Old Friends

Jealousy

Turns out that five years is a lot of time for improvement, and holy shit had Jean stepped up his Mario-Kart-game. He practically destroyed me in the first round, staying in first place for almost the entire race. 

So, for the second round I ended up sitting up a little, determined to claim my victory against him. Out of the corner of my eye I caught him smirking slightly, clearly determined to win himself. By the end of the first lap I had managed to get into second place, easily passing the CPUs but struggling to get any further.

Of course, Jean had managed to stay in first place, and so when we reached the third lap I decided it was time for a different set of tactics. I turned around slightly so I was sitting with my back against the arm rest, my legs stretched out in front of me and over Jean's lap. 

I grinned a little as I lifted one of my feet up to his face, having to control my laughter so I wouldn't lose concentration on the game. "Damn it, Eren," he whined, trying to doge my foot as he kept his gaze set on the screen but ultimately failing.

I only laughed more as I continued to shove my foot in his face, now managing to pass him in the video game and grinning widely at the accomplishment. Now all I had to do was stay in first place until the end of the lap...

"Fuck, Jean!" I huffed out as he moved from his place on the sofa to instead sit in my lap, moving around to block my view of the screen. "Damn it, get off!" I whined, trying to look around him and wiggling uncomfortably under him.

"Awh~ but you're so comfy," he said playfully, a wide smirk returning to his face as he passed me only seconds before reaching the finish line. "Ha! Suck it, Jaeger. I can still beat your ass, even with your feat in my face for half the time."

"Only because you were blocking my view," I mumbled in defeat, pouting out my lower lip and setting the remote down onto the sofa. "Can you get off me now?" I asked, gently poking his back.

He gave a small shake of his head, placing his remote down beside mine and staying where he was. "Nope. I already told you, you're comfy."

"And you're heavy," I replied, giving him a light push. 

"True, but I'm also amazing at Mario Kart. Doesn't that get me any credit?"

"Doesn't give you permission to crush my legs," I mumbled quietly, though honestly I was exaggerating a little. "How did you get so good at the damn game, anyway?"

Jean shrugged, adjusting his position so he could face me. "It's basically the only multiplayer game that Marco will agree to play. Guess I got a lot of practice."

Of course. Makes sense, they probably spent every second of their lives together between the time I left and came back. "Ah, okay then," I mumbled, looking away from him and giving a slight nod.

I could see Jean looking me over, clearly noticing that something was off in my response. Christ, what was my problem anyway? I had to move away, it wasn't like Jean was just going to wait for me to come back and not make any more friends whilst he did. Hell, he didn't even know I was coming back. 

I guess I was just jealous, but even that didn't seem to be the right word for it. It was more like I was just disappointed that Marco was able to spend so much time with Jean and I wasn't. Though, thinking about it, I guess that's what jealousy really is.

"Eren?"

I snapped back into reality at the sound of his voice, instantly forcing on a small smile to hide any of the past emotions I had been showing and returning my gaze to meet his. He was clearly concerned, unsure as to why my response had sounded so odd.