In the Woods Somewhere

Chapter 1

Fucking Jaeger.

My teeth ground together with the force of my sheer anger. That loud mouthed, suicidal brat needed to learn his damn place. Blood boiling, my fingers twitched at my sides, itching to wrap themselves around the crazy bastards throat for a few minutes... or ten.

'Keep it cool Jean,' I warned myself, 'just deep breaths- in and out.'

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, and inhaled - counting slowly to ten before releasing the pent up anger on a shaky exhale.

Even hours later, with me sprawled out across my thin mattress, Eren's snappy comment still stung. My trembling hands came up to press against my eyes - which felt sore, and scratchy from all the pent up tears of frustration. Fuck... I can't believe how much of a baby I am. Wanting to cry over something that loser said to me. Still... telling me to stop checking out Mikasa because he was sure she wasn't into cross species relationships had been kind of a low blow. Eren was so overprotective of his little cronies and vice versa - he didn't even realize I wasn't looking at Mikasa.

I had been looking around the mess hall, in search of my only friend in this shit hole. I remember thinking, 'Where the hell is Marco?' before my attention was stolen by Jaeger.

"What the fuck do you mean 'cross species relationships?'" I barked, scowling down at the shorter boy - who had the cockiest smirk nestled on his bratty mouth. Jack ass.

Eren's indescribable blue eyes slitted into a fierce glare; chin upturned as he leveled a challenging look at me.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure Mikasa isn't into horses- horse face. So stop raking those lewd eyes over her body, and stick to your own species." At this point, Eren had stepped up toe to toe with me and practically snarled those last words.

God I wanted to fucking kill him.

"Shut the hell up Jaeger! I swear if you compare me to a fucking horse one more time, I'm gonna pound your ass into the ground."

"I'd like to see you try, you spineless -" we were almost at the point of physical violence, either of our fingers clenched like a vicious lifeline on the others shirt fronts, when a large hand clapped itself on one of my shoulders and yanked me away from Eren.

On the other end, Mikasa had materialized out of fucking nowhere like usual, to flank his right side; Armin quickly sidling up on the left.

"That's enough," Reiner boomed from behind me, "both of you." His expression must have been pretty scary to actually make Jaeger visibly flinch.

"Tch," the jackass scoffed, "whatever." And like that The Three Musketeers slouched off to mutually lick each others wounds.

Trembling with barely contained rage, I shoved my way past Reiner and plowed through the line of Cadets still waiting to get their nightly ration of chewy bread and tacky gruel. I wasn't hungry anymore, my appetite not strong enough to outweigh the angry churning in my stomach. Instead, I opted to stomp towards the barracks, and turn in early for the night.

Which leads up to where I am now - long after nightfall and wide awake with all these stupid feelings roiling around inside me.

Yeah, Eren's insults had been petty and as creative as a five year olds. But I was just so... tired of being picked on and ostracized. Which was stupid, because that was the way it had been my whole goddamn life.

Ever since I could remember, it was always me - one single, solitary point removed from the myriad of interconnected constellations. Like the moon surrounded by all the stars, that mapped pretty patterns across the sky.

I scoffed at myself, the flowery words a stupid attempt to sum up how I felt.

However, my traitorous mind continued, there was one star that shone brighter than all the rest. A bright, fiery star that glowed from the inside out.

The Sun. Dear fucking god was Marco the Sun...

His smile lit up his entire face and the whole damn room along with it. His laughter made life burst into color. Whenever he would lightly touch my hand to get my attention or brush up against me, I would marvel at how warm he was.

Yep. Marco Bodt was the Sun and I was the moon. Two separate entities irrevocably lumped together.

Speaking of Marco...

I swung my head down off the side of my bunk to see if I could pester my friend into bitching about Jaeger with me. To my surprise his cot lay empty - his bed sheets twisted into a weird spiral and pushed off to the side.

Maybe he had to take a piss or something? I wondered.

I sat up, and swung my legs over my bunk and thumped down to the ground as quietly as I possibly could. On light feet, I inched my way toward the barren mattress, feeling my way through the dark. I stooped down once my knees knocked into the wooden bed frame, and I felt the empty space for clues.

Hm, the sheets were stone cold... How long has Marco been gone? And then with a pinched frown I wondered, did he ever come back? I was so wrapped up in myself and Jaeger's jackassery I had failed to notice the presence, or lack thereof, of my best friend.

Nice going Kirschtein...

Heaving a sigh, barely audible as not to wake any of my lighter sleeping comrades, my gaze was pulled toward the door. Marco knew we were not allowed to leave after lights out, and being the goody two shoes that he was, I was surprised that he was out on some late night prowl.

Maybe he really was only taking a piss...

But the twisted sheets that held no presence of Marco's body heat told otherwise. Wherever he was, he was there for quite a long time.

I shook my head, already knowing that I was going to go looking for my best friend - even at the risk of getting caught. The things I would do for Marco Bodt...

Yanking on my clunky leather boots, I tiptoed my way toward the door and slipped through it like a silent Wraith. Inhaling the sharp, clean night air I set out in search of Marco; wondering where the hell he could be.

So, uh... In case anyone was wondering, I found Marco Bodt.

It was a harrowing journey I might add, with the end result making me wonder if it was all worth it.

The silver sickle moon that was fixed against the dark sky barely illuminated my way. Thankfully it was mid March, so the night time chill was only a passing, misty tendril. If it had been any colder, I might have muttered 'screw it' and slunk back inside to the warmth and safety of my bunk - Marco be damned.

But the air was tepid and silently inviting, so I shrugged and stepped down off the raised deck surrounding the barrack. The soles of my boots crunched along the dry, packed ground - even though I was trying to make as little sound as possible on my way to the communal bath house.

If Marco was there I was totally going to scare him shitless. It would serve him right, I smirked, seeing as how he got me into this rule breaking predicament. I tried not to snicker too loudly, already envisioning and relishing the look of terror on that open, befreckled face of his.

So that was why instead of barging into the bath house like I normally would, I was creeping quietly - the muffled thump thump of my footsteps a hushed staccato.

As I approached the slightly ajar door, my fingers just outstretched toward the brass handle, I heard a noise and froze.

"Ah, Rein-ahhhhhh~" A soft, but deep voice crooned. There was heavy panting, and wet shlicking noises coming from the other side of the door. My eyes widened in horor.

"Shhh, Bertl- we don't want the whole damn squadron catching us like this. Though it does sound kind of hot..."

Reiner's unmistakable baritone was cut off by a sharp grunt. "You didn't have to elbow me in the stomach," but that was all I could bare. With a racing heart, I tore away from that bath house like there was a fucking Titan in there, and it was inclined to experience the succulent appetizer of Jean a la mode.

Yeah, there was no way in hell Marco would be in there if those two giants were fucking like animals in heat...

To this day, I still have no idea what possessed me to run into the woods in search of Marco.

But some where in the woods, he was.