Disclaimer: I do not own Shengeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan or the characters. Only the plot and story are mine.
Note: High School AU, somewhat OOC, but that's to be expected from an AU I guess. I love feedback and will do everything that I can to respond immediately. This is my first chaptered fanfic, so tell me if I need to fix anything or if you'd like something changed. Pairings that will PROBABLY be included, but will develop and not just be thrown in are as follows: JeanxMarco (Of course), KristaxYmir, LevixErwin or LevixEren, ReinerxBertholt, ConniexSasha, MikexPetra or OluoxPetra, and either ArminxEren, ArminxAnnie, or ArminxMikasa. Tell me which ones that you prefer and remember, these are possibilities, I know that these are a lot of ships, and some probably won't develop too far or will just be added fluff at the end. BUT MAIN STORY FOLLOWS JEANXMARCO! Enjoy! (Krista and Ymir will be official, though.)
To new readers, I've combined the first two chapters into this because they were too short, so if I messed it up, please let me know and I'll fix it.
Enjoy~
Jean Kirschtein had gone through his years at Trost Middle School and his first two years at Trost High School with very few friends. The only people that willingly talked to him on a regular basis and hung out with him were his two friends Sasha Braus, and Connie Springer. He was fine with that, honered even that he had the troublesome duo at his side when he needed them. He was alright with pushing through life lazily, avoiding most people or most people avoiding him. The main reason for this is because in Elementary school, he and the Jaegar kid got into a fist fight, and Eren ended up in the hospital, but it was also right after his mom had died in a gruesome accident. The two of them had gotten past it mostly, why couldn't everyone else? Jean had the people that sat with him at lunch only because of the other people sitting there as well, the only exception to this were Sasha and Connie for him, but Eren and Armin were there for them, Mikasa (the fine beauty she was) for Eren, Reiner and Bertholt because they knew everyone there, Annie for them, Krista for the same reason as Reiner and Bertholt, Ymir for her, Levi because he was to watch over Eren after he accidentally almost killed a kid in AirBall, Erwin for Levi, Hanji for Levi, Mike for the heck of it, Petra, Erd, Gunther, and Oluo for Levi. Jean just kind of sat there.
Jean was reminded of this as he walked through his, now memorized, schedule that he had gotten a week prior at the beginning of his Junior year on the first day. It was just like the year before only with a few different looks, new classes, and new teachers, and at this point in the year, AirBall hadn't even started up. As Jean entered his first class of the day, Spanish, he groaned as he looked at the board. In bold words it stated, "Partner Projects". Great. No one took Spanish first period with him besides Krista and Ymir, and they were definitely going to pair up, just as they always did since the eighth grade when Ymir confessed her undying love to Krista. Yeah, it was awkward for everyone in the classroom. Jean was screwed.
His thoughts were interrupted by a figure sitting next to him. Jean sat in the far back right corner. Nobody ever took the seat next to him besides in rare cases when Krista and Ymir remembered that he was in there. Jean turned his head to look at who had taken that unheard of step and immediately had to look up. The kid was pretty well built, about four inches taller than himself, had messy brown hair that came to his eyes, and an even bigger mess of freckles. He noticed Jean's stare and gave him a huge, freakishly beautiful smile that could outshine a fire. Jean continued staring. Smooth.
"Hi, I'm Marco. I just moved here, I hope this seat isn't taken," His voice was smooth, sweet, and innocent, though deep and mature at the same time. But that explains a lot. He still hadn't here the stupid stories still going around about "Jean Kirschtein, yeah the kid that beat up poor Eren because he said that he'd never get Mikasa to go out with him. Yeah, I heard it was so bad, that Eren ended up in the hospital, and it was right after his mom died too," Yup, those stories.
"I'm Jean Kirschtein. I've lived in Trost my whole life and can't seem to find the way out," Jean groaned. Marco only laughed in response. His laughter rang like bells, loud, clear and calming. Wait, why was he thinking like this?
"Anyway, I saw that it says partners on the board, mind if we work together? You seem really cool, but if you wanna work with someone else I completely understand" Marco was still smiling.
"Nah, I'm always the person someone else is stuck with, so you might want to rethink that statement," Jean put his chin in his hand.
"I doubt that, but just a warning, my Spanish is very rusty," Still. Smiling.
"That makes two of us. French is my second language, my mom forced me into Spanish," Jean fiddled with his pencil because the freckled freak's smile was almost as contagious as the laugh had been.
"Spanish really helps you in business and opens you up to so much of the world," Marco. Was. Still. Smiling.
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard this before," Jean put his head down. Marco's laughter filled the noisy room once again. The conversation was pleasant enough and Jean would have loved to continue it, if it hadn't been for the teacher's shrill voice breaking the groups of voices and noises the kids were making apart.
"Good morning students, please do as the board says today while I set things up. Choose wisely and pick someone who you can work efficiently with," Yeah right, Krista was immediately pulled into Ymir's lap and a few boys pointed to each other to divide the group into sets of two. Marco smiled at Jean again and Jean couldn't help but give a little smile back.
"Good, now will everyone look at me? Today you have chosen partners to work with for a project. That project will be researching any Spanish historic figure and writing a report on them, in Spanish. Are there any questions? The requirements for length and such will be the same as the essays on the syllabus I gave you at the beginning of the year. You have one month to turn this in, so it better be good. You may begin," And with that she went to her desk and got on her phone.
"Mind if we share your syllabus for this?" Marco asked.
"How about you explain to Mrs. Gonzales that you're new and would like a syllabus of your own, then we share that," Jean was smirking now.
"What happened to yours? Trash ben?" Marco quirked his head to the side, causing his hair to fall to the side also.
"No, but it might just be in the paper you get on Sunday, I'm not totally conceded," Jean was full on smiling now.
"Oh, so you're a hippy now?" Marco said getting up and walking to the teacher.
Jean heard something and looked to the side to see Krista on Ymir's lap still with them both staring at him. Ymir leans to the side a bit to let Jean know that she's talking to him and then whisper-screams, "GET IT!"
Cue face-palm.
Marco comes back to the table and they get started with only a few more looks from Ymir that are suggestive, and some apologetic ones from Krista. The project goes well and they get quite a bit done. Jean felt very open and comfortable around the freckled cutie-wait, never mind. But they bonded a considerable amount in the one hour class. They make plans to meet after school at the library next week and Jean can't help but be excited and jittery. He makes it through the next two classes with a sort of buzzing in his stomach and a really good mood, even though he was disappointed when he had neither with Marco. Everyone was kind of surprised when the perpetual scowl that sat across his face was an upturned, relaxed smile. That relaxed smile turned ecstatic grin when Marci decided to take the seat next to him at lunch. Pretty much everyone had already met him or had seen him in one of their classes. Jean, however wasn't ok with knowing the guy, he wanted to be friends with him. He had never reached out to anyone since the accident, but Marco was different. Marco was Marco.
Jean had three more classes after lunch and Marco was in every one. He always took the seat next to Jean and they talked through most of the class. Jean saw the beginning of a new friendship. A close friendship.
AirBall: A sport of agility, strength, tactic, coordination, and will power. They used special 3-D maneuver gear and the old worn down and abandoned part of the school out by Wall Maria. The goal was to knock all of the other opponents (Other school's teams) out of the air and push them out of bounds. To hit someone out of the air you have to use your pairing sticks, which looked somewhat like batons, and either get up close and hit them for no points or hit them with a ball from a distance for 5 points. From there the goal is to hit, push, shove, fight, throw, or in any other way to get them out of bounds. The Boundaries are huge though, with the space out by Wall Maria. For any reason, if there is a misunderstanding, call of foul play, mass severe injury, or mass death, there will be a counting of points and a winner will be chosen by such. An unjust call of foul play is dealt with through paralyses. Paralysis is where the accusing team is set up in a line 5 meters from the boundaries and the accused team is free to do whatever to get them over the boundaries while they are unable to fight back. This game is very dangerous and is accepted by very few schools. It has cased many deaths and even more injuries.
The next day was Tuesday and as I slouched through the door to the Spanish room, I immediately heard the voice of Marco. I turned around to look behind me to reveal the freckled boy himself surrounded by the trio; Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. Armin wasn't too bad, we had actually developed a sort of closeness, Mikasa was a smoking hot momma bear and her cub was Eren. Eren was annoying, self centered and took for granted what he had. Of course Eren and I weren't avoiding each other and at each other's throats continually anymore, but we were certainly not friends by any means. It showed to, during AirBall, it'd be hard to tell that we were on the same team if it weren't for the distinct Wings of Freedom emblem and Scouting Legion uniform. And there he was. Talking to Marco. I felt a wave of dread as I heard my name. I walked by silently in hope to hear more of the conversation. I expected the worse.
"That asshole? Why on Earth would you work with him? I'm sure you can still get out of it if you talk to the teacher," Eren looked astonished.
"He's not that bad, and anyways, I like him. He's different from your generic two-toned hair, bad attitude, loner guy. He's open to talk, people just don't do it with him often," So the dickface failed to get Marco to hate me.
"You're insane. But anyways, good luck with him," Eren sang as he turned to go to his next class.
"Good luck with who?" I asked as I glared at Eren.
"Eren was just kidding around. I think I can handle you, though," Marco smiled and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. This only proved I was right when I figured that Marco was a close, hugging person.
"We'll see," Was my response as I escaped Marco's tight grasp and walked back to class.
"That was different," Armin turned to follow Eren who was looking just as confused as Armin felt.
"To homo or not to homo," Mikasa got two wide eyed stares as she gave the slightest little smirk.
Spanish was fun considering all that I did was throw blank paper wads at Marco's face during class, but after Spanish, I actually had to pay attention in class until lunch or risk falling asleep. When lunch did finally come around, I was on auto-pilot. I made my way through the line and got chicken noodle soup, which could hardly even be considered 'chicken' noodle soup. I sat down at the usual table and found the space next to mine occupied by a freckled boy with messy brown hair.
"Sup, Freckles," I mumbled as I stared my soup down, not making any move to eat it.
"Are you giving me a nick-name, or did you just forget my name already?" Was Marco's response, served with a side of smile.
"Your name is Marco Bodt," I replied giving him a glance before returning to my soup-glaring.
"I don't think that I ever told you my last name," Marco cocked his head to the side, "are you stalking me?"
"Role-call moron."
Armin sat down then, "Don't call people morons, Jean, it's not nice."
"Yeah, and don't lose the only person in this school that might actually like you," Eren sat down next to Armin, followed by Mikasa.
"And what sort of 'Like' might we be talking about here?" Sasha said taking her place.
'Shit, there ganging up on us. If I don't want this to get awkward, something has to happen.'
"That's for me to know," Marco chirped.
'Holy Fuck'
The table got quiet. I could feel my face light up in a bright red as I gawked at Marco. Eren and Armin looked at Marco as if he had three heads while Mikasa sat there looking amused. Sasha looked like she was ready to scream for joy.
"What'd we miss here?" Reiner said as he, Bertholt, Krista, and Ymir all took their seats.
"Nothing," I shouted and proceeded to shove a spoonful of the dreadful soup into my mouth. Perhaps if I hadn't glared at it and instead, been nicer to it, it wouldn't have tasted so bad, cold, and bitter as everyone's eyes shifted to me. I had to save myself.
"Just Eren being an idiot -as usual- and Marco shutting him up," I continued in a calm, casual voice.
"Yeah, sure," Sasha said moving in on her lunch.
After lunch I continued to throw paper wads at Marco in my other classes. I don't understand why he insisted on checking every one of them, none of them in the last two whole classes said anything. In the last class of the day however, I was oh-so-glad that he did check them. We were having a quiz and Marco was looking especially lost, so I decided to help him out. I saw the numbers that he had skipped and was going over, wrote the answer that I was almost positive was correct for each one, and threw it straight at his nose when the teacher, , wasn't looking. Marco blinked a few times and the realized what had hit him. He picked up the paper and opened it carefully. His eyes grew larger at the site of what laid before him. He looked at me and then at Mr. Hannes with the same panicked look. I gave him a nod of my head and that seemed to reassure him that he wasn't going to get caught.
Marco took to reading over the note and writing the words down in his own. I just watched him as the tip of his pink tongue poked out of the side of his mouth. When he was finished with copying down the answers the crumbled and stuffed the paper into his pocket. He looked over at me and did something that I thought I was going to die over.
Marco blew me a kiss.
The dork had given me the biggest, cheesiest, most genuine smile you could give a person, and blew me a kiss. My lips tilted upward and my coughs were forced and obviously fake as I tried to cover up my laughter. Mr. Hannes held a finger up to me as a warning. I quickly got control over myself and looked back to Marco. There he sat, as if nothing had happened, playing with his pencil. After the test, Mr. Hannes gave us permission to talk and I immediately turned to Marco.
"You know, you're one of the only people I talk to, and I still don't know very much about you. So, tell me about yourself. Pets? Family?" I asked.
"I have a dog named Chibble and I live with my parents and eight siblings," Marco stated.
"Chibble? And wait, how many siblings?" My eyes widened.
"My little sister named him. She was number six of eight," He looked kind of uncomfortable.
"Oh, sorry, I've just never met someone with so much family. It must be nice, but get crowded," I looked to him.
"Yeah, I love them all, but being around them all of the time and having to entertain them while my parents are at work gets kinda hard," he looked down at his desk. "But what about you?"
"No pets, only child," I replied.
"Simple," Marco pointed out.
"Anyway, do you have a girlfriend? A crush? A woman that takes your breath away?" I wiggled my brows at him.
"Oh, ha, no girlfriend," Marco blushed.
"What about a girl you like? Or at least think are hot," I asked scooting closer.
"Umm, no. Never a girl," Marco's face was red.
You could probably see the gears turning in my head. The realization of what he meant by 'Never girls' sinking in.
"Oh," I said.
"I'm sorry, I'll leave you alone now if you want," Marco looked utterly defeated.
"Seriously? Man, I don't care," I said.
"Y-you don't?" Marco looked back to me.
"Dude, I'm bi. I don't care," I smiled as his face turned from relieved to happy.
It wouldn't hit me until I got home that day all of the events leading up to our confessions of our sexuality. All of the things that could have possibly been flirting. I wasn't sure if I was really happy, or really fucking upset that I was interested in the only guy in the school who would talk to me and hang out with me besides Connie. And anyway, at least if it had been Connie, I wouldn't have to worry about it since he is straight and currently crushing hard on the only girl that would talk and hang out with me, Sasha.