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Language:
English
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Published:
2014-12-21
Completed:
2015-09-25
Words:
146,893
Chapters:
17/17
Comments:
243
Kudos:
1,126
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333
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21,715

Steady to the Catch

Summary:

Rowing AU.

Jean Kirschtein is a third year college student at Trost University, and part of their rowing team. His esteemed boat - the mixed gender 8 - has been a consistent source of medals and wins for the team. Jean loves rowing more than he's ever loved anything else. And everything was going just fine, until one of the members of his boat graduates, and some new kid named Marco is set to fill his spot.

Jean wants to hate Marco, he really really does. But no matter how he tries, he just can't get the freckled bastard off his mind. And he's a little bit worried that the feelings that are bubbling up in his chest might be more than friendly.

Notes:

9/4/2019 note - I don't know why it took me this long to update this fic with all the art, but guess what, all the art that was done for this fic has now been placed in the chapters! i'm so blessed that such great artists took time to make art for this fic, so i wanted to showcase them properly. enjoy!

I wanna thank my lovely beta, freckledjeankirschtein, thank you, sweetie!

Given that this is a Rowing AU, at the beginning of each chapter I'll give a brief list of terms that will be used, just so there's no confusion. :)

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Prologue

Summary:

Introductions...

Notes:

For those curious about a visual representation of the lineup, you can find one HERE

Chapter Terms:
Mixed 8+: A boat in which there are four male rowers and four female rowers, and each rower only has one oar (8 total oars) + a coxswain.
Coxswain: Lightweight person who steers the boat, shouts commands, motivates rowers, etc… (Armin in this story)
Stroke Pair: The "first" two rowers in a boat, seats 8 & 7. They lead and set the pace of the boat.
Engine Room: The middle four rowers in a boat; seats 6, 5, 4, & 3. Usually comprised of the strongest rowers.
Bow Pair: The "last" two rowers in a boat; seats 2 & 1. They are critical elements in the boat's stabilization.
Empacher: A very good brand of rowing shell. They do make pink boats, as seen HERE, they really are pretty.

Chapter Text

Every story has to start somewhere, right? Look, I know that’s a cliché thing to say, just bear with me, yeah? Every story has to start somewhere, and I guess many would argue that the best place to start is at the beginning. But granted, if I did that, we would be here for weeks. I mean, do you really care to start all the way back at the beginning? Do you honestly want to hear about my childhood? Do you really want to hear about that time I broke my nose on the monkey bars because Connie was being a rowdy little shit? Or about the time I sprained my ankle playing chase because I was trying to impress Mikasa on the playground? The answer is no. No, you don’t.

Every story needs to start somewhere, I suppose, but every story needs to start at the right spot. And the right spot for this story happens to be in my third year of college.

My name is Jean Kirschstein, I’m a 20 year old (going on 21) neuroscience major at Trost University. I’m tall, dark, and ruggedly handsome……. Fine, no, not really. Stop looking at me like that. Okay so, I’m tall and kinda lanky, but I got some muscles to boot. I’m also pale enough, that in the right light, I could blind the moon. Perpetually grumpy and a wee bit conceited, I’m also one of the best rowers on the TU crew team.

But this isn’t really a story about me.

Well, okay, so I suppose it’s a story about me technically, given that I’m the one telling it, and it involves me, and… it’s… from my perspective… But… Semantics, right?

No, this is a story about Marco Bodt.

For the last three years, I’ve been on the rowing team here at Trost University, and for the last two years I’ve held the spot of seat 7 in the Mixed 8+ boat – the pride and joy of the TU Fleet. Sat inside a bright pink Empacher, aptly named The Pink Panther (hey, don’t judge, the German national team rows in a bright pink boat too, and they’re doing just fine), was me and the stroke seat, Thomas. Bertholdt, Reiner, Ymir and Krista made up the engine room, and Sasha and Mikasa brought up the bow. We’d been a set line up for the last four race seasons, and we hadn’t walked away from a regatta without a medal in god knows how long.

At least, that’s how things were, until Thomas decided to be an overachiever and graduate early, leaving our prized boat without a stroke seat for the upcoming spring season.

And that’s when he happened.

Marco-freaking-Bodt.

 

::

 

 

by actuallxa

(art by ymrs-ass/actuallxa)