brxus:
╭ ℬ ╯— ”Jean…” Her voice wavered as her whole body trembled. Tears cascaded from wide, petrified eyes as she tried to figure out words to say to the person who had just saved her from being titan fodder. Her hand raised towards him before she retracted it, holding it with her other hand as she tried to stop the shaking.
She averted her gaze from his, staring at her scuffed up riding boots as she forcefully held her hand down. “My maneuvering gear… a titan hit it while I was trying to attack another one. It got messed up—” She looked back up at him, a sharpness in her gaze as she opened her mouth to yell something at him but no words came. There was nothing she could yell at him that would be justifiable to anything done wrong because he had done nothing wrong by saving her. He had risked his own life for her own and she just wasn’t the type of person who let people do that for her. She had grown up having to raise herself and fend for herself so why couldn’t she just thank someone who saw past that tough act she put on and helped her no matter what had happened between them in the past?
Horse-face had been her nickname of choice for him as they had all been in the 104 Trainee Squad. She would always pester him, trying to ebb him on to yell at her, and then play it off as if she were just playing a joke on him. She had never gotten along with him that well ever since he had told her how stupid she had been for eating that potato that first day. He had never understood why she did what she did— no one ever understood and she never let anyone get close enough to her so that she felt safe to tell them why it was that she ate like she may never have another meal again. She had watched Jean stand stock-still as his comrades were being eaten by Titans that day in the Trost District. He’d watched as people from his Squad were trying to save one another and he just stared helplessly at them. He cared more for his life than he did about others… so why did he save her? They had been milliseconds away from annihilation yet Jean somehow perfectly timed his descent and held his and her body so that the 3DMG wasn’t slowed by the extra weight.
H e h a d r i s k e d h i s l i f e f o r h e r .
”I-I thought I was going to die.”
His breath came out in short gasps as he landed in a presumably safe location; the shortness of breath a combination of terror at what could have been if he hadn't intervened and the physical strain his fast maneuvering with two people had left upon him. As he tried to catch his breath, he listened to the other ramble about how she wound up in this mess or something similar to that. He rolled his eyes, unable to speak and tell her to shut up. There was literally no need for explanation. None.
He held up a hand as she attempted to go on, hoping that would suffice to calm her. His body had simply reacted when he saw the other in danger. He would never let the events of Trost repeat ever again. He had sworn that vow a long time ago. The hand that had touched Marco's supposed remains clenched as he finally formulated words to say.
"Don't mention it. Really. You would've done the same for me." Except he wasn't sure if she would have been able to. The way she had frozen up before — it just wasn't very promising. The tears that were rocking her body also needed to stop. Jean had never been good working with tears. He turned around and placed his hands on her shoulders and squeezed.
"The important thing is that you didn't die."
Now that he actually had a chance to dwell on it, he hadn't even registered his body moving to rescue her. It was a really close call and he nearly got both of them killed in the process, but apparently it looked like he knew what he was doing to the other. How times had changed. He remembered when he used to be frozen in terror and unable to move as comrades were devoured right before his eyes. He kicked at the ground beneath him, currently the tiled roof of a building, and avoided eye contact with Sasha.
