Neighbors || Jearmin

What a family

Armin's father arrived few minutes after both boys were back from the restaurant. He was a normal-looking man, shorter than Jean but taller than Armin, with greenish eyes and a calm expression on his face. Jean introduced himself politely and Armin gave him a short embrace that, in the dark-haired eyes, was quite awkward.

"Glad to see you Armin." the man smiled slightly, not continuing the conversation. Jean understood then what Armin meant by "not being close to his family". The whole room cooled down at least 5°C when those two looked at each other, and it was strangely mutual.

The doctor entered the room shortly after and Jean decided to wait outside. He already felt out of place, and even if being alone in a hospital was not the most pleasing feeling for Jean it would be much less awkward.

"I'll wait outside, OK?" He gave Armin's hand a soft squeeze and exited the place, leaving Armin behind with his mother's arm surrounding him.

Armin told him about the results of the different examinations he read on the paper. They were searching for some kind of cancer, and the results pointed towards a possible abnormality in his lungs that needed more research. And Armin was terrified. Lung cancers... they're horrifying. Jean knew no one who went through cancer, had no close relatives with serious health problems, so he could only imagine what Armin was going through. But the sole word would always give him chills.

Ten minutes passed, then fifteen, and Jean was still alone sitting between ill people and their visitors. He despised hospitals to the point he began feeling dizzy and his palms wouldn't stop sweating. Maybe it began when his father had that car accident and an 8 year old Jean saw him connected to all kind of machines and had his face and arms bandaged making him unrecognizable. He had nightmares after that for weeks. Or maybe the fear comes from Krista's suicide attempt few days after Marco's funeral, when she was rushed to the hospital and both Yimir and Jean spent the night in the waiting room because only family members were allowed inside. There's not a single good or even "meh" memory related to hospitals on Jean's mind. Even if they all ended well, he still couldn't walk into one and smell that characteristic scent without getting nervous. How many of these people won't get back home again? How many of the families are praying to a god that won't help? Only by looking around at all those people passing by Jean felt a deep pain.

A door opening brought the boy back to reality. The doctor he met before exited the room, bowing slightly to Armin's father before walking away. Jean gulped and stood up, but didn't move. The door remained open and soon enough Armin walked out with an expression Jean couldn't decipher. The blonde walked straight to him and embraced him so hard they made every person around deeply uncomfortable. But Jean didn't care one bit.

"What happened?" He whispered into the blonde, fruity hair.

"It's not cancer" Armin answered, but he didn't seemed relieved at all. The embrace tightened and Jean began drawing invisible circles with his thumb on Armin's back. "It's some other kind of pulmonary disease that has been going on for a while and since he refused to get treated it worsened..."

Oh...

"How bad is it?"

"They're not sure, more tests are needed to be done but they began a generic treatment, so only time will tell."

None of them pulled away, despite the piercing look some people were addressing them, or the whispers, the eyes observing as if there was a show playing in front of them. Jean knew better than getting annoyed and Armin had his face hidden somewhere in between Jean's neck and chest. In any other situation, the taller would make an indecent insinuation just to see Armin blush, but the only thing he wanted was to soothe him.