Chapter Text
You spent a lot of time watching him from afar. He was a hard worker. You could tell even through that baby face of his.
There were many things you didn’t like about him, like his floppy bangs that didn’t cover his big forehead (which seemed like the goal). His less-than-dainty wrists that were bigger than yours piled with the fact that you were as pale as a ghost compared to him. The stupid freckles make him look like the canvas of a 5yr old who got ahold of paint supplies, and definitely, he was taller than you (even though it was by 2 inches).
He was right next to you since day one. He was super nice. Super caring, but—he’s like that with everyone, so the fact that he’s caring to you doesn’t change anything. At all.
Apparently, Marco and Mina are distant cousins or something, you suppose they just found out too because Marco gets super excited about the whole thing. He has a big family, you were told. But sasha told you otherwise and that marco never mentioned it. Apparently, they’re not here anymore, something about diseases across a farm or food or something.
You’re an only child, so you can’t sympathize with him for the most part, coupled with the fact that he doesn’t know you know. That part makes you feel a bit uneasy though, the whole ‘telling you behind his back' and ‘he doesn’t trust you enough' for him to tell you things. Whatever, you think, it’s whatever. You let it go.
———————
The next week you find yourself staring at him from afar again. His sweaty face was tanned by the sun, and his now more pronounced freckles glow and shimmer in his sweat. You never tend to notice these things, about anyone, except for mikasa of course. He turns your way and gives you a smile and a small wave, you wave back indifferently.
After training is over, you all hop into the showers and accidentally glance to the person on your right.
Marco.
Holy shit, you think, why is he right next to you? He’s usually behind you and closer to the doors but today he’s right next to you. His whole body, naked, almost in front of you. With the help of the shower steam and your intense focus on washing your own body within 2 minutes, you barely see him through your peripheral vision. Yet he remains a consistent thought in your head. Specifically, when you did sneak a glance at him (accidentally of course) and got reminded that he was just as shredded as you are, muscles still developing, but also the sort of… roundness to his body. You mentioned earlier his wrists are bigger than yours, but so are his thighs, upper arms, waist, and stomach. They all have a curve to them.
When you notice this feature, you notice the remarks about his body too. The comments and the hate, which you feel a bit defensive about. He looks like he’s at a healthy weight, if you knew what the healthy weight for a 15-year-old boy was, but you… you know, you think it-
you think he looks great… with that body type.
Plus it’s only slightly, quite literally. He’s only slightly bigger than you are. Height-wise, maybe weight-wise, definitely forehead size wise too. And eyes. He has big eyes that you lock onto every once and a while. They’re honey brown, honey-like the ones drizzled onto your pancakes, honey-like the spoon fulls you had as a kid. Honey, really sweet, just like him.
…jeez, what has gotten into you?
———————
When you set off to sleep the next day, you can’t help but stay awake. God, it’s so hot. Your mattress is a pool, and the fact that there are other sweaty people in this room doesn’t help either. When you do (by amazing luck) fall asleep and wake up hours later, you see marco getting ready for the day. The edge of his cheeks and the tip of his nose are a warm pink, you can see the sweat dripping from his tanned spotted forehead.
Big forehead! Was that mentioned already?
Although you’re awake, you say to yourself five more minutes, and your eyes droop and fall and your head feels like a million pounds. The second you almost fall asleep, a familiar calming voice wakes you up.
“Jean?”
He stands right in front of you as you jolt awake, and pretend that you’ve been awake this whole time. He focuses on you and chuckles, you lay there looking at him and grumbled before getting up. Almost everyone else is awake by now, and before you can even react, he sits on your bed with only his pants and boots on, his bare chest and arms exposed. This time, in now broad daylight, you can see the spots that scatter all over his body, at first you used to think that he had freckles just on his cheeks and the joints on his body, a little on his knuckles too, but now you see more clearly how defined they are. He even has a happy trail with scatters of freckles that follow along it, but you don’t try to look any further because he starts the conversation with “Don’t think you’re slick, I saw you sleeping”
You get defensive very quickly, “I-I was just resting my eyes!”, woah, did you just stutter? The hell? That was weird
“Sure… resting them for 7 hours straight”, he laughs and you kick him in the side. Before he stirs the conversation somewhere else, you look at his shoulders and the side profile of his body as quickly and thoroughly as you can. In the showers, you only saw his backside, since he was facing away from you and there was steam everywhere, but this time, you can see the slight roundness of his stomach more clearly, he’s definitely got abs, you notice. Yet you also begin to connect the dots, he’s more ‘big-boned’ (if you’re using that term correctly, then it should perfectly paint a picture of how he looks) rather than, overweight per se. Kind of like how some people are naturally bigger than others and can’t get rid of the weight with exercise, because they’re just like that. That’s Marco, you suppose. Again, it’s noticeable but not at first glance.
It really suits him, and with the addition of his muscles poking through his arms and stomach, pecs, and legs, you find it mesmerizing the more you look at it.
That time is cut short though when he mentions some new survival project coming up and he jumps off your bed to throw on the rest of his uniform, you suppose you should get ready as well.
…
You show up with the rest of the 104th to listen to the new project coming up. A survival project, Marco says. Apparently, he overheard someone at some point and just went along with it, but also said he’s only told you so far so in case he’s wrong, he won’t get shit for it. People are never really mad at Marco, so you’re not sure why he’s thinking this way. He seems very hyper-aware, yet clueless at the same time. You travel on to the thoughts of how you notice things, you always thought you were super observant, but after Marco proved you wrong with his abilities, you started to question how many more lies you were telling yourself. You used to think the way you looked was nice, but now you realize your hair is just a pile of hay on your head (which doesn’t fit well with your animal ‘look-alike’). You wonder if you’ll ever grow facial hair. You wonder if Marco will ever grow facial hair. Maybe if he looked less like a 13-year-old and more like a 15-year-old (or 16-year-old since his birthday will be soon), then he might actually look good with facial hair. It’d probably get in the way of kissing though (not that you would ever kiss him, the thought just passes, it has to).
Well-
what would you know?
You’ll be dead in less than 10 years for sure. You won’t see Marco grow facial hair. Hopefully yourself, but even if you two grew up to be… 30 maybe, you’ll have a family, wife and kids, and stuff. So not in contact with Marco. Would you even have friends by then?
———————
Today's training consists of fighting a comrade with a wooden knife, not sure why you're doing this, since the whole point was to fight titans, but you try your best in hopes that this’ll be useful. Luckily you get partnered up with Marco.
When you both get together in the field of mud, you whisper to Marco, ‘why are we doing this if the survival project is gonna start soon?’
He shrugs his shoulders with a confused smile and responds with, ‘maybe… killing animals?’
You roll your eyes and swing the knife at him, and he blocks it rather quickly; it catches you by surprise. As the training continues he beats you at every single round. He slams you to the ground and slices your uniform with the wooden knife and now mud is all over you; soon you’re both called up to switch partners,
you whisper to marco on the way ‘you weren’t being fair, now we have to switch!’
he laughs like a child, ‘sorry!’
“Bodt! To Leonheart! Kristien! To Springer!”
You silently scoff, not that fucking idiot, you think. As you turn to reach Connie, you notice a different death glare from Annie as she’s pulling Marco up from winning that round so quickly, guess she just threw marco to the ground huh?
She whispers something to him, but you don’t pay attention afterward, and instead focus on beating that bald-headed bricks-for-brains guy until training is over.
…
As you all get ready for the night, in your super exhausted eyes you notice Marco stretching in his bunk. He looks drained. You jump up on his bunk and he turns quickly in surprise but scoots to make some room. You scooch right next to him and whisper in his ear, ‘you okay?’
He questions this remark and you just shrug and look away responding with ”I dunno, you seem out of it, that’s all”
he smiles his gentle smile, “mm, maybe it’s because I was paired with Annie, she’s strong”
you nudge him “she’s hot too, but she’s got an attitude”, you snarl
“um you have an attitude jean”, he snickers
you take full offense to this, “what! no? even if I did— which I don’t— guys can have attitudes, not girls”, you roll your eyes
“Women can! One of my older sisters acted just like you, no offense or anything, but she acted more like a rude babysitter rather than an older sibling”
“So you're saying I'm a rude babysitter?”
“Well- no! Just that you also have an attitude and women can too”
He scratches the back of his head and looks away in slight embarrassment, you totally won this argument.
“Well seeing as I clearly won, I'm going to bed, you better not look all frowny in the morning”, you say as you hop over to your bunk. He only laughs in response.
———————
When you wake up and actually get out of bed, you see Marco still sleeping and facing the wall. You nudge him, maybe once or twice, and whisper-yell his name, ‘Marco! Dammit, Marco!’
He blinks and wakes up, he’s very pretty for someone who just woke up, his messy hair just like during training. The warm pink on his nose and cheeks, and now that you can see, shoulders and collarbones too. You revert your eyes back to his face, “wake up dude, when did they allow you to sleep in?” you joke, but he quickly jolts awake and headbutts you
you step back and hold your forehead with your hand to block the pain “Ow what the hell!?”
he quickly apologizes, “Ah! I’m sorry! Did I sleep in? for how long?”, wow he took that part too seriously.
“n-no that was a joke! Y’know, since you usually always wake up before me? Jeez…” (again with the stuttering?)
You turn to look back at him; his thin blanket has folded off of him and you can see his chest. Most of the guys have been sleeping without a shirt because of how hot it is, but you’re not sure why you only stare at Marco. You quickly avert your eyes away from him and begin to feel your cheeks heat up, no doubt they’re pink so you begin to walk away, “just— go get ready”
As the day continues, Marco randomly walks up to you during lunch after not talking all day, sits next to you, and puts his hand on your forehead, “sorry about this morning I thought I actually slept in… Is your head okay?”, You don’t move his hand, “Yeah, yeah I’m fine”
He smiles, “that’s good” and removes his hand from your head to go eat. Although it was a weird spot for him to place his hand, you kind of wish it stayed.
For the rest of lunch, you two only have small chats, no actual conversations, and that’s— fine for you, you’re okay with that. It feels a little strange to not talk to him for the whole lunchtime, but whatever. You finish your food and you nudge Marco asking if he’d wanna leave early,
“There’s still 10 minutes left jean”
“And?”
“….fine”
you both hop out and say you’re gonna wait outside before training starts again.
He asks you where you’ll wait, “hmmm maybe just behind the barracks? there’s shade over there”
“Okay! I need the shade anyways”, he chuckles before sitting down
You both talk, and look anywhere and everywhere while you wait for the longest 10 minutes of your life. He talks about his family, his big family, and asks you if you know how your family has been, “my moms doing fine” you say, since that’s the only family you know, “that’s great! Does she like you in the 104th?”
“Somewhat, she just doesn’t want me to die I guess”
“well all guardians are like that”, he says
“yeah I guess so”, you say, “what about your mom? Does she like you being here?”
He freezes up a little before responding with, “ I think she feels indifferent about it, she never liked it, but I wasn’t her favorite child anyways so I don’t think it matters to her”, favorite child? doesn’t matter? so she’s saying it’s fine if Marco died? That’s not fine? That’s nothing close to fine, at all.
You switch the subject (sort of) to get it off your mind, “How many siblings do you even have? I couldn’t imagine sharing a room with someone else”
He looks around a little bit, “some of them aren't here anymore, but right now I think 5, if none of them crossed the walls you know? Maybe in total 7, my eldest sister is the favorite, she’s super strong and knows how to farm and tame any animal!”
“Woah that’s cool, what’s her name?”
“Marie”
you laugh, “does every kid in your family start with an M?”
“thank the walls no! even I couldn’t be that creative for 7 names all starting with an M”, He laughs along with you.
You revert the conversation a little, “so you’ve lived on a farm? How far is it from here? I’d totally wanna see”
He looks at you before back at the dirt and says “really… far, when wall maria fell I was with my uncle who lived closer to here, my actual farm itself is much closer to the Krolva district”, He continues, “All of my family evacuated to Krolva district but my uncle and I evacuated here. A little after I joined the 104th though, he didn’t make it, so for now I don’t have much family to go back too”
“Oh, that sucks, well I’m sure he’d be happy to hear you’re in…. 7th place right? out of the top ten?”
“Yeah, 7! I’m so happy I made it! My family might bother me with not being top 5 at least, which they totally made up by the way, but nonetheless, I made it”
“mm yeah, top 10 is all you need to graduate”
Your head is now resting on your arms and knees, you can’t imagine if you lost your mom, to death or to distance, even though you admittedly think she can be a handful to you sometimes. Maybe it’s your fault, but before your thoughts can continue, Marco says out of the blue, “I think my dad would love you”, and suddenly your head perks up, “what?”,
“He never really liked me, I think it’s because I’m the only boy and not as successful as my sister but you two act so similar I think he’d like you more” Marco smiles
you look back at the dirt and say “huh, that’s nice, when would I be able to meet them? Your family. I’ve never seen a big family before”
Marco looks away all somber, “one day hopefully”
and he stretches an arm across you, leaning you shoulder-to-shoulder. He never hugs like that, only you do, but maybe he thought he’s caught on by now on how to interact with you. Suddenly you feel all parts of your body grow warm, especially your face.
You slightly look up to view marco.
His chin is smooth while some parts of his face carry small pimples or bumps that you don’t seem to mind. His eyebrows are slightly overgrown, and his lips aren’t as thin as everyone else’s, they even have a couple of freckles sprinkled on there. His eyes flicker back and forth to his right and to the ground, his arm and hand lightly stretch across your shoulders but as soon as you scooch closer and lay your head on his shoulder, he rests his arm on top of you, giving you a comfort you didn’t know you needed.
You place your right hand on his back, as his arm that’s over you tightens its hold, and you look up at Marco before slightly stretching up to lay a warm kiss on his cheek. All the denial from before suddenly went away when you feel your head burn up with red. You planned how this would work out though, a bell signals lunch is over and cadets come running out of the doors, making you and Marco jump up and walk with them, but before Marco can ask you in any way about the kiss, you embarrassingly walk away to find sasha and connie.
You might’ve just fucked up because now you realize he never did anything to show interest in you in the first place.
———————
You try to avoid him all week, and today you fix your belt and uniform before going back into the last 5 minutes of training, and suddenly you feel a tap on your shoulder. You turn around and you see Marco, and he’s looking kind of embarrassed. You know exactly where this conversation is going…
“h-hey, um— wanna talk before we go?”
you look at him blankly before turning back around to quickly fix your uniform again, “uh sure”
He immediately grabs your wrist and pulls you to an area you won’t be seen, it all happens so quickly and you don’t know what to say when you’re both now behind everyone’s plain sight. He’s so close it’s a little uncomfortable and he’s clasping your hands together with both of his hands. He’s nervous, you can tell. His eyes dart away right before he speaks and his shoulders droop as he loosens the grip on your hands, “s-so, um-“
“I-I’m really sorry!” you blurt out, “I was just- I just was not thinking straight and- and I guess it’s been growing over time and I thought that this or that time was the right time and just went for it and I thought-“
“jean I-“
“No, No, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to freak you out it was my fault completely, and I just don’t wanna fuck up anything I say now”
“you didn’t mess up anything!”
you look up at him confused, “…h-huh..?” you nervously cough
he takes a big gulp before he responds “I thought I was dreaming when you kissed me” he sputters, “I kinda had a crush on you for a while I just hope now you feel the same— I mean I assume so, b-but I don’t wanna assume wrong or anything” he makes the biggest and dumbest grin ever as he tightens your hands together, “I don’t really know if I do have a crush on you, but I know I wanted to kiss you, and I think those are connected” you stammer, “I— do see you…”
Marco connects your hands and intertwines your fingers
“more than...”
he separates each hand to opposite sides before completely leaning in
“a friend-“
for now a more proper and planned kiss
and now you stand slightly leaning back and almost on your toes to be exactly face-to-face with Marco, but when your legs start to tremble and you lose your balance, you revert back to Marco towering (by just a couple of centimeters) over you in a kiss. You’re both bright red and you tilt your head to deepen the kiss. Marco moves his right arm to your lower back and left across your upper back. Now your hands are free and you instinctively place them on his face to avoid being awkward.
You don’t know how long you stand there, but whether it was 3 seconds or 3 hours, it felt like an eternity. An eternity in heaven.
Seems like it wasn’t 3 seconds or hours, and instead was 5 minutes because the bell signals for dinner; you both slowly part, eyes still closed and arms still around each other before fully parting and trying to keep your cool around each other as you walk to dinner.
You talk and talk and talk the entire time you’re at dinner when you’re getting your food when you’re sitting down, when you’re eating, and when you’re leaving. You can’t help but wanna talk with Marco. He’s more than a great guy.
———————
The next month passes with cringey couple moments when you and Marco get the chance to be hidden from the rest of the 104th. You both plan on making it to the top ten, and then off to the military police. Marco says he’s happy with it; sneaking off into the shadows to make out from time to time, or sleeping together in one another’s bunk before going back to their own. It makes you happy that he’s happy, and you tell him consistently that soon enough you’ll be living in a shared room and can sleep next to one another with no bother from anyone else. He smiles at this notice every single time.
———————
Before meeting up with Marco, you head to a shortcut with your ODM gear on so you’re rightfully prepared for training, but that has been interrupted by a breach in the wall, the colossal titan.
Chaos erupts before you and Marco split up to kill as many titans as possible. You fly around with a team that gets smaller and smaller with every turn and you can’t even kill a titan for the sake of them. You only dare to think of the coward you are and how they have not died in vain.
What you can imagine being gallons of blood spilled on the floor and the walls and windows and roofs of every house in sight. The flowers on someone's porch are drowned in human blood, and there’s glass everywhere you step.
You cling to your ODM gear knowing (or hoping) that it’ll keep you safe in this mass of destruction. You fly and flip and hope that you can finally be some use to this flood of titans by at least killing some. Alas killing one however is as hard as killing the colossal at this point, unless your Mikasa or something.
As time lingers and one minute soon starts to feel like 1000, you suddenly wonder, ‘where the hell is Marco?’ and now you’re off the roof you were resting on, and look in every direction in search of a gentle freckled giant named Marco Bodt.
You zip past many dead bodies and ones soon-to-be dead, but none of them look like Marco, you’re hoping he’s one of the alive bodies.
After what seems like just a couple of minutes of searching, you hear your name being called in what seems to be desperation, “jean? Jean! Jean over here!!”
you turn in every direction before soon enough recognizing the person calling your name, Marco! He’s hiding in a house? That’s a little weird. Nonetheless you zip down to where he is and he pulls you into a small back room away from any entrances of the house. It’s in relatively good condition considering the rest of the houses are just piles of wood and blood.
Before inspecting any further, you’re now back against a wall, and Marco is right in front of you, crying.
“m-marco?! Are you okay? What happened?!”
you put your hands on his face to wipe his tears as he continues to sob, “I don’t know what got over me” he sniffed, “I was trying to help and then-“
he leans his head into your chest, and although what he’s saying makes little-to-no sense, you comfort him, rubbing his back with circles. He coughs and chokes as tears pour down his cheeks and leak into your shirts, he tries to explain again, “she was screaming and crying and kicking her legs and as soon as I went to help I just got pulled back and she died right there-“ he cut himself off with another choked sob and you both sink down the wall to sit. He cries and you try not to the whole time.
As Marco continues to cry, you attach yourself closer and closer to him. Until you physically can’t anymore.
Although you’re afraid you might break him with a hug, you continue to hold him and comfort him in the best way you know how. Sooner or later he stops bawling his eyes out and just sits with you while tears leak out every minute or so.
Out of nowhere, you comfort him with words, well the best you can, “I’ve been seeing people die all day today, I could’ve totally helped them but chickened out last minute because I didn’t wanna die trying to save them. Don’t feel bad because you did the same, everyone’s experiencing that right now Marco”
you lean your head on top of marcos, hoping that he’s comfortable, but you soon notice that he doesn’t have his maneuvering gear on.
“Marco?”
he shifts his head
“Where's your ODM gear?”
he stops, his shivering and shaking and sniffling just stops; he looks down to where his ODM gear would usually be, but it’s gone.
“I- I don’t know”
His eyes seem to be in full panic mode as they are widened and his pupils are as small as a pebble.
“um…” he whimpers very quietly
“I don’t think you can wait this out, but I also don’t know if I’ll be able to take you to get a new set of gear…”
“I don’t know… I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how I lost my gear, I-“ he starts breathing heavily
you place your hands around him before interrupting his words, “no it’s fine, it’s fine, I could try and take you back to get a new set..? if that’s okay?”
he sniffles and shakes until after a couple of seconds he nods, “yeah…”
you get up and help Marco up as well before cautiously walking outside to prepare to take Marco back. As you both walk out you calm him down as best as you can, before suddenly seeing an explosion of lightning travel up into the sky on practically the other side of shiginshina, “what the fuck…” you mumble before looking over to Marco who is now looking at the flash of light in absolute horror.
“Marco?” you turn to him as his eyes stare mindlessly at the sky, even after the explosion shriveled away
“Marco?! What the hell was that…?”
Marco turns back to you “maybe we should wait inside…. whatever that was… it—can’t be good” he talks slowly as if trying to perfectly pick out every word he speaks, you nod in response though, hoping you’ll shake it off and you both can just rest in the meantime.
You both sit down in the farthest area of the house away from the street, generally hoping titans can’t spot you from there. You sigh as you sink down next to Marco, who is hugging his knees like a little kid almost. You turn your head and concerningly ask, “Are you okay Marco?”
he flips his eyes toward you before looking back at the floor in a puppy-eyed manner, “I don’t know…” he quietly says and puts his head down
And now you sit in a dusty, almost broken down room as the world outside seemingly crumbles.
You suppose you maybe could wait this out…?
———————
The hole in the wall has been covered by some kind of sentient titan, it doesn’t look like any other titan you’ve seen. It has pointy ears, no lips, and is really strong. Well the armored titan isn’t like any other either obviously, but this one looks more like a regular titan, appearance wise.
You and Marco are still together and you help him retrieve his ODM gear, it’s got a loose screw or two, maybe a little scratched, but honestly not that bad. You were thinking the worst like it had been crushed completely. Thankfully not and it’s still in a usable condition.
As soon as you both hop on the highest roof nowhere near any titans to get a better looks at the giant, it suddenly falls and practically passes out, some people are surrounding the thing, “let’s stay away from that… those people are insane for going near it”
Marco coughs up some words “yeah…. yeah let’s stay away from that, i’ve never seen that before at all though, have you?”
you shake your head a little, “nope, it doesn’t look as unique as the armored titan for it being 15m tall, I would’ve never really guessed it to be abnormal at all”
“S-so you’re saying it’s abnormal? it’s not a pure titan? how can you tell?”
“the abs”
he pauses, “…what?” his voice gone flat, almost sounding like he’s gonna laugh
“I mean— c'mon, NO titan has abs, most the opposite”, you move your hands around as if that’s convincing marco more
he looks away with judgment “okayy- I think that’s enough, let’s go do something useful and not talk about a titans abs”
you grumble before following Marco off the roof, “it was just a statement….”
———————
After that titan plugged the wall, it was revealed that Eren is that titan, of course, his titan isn’t that unique looking, he’s a very plain person. Not only that but takes his anger out on that stupid titan, he screams a lot in and out of titan form. His trial is coming up soon, luckily you won’t have to be there nor Marco. Even though you did see him from afar; when you told them what you saw though, it was practically the same as everyone else just from a further perspective.
As the hours pass with everyone in safety and now the collection of dead bodies, you cross several familiar faces, and Marco turns away each time a new one is spotted and named. Those people, some to be soldiers, don’t even get graves, and instead are burned to ash.
This happens all the time, you remind yourself, this isn’t a special occasion because you happen to be there or you happened to live through it, but this is the first time the wall has been breached in over 100 years from that other time a couple of years ago right?
Your mind can’t seem to let go of it, and you continue walking through crevices and the last of what you can even call sidewalks or stairs trying to search for more bodies.
You stumble across many ripped-up and ruined items from the civilians, teddy bears (which are quite rare to see), some books, clothing, food even, and lots of wood and rocks.
You and Marco finish up rather quickly as the ‘bodies’ end up as something unidentifiable like a limb. Some of the officials finally realized you can’t identify someone by their arm because they had a bracelet on or a sleeve that’s homemade. With this change, this clean-up is faster to go by, and after only 2-3 hours, you can set off to pick where you’re graduating.
Although most of the 104th is gone, you’ve got Marco to be with you while you’re setting off to the military police. You’ve heard they serve literally no purpose, and the government you're serving is corrupting even as you think, but to wake up next to Marco in safety is something you never thought you could imagine. You’re crossing all your fingers that you’ll be rooming with him.
———————
Days pass before graduating over to the military police, the streets are ruined and new bodies and recoverable items are still being discovered.
As of now you still sleep separately from Marco, and he seems a bit shaken up but everyone is, even Connie, and he’s dumber than a rock.
You do everything you can to talk to Marco, stay near marco, and just be with marco overall; no matter how hard you try though, it seems as if he’s so far away and continuously moves in the opposite direction. Obviously, it’s not his choice, or yours, because orders are orders and if you continue to follow them you’ll be right next to Marco in no time. However long this ’no time’ will be though, is something you need the answer to.
———————
Finally the day of graduation, surprisingly most (of the rest) of the 104th followed along eren to the scouting regiment. Ever since his little moment of discovering he was a titan, I guess everyone else had to follow along, except for Marco, Annie, and I.
You’re not close with Annie, frankly, nobody is, and you don’t want to be either, but to know why Annie is joining the Military police is a question you yearn to ask. You know Marco’s motivations (as hard as they are to understand) and your own (safety with Marco and a chance at living a long life), yet you can’t seem to pin a reason down for Annie. Not even a guess.
There isn’t a reason for you to know why, you suppose, but curiosity never killed anyone huh? well… yeah I guess those wondering what’s outside the walls could beg to differ, but outside of obvious death situations.
Well, luckily there’s no death situation in the military police, and within the military police, there’s a roommate you have to be with. So with crossed fingers behind your back and lots of anticipation building up in your head, you wait for the instructor to call your name in either 1.) the person you're rooming with is in front of you in the line and therefore hears their roommate's name first or 2.) you are in front of your roommate in the line and hear their name first. Either way is okay if it’s Marco Bodt.
Everyone stands in rows and lines alphabetically according to their last name, ‘Bodt’ means that Marco is in the second row, and ‘Kirstien’ means you’ll be in the middle somewhere.
People in the rows near you walk away as their names get called when roommates are announced, now he’s at marco, “Bodt, you’ll be with…. “
every part of your body is sweating more than usual with both excitement and anxiety
“Kirstein, room 204, get going”
You silently scream and squeal and swallow up a little bit of puke as you walk around the crowd to catch up with Marco as he walks to the door.
You both walk into the hallway and give each other the biggest and dumbest grins ever. That stupid couple grins you could spot a mile away kind of grins.
You go to walk into the room you’ll be living in for the next who knows how long, and you suddenly grab Marco's shoulders and jump up and down as he laughs before hugging you and kissing you and carrying you all around the small room. He throws both of you on the bottom bunk and you both wriggle and kiss each other; you wrap your legs around Marco knowing yet hoping he won’t pull away. Soon the excitement of being roommates calms down and you both lay on the bottom bunk slowly and softly kissing in an automatic rhythm.
You warmly rub your hands on Marco's back trying to spread your hands as wide as you can to cover up as much of his back as possible, sometimes leading up to his neck or head. You loosen the grip on your legs, now just loosely wrapped around Marco's, and there’s no comfortable situation you’ve ever been in until now and nothing could ever beat this. This moment with Marco is the first of a long, long series of memories that won’t be too far ahead to look back from.