A.N: I'm so sorry this took so long. School got busy, new season of Free! happened, this fic was put on the backburner. But at least now it's finally finished! Contains spoilers for Phantom of the Opera.

Jean dismissed it as hormones. He was lonely, he was heartbroken, it was totally normal to be confused. That night, he slept over with Eren and Armin, and he was quite relieved to feel no attraction to them whatsover.

Yeah, Jean thought the next morning, there's no way I have a crush on Marco!

But then Marco texted him. It was just one word, one little "Hey", and Jean's heart fluttered like a pigeon on drugs. Fuck. Fuuuuuuuck.

For the third time that morning, Jean tried to smother someone with a pillow. Only this time, it wasn't Eren, it was himself. It took a lot of reassurance from Armin that he shouldn't kill himself and have his last sight be a Scooby-Doo pillowcase.

After some serious video game therapy, Jean went home and tried to calm himself down. Hormones. It was all hormones. Marco was an awesome guy, he deserved an awesome guy. A guy who had not up until recently been pretty sure he was straight. They were friends, and Jean wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize that. This stunning realization of having feelings for Marco had never happened as far as Jean was concerned.

He texted Marco back, then busied himself with his homework. There was a huge algebra quiz coming up, he needed to study. Jean didn't realize how long he had been staring at the math textbook until his mom called him down for dinner, and he groaned at himself.

Denial wasn't fun at all.

...

Marco was singing when Jean came over to visit a few days after his denial began. He hadn't expected to walk into Marco's bigass house and have his freckled friend running down the stairs with a hairbrush posing as microphone.

"Past the point of no return," Marco sang, his voice echoing across the halls. "No backward glances; Our games of make-believe are at an end! Past all thought of 'If' or 'When', no use resisting...Abandon thought and let the dream descend!"

Jean watched him, resisting the urge to laugh as Marco continue his song. He spotted Jean and smiled, starting to mimic Chrisine's effeminate voice, and Jean lost his shit. He fell back, laughing hard as Marco sang very dramatically from his steps. Eventually Marco stopped singing and started laughing, too.

"Oh, god, Marco." Jean finally said, looking up to meet the other boy's eyes. "You're going to be the death of me."

Marco smiled back at him, and Jean felt his stomach flutter. Dammit.

"Come on, let's go watch a movie or something." Jean snorted, brushing off his weird feelings. They were bros, he had to protect that at all costs. Marco followed him into the living room, still giggling.

Whenever they watched movies, it was always a grand debate about what to watch. Marco's mother was apparently a screen junkie, so they had almost every classic movie that ever existed. Jean sat through The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Marco about a week ago, and he had decided he was definitely picking the next movie.

And so, after digging around, he found Back To the Future and Marco's entire face lit up. "Yes!" He cried from his couch, "We have to watch it!"

Jean grinned and hurried to put the disk in the player, then he scrambled over to the couch and sat next to Marco, still grinning. "I haven't seen this years."

"Me, neither. Marty McFly was my childhood crush, so bear with me." Marco said, making a mocking dreamy sigh towards the television. Jean snorted, then he paused, uncertain of how to word his next sentance.

"Um, if you don't mind, how'd you figure it out? Being gay and all?" Jean asked, sinking into the couch in embarrassment.

Marco raised an eyebrow, but he didn't seem offended. "Well, for me, I kind of always knew. It was just something that was there, you know? Like, your favorite colour or the hand you write with. I like dudes, I can't remember not liking them. But some guys only figure it out when they fall in love."

Jean chuckled, "Must be confusing for those ones." Foot, meet mouth.

"Yeah," Marco smiled at him, "But I think it's romantic."

"So mushy!" Jean made a gagging noise to stop himself from hearing his ridiculously loud heartbeat, and he gave Marco a light shove. Marco shoved him back, and then next thing Jean knew they had wrestled each other to the point where Marco was now pinning him to the arm of the couch, grinning triumphantly.

"I win!" Marco announced, and Jean ducked his head to hide his surely red face.

"You got lucky," he grumbled, which prompted a laugh. He had such a cute laugh.

The movie menu roared up, distracting them. Marco pulled away to grab the remote, and Jean told himself not to be disapointed. It was fun revisiting this part of his childhood, especially with the commentary Marco added in. At some point, Marco wound up leaning on his lap, as if it were a normal thing to do. Jean supposed it was, he'd seen Armin and Eren leaning on each other like that before, but he'd also seen them braiding each other's hair, so he wasn't quite sure where to draw the line.

Still, he could feel Marco breathing on his legs, and it made his heart squueze a bit. Jean timidly reached out and put a hand in Marco's hair, musing it up. Marco snorted, but didn't complain, instead he hummed contently and practically nuzzled into Jean's lap, like a big, freckled cat.

"Dude, how the hell is your hair so soft?" Jean mumbled, and Marco laughed.

"It's called conditioner, you should try it sometime."

They sat that way for the rest of the movie, and Jean's heart pounded the whole time.

...

Jean was just leaving work the next morning when he ran into Mikasa (literally ran into her, he was in a hurry to get home) and they both stared at each other in stunned silence. Finally, Jean cleared his throat. "So, uh, you and Annie?"

She nodded, "And you? Eren told me you were crushing on someone."

"That asshole," Jean pinched his nose, making a mental note to kill Eren later. "I don't even know, Mikasa. I've liked you for as long as I can remember, it's weird suddenly having feelings for someone else." He didn't care if the words made the situation more awkward, they were the truth.

Mikasa adjusted her red scarf, which she was always wearing despite the weather conditions, and she smiled at Jean. It was a small smile, but it was there. "I think you should ask them out, you could use a change of pace."

Jean looked at her, and he felt a swarm of old feelings. She really was too pretty for her own good, but even now, he couldn't imagine kissing her as much as he could imagine kissing Marco. "But what if they reject me? Then I'm back to square one, and I've fucked up a friendship."

"You'll never know unless you try," Mikasa said, deadpan. "So stop being a wuss and get it over with."

And with that, she walked away, causing Jean to face the painful reality that she had a point. He sulked his way home, torn between what he should do. On the one hand, he liked Marco. He wanted to kiss Marco, to hold his hand, to laugh with him, and to do all sorts of weird couple shit with him. But he also loved being Marco's friend, goofing off with him and not having to pretend to be polite with him, making fun of people with him, everything.

He sighed, "Why me, universe? Why me?"

...

It was the opening night of Marco's play; Jean had worn his fanciest hoodie and jeans, and he had carpooled with Connie and Sasha, who were apparently dating now.

"When did this happen?" Jean asked, looking at their linked hands in the front seat. Connie's ears went red, and Sasha laughed.

"He asked me out two days ago, it was super dorky!" Sasha snorted, ignoring Connie's whines of complaint. "He baked me this huge, fancy dinner, bought me my favorite flowers, the whole thing! You'd think he would've proposed, he had all this romance shoved into one night."

Connie spluttered, utterly embarrassed. "Sasha! Not cool!"

"I'm just saying, when you propose, I'm not sure how it's going to beat that." She snickered, leaning over to kiss his cheek. He almost ran a red light, and Jean made a rule that there was to be no romance in the car as long as a member of a romantic party was driving.

"So, you just went for it?" Jean asked Connie, impressed. He thought they'd be friends who's secretly love each other until they died, to be honest.

He sighed, "Yeah, man. I mean, I'd regret it if i didn't tell her at all, and it's been eating away at me for ages- Sasha, stop laughing! I'm serious!" Connie snapped, then he regained is calm. "But, you wouldn't believe how good it feels to get it off my chest."

The rest of the ride, Jean sat silently in the back seat wondering if Connie's words were worth liustening to. Mikasa had said the same thing, basically. Maybe I am being a pussy, Jean thought to himself as the pulled into the school's parking lot.

Sasha ran as fast as she could to the makeshift dressing room (which, according to Connie was really the science lab) while Jean and Connie got in line outside the auditorium. Tapping his foot, Jean decided to send a text to Marco.

Nervous?

From: Jean

A minute later, he got his reply:

I think my butt is sweating. Is that normal?

From: Marco

Okay, Jean must have been really into him if he had smiled and thought Marco's butt sweating was adorable. What the hell, he was in too deep.

Deep breaths, Opera Ghost. I'll be cheering you on from the audience, so if you ever get nervous, just look for me. Pretend you're goofing off in your room. :)

From: Jean

He was a little hesitant to send such a cheesy message, but Jean did it anyway, his hands shaking as he waited for a reply.

I'll probably laugh if I look at you, but thanks. I feel better already, smooth talker.

From: Marco

Jean rolled his eyes, then took a selfie with Connie making a ridiculous face to cheer Marco up. The other boy responded with a picture of him getting his make-up done, and it surprised Jean how half of his face really did look badly burnt. They texted for a while after that, until Marco had to get his costume on, and Jean was pulled into the auditorium.

It was pretty crowded, but he and Connie managed to score seats by the front near the left side. "Best acoustics over here," Connie had said, smugly. "I've seen the rehersals at least eight times, and this is the best spot."

Jean took his word for it, and he impatiently tapped his foot until the play started. He hadn't been to one of these since elementary school, so he wasn't sure if it'd be something he'd like. Then again, Marco was in it, so how could he not like it?

After four rounds of Temple Run, the lights in the theatre began to dim. Jean looked up eagerly, fixing his eyes on the stage. Connie snickered at him, patting his shoulder.

"Marco doesn't show up for the first ten minutes, calm down."

And he was right, the play started up with a bunch of creepy organ music, and some guys singing about a lengend of an Opera Ghost, and then Raoul (played by some guy named Erd) walked onstage, suggesting Christine should have a bigger role in the newest opera. Jean snickered at their outfits, but kept his eyes fixed onstage to wait for Marco.

Sasha sang as Christine for a little while, and it became pretty obvious she and Raoul had the hots for each other. Jean snickered at Connie, who pouted like a child whenever his girlfriend implied her feelings for the other dude through song.

So Jean got the just of the plot; Christine liked Raoul, but she was a poor singer, and he was a snooty rich boy. She was visited in the night by the Angel of music, who her late father used to talk about. After Raoul confessed to her, Christine went off to her father's grave, and Raoul went after her. They agreed to be married, and then, Jean heard the howl of agony Marco had practiced with him.

"It's him!" Jean whispered excitedly, and Connie rolled his eyes.

Marco made his way onstage, twirling around the graves and making terrifying sounds, which made Raoul incredibly freaked out and he rushed away. Marco didn't come back until he went to threaten the Opera directors into giving Christine the leading role.

In the end, his first real apperance was when he knocked down a chandelier and laughed at the man he killed. Jean didn't know why he found Marco's performance voice, which was all low and brash like a cartoon villain, so freaking sexy.

And so, the play went on. Marco's singing was beautiful, and he and Sasha harmonized very well together during their duets. It became pretty obvious that the Phantom loved Christine, but he would never have her, and it ripped Jean's heart out to see Marco acting so sad when the Phantom released Raoul and let Christine live happily. Even if he had kidnapped her and threaten mass murder, Jean felt a little sorry for the Opera Ghost.

The play ended with the Phantom committing suicide, and it made Jean's skin crawl to see Marco fake-dead onstage. He stood up when he clapped, hollering loudly with Connie and whistling to make a big fuss out of the play. The auditorium became a sea of people, and it took some effort for Jean to squirm out into the school's hallway again.

Sasha came bolting out towards Connie, and he kept laughing and telling her what a good job she did. Jean told her he was impressed, and she loudly complained about how hungry it made her.

"Hey, where's Marco?" Jean asked, wanting nothing more than to congratulate him. Sasha giggled, pointing down the hallway to reveal Marco being swarmed by people, with a bouquet of roses in his hands and his parents ruffling his hair. Jean took a few steps towards him, but then stopped, knowing he wouldn't break through the crowd. "Oi, Marco!" He yelled, waving his arm above the heads of others. Marco's eyes snapped towards him, and the smile he gave him was enough to almost knock Jean off his feet.

"Jean!" Marco cried, sprinting towards him at top speed, leaving his crowd behind. He threw his arms out, suddenly, his cape flowing behind him, and Jean realized he was being tackle-hugged. "I'm so glad you're here!" Marco said, his breath tickling Jean's ear.

Weaving his arms around the slightly taller boys's waist, Jean nodded into Marco's shoulder. "You were amazing out there!" He exclaimed, spinning in a circle and making Marco twirl with him. "It was like you were really him, you know?" Jean cuckled, pulling his head back to see Maco's happy, freckled face.

It was only then that he became aware of how close they were. Hell, their noses were touching. Marco's smile never wavered, and Jean slowly felt himself go red, and he couldn't make himself pull away. They were still spinning, and when Jean started to stop, something unexpected happened; Marco leaned in and kissed him.

A few people in the crowd gasped, Connie let out a spluttering noise, and Sasha whistled. Some other kids who were in the play applauded, and Jean, well, he kissed back. As hard as he could, his hands digging into Marco's shirt, he kissed him to let him know everything.

When Marco pulled back, his face looked like it had been burnt, he was blushing so bad. "I... Jean, I'm sorry?"

"Don't be," Jean grinned, tugging him back down and kissing him again. Marco hummed onto his lips happily, and they probably would have spent eternity in that moment if the crowd didn't surround them.

Jean had white knuckles, but it was okay, because the hand he was clenching wasn't his own. Marco smiled cutely at him, and when Jean looked at him, he got the vague sense that everything was going to be fine. For once, he felt okay.