Author's Note: Definitely a change in gears, but a short story featuring roommates Jean and Marco. Will be back to Reibert momentarily.
Marco peeked into Jean's bedroom, feeling slightly concerned. It was late on a Sunday morning, and if Jean didn't get started on his homework soon, he'd never finish in time. Despite their usual habit, their German friends had bailed on drinking yesterday evening, and with them gone, the 104th was out of sorts. Everyone had a drink or two and then they glumly disbanded and returned home for a quiet evening in.
"Jean?" Marco asked softly. "You need to get up now. You have your homework to do. You don't do your homework, you won't get any sleep tonight. No sleep tonight and you'll be cranky tomorrow. You don't want to be cranky tomorrow, do you?"
He got a groan in response. First strike.
"Come on. There's still some breakfast left over!" Marco added cheerfully. "You'll have some eggs and orange juice and you'll feel bright and ready to tackle some engineering."
"Don't want eggs," Jean grumbled into his pillow.
Second strike. "Seriously, Jean. Get up now and get your work done." Marco turned on the light and moved to pull the sheets off of Jean, but even with his face stuffed in the pillow, Jean did not look well. Marco paused at the foot of the bed, softening his voice. "Jean, are you feeling all right?"
"No" was the muffled response.
"Headache? Cold? Stomach ache?" Marco asked, hoping for an articulate response so he could figure out a way to help.
"Stomach hurts." Jean turned over, stuffing his head under the pillow.
Marco bit his lip slightly. "I'll try and find some soda. Ginger ale usually helps, I think." With that, he turned to leave the bedroom. He was fairly certain that they had no soda in their apartment, and he was about to put his shoes on and find his keys when he heard a wavering "Marco?" coming from Jean's room.
Marco rushed back to find Jean sprawled on the floor, his face in the carpet. "I feel sick, Marco," Jean groaned. He looked green.
"Do I need to help you get to the bathroom?" Marco fretted. "Can you not walk on your own?"
"I don't think so," Jean mumbled, "I can hardly walk."
Gingerly, Marco pulled Jean to his feet, grunting with the effort. Jean was like a dead weight, but eventually he managed to get Jean to sling an arm around his shoulder. He allowed his roommate to lean on him heavily as he dragged Jean to the bathroom. Marco struggled to keep Jean from smacking his head as he half-kneeled, half-fell in front of the toilet. He held Jean upright as his roommate dry heaved, his face drawn up in concern.
"You need to rinse your mouth out," Marco reminded Jean when he was done, rubbing Jean's tuft of ashen grey hair to soothe him.
Jean just groaned, but managed to rinse his mouth out with the Listerine on the counter. Marco then helped Jean back into bed, feeling slightly bad about being so rude earlier and trying to force his roommate out of bed. Jean was shivering badly, so Marco tucked him in back under his covers. Feeling Jean's forehead, it was clear that the man was feverish.
"Jean… do you want me to type up any emails for you and ask if you can get an extension?" Marco asked from the doorway. "You're not in any condition to try and do homework."
"Yeah… should be open on my laptop," Jean said, his eyes shut.
Marco was sure to put a trash can by Jean's bedside, in case he needed it while Marco ran some quick errands. He then sat down at Jean's computer, frowning slightly as he awoke it, only to find that Jean had logged out. Fortunately, Marco could guess at the password, and got it right on the second try. He hoped that Jean's professors would be kind and allow Jean to turn it in a day late; he had the hunch that Jean had the flu, in which case, he shouldn't be doing anything other than recuperating.
There was the nasty business of making a trip up to the god-forsaken Safeway, though, to pick up ginger ale and electrolytes, and maybe some fever reducer— he really needed to be better at stocking their medicine drawer. He pulled out his phone, and sent a quick message to Eren, asking if he'd be willing to accompany him to Stabway.