Dance - Fairytale - Sweet - Ribbon - Home - Snow - Crossover
________________________________________
“Eren, honey…” Jean perked up when he heard Marco’s voice carry through the house, not able to ignore the distressed edge it had again. That wasn’t good. It had taken him ages to solve the last crisis, which had only cost them more valuable preparation time.
Eren’s answer was muffled and came from upstairs where he should be cleaning the bathroom or tidying the bedroom or at least hide some of the things they wouldn’t want their guests stumbling over.
“Please tell me you didn’t use all our hazelnuts when you made your cookies yesterday?” Jean shot a glance over at the cookies in question, cooled and stacked decoratively onto little plates, one on the coffee table, the other on the sideboard. They were pretty, decorated with icing of different colors, chocolate chips and yes, halves of hazelnuts.
He abandoned the duster by the fireplace and went over to stick his head into the kitchen instead where Marco had pulled open most of their cabinets in a frantic search.
Before he could say anything Eren answered, voice not as muffled, he probably moved to the top of the stairs to shout down to them.
“Yeah, I did. Told you we’d need new ones when you went shopping earlier.” Marco stopped rearranging one of their drawers and reached into his pocket, quickly pulling out a strip of paper. Scanning it he frowned and shook his head.
“No…”
“What?” The stairs were creaking now as Eren came to join them in the kitchen, donning a pair of bright pink rubber gloves. Bathroom it was then.
“You … I didn’t put it on the shopping list so you didn’t tell me…”, Marco murmured, holding out the piece of paper for Eren to check. Frowning Eren read over it himself, then shrugged.
“Yeah, but I did, though..”
That right there was Jean’s cue. They really didn’t need another shouting match over stupid stuff just because all of them were a little stressed and nervous. He slid into the kitchen and snatched the paper from Marco’s hands, smoothly gliding between his boyfriends.
“What’s up?” He read over the shopping list. Indeed, no hazelnuts. But that wasn’t the point.
“I wanted to start with dessert but we’re all out of hazelnuts thanks to – ”
“Nahh!”, Jean interrupted. Loudly. It wasn’t often that Marco’s voice drifted into that accusing, aggressive tone.
But when it did he tended to say things he came to deeply regret later when he’d calmed down. So it was best to not even let him finish that sentence. The deep worry line between Marco’s eyebrows as he looked over at Eren was another strong hint. They were just strung a little tightly these days.
“It was a misunderstanding”, Jean insisted, pocketing the offending piece of paper himself. “Just let it go. Let’s focus instead, okay?” He waited for the tiny, affirming nod, for Marco’s expression to soften a bit before he stepped back to take a look at the handwritten recipe on their kitchen table.
“Okay, you need hazelnuts, no problem. I can run to the store real quick…”
“No, it’s closed…”, Eren interjected from the side, moving to stand next to Jean and read over the recipe as well. Jean hummed. Dammit.
“No hazelnuts then. Uh, can you take something else instead? Like…”
“We still got skinned almonds?”, his boyfriend supplied, shooting Marco a warm little smile and Jean jumped onto that possibility.
“See, skinned almonds. How’s that sound?”
“Yeah, it’s basically the same, right?”
Marco looked at them for a moment, unblinking, then closed his eyes and huffed, one hand coming up to rub at his temple.
“It’s basically … no, Eren. No it’s not.” He opened his eyes again and shit, were those tears? Shit, shit, shit. What happened? Jean took a hesitant step toward his boyfriend, unsure if hugging would make it worse, so he just kept hovering somewhere in front of him.
“This is my mom’s recipe, it’s her favorite desert”, Marco stuttered, blinking hard against the wetness shining in his eyes. “She asked me to make it for her and if I fuck it up she’ll…”
So that was what this was about. Jean couldn’t hold back the little smile tugging at his lips as he closed the gap between himself and Marco to wrap his trembling boyfriend in a tight hug.
“She’ll do what?”, he murmured into Marco’s hair, pressing a kiss to his temple. “Disown you? Marco, baby, she agreed to spend Christmas Eve with not only one but two of your gay boyfriends and you think half a cup of almonds will tip her off?”
Marco shrugged, breaths wet and stuttering as he carefully moved his arms to return the hug.
“I just … I…”
“I know you want everything to be perfect”, Eren said from the side and made both their heads turn carefully to look at him. He was took his pink rubber gloves off and threw them towards the sink before he stepped closer and looped an arm around Marco’s waist as well.
“But it doesn’t have to be.”
“Yeah”, Jean quickly agreed, pressing another kiss to Marco’s cheek. “We wanna impress our parents. But the most important thing is that they’re even coming at all.” Eren hummed at that, raising onto his toes to nuzzle Marco’s face as well.
It had indeed taken them a long time to convince their parents that it might be a good idea to meet at their house this year. But in the end they had agreed it was time to get to know each other after all this time. Well, Eren’s dad hadn’t and he wouldn’t be coming tonight, but he was an ass anyway and Jean couldn’t shake the feeling that even Eren was glad he wouldn’t have to deal with him.
Marco made a little noise and moved one of his arms to pull Eren close as well, kissing first his, then Jean’s temple. Looked like they succeeded in calming him. And that only meant one thing.
“You know what time it is…”, he murmured, a slight lull to his voice and he extracted himself from the tight hold of his boyfriend and stalked over to the little radio on the fridge. He ignored the two deep sighs behind him as well as the muttered “Oh god…” “Jean, please no…” as he turned on the little device and tuned it.
“Shhh, if I got enough time for a dance break while being elbow deep in some dude’s guts we have enough time for a dance break four hours before our parents arrive”, he insisted, turning up the volume just at the beginning of one of those cheesy, happy pop songs. Exactly what they needed right now.
“So shut up, one song, go.”
A few months ago Jean had started incorporating the dance breaks he knew from work into their daily lives.
It was a good way to de-stress after complications had arisen and been dealt with in the OR and it was just as useful at home, after a fight or someone getting bad news or more recently, to get rid of the everlasting holiday tension. Marco wasn’t as big a fan of their newest routine and Eren kept bitching about it but they both couldn’t deny that it was working. It was much easier to go back to normal after dancing for a few minutes than it was with emotions and energy still pent-up inside them.
That might be the only reason his boyfriends didn’t just leave the kitchen when he cranked up the volume even more as the bass set in and then turned around, moving to the quick, light beat.
“Come on Marco!”, he took his boyfriend’s hand, and pulled him free from Eren’s embrace so he had room to move. “I know you can shake that nice, round ass of yours!”
“God, Jean…”, Marco chuckled, already loosening up a little as Jean moved him to sway to the beat, reaching out to drag a thumb over that plump bottom lip.
“Sugar lips, angel eyes…”, he sang along, voice pitched too deep to be anything but mocking and it made Marco giggle even more.
The laugh turned into a high yelp though when Jean moved around him to give that bubble butt a quick slap before making his way over to Eren, hips swaying and steps light. His boyfriend was watching him, weary, with his arms crossed, but it wasn’t like he could hide that smirk tugging at his lips when Jean rolled his hips a few times and began tugging one of Eren’s arms loose.
“She’s optimistic … something, something lights!” Eren snorted at the improvised lyrics and rolled his eyes but didn’t resist when Jean pulled him close to swing them around the kitchen a few times.
“Before you play with fire, do think twice…”
“And if you get burned don’t be surprised.” Jean hadn’t expected Eren to retort, especially not as assured or with a hard pinch to his ass. But here they were, hips suddenly flush, rolling to the insistent beat and suddenly it was getting hot and this was not the goal of a dance break, not at all.
So Jean twisted out of Eren’s hold – they might have some time for a song but definitely not for a quickie in the kitchen, especially since even their quickies weren’t really quick.
He turned to Marco again instead who was back to just nodding his head to the beat and took both his hands this time, encouraging him to move around more, swing his arms and get more loose as the song went on and after a while Marco began to smile at him, soft and at ease and did a little twirl underneath their arms.
Something in Jean’s chest eased up at the sight and he moved them closer toward Eren, handing Marco over to their boyfriend. He watched them dance together like that for a while, giggling and getting more and more silly in their moves, using the upbeat song to get rid of some of the tension, until all of them were singing at the top of their lungs:
“Sugar, how you get so fly? Sugar how you get so fly? Sugar how you get so fly? But you won’t get me tonight!”
Eren’s pitched incredibly high at the last note, shrilling through the kitchen, while Marco stayed steady, carrying the tone out almost professionally. They kept moving in exaggerated moves until the song tapered out and they came to a halt, all three of them a little breathless.
Jean casually threw the eggbeater he had grabbed as a microphone back into the bowl sitting on the counter. He couldn’t help but feel a little smug as he regarded his grinning boyfriends, then moved to shut off the radio again.
“See, that was good, wasn’t it? Back to work now.”
He gave both his boys a quick peck on the lips before disappearing into the living room again. Crisis averted.
blakekathryn
titsay
annaxmalina
areudirty
2087
jbbartram-illu
kianamaiart
tangentwithtanner
