I have never felt more in love with my bed than when Marco was in it tangled around me. We didn't sleep so much as just lie quietly together for a while; the only conversation that passed between us was the odd hum whenever one of us shifted slightly. In the end though, Marco muttered something about actually having to get home at some point today, and asked to borrow the shower.

The moment he left the bed, I turned onto my stomach and wrapped my arms around the pillow he'd been using. I lay there, listening to the distant sounds of the shower water running and Marco's crappy voice singing some crappier song. I must have actually dozed off for a bit then, since next time I opened my eyes Marco was sitting on the edge of the bed pulling his shoes on.

"You don't have to go," I muttered, waving my hand out to try and grab the back of his jacket (I couldn't reach so it just sort of flailed around in mid-air).

"Do you want to get a flat with me or not?" Marco sighed, turning to catch my hand and squeeze it. "I'll see you on set tomorrow, yeah?"

"Mhmm…"

Beside me Marco moved, so with a heavy sigh I started to clamber out from under the covers.

"You don't have to see me out!" he protested when he noticed I was trying to follow him out the room.

I just flashed him a smile. "But I want to."

There was a brief moment where we just stared each other down, before Marco shook his head and pointed to something behind me. "At least put on some pants?"

I groaned loudly, turning on my heel to stagger over to my drawers and pull on a pair of boxers. "The things I do for you," I muttered as returned to following him down the hallway. My trousers were still just lying in the centre of the corridor, which earned a small chuckle from Marco as he stepped over them.

"Think you'll be able to get through the scenes tomorrow without calling me 'Marco'?" he asked as he stepped out of the flat. I leant against the doorframe, a smirk rising to my face at his smug-ass grin.

"Mm, if I feel like it," I prodded him in the chest softly. "It's a good thing you're almost done with filming; I doubt you'll be able to concentrate acting across from me."

"Oh? And why's that?"

"Because of this." I smacked my backside with a sly grin.

…which slowly began to disappear as I realised just how fucking hard that smack had been…

Marco folded his arms and stared down at me in amused pity as I clutched my ass cheek, groaning at the pain and rubbing it in a desperate attempt to quell the sting. Fuck, that really hadn't been as smooth as I'd planned.

A hand covered the one of mine on my ass, pulling me out the doorframe and forward to meet Marco's lips. It was just a chaste kiss, and he ran a finger along my jawline as he pulled away – which only made lean forward in an attempt to chase after his lips. I pouted; this bugger had totally one-upped me there, huh?

The hand he still had on me slowly edged down, until his fingers were tracing the skin of my thigh just where the boxers ended…

"Afternoon, boys."

I've never seen anyone move as fast as Marco did in that moment. He leapt back from me, turning a vibrant red as a woman passed between us towards her apartment next door. She was carrying a load of shopping bags and looked more drained than bothered by our little scene.

"Miss Langnar…" I muttered with a nod.

"I swear I attract this sort of thing…" she sighed as she entered her apartment without another glance in their direction.

A small whine of embarrassment escaped Marco's throat, and he stood with his face in his hands. It took some time to assure him that Miss Langnar had lived next door to us long enough to see more than her fair share of drunken romantic exchanges between a certain terrible two-some, so ours was probably nothing to her. I didn't mention that she'd also seen much more of myself and Eren than she should have thanks to a dare gone wrong last year. Eventually, I'd calmed him down enough to give him back his ability to walk, and sent him on his way towards the lift.

Two hours later, I was heating up a Pot Noodle when I heard the front door open. The footsteps that moved through the hallway were hilariously tentative, so I turned to watch and wait for them to enter.

Sure enough, Connie's uncertain head appeared around the door. Sasha's hovered over him a moment later.

"Are you going to run us out again?" she muttered coldly.

"Nope."

"So you've finished tapping that Bodt?"

"Yep."

"Is that a Pot Noodle I smell?"

"Fuck off, Sasha."

They both seemed to breathe sighs of relief and came in; Connie toppled onto the sofa while Sasha started digging around the cupboards. The microwave beeped, and Sasha didn't even try to steal the food from me as I took it out and went to sit down with it. In fact, the two seemed rather quiet – I was expecting some sort of harassment or at least a few more jokes headed my way. Instead, they just told me about what happened at the pizzeria they'd grabbed an early dinner at. No Marco comments. Nothing.

And then my phone rang.

Putting my Pot Noodle on the table, I grabbed my phone off the arm of the chair and checked the caller ID: Hanji, nothing strange there.

"Hello?"

"Jeeeeaaaaan."

I frowned at her voice. Why did she sound… frustrated?

"Hanji….?"

"You can't fuck the co-actor!"

There it was.

I snapped my head round, only to find the two bastard sneaking out of the room… with my Pot Noodle.

"Jean, please tell me they were kidding!" Hanji continued to moan down the phone.

This was the last thing I needed right now. "It… depends on what they said…"

"They came back to the offices, saying how they'd just been kicked out of your flat because you were in the middle of having sex with a certain co-star named Marco Bodt."

"…Then they weren't kidding."

"Jeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan."

The complaints and crap coming out of her mouth about how terrible an idea it was, and how stupid I was, felt like rapid machine gun fire straight to my gut. Before I knew it, I was chewing on my bottom lip to try and keep my cool. It wasn't even that I was embarrassed or annoyed that she disapproved – I could sort of understand where her worries might come from. What pissed me off was that she was implying the feelings between Marco and I were half-assed.

In one last cry, Hanji shouted, "How could you do this to me?"

And that's when I snapped.

"Hey! Who the fuck said you had a say in my relationships?" Shit. I needed to calm down. I was screaming at my agent down the phone. "I don't give a shit about how you fit into all this, or anyone else for that matter! I'm not playing around, and I'm pretty fucking sure Marco isn't either. So why don't you lay the fuck off and trust that I can be professional, even when I'm playing opposite the guy I'm in love with!"

My skin was hot with anger, yet at the same time I'm pretty sure the trembling in my hands was from fear of just what I'd just done. God, Hanji was going to kill me in my sleep. Actually, no, killing me in my sleep would be too kind from her. She was going to kill me whilst I was awake. Painfully and terribly.

"Yeesh, calm down Jean."

Huh?

Hanji's voice was totally relaxed, though she gave a small tut before continuing. "I'm just annoyed that thanks to you and the Bodt boy getting it on, I owe Levi fifty big ones."

"Fifty… what?"

"He's been saying for ages that the two of you were going to end up sucking each other's dicks at the very least, and now you're turning around and claiming you love him? Yeah, I've really lost the bet."

"You're angry… because of the bet?"

"Yes! I mean, I thought I could read you better than anyone! Congrats on your new relationship and all but, agh, dammit, I'm so annoyed!"

I hung up.

"W-what are you doing here?"

I frowned, and moved across the warehouse to sit on top of an old crate. The place was filthy, stunk of the sewers that had overflowed just outside; no way in hell was it a place for a person to be shacking up. Yet here he was.

Eren wasn't in his character's usual uniform, but instead a black outfit suited more to a lowly thief or murderer. I was still in the uniform Jake Banner had worn pretty much throughout most of the movie so far – though he clearly had made no effort to change or wash it after the deserted town where he found Chris' body.

"Looking for you, obviously," I muttered. A large army backpack was resting against my side, and I was pulling absentmindedly at some loose threads on it. "Didn't expect to find you in a shit hole like this."

"Get out of here, Jake," Eren ordered.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen."

"Jake–"

"What?" I snapped, my eyes lifting to stare daggers across towards him. "Is that an order from my team leader? Because I'm pretty fucking sure you gave up any right to boss me about when you fucked off and left."

Eren shut the warehouse door with a heavy slam and stormed across to the pile of rags he'd supposedly been using to sleep on. His few possessions were on the floor by it, and he crouched to start poking at some of them. "Because what I need to do is my business, not yours."

"You're out leader. You were the one calling the shots. And you abandoned us."

"No, Vincent abandoned us," Eren snarled. "I'm simply… retrieving him."

"Oh, is that what you're calling it now?"

"The fuck do you know?"

"That you've gone on at least three rampages since you vanished. That innocent people got caught up in it. That you're losing sight of your humanity to get back at Vincent."

"He killed everyone!" His hand flew outwards, knocking away the small collection of trinkets he'd been looking at. They scattered across the floor like pieces of shattered glass. Eren clutched at his shaking hand to try and control it. "He killed Sally… He killed the person I cared about more than anyone. He needs to pay."

I let out a sigh, and slid off the crate to wander over to him. I stood there, towering over him, trying to keep my expression as neutral as possible. Time passed, and Eren appeared to regain his composure, and took a deep breath. His eyes lifted and he peered around the rest of the warehouse.

"So what? You sent Christopher home and came out here to drag me back there too?"

"Chris is dead."

I don't know which of us was acting better in that moment; me, with every speck of emotion or life wiped from my face and voice, or Eren, with how his expression slowly and beautifully crumbled. (Actually, if even I was giving props to Eren's acting, he'd probably won).

Turning, he stared up at me. "Chris is…?"

"Dead. Back in Trost. I wasn't there. Whose blood do you think is this?" I motioned to my stained uniform.

"I… Jake, I'm–"

My hand moved, and the gun barrel against Eren's forehead stopped him from continuing. Something about the fear in Eren's eyes told me he'd actually been shocked at how fast I'd moved (thank god for Annie and her teachings).

I cocked my head to the side, my face still nothing but a void of feelings. "So, Nicholas, should I kill you?"

"Wha… Jake?"

"The person I cared about more than anyone is dead. He was killed and I wasn't even there to see it. Do you remember why I wasn't there? Why we'd been split up? Go ahead, Nick, tell me why."

Eren gulped. Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the crew cover their mouth to hide a gasp.

"…Because I'd ordered you to." His voice was shaking.

"Yep. You were so desperate to catch the guy behind this all, you ordered us to split up. Even though we told you it was too dangerous like that," I pushed the gun harder against his skin. "If we hadn't split up, I could have protected him. I would have at least been there with him. I wouldn't have gotten there too late, only to find his bloodied, mangled body lying all alone. Arguably, you're the one who got him killed."

I watched as Eren's bottom lip trembled, tears started to prick his eyes; it was all so realistic I actually had a hard time reminding myself to continue.

I kept my voice steady, cold, empty. "You killed the person I cared about more than anything. So, do you think I'm going to shoot you?"

His whole body shook violently as the water started dripping down his face. He didn't move his head away from the gun; in fact, he pushed further against it, as he squeezed his eyes shut.

I dropped to my knees in front of him, pulling the gun back. His eyes flickered open just in time to watch me drop the gun to the floor. That's when my own tears came on. I clutched at his shoulders, shaking him.

"No. I'm not. Because that's not what we do. It's what traitors like Vincent do, not us," I let pain ooze out of every word I spoke now. As if everything I'd been holding back since the start of the scene was being released, drenching my words. "Revenge isn't the answer, Nick. Turning yourself into this mess, isn't the answer. You have to stop. Please. Please stop."

The two of us let go; each of us breaking down into sobs and leaning into the other for support. Eren muttered "I'm sorry" over and over, and I replied with "It's not your fault" every time. It felt like an age before we heard blessed shout from Pixis.

"CUT!" We immediately released each other, our sobs turning into laughter as we looked at each other and wiped our soaking faces. "Good work lads!"

"Fucking hell, Kirschtein!" Eren said, swinging a fist at my arm. "It felt like you were trying to shove that gun right through my head!"

"What makes you think I wasn't, Jaeger?"

"Fuck off, horseface." Eren gave me one last shove, using the momentum to push himself to his feet at the same time. I was already to clamber up myself when an open hand offered itself out to me.

"You guys were great," Marco said.

"Yeah well, we wouldn't be mains if we weren't," I snorted taking his hand and letting him pull me to my feet.

Marco wasn't working today – pretty much all of his scenes were now over and done with, since we were filming the movie quite chronologically. But he'd come by today because of where we were going after I was done with work. It had taken two whole weeks, but, at last, we were heading off to sign the final contract for the new flat.

Sasha and Connie had taken the news that I wasn't moving with them quite well… very well, actually. Perhaps even a tad offensively well. They'd already bagged a neat little pad a little further towards the edge of the city – one street down from the largest collection of fast-food stores in the whole city. They were delighted.

"Is that your last scene of the day?" Marco asked as we started back towards my dressing room. A few of the crew members patted me on the back and thanked me for my work as we passed.

"Yeah. They're focusing on Reiner's scenes for the next few days, so I'm done until after the weekend."

"Don't count on it, my boy!"

I groaned loudly as my terrible agent appeared out of nowhere and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. Hanji pulled at my cheek and sniggered. Behind her, I spotted Levi walking off, heading to speak to Eren, I suppose. When I learnt of Hanji and Levi's bet, I'd been ready to just switch agents or something - if only to make Hanji reflect on how royally pissed off she'd made me. But... she did buy me dinner as an apology (which I never should have agreed to, since it turned out Eren and Levi were also invited, and she spent the whole fucking night talking about the logistics of acting with a lover).

"There's nothing on my schedule, Hanji," I grumbled. "Aren't you the one always saying 'if it's not on the schedule, it doesn't exist'?"

"Yes! You are learning," She petted my hair and winked. "Except… when last minute fabulous opportunities come in!"

"What?"

"You know the show Sunrise, right?"

Marco narrowed his eyes beside me, just as Hanji was stepping away and finally getting her damn hands off me. "You mean the morning news programme?"

"That's the one!" She grinned proudly. "You're going to be on it this Saturday, Jean!"

I blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"You're going to a guest on Sunrise! Talking about the movie!"

"S-seriously?" There was a strange feeling in my stomach that I could only describe as 'wobbly'. "They want me? Why not Eren?"

"There're actually talking to Eren on a different day," Hanji explained, pulling out a notebook from her pocket and flipping through the pages. "This Saturday, however, they want to interview you and Marco!"

"Wait, me too?" Marco squeaked beside me.

"Oh, sorry Marco. Mina was going to tell you when she saw you tomorrow or something!" Hanji didn't look sorry at all. In fact, she looked elated that she'd gotten to tell us both.

"Wait," I rubbed my eyes. "Why us? I mean, I know we're mains, but if they're already interviewing Eren separately than… why?"

Giving a shrug that made it very clear Hanji didn't give a damn about their reasons – she was simply happy her client had been asked on the show – she ripped a new page from her notebook and started writing something on it. "I assume they want a piece of you two because your characters have gotten the most attention from the public so far. Anyway, here's the information! I have to go talk to Pixis about things."

The tiny piece of paper was shoved into my hand and Hanji was off without another word. I glanced down to see the date and time she'd be picking me up to head over.

"What does she mean about public attention?" Marco asked quietly when we started walking again.

"I have no clue… Maybe people just like the character profiles or posters?"

"…Yeah, maybe."

Marco somehow didn't sound convinced, and I didn't really blame him. Still, it wasn't anything to be fretting over – the important thing was that we were going to be on TV, talking about our film and our characters!

…Oh god… We were going to be on live TV… talking about our film and characters…

Maybe I should start a bet with someone - on how quickly I was going to make a huge dick out of myself.