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And almost as quickly as it came around, the weekend ends and Jean finds himself back at college and suddenly he has no time to even think about you, Ymir, or the conversation he had with Marco because he barely has the time to remember to breathe. Overall, Jean likes to think that he's actually pretty good at keeping up with his projects and his school work, but unfortunately a deadline has approached him with much force and he's spent the last three days on about three hours sleep a night.

It's the third day that he's stayed behind after his classes has finished to have free reign of the resources in the art block and he's keeping up now, but he's sad and exhausted and all he wants to do is ride the next two days out so he can hand it in and be done with it and sleep for the rest of the year. He's done for the day and now his plans are to go home, eat something and then lock himself in his room for the rest of the night with his iPod and get through some more of the work. And maybe, just maybe if he gets home early enough and gets through enough, tonight might be the night where he gets a decent, healthy nights sleep.

And he could cry at just how good that sounds right now.

He tugs his phone out of his pocket to check the time and curses under his breath, the next bus is in ten minutes and he needs to be on that one, or he'll have to wait another half an hour for another one and he'll be damned if he's standing outside all that time when the wind is like it is today. 'Sides, the way he has his scheduled mapped out in his head, the longer it takes him to get home tonight means the less sleep he's getting and he's not about to let that happen. Not today.

But he's Jean and nothing in his life can ever go easily, or smoothly for him, so as his hand goes to the handle to tug the door open and let him out into the world outside, his phone buzzes in his pocket, vibrating against his thigh and lets him know that he has a text message.

He knows that he should leave it until he's safely on the bus, at least, because it's probably just Marco or Armin or someone and if it was really important, then they would have probably just called instead of texted, but he still feels compelled to pull it out of his pocket and check it.

It's not Marco or Armin or, god forbid, Eren.

It's Ymir.

And it says “r u still at college?”

Why? Oh God, why. He curses to himself under his breath and taps out a quick. “Ye, y?”

If he hurries, then he can still make that bus.

Before he even has a chance to shove the phone back into his pocket, it beeps again, a surprisingly quick reply from Ymir. It says one word “Help”.

His eyes flicker to the time again and he sighs, there's no way that he's going to make the bus and get home when he wants to if he stops to help her out and honestly, why should he even care that she needs help? Half of the time she's just a complete asshole to him, more than half of the time actually.

But asshole or not, Ymir's not the kind of person to ask him for help unless there was something seriously wrong and he guesses that they could be mistaken for friends... but he totally doesn't have a pang of worry in his stomach whatsoever, nope definitely not. “Where r u? What's wrong?”

“Home,” another quick reply comes back. “Got a big bio test 2moro & left bk in music block. Need 2 study or am fucked.” And there's a sad emoji at the end of it. And Jean feels frustrated as hell, because while he guesses that it's sort of somewhat serious (because really Wikipedia is a thing and she could just study for that) he just wants to text her back and say no and leave, but then again he doesn't really feel like getting the blame shoved onto him if she fucks up so royally she gets kicked out of school, which is the worst case scenario... but still. And she really doesn't live that far away from him, just a couple of stops early on the bus and a ten minute at most walk back to his.

And hell, he deserves the karma after the way she's been acting lately. So he sighs and he replies “what room?”

“B”.

“Okay”. He replies and he doesn't get a text back telling him that he's the best-est friend ever, or that she owes him, or even a proper thank you but he doesn't expect them, so he's surprised when she does text back a smiley emoticon and he guesses that's her thank you in her own way. He's so keeping this conversation though, he'll find a good use for them somewhere down the line... even if it's just to remind her of that time he was a good person.

Satisfied that she won't text him back, he slides his phone back into his pocket, shifts his bag and his portfolio so they're easier to carry and with one last longing look at the door that would lead him to the outside world he sets off down the hall towards the music block, ignoring the stares of the random teacher still wandering around probably confused as to why Jean is still hanging around. Hopefully it'll be easy to grab and run, nobody else is really around this time of the day ever.

He struggles through the door when he reaches it, still trying to balance everything and seeing it completely dead. His hand reaches out for the door knob of room b and his phone buzzes in his pocket again. He curses under his breath, pulling it out and he's surprised to see another text from Ymir.

“So,” it reads. “I decided 2 stop torturing u now”.

And he has no fucking idea what she's going on about. He shoots out a quick text back asking her what she means and then he actually pushes the door open.

And sound comes from inside, a soft lilting sound, accompanied by the twinkling sounds of a piano being played. It makes Jean stop in his tracks because, well, he really likes it. He knows that he shouldn't be stood by the door creeping on whoever is trying to use the room but he just can't drag himself away from the sound to just grab the book and run.

He's guessing that this is someone from the college choir, but he hadn't realized that they were actually any good otherwise he might have come along to one of their many, many events they keep plastering posters for all over the college and checked them out.

The singing and piano stop and he snaps out of it and edges his way into the room, leaving his bag and portfolio outside. He spots a text book on a table just in the door and edges into the room carefully, so not to disturb the person by the piano. He reaches out to grab the text book.

Which he does.

But not before knocking into the table, causing a loud thump. The person in the corner whirls round to face him, frown crossing their face.

Oh shit.

He recognizes that face.

He recognizes that face because it's been on his mind near-constantly ever since Ymir and Christa's stupid gig, he recognizes that face because he's been on constant alert around the college to see if he can spot it again. But he wasn't expecting to see it in here. He wasn't expecting that voice to come out of that mouth.

And of course, it's then that he realizes that he's stood just staring with his mouth half open. He clears his throat and opens his mouth, intending to say sorry.

But you get their first, you cock your head to one side studying him and then a look of recognition crosses your face. “Oh, hey you're Jean right? Ymir's friend.”

Holy shit.

You know his name.

He coughs again, clearing his throat and managing to squeak out the word “yeah”.

You nod and – holy shit – you smile at him. “Right, yeah you came to our gig. What're you doing here?” You ask.

In reply he just holds up Ymir's text book.

You roll your eyes. “Did Ymir send you for that? Honestly, she'd forget her head if it wasn't attached to her shoulders,” there's a fondness in your voice as you say it though.

Jean shrugs. “I don't mind.” He tells you and then his mouth takes on a life of it's own and he blurts out. “Your voice is really nice.”

You beam at him. “Thank you! I'm working on a song for The Pussycats, thought it might be good to have some original material. Just gotta figure out something that matches Ymir's voice though.” He doesn't miss the slight frown that crosses your face. “Thanks for coming by the way. I know it was a disaster.”

“It wasn't that bad,” Jean's mouth blurts out even though his brain is telling him that yeah she's right, that gig was a damn disaster. Well, most of it was anyway.

“Ymir was really happy you all came,” she laughs. “Especially you, because she said she knew you'd be truthful about it, she was so disappointed in you when you told her it wasn't too bad.”

“She's been talking about me?”

“Yeah,” you say dismissively as you look down at your watch, pull a face and you start gathering up your papers from the piano and shoving them in your bag. “She talks about all her friends all the time. She feels really comfortable around you, I think.” You shift your bag onto your shoulder. “I'm really sorry, I wish I could stay longer and talk but I've gotta go... my brother's band has a gig tonight and I'm supposed to be running the merch stand. Thank God we're not supporting their support band this time though.” You pull a face.

Oh, well that explains how such a terrible band got any kind of slot.

You wonder towards the door, sliding out of it and start walking, looking back to flash him another smile. “Hey, I'm here practising a lot after classes, if you're around you're really welcome to come listen. I could do with some outsider opinions from someone truthful.”

Wait.

Did you just invite him to come hang out with you in the music room at some point?

Well, Jean can't feel his legs.

He watches as you carrying on walking down the hall and he shouts after you. He knows that he has to. Just to end his suffering. “Hey,” You turn back. “What's your name?”

And you smile.

And laugh lightly.

“Sorry! Should've introduced myself.” You tell him.

He waits with baited breath.

“I'm ____.”