Getting a little close to the enemy

by Chocotorta

Jean Kirstein is really happy with his life. He's having good grades in school, he's doing well in his hockey team and he's dating his 5 months crush. So why the hell does his enemy start to get a little too close to his best friend? - JeanArmin & ErenMarco / Already posted in Archiveofourown but forgot to post it here

I have never been so happy with my life until recently. Things were really looking forward for me, Jean Kirstein. This latest months have been by far one of the bests moments in my life. I have been in the top 10 of the best notes in my classes, my popularity seemed to increase thanks to some good moves in the latest games of hockey I made and I officially started dating the boy I had a crush on for like 5 months.
Yep nothing was going to tear me down of this new heaven my life was.

Except my best friend bringing to me the worst news.

Marco and I were in my house playing this new game "attack on titan", the graphics were really cool but it was kinda difficult to play 'cause a lot of movements needed to press a lot of bottoms at the same time, so unless you were someone really good in games you would take a while to actually start taking down those 'titans'.

"Hey Connie and Sash invited me to go see them at that skate park, they want my opinion in their new tricks."

"Hmm."

"Wanna come?"

"What day?" Marco looked really concentrated in the game, he was sticking his tongue out a little and his eyebrows were slightly furrowed.

"I think they said Friday around four." At first Marco didn't answer, I thought it was because he was waiting to take down one of those titans before answering me but after some minutes passed he still didn't look away from the game.

"...So?"

"Hmm?"

"Marco."

"What?"

"Are you free or not?" At this point I wasn't paying too much attention to the game, it was already hard for me to talk and make my character jump from a building at the same time .It was getting me a little irritated to wait for Marco to end the game for an answer.

"I'm not"

What.

"Really? What are you doing?" I stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Hanging out."

"With?"

"Someone" Wow okay wow, was Marco telling me that he had a date? I gave him a really big smile and raised my eyebrows up and down.

"Marco… are you?" He still refused to take his eyes away from the TV, like if his character was really going to die if he paused the game for a moment.

"Don't tell me you have a girlfriend?" I let a big gasp that was half from surprise and half from excitement escape my mouth.

I could see his mouth forming a little smile while he let a long "Jeannnn-" slip out of his mouth in a way that was supposed to show annoyance but was totally failing.

"Okay okay or boyfriend, pick your choice!" We both laughed a little, but Marco was still not meeting my eyes, he had paused the game and was just looking to his hands on the controllers.

"He's not my boyfriend; I'm just going to hang out a little with him…"

"And that person is...?" I hated to admit it but when our conversations were about our crushes I was just like a 13 year old girl, a really annoying 13 year old girl.

Marco looked at me and then returned to look at his hands.

"...Eren Yeager..." It was almost a whisper.

"No."

"What?"

"Nononononono Marco tell me I heard wrong."

"What did you hear?" He gave me a side look while giving me an apologetic smile and sinking more into the sofa.

"Yeager?! ARE YOU FREAKING SE-" I would have continued my over-dramatic reaction if it wasn't for the pillow that my best friend had hurled at my face.

"Please tell me you are lying." My face was a mix of seriousness and shock.

"C'mon Jean it isn't that big of a deal..."

"NOT A BIG DEAL? YOU ARE GOING TO A DATE MY SUPER MEGA ENEMY" I grabbed Marco by his shoulders and shake him a little to make my point across.

"Do I have to remember yourself that your super mega enemy is your boyfriend's best friend?" Yes, thank you for remembering me that horrible fact Marco, thank you a bunch.

"Don't even mention that." I let go of Marco and face palm myself while I sigh. It is already hard to understand how someone so intelligent and extremely cute like Armin could have THAT as best friend.

"But one thing is that he's his best friend, the other is that MY best friend starts to date him! Why don't you go for Dazz? I'm 99% sure he is gay for you! Anyone but Yeager please!"

"Jean I already said we are just going to hang out, it's not a date!"

Ah yes sweet, sweet Marco trying to make me feel better after that kind of announcement. Marco is really such a great guy; sometimes I'm surprised he considers me his best friend. In all seriousness… Eren freaking Yeager? Marco is bi so I always thought that he could have anyone he wanted, 'cause let's be serious he's such a cutie pie! I don't think there's a person in the world who would reject him, so what the fuck is he thinking by planning a date with Yeager?!

"But like... since when do you even talk?" We all hang out in the same circle of friends but there are always some people who you end up talking to more than others, so I never really got worried about Eren and Marco trying to be friends, I suppose this is my fault, a bad calculation.

"Well remember last week when you and Armin decided to have lunch outside of the cafeteria? We just bumped into each other and decided to eat together and… that's all."

"That's all my balls, one thing is to eat together one day the other is planning on hanging out some time outside of school."

Marco gave a big sigh and closed his eyes, I guess I was starting to get the worse out of him with my bad attitude but I just wanted the best for him, and that meant to get him as far away I could from Eren.

"Jean you obviously don't get it, he just asked me to hang out with him 'cause lately you have been keeping a lot of Armin's time. I'm guessing he feels lonely and he must have thought that me, been your best friend, would understand what he's going through, which I do." He was obviously trying to keep his voice calm but I could still hear a little of annoyance in it.

"I- Wait, you feel lonely?" He shrugged and his voice was back to the sweet and calm tone he always used.

"It's not like I need to have you around the whole 24 hours, but considering that before you and Armin got in a relationship we used to meet a lot more, I suppose I feel a little loner sometimes..."

Woah that made me feel bad, here I was thinking that everything was turning great for me, It didn't even crossed my mind that maybe Marco wanted to spend more time with me, I mostly thought that I was a nuisance to him so I thought he would kind of enjoy the time alone far for all my stupid comments and annoying personality.

"Marco...I'm sorry. I- I will try to give you more attention!" He laughed and punched me lightly in my right arm like if it was stupid of me to apologize.

"Don't be silly! I think is good you give that much attention to Armin. It shows how much you care for him; I can live without having you around all day!" He gave me one of his smiles that he used to give reassurance but I still felt a little bad for him. I made a mental note to give him a really great present for his birthday he really derserves it.

After that we stayed silent for some minutes, I still wasn't happy about the idea of him and that idiot hanging around, but I felt that if I kept pushing the conversation farther I would end up making Marco mad.

"So...Um what are you two planning to do?"

"He told me he wanted to see the new movie that came out, the one with the two brothers who are alchemist I think?"

I nodded at his answer; damn I was planning to see that movie too. It made me a little mad to know that we both had laid our eyes in the same movie, I always thought that all the things that Eren did were only to annoy me. Asking Marco out was mostly the answer.

We stopped talking about it but I knew I had to stop them from that 'not date' and if anyone was going to help me it would surely be my sweet sweet boyfriend.

The next day I was in Armin's house. We were in his bed reading the book the literature teacher had assigned or at least that was what we were doing until I got bored and we started making out.

"Hey... did Eren tell you about him and Marco..?"

"Are you seriously talking to me about our best friends while we are making out in my bed?" His tone was of surprise but his face was looking disinterested in that topic. He gave me some butterfly kisses around my face and some in the neck, but since I had remembered about Marco I couldn't seem to get in the mood to cuddle with my lover.

"Isn't Eren like dating Thomas or something like that? I heard they were making out in Berthold's party the other day."

"They did make out but just because they were playing 7 minutes in heaven and they were drunk." Armin's answer was a little muffled because his mouth was pretty much occupied giving me kisses.

"Doesn't it bother you? The fact that they are going to hang out without you or me around?" Armin noticing I wasn't going to stop talking until he answered accepted defeat, stopped kissing me and laid beside me.

"No? I don't know… It sounds a little strange for the two of them to meet up without anyone else of our friends circle, but I guess I understand how they feel..." I didn't comment about it because I felt I would make him mad like I almost did with Marco the day before. Armin hold my hand and I interlaced our fingers.

"I know that the idea doesn't sound great from your point of view… But let them have their fun, it's not like Marco is going to replace you or Eren to me." I looked at my left side where Armin lies and he gives me a big smile before giving me a kiss. It was short but it made me feel a little better with myself. It really helped to have a boyfriend like him beside me; moments like this made me remember how happy I was when he accepted to go out with me.

Two days later I noticed it was finally Friday, the day that Marco and the idiot were going to the cinema. All the confidence that Armin gave me two days ago had vanished the second I woke up. I was sitting at the side of this skater's park watching Connie and Sasha do some of their new tricks. They kept yelling at me to look at them and waving their hands to me, seriously they acted like kids and I was like their mum who they wanted to impress. Usually I would have watched them going around with theirs skates and all but today my mind was in the clouds.

It was around five thirty and I really wanted to call Marco to know how things have gone with Yeager, I was already planning out how to kick his ass if he had upset Marco. I couldn't seem to calm down so I decided that the best decision would be to send my best friend a message, it was more casual and it wouldn't make him look like I have been waiting all this time to hear news from him.

To: Marco Polo
-
heyyy dude I have 2 tell u
something r u free now?

I didn't really have anything to tell Marco but if he called me I would just tell him a stupid story about Connie and Sasha's skate routine and then I could ask about his not date with Yeager.

He called me at eight.

"Marco?"

"Hey Jean! Sorry I call this late, I saw your message some hours ago but totally forgot about it till now, did something happen?"

"Uh no don't worry it was just something that happened today at the park."

"I see."

Fuck how am I supposed to ask him about Yeager without looking like a controlling mom?

"Jean."

"W-what?" I could hear Marco sighing and I swear I could tell he was smirking over the phone.

"Do you want to know how things turned up at the movies?"

Damn. Marco surely noticed that was the real reason to my stupid message, great work jean you are an idiot. He didn't even waited for my answer to start speaking.

"We went to see a movie, it was really good I think you would like it, then we went to Subway to have some sandwiches and we talked a little."

"I see… was it fun?"

"Hehe yes Jean I did have fun, it isn't so terrible to hang out with Eren once in a while you know?"

"S-shut it! I just wanted to make sure he didn't make fun of you or anything like that!"

"Aww where you going to protect me? You are such a good friend Jean!" Damn you Marco and your stupid teasing tone! Even with him joking with me over the phone I have to admit I felt a little reassured by knowing that everything went well for him. One part of me used to think that Eren just wanted to make Marco have a bad time just to make me feel bad or to make myself break up with Armin, but after some good reasoning I realized that the whole idea was too much of a villain in a Spanish novel, it was a really dramatic thought, I don't know what I was thinking when I thought Yeager could be for real this evil. I mean no one would even be able to hurt Marco and not end up feeling like shit about it.

After that day Marco and Eren started to hang out more and more. At the beginning it was difficult for me to not find it annoying but in the end I somehow got used to it.

Last time I entered Marco's profile in Facebook to write a stupid comment on it about a video he send to me some days ago I noticed it had been two and a half months since him and Eren became good friends, his page were a mix of comments between me, some of Christa, a couple of Dazz and a good number of Eren. It was almost like a competition between who had more comments in his page, me or him.
Also his newest pictures were mostly with Eren involved. There were about twenty where they seemed to be at a night club with Thomas, Mina and Samuel. It was a little of a shock considering that Marco never really enjoyed going to night clubs but I guessed he would be okay about going to dance one in a while and freckles surely enjoyed trying new things with his new friend. There were also some of both of them playing bowling with Reiner and Berthold and some of a picnic with Annie, Connie, Reiner and I think there were Mikasa and Sasha in the background. I felt a little hurt at the thought that they made a picnic and didn't invite me but then remembered that Marco had told me about it two weeks ago but I had hockey practice and couldn't attend. I almost chocked on my drink when I saw this photo of both of them that had been taken in the picnic, they were sitting next to each other and Eren was leaning close to Marco and whispering something in his ear while making a super happy face and Marco was covering his mouth like he was trying to stop his laugh from escaping his mouth. I would never admit it but if I didn't know each other I would have thought that the picture was of a couple, I really tried to ignore the fact that they both looked really happy in all the photos they were with each other. There were also some selfies of them doing stupid faces and I couldn't help but notice how Eren's arm was almost always around Marco's shoulders pulling them a little too closer for my taste.

After all this time it had become so common the friendship between those two that I had forgotten to ask Marco about Eren. The first times he did tell me they were hanging out only as friends (since he needed to clarify it to me so much) but it had passed a lot of time and this photos and comments on his profile were really making me wonder if there was something more than friendship between them. Marco's status in Facebook was single, but he could obviously be lying and be dating in secret waiting for the right moment to tell the news. I wouldn't be surprised if that was true, I mean after all the drama I did when they started to hang out I'm sure Marco wasn't 100% sure he wanted to tell me if he would want to get in Yeager's pants and I wasn't 100% sure I would be happy to hear that.
Yes I did have moved on from them being friends, but it helped the case that when I hang out with Marco he was never around and when Marco and Eren hang around I was never there. So I wasn't really happy about the idea of them being together romantically.

It all got complicated when my boyfriend asked me the impossible.

"No way!"

"C'mon! I'm just saying that it had been a long time since you saw Marco and I saw Eren!"

"But that doesn't mean we have to go to a double date with them! I mean they aren't even a couple!"

"Let's just go to the cinema together! They have become really good friends and I think it would be good for the four of us to hang out, you aren't going to be alone with Eren so you should be able to control yourself!"

"No no no! I refuse!"

"Jean-"

"Why do I have to hang out with Yeager? So I can see him flirting with Marco in front of me? No, thank you!" This conversation was starting to get in the dangerous zone, Armin wasn't going to give up and I wasn't fond of the idea itself and without even realizing we had started to raise our voices. We stayed silent for some minutes until Armin sighted and looked at his feet with his eyebrows furrowed and a sad look in his eyes.

"…Is it because of Marco?"

"What about him?" He became quiet again. I didn't understand a thing; it was obviously about Eren! I was totally fine with hanging around Marco but not that idiot.

"In middle school you told me that you thought you liked Marco as more than a friend."

Oh.

Ohh.

Now it all clicked. Oh My God Jean Fucking Kirstein you are such an idiot. It was obvious that Armin had started to worry about me liking Marco all this time! It wasn't so difficult to think that since I had always talked a lot about him (it was mostly because I felt really proud to have him as my best friend, it was like showing a perfect son with great grades to my acquaintances) and how I have showed so much negative thoughts in Eren and Marco actual relationship it was obvious that Armin had gotten the wrong idea. That supposed "crush" I had on Marco had been so long ago I barely remember it.

"Wow Armin no stop." I held up both of my hands up and Armin looked at me with a sad face.

"I know where this is going and let me tell you: you are wrong. It's true I had a little crush over him when we were younger but we just stuck up as best friends, I didn't want to ruin our friendship and then time passed I dated some other people but never really got too into it…"

I held Armin's hands. I felt really bad for making Armin this upset, who knows since when he started to worry about that, I felt like I really needed to compensate it to him and show him how much I really cared about him.

"But then one day I woke up and realized one of my friends was a really great guy..."

Armin gave me a little smile and I got closer to give him a kiss in the cheek, then in the forehead and in the end in the nose.

"And I couldn't help but fall for him for being such a good friend, always listening to my annoying voice and my stupid comments and being there in the good and bad times to help me…" I let go of his hands and brought mines to hold his cheeks.

"Armin you must be crazy if you think I'm not head over heels for you." I gave him a long kiss that would show him how much I really cared for him and how grateful I was that he choose me to be his boyfriend.

In the end of the day we didn't really talk about the double date idea but I thought it was rather obvious it was going to happen since it looked like a quest I should be able to pass to show my undying love for Armin.

A week later I found myself in the shopping's door with Armin waiting for the other two participants of this date to arrive. I could see Armin texting, probably Yeager, surely asking if he was near.
After around 10 minutes we could see Eren and Marco coming and waving from across the street, there was some space between them and I felt a little relieved by the fact that they weren't holding hands.
I greeted Marco with a hand shake that we had come up in one summer camp when we were 15 while Armin gave Eren a hug. Then Yeager and I said hello with an awkward mix of hand shake and high five.

This was really going to suck balls.

We went to buy some candies before entering the cinema; I ended up sitting in a corner while Marco was in the other end, Armin by my side and Eren by Marco's side. I was already feeling annoyed, why did Yeager have to be next to my boyfriend and my best friend? I would have tried to change my seat with Armin if it weren't for the fact that the lights have gone and the trailers had started.

The movie wasn't half bad but I didn't get to pay it too much attention between trying to hear what Eren was whispering to Marco and the fact that sometimes I started to make out with Armin in the really cheesy scenes.

Once the movie had ended I found myself discussing with no one else than Eren Yeager about how some actors really knew how to interpret their characters. I noticed how Armin and Marco looked at us like they were impressed we could actually talk like civilized people around each other.

After that we decided to go eat something at the nearest fast food place we could find, which was a Burger King. Once we got a table I decided to go order for everyone, I needed to re-think the reasons why I hated so much the brunette, we didn't really got into a fight in all this hours but it was obvious that sometimes we struggled with our inner selves trying to not say something that would make the other person snap.

While I was waiting for our food to be ready a pair of arms embraced me from behind scaring the shit out of me.

"Hey, I'm really proud of you."

"And you should I'm a really great boyfriend!" Armin let out a small giggle and looked at me with a big smile.

"I'm serious; you and Eren are acting really mature, I'm sure Marco is happy about it too."

"Yeah, well… I suppose Yeager isn't bad the 24 hours of the day…" We laughed a little and kept talking until our food was placed in front of us.

When we were walking to our table I could see Marco's expression, he looked really happy. I told myself that if that idiot of Eren made him feel that way then I wouldn't get between them; but if he sometime broke his heart I was going to break his nose.

After the fast food we started walking to the bus stop where me and Armin would wait for the vehicle that would left us some blocks away from my house. The walk was a slow, the four of us a little tired or without wanting to give any kind of physical movement thanks to the hamburgers and fries. Armin went ahead to talk to Eren who was forward, so I took the chance to talk to Marco without the others to listen.

"Hey."

Marco gave me a little smile.

"Hey."

"So… Yeager… He's not so bad." I shrugged a little.

At that comment Marco raised an eyebrow and his smile grew a little more.

"Told ya'."

"Yeah, well… What I mean to say is, if you like... uh, want to take your relationship with him farther then it is okay with me… I guess?" Marco let out a little laugh and pushed me lightly with his arm.

"Well thank you, I'm happy I have your authorization to start a new relationship."

"Shut up."

We both smiled at each other and continued talking until we reached the bus stop.

"Well I suppose this is where we split up" Eren said with a big smile while looking at Armin who was also smiling. Those two looked really suspicious.

"Yeah, well this was kind of fun, so I suppose we could hang the four of us together sometime…" I tried to show myself like someone who could act all grown up, not getting annoyed by the fact that those two obviously weren't telling me something.

We talked a little more before we saw the bus getting near and Marco and Eren decided to take their leaves.

"What were you and Yeager talking about?" I poked Armin in the cheek and he gave me an innocent look.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"You can't fool me." The bus stopped and opened the door in front of us. Armin nudged his head to the direction where Eren and Marco had left before entering the bus.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

I could see both of them; they haven't gotten too far away from where we were.

This time they were holding hands.