Welcome to Chapter 2 Part A of Drunk on You.

Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin, nor do I own any of the characters featured in this work of fiction. Neither my role-play partner nor I are gaining any sort of profit from this.

Warning: May contain inappropriate language, sexual themes, alcohol usage, mentions of violence, potentially triggering subjects, and very very bad puns. Rating may be subject to change in the future.

PLEASE READ: Edits and Revisions: My roleplay partner and I were previously misinformed about West Seattle. We had been told it was one of the shadier places in Seattle, but it turns out it's actually one of the nicer places so the previous chapter had to be revised a bit to make accommodations for the new locations. If you've already read Chapter One, I recommend reading it again before starting on Chapter Two.

Chapter 2 Part A has been beta-read. If any further errors or mistakes are noticed, please point them out in a review.


Saturday, the 26th of October.

"Have fun with Yumir and moving in, dude!" A voice called from the back door of the Starbucks shop as Jean stalked away, plastic bag in one hand, phone in the other, rapidly texting Ymir to meet him at his old apartment. "Thanks Connie, I will." Jean shouted back towards his friend. His hand gripped on the plastic bag that supposedly held the housewarming gift that Connie had gotten him. Of course, granted it was Connie that had given it to him, it was probably something really garish or entirely useless. He was tempted to open the bag and open it right now, but that could wait until he was done unpacking all of his stuff.

Jean sat down on the ferry and texted Marco, 'ill probably be over in about 45 min with my stuff. r u there right now?'. He let out a quick sigh. He still hadn't mentioned all of this to his landlord... but that could wait until the last minute. His nose still hurt a bit from when he got beat up a week ago and he wasn't too keen on revisiting that pain. The ferry halted to a stop and the captain called out over the loudspeaker that they were docking and unloading. Passengers must get off first, cars wait until the ship is clear of walk-on passengers, yadda yadda. Jean was one of the first people off, and he practically ran up the four flights of stairs to his old apartment. He wasn't gonna lie, he was pretty damn excited about this.

He walked up to door 403 to find Yumir leaning against the wall, her blackberry in hand as she impatiently tapped at the screen. She was probably texting someone from her work. She was usually a very busy person, and most of her time was taken up with her precious work. Jean couldn't image what it took for her to get this day off. "Yo." He greeted. She looked up from her phone and her furrowed brows returned to their emotionless state. "'Yo' yourself. Let's do this." She replied as Jean walked past her, unlocking the door and leading her to where he had all of his stuff stacked up in the middle of what his bedroom used to be. He grabbed a couple of boxes and started down the stairs again. "Where'd you park the car?" Ymir hoisted one of the heavier boxes onto her shoulder and followed Jean down the stairs. "Right by the stair case. I had to fight for that damn spot.." She trailed off, explaining how she had to cut off one of the crack addicts trying to pull in there. "Jesus Christ Yumir, are you trying to get yourself killed? Those crack addicts can be really vengeful people. Just watch, we get down there and the tires will be slashed." "Don't be such a baby, Jean." Jean shut his mouth at that remark and chucked the two boxes into the back of the truck. Surprisingly, the tires weren't slashed, but there was a lovely key-scratch along the side. "Is that new?" He asked. "Probably. I don't really keep track anymore." Yumir shrugged and the two of them began their journey back up the stairs.

About 30 minutes later and they had managed to get all 5 boxes and the dresser loaded in, plus the mattress strapped on top. It probably looked unbelievably ghetto, especially considering the truck itself was a beat-up, falling apart Ford. Jean quickly sent Marco a text saying 'leaving now. be there in 10-15 min' and true enough, 16 minutes later, Jean and Yumir were pulling into a parking space at Illuminia Apartments. Jean hopped out of the truck and opened the trunk, his eyes vaguely searching for Marco as he pulled out the first few boxes.

Marco spent a good part of his morning at his friend's place, fighting the leaky tap with a wrench. It had taken quite a bit longer than he had expected, though he still pulled in around quarter past 1pm. Jean and his girlfriend still hadn't arrived, and for the first time that morning he checked his phone. Three new messages, two from Jean and one from Krista. 'I get off early tonight, can we spend some time together? 3' Marco smiled to himself as he tapped out a quick reply. 'Sure! My new roommate is moving in today but he'll be out with his girlfriend. Come over at 6?' And, in response to Jean's texts, 'I'm home, let me know when you get here so I can help bring things up. See you soon! : )'. He poured a glass of water and drank half, then half-walked half-jogged downstairs to the lobby to wait. Oh, shoot. Stairs. If Jean brought anything heavy, they would have a hell of a time getting it up to their floor. Oh well, they'd figure it out. Maybe Jean's girlfriend could help. Did he ever say her name? He couldn't remember, but Jean would probably introduce them, if he remembered to.

Jean made a wonderful mistake of grabbing the two heaviest boxes he had, thus causing him to take his sweet time going up the stairs to Marco's floor. A small chime emitted from the pocket of his trusty blue hoodie but his hands were too full to get it. "Yumir, do you have a free hand? I've got a text but I can't send a reply." His voice came out a bit muffled, thanks to the fact that his face was mushed up against the top box. "Yep, I sure do~" Jean didn't quite trust that tone in her voice when she snaked a hand around and plucked his phone from his pocket. "Is Marco your roommate? cause he says 'I'm home, let me know when you get here so I can help bring things up. See you soon!' complete with a smiley face." Yumir said from behind Jean, who answered with "Yeah that's him can you tell him I said we're outside right now.?" "Hehe, can do." Ymir's swift thumbs tapped out a reply to Marco which read 'im here rite now bby, why dont u come and get me ;)'. After she pressed 'send', Yumir had a hard time controlling her snickers and giggles.

Marco leaned over the railing and listened to the noises created by the bustling city crowd below. Most people were still trying to get back to work from lunch, but traffic seemed to make that nearly impossible. His phone dinged from his back phone, and he took his sweet time prying himself away from the quality entertainment that was the street below to answer it. He laughed a little at the winking emote and went inside, tossing his phone on the couch as he made his way to the door. He looked through the peephole first, just to check, and couldn't see anything but cardboard. He unlocked and opened the door, stepping aside to let Jean pass. "I left your door open just in case your hands would be full, you know the way. Do you need any help?"

"Thanks." Jean muttered and pushed past Marco, straight towards his new bedroom. "Help would be great. There are two boxes left down in the trunk. It's the red, scratched up Ford." He replied as he set the boxes down. Yumir made her way past Marco too, following Jean, hot on his trail. As Jean went back down the stairs to grab pieces of his dresser, Yumir stopped where Marco stood and practically violated him with her eyes before giving a small snort and holding out her hand for him to shake it. "Hi, my name is Yumir. I'm that dope's girlfriend." She gestured towards Jean who was currently fumbling with carrying too many things.

Marco nodded and shook Ymir's hand, smiling at the fact that she'd done exactly what Jean said she would. "Nice to meet you. I'm Marco, that dope's new roommate. I'd love to chat more once we're finished, if that's okay." He nodded once, then made his way downstairs and outside. Yumir's truck wasn't too hard to find luckily, and he was soon on his way back upstairs with the boxes Jean had mentioned. They were pretty light to him, so he reached Jean's room with minimal effort. He set them on the floor near the window and walked back out to the living room. He'd seen the mattress, though he wasn't sure how easy it'd be to fit it through the door.

Yumir nodded her agreement and followed Marco downstairs. After he had grabbed the last boxes and made his way upstairs, Yumir stood back from the car and wondered which of the two things left she should take. Both of the items required two people... Jean stumbled down the hallways, his load of furniture nearly falling over when he lost his balance for a split second. He safely plopped the stack of drawers from his dresser onto a random corner of his room. The only things remaining were the base of the dresser, which he looked out the door to see Ymir pulling it from the trunk, and the mattress, still strapped down on top. Amazingly, Jean stared in surprise as his girlfriend carried his dresser all by herself. He passed by her on the stairs and said "Try not to scratch anything." To which she replied, "Then why don't you lend me a fuckin' hand?" Jean grinned at that. "No way, you look like you're doing just fine by yourself. Aren't you always complaining about how much you hate the fact that society thinks women need to rely on men?" He answered, his hands working at the buckles holding the mattress down. He heard a small, half-serious, half-joking toned "fuck you jean" come from inside the apartment.

Marco waited for Yumir to clear the doorway, then hurried back outside to help Jean with the mattress. "Which side are you grabbing?" He helped finish unbuckling the straps and started to get the mattress down, careful not to drop it on the ground. "She's sweet, by the way. Can totally see why you like her."

"Don't let her hear you say that. She'll start trying to get you to take her on fancy, expensive dates too. Don't even look her in the eye. All your money will disappear." Jean joked, grabbing the far end of the mattress and waiting for Marco to grab the opposite end.

Marco chuckled and picked up the other side, giving himself the oh-so-wonderful job of walking backwards up the stairs. "Oh, my wallet's already invested in someone. I don't think it could take much more than that. Hah, I'm kidding. Krista isn't that big on gifts. If she was though I don't think she'd like things that were too expensive, so either way it's cool."

"Krista? Is she the ex-girlfriend that you mentioned before? The one that you're still friends with." Jean asked as he shuffled awkwardly up the stairs. They'd probably have to turn the mattress a different way in order for it to fit through the door. Maybe he should just get a blow-up mattress instead. So much easier for transportation...

"Well actually we went on a date recently. It was just lunch, but she called it a date. So I guess we're in that awkward in-between stage again. We're almost together again but we've still got a little ways to go, y'know? Shit, that doesn't make sense." Marco seemed to be holding up his end pretty well, though having to look over his shoulder to see made him nearly slip once or twice. They eventually made it to their apartment door, and he couldn't have been more pleased. He fit the mattress through the door diagonally and slipped past it to join Jean in the hall. "It should take a few good shoves to get it in, and we'll probably have to do the same thing with your door. You wanna take a rest or are you good to go?"

"No that makes sense. You broke up, but you're friends, but you're slowly working your way back into dating again. Did I get that right?" Jean dropped his end of the mattress for a second to crack his back and knuckles before picking it up again and indicating that he was good to do some shoving. "What's she like, Krista?"

"Yeah. You say things better than I do." Marco sighed and rubbed his shoulder. Boy was he glad the mattress was the last of it. He grabbed onto the edge of the mattress and pushed, and he hoped that the movement wasn't just in his imagination. Why the hell did such a small guy need a huge bed? "Ah, she's... Very sweet. Soft-spoken. Absolutely gorgeous. She's pretty shy, but not like the kinda shy that makes you feel bad for someone. It suits her. Try making sense out of that."

"I believe the word you're looking for is humble? Or maybe modest. Basically the complete opposite of Yumir. Yumir is probably the un-girliest girl to ever girl. Now there's a sentence that doesn't make sense." Jesus Christ. Jean knew he should've gotten a smaller size. But he had a lot of extra cash when he bought this thing and thought getting the most luxurious thing there would make his life easier. The thing had just barely gotten passed the first doorway and realized now that he had been very, very wrong.

"Well... Not really humble or modest but kinda. She's the type of girl that you just wanna... Pick up and spin around until you're both so dizzy you can hardly stand. Just when she smiles. What do you like about Yumir though? There has to be something wonderful about her, right?" After a few more shoves, the mattress tipped over into the entryway. Marco sighed and crawled onto it, rolling onto his back once he was comfortable enough. "I hope this bed is worth the effort. It's comfy but it is way too big to be practical for you, shorty."

Jean laughed nervously. "Ehehe... Uh, I guess because she's cute? And she's not really shallow or anything, and pretty laid back. She doesn't get mad at me when I act 'gross' in the words of other girls I've dated." He wasn't sure that there was anything super wonderful about her. She was actually probably more of a friend with benefits than a girlfriend. Or at least that's what she was to him. "Her freckles are cute." He added vacantly. Sure, most of his past girlfriends had freckles, but that didn't mean he had a freckle fetish. Jean bristled at Marco's last comment. "Shorty? I'm not short, you're just freakishly tall. How fucking tall are you anyway, like 12 fucking feet jesus christ." Jean wasn't even sure if Marco minded him swearing or not, but he was not short. 5'11" is average. Jean stuck his hands under the mattress and started sliding it down the remainder of the hallway, Marco and all.

Marco relaxed on the mattress, his arms behind his head as the ceiling went by. "So you're a freckles kinda guy?" he asked, ignoring Jean's height issue. "Can't say I'm surprised. Y'know, Krista's blonde. I don't really have a thing for blondes though. In fact, my past two partners were brunettes." He shrugged and sat up unsteadily. "I feel like I'm on a really shitty boat. Are we gonna go down like the Titanic? Wait am I the captain? Do I have to go down with my ship? I'm too young to die just yet!"

"Oh you'll be going down somewhere if you don't lift your big butt off this thing." Jean said, struggling with pulling the mattress around the corner, towards his bedroom door. "Oh, and I'm not a freckles kind of guy. They're just cute on Yumir." He justified. Gosh, he sure felt like he had to justify a lot of things around this guy. Freckles, height, there would probably be a couple of other things in the future. "Wait a sec... How old are you? I never asked."

"Oooh, I'm fearing for my life. Man the lifeboats ready!" Marco rolled off of the mattress and stood up, helping Jean push it towards his room. "Sure you aren't. I'm 25 though. Seems like something we should've asked from the beginning. How old are you? I'm guessing... With your non-so-fresh face, I can tell you've seen and probably done some things you're not proud of. That makes you look a lot older than you really are because of the stress and worry that accompanies it. You look older than me but younger than 30. But your eyes say 22 through 25. That's the highest I'm going." He paused, frowning and scratching at his neck. "How bad am I off?"

Jean pulled his end of the mattress into his room and just tugged on it, seeing it it would manage to budge. Asking Marco his age really should have been something they did at the beginning but hell, technically it was still the beginning somewhat... Jean's face shot up and he just stared at Marco. Should he mess with him... or tell him the truth? Jean put on his best 'what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about face' and deadpanned "Um, I'm 19...I guess I should take it as a compliment that you think I'm older than that, though?"

Marco's eyebrows shot up, his mouth hanging open a little. "You're joking! Shoot, and I thought I was actually pretty good at reading people... Remind me not to try it on Yumir, I'm sure she'd get ticked if I thought she was several years older than she actually is. Well... Fuck." He laughed and continued to scratch his neck, not even bothering to help with the mattress at that point. It hadn't been a compliment, it had been an insult to both Jean and his college professor and he felt awful for it. He felt awkward and out of place in his own home and it was just... Weird. He'd never been that off before.

Once Jean was sure that his prank had made Marco uncomfortable, he broke out into a grin. "That's for calling me a shorty. I'm actually 24 and Yumir insists she's been 21 for the past 5 years." He tugged at the mattress, it's spring making popping noises as they awkwardly squished through the door frame. "It's creepy how you do that though. Guess something just by looking at me and then getting it right. Even the whole 'seen and done things you aren't proud of'." There was only a little bit left to squish in and then he could start unpacking his stuff. "Speaking of Yumir though, where the heck is she?"

Marco crossed his arms and bumped Jean aside, easily pushing the rest of the mattress into his room. "I don't know, she's your girlfriend. Maybe you should put a tracking chip in her or something. We can mess with the bed later. You're lucky my old roommate left his bed frame. I wouldn't have helped you fit that in here." He stretched his arms over his head as he wandered into the living room and plopped onto the sofa. "Hey, where's my phone? Could've sworn I left it right here... It'll turn up I guess?"

Jean shoved his mattress up against the wall for now and looked around. It looked like Yumir had put his dresser back together for him. "I don't know, it's your phone, maybe you should put a tracking chip on it or something." He replied. Jean didn't feel like doing any of this later so he pulled his clothes from their boxes and put them into whatever drawer he felt like they should go in. He plugged his crappy alarm clock in and grabbed his bathroom supplies. When he reached the bathroom, the door swung open and Yumir passed by him, white iPhone in hand. Jean didn't think anything of it and placed his toiletry next to wherever Marco kept his. Ymir, with a large grin on her face, made her way into the living room and sat down on the sofa next to Marco. "Hey, who's this blonde chick? She's really cute!"

Marco rolled his eyes at Jean's snide retort and propped his legs up on the ottoman, picking absently at his nails. He jumped as Yumir joined him suddenly, and for a moment he didn't understand her question. He took his phone and looked at the picture, Krista smiling at the camera. "Oh. That's my kinda-girlfriend. Krista. You'll meet her tonight if you and Jean don't leave for your fancy dinner date until after 6."

Yumir's face showed pure elation and fascination. She called towards the bathroom, "Hey Jean, we aren't leaving for our date until after 6 so go unpack all of your crap!" Jean came out of the bathroom and stared at her. "My crap is already unpacked..." "You didn't organize or fold anything, did you." Jean scoffed. "No? It's fine the way it is." "Uh-huh... hey

Marco, that girl, Krista, what's she like?" Jean couldn't believe it. He'd never seen Yumir actually smile before. 'If you could even call that thing on her face a smile...' He thought while flattening the 4 empty boxes and leaving the box full of bedding next to the mattress.

Marco raised an eyebrow at Jean, then at Yumir. How couples could argue so much, he'd never understand. "Uh... Well like I told Jean, she's sweet and soft-spoken. She's pretty funny when she wants to be and almost always thinks of others first." He looked through his other pictures of Krista and held the phone so Yumir could see as well. Some of the pictures were when they'd gone to San Diego for his family, some when they'd gone ice skating and he took a break while she continued to skate, some when she'd practically begged him to go to the beach with her, and others when she cooked and laughed and smiled. She was just so photogenic. She didn't have a bad angle or a better side. "Why are you so interested?"

Yumir's face felt a little hot... was being so interested a bad thing? "I don't know, she just so photogenic that it's unrealistic. Has she ever done modeling before?" She couldn't help it, Yumir just really wanted to look at her. She looked like a nymph, or a pixie, or a tiny goddess..."Oh! I forgot to mention this earlier, but Krista sent you text saying she was coming over a little earlier than planned. You seemed busy pretending to be a captain of a ship, so I told her that it was okay." Replying for a complete stranger might not be the nicest thing to do, but she really hadn't felt like bothering Jean and Marco at that point. Speaking of Jean... said man with the multicoloured hair and bruised nose walked out into the living room, a pack of beer in one hand and a couple of mac n' cheese maracas in the other. "So uh, where exactly can I put these?" his head nodded at the shaking boxes of noodles.

Marco was almost shocked by how curious Yumir was, but... She did seem like "the type". "I don't think she has? She did a few commercials when she was a kid, and a couple of diaper ads when she was a baby, but other than that, no." He would've commented on the whole texting situation, but he didn't really get the chance. He stood up and shoved his phone in his pocket, leading Jean to the kitchen. "Uh... Mac n' cheese goes in the cupboard across from the stove, you'll see other pastas and stuff. I'll find a place for these." He took the six-pack and opened the fridge, kneeling down in front of it with a puzzled expression on his face. Well shoot, the fridge was pretty full...

Krista adjusted her purse strap on her shoulder slightly, standing in front of Marco's apartment door and tugging nervously at her birth stone ring. She'd been excited to meet his new roommate, but it was still a little early... She thought that maybe she should wait outside for a little while, but she'd already told Marco she wanted to come earlier. There was literally no point in stalling. She knocked, panicked because it might have been too quiet, and knocked again with a little more force.

Yumir would have been exaggerating if she said she jumped off of the sofa and the sound of the first knock and sped her way down the hall, but it was something pretty close to that. She checked the peephole first before swinging the door open and staring at the blonde girl before her. She cleared her throat and held out her hand. "Hey, my name's Yumir. I'm the new room mate's-" she hesitated on that word, but it came out eventually. "Uh, girlfriend." She looked around awkwardly for a second. "The boys are in the kitchen, fussing over their Ports and Chardonnays and piss-poor souffles." She grinned to herself at that.

Krista would've been lying if she'd said that she hadn't been extremely startled by the sudden opening of the door, and for a moment she wondered just who this strange woman was and why she was in Marco's apartment. She quickly remembered Marco talking about a friend's date once the woman, or Yumir, said she was someone's girlfriend. She took Ymir's hand and shook it gently, offering her a smile. "I'm Krista. I'm Marco's girlfriend." Well... Kind of. They'd been on dates, they just hadn't really said anything about really getting back together. In fact, Marco invited her over for a movie night while his roommate took his girlfriend on a date. She was hoping she could talk to him about making it official after the movie. She usually tried to laugh politely at someone's poor excuse for a joke, but Yumir seemed genuinely funny, and she couldn't help but laugh a little. "It's nice to meet you. You have kind eyes. May I come in?"

Yumir felt a little bit of warmth in her heart when she heard Krista's laugh. It was light, and delicate... It almost made Yumir feel like a brute, or even worse, a man. "Well, it's not my place, but I'm going to go ahead and speak for the guy that I met 2 hours ago and say, yeah sure, mi casa es tu casa." Yumir backed away from the door to let her pass through and watched, or rather, stared at her. She had a kind of natural grace and beauty that she only wished her models would have. Yumir wondered if she would ever agree to be a model for her. Her portfolio had all sorts of things and people in it, but it was definitely lacking a certain Krista. "Ah, so you said your Marco's girlfriend? How long have you two known each other?"

Krista entered the apartment and took her flats off. She could feel the cool wood beneath her feet even through the her wool tights. She set her flats near the door and stepped onto the carpet, soft and kind of springy under her feet. "I've known him since high school. We started dating in our sophomore year in college. And you? When and how did you meet your boyfriend?" She entered the living room and set her purse on the couch, looking behind her at Yumir. She was interesting. And she had nice hair. It was the kind of hair that girls at sleepovers would fawn over. The color was dark and closely resembled silk. She would've touched it if she could reach without asking Yumir to lean over. She could hear voices from the kitchen, Marco "aha"-ing and mumbling something about individually placed cans.

Yumir grinned. They sounded like such a cute couple! "Ah, Jean and I met in France six years ago at his aunt's wedding. We were just acquaintances for a couple of years, but then he called me up out of the blue and told me he was moving up here so we became friends and we started dating like... 6 or 7 months ago?" She scratched at a spot on her temple and chuckled. "I can't remember exactly, but meh, it's whatever." She said with a quick shrug. Soon after, Jean entered the living room with a sigh and went straight passed both girls and into his bedroom. His voice sounded from behind the wood, "Yumir, we're leaving in like half an hour and I thought I was taking you out somewhere fancy. You aren't going dressed in what you're wearing right now, are you?" Yumir looked down at her attire. Jean was right, a T-shirt and overalls weren't fit for a fancy date. "I might, just to embarrass you." She called back.

Marco followed not long after Jean, greeting Krista with a kiss on the cheek. "Excited for our movie night?" He smiled and sat on the arm of the couch. "I've narrowed it down to three movies but I think you should have the final say."
Krista stared after Jean and listened to his and Yumir's rather short conversation, and was just about to ask Yumir something when Marco joined them. She fiddled with her ring again. "Well... Actually I was wondering if we could join Yumir and Jean," she turned to Yumir, "only if you don't mind though. I'd just like the chance to get to know you two better is all."

Yumir was a little shocked that she would give up a date just to get to know a couple of strangers. "Yeah, that'd be great! Maybe it can be a little bit of a housewarming party type deal! People do those right? Ah, but Jean and I were planning to go down to The Georgian... Are you two okay with such an expensive place? I mean, if you aren't, we could always ditch that plan and go to a Sports pub or something? I'm sure that would make Jean feel way more comfortable." She vaguely wondered if their reservation at the Georgian would be okay if they added too more people. It probably would be, considering Jean had ties to the owner of the restaurants.

"The Georgian? I've been there a few times. It's really nice. Some of the waiters even bothered to remember my name, isn't that sweet?" Krista smiled, her cheeks still a little pink from the cold. "Did you bring another outfit with you?"
Marco scratched his chin and got up, knocking on Jean's door and opening without waiting for a response. He covered his eyes just in case Jean was changing and leaned against the closed door. "So Krista asked Yumir if we could join you two. I wasn't asked about what I thought, but I guess that doesn't matter? I mean anything to make Krista happy I guess, but I went through 27 movie titles and narrowed it down to three just for tonight. I feel like this is going to be happening a lot, too. They really hit it off."

Yumir nodded. "Yeah, I did, but I'm still half-tempted to go in these." She said, tugging on her overalls. "But, I don't feel like getting kicked out, so I better go grab it from my truck." She flashed a toothy grin before stuffing her feet into her vans and walking outside into the cold, october air.
"They hit it off? That's great and kind of odd. Yumir doesn't really just 'hit it off' with anyone. A lot people say they bug her because she's kind of nosy. And she's has a bad habit of making horrible jokes and puns when she's nervous. Or hungry. She makes a lot of food puns when she's hungry." Jean said as he rummaged through his dresser drawers looking for his evening wear while in his boxers. He pulled out a pair of grey slacks and a black dress shirt before checking a different drawer. "Which movies were you thinking about seeing? I also told Yumir we'd do that tonight, but I never had time to look up the movies so I was hoping she'd forget about it. Maybe we can do that too."

Krista nodded and sat down, looking through her purse for her lipgloss. It had faded and dried a bit because of the wind, so freshening it up wouldn't be too bad, would it? Once she finished, she rubbed her lips together and put the gloss back in her purse.

"She likes really cheesy movies okay, so don't get on me for this. I picked out Love Actually, The Notebook, and 50 First Dates. It was supposed to just be us though, that's my entire problem with it. But we're already intruding on your date, so you might as well do the same. It was just going to be kind of an important night..." Marco sighed and lowered his hand, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at his feet. "Guess I should change."

Yumir jogged back upstairs, her dress, safe from the elements in it's plastic cover, was tossed over her shoulder. She stood in the living room for a minute, debating whether she should change in the only bathroom in the place, or interrupt the muffled conversation she heard coming from Jean's room. Giving up, she decided she could wait until the two of them were done for her to use Jean's room, because god damn it, she knew how awful it was when you needed to take a dump but the bathroom was occupied. She let out a huff of air and sat down next to Krista. "So, might as well start the 'get-to-know-each-other-better thing' asap, right? Where do you work?"

Jean grabbed a hold of Marco's arm. "Woah, hold up dude. Why was tonight supposed to be important?" He asked as he tripped over the legs of his slacks in his attempt to shrug them on.

Krista waited patiently for Yumir to return, her hands balled into fists on her knees. Okay, so maybe the whole lip gloss thing was a sham. Maybe she just wanted to impress new people. What was wrong with that? She kept her head down until Yumir spoke, and only then did she notice she'd come back. "I work at St. Jude Children's Hospital on 11th. I'm a nurse. Where do you work?"

Marco shrugged and lowered his voice. "Well I wanted to... Get back together. Completely. But it can wait I guess. Are you having issues?" He chuckled and helped Jean steady himself. "Your balance is awful."

Yumir slid into a slouch in her seat and scratched at her temple. "Wow, a nurse huh? I thought for sure you'd be a model, or something like that." She stared at the ceiling. Not that there was anything interesting up there, Yumir just felt like she might've been staring a little bit too much at Krista. "I'm an amateur photographer. I work down at the Adonis Photography Studio as an intern. It's fun work, but it does pay super well. Yet, anyway." Yumir added with a confident smirk on her lips.
"Woah. Sorry... I feel kind of bad that Yumir forced you into this double date now... I hope Krista will say yes to you anyway though." Jean said as he attempted to hop into his slacks, but he kept losing balance and getting his feet into the wrong holes. "Dude, putting on pants, has never been this hard, I don't-" His sentence was cut off as he gently gripped Marco's shoulder to prevent him from toppling over. "I don't get it." He finally pulled his pants up and grinned in triumph for a moment before realizing they were on backwards. "This is literally impossible" He groaned as he slipped them down his legs and attempted to pull his feet from the leg holes. One of his feet got stuck in the hole and Jean, who had grown frustrated with the whole situation, lost his balance completely when he tried to yank his ankle from the hole. He felt that bottomless pit in his stomach drop in the panic that came with falling.

Krista's cheeks reddened considerably as she processed that compliment. Even her ears felt a little warm. "A model? I-I appreciate it really, but I don't have what it takes."
"It's not that big of a deal, I swear. I'm just overreacting a little. I'm sure we'll all have a great time as soon as you figure out how clothes work." Marco laughed, both at his own joke and Jean's backwards slacks. It was actually pretty ridiculous how much effort Jean was putting into it. He looked away as Jean once again took his pants off, listening to him grumble with a small smile on his lips. He could probably get used to living with the guy if every night was as eventful as this.
A sudden movement caught his eye, and his hands reacted before his head. He wasn't able to stop Jean from falling completely, and it probably would've gone the same way had he not done anything at all. His hands firmly grasped Jean's hips, though they still collided hard enough to send Marco back into the door. He hit with enough force to cause it to shake a little, but other than that the fall went relatively unnoticed by the two in the other room.

Yumir's eyes snapped back to Krista. "What? No way! You totally do! I mean, you just kind of have this air around you, y'know? Like, some people have airs of elegance that make you go 'damn, she's fancy', but you have this air of grace that kind of just... uh.. makes me- I mean people want to stare at you a lot. Ahaha..." She switched from scratching her temple to vacantly rubbing along her jawline. Her jaw felt a little tense from nervousness...
Jean's eye were wide and his mouth was pressed into a hard line. His breaths were forced and erratic and ankles were throbbing slightly. It took him a second to process what just happened, but when he did, he just sort of mumbled "Jesus fucking Christ. Satan invented these pants." His muscles were still trembling from the shock so he didn't dare move away from his stop, lest he lose his balance again. "Are you okay Marco?"

"...I do? Are you just saying that? I considered it when I was younger. What young girl doesn't want to be a model, right? But... I invested myself more and more into my dance lessons, and eventually people said that my modeling window was gone. I thought it was kind of silly, and I didn't want to be a model anymore anyway." Krista sighed, pulling her legs up onto the couch and holding her knees close to her chest. "You're a photographer... I could be your muse sometimes if you'd like."
Marco was still in a state of surprise himself, his knuckles aching and turning white from his grip on Jean's hips. He... Actually had a pretty nice figure. He shook his head to try and clear it a bit, then rested it back against the wooden door. "Yeah. I'm fine. Are you?" If Jean still tried to wear those pants after all that, he would be a real trooper. No pants were worth that amount of fuckery.

Yumir grasped Krista's small hands an shook them wildly. "Yes yes yes yes! I would more than like that! My personal portfolio is dying to have you in it!" Yumir paused for a second and pulled out her phone. "Here, let's trade numbers so that we can arrange a time where I can stare at your face for a couple of hours and maybe even photograph you a little" Yumir wasn't sure if Krista would take that seriously or not, she kinda hoped she wouldn't, just so Yumir could avoid the title of 'creep' which stuck to her all through elementary and middle school.
Jean slowly nodded and took a step forward, testing if his legs were still too shaky or not. "Yeah, I'm probably fine." He took a deep breath and calmly slid his feet from pants, picked them up, and crushed them in his fist. "Why don't we have a bonfire party? These can go straight on the top." He voice was filled with the kind of malice that only came from tripping over one pair of pants too many times... but... he didn't own any other dress pants so the process of fighting to put these slacks on began once again. Not that it was much of a fight. Jean slid his legs into each pant with vigilance. It only took him about two and a half minutes.

Krista shared Yumir's excitement, though it didn't show quite so much. At the mention of swapping numbers, she pulled her phone out of her purse and traded it with Yumir's, entering her number and handing it back. "So long as I get to stare right back at you, I see no problem with it. I work nights, Sundays to Thursdays. Lunch sometime?"
Marco held his hands up as if someone was pointing a gun at him, his face red with embarrassment. As soon as Jean stepped away from him, he stood up straight. "I'm going to go change now, best of luck to you in your quest to put on clothes correctly!" He fumbled for the doorknob and couldn't get to his room fast enough. That was probably the single most embarrassing thing he'd ever had to go through. And he used to play truth or dare in middle school. He changed quickly, though not fast enough to get caught in any of his clothing like Jean had. And now... To forget that ever happened and to never mention it to Krista.

A light blush tinted Yumir's cheeks. That was just standard flattery... She wasn't anything special to look at. "Uh, yeah lunch sounds good. The studio isn't open for business on Wednesdays incase anyone wants to use it for their own personal stuff, so I can go ahead and reserve next Wednesday around noon for us, If that's a convenient time for you?"
After Marco left, Jean let out a noise that sounded like a mixture between a groan and a growl with a hint of frustration. He tripped like a dumbass, and got caught like a girl. He wasn't sure which part was more humiliating. Not to mention the fact that he probably looked like a total asshat in front of his brand new roommate. Jean stewed over these issues as he secured his belt in the loops of his trousers and tucked in his dress shirt. All he needed was to find a tie of some sort... basically anything worked... He didn't want to waste anymore time putting clothes on than he already had.

"Wednesday is perfectly fine. Is there a bus station nearby? I don't drive." Krista smiled sheepishly, her eyebrows pulled together. She hated admitting that, it was so weird. Not that it was odd if someone didn't drive, because Seattle traffic isn't that great.
Marco finished his outfit with sensible black shoes, taking a look in his full-length mirror. He straightened his clip-on tie and fixed his cuffs, his cheeks still a little pink from the whole Jean thing. He took a moment to collect himself, taking deep breaths and holding then in for several seconds whilst he fixed his hair. There. All done. He exited his room and joined the girls, sitting in the arm chair next to the sofa. "Hey Yumir, you can change in my room if you'd like. Jean's probably still having issues with his clothes."

"Yeah, if you take the 70, there's a bus stop on Seneca street, but that's about as close as you can get. It's about a 5 - 10 minute walk to get from there to the studio so it's not that far. It's got a few turns here and there, so I'll meet you at the bus stop." Okay so that was a lie. There were only 2 turns, but hey, so what if Yumir lied so that she could spend more time with Krista? Yumir stood up when Marco said he could use his room. "He's having issues with his clothes? My my, what were you two doing..." She teased, closing the door to Marco's bedroom behind her. If felt a little weird. Get dressed in a complete stranger's room, and Marco was all too trusting to let her do so. She took a quick glance at how he kept his room, just a mental note to see what kind of a person he was, and slipped her outfit from it's protective plastic bag.
Jean gave his indigo bow tie one last and flashed himself a victorious grin. He tossed his suit jacket over his shoulder, fussed with a few stubborn pieces of hair, and took a trip to the bathroom to make sure he looked alright.
Yumir emerged from Marco's room not 20 minutes later, brushing a bit of cat hair off of her black pencil skirt. She hadn't put makeup on yet, but she would do that in that in the car, considering they were already late. She walked into the living room, makeup bag and clutch in one hand, black heels in the other. "So, what means of transportation are we using get there?"

Krista nodded, trying to remember the bus number. There was no way she'd remember by Wednesday, so she made a note in her phone instead. She gave Marco a look, curious as to what he meant by "issues with clothes". She quickly dismissed it as nothing important. Jean probably just needed help with his tie. Then again, Marco never learned how to tie a tie. Must've just needed help picking an outfit out.
Marco laughed in response to Yumir's teasing, though as soon as she closed the door to his room, he let out a quiet sigh. He could tell it was going to be a long night.
Krista stood up when Yumir rejoined them, staring in awe at her outfit. She wished she could wear things like that. She thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. "You had to have used a car to get here, so why don't we take yours? Unless it doesn't have enough seats. Marco has a Honda, I think?"

Yumir scratched at her temple. "Well, it has enough seats if someone is willing to sit on a lap, but that's illegal, and I don't really need any more tickets. If you're okay with it, Marco, we could take your car?" Plus there was no way she was letting the valet, or anyone else for that matter, drive her car.
Jean stepped from the bathroom a moment later and whistled when he saw Ymir. "Is that new?" he teased, knowing that it wasn't. It was the same green satin shirt and black pencil skirt combo that she had worn when they met at Jean's aunt's wedding. "Yes, because it's obviously been new for 6 years now." She rolled her eyes. "Oh? Just like how you've been 21 for the past 5 years?" Jean grinned, giving her a small kiss on the cheek. "Shall we get going?" He asked to no one in particular, his eyes glancing at both Yumir and Krista, refusing to look anywhere near Marco.

"I guess we can take mine, yeah." Marco stood up and grabbed his keys from the hook near the door. He opened the door and stepped aside, holding it open for the other three. He noticed Jean making a point by avoiding eye contact. Avoiding looking at him entirely. It didn't make Marco feel all that wonderful, but he'd started it. He left first, and what Jean was doing was totally reasonable. Still, weird way to start off being roommates.


Notes:

Please, before you start giving me flack about names and spellings, listen to what I have to say. I've seen both spellings of Krista/Christa and Yumir/Ymir used in official translations, so my roleplay partner and I were rather confused as to which spellings we should use. So we decided we would look at the kanji and use the spellings that are closest to the original kanji characters. If you think our spellings are wrong, please direct us to a source that gives the original author's, Isayama Hajime's, intended spellings.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please leave them in the form of a review.
Farewell, everyone, and see you next chapter, where lots of horrible puns happen.

My wonderful roleplay partner's tumblr: bokunomarco . tumblr . c o m

My beta-reader's tumblr: arseraptor . tumblr . c o m

My tumblr: sexon3dmaneuvergear . tumblr . c o m

(remove all spaces from links provided)