literature

The Ladybug Grove [SNK Short Story]

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"Come on, guys!" Jean called, leading the group through the patch of sunflowers.

It was the middle of June and the summer had just begun. The heat was bad enough without the humidity, which made sure to envelop the four. They were each sweating a storm, but not a single one cared, considering they weren't at the age to mind it yet. They were a rowdy bunch, not including Marco, whom tended to get the others out of more trouble than he could count. He never minded though, he was payed back with their terrible jokes and sticky smiles. Jean was always the leader of the group, taking charge of whatever idea Sasha and Connie had come up with. He always made sure it happened, no matter what it was. Which also included today.

No one was sure who exactly came up with it, they just knew it spouted from the combined minds of Connie and Sasha. The two could get their selves into a mess faster than Marco could find the square root of some number. Yet, Marco and Jean never even thought about leaving them. Sure they had gotten them into many a fix, but the shenanigans they always pulled caused their faces to show such a smile, it was almost unnatural. And the laughs of all of them, combined into one giant fit after a funny joke Connie had heard from an upperclassman, was something that would spread to the people listening like wildfire.

Anyways, there they were walking through the sunflowers, each with a little snack, since Sasha had an appetite, they couldn't head into a mission like this without something to munch on. She had gotten a chocolate covered ice cream cone, which was downed in a minute. Connie had a thing for fruity things, so he had already decided as soon as he laid eyes on the watermelon Popsicle sticker that was sloppily stuck on the ice cream truck. Marco wasn't a fan of eating sweets before walking around, so he made the group walk to the gas station real quick to pick him up a coke. Jean was a fan of plain things, so he just got a blueberry Popsicle, which was currently being begged for by Sasha.

"Come on, Jean, one bite! One bite!" She pleaded.

"No, this is mine! Maybe if you wouldn't down yours like there's a famine of some sort, you'd be able to enjoy it!" He wasn't having any of it.

"Who ever heard of an ice cream famine?" She spouted, with an attitude big enough to stomp out the argument.

"I dunno, what do you think Marco?" He said, pulling him in to hopefully resolve the mess.

"Don't go dragging me into your problems!" He said, putting his hands up in defense, his half-full bottle of Coke being held tighter as he did so.

"Jean, just give up and let her have it, she won't stop until you do." Connie busted in, trying to end it.

"Dammit, fine. Here Sasha." Jean said in defeat, handing it to her.

"Thank you Jean, I love you!" She said, giving him a big smile before chomping half of it.

Jean cringed at her ability to bite the Popsicle. That was inhuman, he thought, it's just not natural.

The continued through the flowers, which were getting taller and thicker by the minute. They were all glad that they had switched their normal uniform shoes up with pairs of rain boots, which they ended up receiving odd stares for, since it was mid-June and there wasn't a chance of a rainstorm any time soon. Marco stopped for a second, wiping the sweat of of his forehead before calling out to them, "Hey guys, I think it might be better to crawl between the stems instead of pushing past the actual flowers."

The rest of them stopped before muttering a quick, "Genius."

So there they were, crawling through the thick bundles of flowers, looking for the stupid grove full of lady bugs, which they weren't even sure if it was there. They were getting dirt all over their knees, the boys getting it all over their long pants. Hands were wet from the moist ground, with imprints from the rocks they had rested their hand on for a brief moment. At the least, being under the flowers protected them from the sun, though the humidity still got to them. Their breathing became a little heavy and they began to slow down.

"What if it isn't even there?" Connie asked to no one in particular.

"It better be, we've spent this whole day looking for it." Jean said, quickening his pace in attempts to show how he wasn't going to give up.

"Maybe we should just turn back, it's getting kinda late." Marco said while pulling up his left hand to roll it in a circle, placing it back down right after.

"Never! We're almost there, come on, we got this!" Sasha shouted.

"Yeah, what are gonna say to Reiner and Bertholtd if we give up?" Connie said, catching up with Sasha and Jean.

"Yeah, especially that Eren kid, I wanna see the look on his face when I tell him that I saw the ladybug grove. That'll show him." Jean was now more determined than ever.

The three chuckled at his childish rivalry with the new kid. He had just moved in from some place called Flawda, which was apparently mainly surrounded by the ocean. He had a step-sister, her name was Mikasa, whom Jean had a big crush on. Since Eren and Mikasa were always together, he had formed a slight grudge on the boy. Marco said it was jealousy, but Jean didn't think so, he was just able to tell a snake when he saw one. And that Eren, was definitely a snake. Sasha and Connie thought Jean's use of the word snake was funny, and ended up making hissing sounds whenever Jean glared at Eren.

Reiner and Bertholdt were actually some friends of theirs, but they had a rivalry going on. It had started when Reiner had gloated about how him and Bertl, that's what everyone called Bertholdt, him and Bertl were going to some fancy shmancy camp in Ne'yawk. Apparently it was an all boys camp for science or something-or-other. Either way, when Jean heard about this, he had betted that him and his gang would have a way better time adventuring around the neighborhood. Reiner, not being one to turn down a bet, accepted. The stakes were high, as the loser had to buy the winner a comic book of their choice.

All of a sudden Jean got a bit restless and jumped up, pushing to flowers out of his way. He gasped and called out to the others, "Over there! I see it, just over there!"

The other three jumped up and looked over to where he was pointing. Marco, being the tallest, was oohing and ahhing at it, but Sasha and Connie were too short, plus Jean was in the way. So they all began to run through the flowers, new found energy coming from the fact that there was an actual grove and that they had finally made it. Upon reaching it, their breaths heavy and their clothes sticking to their skin uncomfortably with sweat, they stopped and stared at it in utter amazement.

There was a group of about five peach trees, the grove part, and all around the leaves of the trees were tiny red dots, upon further inspection, the red dots had tiny black dots on them. They were the ladybugs. This was the Ladybug Grove. They had put in sweat and an hour of their time and in return, they got to see this beauty. They were enthralled, each youth was brimming with joy at the fact that their work had payed off. Connie ran up and put his hand on a leaf, herding a ladybug onto his finger. He pulled away and slowly, ever so carefully walked over to Sasha. He pretended like the bug was a fragile antique, a one of a kind that had belonged to his great-gramma. He lifted his finger up to Sasha whom made an 'Oooh' sound while leaving her mouth in an 'O' shape.

Marco ran in between the tree and spinned around. Jean laughed at him and joined in. Soon enough, Connie and Sasha caught on and did the same. They all span and span, until each of them fell and looked up at the sky, seeing stars. Sasha chuckled before whispering, "We did it."

School started in the end of August. Reiner and Bertholdt had fallen head over heels for a yellow haired girl named Annie and had begged their parents to stay in Ne'yawk with her. Of course, their parents being wealthy and all, they had accepted as long as their grades were good. They had enrolled in the same private school as her. After Jean heard this all he did was laugh. He could just imagine the two going all googly eyed for some girl. Marco and Sasha had laughed at that, considering Jean didn't even bring up the bet.

A year later the quartet found themselves in the midst of a problem. They were now in middle school, and Sasha was having problems hanging out with the guys as much as they used too. She was made fun of when hanging out with them. Kids can be cruel like that, they see someone having fun and they make sure to come down on them. Eventually the name calling became too much for her and she came crashing down one day.

One of the girls had called out to her, "Hey look, there goes Sasha," the group of girls giggled as she whispered to her, "Whore."

Sasha dropped her head in defeat and began to silently cry. Her bangs covered her eyes, so all the boys saw was a drop of liquid leave her face. Connie and Marco immediately patted her back, causing her to lash out, "Leave me alone! Don't you see me being around you is causing me to get made fun of?!"

Jean's face burnt red. He was flustered, why would someone do that to someone else? All she was doing was hanging with her friends? Why were people so cruel as to stop her down like that? He turned to the group of girls and yelled, "Hey, why don't ya shut the hell up! If anyone's the whore, its you!"

Of course, that being the wrong thing to have said at the moment, it came back to hurt him. Jean was forced to go to in school suspension for a day, the girls had gotten off the hook. After school ended he headed home, mood as sour as a glass of lemonade. His path had been but off my the three bodies there. Sasha ran up to him and gave him a big hug. "Thank you, Jean. I'm sorry I got you in trouble."

He smiled and hugged her back. "It's alright, I'm just glad you're okay."

The rest of their middle school lives went by in a blur, anytime Sasha was called out for hanging with some boys, Jean acted out. By the end of their last year, no one even mentioned it. Over that summer, Marco had gone to a summer camp at a college, Jean had gone to a training camp, and Sasha and Connie had been left to their selves. By the time school started, they had all changed.

They each grew taller than before, Marco still being the tallest of the bunch. Sasha switched from wearing her hair in pigtails to putting it up in buns and ponytails. Connie didn't change much besides his new liking for building things. Something happened to Jean, he became really protective over his friends, more so then he was in Middle school.

Sasha and Connie now had a budding romance going on, though they hid it from Marco and Jean for some time. Jean had gotten a little muscular and was always getting himself into trouble. Marco had gotten some training with technology and some science, he already had a list of colleges he wanted to go to set and ready. Even with all these differences, they made sure to stay together.

Marco had had some problems with bullies. Being smart and all had caused some attention to surround him, and being nice had taken him down a bad road. People took advantage of him, he never even noticed it. That is, until some guy decided to go to far. He was yelling at Marco, whom was trying to calm him down. The guy grabbed him by his shirt and slammed him against a locker.

Luckily, Jean was nearby. He ran up and pushed the guy off of Marco. He pounded his fist into the guys head and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. He lifted him into the air and gritter his teeth. He whispered to him, "Stay the fuck away from Marco, unless you want to see me again!" Dropping the guy to the ground, he ran away.

Marco looked at Jean and silently whispered a 'thank you.' Jean nodded and walked him to his next class. This became routine. Every day, until their Junior year, Jean walked Marco to his classes, giving a glare at anyone who dared to try and push him around. The reasoning for him stopping the charade at the beginning of their Junior year, was that everyone had already known it. They all knew that if you took advantage of Marco Bodt, you'd have an angry Jean Kirschtein on your hands.

Sasha and Connie had dated all throughout their high school years. Marco and Jean had found out about it halfway through their Freshman year. Both of them were enthralled and jumped up and down, acting like the children they were. The pair had just laughed at them and thanked them for being okay with it. Their relationship had gone quit smoothly over the years, leave for a few petty fights that were bandaged up with apologies and a cluster of food the day after.

When prom night came their senior year, everyone got dressed up. Jean had taken Mikasa, whom only went because Eren wasn't going and Sasha didn't want to go without her. Sasha, of course, went with Connie, both of them wearing the loudest colors they could find. Marco had skipped the whole thing, saying he was waiting for something in the mail. The night was great for them, though Mikasa kept talking about Eren.

Jean had decided to join the service when the end of their Senior year came, saying he wanted to protect people. The three understood this and wished him luck. Marco had gotten accepted to Brown, getting the letter in the mail the afternoon before prom. Sasha was going to a University nearby, and Connie was going to a public college only ten minutes away from her.

On the very last day before Jean left to go to the training camp, Marco called the group up for a surprise. They all wore boots and trailed up the patch of sunflowers. They seemed smalled then what they remembered of them. The distance to their destination seemed smalled as well. The sun was setting and the moon was out. Birds were chirping and they could hear the sounds of cars passing a whiles away.

Once they reached the ladybug grove they all smiled. It was the same as it used to be. The trees had gotten taller, and the fruit had gotten bigger, but it was still the same. Jean walked up and grabbed a peach from the tree, taking a big bite from the juicy fruit and smiling. He picked another one and tossed it to Sasha, who was already drooling. Marco laughed and grabbed one for himself and tossed one to Connie.

"These are awesome!" Sasha yelled, cheeks stuffed with the fruit.

Connie nodded in agreement. Marco just laughed and Jean said, "Of course they would, I picked it."

Marco shook his head and playfully pushed Jean's shoulder. "I bet this is the first time you've picked anything."

"Not true, remember the summer after Sophomore year? I went to pick vegetables for my Uncle!" Jean spouted.

Connie whispered to Sasha, "Yeah, and he came back crying a week later."

"Don't think I didn't hear that!"

They group laughed as they all gorged their selves. After Sasha was full, she plopped down on the ground and looked up at the sky. The stars were out by now and Marco began to point out constellations while the three left sat down with her.

"There is Leo, and right over there is The Big Dipper and right beside it is The Small Dipper." Marco was trailing on and on.

"So this is why you're going to study science, right?" Connie asked.

He blushed a bit and responded, "Yeah, I guess so."

They sat there the entire night, going over their lives. From the moment they first met back in Elementary school, to the time when Connie peed his pants in the third grade. They were all laughing, faces sticky with the juices from the fruit, but none of them cared. They were just a group of kids, reminiscing about when they were young, that's all they would ever be.
Real world AU in which Marco, Connie, Jean, and Sasha all grow up together. It begins in the summer after fifth grade when they're adventuring through a swarm of sunflowers. The rest of the story trails their lives as they go from a group of kids to a group of teens, eventually ending after their senior year of high school.

Mainly written because I like to have my bbys alive and happy. *HACKING SOUNDS* MARCO *COUGH COUGH*

Link to the photo: drawr.net/show.php?id=5220560

All the characters belong to Hajime Isayama!
© 2013 - 2024 Jean-Kirschtein
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Ms-Chocolate-Cookie's avatar
Omigosh you are so beautiful and created such a beautiful piece :icontouchedplz:
You deserve a hug!! :iconk-hugplz:
More hugs :iconbrohugplz: :iconsnugglyplz: