Freedom Fighters League of the Exiled

Horrible Couple

"Am I going crazy or is something going on with him?" Marco asked. I internally panicked. I didn't know what to say.

"I haven't noticed anything," I shrugged.

Marco let out a frustrated sigh, "so you are in on it,"

Shit he knows, but what does he know. Does he just know that somethings going on, or does he know exactly what is happening? I didn't know what to say so I just stayed quiet and kept my head towards the ground. "What are you talking about?" I asked trying to keep it up even though I knew doing this was useless.

"I don't know exactly what's going on, but I know something is going on. I know you and Levi are in on it because Jean keeps going to you guys almost nightly. I know it has something to do with why he keeps burning his hands," he said before looking at me. "Am I right?"

I didn't say anything, I just stayed staring at the ground. This isn't good, he's going to figure it out. I can't say anything he knows when I'm lying, but if I don't say anything he'll know he's right because I'm not talking.

"So I think it's safe to say that by your silence that I'm heading in the right direction," Marco sighed. "Does it have something to do with why he's doesn't noticing some things? Like why he doesn't recognize when I'm holding his hands, or why he doesn't touch me anymore, or why he's pulling away from me." I could hear the staring in Marco's tone as he continued. This was causing him pain to think about. He knew this whole time something was going on, but we kept it from him. He's suffering just as much as Jean is.

The room went quiet and he asked me straight out, "Did he hurt his hands or something? Mor specifically did he like loose feeling in them?" He asked and I felt my head shoot up on its own. As my eyes locked with him I knew I made a mistake. He instantly knew he was right.

I forced my eyes back to the ground and I felt my hands go up and cover my mouth. I fucked up I just told Marco. I mean I didn't tell him, but I told him.

Marco let out a big sigh before saying, "so that's a yes. I thought that's what it might be. Jean's been acting really weird and I figured that's what was going on before I asked him to spar. I only asked him because I wanted to see if he would do anything different and he did," he let out another sigh. "I feel bad I led him to get hurt. I should have just asked him, but instead, I wanted to make sure I wasn't just imagining it, and now he's hurt himself again and it's my fault."

"It's not your fault," I said looking up at him. "You didn't know for sure, and he should have told you. I told him he should, but he is so far in denial he's still trying to pretend that everything's normal," I sighed. I mean I can't blame him I wouldn't want to accept that either.

"But still I should have expected that if he lost feeling then he also lost his warning sign too."

"Warning sign?" I asked.

"When he's getting close to his limit his hands would start to hurt before getting burned. Now he can't feel them hurt to know that his backlash is about to start."

It took me a moment to realize that. I didn't even think about that when they started the spar.

I heard Marco stop talking as he looked up towards the door. Jean and Levi both walked into the room.

Marco walked up and I saw Levi's face change. He knew Marco knew. He looked at me and I just shrugged. Hey, I didn't tell him he figured it out by himself.

He walked up to Jean and without a single word whacked him upside the head. "You should have told me," Marco glared at him. Jean took a second to process what just happened before looking at me.