A/N: So, as per request, after much, much struggling...

(It's late, isn't it...? Does anyone even remember this? ;;)

I hope (but not really expect) it's up to standard, at least... ;;

It's been a month since the 'big fight' between Levi Heishichou and Eren Jaeger and since then everything's been calm. (Read: sunshine and rainbows and unicorns and puppies and pink and red hearts – of course, only as long as you ignore the bloodshed in the background.) Their routine of Eren coming to Heichou's office in the evening has been resumed, even intensified, Eren now being there every free moment he has, and even Mikasa has stopped confronting Levi as often (after a common agreement, the bet's been closed with Erwin as the sole winner as tie – finishing with 45 wins on each side and 3 draws).

Everyone was happy.

Or not.

Eren was just on his way to his usual relaxation spot (a.k.a. The Cursed Room, a.k.a. Levi Heichou's office) when he ran into Armin.

A sparkle appeared in Eren's eyes. "Hey, Armin! Feels like we haven't seen each other for ages!"

"Hey. It sure has been pretty long since we've last talked properly."

"Yeah, we've got to meet up sometime soon..."

Armin smiled slightly. "This is the third time we have this conversation just this week, you know."

Eren laughed awkwardly. "Haha, is that so? Well, we have to. When do you have free time?"

"Right now, actually."

"Ah..." Eren blushed.

Armin just sighed in disappointment. "You're on your way to Heichou's, aren't you?"

"Yeah... But you know what, I think I can spare a little time. Let's go." Eren desperately tried to erase that sad expression off of his best friend's face. So to show his point he turned around to head away with Armin.

However, thanks to that he missed the wide victorious smile that graced Armin's face and created a look that would make Eren shudder if he had actually witnessed it.

Half an hour later the two boys were sitting in Armin's room, chatting and laughing happily, sharing stories of what the other had missed (for some incomprehensible reason, Hanji was the centre figure of most of them).

Nonetheless, everything has to come to an end once and in this case, their nice atmosphere disappeared when Eren started feeling unsettled. "Armin, sorry, I think I should go now before Heichou starts looking for me..."

(It had to be a coincidence that Eren started fidgeting just around the time Levi started wondering where the brat was.)

Armin didn't say anything back, not even when Eren got up with an apologetic look and headed for the door. He didn't say anything when Eren reached for the handle either. And he certainly didn't say anything when Eren turned back around with confusion written all over his face when he realized the door was locked.

"Armin, did you lock the door?"

The blond reached into his pants' pocket and took out something small and shiny. He looked at it for a few seconds, before showing the key to Eren. "It would appear so."

"Why?"

"Because I knew you would do this, Eren. I knew you would try to leave me. But I decided I won't let you do that anymore."

"..." Eren gaped at his friend, absolutely not understanding a single word he was saying.

"Eren, you know, I don't care whether you have a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever, but that doesn't give you any right to abandon your only best friend, you know."

"Armin? Are you serious?"

Armin flashed him a bright smile. "Why Eren, I'm very serious."

Honestly, Eren thought he was just being too creepy right now. A thought flashed through his mind as he was reminded of this one meeting when a similar smile appeared on Erwin Danchou's lips. 'Are all genius strategists secretly insane or something? Hanji-san at least doesn't bother hiding it...'

The taller boy sighed, trying to think of some way out of this situation. Too bad Armin was usually the one to come up with plans to get him out of situations...

"Armin, look, I'm sorry I kind of neglected you lately, but I promise to keep a whole afternoon free for you soon, okay? But now just let me go, please?"

"No. I'm done waiting. Now be a good Eren and sit down. Let's continue talking, shall we?"

Eren didn't know what to do. He certainly could defeat Armin in a fight if it came down to it, but fighting with him was one of the last things he wanted. But then again, so was pissing off Levi.

So what now? Just break the door down? But he wasn't Mikasa; he couldn't do shit like breaking a door in half without titan power. And using titan power inside the headquarters was definitely one of the last things to do, just because it would combine (probably) hurting Armin and (most certainly) pissing off Levi. Not to mention the reaction it would cause with everyone else.

He tried appealing to Armin's sense of self preservation. "Armin, you know how Heichou would react if he knew about this, right? You don't want that. I don't want that..."

Armin grinned wider. "Exactly, Eren. You don't want that. Why would he have to learn about it?"

"Ackerman, do you know where Eren is?" Levi paused for a second as he thought back to their past dealings. "Or what he's doing or with whom or anything?"

Mikasa looked up from the 3DMG she was currently maintaining, raising a brow. "The last time I saw him was an hour ago and he was just leaving to go to you... Heichou, don't tell me you've lost him again?!"

"No, I didn't lose him. He just never showed up."

"I swear to god, since he started going out with you he keeps getting into more trouble," said Mikasa.

Levi sighed and mumbled to himself, "Maybe I should get him a bell or something."

Mikasa shook her head with a completely serious look on her face. "No, that's not reliable enough. A leash would be better."

Levi looked at her in surprise. "You know, in the end your way of thinking isn't half-bad."

Mikasa pulled up her scarf to hide the small smile that threatened to appear on her lips.

Since he came to the conclusion that the calmest and least bloody option would be to just stay put, satisfy Armin, in the meanwhile come up with a passable excuse to give Levi and hope for a miracle so that there's no blood-shed in the end, Eren was sitting on the chair in Armin's room, carefully watching the apparently unstable blond, who was just happily reading some book, enjoying the awkward company and totally not minding the tense silence that settled in the room after he refused to unlock the door for the 16th time, and thinking about why the hell did he always have to get into all these problems.

He was starting to wonder if Levi began looking for him yet. It was funny, actually. Only some five weeks ago he wouldn't have thought his boyfriend would even notice if he disappeared, but in the span of a few days he was proven so very wrong. Every time he remember how Levi ordered him (Like, he really actually abused his authority to do so!) to not go off without telling him, a silly smile spread on Eren's lips.

After what felt like hours of just idly sitting there to Eren (in reality it was just around 20 minutes) he heard footsteps in the hallway outside the room. A few seconds later there was a knock on the door, followed by Mikasa's voice. "Armin? Is Eren with you?"

Eren looked at Armin, then back at the door. Armin just continued reading, completely ignoring his close-second-best friend knocking on the door.

When she got no response, Mikasa tried to open the door. "Why is the door locked? Armin! I know you're there I can hear you reading! Open the door, it's important. ...You don't want me to open it, do you?" She kicked the door to emphasize her point.

Eren was sometimes very amazed by Mikasa's instincts. She really was the Superman(?) of the Jaeger family and the Survey corps. Her 'Eren in distress radar' was one thing but 'I can hear you reading'? Seriously?

Armin sighed and finally got up to save another poor door from an untimely death.

"What is it, Mikasa? What's so important that you'd sacrifice more innocent pieces of wood?"

"Eren disappeared again and the midget is freaking out already. I thought that he might be here..."

"He's not, sorry."

"Armin... You know you can't lie to me. If he's sulking about something again-"

"What the hell, Mikasa! I was not sulking!" Eren was offended. One can't even show they're angry around Mikasa and Heichou. The two of them go insulting you for in for weeks. How's that fair?

But he also found this situation to be very favourable to him. He can just quietly leave with Mikasa, apologize to Heichou and no-one has to know Armin had a momentary... screw-up in the brain or something.

Armin looked at Eren from the door with an unreadable expression, while Mikasa sighed in relief as she found her brother.

Eren walked to the door with every intention to leave. "Whatever. If Heichou is looking for me it'll be best if I leave now. Before he gets too angry at me." He tried to not let anyone present know how eager he was to run to his boyfriend and away from his best-friend.

But his escape from confinement was cut short. "Eren, where do you think you're going?"

Two pairs of eyes snapped in Armin's direction. Eren was shocked Armin would actually try to do this in front of Mikasa. Mikasa was shocked both by the sentence that escaped the blonde's lips as well as the tone. She's never heard him use such a cold, demanding voice.

"Armin? Are you alright?"

"Yes. Why? I'm perfectly fine."

"...Okay, then. Eren, we have to go before Heichou kills someone."

Eren sighed as he moved closer to freedom. "Really. He can sometimes be so... wait, did you just call him 'Heichou'? Are you sick?"

"...No." The girl tugged at her scarf. "We just found out we can agree on some things."

Her brother looked like he didn't entirely believe her, but he just shrugged it off and confidently strode out of the room. However...

Armin grabbed Eren's shoulder with so much force no one would expect him to be able to produce. "Eren, I said you're not going anywhere. Are you just gonna abandon your best friend of god knows how many years, just for some... love-interest?"

Eren was getting really angry at Armin. But he was still more concerned. Because this wasn't Armin. Just what could have happened to the blond...?

Mikasa looked at Armin with an unreadable expression. At this point she could either kill Armin on the spot or drag him into a bed, shove a thermometer into his mouth and run to the kitchen to make some hot tea for her obviously seriously ill friend. Nobody could tell which one it would be.

But before anything could happen, the three of them heard running footsteps. They turned in the direction of those and within a few seconds a flushed Hanji emerged from around the corner.

When she saw them, she waved enthusiastically with her big, trademark grin plastered on her lips.

"Hey, guys!" she winked at the siblings before turning to Armin and grabbing his hands. The boy only stared confusedly at her. "Armin!" she exhaled. "I'm so glad I found you before something happened! You know, I screwed up. I'm so sorry!" She didn't look sorry. "When I gave you that thing for headaches, I gave you a wrong bottle – but I'm not entirely sure what was in it. Sorry, it was a similar shape. Here, this is the correct one..." she went through several pockets before finding what she was looking for.

Eren, Mikasa and Armin stared at the crazy woman before them, who was grinning like Sasha when presented with meat while announcing someone she accidentally gave them something that could potentially kill them... or change their personality... or something even worse.

Eren sighed in relief. At least this explained it. Armin was not some psycho in innocent disguise. No. He was still Armin – the cute, sweet blond little angel of theirs. Everything was fine.

Stupid Hanji.

Hanji then proceeded to bombard Armin with questions about how he was feeling after consuming the unknown liquid, while Armin kept assuring her that no changes were actually happening.

"Yeah, right," mumbled Eren to himself.

He exchanged looks with Mikasa before they both silently agreed that the best course of action would be to quietly leave Armin to deal with it himself. He was one of the few people who could actually communicate with the mad scientist anyway.

Only a few minutes after Eren successfully located Levi, he already regretted his decision to even look for him.

He was quietly staring at a little bell tied to a string that was proudly sitting where it was placed in front of him on the table.

"...What the hell is this?" he asked his lover, who was watching him expectantly.

Apparently he was supposed to tie this bloody thing to his wrist and not take it off unless stated otherwise by his superior.

Levi raised an eyebrow at Eren's question. "I believe this is what you'd call a bell. Don't tell me you've never seen one."

Eren rolled his eyes. "I mean, why the hell do I have to wear a bell?"

"Because I have neither a leash nor a collar. Yet."

"...Huh?" Eren was scandalized. Levi better have a good explanation.

"What? You keep disappearing and it's becoming a real pain in the ass. So I have to take some counter-measures."

Eren wanted to snap back at him, but couldn't really argue. So he settled to huffing and furiously turning away.

Now it was Levi's turn to roll his eyes. 'Here comes the sulking again...'

He came to the conclusion that if he wanted to get this done quickly, he had to take some drastic measures. He leaned over the table and put a hand on Eren's cheek. "Eren. Please," he began with as much sincerity as he could muster. "I don't want to worry about you like this ever again. I know you don't like it when people worry about you, but I can't help it. I love you. Please, take it."

Eren blushed as he heard Levi's confession. How could he stay mad at him like this? How could he deny him anything like this?

"Fine..." he mumbled in response eyes downcast in defeat and embarrassment.

Levi smirked. How easy can it be to get the boy do what you want?

Evil.

Yes. Levi was evil and he knew it.

But it got the results.

And the damn brat was just too precious to him.

When they left the room they were in, there was Mikasa leaning onto the wall just outside.

When she noticed the bell in Eren's hand, she looked at him, a secret satisfied smile on her face, which was half-covered by red fabric, and gave an approving nod before walking away.

A few seconds later Eren froze on a spot, frowning, as he came to realize something. Glaring at the cursed bell, still all innocent and silent in his hand, and thought, 'Wait... was this what they managed to agree on...?!'

At the same time in a different place, Armin finally got rid of Hanji who insisted on interrogating him. He sighed tiredly.

'So it seems I got drugged with something that made me try to imprison Eren, huh...'

A small smirk crept slowly onto his face as he raised two small, similar, completely full bottles to his eyes.

'Or maybe not.'

A/N: My first time writing a sort of kind of yandere character... Ugh.

But seriously. I had to delete this and start writing from scratch about four times, then I got stuck for what, a month? Then I got drunk and wrote the ending. I somehow don't think that's the correct way to go about writing anything. ;;