The next day was Saturday. Given that there was no school to worry about (and no football practice, either) the newlyweds ended up going to some baby store and look for things.

"Kind of weird to think of miniature people wearing this kind of stuff," Jean told Armin as the two pawed through various baby clothes. All the little shirts and onesies were almost overwhelming. Armin could've sworn Jean was holding back a squee or two, when he picked up a shirt with a little teddy bear embroidered on the front.

Jean's enthusiasm was not to last, however. He was about to ask Armin if they could get one or two of the tiny outfits, when his cell phone rang. Taking a good look at who was calling made his grin vanish completely.

"Dammit...I'll be right back," he told Armin before stepping outside to take the call. He wasn't talking for long before the mystery caller told him something apparently infuriating.

"Yeah, well," he answered. "Maybe you should've thought of that before you called him a floozy."

From recent events, Armin now knew he was talking to his mother. It was understandable that he was still a bit sore over what she told him.

"I don't need your help. I don't want your help. I can support my own family with help from my friends. So piss off until I'm able to bother looking at you again."

As soon as Jean hung up, he sighed and slapped a hand against his face, slowly dragging it downward.

"Pretty sure I just signed my own death warrant by doing that," he murmured as Armin came out to see what the exact result of the call was.

...

After going through the clothing section, both of them ended up in the nursery section. Just like before, Jean was taken by all the neat baby stuff.

Somehow Armin had the idea that Jean didn't really have a whole lot in regards to baby items when he was that age. It certainly seemed that way, given how tightly he was hugging a good-sized stuffed rabbit toy.

He looked around a bit more when he caught sight of a rather bitter looking woman. From looking over to his other side, Jean noticed her too. Thankfully, Jean had an idea.

As the woman walked over to them (presumably to scold them for getting pregnant so early in life, and not being married), Jean lay an arm across Armin's shoulders. The way it was positioned showed off the simple wedding band on his finger.

In turn, Armin lay his own hand on Jean's, displaying his lovely rose gold wedding ring as well. For good measure, Jean leaned in and kissed Armin on the cheek.

These tactics seemed to have worked; the woman took notice of their rings, and stopped in her tracks. Instead, she turned and walked off, clearly displeased at being thwarted.

"Thank you," Armin whispered as soon as the woman was out of earshot.

"Anything for you, babe," Jean whispered back.

...

Back at Marco's house, the two went over their meager purchases. There wasn't much to fawn over, but it was better than nothing.

It was a good start at least.

"Promise you'll keep looking for a job after tonight?" Armin said to him.

Jean nodded, holding up a onesie with a rabbit on the chest. "I will. Someone's gotta hire me sooner or later, right?"

...

After the baby stuff was folded up and put away, Jean and Armin had the house to themselves. Naturally, they were going to take advantage of this.

Armin watched with a half-lidded expression as Jean was tenderly kissing his foot, and went slowly upward. He was totally naked, feeling quite vulnerable (Jean still had his blue jeans on). When he was up far enough, he put both of his hands onto Armin's stomach, caressing the now hard bump of it. He then leaned in and pressed his ear against it.

"Hi there," came the gentle whisper. Armin knew the baby couldn't actually hear him at this point in pregnancy, but he didn't want to spoil Jean's good mood. "I'm gonna try to make your mommy feel really good. You alright with that?"

If nothing else, Jean was quite sweet when it came to this baby. It looked as if he would adjust to fatherhood quite well.

...

Eren looked absolutely devastated once he found Armin in study hall the next day. And for good reason.

Hearing the news that their football team lost miserably, Armin kind of expected Jean to be taking a sadistic pleasure from hearing it himself. To his surprise, Jean merely shrugged, and continued on with his math homework. No snarky comeback or anything.

"Fuck off outta here, Jaeger," he said while shooing Eren away. "Unless you know anything about digital roots." He actually looked to be hard at work, for once. Not that Eren cared about that part.

"At least we did better than when you were on the team, Horse-face." This wasn't true in the slightest. Eren just felt like trying to provoke Jean, for some reason.

For a little while, it appeared to be working; Jean paused in his homework, his hand trembling and clenched into a hard fist. It looked as though he were about to break the pencil he'd been using. His face was set into a slowly worsening scowl. Eren gave a smug grin, waiting for Jean to lose it and land himself in detention.

Then, Jean quick glanced over at Armin, and this displeasure melted away. He must've remembered the promise he made for their child's sake the other night. He took a deep breath, stilled his trembling hand, and continued working.

...

After school was let out for the day, Jean walked Armin to the local drugstore to get some over-the-counter vitamins. Jean was staring intently at two bottles he was comparing. Armin could see him suffer, at least internally.

"I don't need anything of a particularly strong dosage," Armin reminded him. "Just anything I can rely on in case my diet isn't good enough." Jean simply nodded, not looking up from his choices. Regardless of what he'd just been told, he was still going to get something of a decent value.

As he was doing that, Armin wandered off to another part of the drugstore. Near the registers, a bunch of cheap, knick-knacky junk sat collecting dust. Among them were a bunch of keychains with various quotes pertaining to love or marriage on them. As he rifled through them, he saw some particularly cheesy ones.

He also found a couple few that actually held some kind of value to him. It was just not really the ones pertaining to love, unfortunately. Armin quickly realized this, and started to get tears in his eyes.

"Hey." He jumped when he heard Jean talk to him so suddenly. "I just went for the cheapest brand since, y'know, money and-" He stopped when he saw Armin's face.

Then Jean didn't say anything else; he just strode over and pulled Armin into a hug. When he did this, Armin buried his face into Jean's chest.

...

That night, in bed, the two of them were hidden under a few blankets, on account of the sudden, severe chill in the air. Jean had already gotten to sleep, but Armin was having some trouble doing the same.

Try as he might, he simply couldn't get warm. Not even pressing his hands between his thighs helped very much.

"Jean?" He whispered loudly. "Jean." His efforts to get Jean to wake up resulted in Jean pulling one of his blankets over his head. So Armin resorted to pulling on it to uncover him again. Seeing that he wasn't going to get any sleep until this was sorted out, Jean sighed and looked over at Armin.

"Yeah?"

Armin scooted over to him. "Can you hold me? I'm cold..." He didn't have to ask twice. Armin felt himself be pulled in and held close to Jean's body, much like at the drugstore earlier today.

That seemed to have done the trick; the cold was practically melting away, replaced with cheek-reddening warmth. Armin tried not to get too annoyed with Jean's grabby hands getting a bit too familiar with his ass.

-a few days later-

Jean frowned at yet another rejection letter, this time from one of the local fast food establishments. To know that he was so pathetic as to not receive employment there really ate at him. Were it not for the fact that he and Armin were still living with Marco, he'd have punched a hole in the wall in front of him.

He was getting desperate. Lately, Marco's smile had been getting a little tight around the edges. Although he'd been gracious and polite about everything, Jean and Armin both were aware they'd long overstayed their welcome.

"Another one...?" Jean looked up to see Armin had come in, and saw his mail. "Jean, this is getting ridiculous."

"Yeah, I know." He looked over at Armin's baby bump, which was starting to protrude out even more nowadays.

Armin frowned. "I just wish you'd reconcile with your mother, or take Eren and Mikasa up on their offer to help. This is about more than your pride, you know; we have a child to think about." For whatever reason, hearing this made Jean extremely upset.

"You think I don't know that?! Look, I was gonna go on to college and become part of the football team there! I had to give that future up for all this! Instead of being a star quarterback for the team, I gotta learn to be a good dad! If you honestly think I'm not trying hard enough to look for a job-"

"I don't think that, Jean!" Armin cried out to get Jean to stop. "I think you just need to take any help you're offered."

The two of them hadn't had a proper argument until now, strangely enough. But here they were, having one about how stubborn Jean was being. He was, fittingly enough, being a real horse's ass.

"Well, if Eren and Mikasa are so damn supportive, why don't you go marry them instead?! Obviously you don't care enough about me trying my damnedest in all this!"

This ended up being the straw that broke the camel's back. Before he could stop himself, Armin ended up slapping Jean hard across the face. He then proceeded to run out of the apartment.

Not even Jean calling for him to come back could stop him.

...

Eren was caught off guard by Armin barging into his place. His sobbing, however, guaranteed that he had a very good reason for doing it.

So infuriated was he, that Armin had to talk him down from contemplating murder. Mad as he was at Jean, he didn't need to be widowed at sixteen as a result. Then he had to do the same for Mikasa.

When all was said and done, Armin just ended up hiding in his old room. The other two had done little in the way of changing it, like they predicted he'd stay here again.

Armin never realized the near tragedy that would occur in the hours he'd been away.

-later that evening-

"911, state your emergency."

In a severe panic, Marco had dialed the emergency phone number when he'd got home. Neither Jean nor Armin answered his greeting, which deeply concerned him. A search of his place revealed no Armin, but he certainly found Jean.

Specifically, Jean was submerged in the bathtub, with an empty bottle of pills next to him. After that was a frantic rush to the phone and call for help.

"Yes, hi! My friend's not breathing!" Marco scurried back to the bathroom. "I found him in the bathtub, and he wasn't responding, and-"

Still in a hurry, Marco remained on the line for as long as he could. He proceeded to attempt CPR on Jean, which thankfully seemed to have worked; Jean coughed up water and started coughing and desperately gasping for air.

By the time an ambulance came, Marco was scared enough to have soiled himself.

...

Armin had sat down for dinner with Eren and Mikasa when his phone began ringing. He groaned and rolled his eyes when he saw it was Jean. The other two watched with expressions that seethed with annoyance.

"What do you want now, Jean?" Armin said in a deadpan voice as he got up to his feet to go into the other room. He then stuck a finger into his ear so he could hear a little better.

His deadpan changed into concern and worry when he realized it hadn't been Jean that called him:

"Marco? What's going on? Where's Jean?" His voice, which regressed into 'Uh-huh' and 'okay', became increasingly alarmed sounding. Eventually, it culminated in "Jean did what?!

"No, no, it's okay, Marco. I'll be there as soon as possible." He hung up and turned to look at the other two, his face pale with fear.

"Can one of you drive me to the hospital?"