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“Oh man,” Jean says when he and Marco are standing rather close in front of the large bathroom mirror. “Stand against the wall for a second, will you?”
Marco smiles to himself, since it’s obvious what Jean’s noticed. He calmly and a little slowly (Jean taps his foot subtly, impatiently) moves to the wall and stands with his back against it.
Jean fumbles around for the piece of chalk he keeps wrapped in his pocket just for this purpose. “Don’t move, and don’t cheat, okay?” he says as he carefully draws a line in the air from the top of Marco’s head to the wall, and then a line with the chalk on the wall itself.
“We’re so close in height already,” Marco starts. Jean hushes him, and pulls the boy away from the wall to take his place.
It’s amusing to watch as Jean very carefully puts a hand on his head and moves it to the wall. He turns around, hand in place, and almost whoops with joy at seeing the previous chalk mark below his hand.
“Look at that, Marco! I’m finally taller than you! Even if it’s barely a centimeter.”
“Yes, yes,” Marco laughs, leaning in to give Jean a small kiss. “Barely a centimeter. Congratulations.”
----
Eren doesn’t know why it’s suddenly important for Jean to burst into the mess hall and proudly announce that he is finally (like someone cares) taller than Marco. He gets some teasing praise from those closest to the door (Connie and Reiner) and heads to his seat in a huff. Marco follows along at a more sedate pace, deflecting the comments from the Teasing Tag Team.
Eren still doesn’t know why it’s important when Jean, two tables away, has to talk about his increased height over and over again. He checks Mikasa, who’s staring at her food expressionlessly, and stands up with a clatter. “Jean, will you shut the fuck up about being taller than your boyfriend?” he shouts across the room.
Reiner laughs. He’s the only one, since the rest of the room falls silent.
Jean stands too.
“Eren, would you si-” Mikasa starts.
“Whatever, Eren, I bet you’re just butthurt that you’re still the same height as Mikasa,” Jean taunts.
Eren catches sight of Marco mouthing Sorry about that, and decides to let a fight slide for Marco’s sake. He’d been a good friend to Armin, or as good as a gear partner could be. Roughly shouldering past Jean, Eren leaves the mess hall.
Mikasa grabs his unfinished loaf of bread and follows after him.
After Jean’s sat down and chatter resumed, Marco leans in close and says in a low voice, “I think Eren’s on to us.”
“Who cares about that ass,” Jean mutters, glancing quickly around and stealing a kiss back from Marco.
----
Marco notices it in the little things.
Jean is more upbeat during training, not-so-subtly trying to show off by challenging the taller members of the 104th in sparring battles. He’s grown to match rather well with Reiner, despite the difference in build. He challenges Bertholdt, who declines, and Ymir, who he finds out plays rather dirty. He challenges Eren, too, for causing a scene in the mess hall (now Connie and Sasha make snide remarks about boyfriends) and for being Eren, and manages to win this time, bringing the score to an even 9 to 9.
(He doesn’t challenge Annie, having gotten his ass wiped like Reiner and Eren the first time he tried. Said she was too short to fight, now.)
When they’re at the communal shower or just changing clothes, anywhere Marco could see him, really, Jean makes it a point to stretch languidly, extending his arms as far as they will go as if he can pull his spine out another centimeter. Once, Eren punched him in the stomach while it was exposed.
Marco chuckles at the memory. 10 to 9.
It’s in the way Jean kisses him, though. Jean, barely a centimeter taller, exaggerates the tilt of his head when he leans in. If Marco has a hand on the back of Jean’s neck, he can feel the amount of effort that the other boy puts into lording over being taller.
But it’s what makes him attractive to Marco, anyway. And it’s not like the height matters when they’re in bed together.
----
After the blocking of the Wall, Jean’s helping with the identification and cleanup of fallen bodies. He’s already seen many of the 104th, and even without the frozen, fearful faces staring up at he knows from the uniforms that any of these bodies could have been someone he knew. Jean feels the nausea low in his stomach, the bandana over his face doing nothing to block the scent of death.
When he sees the body Jean really does feel like puking, because he can’t remember what happened to Marco after he’d run from the titan. The body is missing a large chunk, and it looks like Marco, same hairstyle, but there’s something off about the face other than the missing half.
“Marco?” Jean asks, wondering why he’s hoping for an answer. “Is that you?”
“No, I’m right over here,” Marco’s familiar voice sounds from behind. “I just caught up. Who’s that?”
“Oh thank god,” Jean says, “I’m so glad. Let’s get married.”
Marco gives him a quizzical look and Jean wonders why he ever thought that the half-corpse was his boyfriend. He sweeps Marco close and dips him back, instantly regretting the decision because Marco was a lot heavier than he thought.
“Will you-” is all Jean manages to say before Marco’s weight pulls them both down in a heap on the ground.