Chapter Text
Jean stared at the dark, blurry, window of his dorm.
The moonlight filtered in, illuminating the room with what little light it can spare.
Thoughts of everything that happened came back to him like a blur as he tried recalling each event of the day.
Set a new record for his slowest climb on the rock wall, it didn’t matter to him because he helped Toni get up.
He had lunch with Antonio too, they teased him about being the only one Jean talks to.
Jeans sparring parter was also Antonio, after lunch they tried coming up with aliases in the library together.
God, it was like every conscious thought his was Antonio.
Jean scolded himself with a facepalm.
The light faltered and the room was quickly drenched in darkness, just as quickly though, it left, the shadow followed a figure moving across the windowsill towards the beach.
Jean Paul opened the window to be hit with the salty cold air, he grimaced then made a decision. Jumping out, he smoothly scaled the wall and followed the dark form.
He lost them but continued moving forward, The gleam hit a beautiful clearing on the beach,
It emphasized Antonio, who sat staring at the moon.
Jean lowered his guard and walked slowly, sitting beside him, Antonio didn’t look up in silent acknowledgement.
It was quiet for a little while, but curiosity got the best of him.
“What made you come here?” Jean Paul craned his neck forward, trying to make out Antonio’s expression.
“What made you follow me?” Toni’s words bit back in a playful retaliation.
Jean frowned
“You can sneak around better than that, you wanted me to follow you!”
Antonio chuckled but left the statement unanswered.
Jean Paul fascinated himself with the moon, staring at it instead of Antonio this time.
But when he looked back, Antonio was absorbed into staring at Jean.
“Jean, creo que... ¿te amo?”
He tilted his head, Antonio sometimes teased him by having one sided conversations in Spanish. And sometimes he sounded like it wasn’t on purpose.
Jean chuckled,
“Toni, you know I don’t speak Spanish, stupide”
There was a linger in his look, but Antonio quickly responded.
“Lo sie- sorry, mi amigo, I just think that the moon is really beautiful tonight.”
That made sense,
no, not really.
Jean just wishes he could speak Spanish sometimes.
…
Monday, of course the halls were full of students rushing to classes and finalizing deadlines.
The night before wasn’t brought up, it was little, insignificant moments like that they try to ignore. But almost like the tag on Jean Paul’s shirt, it kept poking and prodding at him like a thorn.
Jean reached down and ripped out the tag, leaving the fabric spiked, he accidentally ripped out a seam or two.
He didn’t care, it felt better.
He didn’t want to handle every situation like this, not like his life where he just rips and throws away what bothers him.
Especially people, they’re more fragile than that.
Jean bit his lip, dry skin sticking out.
The study hall was mostly empty, a few students here and there sitting in silence. His current class was free time and he slipped out quietly, reasoning with himself that, there are more productive ways to spend an afternoon.
Sheena approached him, holding a worksheet.
“Jeannn,” she pronounced his name wrong again, like the clothes, he didn’t bother to correct her this time.
“Do you have any idea what the hell this question even means?”
She sat beside him and prodded his hand.
“Hey! Maelstrom’s class is next for you and you’ll get the same sheet!” Tigress yelled, this piqued his interest, Jean Paul reluctantly looked up and snatched the worksheet from her hand.
“These are simple questions, we were taught this, no?” But he skimmed through the page and found himself with no solid answer.
“Pride hurt yet? Yeah, it’s hard.” Sheena pointed out his expression and slumped in her chair, “I am so gonna fail Maelstroms class”
Jean Paul scoffed and brought up the other issue,
“My name is pronounced J-a-h-n , as in soft J and E.”
Tigress rolled her eyes
“I get it, you’re French.”
She wasn’t that bad, she just had a crowd to please.
Maelstroms class ended, and as promised, Jean Paul had worksheet in hand.
He got back to his lone study table now filled up with his usual group, Crackle, black sheep, tigress, Antonio.
Jean scoffed, he was studying alone just fine, but he didn’t hesitate joining the batch.
“Cabro” Antonio lifted his head, Jean already learned that word, it means ‘goat’
In response he nodded his head and jumped on the table, the highest ground, placing the paper in front of himself.
Black sheep laughed and bounced up from her seat, abandoning Crackle.
“Jean you got the worksheet too?” Obviously an offer of help, He could only sigh in defeat.
“Petit femme, how does he expect us to take out 3 guards at once?”
She guided him through it with a reasonable answer, the vents, of course. Jean quickly took note and let out a sigh of relief.
“Hey! where were you when I passed it in!” Tigress pointed out.
Black sheep snorted.
…