a/n: I'm too lazy for a real update schedule and I really wanna start uploading the sequel to this. Enjoy!
s: Talking at lunch proves to be more exciting than listening to the birds chirp loudly enough to drive anyone crazy.
Disclosure
ii: dealing
Jean finds him sitting at the table and thuds into his seat. "Tell me about your siblings."
The brunette raises an eyebrow, suspicious of him. "Why?"
He shrugs. "Your sister's hot."
Eren looks disgusted. "Now I'm definitely not telling you."
Jean levels his gaze as he picks an apple off of the tray. "Then tell me about your powers."
After a pause, Eren sighs. "What am I supposed to say? You know how it goes."
The power awakening process is common, so yes, he does. "Woke up one day, set something on fire, then fixed it?"
"Almost," the brunette opens his water bottle and takes a swig. "I can't heal inanimate objects, so I set my whole house on fire."
"Shit," Jean murmurs around a mouthful of potatoes. "Guessing you found out about the healing thing on yourself, huh?"
"Yeah," Eren stretches his leg and bumps the blonde's ankles. "I didn't really know it worked on others until later. It's not very strong most times. If I'm lucky, it'll heal whatever I burned, but not much else."
When he studies Eren's expression, he murmurs, "Did you hurt someone else? When you set your room on fire, I mean." There's no answer, so Jean exhales slowly and admits, "I did, when my power surfaced. I felt like shit about it for months."
Sea-colored eyes flick up and a smaller voice comes from him than Jean had been expecting. "Yeah."
Refusing to apologize for no reason because he hates when people do that, he says, "Okay," and finishes his lunch in silence.
/ /
"I'm assigning you twice the amount of homework," Levi says, slamming a stack of papers down on his desk. "If you don't do it, I'll hang your sorry ass from the flagpole by the strings of a thong."
Eren grimaces, dutifully taking the stack. "Understood, sir."
The instructor gives him a hard look and his shoulders fall. "Do not do that again. Send me a message. No more going AWOL. I let you get away with a lot of shit, but not that."
He lowers his head and tries not to let his voice crack too badly. "I'm sorry, sir."
Levi closes his eyes, leaning back in his chair. "As long as you understand."
/ /
Eren throws a granola bar at him once they're both seated. "Peace offering," he mutters.
"Thanks, I guess." They sit in companionable silence for a while before Jean coughs on his milk and quietly asks, "Do you want to hear about my power?"
Sharp eyes flick up at him. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really."
"Then no."
Jean sits quietly for another few minutes before saying, "I do want to vent about my friends. Since I don't eat lunch with them anymore, they've been whining."
Eren snorts, half-smiling around a forkful of pasta. "Then do that. Better than sitting here listening to the birds."
"They annoy you too?"
"Like you wouldn't believe."
It's the best break hour he's had in a long time.
/ /
His father is home when he comes back. "I'm going to the hospital."
Eren stares at him, struggling to express himself and failing. "Okay."
The man pauses. "Where are Mikasa and Armin?"
"Home today."
They stare at each other, both waiting with baited breath. "Do you want to come with me?"
Yes, he thinks, more than anything. Please, take me with you. Take me out of here. I can't stay in this house by myself. "No," he says.
In the uncomfortable silence, the man shifts on his feet, and waits another moment, fully expecting Eren to change his mind. When he doesn't, he sighs and turns for the door. "Okay."
/ /
In Ancient Literature and Mythologies class, Jean stumbles across a pair of girls giggling amongst themselves.
"Did you hear? The Jaeger kid is on suspension again."
"No way! Another fight?"
"They say this one happened at the grocery store. Isn't it scary? Imagine what would happened if he turned on you next. You could just be minding your own business, then he'd come up to you and threaten you!"
Jean gets annoyed and says, "He wouldn't start a fight for no reason." He doesn't mention that Eren would probably be too worried about burning them to throw punches. "Stop buying into that crap."
"What's with you?" One girl titters. "If you wanna hang around with a guy like that, you'll lose all your friends fast, Kirschtein."
"You people aren't my friends," he mutters before storming off.
/ /
Eren winces around a mouthful of food. Jean can tell it's because of a cut in his mouth, because he looks like shit overall.
"So?"
Turquoise eyes flick up. "So what?"
Brown eyes look down for a moment as he opens his bag of plastic utensils. "What happened?"
He scoffs. "Word gets out so fast at this stupid academy."
Jean treads lightly. "Don't wanna talk about it?"
He averts his eyes. "It was dumb."
"How dumb?" One eyebrow is raised.
"…They talked about somebody's hair."
"Wow, that is dumb."
Indignantly, Eren mutters, "He has leukemia."
"That was shitty of them."
Eren studies Jean for a moment before putting down his sandwich and resting his head on the table. "Armin."
He blinks, confused. "What?"
"Not what, who," The other teenager grouses. "My friend. The blonde one."
Jean is startled. "The one who was at your house?"
"Yes," Eren hisses impatiently. "No, we're not related, and yes, I have friends."
"To be honest, I always thought that was the stupidest rumor." Jean shrugs. "I figure even a loser like you has to have one friend." Eren sits up, punches him in the shoulder, and it doesn't burn. For a moment afterwards, he panics, but Jean is laughing, so he stops. "Hey, what do you know? You can even take jokes."
Eren steps back and starts laughing too, pressing his palms against his closed eyes and shaking slightly. "What do you know."
/ /
Her husband can't look her in the eye anymore.
Her son is terrified of coming to see her.
It's lonely.
She smiles anyways, always hoping.
/ /
"It's been proven that you can touch people without setting them on fire, so let's do control practice."
Eren drops his bagged lunch on the ground in shock. "What."
Jean cocks his head. "You heard me. C'mon, do your worst."
"No." He turns on his heel to stomp off, but Jean stands in front of him, arms outstretched. "Go away."
"Make me."
"No!" Eren digs his heel in the dirt, eyes narrow and a scowl etched deep on his face.
"Are you afraid of me?" Jean taunts. "Think my power is so special I can wipe the floor with you in two seconds?"
"No, you egocentric piece of shit," He breathes, feeling his blood boil. "Get out of my way, Jean."
"No."
"I'm not dealing with this."
Jean runs to tackle him before he can stop, biting back a scream at the pain. Bad idea. Terrible, he thinks, brain running on autopilot and yelling at him to get ten feet away from Eren. His power repression unravels as the burns start to reach second-degree stage. Distantly, he hears Eren screaming at him, trying to peel his hands off and heal him all the same.
"The fuck is wrong with you?!" He finally registers words as a hot palm burns his back. He forces his power to glue him to Eren. Even when he gets kicked away, he draws them together again even though all he wants to do is repel, repel, repel. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Dealing," Jean wheezes, eyes full of tears as the olive-skinned teen shakes and tries his best to fix what he's ruined.
/ /
Instructors Hannes and Levi stare at their pupils, one man with mirth in his eyes, and the other with murder.
"Well," Hannes begins, almost laughing. "There were positive results for both of you. You've both learned more about your powers, and the two of you can work on your control together."
Jean opens his mouth to say that he's been doing a fine job of controlling his power all along, but Levi fixes him with a sharp look and he smartly closes his mouth.
"When's your Power Experiments class, brat?"
"Mondays and Wednesdays, first block."
Levi scribbles a memo and glances at Hannes. "I'm making it an extra free period. Practice with Eren every once in a while."
Hannes groans. "You can't just bulldoze through everything."
"Sure I can."
The taller man grumbles. "Make every other week free period. I still need him in my class, to make sure he interacts with other Passive students, and so I can record his progress."
"Deal."
/ /
Mikasa comes over, running her fingers over Eren's scalp. "Where's Armin?"
"He has checkups today." Eren is unsettled, and he uncharacteristically leans into her touch. "He's strong. You know that. He's almost over the worst of it."
"What about you?"
She flicks him in the forehead and he winces. "You're nowhere near strong enough to worry about me."
Leaning against her, he breathes out softly. "I know."
After a pause, she whispers, "Don't go anywhere, Eren."
"…I won't."
/ /
"My back still stings," Jean murmurs. "Why did you heal everything except that?"
"I was exhausted and you were being a piece of shit," Eren heaves a breath, rolling over on his side. "You slammed me into the wall."
"I'm not used to forcing my power to go against its…will, sort of?"
"What?"
"Magnetism," Jean explains, pushing himself off of the ground on wobbly arms. "Usually, my body sort of decides whether it wants to push or pull a person. Unconsciously, I mean. I was scared shitless the first time I stopped you, so I wanted to repel, but I think we're drawn together naturally."
"That sounds really gross when you explain it like that."
"Don't make it weird!"
"I didn't mean to. Magnetism, huh?" The brunette gazes into the distance. "That sounds hard to deal with."
His skin tingles because he's so far from the other teen. "I don't, most times."
Eren grimaces. "What makes you any better than me, then?"
Jean stares off, pulling his power back under the surface while he still can. "Nothing, I guess. Isn't that why your Spartan instructor put us together?"
"Levi?" When the sandy-haired teen nods, Eren looks off-put. "I know he has my best interests in mind, but honestly, I don't know why he does anything."
At that, Jean laughs horrendously.
/ /
She asks, "How is he doing in school?"
"Better these days," He answers quietly, facing the window. "His instructor sent me a message, requesting a meeting with us."
"Alright. Would it make them terribly uncomfortable to do it in a hospital?"
"I don't think he would mind."
"That settles that, then. Tell him that Wednesdays are best for me."
"Alright."
"Tell Eren I miss him, and I love him."
He pushes his glasses up and replies, "I will, Carla."
/ /
Jean flicks him in the head. "What are you daydreaming about?"
"The past," Eren mutters back through a spoonful of mixed vegetables.
"And that is my cue to ignore you and go back to eating my lunch."
Snorting, he replies, "You're kind of an asshole."
"Congrats," Jean replies, "on figuring that out, at long last."
/ /
The test is simple enough. There are a few targets, all of them fire-retardant. He just has to hit them, then go for a brief stint in the nurse's office and see what the range of his healing is—without burning anyone, of course.
He hits maybe fifty-percent of the targets, a vast improvement from his last examination. Better still, he never sets himself on fire, and when Levi startles him by coming up behind him and laying a hand on his shoulder, he doesn't set his instructor on fire either.
"Rejoice." Eren is breathing heavily and is on the verge of passing out. "You didn't fail your first exam for once in your life."
"I would," He pants, "feel a lot better about that…if I didn't think…you were about to push me even further, sir."
"Good guess."
/ /
"You want to use your power for good and safety? You? You almost killed your mother, you sick sack of shit—"
A punch lands squarely in his jaw, burning his lips and knocking out one of his teeth. He snarls against people who hold him back, steam rolling off of his skin. "Shut up, shut up , nobody asked you—!"
"See! Who are you protecting, Eren?!" The offender yells, crying in pain. "Yourself?! Jaeger, you're out of your mind. Eren! Eren!"
"Eren!" He starts awake in a sweat, jumping back from whoever is about to touch him. "Shit, you scared me. School's out, you know." Eren shakily picks himself up and bunches in on himself. Jean scowls in his general direction. "What the hell made you regress so badly?"
"Nothing," Jaeger insists, shaking his hand off. It burns a little and Jean blinks, startled.
After he's gone, Jean kicks the wall lightly in frustration. "I didn't want to hear about your stupid nightmare anyways."
/ /
He curls up in Armin's bed without permission. Although he doesn't burn him – he would never – his skin is running an uncomfortably hot temperature next to the thin-haired blonde. Armin lets him stay, even though he has to kick off the covers to regulate.
"It was an accident, Eren," he assures him, as he has done for many years. "It wasn't your fault."
"I'm sorry," Eren cries into his shirt. "I'm going to fix this place, I swear it, I swear, I'll make up for everything."
"She wouldn't blame you either."
His crying goes quiet and Eren murmurs, "You don't know that."
Armin says nothing else, because that's true.
/ /
Their lunches are silent again. Rumors fly around more rampantly than usual. Judging by the number of bruises on Eren's arm, he got the shit beaten out of him and he hadn't even lifted a finger.
After a couple days of the torture, Jean finally slams his hands down on the table. "Tell me about your family."
"This is the last rumor you have to dispel?"
"This is the last piece of shit that's blocking your power control."
"I don't want to."
"You need to."
"You can't tell me what I need, Kirschtein."
"I can and I did. You're being so pathetic right now; I have no idea who you are. C'mon, who are you?"
"You know already."
"Really? Do I? Come on, say it."
"Eren."
"Eren what?"
"You know my last name."
"Eren what!"
"Eren Jaeger, you prick!"
"Oh yeah? Who gave you that name? What was it again? Something about yay…"
"Jaeger! Eren Jaeger! It's Turkish and German. The holy hunter."
"Who knows that much about the origin of their name, huh?!"
"Me, you dick! My mom's Turkish and she stressed over it for a long time!"
"You're no hunter, you're a rat! Your mom made a mistake."
A fist finally flies, headed for Jean's chest. Eren is snarling and tears are flying down his face. "Shut up! You think I don't fucking know that? I know I'm a mistake. I ruined my mother's life. Are you happy? Are you fucking happy now, Kirschtein?!"
The cogs in Jean's brain turn and he grows quiet. "The person you hurt back then was your mom?"
Eren sobs over him, pounding powerless fists against his chest. "Yes."
"What about your dad?"
Curling in on himself, the brunette murmurs, "He wasn't home when it happened. We don't speak much anymore."
"Is she…?"
"She's hospitalized. Permanently." Eren wipes his face, turning the tears into steam as soon as they roll. "I can't see her. I won't."
Jean gapes, glaring at him. "You're a fucking moron. You've never gone to see your mother in the hospital? How old were you when this happened?"
"…Three."
"You haven't seen your mother in fourteen years?" Jean shakes his shoulders. "Go! Go right now."
"I can't," Eren snarls. He grabs Jean's shirt and lays him ons the ground, steam pouring off of his body as his temperature rises. "I promised I wouldn't see her until I changed things."
"Maybe you haven't changed anything drastic, but you've changed, haven't you?" Jean breathes out shakily, trying not to wince at the burning welts Eren is leaving on his collar. "If you don't do anything, you'll regret it forever, I promise you."
He glares. "You don't know that."
"Eren, my dad died when I was twelve. I do."
He grows weak and his clutch loosens. "Jean, I can't.
"Maybe you can't today, but do it soon. Go with your friends."
Eren punches him lightly. "You're so fucking arrogant. Who do you think you are?"
"Jean Kirschtein, the unlucky bastard who's saving your neurotic ass."
/ /
After an afternoon of community service, fixing water heaters and old furnaces, running around town, he grabs Mikasa and Armin's hands, swallows, and drags them along, saying nothing.
They squeeze back and somehow, he knows they understand.
/ /
Levi smokes a cigarette with a colleague, contented. "I ought to give the Kirschtein kid a medal."
Erwin raises an eyebrow through the smoke. "As instructors, it's our duty not to show favoritism to students."
"You know damn well I broke that rule years ago."
"You could at least be courteous enough to stick to one student, then, Levi."
Blowing a neat smoke circle out and leaning on the veranda's banister, his eyes light up. "Courtesy is for people who give a shit. Fortunately, I don't."
/ /
Lunch is mostly passed with quiet, stupid conversations for the rest of the year. At some point, control comes back into question, and they have a fairly calm chat, all things considered.
"What do you think you'll do in Power Experiments for your last year?" Eren starts, chewing mushrooms.
"What I've been doing for most of my compulsory education," Jean answers, picking sesame seeds out of his teeth. "Repressing my power, mostly. It's a passive, so it doesn't inhibit my everyday life." Once he gets a loose seed, he takes another bite of his burger. "You?"
"You think the academy will be kind enough to put in a classroom full of ticking time bombs when I'm an unknown? Please."
"That's why you never have class? Shit, I want to be an unpredictable."
Eren rolls his eyes.
He never says thanks, and he never says bye.
Jean, on the other hand, says, "Tell your hot sister I say hi."
Eren flips him the bird and walks off. They don't eat lunch together again.
Still, the world of power-users is small. Jean's sure, if Eren's still on his stupid world-changing mission, he'll run into him some way or another.
Fate is funny that way.
