The next morning, school wasn't exactly going great. At least once Armin could hear someone behind him quietly calling him a slut. Nobody dared to say it out loud for fear of incurring Eren or Mikasa's wrath. Therefore, he was just resigned to hearing the snide remarks whispered in secret.
Jean's day was even worse; somehow, someone got word out to the other football players about what Jean had done recently. It ended up making him some type of laughingstock among his teammates.
But it was Eren himself who made Jean officially snap. By the time anyone really noticed, they were already on the floor, fighting each other for some form of dominance. The other teammates watched and goaded them on.
It'd gotten so bad, the football coach/gym teacher had to break the two of them up. Shortly thereafter, both were sitting in coach Shadis' office.
"I've just about had it up to here with the both of you!" he shouted at them. "Every time a fight breaks out, every time, it always involves you two! Am I going to have to bench one of you for the rest of this season?!"
Both of them started talking at once, and pointing at each other, making accusations that got increasingly heinous.
...
Everyone waited to see what would be the result of yet another fistfight between Jaeger and Kirstein. All of them knew that someone wasn't going to be part of the team after this.
That was answered when all of them saw Jean walking out of the coach's office. His head was bowed down, a clear sign he didn't want any of them to see his face. After that came Eren, his hands behind his head and a smug grin on his own face. It looked as though he were about to break out in laughter towards Jean's misery.
He instead went over to his teammates and partook in a series of high fives. Jean, meanwhile, just got back to the locker room to change into his regular clothing. Everyone else was still praising Eren by the time he left the gymnasium.
He didn't want anybody to point and laugh at him ending up being cut from the team.
...
Lunch wasn't any better. In fact, Jean could even say it was worse. He knew he was going to get an earful from Armin when he saw him sitting with Eren and Mikasa. Rolling his eyes, he took a deep breath and prepared himself for the worst.
"Jean!" Armin's voice held just the slightest bit of disappointment, when he stood up to confront him. "What's this about you and Eren getting into a fight?"
"Hey," Jean retorted as he slammed his tray down onto the table. "He's the one that started it. He kept on yakking about how I'm no good for anyone, especially not you. So I got pissed and just took a swing at him."
As the two argued, the rest of the students in the cafeteria tried not to get sucked into it. There was no sense in getting involved with a dispute between two very young newlyweds.
"Jean, you can't just go and punch everyone that says those kinds of things. And you've been on thin ice with Coach Shadis for awhile now. Punching Eren was not the right thing to do!"
"Oh, so you're taking his side, then? You're taking the side of your loser friend over your own freakin' husband?!"
"I'm not taking sides here, Jean! I'm just saying-"
It went on like this, with Jean claiming favoritism, and Armin trying to help him see reason.
...
Then came Spanish class. This sucked for Jean because Eren sat behind him.
During the lesson about what words had false cognates, a paper dropped in front of him. Although Jean could do better in this class, it didn't take a rocket scientist to know what 'cara caballo' meant.
In return, Jean wrote down 'cabron' and threw it behind himself. About a minute or so passed, before the paper came back. Now it read 'vete a la chingada'. This time, he put down 'cabeza de pija' and passed it back.
It came back with 'Que te folle un pez'. Jean didn't have time for sending another Spanish insult back, though. He didn't even have time to start writing before the paper was snatched away from him.
Then he got an earful of Miss Dreyse telling him not to write such incredibly vulgar things in a different language.
...
Finally, when school let out, Jean took an immediate beeline to Marco's house. He knew that if he stuck around, things might get worse for him.
Armin ended up going to Eren and Mikasa's after school. Much as it pained and angered Jean to know that, he knew it was an understandable choice. After all this, he wouldn't be surprised if Armin got his pregnancy terminated and their marriage annulled.
He didn't even bother to get his homework out to work on. All he did was pull his pants off and flop onto his bed facedown burying his face into his pillow.
"Jean?" Now he could hear Marco calling for him, as the latter poked his head into the room. "I'm making meatloaf for myself. You want me to make some extra for you?"
Without lifting his head up, Jean shook his head and groaned. Marco didn't say anything else, so Jean assumed he'd been satisfied with that for an answer.
...
He ended up taking a nap at some point, without realizing he even fell asleep. When he did wake up, it was to a couple voices from the kitchen. They weren't totally coherent, though.
"Does that sometimes... always had that problem... they never got along..."
"...bad idea... not part of the... argued during lunch today..."
The bits and pieces Jean managed to hear were all falling into place now. No doubt he was still in deep trouble for his poor behavior at school earlier.
Jean was about to go back to sleep when his phone vibrated on the nightstand next to him. Rolling his eyes, he pulled it out and stared at the message on the screen.
It was an unopened message from Eren. The title of it amounted to some kind of 'sorry, not sorry'. Therefore, Jean hardly batted an eyelash when sending his own message that basically said 'go fuck yourself'.
He then threw his phone across the small room, hearing it thump against the opposite wall. Once that had been done, he curled up into the fetal position and fell back to sleep.
...
It was fairly late when Armin was finally going to bed. He'd done his social studies homework, then ended up chatting with Marco about Jean's behavior at school today.
"Would you believe me if I told you that that's normal for him?" Was what Marco said when Armin finished telling his tale. The both of them talked more after that, mostly about why Jean acted that way.
By the time both boys had gone to bed, Armin had a somewhat better understanding of his new husband. It didn't excuse his behavior in any way, but at least now he had a clearer idea of him.
It actually looked kind of endearing (if rather pathetic) to see Jean curled up on the bed like some type of caterpillar.
"Jean..." No response. Armin got on his knees on the bed, and scooted closer. He tried again. "Jean!"
He still didn't get an answer. It could've been that Jean was actually ashamed of the way he acted earlier, and was only pretending to be asleep. In an attempt to wake him, Armin grabbed hold of his shoulder and roughly shook it.
"Jean, wake up! I need to talk to you about something." This got Jean to awaken a bit, if only to push him away. Seeing that this wasn't going anywhere, Armin sighed and got himself settled under the blanket.
...
About a week or two later, the school's first football game of the season was getting practiced for. Jean had almost forgotten that he wasn't part of the team anymore. Armin actually needed to remind him of this.
Speaking of Armin, he was already beginning to show; a little swell that indicated pregnancy. By now, he estimated that he was two months (Maybe two and a half) along at this point. This bit of information came to Jean's great joy; he couldn't stop kissing Armin's stomach when they were in private.
"Jean," came Armin's voice as he looked down to see Jean hugging his legs, "have you been looking for a job at all lately?"
Resting the side of his face against Armin's belly, Jean nodded. "I haven't gotten any calls back, though."
Hearing this got Armin worried; the two of them needed to quit leeching off of Marco, and get their own place. He'd at least wanted a home big enough for the two of them and their unborn baby.
"Maybe we need a little help? Or I could get a job myself-"
"No," came Jean's terse and abrupt reply. "No sense in overexerting yourself. I don't want you hurting yourself or the baby. Leave the job stuff to me, got it?"
Knowing it was futile to argue about all this, Armin nodded. He then leaned against the wall (they were in the janitor's closet; both of them hoped Armin didn't end up accidentally inhaling something he shouldn't), and let Jean get back to kissing and caressing his stomach.
...
"Jean, I'm hungry," Armin said as he and Jean were walking home from school. "I want tacos."
Jean raised an eyebrow to this. "Can't you wait until we get back to Marco's?"
"No." Now Armin began to pull at Jean's arm. "I want them now. Take me to Taco Bell."
"Don't we have the fixings for tacos at home? Is it really that bad?"
Armin pulled harder. "Yes! It's very bad! Take me there now."
"But-"
"If you don't, I'm gonna tell Eren and Mikasa what a terrible husband you're being."
With that threat, now Jean had no reason to deny Armin that which he sorely desired. Eren didn't need more fodder against him.
As if to give him the finger (who exactly was doing it to him, he wasn't certain), Armin literally took a single bite and was satisfied. This left Jean having to devour almost an entire chicken taco, even if he wasn't really all that hungry.
...
In bed that night, Armin was quietly reading Martin the Warrior, while Jean lay facing away from him, sound asleep. The way he actually slept -with his arm directly under his head- looked kind of uncomfortable.
"Jean?" His whispering evidently wasn't the right volume; Jean merely continued snoring away. Trying again only resulted in him burping chicken taco, to Armin's frustration. He made a face that seemed as though he couldn't believe that this young man knocked up and married him.
Now getting fed up, Armin reached over and pinched Jean's nose shut. This gave the desired effect; Jean struggled to breathe for a moment or two, only being able to do so after batting Armin's hand away.
"Armin, what...?!" It took him a bit to stop coughing and choking. "Are you trying to kill me?"
When Armin reassured Jean that he hadn't been trying to kill him, he proceeded to say what else was on his mind.
"Do you think that maybe, just maybe, you could be a little nicer to Eren?" Jean was quiet for a moment, before he scowled and flopped back onto his side, attempting to continue sleeping.
"Why should I? That asshole's the reason I'm in trouble in the first place. I wouldn't have had so many problems if he'd just keep his trap shut."
Armin chose his next words as carefully as he could.
"If you can't be nice to him for me, then..." Here Armin set his book down and lay a hand on his belly. "Do it for this one. I don't think this baby wants to see Daddy being mean to Uncle Eren."
Knowing Armin was right, Jean sighed. "Fine, but only because you're the one suggesting it."
Armin decided that was a good enough answer. To show his appreciation, he leaned over to kiss Jean on the cheek.
"Thank you," he whispered, before turning back to his book and letting Jean get back to sleep.