Family

Cinnamon Rolls

Marco woke up to two heads on his bare chest. One was Emily, which he was sort of expecting. But the other was Jean, curled up next to Marco with his head in the nook of the freckled one's neck, his hand laid flat on his sternum. Marco smiled softly, but still woke Jean because he figured he wouldn't want anyone finding them like that.

"Jean," he said, shaking his friend by the shoulder. When Jean didn't wake up, Marco tried again. Jean didn't stir. He sleeps like a rock, sheesh, Marco thought.

"Jeeaaannnn," he repeated in Jean's ear, and Jean groggily opened his eyes. As soon as he realized where he was, he pulled away immediately.

"I'm sorry- I didn't mean- I was asleep-" he said, running a hand through his hair. Marco laughed and slid himself out from under Emily, sitting up.

"Good morning, Jean," Marco said with a grin. Jean laughed nervously.

"Morning," he replied, jumping off the bed. Marco did the same and found his shirt on the ground by the door.

"Should we get Emily up?" Marco asked, motioning to the small, sleeping figure on the bed. Jean nodded, and walked over to her, pinching her cheeks and moving them around all over. Emily half-opened her eyes, slapped Jean, and opened her eyes the rest of the way. Marco snorted, and Jean glared at him.

"Jean, I've told you not to do that," she yawned, stretching, and Jean grinned and signed something back. Emily pursed her lips and shook her head disappointedly, sitting up and hopping off the bed.

"You two can go downstairs," Jean said. "I'll make the bed and then head on down."

"I can help you," Marco offered, but Jean shook his head insistently.

"It's fine, you two just go," he said, and Marco and Emily walked downstairs hand in hand, even though Marco thought something was off about Jean. When they arrived downstairs, they were greeted by everyone except Eren, Jean (of course), and Sasha. Marco assumed Eren and Sasha were still asleep.

"Morning!" Christa called from the kitchen. "I'm trying to figure out what to make for breakfast." Marco thought of potential breakfast ideas as he lifted Emily onto his hip and carried her into the kitchen with Christa, where he found Ymir sitting on the counter. He sat Emily next to her and began looking through the cabinets.

"Flour, sugar, powdered sugar, cinnamon..." As Marco looked through it all, he found mostly baking supplies.

"Hey Connie, what do your parents do?" he called to the living room, where Connie and everyone else were watching Saturday morning cartoons.

"Each other," Connie answered, stretching his feet out in front of him and accidentally kicking Armin in the back. Ymir snorted. "No, actually they're bakers." That made sense. Marco suddenly had many ideas of what he could make, and one of them was particularly appealing.

"Christa, we're making cinnamon rolls," he announced, pulling out all the ingredients he needed.

"And you know how?" Christa asked as Marco preheated the oven to the temperature he needed.

"My mother's recipe," he grinned, pouring the designated amounts of each ingredient in a large bowl and mixing them up. He was doubling the recipe, because there were a lot of people he needed to feed. "Ymir, move your butt. I need the counterspace. Christa, could you put one and a half cups of water in a bowl while I roll this out?" He took the dough and placed it on the counter, and Christa did as he told her.

"Now put in half a teaspoon of vanilla and a dash of cinnamon," Marco ordered, rolling out the dough into a large rectangle. As he cut the dough into strips, he gave Christa another direction. "Add half a cup of powdered sugar and you can let Emily mix it, if she wants." He rolled up the strips, placed them on a pan, sprinkled them lightly with cinnamon, and put them in the oven. When he turned around, Emily rubbed some icing on his nose.