Freckled Love (a JeanMarco AU)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Marco held the pencil in his hand, letting it rest where it felt most natural. But Jean could tell that no position felt natural at all.

All throughout the past week, Marco remained mostly positive. He was healing wonderfully, his health rising and his bruises fading. Under his cast, his arm was healing, too. His stitches would be taken out next week, but he could still move his arm a little bit each day. His leg was worse, though, with his bones broken. But it didn't matter that his leg had to be kept in a cast. All that mattered was that he didn't end up having to lose his limbs.

He tried really hard every day to do his physical therapy. They started him out doing very small things. Walking with the help of nurses, stretching so that he didn't grow stiff, and writing with his right hand.

The only time Jean saw him without a smile on his face was when they started to take him off morphine, and he was in pain. Not only that, but he was both tired and restless. It was hard to understand how those two could go together, but they somehow did for Marco.

He had been sitting silently, chewing on his lower lip, until he couldn't take it anymore. It seemed to be so sudden, but his emotions had been brewing inside of him for so long that they were well overdue.

"I hate this," he had mumbled, tears flowing steadily from his eyes, down his cheeks. "I hate being here, I hate being in pain, I hate missing school."

All Jean could think to do was comfort Marco. So he'd wiped his tears, got him some water, and spoke comforting words until the poor boy was all tuckered out.

"I know you hate it," Jean had whispered, tucking Marco under his blankets. He planted a kiss on the brunet's forehead. "It'll be over soon, though. I promise."

Thinking about that day make Jean feel sorry for Marco. But, ever since then, Marco had been really positive.

Jean looked back to his fiend. He had a notepad in front of him, and was practicing writing his sentences; a physical therapy exercise. However, he wasn't doing very well. His hand shook, and didn't grasp the pencil very tightly at all.

"Does it hurt?" Jean asked, suddenly breaking the silence.

Marco sat down the pencil, letting his hand relax. "A little... I'm actually really tired."

Although he was getting a lot better, he was often tired. But the doctors assured us that, while he was getting better, sleeping a lot was just helping.

"Okay, well you should probably take a nap, then." Jean took away the pencil and notepad for Marco. "When do you want me to come back?"

Marco adjusted himself until he was lying down. He complained constantly about not being comfortable, since he couldn't sleep on his side. "I don't want to sleep for too long," he admitted. "Especially since you came out here to visit me."

"Don't worry about it. You need anything?" Jean stood, stretching his arms above his head lightly.

"Yeah..." Marco frowned gently, staring out the window in his room. The sky was bright, and the weather warm. Jean knew he'd have to talk to the doctors about taking Marco outside soon.

"What?"

"To get better. To go back to college. And to actually be your boyfriend."

Raising his eyebrow, Jean sat back in the chair next to the hospital bed. "What do you mean? I consider you to be my boyfriend."

"But we can't do relationship things. We can't go on dates, or cuddle, or... you know..."

Jean felt his cheeks heat up, and he just nodded. "Yeah, I get what you're trying to say..."