Author note: Yaaaay new update! BECAUSE 11,300+ HITS LIKE WOW OK LOVE YOU GUYS. This chapter might seem complicated...? I'll answer any questions you have :D

"Corporal!" Auruo and Petra called out simultaneously, rushing across the dining hall, dodging past the new recruits to where Levi sat sipping tea. "Please help us!"

Levi scarcely raised an eyebrow, arm resting on the edge of the chair's backrest as he took in the duo's apprehension. They crashed into the seats beside him, eyes wide and breathing shallow. "Help you with what? You didn't get her pregnant, did you?" He glowered at Auruo, who cowered beneath his stare. Auruo and Petra shared a fleeting glance, both blushing before looking back at their captain.

Aurup huffed and crossed his arms. "Petra says I've been acting weird."

"Auruo, you always act strangely."

The silver haired man shook his head vehemently. "No, no, weird like the time you went cuckoo, kind of weird. I feel so optimistic today, it's terrifying!" He then gestured at Levi. "Why am I going to tell you this? I don't know, but; you're an awesome guy! You look lovely today and I hope something good happens to you today. Yeah, you know what? I hope you find something you thought you lost and that things will go your way!" Once he finished chirping in excitement, Auruo's temperature rose and he hid his face between his palms. "Why am I acting like this..?"

Looking into the tan coloured liquid in front of him, Levi swirled it around in the cup as he thought. "It's likely that Hanji's up to something again and unlike last time, I'm not her victim." he sighed in relief, and possibly mute annoyance. "Judging from what I remember from her notes, I can guess that a chemical from someone's DNA is heightening your... Optimism." He nodded at Petra with a blank stare. "Sleep well tonight knowing that Hanji probably pulled your hairs out for Auruo to drink." Auruo and Petra retched and gagged in response.

Petra sighed and patted Auruo's head. "As much as I'd love a clone of myself, it's a little discorncerting to be lacking a certain sarcastic idiot." Auruo cooed, giving her a quick hug. Petra remained stiff and grimaced. "How do we change him back?"

"Ask Hanji. Or Eren. He was the one with me while I was on the potion, so he might know how long it took for it to wear off. I don't remember receiving an antidote of any sort..." Though his shrug was nonchalent, Auruo couldn't help but notice how Levi's expression had darkened.

As if on cue, Eren wandered into the hall. A short blonde was talking his right ear off, and on Eren's left, a dark haired girl was shooting sharp glances in their direction, narrowing her eyes as Levi turned to look at them. Levi placed his cup on the table.

"Jaeger, come here."

The boy in question paused, hesitating to leave his friends. He continued talking to them for a moment.

Levi snapped, his glower growing more intense the longer Eren dawdled. "Don't ignore a direct order. Hurry up." Green eyes widened as Eren's lean body jolted into action, his quick glances behind causing Levi to raise his fist...? Then it was slammed back onto the table hard enough to make the teacup rattle. Discussion from all the other tables ceased at the bang. The fear on Eren's face disolved into distaste.

Auruo and Petra waved apologetically at the two friends, the short blonde dragging the other to their chosen table, then they turned to each other fearfully; ooh shit, there'd been trouble in paradise!

"Eren!" Petra attempted to dilute the tension with her cheer, inviting him to sit beside her. He did so, but not before sending a peevish sneer to Levi. Ah... Not a good sign. "It seems like we're in a bit of a pickle! See, Auruo was feeling sick yesterday and I had to drag him up to his bed. Then when I woke up, he was singing! So he's really been acting odd, just like Captain did a week or so ago. Do you know how-"

"It wears off, eventually."Eren's gaze was fixed in the direction of his friends.

Petra blinked, breath falling short at the interuption. She tried a smile. "Oh, well that's good! How long do you reckon it'll take-"

"Soon enough. Probably by tonight. It's not like he's gone crazy, why are you worrying so much? He'll be fine. Talk to Hanji about possible side effects, or whatever." He quickly made to stand up, but Levi's vice-like grip on his wrist prevented him from leaving and forced him to sit back down.

"Don't be rude to Petra." His grasp tightened as Eren dared to pull away. "She was only asking you a question. Drop the fucking attitude and stop being a brat."

Eren rolled his eyes then clicked his tongue. "Is that an order, sir." Eren spat back, his upper lip curling to reveal his canine teeth.

In the blink of an eye, Levi had leapt out his chair and grabbed Eren's shirt collar while the younger man growled in defiance, standing in an attempt to escape his clutches. "Don't sass me you little shit-"

"Okay okay okay!" Auruo, that brave moron, dived between the two and pushed Eren away from a seething corporal. "Eren, why don't we visit Hanji together, yeah? Maybe then we can talk about why you and Lev-"

"I'm going to my friends. I haven't seen them in months and I'm lucky they're still alive. If you'll excuse me." Eren ducked out of Auruo's comforting touch to his shoulder and stormed across the hall. At the same time, Levi made a beeline for the door in the opposite direction. His teacup was abandoned on the table.

Auruo's lower lip wobbled as the door was thrown shut, eyes glistening with tears he probably wasn't even aware of. He started blinking rapidly, avoiding Petra's eyes, touching his own face gently to try and cover it. "Was it something I said?" he whispered. "I-I thought maybe if we s-seperated them we could get Eren to talk..."

For the first time since she'd known him, Petra let herself coddle Auruo. She pecked his cheek as he burried his face in her neck. Just this once, she told herself. Hopefully he'd forget today like Levi had done before. Although she kind of liked this other Auruo, she missed scolding her favourite Levi-impersonator.

Had Eren forgotten his promise to the elite soldiers? In return for keeping their relationship secret, Eren was supposed to make Levi happy. Petra sought him out within the crowd of recruits, rubbing soothing circles into Auruo's back (was Auruo milking the situation or was he really this sensitive?). She hadn't been expecting to find Eren's shoulders drooping, head downturned even while his friends tried to interact with him. Maybe Eren wasn't the only one at fault... Oh, what drama!

It wasn't often that Erwin was subject to angry little men barging into his office and stealing his couch. Or well, this was a first anyway. And Levi seemed much more than simply angry, he looked positively furious. Replacing the quill to its holder, Erwin frowned and peered at the man on his couch.

"Levi?" Erwin called out, tilting his blonde head. "You alright? It's not everyday you come into my office..." Despite his confusion, a light fondness bubbled in his chest. He craned his neck to get a better look at Levi, a little annoyed that the couch was facing away from his desk.

"Mmn."

"...That doesn't explain much, Levi." he breathed a chuckle. "C'mon, what happened? Did someone mix your tea wrong? Steal your cravat? You know, I still don't know why you wear that..."

Even after Erwin joined a sulking Levi on the burgandy couch, the shorter man still wasn't talking and Erwin found himself at a loss on how to make him do so. Usually people found Erwin a good person to talk to, and he was quite happy to listen and offer an objective opinion, but with Levi? He still wasn't talking, so that didn't give Erwin much to go on. His posture was rather stiff and his arms were crossed.

Was Erwin supposed to cheer him up? Would it annoy Levi if Erwin continued to press the matter? He'd come into Erwin's room, so the commander kinda felt obliged to help the guy out.

In the end he opted to simply return to his desk and continue his paperwork (yay, stocks!) to give Levi the option of talking to him while he worked. True, Levi was a shy person so he probably didn't want to have a face-to-face conversation about his problems. It took him a while, but Levi eventually deflated into the leather, leaning back with an arm resting over his eyes.

"I'm mad at Jaeger." Levi was... Voluntarily offering his emotional palette? What a rare occasion!

Erwin hummed thoughtfully. "And why's that?"

"Because he's an idiot."

"Did you two fight?" Erwin chuckled, leaning his jaw against his palm. "I assume he didn't threaten to shift...?"

"No, nothing like that. Uh, we sort of had an argument. But it didn't make him go titan."

"Sort of had an argument? Alright, well tell me what happened?"

Levi paused for a moment, scratching his head and arching his back as he stretched. "Petra and I were asking him for help, then he was being rude to us. His tone was very insulting. I scolded him and he ran off to his friends. Then I came here."

Erwin bit his lip, trying to think of a way to get Levi to talk about this in a way they both understood. (Eren ran away so Levi wandered off to Erwin's room? What connection did that even have?) He'd known Levi long enough to learn that patience was aboslutely key when listening to the man -especially when talking about something that made him emotional.

"Try explaining what happened the last time you guys interacted, before Eren was being rude and 'being an idiot'. Be really specific."

Apparently, they'd been in the attic to try and find the source of the odd noises (ah, they'd been keeping Erwin up too). "Why didn't you send him up there himself?"

"He's scared of the dark." Levi shrugged. "Besides, it'd be quicker to solve the problem with two people. And then something made him fall onto me, the attic door closed and we were left in the dark. I scolded him for being stupid and he started kneeing my dick. My throat started to feel tight and I was nauseous. I didn't want to keep feeling like that. But he stayed there, and I let him."

"Are you sure it was nausea? What exactly were the bodily sensations you experienced? Was your stomach hot? Tingling? Numb? Or was there sharp pains?" Levi answered with the second option.

"Don't you think you started to feel like that because Eren was close to you? Maybe you were you thinking of the last time he was that close you? Did you want him to be that close to you? Because you know, your thoughts can cause sensations within your body, and vice versa. Feelings are a link between the sensations you experience and your mind..."

On the couch, Levi rose to his knees, turning to face Erwin over the back of the chair. "Why would that relate to me feeling sick?"

"Maybe because you weren't actually feeling sick, it was a reaction to you guy's closeness and you misinterpreted it." Erwin pursed his lips as Levi clammed up, mild jealousy and melancholy chewing at his insides. "And when you were on the floor, did it digust you?"

"What?" Levi frowned.

"Well, the floor must've been dirty, right? Didn't you want to clean it? Maybe that's why you felt sick."

Levi's eyes widened, flickering as the memories played in front of his eyes. "I was... No, no I wasn't thinking about that at all. I was too focused on, um, letting him touch me." Levi began telling Erwin about the questions Eren had asked him, explaining how he was only there for Eren's 'carnal discharge'. He seemed to have almost forgotten Erwin was there, the words pouring out in a way Erwin had never seen before.

"Levi..." Erwin interrupted him. "When Eren said ' is that all' do you think he might've expected you to say something else? That he wanted you to have another reason for doing things with him?"

"Another reason? The purpose of sexual and sensual contact is for release, that's why I did it."

"Another reason might be to... Show him that you care about him, or because you simply wanted to be closer to him mentally and physically; that's why another name for sex is 'making love' you know? Also, have you considered that the reasons I just listed may have been Eren's intentions? You said he confessed to you, right?"

Just then, there was a knock on the door and Erwin's subordinate scurried inside with a cup of tea. The young soldier glanced in Levi's direction, scratching at their mousey brown hair before looking back at Erwin in question; did Erwin want him to get tea for Levi?

Erwin shook his head, a pang of sympathy going through him when he realized Levi couldn't have those kind of wordless conversations with people. As the soldier closed the door behind him, Erwin took a sip of the scalding liquid.

"Erwin... Are you implying," Levi whispered as though he feared the truth, turning to lie on the couch. "I might've misread Eren's reasons for wanting to kiss me and asking those questions?"

"Yup. And because he was upset that you misunderstood him, that caused him to lash out at you, and Petra couldn't improve his mood because you were there." Ah, so Levi was finally understanding something. Erwin took another sip of his tea.

There had been some progress in his plan.

It shouldn't have surprised him how well option C turned out. After all, Erwin had learned from first hand experience that the best way to make Levi hate you was to fall in love with him. You could even say he'd been in Eren's situation before, he empathized with the boy. Except in this scenario, Levi returned Eren's feelings and Erwin knew that, thanks to Hanji...

So why was he doing this in such a complicated way? What was he even trying to do? Why had he bothered to matchmake them, and offer them as much advice as he had? Wouldn't it be easier to discourage Levi's feelings for Eren?

Unless... Unless Erwin wanted revenge on Levi.

He'd... never thought of it that way. That hadn't been his original intention. But now it made sense.

Many years ago, Levi and Erwin had been in a relationship, if it could be called that. Eventually though, Erwin had realized his feelings had been one-sided; Levi had simply used his feelings in order to get closer to Erwin's possessions, and to get his hands on the documents that would free Levi and his friends from the Survey Corps and their life in the underground city.

And Levi, after the documents turned out to be fake and his friends died on an expedition, made it obvious he'd been using Erwin by avoiding him upon learning the truth.

And then... They wordlessly broke up when Erwin found out Levi was offering the other soldiers sexual favours, a comrade telling him that Erwin had been one of Levi's many "clients".

So in reality, Erwin was in love with someone who had broken his heart; torn between wanting Levi to experience the torture of unrequited love while simultaneously trying to win him over.

If that was the case... Then why did Erwin reassure Levi that Eren had feelings for him?

Oh.

It was to raise Levi's hopes...

(He took another sip of tea)

Eren wasn't happy that Levi wouldn't -couldn't- acknowledge he had feelings for the teen and Eren thought Levi simply wanted sexual release, thanks to Levi's lack of tact and eloquence. The more Eren thought this, the more he'd push Levi away, rather than cling onto Levi like Erwin had expected him to.

And that... spawned the idea of another plan in Erwin's mind.

Levi abruptly sat up on the couch. "I'm going to apologize to Eren." he announced. "Or at least, I want to clarify a few things with him."

"Oh really?" Erwin gulped down the remainder of the scalding tea -it sure tasted strange these days- and returned to his work. "Since you've told me the truth about your relationship with said subordinate, as your superior I'm afraid I have to sever your contact with Private Jaeger."

Who wants a hint as to why Erwin is OOC? Hint: It started out as a sip, how did it end up like this, it was only a sip, IT WAS ONLY A SIP!

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