Chapter Text
It all starts on the beach.
With Eren laughing while Armin is sitting between his thighs attempting to read a book that Eren keeps snatching for and Mikasa is smiling softly beside them as she reads her own book and bathes in the sun, head propped on Armin’s lap.
It starts with a Frisbee thrown in their direction.
They don’t notice until a guy (Jean as they all come to find out) is trotting backwards to catch it but falls over Mikasa’s outstretched legs. He swears and mutters under his breath and fumbles and gets sand everywhere (ruins their towel).
Eren glares when the guy stands up and says nothing more than a muttered “fuck, that hurts” as he dusts himself off. He’s handsome –piercings (entire left ear, a gage in the right lobe, right brow, snake bites, and, if there were more, Eren couldn’t see), tattoos (full sleeves and his back is covered, which is impressive), blond hair with a brown undercut, and a pair of startling honey-brown eyes that Eren would have appreciated if he weren’t so pissed. It doesn’t help that he has a nice body on top of it all but Eren’s too keyed up to give any fucks.
It doesn’t begin with the typical hello.
Instead, the guy snags his Frisbee, smiles a bit before offering a brief, “My bad”, which only serves to further ignite the blood in Eren’s veins.
It can’t be helped that Eren winds up standing, face pulling into a scowl. “You owe her an apology.” His tone is venomous and Armin can tell immediately that nothing good is bound to happen.
Pause and rewind.
It actually starts thirty minutes earlier when Marco points out Eren and Mikasa at the concession stand.
Marco knows Jean and knows that the guy has been in a funk because their last summer as brats is set to end in less than a week and then it’s on to college (Jean is going to Stanford and Marco is on his way to Berkley). Jean is bummed about being separated from his best friend, which he complains about because he’s like that but he’s happy for the both of them –or rather, as happy as the pragmatic, sarcastic, and pessimistic Jean can be.
It really kicks off two hours beforehand when Marco suggests going to the beach in Malibu one last time with Connie and Sasha and maybe some surfing and flirting with beach bodies. Getting their minds off of a new start and focusing on the present while they still can is the goal.
Jean agrees because he’s always swayed by the potentials of hooking up and losing himself in another person as opposed to his own thoughts. When it comes to people (and despite the fact that Jean is arrogant and opinionated and a pessimist through and through), Jean is a magnet. He attracts all sorts and Marco likes to think it’s his appearance because that personality takes some getting used to.
Ah, but it starts with the concession stand for all of them.
From Marco spotting those crazy gorgeous turquoise-blue eyes (Eren is a head turner, Marco has to admit even if he isn’t into guys and all “free love” like Jean). Mikasa is spotted next because –her breast. Those things in that bikini… She’s as much of a bombshell as the guy beside her. Marco thought the two were a couple until Eren slaps Mikasa’s back and rustles her hair and Marco just knows that they’re either siblings or really close friends (it turns out to be the latter but that knowledge comes later).
It gets really interesting when Marco points out the two because either of them is Jeans type and Jean could really use an end of the summer pick me up.
Jean lights up when he sees the girl (Mikasa) but then, for the briefest of moments, his gaze gets trapped in aquamarine depths and he wants. Wants like nothing he’s ever experienced before. Like, his body physically fucking aches and is compelled to yearn for that guy. Jean knows right then and there that he needs to talk to him –say something, anything.
It starts with Connie and Sasha suggesting the “Frisbee Play” and Jean thinking it’s a dumb idea but fuck it –it’s their last hurrah.
It ends with an argument.
With Jean saying, “I said ‘My bad’!”
And Eren biting out, “That’s not a fucking apology.”
Which is when semantics get tangled up in there somewhere and Mikasa holds Eren back because he has a quick temper but not quite as quick as her own when it concerns him or Armin. And then Marco runs over and is apologizing on Jean’s behalf because his idiot friend is stubborn (and arrogant to a fault). Armin apologizes on Eren’s behalf too because he just wants to get back to reading and relaxing. But Connie and Sasha salvage things when they suggest BBQ and food and friendship and weed, which would bring about friendship.
All is good after that.
Thus, it really ends during the twilight when they’re sitting beside a BBQ pit half baked and exchanging introductions and greetings.
Sasha asks if Armin and Eren and Mikasa are a new-age threesome because they’re all wrapped up in each other like they fuck regularly and they’re all surprised when the three laugh and reject the idea. They’re just close friends who are inseparable –more like siblings who are super close and can’t be without the other. They admit to having sex but it doesn’t mean what people think it means because they’re not in love, they simply love each other. Would die for each other in a heartbeat because they’ve been through shit and understand one another without the need for even words.
Connie calls them incestuous but they don’t much care.
Marco asks if they can date –just to be sure- and he’s surprised that they can and they do and they are dating other people. And when they date other people, the others don’t interfere. A respect thing.
Jean decides that he digs it –what they have sounds like “free love” to him. So yeah, that’s only more of a reason why he really digs Eren. Even though their first meeting wound up awful, Eren is all cheek and tongue and wit and fire and Jean has a thing for playing with fire. Loves the burn as much as the warmth.
It ends with Eren being high and sitting by the fire while Mikasa and Armin follow Sasha to the ice cream truck.
Jean sits beside him and they find out a lot about each other. Like, they’ll both be going to Stanford for engineering. They both have a thing for music –but Jean is an elitist and Eren wholeheartedly believes that a true music lover can find all genres pleasant or respect some of the artist in each category because not everyone is a hack. They’re both ridiculously smart and know as many useless things as useful. (Eren knows how many bottle caps it takes to circle the earth once and Jean knows the capitals of European and African countries but neither of them know why they know shit like that nor where they got the info from.)
Eren gets his apology and offers one of his own.
They slip into an easy conversation that’s like a rollercoaster ride for Jean. There are the high points when they’re both really caught up on a topic and into it and the low points when they’re arguing but equally as charged. It’s all thrilling –exhilarating. Something like getting a tattoo and being high or drunk or both at the same time and then floating. Floating is definitely in there somewhere.
It really ends with a newfound friendship.
With Eren and Jean talking until five in the morning. With Marco, Connie, and Sasha, leaving between 2 and 3 AM. Armin and Mikasa kiss and hug Eren respectively around the same time when Jean offers to take Eren home –wherever home is. And Eren doesn’t mind.
Fast-forward.
It stops half an hour later.
Jean’s parked in front of Eren’s garage with Eren in his lap and his seat leaned back as their lips keep chasing after each other. But when they connect, there’s this spark that makes his nerves singe and neurons fire. It makes his toes curl and the hairs at the back of his neck stand on end. And he can’t get enough of Eren’s mouth –his taste, his scent, the little sounds he makes as he rocks his hips and suckles on the ring at the left corner of Jean’s bottom lip.
Eren’s sensual smile and husky voice set him off like nothing else and Jean wants.
Eren wants, too.
Wants Jean to not disappear any time soon because he digs him. Digs the cold ball of Jean’s tongue ring clicking against his teeth. Digs those honey-brown eyes and that consuming stare. Digs his style. Digs his beautiful mind because he can keep up like Armin and Mikasa. Eren really digs Jean’s mouth and his hands –those incredibly strong hands that grip at his hips and help him rock just so. Eren’s really into their rutting.
It stops at the orgasm.
The moment Jean’s cock is pressed to Eren’s all slick while he grips them in one hand and they're moving spastically (the truck is rocking and they might’ve honked the horn a few times but who really gives a fuck). Eren comes first with a mewl that he buries in Jean’s throat before biting down and marking that white flesh just because he can. Jean follows three point eight minutes later, which he figures bodes well for him in the future if the two of them make it a long-term thing.
So Jean dares to ask, because he has to know more than anything else, “Can I see you again?”
When Eren laughs, he assumes the worst, but then- “Yeah. I think you’re kind of alright, for an asshole, and you’ll need a friend at Stanford.”
It starts with being friends.
With the exchanging of numbers and sloppy kisses and Jean wondering what kind of friends Eren makes because, apparently, they all get to have sex. He doesn’t say that though. He just accepts it for what it is.
When Eren finally climbs out of the car, it’s 7 AM and he can’t help but to steal one last kiss and one last bite before he tells Jean to call him. And Eren sits in his kitchen for a long while after that, mind racing and wild and wide awoke because he can never sleep after orgasm. He thinks about Armin and Mikasa and waking them up for an early breakfast so he can tell them about Jean.
Jean sits in his truck on his own driveway for half an hour mentally recapping the day but always returning to those gem-like green-blue eyes. He thinks about college and about Marco who kept telling him that it won’t be loathsome and –for the first time- Jean believes him.
It all starts that first week before college life begins and no one has any regret.
TBC…