A/N: This is a DELETED SCENE from Chapter Five. This was supposed to take place at the beginning and I couldn't use it. It just got too complicated, I decided to go in a different direction, and I wanted to focus more on the characters than on Jean's actual building of the stable stuff. But I loved this scene and it made me chuckle to write it so I thought I would share it as a bonus for you guys. Hope you enjoy. ^_^
THE BONUS DELETED SCENE CHAPTER OF AWESOME
and Armin is in it...
It was nearing midnight. Books were piled in awkward stacks all around the floor, a hunched over figure sitting cross legged in the center. Jean's face was resting on his fist with his elbow balanced on his knee, as he turned page after page. He picked up the last chuck of pages and let them slip over his thumb, his candle flickered. With a lazy sigh he pushed the book from his lap and picked up the next one.
Surrounding him were all the books he could find that might offer some sort of help in his task. At first, he'd been too restless to sleep. The scene in that hallway with Mikasa played over and over in his head. He'd lain in bed for an hour before deciding to better utilize his energy. That had brought him to one of the libraries, his heart dropping at the walls of books that rose up into the second story ceiling. He had never cared much for reading. He was of the mind that doing something was better than reading about it. Still, books were a valuable source for information. They might just give him the start he needed for the next morning. After all, he didn't want to show up just as clueless on what to do as everyone else.
Over the next hour he dozed off more than he read. He stretched and rubbed his face in his hands, but the candle was wearing down and the books didn't seem to be helping. Jean was ready to pass out right there and be done with it. He heard the creak of the heavy oak door on its hinge and then another ball of candle light invaded the room.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't think anyone would be in here." The voice jerked Jean awake, making him crane his neck to see over the mountains of books that surrounded him. He pushed the piles aside and saw Armin near the door.
"Jean?" Armin smiled. "What're you doing here in the middle of the night?"
"I could ask you the same thing, you know."
Blonde hair glowing as he turned, Armin shut the door and started toward Jean's fortress of useless books. "Oh, I always come here when I can't sleep. This is a lot of reading you seem to be doing…"
"Yeah, what of it?" Jean hunched back down, staring sourly at the page open in front of him. What language was this written in? The fuck am I reading? Jean cleared his throat and casually flicked the book aside, hoping not to look stupid in the process.
"Oh. Nothing." Armin shrunk back, his head bowing. The gesture was slight enough to make Jean feel guilty about being harsh with him. "I'm sorry to have disturbed you. I'll just…come back later."
"Don't be a push over. You can look at books if you want to."
Silence fell between them, neither one moving. It grew awkward fast.
"Are you building something?" Armin took a step closer, leaning down with his candle and gazing over the book titles. "This one is very good. I've read it myself. It's amazing how architecture can be so diverse…"
Jean raised an eyebrow. "You mean you understand this garbage?"
"Yeah." Armin picked up one of the books and turned it over in his hands. "This one looks like a genealogy of horses…are you interested in breeding them or something?"
"No." Jean swiped the book from Armin's hand. "I thought it was just a book about horses."
"It is. Specifically their breeds and different pedigrees."
"Oh." Jean looked at the pictures and winced at a particularly graphic drawing of horse anatomy he wished to un-see. He slammed the book closed and leaned back, looking to the ceiling as he sighed. "Look. I am completely lost with all of this—"
"What are you trying to do?" Armin's fingers were closed over his knees, his eyes earnest.
"I'm being punished. So I've got to build a new stable for the excess horses." His voice was drained of emotion.
"Oh, I see." Armin looked quickly through the books. "Well, you know most of these won't help you?"
"Yeah. I know that now. After sitting here bleeding my eyes over them for the past three hours."
Armin started stacking books behind him. "Jean, this is a book about luthiers."
"The first few pages said something about building things."
"Instruments. It's a term for building string instruments."
Jean tore at his hair, groaning into the cursed night air. Armin laughed. In the next twenty minutes, all but four books were put back on the shelf. Armin held up the first one, flipping and stopping on a page. "Since you're doing this from scratch, this explains how to get the wood you'll need. Planks. Beams. How you'll need to cut it, once you've got the tree down, obviously. The next chapter, here," Armin flipped through the pages and held it up, his fingers pushing in on the spine. "This is all the tools you'll probably need. They give descriptions and there are pictures so….you should be able to follow it easily."
Jean grunted. He did prefer the pictures, though.
"Next we have this farming guide. It's mostly about growing crops and raising cows, but there's some stuff about building fences and a small section on stables. I wouldn't use it as a definitive source—"
"Armin." Jean was clawing at his face. "It's nearly fucking dawn. Please…I'm begging you, speak small words."
"Um…okay." Armin cleared his throat. "Don't rely on this book. Just use it for reference."
Armin went over the last few and then handed them over to Jean. Only four books out of all that. Armin dusted of his hands and started to stand.
"You know, it would also be a good idea to use the stables already on the grounds for reference. I'm sure you can get all the measurements you need from that. Not the main ones, obviously. Those are built into the castle and we don't have any stone for you to work with. But the smaller ones out near the old sheds. Those are more like what you'll be able to build given the materials. But, if all these books are accurate, two weeks is going to be a tight deadline. Most of these suggest a month, at least. And that's with skilled workers who know what they're doing."
Jean thought he couldn't feel any worse about the situation. He had been very wrong.
"Good luck, though. If you want, I can swing by occasionally to help you."
Exhaustion was getting to him. The faint glow of the candle light on Armin's round blonde head made him appear ethereal. Like he wore a halo of magical knowledge. "You're a fucking saint, Armin."
Armin gasped, looking away. "H-hardly."
"Don't be modest. You realize you just saved my ass right now? I'd be lost if you hadn't helped me. Worse, I'd still be reading these damn books."
"It wasn't a big deal. Really. I like books, so…it wasn't any real inconvenience." Armin jumped backward when Jean grabbed his hand. Jean was on his knees, tears of fatigue building in his eyes. He squeezed Armin's hand in his, looking up with reverence at the startled, shy Armin.
"Thank you. Thank you. T-thank you." Jean's head fell, his neck straining as his chin hit his shirt.
"You're welcome." Armin tore his hand away and held it to his chest. "You should get some sleep. You…uh…you seem tired."
Jean laughed. Armin was hilarious. He seemed tired? Jean felt his sides start to hurt, the bruise from before began to sting.
"Jean?"
He laughed until he fell over, holding his stomach. He wiped tears from his eyes, trying to catch his breath. Armin helped him to his feet, catching him when he almost fell. He was so much shorter than Jean; it was hard to believe they were the same age. Jean righted himself, offering another mumbled thank you. Armin handed him the books and opened the door for him.
"Do you know where you're going?"
"Sssh. Yeah." Jean started walking then stopped and turned. "This way."
Armin shook his head as he closed the door.