Half Lights || JeanMarco

》Chapter 5《

PoV: Marco (Flashback one week before)

"We don't have anything to do any further today, do we?" I asked out of pure interest and titled my head a little.
"Nope," Jean clicked his tongue. "Cleaning duty isn't assigned to us this week, we are group A." He carried on and closed his eyes a bit as he was leaning on the wall.

I nodded, deciding to just lean back right next to him as well.
What could possibly go wrong?

"Right," I then just said and let out a sigh, looking at Jean out of the corner of my right eye.
He seemed somewhat calmer. His expression wasn't as angry and hateful anymore, that was good. He also got less red in his face, man, he even had something close to a smirk on his lips..

Nah uh, don't.

"Why did you ask, Freckles?" Jean opened his eyes suddenly, catching me staring at him before I could look away quickly. The nickname got me every time. Urgh.
"Out of pure interest." I gave back with a grin and titled my head again as I expected him to say something else.
"..Ah." Jean just brought out and I frowned but didn't ask if something was wrong. He was a little impulsive and unthoughtful at times.

Another moment of silence was there. Only the clock standing against the wall making an annoying sound.

I decided to say something, maybe now was a right moment or something.

"Marco-"
"Jean-" We said at the same time and looked at each other dumbfounded.
"You can go first." He shrugged and smiled overly kind.
"No it's okay, it's not as important." I chuckled with reddish cheeks, shaking my head a tad.
"Uh huh, lies." He pretended to be offended, pouting a little.
It was adorable.

"Naw, how cute." I teased jokingly, poking his cheek before wrapping one arm around his shoulder while suppressing a laugh.
"I'm not, how dare you?" He kept acting offended, but his eyes betrayed him with showing that he was suppressing a laugh as well.
"Uh huh, lies." I imitated him with the shaking of my head.
"Getting reckless aren't we?" Jean gave back with a fake gasp and I punched his shoulder playfully while laughing.
"At least I got you to laugh!" He added and I just looked at him.

After moments of staring at each other, I broke the silence that was created within.
"Is this some sort of staring contest?" I asked and raised an eyebrow, my eyes starting to burn a little from the lack of liquid or whatever it was keeping them from drying.
"I mean, why not?" He smirked in his cocky way, almost making me roll my eyes.
"I bet I can make you blink." My opponent grinned wider, making me laugh for a short moment.
"Bet you can't." I crossed my arms.
"On what are we betting?"

I love his eyes.

"Marco? What's the bet you idiot?" Jean woke me up out of my trance and I frowned as I thought of something.
"The loser has to steal Sasha's meal." I said and saw the shock on his face as my win, but no, he didn't blink just yet.
"That's like a death wish, but sure. Let's go." He used one of his hands as support for his head, causing him to lean closer forwards, our noses almost touching at this point.

My eyes itched to blink, but even if I wanted to, I couldn't in this moment. No idea what it was, I just didn't want it to end, I guess.

"26." Jean suddenly said, causing me to raise an eyebrow.
"What?"
"You have 26 freckles on your face." He explained and I felt my cheeks heating up a bit again.
"Do I?"
"For sure."
"That didn't make me blink though, guess your theory was wrong."
"Who said this was my plan?"
"Huh what do you mean?"

I frowned at his words, a tiny bit confused if I'm being honest. What was going on?

"Well." He held up one hand as in for a high five, me of course hitting it, not expecting him to entangle our fingers.
Almost blinking, but stopping right before it was too late, I felt my heart skip a beat at that.

What is he doing?

Thinking this was all that was supposed to happen, I widened my eyes for a moment and then closed them out of reflex when I felt him pressing his lips onto mine.
I didn't dare doing anything at first, it took me a while to realize it was actually even happening.
I probably knew it before already, but he made me feel like none of the problems around us mattered. The titans, the slaughtering, all those deaths. None of it.
It was a small yet warm kiss. I honestly forgot we had a bet at this moment. That was on me.
He pulled me closer, the kiss deeper, more passionate. I felt one of his hands on the back of my neck, giving me shivers down my spine. A tiny smile grew on my face as I realize this was real, but not too much since I didn't want it to be too awkward afterwards. Finally, we pulled apart again.

He obviously had closed his eyes too since he was blinking normally again as well.
His face was somewhat red, just like mine that wasn't any better.
I didn't know what to say. It was like all words I knew were blown out of my mind for this whole moment going on.

"I uh." Jean began, rubbing his neck awkwardly while looking away to the wall.
"Hm?" I felt stupid for responding this way, but also too speechless to have done it differently.
"Sorry, I don't know why I did that." he laughed a forced laugh, it was obvious, but at least he was attempting to make the tension less effective.

"Well you did make me blink, heh." I admitted and shrugged.