Venus and Rose

Chapter Fifteen: Stohess

[Jean's POV]

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Jean was reading on his bunk when Connie returned from dinner. "Jean, why didn't you come down?" Connie asked as he scrambled to the topside of the bunk. Hanging upside down, Connie peered at Jean with a worried stare, though it made it difficult to take him seriously due to Connie's position.

"Just not hungry," Jean replied, and tried to ignore Connie's quizzical expression. Truth is, he couldn't be around you. Especially when you were next to Reiner; the pair of you trying to pretend everything was normal, obviously keeping your relationship quiet from most of the others. Jean couldn't understand why you had chosen Reiner, he seemed so closed off and so able to hide his feelings. Jean on the other hand showed every emotion, so instead of showing you just how hurt he was, he made a point to avoid you.

"What are you doing?" Connie asked with a frown.

"I'm reading, obviously. Now shut up," Jean hissed, not taking his eyes off the page he'd been stuck re-reading for the past ten minutes; his thoughts busy elsewhere.

"No you aren't, your eyes aren't moving on the page. Don't lie to me, Jean. Is this because of Vee?"

Damn Connie and his inquisitiveness. Jean grunted in affirmation and finally put down the book. Rubbing his eyes tiredly, Jean finally looked up to see Connie's pitiful gaze. "Stop looking at me like that," Jean groaned.

Before they could continue the conversation, a knock on the door quieted them before Armin entered their room. "Hey Jean, I need to talk with you. Can you come with me?" Armin said in his usual hesitant voice. Jean nodded, thankful to have an excuse to leave the conversation with Connie.

It was a surprise when Armin had knocked on a door for it to be opened by Commander Erwin Smith. Jean hoped his shock hadn't been expressed as much as he felt. Erwin bid them to enter and Jean was surprised to see Mikasa already seated at the Commander's table. Nodding at her politely, Jean sat beside Armin while Erwin stood at the head of the table. Two other senior scouts were already seated at the table. Jean wondered what this meeting could possibly be about.

Glancing at Mikasa, who's gaze was pointed down at the table, Jean quickly looked back towards Erwin. For some reason, even after all the years, Jean was still rendered a nervous wreck whenever he was close to Mikasa. There was just something about her that intrigued him. Yet, he learned a long time ago that she would never reciprocate his feelings. Her obsessive protectiveness for Eren was the secondary reason he gave up on pursuing her. The primary reason being of course, you.

Commander Erwin began their meeting by reminding them all that everything said was strictly confidential. The Commander and most of the senior scouts were to bring Eren to the capital to be placed in the custody of the government. Jean remained quiet as he listened to Erwin speak while his own thoughts were complete chaos. Sure, Annie had always been aloof and rather cold, but Jean still had a hard time believing she was the female titan. After everything your cadet troop had gone through at Trost... Jean just couldn't wrap his head around it. Additionally, he could not keep the look of disgust off his face when he was told that he looked similar to Eren and was going to be Eren's replacement for the mission. Luckily, Erwin must have chosen to ignore Jean's reaction, and instead continued the discussion.

It was simply put, but Jean knew a hundred things would likely go wrong. On the way to the capital tomorrow morning, through the Stohess District, they were to ambush Annie and hopefully capture her before she turned into the female titan.

The candles were flickering low by the time they had finished the meeting. Jean had begun nervously scratching at the skin around his thumbnail part way through the meeting, so by the time he was excused, his thumb was covered in blood.