I can't thank everyone enough for reading and all your support for this silly fic, I'm so grateful you guys enjoyed it, and you all deserve medals for putting up with me for this long. POH was like my first proper fic I was doing, and the fact I've now officially completed it is both terrifying and sort of sad.
Not too sure what to do with myself now (update your other fics you lazy idiot)

But yeah, thank you guys so much! It's been a wild ride! Much love!

As always, my tumblr is freckledbodty
Thanks again, and ta ta!

Chapter Twenty-Two

Car engines were wonderful things, and I was quickly coming to the realisation that they started to lull me to sleep an hour or so into any journey. Well, actually, maybe it was the warmth of Marco sitting beside me that was the main cause of my sudden drowsiness. I felt the shoulder beneath my cheek, almost perfectly formed just for me to rest on… Ok, that was probably just Marco being ridiculously sweet and shifting until his shoulder was in a good position for me. Damn idiot and his thoughtfulness.

I felt the car slowing, and then we were slowly moving forward along the road inch by inch; stopping and starting in ways that made me unbelievably grateful I wasn't the one having to deal with the clutch.

"Jean, you might want to wake up," Marco warned me, hand snaking downwards to wrap around mine. "I can just imagine the headlines. 'Jean Kirschtein flaunts sleepy-eyes and red cheek indentations on the red carpet!'."

"How about 'Marco Bodt spots a gorgeous, figure-hugging suit, with drool on the shoulder'?" I asker, making no move to lift my head.

"You dare, and I'll tell the reporters you have a tiny di–"

My head snapped up. "I'm up! I'm up!"

He grinned that sickening grin that always made me want to stop whatever the fuck I was doing and jump him. Unfortunately, I had a sneaky suspicion the chauffeur wouldn't appreciate that, no matter how 'famous' we were becoming. I made an effort to subdue my ridiculous fucking urges (pun totally intended), as he rubbed my cheek with his palm.

"A couple more cars until our turn, sirs," the driver warned us. I felt the first punch of nerves in my gut.

"Ready for this?" Marco asked, glancing over both himself and me, because he's worse than my mother at times, and readjusting our ties so they were straight.

"As long as I'm not shoved next to Jaeger, I can't see what could go wrong."

"Well from what Christa was saying, they've sat us main five together. So you'll probably be beside one of us or someone's date."

"Oh yeah," I scoffed. "Because sitting beside Levi or Ymir would be so much better than Jaeger… At least Jaeger isn't fucking terrifying."

Marco smacked me across the head… and then immediately brushed his hands through my hair to neaten it up. "Well, maybe you and Eren will bond again after the drinking party tonight. Like last ti–"

My hand was clamped over his mouth before another breath left him.

"I thought it was agreed that we never speak of that incident again."

Marco's eyebrows raised slightly, and when I at last dropped my hand he smiled. "I think you and Eren agreed on that. Myself and Levi, on the other hand, have vowed to retell the story during our wedding speeches."

The car pulled off slowly once more, and then came to the last stop. Cheers and shouts and mayhem seeped in through the shut windows, and a valet stood at my door, about to open it at any moment. I wasn't too bothered about the red carpet lined up outside my door, or the barriers that held back rows of fans and excited public, or the reporters and their endless flashing of cameras. I wasn't even too bothered about looking to see whether Reiner was bursting out of his suit like I had bet Connie he would. All that really mattered was Marco beside me, and the fact he was quickly becoming the colour of a tomato as he realised what he'd just said.

"Wedding, huh?" I asked, unable to hold back the smirk. "I thought it's much too early for you to be thinking about that sort of thing."

Marco was really blushing now. "I-I… well… maybe–"

Both of our doors were opened, and the noise of the crowd made it nearly impossible for Marco to even attempt to finish. He blinked, glancing over my shoulder at the sight ahead, and quickly gave an embarrassed smile before clambering out of his side of the car. Shaking my head at him, I followed suit, and stepped out onto the red carpet.

The cheer that followed nearly bowled me over, but it sure as hell brought a smile on my face. The theatre towered at the end of the carpet, but the path there was littered with journalists and celebrities (which, though it was weird to think, included us). The crowds at the barriers were waving and shaking signs and posters in the air above them, shouting names and screaming every time someone walked by – whether they were famous or not. In the distance, I saw Christa surrounded by cameras, in a stunning golden dress (yes, even I can appreciate a fucking pretty dress when I see one), and smiling like the billions of pounds she probably was actually worth. Reiner was being interviewed (and yes, he was popping out of his suit – the jacket didn't button, and the shirt buttons were clearly a little stretched… damn his muscles), and an awkward looking boyfriend was hovering a few steps away. I couldn't see Levi, but Eren was standing taking a photo with a bunch of screaming fangirls… How he got fangirls, I'll never fucking know. There were other familiar faces too: Pixis was chatting with a newspaper person, Petra was greeting a few celebrities that had been invited as guests (Holy fucking hell, was that Magnolia-Church? The fucking comedy duo? Well, I was about to wet myself like an excited schoolboy).

Just as a gang of journalists approached, Marco appeared by my side, giving the fans shouting out to him a typical angelic smile and wave. The car was pulling away, and some crew member motioned us to move forward to allow the next person to get out. Marco was still waving, so I placed my hand on the small of his back and started heading forward. The journalists went wild – snapping pictures at every angle of this apparently super intimate moment (there are public pictures of me tonguing Marco… surely they got the message that we're pretty intimate?) – but we just kept heading forward.

As we walked, my hand may or may not have slid round a little, until my hand was less on his back and more around his waist. I felt him tensing slightly next to me, and there was a definite shake of his head (though there was also a smile there). As a journalist beckoned us forward, begging us for a brief interview, we paused and I turned to Marco, leaning close until my lips were at his ear.

"We do have a habit of moving pretty fast, huh?"

Marco blinked, and continued looking at me in confusion as I stepped away from him over to the journalists. The number of people shouting my name at once made me feel a little lost, but eventually I managed to look directly at one young woman and asked "Yes?"

"Are you excited for tonight, Jean?" she asked, and a second later about five microphones were shoved under my chin.

"Well," I began, forcing myself to clear my head of Marco (he seemed to be talking to someone else on the other side of the carpet). "I'm a bit nervous as to how I look on the big-screen in HD, but I'm hoping the make-up guys did their job good."

"If the posters are anything to go by, I'm sure you'll look fabulous!" the woman reassured me. "Now, I can't not ask about you and the lovely Mr Bodt over there. Everyone has been very non-committal about the exact stance of your relationship. Can we not have a bit of an explanation?"

I inwardly groaned – Hanji had warned me this would come up. I should probably just be relieved it wasn't the first question. Still, I smiled. Marco and I had been prepared… and by 'prepared', I mean, we talked and agreed we don't really care about people knowing.

"I seem to recall Spice magazine had all the answers to that?" I pointed out, cocking an eyebrow and wondering if anyone from Spice was in the crowd today. The fans nearby who could hear gave an excited whoop.

"Are we to assume you and Marco are in a long-term relationship then?" Another reporter chimed in excitedly.

I grimaced. "I really hope people aren't assuming that I'll happily make-out with all of my co-stars. I mean, I'm sure Reiner and Christa are very nice, but Eren's a little…"

That cracked a laugh at least. As I glanced behind me, Marco was obviously done talking and was starting to carry on – extremely slowly and looking my way to see if I was finished too. I was barely listening to the shouted questions of the rabble of journalists, so when I turned back I just shot them a smile and said I better move on so to "not hog all the fame, even if my face deserves it".

Marco seemed more than a little relieved when I approached. He fell into step beside me, heading up further. "I swear most of these reporters don't actually care about the movie," he muttered through a forced smile.

"Oh? My journalist had the decency to at least ask one question about the night before diving straight into 'Are you shagging Bodt?'."

"God, please tell me you're paraphrasing."

"I'm saying what they were really asking."

At the photo station I stepped back, signing a few things for fans whilst Marco had his photo taken alone, before we switched places. We hadn't even planned the movement, but after all this time together I swear we had formed some sort of psychic link. (Marco said we weren't, and that I should stop saying that I'd sent him a message through the bond to say I had used the last of the milk).

Just as I was about to step away, the photographer shouted that they wanted one of us together – which may have just been an excuse for more photos to 'prove the relationship' or whatever the magazines were trying to do recently, but I was more than happy to stand by his side as the lights continued to flash around us. Hell, it was easier to smile when Marco was there.

Some of the staff working at the theatre told us we had to head in soon, and though I was pretty glad to get out of the spotlight (those girls can really scream), there was definitely an energy you felt when you were walking that red carpet that dimmed once you stepped inside. There was no shortage of celebrities and fellow cast and crew members of the movie around inside, but perhaps the loss of the fans that were outside, giving us that reassurance of their support, made it feel a little weird to be here. I mean, without the fans, it sort of felt like we were a bunch of stuck-up arseholes all gathering to pat ourselves on the back for our movie…

As Marco and I were grabbing drinks, we were quickly joined by a fuckface and his terrifying, short-ass boyfriend at the bar. Eren punched me in the shoulder. "How come I'm not the one with a romance scandal plastered across the press, and yet more than half of the questions I got on the carpet were about my potential love life?"

Marco laughed beside me. "Hey, me and Jean only had love life questions."

Eren opened his mouth to retort, but apparently decided that was a fair enough argument and stayed silent.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I ask you to please make your way into the theatre for the premiere."

The staff member was grinning as he gave the announcement, and opened the double doors that led into the main room of the cinema that had the privilege of showing the first ever screening of Humanity's Last Hope. It was… terrifying, basically. Watching all these people start to filter into the room, ready and waiting to see my movie.

Ok, not my movie, but it sort of felt like it was partly mine.

Eren waggled his eyebrows at me – looking like a puppy that was only just managing to control its excitement and stop itself from weeing all over the floor – and Levi clapped both Marco and I on the back to show his support in his own weird and painful way. Ah the two of them walked ahead, I swear I saw Levi's fingers brush ever so slightly against Eren's hip to direct him.

An arm snaked through mine, and Marco smiled at me. "Shall we?"

My innards starting knotting together, making the drink in my hand suddenly very off-putting, so I put it back down on the bar behind me. Marco gave me a squeeze, his body already warming and calming me a little. And just like that, we were stepping forward.

The theatre room was bigger than most cinemas, and the chairs were a luscious red velvet (or at least some sort of fancy material) that made the room immediately look like it was fit for royalty. People were filling their seats, directed by staff who had a list of the seating arrangements. Honestly, I did have to wonder why there was a seating plan at the premiere – we weren't in school – but Hanji told me to stop questioning the way things were done.

We didn't even need to give our names when it was our turn to be seated, the girl bit her lip to try and control the size of her smile when she saw us, and turned to saw our seats were reserved closer to the front. We probably didn't even need her directions anyway, seeing as a second later Reiner was on his feet calling us over to a row where he, Christa, and Eren were sitting – as Marco and I had guessed, all their dates were there too.

"The gay club's together!" Reiner cheered when we got to the row and started sliding in towards them. Christa gave him a light tap of the arm, telling him to not shout such things out, but luckily no one was really paying attention to us anyway – the whole room was talking amongst itself.

"Ugh," Eren said as I sat beside him.

"Likewise," I muttered, before snatching his drink and taking a swig – more to piss him off than because I was thirsty. Levi and Marco rolled their eyes, and Marco successfully distracted me from irritating Eren further by reaching out to grab my hand.

The screen was currently covered by a curtain, and Pixis and Petra were hovering around on the stage in front of it to give some sort of speech before it started.

Marco's thumb stroked across the back of my hand. "Did you book a taxi for after the party?"

"Nah," I said. "Hanji said the hotel will call for taxis as we need them. We don't know when we're heading off anyway."

"Ah, ok. But…" Marco lowered his voice, leaning closer to me and keeping his eyes fixed on our entwined hands. "We're not staying out… too late, right? I mean… we should get a chance to, um, celebrate alone."

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

"Well, I guess we can slip away to avoid me getting drunk again," I shrugged.

Marco's fingers tightened around my own, his eyes glanced up towards me and I could see exactly what he was trying to say.

'Hells yeah we gonna fuck.'

After a few moments, Marco had to pinch me to make me wipe the shit-eating grin off my face.

With two sharp claps that resounded around the room, everyone fell silent; eyes training to the front as Pixis took up centre stage, Petra standing patiently beside him. He smiled, causing even more creases to appear around his eyes, as he glanced around at the audience.

"I won't stand here and witter on like the old man I am, but I will say it's been an honour working on this film. I had the best crew under me, and we wouldn't have been here tonight if it weren't for them. Especially this lady beside me," He motioned to Petra, and she blushed as the room burst into a brief round of applause for her. Pixis seemed proud to force the attention over, and waited for everyone to quiet down before continuing. "Because she was the one who actually made me work. A thank you to the cast as well. I can say I've never worked with a newer and more promising cast of actors, even if they did give me something of a sickening bill during our last get together," Eren and I sunk further into our seats as the room laughed. Pixis winked and clapped his hands together. "Well. Let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

Another round of applause followed as Pixis and Petra gave little bows and left the stage to take their seats. The background noise of chatter filled the room again, but dimmer out just as quickly as the lights did. As the curtain lifted up, Marco shifted closer, squeezing my hand as the black screen was revealed.

I won't be so stuck-up as to say Humanity's Last Hope changed my life… but it would be stupid to say that it didn't make an impact. Hell, take away the publicity and the chance to work with some of the biggest names in the industry, and star in a movie that was huge before the first commercial even aired, and you'll still be left with an experience that was… life-changing.

I know I just said I wouldn't call it that, but work with me here.

I managed to form some sort of comradeship with Jaeger, of all people. I managed to make friends with a national sweetheart and someone built like a rock (quiet, that's been my dream since I was 5). And then I managed to meet the world's most perfect guy: someone I swear was created out of fucking stardust by angels or some equally as clichéd shite, because seriously, what sort of normal human could possibly be as amazing as Marco Bodt, and still love me back? Never mind just love me back, I snagged him up as a full time boyfriend, moved in with him, had my first celebrity scandal with him, and nabbed a mother-in-law from hell.

Could I call her a mother-in-law yet?

I glanced over at Marco, and that psychic link I mentioned earlier? He immediately looked over at me too. His face lit up and he shifted even closer – until even the arm of the chair couldn't really stop us from being pressed against one another. Even without words, I could still see his 'I love you' written plainly across his face.

Yeah, I'm going to call her a mother-in-law.

It did also make my parents interested in sexuality to a rather uncomfortable degree, but let's put that aside.

The point is that this film had helped me find this. This perfect person to get me to this perfect point in life, and as the screen lit up to light, I thought back to the box I'd hidden away in the fruit bowl in Sasha and Connie's house and decided I might have to make use of it sooner than I'd planned.

As the title credits of Humanity's Last Hope begun, I lifted Marco Bodt's hand to my lips and kissed it.