Family

First Date, Sort Of

"Am I not allowed to eat my lunch today?"

"No," Jean said immediately, grabbing Marco's wrist and pulling him away to a corner.

"Go ahead, Sasha," he sighed, answering the pleading look she gave him as he was being taken away by a certain friend of his. Once they had reached the corner, out of earshot of anyone they knew, Jean dropped Marco's hand.

"What's so urgent?" the taller one asked, not sure whether to be concerned or not.

"It's not necessarily urgent," Jean said quietly, honestly seeming quite paranoid that someone would hear them. "I just need to tell you this now before I lose the courage to." Marco pursed his lips. His mind was coming up with many different possible outcomes of this situation, but he didn't really know which one was more likely. Jean inhaled heavily, and spoke again.

"I haven't been completely honest with you, Marco," he started, his voice slightly unsteady. "I mean, I've never exactly lied to you, but- well- I'm gay, Marco. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to tell you, but I am." Marco's jaw dropped a little and his eyes seemed to pop out of his head.

"So you don't like Christa?" he asked after a moment, and Jean seemed utterly confused that that was the first question he was asked after coming out to his best friend.

"No," he said slowly, also curious as to where this conversation was going.

"So that means...." That meant that Jean was jealous of him and Christa together, but didn't like her at all. But if he was gay, that meant.... "That means- you like me?" Marco choked a little on his words, disbelief piling up inside him.

"I should go," Jean said quickly as his face grew redder by the second, attempting to avoid having ot answer that question. He turned and walked extraordinarily quickly towards the door, and although this took a second to register in Marco's mind, as soon as he realized what was happening he was in fast pursuit.

"Jean!" he called, chasing after his escaping friend. "Jean!" Marco walked faster, all but running towards him and beginning to close the gap between the two. He noticed his friends at the table he had just left staring at him, but he didn't care. All he cared about at the moment was letting Jean know something he should have told him a long time before.

"Jean Kirstein!" Marco said forcefully, and, using one arm to turn him around and the other to grab the front of his shirt and pull him closer, pressed his lips against Jean's fiercely, completely aware of all the heads turned their way and also completely apathetic to the fact. Jean seemed entirely too surprised to react, so after a few seconds Marco pulled away, placing a palm flat on the shorter man's chest.

"Don't go," he whispered gently, looking intently into hazel eyes. Jean nodded absentmindedly, and Marco laughed, leading Jean back to the table, turning just in time to see Connie reluctantly hand some cash over to Sasha. He gasped, though he wasn't really offended.

"You two were betting on us?" he said incredulously, sliding Jean, who was still unresponsive, into a spot next to him.

"Maybe," Sasha smirked, teasingly flashing a twenty in front of her face. "There are more important things to worry about, though. Like the fact that you broke Jean just by kissing him."

"What can I say? I'm just too handsome for him to handle," Marco said with a wink, and Jean, who finally seemed to be coming to, muttered something under his breath.

"What did you say?"

"I said, damn right," he repeated, sneakily slipping his hand into Marco’s fingers. Marco blushed and everyone at the table chuckled.