Innocence for Marcomina week

Title: Hesitance

A/n: I tried.

There was just something about their relationship that intrigued him. Not like everything else Mina was did not intrigue Marco, she was truly an interesting person. Kind and gentle, yet sporty and confident, a good refreshing breath of fresh air when it came to the pessimism of certain people Marco surrounded himself with. No names would be called out.

But aside from Marco being fascinated with how much positivity Mina could have considering the world they lived in, what truly intrigued them was what in the hell their relationship was. Currently, all it came out to be on the surface was stolen looks while training, and occasional special few moments of the day that burned themselves a permanent place in Marco's memory.

Special few moments that involved the passionate graze of Mina's succulent lips against his, her small form managing to pin Marco to the outside wall of the mess hall with ease, and her hands moving roughly up and down his body, never even limiting themselves to where they touched him. Marco himself always retaliated towards her advances with touches of his own, touches that made her lips buzz against his, and touches that were strong enough for him to feel with his hands on her.

But among these touches and kisses, they never went too far. Usually, they would have their moment alone in the night, where the stars would shine and the darkness would leave them secluded. Minutes would pass, the moment would finish, and the two would go on with their business as usual. Sometimes Mina would go out and join Annie on a nice night walk, which would of course, prompt Marco to walk in any direction away from them considering how much the blonde girl disliked him.

Yeesh, one incident in the mess hall involving him spilling milk on her hoodie and suddenly, she's hating his guts for a lifetime.

Either way, the relationship seemed simply physical. Which was no doubt nice, at some points, since emotional attachment was only for the foolish in a world like this. And while Hannah and Franz would deal with the consequences themselves, Marco still found himself wanting more. But was it emotional attachment he truly craved or was it something else?

Something that the brain nor heart desired...

Perhaps Marco would find the truth about his desires if he complied to Mina's request the following afternoon.

Days off were rare for the trainees, and due to that rarity, they were always planned out to maximize the value of the time. Christa made plans with Ymir to go into town for the day, and being the little goddess she was, invited anyone who didn't have a thing to do that day. As a result, most of the barracks were barren like Sasha's plate after her first helping.

It provided the two the perfect opportunity.

"I'm actually surprised that you agreed to meet me here," Mina started with the intention of holding a good conversation. The pigtailed girl sat herself atop of her bunk, legs hanging off, swinging back and forth mindlessly like the pendulum of a clock. "Most guys don't like a girl who's so forward."

"Forwardness is nice," Marco admitted, remaining standing as he watched her sit comfortably, hands shoved inside the pockets of his tousers. He tried to put his voice into a nicer tone, something sweet and comforting that would conceal his initial nervousness. "You should put that on your CV."

She actually laughed at his joke, "Heh, funny." It soon became apparent that Marco was still on his two feet while Mina herself was sitting. "Wanna take a seat?" The patch of bed beside her seemed like a really good thing for Mina to pat at the moment.

However, Marco complied to her requested and climbed up on the top bunk. The height was an interesting change of pace for him considering that he usually took the bottom below Connie, who had a very bad tendency to snore louder than a dying cow. Pulling himself in, he found a comfortable position by scooting his butt and leaning himself against the barrack's wall.

"Not much of a talker today, aren't you?" Mina commented, noticing that Marco wasn't acting like his usual sociable self.

A shrug of his shoulders became his response, "Well, we don't really talk when we're together, do we?"

A slight pause was Mina's reply, and it was soon followed by her looking away from him, hand mindlessly moving up to tug on one of her pigtails, a little habit Mina did upon the feeling of nervousness. "No, not really. Is that what you wanted to talk about?"

Marco admittedly felt a little bit of relief the second they got to the conversation he hoped they would have, "Sort of, it's kind of been on my mind lately." Relaxing himself, Marco took in a cautionary deep breath to help him say his next statement, "What are we?"

Mina replied quickly with a crook of her head, "What do you mean by that?"

Possible answers rung in his head madly. Are we an item? Are we dating? Is there even time in the military for some legitimate dating? Are we just friends who secretly make out behind the barracks or what? But somehow, Marco managed to settle his words on, "I just don't know what to call us." He could easily say that they were friends with benefits, but that relationship would have to require some actual sort of physical intimacy, which was something they both had a sense to stay away from.

"Well... I know what to call you." Mina started, shifting her legs from their position of hanging off the bunk to bring them up to her chest in an act that could have been interpreted as defensive. "Marco Bodt, future member of the Military Police Brigade, and as much as he'll dorkishly deny it, a really good kisser and probably the sweetest guys I've ever met." The smile on her face was so sheepish that it was undeniably cute. Even on the verge of utter embarrassment, Mina's confidence still held on.

Blushing, Marco looked away with a small grin tugging at the corner of his lip, "Maybe I should put that on my CV."

"You should, I can be a reference if you need to back that fact up," Mina offered teasingly. Making Marco Bodt blush was something she had gotten good at.

Marco smiled somewhat timidly, "All right, I'll attempt that."

Chuckling fairly, Mina's fingers released their grasp on her left pigtail, "Y'know, you look adorable when you're nervous. It's cute." She moved her hand forward towards him to playfully touch his knee.

He flinched under the contact just slightly, "Yeah, I know I'm not usually like this. My bad." To distract himself from his slight discomfort, Marco re-focused his priorities, "Back to the my main question, what are we?"

"..." The hesitation in her pause was undoubtedly expected of her. Her lip crinkled just slightly, indicating that she was most likely biting her lip in unwillingness. "...friends with benefits?"

It was almost as if she was reading his mind, and in response, Marco made an expression of agreement, "Perhaps, but doesn't that involve..."

Mina found it in herself to finish his sentence for him, "Fucking?" The simplicity in her tone implied that she was probably hanging out with Annie a little too much.

That word appeared to work, causing Marco to nod, "Yeah, that." He couldn't believe how prudish he was being. Heck, he couldn't even believe he was such a wuss that he couldn't even say the f-word. He hung out with Jean enough to hear the word plenty of times, but still! He lacked the bravery to say a word! Let alone even imply anything related to what the word meant.

"Doing the do isn't that necessary, since I'm pretty good with just the kissing. And we aren't too emotionally attached to each other, right?" Mina stated simply, letting go of her pigtail as she spoke, oddly relaxed in this moment.

Admittedly, Marco did agree to her thoughts on not being too emotionally attached to each other. Considering the duties of the military and what their training requires, there was no time to be all lovey-dovey with each other. Even though the likes of Hannah and Franz did not comply to this preferred method of living, Marco did. "You're correct, right, kissing does feel good. Good enough, I suppose?"

Mina raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean by that?"

"Kissing is no where near... you know." He was seriously considering running out of the barracks and dunking his head in a puddle of water to stop that feeling of shame and embarrassment creeping onto his face. "B-but, what I mean is, do you think of... that?"

Hesitance caused another hitch in Mina's reply, as she dragged out the time between the question and the answer as much as she could to give herself the time to think. Eventually, the pigtailed girl cleared her throat, opened her mouth, and said, "A little bit." At least she was being honest.

Marco felt his throat getting dry and tense, "O-o-oh, okay."

"Do you?" Mina asked, suddenly fighting the temptation to hide herself in anyway possible. For anyone, talking about this would be awkward, especially for teenagers.

The same hesitance reared it's head once more, this time, manifesting itself in Marco, "Um... it really hasn't crossed my mind in a while. It does sometimes, but that's it." He had to restrain himself from awkwardly rambling on about certain thoughts that would cross his mind on a restless sleepless night.

"Oh, okay," Mina agreed with an awkward head nod.

What followed next was a pregnant silence infused with loads of hesitance and delay, both of the two looking down onto the scratchy military sheets of the bed, minds wandering as they wondered what to say next.

Silently and slowly, Mina sucked in a deep breath, prepping herself properly in order to speak, "... do you want to do it?"

Marco's eyes widened as his entire body stiffened uncomfortably, "Uh... what?"

She had enough confidence to know that Marco heard her, but to clarify, she simply continued her sentence, "... with me?"

He blinked about 5 times before answering, "Erm... well, I would not be too opposed to it, but is it really necessary?"

Mina shook her head almost instantly, "Of course not, it's just an activity, not like a test or requirement. If it were, then dang... I'd have some trouble on that test."

Her joke lightened the mood just slightly, enough to make Marco grin his signature smile and even chuckle a bit, "Oh crud, good luck then."

In return, she snickered genuinely, "Yeah, it's something one shouldn't worry about really. Besides, my dad told me that it's not important when you're in the military."

"And I agree fully," Marco informed professionally with a firm head nod. "So it's settled then, we're kind of friends, no benefits, but the kissing feels good."

"The kissing feels great," Mina corrected, putting more emphasis on her last words.

The fact that more silence followed next was rather expected.

"..."

"..."

"... do you wanna make out now?"

"I thought you would never ask."

This was so fucking rushed, but I could barely work with today's prompt.

Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki No Kyojin at all.