"Ugh, I don't envy you fella. That is one bad curse."

Levi nearly jumped out of the comfy chair in surprise. He looked around for any sign of another person in the room, but found none. The voice called out again.

"Curses are tough. You're gonna have a hard time getting rid of that one."

Levi returned his attention to the fire burning before him. Did… Did the fire just speak to him!? Once he caught sight of the flames dancing before him, he was able to see that the fire did indeed have a mouth and two eyes.

"Th-The fire spoke!"

On a normal day, Levi would have high-tailed it out of that 'castle' and pretended that this was all just a dream. But this wasn't any normal day, now was it?

"Let me guess, the curse won't allow you to talk about it, right?"

Levi simply stared at the talking flame for a few more seconds before muttering out, "A-Are you Eren?"

The flame gave a scoff of disapproval and grew bigger with each word he spoke.

"No, I'm an extremely powerful fire demon named Jean."

After he said this, the fire demon 'Jean' shrunk back down to his original size and chuckled.

"Sorry, I just like to do that every once and a while."

The short male sitting before Jean gasped as he had a realization.

"A fire demon? Well, then you should be able to break my curse!"

Jean gave his signature smirk again and replied, "Maybe, maybe not."

Levi shrunk down in disappointment at this and Jean sighed.

"Listen, if you can find a way to break the spell that's on me, then I'll break the spell that's on you, got it?"

Levi perked up at this before giving Jean a questioning look.

"If you're a demon, how do I know I can trust you?"

Jean gave a dramatic gasp and Levi simply rolled his eyes.

"You promise to help me if I help you?" Levi replied to Jean's disbelief at his distrust.

"Ehhh, I don't know, fella. Demons don't make promises."

The old man leaned back in the chair and mumbled, "Then go find someone else."

The demon's flames grew bigger in desperation.

"Come on! You should feel sorry for me! That spell keeps me trapped in this castle and Eren treats me like I'm his slave, the asshole. You know, he really burns me up! Gotta keep the water hot, the rooms warm, keep the castle moving-"

"Oh that's rough", Levi said half-heartedly. All of Jean's rambling was causing him to dose off, and his newfound old age wasn't any help.

"You ever try to move a castle?" Jean continued, "If you could figure out how to break this thing I'm in with Eren, then you can break my spell! After that, I can easily break the spell that's on you."

Levi yawned while speaking his next few words. "Alright, it's a deal…."

Before Jean new it, Levi was comfortably asleep in the chair he had been sitting in his entire time in the house.

"Hey, fella? Fella? Hello?"

Levi didn't budge.

"Ah forget it…."

-Line Break-

The next day, thousands of people cheered as huge battleships left dock and started heading out for the war. The usually quiet town was overrun by cheering people and the sounds of the waves crashing against the ships as they headed out.

None of this racket was heard from within the little house Levi had made himself comfortable in. The only sound that could be heard was Levi's faint snoring and the pounding of a fist against the door.

The loud knocking was enough to wake a dazed Levi out of his slumber. The old man looked around in confusion before stretching, cringing at the popping coming from his old bones.

Before he could even think about opening the door, the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs was enough to make him go still.

As the person belonging to the footsteps got closer down the stairs, Levi had the bright idea to act as if he was still knocked out cold.

The young man finally made it down the stairs, blonde hair bouncing all the way, and noticed the elderly man sitting in the chair in front of the fireplace.

The blonde walked over to him and muttered, "Hey, who is this man?"

The knocking on the door grew louder, distracting the blonde from Levi, and Jean said, "Maria door."

"How'd he get in here?" The boy asked as he made his way over to the cluttered dining room table. Once at the table, the blonde pulled a cloak from off of it and tied it around his shoulders, the clothe jostling his almost-shoulder length hair.

The boy pulled the hood to the cloak over his head, and once his arms left from over his face, Levi- who had long since opened his eyes and spied on the blonde- saw that he was now sporting the face of a young blonde girl with kind blue eyes.

As the knocking grew louder and more persistent, the boy- well, girl now- casually walked over to the door and said, "Stand by."

Levi could hear that the boys already feminine voice had gone a few octaves higher and sounded mush softer than it originally had.

Once over to the door, the blonde pulled on the knob, causing a circle above the door that Levi at not yet noticed, to go from a green color to a blue color.

The blonde finally opened the door and said, "Mr. Mayor, how are you today?"

The voice that the blonde gave out was now almost too sweet to bare, and almost completely unrecognizable from his previous voice.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Christa. Would the great Witch Ymir be at home?"

'Christa' gave a faint sound of disappointment.

"I'm afraid that my mistress is out at the moment. I can speak to you in her absence."

"An invitation from Her Majesty the Queen. I'm afraid the time of war is upon us, as you may know. Her majesty requires that every witch and wizard aid our homeland. The Witch Ymir must report to the palace immediately. That is all."

"Okay, I'll relay the message. Bye bye!"

As Levi listened in on the ending to the conversation, he couldn't help but wonder who this 'Ymir' was, and if she was so 'great', then how had he never heard of her?

Just as Levi stood up to give Jean some more firewood, seeing as how the poor demon was almost out, 'Christa' made her way from the door and over to him.

Levi was almost surprised when her sweet voice said, "And just what do you think you're doing here, Grandpa?"

Levi looked at the blonde in surprise, and quickly lied with, "Jean said I could come in."

Jean gasped in surprise and said, "I did not! He just wandered in here from the Wastes."

Before Levi could react, the blonde spoke in his normal voice once again, saying, "He's from the Wastes?"

The blonde finally pulled his hood off, causing him to return to his former self, and said, "How do we know he's not a wizard?"

Jean rolled his eyes and retorted with, "Do you really think I'd let some old wizard in here!?"

Before Levi could remark that he was not that old, there was another knocking on the door.

"Maria door again!" Jean called out.

As he began pulling over the hood again, bringing the return of Christa, the blonde murmured, "Must be a customer."

After walking over to the door once more and calling out, "Stand by, "Christa opened the door to reveal a little girl standing nervously on the other side.

"Yes, my dear child?" She asked sweetly.

"M-My daddy sent me to pick up a spell."

"Ah, yes, do come in, "she said with a smile.

The little girl obeyed the older girl's commands and followed her up the stairs leading into the house.

As they passed by Levi and Jean, Christa muttered, "Just keep quiet and don't cause any trouble, Grandpa…."

Levi scoffed at this and noticed that the little girl was now staring at him while Christa searched for the spell.

Ignoring the little girl for the moment, Levi walked over to the window- using his cane- and looked out at the town. A seagull passed over the glittering ocean and Levi realized that them must be in the outer-most part of Maria.

"We're not in the Wastes?"

Before Levi could wrap his head around how they went from the infamous Wastes to the better remembered city of Maria, the little girl called out to him.

"Excuse me, Sir, are you a wizard?"

Levi looked at the girl before getting an idea.

"That's right. I'm the scariest wizard of them all!"

The girl giggled at this right as Christa brought a small baggie over to her.

"Dust your ship with this powder, love, and the winds will blow in your favor."

"Thank you, "the girl said as she took the baggie. "By Mr. Scary Wizard!"

Levi gave the girl a small wave as she skipped out the door with the new potion. Once the door closed, Christa's once sweet expression turned sour as she said, "Quit telling lies to our customers!"

Levi scoffed, putting one hand on his hip, and said, "What about you? You're wearing a disguise!"

Christa rolled her eyes, now taking on the slightly manlier voice as she said, "I have to. I'm practicing my magic."

As she said this, the blonde removed the hood once more, revealing the boy from before.

Just as Levi was about to ask something, the doorbell chimed, and the two males standing in front of it looked over to it in slight surprise.

"It's the Rose door!" Jean said.

The blonde pulled the hood over his head yet again, but instead of the sweet Christa it was a taller brunette boy

"Stand by, "he called out with a calm voice.

At the door was yet another official of the Queen and King with a parchment in his hand.

"Would this be the residence of the great witch Hanji?"

"It is," the brunette replied.

The official smiled.

"I bear an invitation from Her Majesty the Queen. Please inform Ms. Hanji that all witches and wizards are required to report for duty at the palace."

As the official was talking, curiosity got the better of Levi and he made his way down the stairs and to the front door, next to the once-blonde-now-brunette boy.

"I will inform him right away," he said with a slight glare at Levi.

Levi didn't notice, he was too busy staring in awe at the new town before him. How had they been able to go from Maria to Rose just like that? It must have been some form of magic, he decided.

The official walked off and the brunette that answered the door stepped back inside.

"Move it, Grandpa, or you'll lose your nose!"

Levi huffed and headed back inside, muttering, "I thought you were supposed to be polite to guests…."

The former-brunette-back-to-blonde boy either ignored Levi's statement or simply didn't hear it as he said, "And stop wandering around."

As Levi walked up the stairs leading back into the house, the blonde groaned and said, "I need some breakfast. I'm starved…."

He went over to the cluttered dinner table and opened a drawer, revealing a big loaf of bread. He then picked up a plate of cheese and brought it over to a less-cluttered table. Levi stared blankly at the cluttered table, his hands itching to clean it, and he noticed a place of uncooked bacon and a box of eggs.

"Don't you want some eggs and bacon for breakfast?"

If he was being honest, Levi wasn't asking because he was genuinely concerned for the blonde's diet, but because he had never eaten bacon before and was dying to try it.

"Yeah, but we can't use the fire. Master Eren's not here."

Not particularly paying attention to the blonde's remark, Levi grabbed a pan hanging from the wall and said, "Don't worry, I can cook."

The blonde rolled his eyes, not that Levi could see from where he was standing, and muttered, "It doesn't matter. Jean only obeys Master Eren."

"That's right, fella," Jean declared. "I'm not taking any orders from you. Besides, it's not like I enjoy taking orders from that bastard."

Levi ignored him and but some of the uncooked bacon on the pan, rolling up his sleeves in the process.

"Alright, Jean. Let's get cooking."

"Didn't you hear me, old timer!? I don't cook! I'm a scary and powerful fire demon!" Jean cried, growing bigger and bigger.

Levi ignored him once more and shoved the pan in his face.

"Hush all of your whinnying. Geez, you sound just like a horse; if you weren't made of fire I would've mistaken you for one. Besides, you wouldn't want Eren to know about our little bargain, would you?"

Jean scowled at the pan in his face and groaned.

"Why did I ever let you in here!? You're no better than Eren at this point!"

"So, what'll it be Horsie?"

Jean, after a lot of internal grieving, eventually simmered down enough for Levi to fully place the pan over him.

Levi smiled at the sizzling coming from the pan as Jean muttered, "Here's another curse: May all your bacon burn…."

The blonde boy stared in awe at what had just unfolded in front of him.

"Jean's actually doing what he's says…."

"Now that I think about it, I would like some tea. Do you have a kettle?"

After his initial shock, the blonde gave a small, "Sure", and rushed to get Levi the kettle.

"What, no Armin! Don't get him the kettle! Whose side are you on, anyway!? Armin, what are you doing!?"

"Huh…," Levi said silently to himself. "So, his name's Armin."

Suddenly, the circle next to the door turned black and the three residents of the house turned to the door in surprise.

"Ha ha, old man!" Jean said. "That bastard's back and now he can throw you out!"

Levi silently gulped.

-End of Chapter 4-

A/N: I actually had a lot of fun writing this chapter! Maybe it's because I haven't written anything for this book in months… Heh heh… Yeah, I'm really sorry anybody who's still reading this crossover. I've just had a lack of inspiration and motivation to write anything for this book, but after I forced myself to sit down and write something, I remembered how fun and satisfying it is. I hope you all stick around for the next chapter, which should come out much sooner than this one did.