The Act

Marco -- the Forgotten

you are enough a thousand times enough

Act II — Scene II

It took a long, long time for Marco to become brave enough to reach out. One day in the Cadet Corps dining hall, defending Eren, that one person set on killing all the titans.

It shouldn't have taken him that long. It really shouldn't. He knew who he liked out of his comrades, who he disliked, who he didn't see himself ever making contact with.

He knew he wanted to at least be friends with one person, one specific person.

If he had never met Jean, Marco would have been happy to just fade into the background. He would have been content with only partially living, a background character in a story, barely noticed, never mentioned for more than a sentence.

But Jean was a significant character in the story of their lives. He spoke out, he changed people's opinions, he made sure people knew his name.

And Marco started seeing him as more that a friend.

In Trost, refilling their gas canisters, he almost confessed. Three words, that was all it would take.

Three words.

But he pushed his feelings aside. They were in the middle of a battle. Now was not the time.

It wasn't like he knew there would never be another time.

Not an hour later he was in the fist of a titan, wondering how the scene would have gone if he hadn't held his tongue.

Renner and Bertholt and Annie—

They were fighting against humanity, they were fighting against the people they pretended to be friends with. 

And he wished he had told Jean those three words before he was forgotten by the world.

I love you.

(Too bad Eren would have switched places in the fist of that titan in a heartbeat.)

(Too bad Mikasa couldn't be programmed to save him.)

(Too bad Armin was alone in a room full of people as well.)

(Too bad he didn't know Jean loved him back.)