Hey Everyone!
Sorry this chapter has been so long in the works! Work got really crazy and I have been trying really hard to get back into drawing! I hope everyone enjoys.
Lots of love.
Lights Out
Chapter 4
Jean sat in second period barely able to hold himself up. The crushing weight of embarrassment from this morning just kept getting heavier and heavier. The bruises were fairly normal for him, but being caught choking it in front of Levi was only topped by the fact that Marco had also seen him. Just once I would like to catch a break. For fucks sake I just met the guy and he must think I am some sex crazed douchebag. Fuck!
Jean nearly had accident number two that morning with the sudden appearance of his crazy science teacher's face practically appearing out of no where in front of him. He had been rocking on the back two legs of his chair as he was thinking and evidently missed a question.
"JEAN! You can tell the speed at which the Earth rockets around the sun, right?"
If there was ever a science teacher who deserved the title "Mad Scientist" it would be Hanji Zoe. She was the most eccentric person in the state, maybe even the whole friggin' world for all Jean was concerned. Not to mention she seemed to be best friends with that charming asshole of a nurse. "I bet it is pretty close to the speed your face was going when it hit the back of that seat on the bus!" The onslaught of laughter that escaped the tall woman was enough to nearly knock Jean out of his seat for the second time that day.
She always wore a lab coat, this one was black with little stars and Galaxies embroidered on haphazardly. Jean imagined she was the one to do them since they were far from well executed. Her glasses were a brown tortoise shell pattern and were constantly on the verge of falling off until Levi had finally gotten her a band that held them in place on her head. Her hair was pulled into a messy ponytail save for her bangs that hung loosely around her face.
"Haha, Yeah, I am sure. Thanks Ms. Zoe." The lack of enthusiasm in his voice was lost on Hanji who patted his back, perhaps a little harder than she thought she was, and wiped at her watery eyes.
"Ah, yes. That was good. Very good." She said with another chuckle before walking back towards the main demonstration table in the front of the lecture room.
Jean hated this class more than anything. The teacher was insane and always let slip whatever he had been doing to the rest of the class. The room constantly smelled of formaldehyde and he was sure that there was always something questionable in the the jars that sat along the back wall of the classroom. Those were Hanji's personal arsenal to make you uncomfortable. The rumor was that she had once kept students after school instead of sending them to detention. Their punishment was instead to help her with her own weird experiments. The school board had finally put a stop to that when the twelfth student had passed out in her "private lessons". It made Jean shudder.
Luckily for him after her bit of daily harassment she went back to the lecture that Jean had not bothered to take notes on anyway. In fact the rest of the class he sat trying to think of something to Marco at much that would not make him feel like a total fuck up. When the bell rang he had come up with a grand total of none.
Except lighting himself on fire and laying down in the middle of the school. Burn away all the anxiety. I wish I had balls enough to do that...
The rest of the day passed altogether too quickly. Much sooner than he wished he found himself standing at the entrance to the cafeteria. FUCK! Why do I even care? The image of those honey brown orbs drifted into his mind and he felt his chest tighten. They normally made him want to rush forward, but the look in them this time made him want to turn away. Embarrassment was so evident in that gaze that it bore into him and made him squirm.
"Yo, Horse-face, why the hell are you standing in the middle of the hall?"
Just the sound of that voice was enough to bring Jean out of his day dream. He turned, his fists already clenched. "Shut the fuck up Jaeger! It is none of your fucking business! I will stand wherever the hell I want!"
"Oh, Jesus, man, who beat the shit out of you this time?" Eren Jaeger, the one person Jean really could have done without seeing today stood a few feet away. He had brown hair that parted down the middle. His eyes were enormous and a weird blue-green color most of the girls in the school seemed to really enjoy. He was flanked, per usual, by his two best friends. Armin Arlet was a small boy with intelligent blue eyes that seemed to notice, even record, every little detail. He was always pleasant though. If Jean could call anyone at this school a friend it would be Armin. He had always enjoyed the small blonde's company. If only Armin wasn't attached at the hip with Eren.
Armin gave Jean a friendly smile and little wave. "Good morning, Jean."
Jean returned the greeting with a lazy lifted hand in greeting.
On Eren's left side stood the once long-time object of Jean's affection. He had tried in vain to sway Mikasa Ackerman to his side but it had become more and more obvious as the years passed that she had no interest in him and he had given up sometime last year. She was pretty, Her dark hair and eyes set in lightly tinted skin. She wore her usual look of disinterest above the always present red scarf. Jean could not remember a time that he had not seen her with the red material draped around her shoulders.
"Eren, come on, I'm hungry." She said pushing past her two companions and walking by Jean without a second glance. Eren shrugged and looked back at Armin before heading on into the clamoring mass of high schoolers. Jean watched them disappear into the throng before running a hand nervously through his hair. He knew if he stalled for too much longer he would not have time to eat anything at all. After pausing for just a few more moments he set off into the lunch line.
To make things worse they were serving the one thing he hated most. "Great! Meatloaf." Normal meatloaf was fine. This stuff, this was congealed meat with what looked like peas mushed in there from time to time. This was slip for pigs at best.
"Ah, there you are. I, um, I got lost on the way here."
Jean froze and turned slowly towards the nervous voice behind him. "Oh, it's um... It's not a problem Marco." He noticed the boy was a bright red. He was holding a tray with the horrible-loaf and was staring down at the sad excuse for food intently. "I honestly thought you were going to bail on me after- Well after this morning..."
Slowly Marco let his eyes drift up to meet Jean's and a little gasp escaped him. "Oh, God, Jean. That bus seat really did a number on you, didn't it?" All of his anxiousness from a moment ago seemed to dissolve and Jean could see him adjust in that instant. As Marco relaxed he felt his own shoulder fall into more comfortable positions. The knots in his muscles from earlier in the day unwound. A smile found his lips as a chuckle rumbled up from his chest.
"Ah, yeah, I guess it did." Jean grabbed a soda from one of the refrigerators along the line, remembering that his mother had packed him lunch that morning and fell in alongside Marco as they shuffled along the line to the cash register.
Lunch went by far better than he could imagine. Jean spent most of the time talking about the teachers here at the school and what to expect from some of them. Marco had Hanji for chemistry fifth period and he did not want to send the poor boy off to that mad house without a debriefing. The bell inevitably sounded and both boys picked up their trays and headed towards the trash cans at the end of the lunch hall.
"Well then, Marco, good luck with the evil scientist." Jean said as he waved to Marco turning to walk away on to his own class.
"Hey Jean, don't worry, ok? I have totally forgotten about the nurses office. It never happened, alright?"
That caught Jean off guard and his steps stuttered. Turning to look over his shoulder he saw Marco slipping off into the crowded hall in the direction of the science lab. It was obviously meant to put him at ease, and normally those words would do just the opposite for him. He was cynical, and rarely believed wen people apologized to him for anything, much less let something awfully embarrassing slide. He couldn't explain the calm and contentment that spread through him as those words sunk into him, but he felt like he might have finally found answer to a question he had been asking for so long that he had forgotten about it completely.
