Learning to Love the Cold

Chapter Five: Cross Strokes

Hello lovelies! I'm sorry for the delay of this chapter, it was sort of difficult to write and I haven't had much time on top of that. This chapter has dumb boys being cute and dumb, along with some pretty big advancements for said dumb boys. It also has dinosaur chicken.

Friday night, Jean gets a text from Marco.

Marco: i have some time from like 9 to 1 tomorrow to hang out. like we could go to jaeger café and then go see frozen or something

Jean: i'm up for that.

Jean: jaeger café? as in like eren?

Marco: yeah his mom owns it. they serve like the best dinosaur chicken on the planet

Jean snorts. Dinosaur chicken?

Jean: i haven't had dinosaur chicken since i was like five

Marco: well its going to be ur breakfast tomorrow so

Jean tucks his phone in his pocket, a smile adorning his face as he makes his way downstairs.

"What are you so happy about?" one of his relatives—he's not really sure who it is, he's not paying enough attention—asks him.

"Nothing, nothing," he says, heading towards the kitchen.

At nine o clock the following morning, Jean meets Marco at Jaeger Café after getting directions from him. (It's simple to get to, really. It's on the main road, only a few minutes from the rink.) He arrives about five minutes before Marco, so he just finds an empty booth and sits down.

To his surprise, Marco isn't in what he'd usually wear to skating. This is only the second time Jean's seen him in something that he doesn't practice in, but he definitely doesn't have a problem with it. It's not like he's wearing anything fancy, it's simply jeans, a gray v-neck, and a hoodie, but it looks so good on him Jean has to run his fingers over his lips to make sure he's not drooling.

"Hey," Marco flashes him a smile as he slides into the booth, setting his phone on the table.

"Hi," Jean replies. "How was skating?"

Marco shakes his head. "It's too early in the morning—the rink is always freezing. Other than that, things where fine though."

"Yeah, for sure never going to the rink in the morning then. I can hardly handle the weather outside."

"This is the coldest winter we've had in a while, though," Marco glances out of the windows, "It's kind of nice actually. I missed it."

Now Jean's shaking his head. "I will never understand."

Marco opens his mouth to reply, but a woman with black hair and eyes somewhere between hazel and gold is standing in front of them, a large smile plastered onto her face. She must be Eren's mom; their features are so similar. "Good morning, boys!" She turns to Marco, "The usual?" she asks.

Marco nods. "Of course. And the same for him," he nods to Jean. After she leaves, Marco says, "Eren's mom."

"I guessed. He looks way too much like her." Does everyone in the Jaeger family have phenomenal eyes? He almost asks, but decides against it.

They're both silent for a moment until Marco abruptly says, "Oh!" and reaches for his phone.

"What?" Jean asks.

"I almost forgot to tell you when all of the events for nationals are! I'm not sure if this is the time they'll be aired or not, but I might as well." He taps at his phone for a few more seconds before setting it down and saying, "I sent the times to you."

Moments later, Jean's phone buzzes. (He knew it was coming, but the terrible sound it makes against the table still manages to startle him.)

Marco: Men's: jan 10 8; jan 12 12:50

Ladies: jan 9 7:45; jan 11 7

Pairs: jan 9 4:15; jan 11 11:30

"I didn't include the ice dance, but you should watch that, too."

It's a few minutes past one when Jean gets home. One of his sisters is sitting at the island in the kitchen, staring at her phone.

"Where is everyone?" he asks.

"They all went out to eat."

"And you didn't because…?"

She shrugs. "I'm not hungry. So, where were you?"

"Out."

"Jean."

"I was with Marco. Why does it matter?"

"I was curious. Calm down."

Jean shakes his head. "No. You want something."

"Fine, fine." She leans against the counter, her ponytail falling over her shoulder. "Are you and him a thing or something? You're a lot happier lately, and I'm guessing it doesn't have to do with the below freezing temperatures."

"I," he pauses. "I think so. Maybe. I'm not sure."

"You're not sure?"

"Like," he shifts his weight from one foot to the other, staring at the floor (it's much more interesting than his sister's face at the moment), "We kissed, but we don't have like an official title for what we are or whatever. I kind of think it's a bad idea, with all he has going on. And said kiss hasn't been brought up since it happened, either. So I have no idea."

She nods. "That's the feeling I was getting from you."

He tilts his head, his eyes meeting hers. "Really? How?"

"Really. I don't know how. Intuition, I suppose." She presses a finger to her lip, thinking. "Have you told him?"

"Told him what?"

Her eyebrows raise.

"No," he sighs. "No, I haven't. There's no point, since it's not really a thing anymore."

"Jean, you never know when it'll happen."

"It hasn't recently, alright? So I'm not going to bring it up. Again, he has a lot going on. It would only worry him."

"Okay, okay. No need to get so defensive." She puts her hands up in an I surrender motion, "But be careful, okay? I don't want a call saying my little brother died in the hospital."

He nods. "Yeah, yeah, I get it."

Marco was right about nationals not being televised live. And Jean never bothered to look up proper times, figuring he could probably find it online somewhere. And everyone else's events he who he knows was there should be online somewhere, too. (Which, now that he thinks about it, is a lot. He knows, what? At least eight people competing there. Although one is a pair. So that's seven short programs and seven long programs to watch.

On second thought, he should have looked up the TV schedule.)

Instead, he waits for the Olympic team to be announced. He's refreshing the page every few seconds until it finally pops up. He scans for the names for his friends, coming across Mina first, then Eren and Mikasa, and finally Marco.

He stares at the names for a while, letting it sink in. His phone buzzes, not failing to startle him again.

Marco: looks like you've got yourself a boyfriend that's going to the olympics!

So, some interesting stuff this chapter. As a heads up, the following two to eight chapters are going to be different than the past five have been. I'm not going to say the focus of these chapters directly, but it'll give you a chance to get to know more about the characters in the story. A new chapter should hopefully be up within the upcoming week.