New chapter! I'm so sorry this is such an unfulfilling chapter. It's basically a filler—OTL Chapter 3 will have events I promise! [and it will be up soon] Marco's character was always difficult for me to write- Jean's is definitely much easier for me.
Also, look out for another SnK Au soon! It features Eren and Jean's developing friendship [can someone say brotp hellayeah.] I'm still working out the history details but most of the storyline is finished! I can't wait to get it going.
Thank you for reading! I'm so happy that people are actually reading this u.u 3
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Marco swung his feet over the far end of his bed, letting just his toes brush the floor. He picked up his phone, and watched the LEDs light up in different spots. Just a few more hours until Jean leaves school to come over to his apartment for their first date- wait no. Marco shut his eyes tightly and vigorously shook his head. "No, no, no Marco it's not a date" he muttered. He had really hoped that Jean didn't think of it as a date either. When Marco had called to ask him to help out with his project, he could feel himself turning a whole new level of scarlet.

Marco just laughed to himself. 'Can you imagine? Me and that guy on a date. We're just… so unlikely.' Of course he was lying to himself. The only 'good' reason he could come up with was 'unlikely'. He knew he was lying and for some twisted reason he was okay with that. Even complementary colors 'worked'. But Marco just kept on lying to himself.

Multiple times he had tried to mix paints to get the exact color of his hair. Multiple times he had tried to get the tones in his eyes correct. He'd always fail, leaving him angry and desperate to succeed in his personal competition.

It'd been a while since Marco felt competitive. It left him tired and unfulfilled.

It'd only been a week since the coffee shop meet.

The rest of the day was a lazy one. He spent the day cleaning up his loft, reading a couple chapters of a book Armin, his roommate, recommended, and studied anatomy. Not that he really needed to or anything, he'd have enough to study later. He mentally slapped himself for that comment. The more Marco thought about Jean the more vibrantly-red his face became. He was pretty sure his freckles were blushing as well.

'A… for Armin why can't I find his contact informati- oh' The phone let out the standard connecting tone and Marco tapped his fingers on his knee.

"Hey Marco! How's that book?" Armin sounded quite cheery. His papers must have gone through.

"Hey! It's fantastic, I can't believe that I've never given Tolkien a chance before! How's your stuff going? Ready to move out soon?"

"Geeze, you sound like you're trying to get rid of me" Armin laughed whole heartedly.

"Never would I ever" Marco sighed. It was bitter sweet. No, scratch that, just bitter: like black coffee. He had no idea how people did it. "How am I going to find a new roommate though?" Marco just laughed it off for now.

"You still have a while, Marco! It's not like I'm leaving tomorrow" you could practically hear Armin smile.

"Y-yeah that's true. I don't know why I'm worrying so much. I just wanted to ask how your meeting with the agent went. Glad to know it went well!"

"Yeah, Eren helped a lot. He's perfectly stubborn enough to get me a good discount" You could hear Eren yell something in the background. "Oops! Gotta go Marco! See you Monday!"

Armin hung up the line first.

"Enjoy your parent's place, Armin." Marco muttered. Great, the rent check will be due soon. There was no way Marco could cough up enough for rent, internet and electricity. Even if he won the art contest, he wouldn't have enough.

Marco decided to get out of bed and work on the painting. He turned on some music and spent the remaining hours engrossed in his work, trying to get his mind off of the stress that came with trying to find a new roommate.
He secretly hoped Jean needed a place to live…for more reasons than just paying rent. He mentally slapped himself for that comment too. It went on like that. His mind went back and forth tossing around thoughts of Jean, mental slaps and something about an article he had read earlier.

The doorbell rang. Marco dropped his brush into the purpleish water bucket and headed over to the door. When he had opened the door, Jean was waiting there patiently with a big grin on his face.

"Hi!" Jean smiled "I'm about 40% French and ready for you to paint me like one!"

"O-oh." Marco furrowed his brows and was just really confused-until he remembered that it was now around 6pm, their rendezvous time. "OH!" Marco yelled "S-sorry I was painting and I totally lost track of time! Come in! Sorry it's such a mess, my roommate is in the process of moving out." Words fumbled out of his mouth accurately depicting the sudden anxiety he had received.

Jean held up the pizza box that had seem to appear out of thin air. "I brought pizza" His eyes closed when he smiled too hard "I ate one on the way here though…s-sorry" He laughed. So did I.