(before we go back to the story I just want to let you know that you should definitely be imagining at least one of these dorks running around in pajamas and those huge boots that go with their uniforms, the mental image makes me smile and I wanted to share, kk as you were)

Jean is a cool person to hang out with when he's not being a jerk to other people, but he can be the biggest idiot sometimes. For the past few days it's been nonstop alligator jokes, within Jean's friends circle of cadets aspiring to join the Military Police, "When do you think Eren's going to go to the lake?" and did he think the upperclassmen just wouldn't overhear a word of it? Did he think they had the perceptive ability of bricks? Better keep quiet around Eren, but let's laugh our heads off in front of the people who can get you in trouble for this…? How's this all going to look when Eren gets caught and identifies Jean as having had a hand in this?

Marco is borderline terrified of the upperclassmen. Marco wants to be polite, Marco wants to do a good job, Marco wants to succeed in life, Marco wants to not get in trouble. The presence of watching, judging authority figures plays with his sanity just a little; of course he's going to be watching them back, paying attention to what they are doing, making sure they know he's on their side, that's why he's here, he wants to do the right thing, he's not a mindless creature that has no respect for the rules, like they might seem to think all of their charges are; he comprehends and respects the hierarchy of things okay; dear everyone in charge, please believe that he is sentient. But the hierarchy of things doesn't really seem to care. It doesn't even seem like they're even actually trying to get everyone to cooperate with them. They just seem to like to yell at people.

And Jean's not the only one who can be an idiot, okay; that Jaeger kid can be pretty successful at it too. Why does Marco know that tonight's the night he finally cracked and went to go check out the lake? Why does Marco know that Jean followed him, shortly after? Because Jaeger and Arlert only waited thirty minutes after lights out before they left, and Jean only waited ten after that. Top form secrecy right there. Good job, guys. Seriously.

And Jean, what were you THINKING. It's dangerous enough just talking about being a part of this nonsense. Why would you… it's SAFE in the bunkhouse… you're going to get in trouble so fast if you go out there… why… WHY…?

Marco TRIED to stop Jean, okay, got out of bed and everything, in front of everyone. He should have stopped Eren and Armin, right from the start. He should have gone over and told them, a long time ago, that Jean had rigged something up by the lake and there seriously wasn't anything there. He's a soldier now, and will be for many years to come. Why isn't he braver? The world hasn't taught him to be brave, hasn't thrown him much by means of instant gratification; the effort's all been out of pocket, so far. And he already went and stuck up for Eren. He already feels out of place in Jean's friend circle. Everyone else seems to be attracted to the Military Police for very different reasons than Marco. He just doesn't fit in, he's homesick, this is the closest thing he has to a family right now, and he's probably going to get phased out of it sooner or later anyway. No one really cares about him, or even each other, it seems; they mostly just like to conglomerate and make jokes at other kids' expense…? No, Marco's not very brave, not brave enough to get up and stop this fiasco before it can happen to kids he barely knows, barely brave enough to try to save the kid he does know. He signed up for this career thinking he had aspirations, but now those aspects of his personality make him feel more like a big galumphing dumb that talks.

"Oh my god Marco, go back to sleep," was all Jean said on his way out. In front of everyone.

And Marco had.

Only he hadn't been able to sleep.

And Jean hadn't come back.

And Jean hadn't come back.

And Jean hadn't come back.

Because Jean was out there getting in trouble because he was so proud of his dumb prank he couldn't bear to not see the result of it.

And Marco started to think about Sasha, running laps to the point of exhaustion for eating a potato at the wrong place at the wrong time. The consequences for this are not going to be light.

Marco wasn't about to leave for the lake too, but he couldn't stay in bed either.
He ended up wandering over to the bathroom; he can't get in trouble for going there, and he just couldn't lay still in bed anymore, maybe a short walk is what he needs. Irrationally, he almost expects that Jean will be visible outside somewhere if he looks hard enough, but of course that isn't going to happen. Jean is long gone.

Well. As expected, Jean isn't anywhere in sight, but there are definitely two upperclassmen hanging out a ways away from the bunkhouse, facing the direction of the woods and the lake.

Waiting patiently.

When they get back, Jean, Eren, and Armin are going to walk

right

into

that

If nobody warns them, that is…

Jean isn't Marco's best friend or anything, but it's not like anybody else is. Shallow as Jean can be, he's probably the closest thing Marco even has to a best friend right now. If it weren't for him, Marco wouldn't even have a group to hang out with. It started with, "Hey, you're headed for the Police too, why aren't you eating lunch with us?" and Marco hasn't been asked to leave the circle yet, so he's still there. Jean seems aware that Marco is a hefty shade more sheltered and polite than the others and seems to more or less accept and support him in this; meanwhile the others kind of ignore him if he's not actively involved in entertaining them. But lately Jean and Marco have been clashing. And… and what's going to happen if Jean gets caught, now? Marco will be proven right about the not-bullying-Eren thing and the not-going-outside-at-night thing. Decisively, and painfully. And other people will definitely recognize this; Marco did his arguing in front of the other cadets. Jean's already proven himself to be a bully. Marco's been getting a lot better lately at unlearning his capacity to trust. The road he's on looks like one that leads nowhere good. If they turn on him, they're not going to kick him out of the friends' circle. They're going to put him on the bottom and make him their laughingstock pet. Because they'll think he has nowhere else to go. And they'll be right.

Marco really tried to get past the older kids unnoticed, okay. He kept on walking to the bathroom like he hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary, like nothing was up. After staying in there for a bit to give the older kids a chance to focus more comfortably on their vigil, he exited as quietly as humanly possible, kept sneaking along the side of the building, and somehow succeeded in placing the building in the middle of the line of sight from the older kids to him. Then he snuck around the building… and after all of that, all he gained was getting closer to the open area the upperclassmen are facing; he couldn't pass through there without being seen anyway. He hadn't…really...thought this through. Clearly this was a bad idea. And how to backtrack, how to return to the bunkhouse? Oh no, someone else could spot him now.

So he stood there, silently imploding in misery, sure of being seen at any minute. What finally saved him (if you could call it that) was something he wasn't counting on. About thirty minutes later the older kids eventually noticed that hey, didn't someone wander over to the bathroom, and hey did they ever come out or…? It's past curfew, what… is he up to something? Hurting himself?

And two of them headed over to the bathroom, the two of them together because it's better to go in there outnumbering this unpredictable kid, to be on the safe side.

So Marco panicked and ran, in the direction of the woods.

And they must have heard him running because after a bit he heard them start to chase him.

That wasn't supposed to happen!

None of tonight was supposed to happen!

Why did he even start running, why not walk really quietly?

TOO LATE NOW OKAY!

And so Marco just kept running!

Past buildings made almost unfamiliar by darkness, then through the woods, and then through the woods even more, and then through the woods even more on top of that; he ran faster, and for longer, than he'd ever run before, and the air is shredding the back of his throat by the time he finally gets to the lake, he's beyond exhausted, he needs to stop but he CAN'T, he's much too scared, he's never done anything like this before, he's breaking the rules, they're going to get him. The sound of the upperclassmen running through the woods behind him has been getting continuously fainter; as pursuers, they can afford to expend less energy, and they have been. Still, he keeps running around the lake, as quietly and quickly as ever he can, running towards the commotion the other boys are making, he heard screaming? What's wrong? And his tired legs are just getting ready to coordinate a stop when he finally breaks that all-important no-tripping streak, too close to the edge of the lake, and suddenly falling and suddenly WATER, and the other kids are screaming again and he can hear people running as fast as ever they can into the trees.

Everything is pain, everything is water, nothing is breathing; after a moment's instinct-driven frantic scrabbling to get his head above water, Marco doesn't care about getting caught anymore, or the other kids getting caught, or anything, it's not worth it, he just doesn't want to have to move, they all ran away anyway. He has no choice but to violently cough up water, and it's hard to even process information much less priorities, through the pain in his throat, plus the pain everywhere else. If he gets in trouble, Jean can't hate him for being a pretentious little killjoy. His problem's already solved. All he has to do now is pay for it. His fate is acceptable, sealed; he will wait.

"…Marco?"

Jean's voice! No Jean, it's not safe! Marco drags himself out of the water, makes wild hand motions at Jean, meant to shoo him towards the woods. Jean does not run for the woods but instead arrives just in time to stop Marco from falling over. Okay, but running into the woods is still a very important next step, and Marco continues to communicate that; they hurry into the trees together, Jean supporting Marco even though it's getting him half soaked.

"Are you okay?" Jean wants to know. "What's wrong?"

"There's upperclassmen coming, they followed me, they were waiting for you guys and I had to try and warn you, I didn't mean for them to chase me I'm sorry I messed up," Marco wheezes, and his throat pays for every word.

"Holy hell," Jean hisses back, horrified; his whole demeanor changes, his pace changes a little. "Marco! What's wrong with you?"

"I was running…" Marco whispers, lamely, apologetically. He isn't exactly finished coughing up water, and he instinctively holds Jean more tightly for the next few hacks.

"No, no," Jean says quickly, "I know, you're worn out, it's okay; I meant, why would you do something like this, why come after us?"

And Marco can't answer, he just has this sense of having, yet again, done something wrong somehow. He's warned his leader, shown his loyalty, of course it probably isn't satisfactory, but… please let it be enough. Everything hurts, and Jean's going too fast; Marco tries to pull away, he's maybe going to faint or throw up if he doesn't stop soon; all Jean gets in response is, "I'm sorry, I can't keep up, just go."

That gets Marco pushed into a tree and held there, what, what, what, what did he do, what did he do, help, it still hurts to breathe, ugh he's still really wet, the lake reflected moonlight very nicely, but it's so dark in the woods he can barely see anything; it's more than a little scary out here; how did he even make it to the lake. Is Jean going to hurt him?

"If I make stupid, cruel mistakes. You. Don't. Pay for them," Jean says.

Marco can barely see his face, but his voice is a maze of shame, humility, pity, guilt, resolve…fear. Concern. This is the same kid who basically fed Eren his hopes and dreams in the form of ground up glass and laughed at him for choking on it, but to hear him now you really wouldn't know it. Marco's never seen Jean like this before. Jean what? "Take a rest, try to get back without getting caught, I'll give them something to do," Jean continues, with an air of authority Marco's never heard from someone his age. And Jean turns around to jog back. And all Marco can do is sort of, slide down the tree a little, he really is going to throw up? He can still taste lake water…urgh, no, think about something else… Jean WHAT? What just happened? Jean's mad at him? Jean isn't mad at him? Is throwing up going to happen or not going to happen? Is Jean mad? Jean's not mad? Jean is going to get caught? Jean… Jean cares? Wet, soaking, cold. The tree is hard; the bark is rough; sliding is unpleasant, but a more favorable alternative fails to present itself.

And then seconds later, before Jean's had a chance to get very far at all, they hear more screaming from the lake.

This is really getting kind of ridiculous. There isn't even an alligator.

Eren, Armin, Jean, and Marco stare out over the lake, at the fake alligator head. The bones on the beach have been disturbed from their casual heap by one of the older kids stepping on them.

The head bobs up and down in the water, visible by the moonlight reflecting off the water. Its grin looks like real satisfaction for what it's just done.

"I'm sure the upperclassmen overheard Jean and everyone talking nonstop about a lake monster," Marco says, with what's left of his voice. "Then when they got here, they actually found what looked like a monster."

"They heard fighting and screaming," Armin contributes excitedly. "And then they heard that big splash from when Marco fell in."

"Oh my GOSH," Eren breathes, trying to keep a straight face. "OH MY GOSH."

"SERIOUSLY?" Jean breathes, failing to keep a straight face.

Soon everyone is in stitches, only Marco is stitches strictly because of running and isn't exactly in a laughing frame of mind at the moment.

"They're going to come back to investigate this, for sure," Armin says. "Let's destroy all the evidence so they have no idea what even happened. As long as no one admits to setting this up or going over to the lake at night, their own terror should stop them from pressing the issue. They'll be too busy questioning their sanity. That will greatly reduce our likelihood of getting in trouble."

This is the most casually Jean's ever heard someone propose to enact psychological horror on another human. And when Jean acted just the slightest bit threatening this kid hit him in the face with a stick so hard it's still sore. Armin Arlert, what happened to you? What did life teach you? What past do you harbor behind those sharp, soulless, intelligent eyes? Jean's impression of Eren as an easy target is dropping steadily. There's already Mikasa, scarf-wearing terror and goddess… Armin's scary too? And Eren himself wants to kill all of the titans with his bare hands. What even are these kids? Jean can only watch as Eren and Armin collect the bones and throw them into the lake; can only watch as Eren wades out, comes back with his beautiful art project, and destroys it, throwing it back into the lake piece by splintered piece.

"Did the upperclassmen catch sight of Marco, ever?" Armin asks. "Could they identify him from what they saw?"

"N-no, I don't think so," Marco says, a little put off that the question wasn't addressed directly to him, who else is supposed to be able to answer that?

"Well then nobody will have a reason to question him," Armin says, "and we won't have to worry about him being too honest back. I'm not sure how well he could hold up if they asked him, even if he was trying."

Eren nods; makes sense. Marco looks at them and then at Jean, and Jean pats him on the shoulder with a funny smile that says don't worry about it.

Okay.

"We should head back while the upperclassmen are still confused," Jean says.

"Remember everyone, this never happened," Armin says, looking at Marco.

"Yeah," Eren says, looking at Marco.

"We shouldn't even talk about it," Armin says, still looking at Marco.

"Yeah," Eren says, also stil looking at Marco.

"Hey," Jean warns, concern about getting caught is understandable but this is a little excessive; "Marco saved us all, maybe try and show just a little appreciation, like, between the cracksof treating him like a loser?"

"He's gonna undo all of that if he talks, though!" Armin says.

"Yeah," Eren says. "But thanks, Marco!"

"Thanks for what?" Marco snaps at those two. "I saved Jean."

"And if you say anything you're going to un-save him," Armin says, and he sound so serious and earnest, I'm not saying anything mean I am a cute little boy.

Marco doesn't have the energy or the wits to answer back right now with anything more than a glare. Apparently he's doing the thing where he doesn't fit in again, they can tell he cares too much about the rules again, nobody cares about the rules, not really, only Marco, Marco will never belong…

"You're right, Armin!" Jean barks. "Nobody associates Marco with this fiasco. THAT means I could take down the three of us without worrying about him getting in trouble at all, if I wanted to. And my pal Marco has got a reputation as a goody two shoe—as pretty well-behaved, so who's going to believe you if you say he was involved? I'm a big enough boy that I can take the beating I deserve when I screw up. Sure I don't want to, but I'm not scared, either. You'd do well to remember that. I've got dirt on you, kid."

Armin looks a little shaken; looks to Eren for support, then back to to Jean. "Okay," he says, with much less confidence.

"Yeah," Eren says guardedly.

"Do what you want, Marco," Jean says tiredly, "What I did was wrong, I don't care anymore, just don't come after me again if I ever do anything else that stupid, ok? If I'd 'a known you were gonna be dumb about it I would've listened to you."

"Let's just go back, I want to go to sleep," Marco says, agitated; clearly this is a really big and sticky moral issue they're tramping all over, how is he supposed to have a fully formed opinion and plan of action just like that, instantaneously; he doesn't owe anyone an explanation, they're the ones who ran out at night in the first place.

Marco ends up getting his wish about sleep; they make it back to the bunkhouse undetected.

"What happened?" Connie whispers eagerly as they troop in. "Was there a monster?"

"Go to sleep, Connie," everyone says.

Marco ends up not telling anyone. No one asks him, and he doesn't volunteer information. Armin's trick was a little cruel, but… Marco was wrong about Jean. VERY wrong. Jean kind of, isn't a person who Marco could turn in lightly, it turns out.

Jean honestly doesn't know whether to expect consequences or no consequences, he doesn't know all that much about this Marco kid, really, but after a few days go by and nothing happens he realizes he'll be safe. And realizes he's made a friend. It's an odd realization. Marco was only supposed to be the shy kid hanging around the Military Police hopefuls. He was supposed to be a member of Jean's audience. He was competition for a spot in the top ten, kept where Jean could watch him. He wasn't supposed to be a friend. Not this kind of friend. None of them were. And then Jean goes and screws up, and Marco puts himself in harm's way to help Jean… didn't you see what kind of a person Jean is? How do you look at someone like Jean and go, "I dunno I just feel inspired to save him from his own stupidity"? Is Marco just lonely, or…? He was all worked up over something. Maybe Marco's the kind of person who needs saving every now and then, but from his own innocence and willingness to care. That's the kind of person you get inspired to look out for. This arrangement should be going the other way around. Stupid galumphing freckled dumb that talks.

Armin never did get to see his alligator, but by asking the right questions to the right people he did end up discovering where Jean found out that alligators existed: one of the kids in Jean's friend circle has a book about the capitol behind Wall Sina, the place where all of them are clamoring to live, and one of the museums the book talks about has a collection piece that's an old bag made out of what's thought to be real alligator skin (and of course the book had to say what alligators were to explain the significance of that). This wonderful incredible object isright in the capitol, able to be viewed; Armin could theoretically see it, stand a few feet away from it, the whole deal, it's real, it's reachable. Armin doesn't know when, or if, he'll ever get to visit the capitol. But the kid who owned the book let him borrow it, and Armin's been able to read about all kinds of new things. Then he gets to tell Eren the coolest of the things he reads about, and Eren invariably invariably thinks that these things are WOW SUPER COOL. Eren doesn't read for pleasure nearly as much as Armin does, but they have an unspoken system where Armin tells Eren the coolest things he comes across in his books. No matter how disinterested Eren may be in actually reading, he invariably finds what Armin chooses to share fascinating.

Eren doesn't really get anything major out of the adventure. His worldview is kind of built around rolling with, or fighting, whatever shows up to hurt him; this whole deal was another chapter, with plenty of rolling with and plenty of fighting. He and Armin conquered this okay, and he's ready for more. He's glad that Armin got better at fights and found a book to be happy about. He's relieved that Marco came to save them, and that Jean turned a little nicer once Marco showed up. He's pretty happy that Marco decided not to tell on them. He's very satisfied that Jean would admit that pulling this prank was a mistake… he hasn't gotten a direct apology, but he wouldn't expect one, and he wouldn't trust Jean to be sincere no matter what, anyway. He'll take what he can get. The important thing is, he's still alive to join the Scouting Legion and participate in eradicating the titans, finding out what they are, building a world where people like Armin can go hunting for real alligators to their heart's desire.

As for the rest of the cadets, ghost stories about the Lake Monster are only just getting started and probably aren't going to go anywhere in a hurry. The officers have no idea why everyone's scared to go by the lake all of a sudden, and nobody will tell them; meanwhile, the alligator keeps getting bigger and bigger with every retelling. By the time Eren and his friends graduate, the Lake Monster is established lore among cadets, which, okay it doesn't matter what side of the prank you were on, being part of the secret behind something this big feels amazing. Every once in a while people will be talking about the Lake Monster, and Eren and Jean will be in the same room, and the brief look that passes between them will almost be friendly.

The end