to help with his sunburn, if he was compleatly taken over by shame.
No.
He wasn't expecting her.
He jus wanted the whole thing to be over soon... yeah, maybe that was it.
That was it.
''can I come in?'' Jean heard the soothing voice. Sitting up imediatly, quickly fixing his curled up pillow as if Pieck would notice something like that. She wasnt Levi, for wall's sake.
''yeah, sure come in'' He cringed at how roboticaly he sounded. He thought he had practiced the control of her voice for long enough before she arrived.
Also, he had just thought about how that was how things should've gone earlier before he entered her tent, unanonced. He cringed even harder. Closing his eyes shut, only opening them when he heard her steps inside.
She was properly dressed right now... Oh, not in the sense that she was not wearing clothes before; but the clothes she was wearing when she exited the tent in order to talk to him after their...encounter, were neatly tucked in her long black skirt now, buttomed up until her colar bone. she had shoes on, and her hair was combed down, still wet though. He noticed a brown satchel hanging over her shoulders.
Her face was slightly pink too. He figured she had sunburns herself. -There was no way she was blushing. Pieck carried too much confidence for someone who was just caught wrapping herself on a towel- had she taken a few more seconds to properly cover herself up, Jean would've seen-
No! no... Not the time to think about that. Actually, he shouldn't think about that. Ever.
Jean was still embarassed about what happened. He just wanted to understand why she wasn't.
"You look like a shrimp" She sudenly broke the silence.
He grimaced in response. Jean hadn't seen many shrimps on his life, but he knew they were of a pinkish color... much like him righ now.
''you, too, look very pink'' He replied annoyed. She just exhaled loudly.
''I'm not remotly as sunburt as you,'' Pieck responded, finaly opening the satchel and pulling out a container of a transparent liquid. She also put the long fat weird looking leaves on the shelf next to his makeshift bed. ''because I've put on sunscreen''
Again with the sunscreen...
''I had my fedora on the entire time!'' Jean tried to justify. Pieck looked at him, bewildered and amused at his poor excuse. A smug smile threatening to apear on her lips due to his naiveness. ''It's not my fault for not being used to this weather from hell, not even Paradis is this hot during summer''
She turned her gaze away from him, looking rather busy while cutting off some of the leaves that were on the top shelf and crushing them in a bow along with the liquid of the container.
''Jean, do you know why this country is called Solager Isle?'' Pieck started to speak, still not looking at him. She spoke with a soft resonance she usually used when trying to teach them something, or when she was about to tell another outside world fun fact that he didn't know yet.
He hated when people talked to him like he was a child. But Pieck had an unique way to do so... and he dared to say that he even liked when she spoke using that tone. Especially after finally getting to know her feisty angry mode earlier on that day. He'd take the soflty spoking Pieck over that anytime.
''Solager means 'land of the sun' in their old native language'' Pieck explained, and twisted her lips to contain a small giggle. Unsucessfully. Jean glared at her at the sound of her almost laughter. ''It's literally the name of the country, Jean!'' She blurted out, finally alowing herself to laugh.
He really must've looked terrible for her to mock and laugh at him like that.
"It's not like I knew about that. I don't go around serching the etimology of every country we visit.'' He mumbled, watching Pieck mix the now weird moist on the bow. It smelled... distinct.
''But I do. And I told you guys that... Right before I gave you sunscreen!''
''You did not!'' He exclaimed.
''Yes, I did. I said 'this is the land of the sun, so you better use sunblock' She repeated the words she said to them coming off of the airplane, two days ago.
''That could've meant anything'' Jean responded again.
''well, suprisingly, it meant that this place is really hot.'' She shot him a sarcastic look, taking the bow she was busy with closer to him.
Realizing he was entering another argument with her, he decided to drop the subject. She did warn him one way or another... and now that disgusting paste on the bow was about to be his punishment.
''is this smelly goop going on my face?'' He asked poiting at the bow.
''What? Coconut oil smells amazing'' Weirdly enough, it was the first time she sounded offended that night.
''I know how coconut oil smells like and that's not it'' Jean tured his face away from the bow, sinalizing his disgust.
''oh it's mixed with aloe vera... it does not smell bad, come on'' Pieck answered not even giving him time to process what she was doing, when she dipped her hand on the bow and brought it's content on his left cheek.
His eyes wilded immediatly. In a metter of seconds Pieck closed a great amount of distance between them, and was now centimeters away from his face.
"Sorry, do you want to do it yourself?" She whispered bringing her hand back, and moving away from him.
She must've noticed his discomfort.
He didn't mean to push her away, but he wasn't used to such proximity.
Unlike Pieck, aparently.
Jean was actually intriged about how unbothered she was on such matter. His mind lingering on the fact that she barely flinched when he almost saw her naked, and how she's carried on the situation so casualy.
So casualy, that he himself had forgotten the embarassment from earlier until that point.
And now he was blushing again. Thank you Land of the Sun for the sunburn already making him red. He took the bow from her hands and started scrubbing his face with It himself. Pieck understood the cue to get up from his bed.
"are you sunburnt anywhere else?" She asked, standing up in front of him.
"yeah, a little bit on my back, but I think its ok" He assured, finishing putting on the goo paste over his face.
Pieck tilted her head to the side. Brows furred. She reached for her satchel again.
"take off your shirt" Pieck said causually and Jean almost chocked up on his saliva.
"w-what?" Jean stoped what he aws doing to look at her with a mix of confusion and wilded eyes.
''I need to see how bad it looks'' She answered as if it was obvious.
''Are you a doctor?'' He asked sarcasticly, still not giving into her request
''Do you want me to call an actual doctor here?'' Pieck asked, also ironicaly ''they're going to scold you for almost getting insolation and will prescript you the exact same thing I gave you... And will tell you to put on sunscreen'!"
Oh if he hears the word sunscreen one more time...
''Fine'' He mumbled, unbotuning his shirt, again thanking all the gods for the fact that his skin was already red.
Jean was confident about his body. Growing up on military had it's perks, and he knew he didn't look bad at all. But he did felt intimidated taking off his shirt for the sole reason of having it analized by a pretty woman.
Also that was the first time he addimited finding her pretty.
Also the same woman he almost saw naked.
Stop brain, stop.
He's a grown ass man for wall's sake. Why was he suddenly acting like a 15 year old virgin.
Jean raised his eyes to meet hers the moment his shirt as laid on the bed next to him. He watched her reaction closely... trying to decode what she was thinking of his nude upper body.
As usual, he got nothing from her blank expression.
Jean coudn't tell if she liked what she saw, or if she hated it or if she didnt care at all.
Sometimes he would think that woman was made of stone, but then she would do things that would melt people like butter... She was a contrast to her own self.
''remember when I said you looked like a shrimp?'' Pieck broke the silence ''You actually look like a lobster.''
Seriously? the redness on his body was only thing she noticed?
Jean was frustrated, and he had a hint on why. He valued her opinion, professionaly wise... and now, aparently, personaly wise, too. It was some sort of deception the fact that he seemenly didn't get her approval on that matter.
He stood silently.
"Jean, how did this happen? did you burn through your shirt?'' She asked perplexed. Sitting down on the bed again, this time, his back was facing her.
''I had my shirt off for a while, but only for a couple of hours'' He answered, worried about getting scolded again.'' is it that bad?''
''If you could see your back right now you would cry... I actually think you might've gotten insolation. Do you have any headaches?''
''No, I'm fine'' He replied. That's what he meant by people melting towards her soft persona. She seemed to care, in a neutral way. It confused him a lot.
''If you do, you should go see an actual doctor. '' She reached for the bow on his hands again, ''Do you mind if I put some on your back?'' she pointed to the paste she brewed.
''Oh... go ahead'' He couldn't reach his back anyways... and it was way better to have her not facing him during this awkward situation.
I didn't take long for him to feel the chill of the cold paste in contact with his hot skin, and he couldnt tell if the temperature was coming from her hands, too. Jean could feel her hands softly massaging his back. He could tell she was being carefull to not make his discomfort worse.
It was actually refreshing to have someone easing the ache of the burns like that.
''I guess were even now, huh?'' He heard her whispering drom behind him.
Oh?
Oh... that.
Of course that was the snarky coment on his topless form that she decided to drop.
He was so glad she couldn't see his face right now, and kinda disapointed for not being able to take a glace on her expression himself.
''yeah... '' He started ''about earlier... I'm really sorry.'' Jean pursed his lips. He really hoped she was talking about their earlier situation now. Either that, or he just made things worse.
"It's fine, don't worry.'' She brushed it off, laughing a bit.
Jean realized that could be the perfect moment to finally take that weight of his shoulders.
''it's not fine, I should've been more careful'' He adimitted.
''These things are... bound to happen when people get together on makeshift camps. It's happened a lot before. '' She tried to calm him down. Funny how she was the one trying to ease his discomfort when he was the one who had put her on an uncomfortable position. '' Ask Reiner'' She conclueded.
Reiner?
did Reiner see her... like that?
''ah, so Reiner has done the same before? I can't belive I made the same mistake as him.'' He cringed at his own response.
''Oh no! Reiner never did that to me.'' She corrected his line of thoughts ''He walked in on Porco...'' Pieck answered, her tone lightening up a bit
He find it funny how much she was having fun remember this situation.
Pieck loved sharing stories about her friends. If it was with Reiner and Annie, or with the ex scouts, she aways talked about them as if they were still there, as if they had never been mortal enemies before. Jean had a hint that it was her way of coping with their lost.
''Colt walked in on me though.'' She started again. Dipping her hand back in the bow. Taking her sweet time massaging his sore skin. '' It was worse with him... He actually saw me. Poor kid couldn't look straight in my eye for two months''
''That was the first time I did that to someone... I'm sorry it had to be with you'' Jean said, sincerely.
''Please stop apologizing. It's no big deal.'' She got up from bed, and Jean assumed she was done with his back. Imediatly missing her refreshing hands. ''If I took you for a pervert I woud've been ofended, but you...'' Pieck hesitated, and then turned to look at him ''You are a nice guy Jean.''
He was taken aback by that a little bit.
Of course their interaction started a little rocky. Trying to kill each other and all of that did put some barriers on their relationship. Even after saving each other's lives during the rumbling... when the high and fear of imnent death desapeared and they were forced back into each others lives, he could tell they still have some issues against each other bottled up.
That was the first time that Pieck admited thinking he was genuinly a good person.
And for someone who, weirdly so, aways looked for her expecifical aproval, that was exhilirating.
''So are you'' He mumbled the compliment back. '' I mean... not a nice guy. You are a nice girl. Woman'' Jean sttutered mid phrase.
Very smooth.
Why was it so hard for him to compliment her without looking like a mess?
Pieck smiled at him, and he couldn't tell if it was for his sttuter state, or if she was acutally happy about his confession.
That was also the first time he told her that she was a good person, too.
''I'm not sure about that, but thanks'' She whispered facing the ground, setteling the letter strap of the satchel straight over her shoulders.
He understood the sentiment. It felt impossible for people like them to be good after doing so many things wrong.
'' I think we're both doing a decent job on being as good as people like us can be.''His response got her attention. Pieck lifter her gaze, looking so straight at him. Jean felt like she was analysing his soul for a moment.
The pink on her cheeks made her eyes stood out. They were grey. Jean has never noticed that before. The glowing of her irises suited that color.
He'd aways thought her eyes were black, like her hair, and now that he knew they were colored like he charcoal they have been mining on that island, he could even see some hints of silver on her drowsy orbs
She looked the prettiest he's ever seen her. The confidence she was carrying recently helped her to keep that posture.
A sad smile lingered on her lips, and he felt a lump on his throat begging to be swallowed down ''I still think you're doing better than me.'' She responded.
Jean would usually feel flattered, but it was a delicated topic. He decided not to coment on that. Truth being, he still was speechless for being attentivly watched by her charcoal grey eyes. And her recently showered smell was starting to intoxicate him. What the fuck was happening?
He grabbed his shirt and started to put it on.
''What are you doing?!'' She asked suddenly, breaking the sincere mood they seemed to have entered seconds ago.
"Anh...putting my shirt back on" he responded, confused.
"Don't do that now. You need to wait for it to dry off" She explained, and Jean frowned.
"Is that really necessary?" He was starting to think that the whole exposure thing was too much.
Maybe that was Pieck's clever, much less harmfull way to get back at him for seeying too much of her.
"Yes, you don't want it to rub off on your sheets." She said, while colecting her utensiles and putting them all back on her satchel. "Don't forget to put some of the coconut oil on your back tomorrow morning again... And please-
"I'll wear sunscreen" he cut her speech, making her look at him again.
He took in the sight of her. Mouth slightly open, wet hair falling over her eyes, and also... the smell coming out of it. Coconut? He held back a smile catching the irony. Coconut smelled better on her.
"Learned your lession." Pieck smiled back at him. Not the cute, sof smile she usualy gave him. It was the cocky, smug smile that Jean didn't know until then that he liked so much. He also liked the way she said that phrase. Very much so.
Turning around to make her way out of the tent, she waved him goodbye.
Once he was alone, he found himself emerged in thoughts again.
Jean couldn't sleep that night for some reason...A reason compleatly diferent than the usual ones-that mostly inclueded night terrors.
He found himself fighting the urge to replay the scene of Pieck only in her towel on his head again.
It was so wrong to indulge on that. He was not a pervert. He did want Pieck to be able to trust her judgment on him being a nice man, and that he wouldn't think of her on that way after seeing her so vulnerable.
At some point of the night, he finally admitted to himself that he found her atractive. He already knew she was pretty. If it wasn't obvious by the effect she had on other men and women, it would only take a look on her delicated yet stricking features to know that she was an atractive person.
But him finding her attractive was another thing. And that was the very first time he was feeling that gravitation towards her.
It was better to just admit his attraction at that point. What he was going to do with that information, was a whole diferent thing.
He couldn't help but found It rushed how before that trade was even established, he didn't even considered her a friend. And now he was skipping to think about her on his dreams.
Jean knew it wasn't a crush, much less that he was in love with her. Which made it even worse. It was in fact, nothing more than carnal desire that was keeping him awake that night.
It would be much easier to have nothing more than a professional relation with her if she wasn't so...
Pretty.
And soft spoken; and... Black haired?
Shit, of course her hair had to be black.
He grunted in frustration. What were these thoughts? And why were they coming right now?
It had to be because of the events from earlier,, right? Nothing else would justify him thinking about Pieck,- about the former Cart Titan-of all people, like that.
It's not like he had never seen a woman naked before, and yet he'd never felt that shaken up by the sight of them before. Maybe It was because Pieck was his coworker, and he never imagine catching her in that situation... Or maybe because It was awkward enough to do that to anyone, for that matter.
But wouldn't that be reason to want to forget what happened? Why was he torturing himself with these thoughts. An why the sight of her in a towel was everything but torture right now?
And above everything else...
Why was he so eager to see her again?
For the first time since the rumbling, Jean spent most of his bed time awake. Not afraid of the nightmares, or memories of darker times he's gone through. This time he was afraid of how much power that tiny woman seemed to have over him. And the things she could do with that power really terryfied him.
Little did he know, that was, in fact, only the beggining.