Work Text:
I.
The late-night shift in the ER is always the most… active shift. Especially in Manhattan on a Friday.
That’s the reason why Eren likes working for ER as it is: there’s never a dull moment. He gets to constantly be proactive and help and- yeah. The ER is like his home away from home.
But Weekends are such a bitch sometimes. For example, the emergency room is always packed and crowded –from gunshot wounds to drunken mishaps. The staff gets spread so thin that there are always more patients than doctors. Always. But there are enough nurses to pick up the slack. So it’s not unusual when he gets assigned to handle patients that don’t require a doctors immediate expertise or a doctor at all for that matter.
He get dished out a handful of rooms for the night –rooms 25 through 31. It’s the patient in room 28 that keeps him so entertained.
Jean Kirstein. Jean comes in on account of a bar fight. He was drunk when it happened and he’s still drunk from the looks of things. That’s probably his saving grace because he looks like he should be in a helluva lot of pain with all of those injuries (a black eye, bloody nose, and swollen bottom lip). Whatever the case, Jean’s friends bring him to the ER and they’re in the room with him as he lays there with a towel to his nose and groans miserably and they bicker about whose fault all of that is (that being Jean). Personally, Eren blames Jean for his late night visit to the ER (because he’s not a fucking child that can just go around getting into bar fights). But the guy must have pretty good friends if they’re debating about who should’ve been watching the drunk moron. And Jean- Eren’s not sure but he’s pretty positive that the alcohol is the only thing keeping the pain at bay for the idiot.
Should be wearing off if they’ve been in the ER for a few hours-
“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck… This shit hurts!” Jean sits up and grumbles some more –sounds muffled and congested.
Sounds like shit.
Which is sort of funny because it serves the guy right for getting into a fight at any of the bars around the lower East Side. So Eren can’t help laughing but he has to school himself when he walks into the room and catches everyone’s attention. “Let’s see…” He takes a moment to glance over his chart before sitting it down and standing in front of Jean. “I’m Eren and I’ll be your attending nurse for the night. Let me take a look at you.”
Jean stares and blinks and- fuck. His face and his head really fucking hurt and he looks like shit but this nurse… fuck.
“His nose is broken and he hit his head when he fell-”
“Your fault! I told you to watch the floor but you didn’t-”
“Fine, my fault. Whatever. Can we go and, I dunno… come back when you’re done. I mean, it took forever to get in here and I work in like, an hour?”
Jean grunts and stares off to the side, “Go.” Not like he wants Sasha and Connie to see him like he is anyway.
“Just-” Sasha bites her lip and pats his shoulder before glancing at Eren. “Can you give me a call when he’s done? Like, I feel so bad about this because we were supposed to be cheering him up but then-”
“Yes.” Eren flashes a professional smile because he doesn’t need to hear her excuses. He doesn’t. He just wants to do his job and make sure that the idiot is relatively okay before he starts fixing him up and he needs a little bit of quiet for that. “Just write your name and number on that dry-erase board over there.”
It takes another five minutes of goodbyes and painful groans before Eren’s finally sitting on a stool and examining Jean. A bent and blood clogged nose that will need to be set, a purple and bruising right eyes, split lip that’s swollen, and a gash at the back of the head that needs about eleven stitches. No concussion but a headache from that bump to the head and the alcohol, most definitely. Eren gives Jean two more hours to let the alcohol completely drain from his system and then he gives the guy two pain killers and helps him get down some water. Letting them set in before he sets that nose and works on the stitches is for the best (since he sort of pities the moron).
Takes about ten minutes for the pills to kick in and, when they do, Jean gets to talking. A nasally rasp of a voice that sounds so bitter it distracts Eren from leaving to go check on the next patient. “Ain’t you curious bout ma face? Or da fight?”
Yes, Eren is very, very curious. Meant to ask but getting Jean all sorted out is the first priority. Checking on the other patients is a second but- well- “What happened?” A few minutes won’t hurt anyone that he’s currently overseeing.
“Boyfriend broke up wit me a few days ago. Together three fuckin’ years and he just- just- I come home an he’s packin’ his shit an says I knew it was happenin’ sooner o’ later. Says we’re not the same people we were back in the day. Knew ‘im since five, ya know. Buh- No shiz we’re nots da same people. I’m not fuckin’ a kid.”
Eren can’t help laughing because he actually manages to make out that jumble of a sentence. The story itself… none of that is funny. It’s actually really shitty. And the look on Jean’s face says that he thinks Eren is laughing at his misfortune but- “I’m not laughing at you. Just, you’re slurring and I can’t believe I understand you. Made me think of one of those ‘you know when you’ve worked at a hospital too long’ type of deals. But go on. I’m listening.”
And he is. He’s been there –at the end of a really bad break up that had him shitfaced and all over the place. Yeah. He’s definitely been there. So he knows that, sometimes, it’s nice to just get the shit off of your chest by telling someone who doesn’t really give a fuck. Or a bar fight. Random conversations just happen to be safer.
“’eah- Well… got in dis big break-up argment an I tols ‘im to keep da place –his first any’ow. Sash and Cons gots my stuff an lemme stay wit dem buh ‘ey got tired me mopin’ so we went out t’night an I felts like getting’ fucked up. S’wat happens.” Jean’s head lulls to the side, gaze unfocused as the drugs really sink in.
Looks like he’s falling asleep.
From the sounds of it, he needs some sleep and a pick me up.
“Think ‘m an ass, dontchu?” Honey eyes are as focused as much as they can be.
Eren shakes his head, lips twitching at the corners. “No.”
“Changin’ really so bad?” Jean sounds like he’s about to have some sort of breakdown or pass out.
Eren can’t tell either way. “No. People change throughout their lives and if the people you surround yourself with can’t deal then they fucking suck and never had your back to begin with. Or you’re just a really shitty person and need to be abandoned but I don’t get that vibe from you.” Because Jean has people like Sasha and Connie so he can’t be that bad. “Anyway, you’re still in your prime and so what if you knew the guy since you were a snot nosed brat. Some things last for a season and some forever. Shit just happens how it’s supposed to and you just have to go with the flow. Maybe there’s some lucky someone out there waiting for you. Maybe they’re just as bad at holding their liquor as you are. Maybe you’re even a good looking guy under all of that idiocy on your face.”
That makes Jean laugh hoarsely before cracking a painful smile. “’m sexy an ya don’ know it.”
“I bet. Look, I’ll be back soon and we’ll get your nose set and that gash stitched up.” When Jean gives some sort of acknowledgement (the thumbs up), Eren slips out of the room.
Jean falls asleep and Eren feels bad when he has to wake him up for all of the painful parts but they get through it with a light gibberish-filled discussion along the way. Gibberish because Jean hops from topic to topic with that slurred and deep tenor –from aliens to loving Sasha’s cooking to hating leather but loving mushroom caps… very random but Eren keeps up as he works.
When he finishes, he takes a second to call Sasha who agrees to come right away.
Good thing too. Jean needs plenty of rest.
“Alright, your ride’s on her way. I already explained your medications but I’ll have an orderly explain them to her when he helps get you to the front-”
Jean groans and lulls his head from side to side, “Thasit? Ya leavin’? Thought we havin’ good convo?”
Eren laughs, “We were. But I have other patients and you’re taking a room that someone else needs.”
“What’s’t take ta talk again?”
“A trip to the ER.” A light flush dust across tan cheeks because Eren can’t help feeling flattered (Mikasa and Armin always tell him that he lets himself get flattered far too easily but it’s cute so they don’t care). Whatever. Jean won’t remember and it’s not like they’ll be seeing each other again so- “Be good and wait here.”
The patient in room 28 –Jean- is certainly interesting.
Eren’s expectations weren’t shot to shit on that one.
II.
In one shift, Eren sees about two and a half dozen patients (throw another dozen in there for weekends). In a week, that number is, of course, multiplied by five or seven (depends how many shifts he picks up). In a month… well… Point is, he sees a lot of people in that time span and rarely does he get repeat patients. Very, very, rarely. Even when he does get a patient that he’s had beforehand, he usually doesn’t recognize them.
And yet, when he swaps shifts with Armin (swaps his night for the day), he ends up with a familiar.
With Jean.
With the poor broken hearted fool that he took care of two months ago.
So maybe the afternoon won’t drag on like most Tuesday afternoons tend to.
Eren stands outside of the door and eyes the chart notes: ankle pain caused by moving furniture. That’s much better than a bar fight. Probably. Whatever the case, he glances into the room and spots Jean and- okay. Jean just so happens to be really fucking handsome. Who knew?
Seriously, who?
That battered mug from months past was so deceptive.
But there’s no time to dwell. Or check out a patient. Bad Eren! Time to be professional. Professional. Eren can do that much. He takes a deep breath and knocks before walking in- “Yo! I’m-”
“Eren.” Jean smirks and sits up. “I remember. Most of it.”
A dark brow raises skeptically.
Jean laughs, “Some of it. I remember meeting you and something about mushroom caps.”
“Apparently, they’re your favorite.” Eren prays he’s not blushing because he didn’t mean to remember that but some conversations are more memorable than others.
“Shit… what else did I say?” He sounds genuinely curious.
“Hmm… you were pretty conceited. Just talked about yourself until the minute you left.”
“Except for that bit when I tried to get you to talk to me after.” Confident. Jean sounds oh-so confident and sure of himself.
Nothing like the poor, dejected, bastard from two months prior.
Eren flushes down to his neck but tries (in vain) to cover it with a scowl. “That was the drugs. But we’re not here to talk about your last visit.” Eren shuts the door before finally walking over to stare at Jean’s propped up leg. “You might’ve sprained your ankle or it could be broken. I’m going to take a look.”
“Way to deflect.”
“You’re throwing me off schedule and you’re on the rebound. No thanks.” Eren keeps his head tucked as he pulls on a pair of gloves and carefully lifts up Jean’s ankle. Turns it-
“Fuck!” Jean winces and then stares at the haughty look on that pretty face- “I’m not trying to rebound with you. That’s tacky.”
Oh, so that’s tacky. Eren snorts, “So is trying to pick up your nurse who’s clearly not interested. You need an x-ray. I’ll check in after that.”
He doesn’t run away, per se. He just doesn’t stay long enough to hear what Jean has to say.
“I remember what you told me, about Marco.”
Eren frowns and glances away from the x-ray technician’s notes, “Who?”
“The ex that didn’t like the person I grew into.”
Eren hums, looks down at his chart, “Ah. How’d that go for you?”
“Got my own place, got over it. You were right about things happening for some reason or another.”
“I’m rarely wrong.” Eren can’t help flashing a quick smile because he’s actually glad that that spur-of-the-moment pep talk worked out for Jean in some way. “But, look, I need to get doctor Ackerman in here to get your cast on and then she’ll deal with you from there.”
Jean cocks a brow and sits up straight, “Running away again?”
“I haven’t run away from you once. I have a job to do and you’re a distraction. Every time you’re here, you’re a distraction.” Much as Eren doesn’t want him to be. He’s usually so fucking professional…
“You’re the one that said I need to end up here to talk to you.”
“We met once.”
“You made an impression.”
Eren laughs, “I always make an impression.”
Honey eyes rake over Eren and pictures the absence of those scrubs- “I can believe that.”
Now Eren’s really flushed and he- Jean is- “You know jack shit about me.”
“I’d say the same to you, except, I kind of spilled my guts that night.”
“And I still don’t know you.”
“But you want to know me, don’t ya? Bet you’re curious.”
Eren hates him- hates Jean for being the slightest bit right. But he has to consider his ethics and training and- fuck. He’s a fucking professional. “Not even a little bit.” Lies. All lies. “But I am curious about why you’re pushing this shit so hard. You don’t seem like the desperate type.”
Jean shrugs like Eren hasn’t just crushed his spirit. “My mom used to say that good things come in threes. I’m not superstitious but you know how it is when someone plants an idea in your head. You always come back to it when it seems relevant. Anyway, fuck superstition but, coincidence… that’s another story. Seeing you twice at this big ass Manhattan hospital must mean something.”
“Sounds like superstitious bullshit to me.” And Eren is superstitious. “How about this, if I run into you that third time but outside of the hospital, I might think you’re on to something. I still won’t be your rebound.”
That’ll do. “Not looking for a rebound but, deal.”
“Good. Doc Ackerman has you from here on out.” What a patient… every. Fucking. Time.
III.
There’s some sort of… something working against him. For him? Both?
Eren can’t quite decide yet.
All he knows for certain is that, when he’s moving into his new loft at the end of the summer, he ends up down the hall from the most least likely person. From Jean.
How the fuck is that even possible?
The odds have to be astronomical –have to be. Some crazy ballpark figure that probably looks incredible on paper because New York isn’t small. Even as a cluster fuck of a city, Manhattan has way too many people. So, seeing Jean- moving down the hall from Jean is kind of blowing Eren’s mind. Even though it’s been six months since the last time they “bumped” into each other and eight months since the first.
But the bastard is there. Is walking down the hall and grinning like a predator when their eyes lock. Like he just knows he won. Knows it. And- sure. In a way, he does win. Is winning with every step down the hall. “Yo, neighbor.”
Eren hates losing.
“You know, I’m even surprised by this one.” Jean stops, stares. Appreciates an Eren who’s wearing tight jeans and a Batman t-shirt.
Eren frowns and doesn’t give in to the temptation of just walking into his apartment because there’s that whole “hating to lose” bit running through his mind but there’s also this uncanny thrill that he doesn’t know what to do with. That he wants to walk away from because he hates getting his hopes up. And this situation… he doesn’t know what to say about this situation. So, he’s only a little surprise when he says, “You must’ve been on to something after all,” and it comes out sounding like he’s not internally freaking out.
Seriously. He’s superstitious as fuck and the power of three…
“Must’ve been.” Then there’s silence and it’s a bit awkward –drags on to the point where Eren stops staring at the wall and finally meets honey brown eyes. Gets trapped by the sincerity etched in that gaze and the nervous set to Jean’s jaw. And just making eye contact is enough for Jean. “Look, I told you I’m not superstitious but this is some crazy coincidence and I’d like to at least get to know the guy who’s wrapped up in this coincidence with me. Just coffee at the café at the end of the block and if you can’t stand me, I’ll back off.”
“Sure.” Eren doesn’t have to consider the invite. Threes are powerful and Jean’s sexy, it’s as simple as that. But- “I still won’t be your rebound.”
Jean laughs, “I’m still not looking for one.”
Epilogue.
Jean is openly staring. Watching as Eren moves around the room. One of his favorite pastimes is, in all actuality, just watching Eren. And- okay. That sounds creepy as hell but it’s the truth because, even after six years, he’s still amazed that that’s the person he’ll be spending the rest of his life with. That beautiful, beautiful man standing at the stove is the one.
He counts himself lucky that Eren’s superstitious. And the idea of a superstitious nurse is still amusing, even after all of these years. But it’s the thing that gets him to where he is- where they are- so he can’t knock it.
But reminiscing, even in his own mind, has a way of making him nostalgic-
Eren stops at the foot of the bed, face twisted and lips pursed as he stares, “I told you to go to sleep. You can’t get rid of a fever by not resting, Jean. Resting and drinking plenty of fluids-”
“I could drink your fluids.” Eren cracks a smile at that so Jean counts it as his win. “C’mere.”
“You’re lucky that I take pity on the sick.” Eren walks around to sit beside Jean, lets the hot hand wrapped around his wrist pull him closer. “If you want to get better-”
“Sleep, fluids, I hear you. But how about playing nurse.” Because it’s been a while and Jean has this kink that he entirely blames on Eren. Entirely. It doesn’t help that Eren is an actual nurse –that just makes the kink worse.
Eren hums and moves to sit on Jean’s hips, “There’s been a lot of research done to suggest that sex helps with fevers and colds.”
“Let’s test those theories.” He can’t help running his hands up bare legs. Eren feels nice and cool-
“Want me to wear the outfit?”
Eren in a little white and red dress with the white thigh-highs and the panties and- and Jean is hard from the recollections- He smiles and grips Eren’s hips. “Please do.”
“Gimme five minutes.” Eren kisses at chapped lips before he gets up.
Jean watches him rummage around in the dresser before he walks into the bathroom with a wink. He bites back a yawn and ignores the chill that runs down his spine. Instead, he pictures Eren putting on one sock at a time and then the panties and- And then he’s waking up to a dark room, curled around Eren and he’s so fucking hot. And- fuck. Fuck! He fell asleep before he even got the chance to see Eren in that outfit… Well, it’s not like there won’t be other opportunities but- still.
Fucking fever.
Whatever.
He throws the comforter off of himself but keeps Eren close. Tenderly kisses a sweaty nape… Eren sighs and presses closer.
Superstitions may be bullshit, but Jean can guarantee that that’s the thing that got him Eren.