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Jean pursed his lips as he stirred the potion he was working on mechanically, mulling over the question that Marco had asked him. Flu season was on its way in, and it was always a good idea to have extra supplies on hand, in case someone desperately needed it. The two of them were in the back room of the ground floor, where Jean brewed his potions and kept supplies on hand. Eren was somewhere (probably glaring out the windows upstairs), but Mikasa had sat up straight at Marco’s question, her ears perked to hear Jean’s side of the story. Only after the fifth counterclockwise stir, did he look away from the cauldron, his gaze capturing Marco’s.
“You...Want to know how I ended up with Eren and Mikasa…” Jean said slowly, leaning back against the mostly-empty shelf behind him. Marco nodded rapidly, eyes darting between him and Mikasa, hastily adding “If that’s alright with them?” Jean motioned for Mikasa to come close, a quick twist of his fingers on the edges of Mikasa’s thick leather collar changing the magic in it, and allowing her to take her human form. Marco immediately adverted his eyes, remembering how Eren had been naked when he wasn’t in cat form.
The difference between that incident and now, though, was that Mikasa wasn’t taking the collar off, but was letting Jean change the magic in it. He’d explain that later though, as Mikasa carefully stretched into her human form, the long red and white trimmed dress that she had worn when Jean had first earned her flowing gently around her waist, a little bit tighter than it had been the last time she had been in human form. Her red scarf needed a bit of adjusting, but she’d fix that in a few seconds once she noticed it. Just as beautiful as ever, Jean thought wistfully, as Mikasa tied her short black hair up, clearing her throat before she started speaking.
“Y’know, I would definitely appreciate it more if you gave me more than two seconds of warning before doing that, you dick,” Mikasa said placidly, flicking Jean’s shoulder before wandering off to find Eren. Jean pouted slightly, knowing that she was going to get Eren, and turned to Marco, whose jaw was resting on the floor as he watched Mikasa walk away. He couldn’t help but laugh; after nearly six months of being around the witch’s shop and home, shouldn’t Marco have gotten used to strange occurrences?
“I changed the magic in her collar, she’ll be able to stay in human form for...Something like another hour or so,” Jean explained casually, waving it off like an everyday thing. Which, it kind of was, at least for him. But Marco wasn’t really used to cats turning into humans, or the other way around, or whatever. The argument was on the tip of his tongue, but before he could get it out, Mikasa had returned with Eren rocketing around her ankles in excitement.
Jean snorted at Eren’s antics, snatching the cat up by the scruff half a second before he would’ve knocked into the potion that was brewing. “Christ, you asshole, can you not almost knock all my shit down for an entire day,” Jean grumped at him, twisting the magic juuust right to make Eren able to slip into his human form. “Fuckin’ finally,” Eren sighed, stretching as well before sitting down on top of the table the cauldron was on, very nearly spilling it over. “Eren!” Mikasa hissed, immediately dragging him away from it as he flailed, as Jean looking on with an unimpressed expression, flicking his wrist so the cauldron and its flame floated above the table way out of Eren’s reach.
Marco stared at the trio, still trying to process that Jean’s familiars weren’t actually cats. Well, he’d known that for a while, but it didn’t really click before. They always stayed in feline form, so why would Marco ever think they weren’t cats? Jean sighed as his familiars settled down, before throwing a crooked grin in Marco’s direction. “So, you wanted to know how Mikasa and Eren became my familiars? Is it okay if I tell him?” Jean asked, directing the question to the pair of them, Mikasa forcing Eren to sit in a chair normally, a hand seeming to rest delicately on his shoulder (Jean knew exactly what grip she was using on Eren’s shoulder right now, having experienced it several times himself). They both nodded, Eren a little more readily than Mikasa, and Jean turned back to Marco.
“Alright, Bodt, how much do you know about demons?” Jean asked, not even hiding his smirk when Marco looked horrified at his question. His familiars were demons? “N-not much,” Marco admitted, keeping a closer eye on Mikasa and Eren as he continued “There aren’t that many of them nowadays, and not a lot of new ones are birthed anymore…” Marco shrugged slightly. He never had a reason before to learn about demons, and the public schoolhouse never thought teaching about demons was necessary. So of course he only knew the bare-bones basics about demons. Jean looked mildly annoyed at having to explain so much, but eh, not like he could really do anything about that.
“You’re right on both counts there, Bodt,” He started, leaning more comfortably against the shelf as he continued, “Literally three demons nowadays are born each century, and you’re looking at two of ‘em from this past century. I may have, in my younger and more hardheaded days-” (Eren snorted at this) “-Challenged a demon or two to games, but that’s not how I got Eren or Mikasa.” Jean smiled privately to himself, Eren letting out a full laugh as he shook his head.
“You’d never think that a witch’s eyes could look so great hanging off of Shadis’ belt!” Eren cackled, Mikasa couldn’t even help a small smile at that memory. Jean glared at Eren, throwing a crumpled piece of paper at him. “Well, if you remember what happened after that, I got the good end of that game,” Jean sneered smugly, scoffing as Eren flipped him off.
Before Eren could get more riled up, Mikasa squeezed the hand on his shoulder slightly as she prompted “You were telling Bodt about how you acquired us.” Jean nodded at that, relaxing once more before he continued with his story, Marco having taken the vacant chair by the window for the rest of the story. “Well, five? It’s been almost five, right?” Mikasa nodded as Eren shrugged.
“Five years ago, I was still a hardheaded dickbag, and I wanted to try a few binding spells.” Jean shrugged lightly, as if it was no big deal to attempt a binding spell. Marco might not know much about magic, or how to channel the magic surrounding them all the time, but he had an inkling that a binding spell was a lot more difficult than just charming a dustpan to sweep up once every few days. “Two of them worked right, third one...Not so much.” Jean paused at this, old grief flashing across his face like heat lightning. Marco would’ve commented on it if Jean hadn’t continued on quickly. “Gotta wait another few months to be able to attempt to bind and summon them again, though, and then Eren promised he’d stop being a dickbag if I took them to the ocean.” Jean finished, Eren pouting at him.
“You said you’d take us sooner,” Eren grumbled petulantly. Mikasa silently rolled her eyes, mouthing ‘here they go again’ to Marco, as Jean snapped to attention. “I said I’d take the three of you once I bound you to me, and so far I’ve only gotten you and ‘Kasa. I would’ve thought you’d prefer to wait for your friend Armin before going on the journey that you two specifically wanted to go on together.” Jean spat, before he quietly added, almost to himself “You need your friends just as much as they need you, if not more…” Eren huffed at him, even though he knew Jean was right, and Marco just raised his eyebrows at Jean, who had let his head hang down. Was he worried about losing the friend he had gained? Or was it something else? Marco opened his mouth to ask, but Mikasa coughed slightly to gain his attention, and shook her head vigorously.
Mikasa’s cough had startled Jean out of his thoughts as well, and he forced a grin on his face as he lifted his head. “So! All that’s left to do is prepare for November 3rd, bind their friend Armin to me, and then we’ll be out of the hair of everyone in Jinae!” Jean said happily, letting the cauldron and flame down from where it had been floating overhead, to check on the potion’s brewing progress, nodding in approval of it before summoning vials to his side. Marco’s jaw dropped at Jean’s words, and Mikasa was already ushering Eren away (who was complaining quietly about wanting to ‘see the show’) from the impending argument.
“Wait, leave?” Marco asked loudly, after he picked his jaw up from the floor again. Jean hummed affirmatively, adding “There ain’t no ocean around here, Bodt, and living here was only temporary for me and them.” Marco couldn’t help getting upset, rising from his seat by the window to get into Jean’s face. “So you could always come back! You don’t have to leave permanently!” He whined, cringing at how clingy he sounded. Yeah, Jean didn’t have to leave permanently, but he could leave if he wanted to; not like he had family to tie him to here…Jean shrugged, not looking at Marco as he carefully divided the potion into the vials.
“Honestly? It’s fucking boring here, and the only reason I might want to come back…” Jean hesitated, before quickly switching gears, “Most people here a fuckin’ terrified of me, and business has been suffering. Why would I stay when I can’t even make enough money to feed all three of us?” Jean shook his head, putting down the last filled vial, before snapping his fingers at the cauldron, which immediately hopped into the sink and started scrubbing itself. Marco couldn’t help but frown, before hesitantly asking “Well...Could I maybe...Join you?”
Jean froze, surprise plainly written on his face. He had considered asking Marco to come with them, but…”Are you absolutely sure, Marco? ‘Cause I never want to come back to Jinae when I leave.” Jean rolled his shoulders, adding “Well, of course you’re welcome to leave whenever you want if you come with us, but like...Yeah…” He finished lamely, already picking up ingredients for the headache potion he would be working on next.
“Absolutely positive,” Marco said, barely giving a second to think it over, “Jinae might be my hometown, but without you…” Marco trailed off, shuffling his feet as he blushed. Jean stopped gathering his ingredients to stare at Marco, who only turned redder under his gaze.
“Well…” Jean said slowly, not wanting to admit just how quickly his heart had sped up as he grinned, “I guess I’ll say, welcome aboard then.”