The next morning, Eren woke up feeling refreshed. Who'd have known that gratifying his libido could do him this much good? His headache from yesterday was gone. Sure, he might not have completely satisfied his desires, but it was much better than being celibate.

He lay awake in his lumpy bed, staring into darkness at grey stone walls, and recalled the feeling of his back on the wall behind his bed, when he had pleasured himself against it the previous night. He shivered at the memory.

Last night he'd imagined fire against ice. In his mind he saw the corporal's smooth, warm chest, his balmy body straddling him. Felt the rough texture of the frigid wall scraping his back. Wow. You couldn't tell Eren that he lacked a vivid imagination that was for sure.

Luckily, he'd managed to clean himself up with a spare cloth, and he'd be able to wash himself later in the shower. Now all he had to do was wait for Levi to come and take him to the dining hall.

Why hadn't he done that before? Getting himself off was not only something to do, but it was a great stress reliever. Wait. If he let himself think like that, he'd end up repeating it every night. (Was that such a bad thing?)

Eventually, he heard Levi's footsteps as his boots clicked down the passageway. Sitting up eagerly in bed and tossing grimy blankets aside he prepared himself, planning a show for Levi.

His heart leapt when he finally saw the raven haired man standing outside the bars of the cell, unlocking the door. Eren bit his lip as green eyes met grey ones, and he pulled his arms over his head, stretching as he arched his back with a drawn out groan.

"Mornin' Heichou." He breathed smugly.

Levi looked at him through the bars of the cell with a deadpan glare. His face said; "Nope." He locked the door again, and then walked away. Confused, Eren frowned and walked to the door, peering out of the bars to see Levi walking back towards him. He reopened the door. Eren jogged to catch up with Levi, who was pacing quickly away.

"Why did you do that, sir?"

Levi shook his head in exasperation, walking ahead of Eren. "Tch. The last thing I need is for a horny teenager to show me the stains on his shirt. Fucking filthy."

Just as he feared, Eren looked down and sure enough there was a mark where he'd apparently came on his shirt. Mortified, he grabbed at the hem of his shirt, twisting it so that it hid the stain. The heat that grew on his face was even hotter than his temperature when he was a Titan, turning his entire face a bright red.

"T-that was an accident, s-sir. I d-didn't mean to display that." he choked.

On their way to the dining hall, Eren felt the pressing need to talk to Levi. He wasn't sure why. He liked being in sociable silence, didn't he? Yes, he did. But his stomach was filled with nervous butterflies. Eren couldn't help but incessantly look back to see Levi's figure.

Why couldn't he ignore those feelings? He'd felt them many times before… so why was it different to be around the man now? The only thing that had changed was… Eren was now aware of how he felt towards Levi.

Ah. That might also explain why he'd been trying to show off his muscles… his muscles that were surely puny in comparison to his captain's… Eren jumped a little in his step in an attempt to catch up to Levi.

"So, ah, sir, what are we doing today?" his voice echoed in the passageway.

"Training."

"Oh… okay. Uh, is there… any cleaning you want me to do before then?"

Levi looked back at him then, his eyes raking Eren's body up and down peevishly. "I don't think I need to answer that."

Cringing at that but not yet giving up, he changed the topic. "Levi, sir, what do you do in your spare time?" he asked curiously, trying to make small talk for some motive he couldn't quite grasp.

"Paper-work."

"What about those mystery books you mentioned?"

Levi frowned at him and wrinkled his nose in distaste. "I never mentioned any books."

"Y-you did, the other day. I don't suppose you remember though." Eren chuckled half heartedly, hating how the sound echoed back at him, like it was mocking him.

… What was he doing? Why was he trying to talk to Levi, when the man clearly didn't want to converse? Not while his shirt had stains, at least…

Well he knew why, but just… Why? If self harm hadn't been prohibited, he would smack himself in the face.

Eren told himself to keep quiet as they reached the dining hall, sitting as far away as he could from the man in the hopes he wouldn't embarrass himself more, still clutching his shirt as he ate so that Auruo wouldn't tease him. Eren knew he would. He was practically the older version of Jean, seeing as they both loved to piss Eren off.

He groaned helplessly into his bread loaf, doing his best not to stare when Levi started eating bread in the most innocently yet most lewd way he never knew was possible.

Erwin's plan had been simple.

Key words: had been.

Originally, he'd planned to have Eren fall for Levi. In doing this, Eren would either a) get caught trying to sneak to Levi's room b) get into a fight with someone about his feelings for him or c) irritate Levi so much with his puppy dog eyed pleading that Levi would cast him away, asking Erwin to send him on his way.

It was a win-win situation for Erwin, because no matter which option Eren chose, Erwin would make sure that it led to a court meeting where he would convince them that Eren was far too troublesome for them. Then he could be sent to the Military Police. Sure, it might give the Survey Corps an even worse reputation, but simply put; Erwin just didn't give a fuck anymore. Having a person who could transform into a Titan was unnatural and quite frankly, it made him sick to have the enemy being cared for under his own goddamn roof.

From the beginning, he'd been opposed to the idea. But when Levi suddenly went down from the witness box to where Eren was tied to a pole with chains at his wrists, and kicking him, or as he put it "disciplining him", Erwin obviously had to cover for him.

So he'd told the judge his "idea" where Eren could be used for missions, he could train with Erwin's army. Really, watching Eren be beat the shit out of was satisfying and he'd felt no need to stop Levi. Then people began looking at him anxiously, as if he could do something about Levi. Did that mean people thought Levi was his bitch to order around? What a lovely thought…

Hanji was supposed to have given Eren a potion to make him fall for Levi, have him lapping at his every word and picking fights with anybody that didn't agree that Levi was a god. It seemed that Hanji had "misheard" him but he let that slide, she had done something with a potion, Eren had a crush on Levi, even if it had meant that Levi maybe felt the same way.

Maybe he had felt something for Eren, but Erwin could clearly see that Levi had gone back to normal today; so there was no way he could feel anything towards Eren anymore. Reciprocating feelings? What a load of shit.

And now, part two of plan b could commence.

He sauntered down to Eren's cell with a lantern in hand. At night, surely the Titan would be in there by now, but not asleep. Erwin just had to hope that he wouldn't catch Eren in a compromising situation… He'd seen the stains on his shirt that morning. They weren't pleasant to look at. Just the thought that he even tended to those kinds of needs was enough to make Erwin feel physically sick.

He reached Eren's cell, knowing the boy would be able to hear his footsteps and would make himself decent in time for his arrival. He peered through the bars and lifted the lantern up. Almost instantly, he saw green eyes within the cell glow as the lamp light hit them. He considered blinding Eren. Nah. His plan was much more entertaining.

"Hello, Eren." He spoke the name with as little venom as was physically possible for him. "How are things?"

He watched as the titan shifter's face shone in the light, and slowly twisted into a grimace. "Not that well, I guess."

"Didn't the training go well today?" he asked sympathetically, shivering slightly from the lack of heat in the basement.

Eren paused for a moment, shuffling in his position on the bed.

"No… That went fine. It's more of a… personal problem. Um. Love life stuff." Erwin liked where this was going.

"You can tell me Eren, I'm all ears."

"Okay, well uh, you saw the other day that Levi was acting strangely, right? And you tried to help…" his voice had an edge at the end of his sentence.

"Yeah?" Erwin encouraged, his voice carefully modulated to sound empathetic.

"I uh, ended up realizing I have f-feelings for him. And I'm now I'm terrible at keeping my emotions in check around him. Please don't say anything." he begged.

Yes, this was exactly what Erwin wanted.

"Why bother keeping them in check? As long as you're not angry, then what the harm in showing him how you feel?"

Eren buried his face in his hands. "I act so stupid around him, I end up doing all sorts of dumb stuff to show off, and I don't even mean to do it. It's really embarrassing. For me and him. I don't think he'll ever want to look at me again after today." Eren sighed heavily.

By the sounds of it, Eren was going to go with option c): irritate Levi so much with his puppy dog eyed pleading that Levi would cast him away.

Erwin prepared himself for the long stream of teenage angst that was sure to come.

"I had cum on my shirt this morning," Could the kid be any more obscene? Not only did he have semen on his shirt but he was actually telling Erwin this? "So he called me out on that. I'd been trying to, uh, flex my muscles. To show off. I'm not really sure why." He laughed weakly at himself.

"Earlier, I ended up trying to make up nicknames for him, names like 'Lee', I complimented his cleaning style, said some other stupid stuff, and he made me clean the entire top floor of the castle and gave me extra laps during training. I was just babbling. I can't even help it. How do you make it stop?"

Erwin hadn't been listening, so when Eren suddenly stopped talking, he had to backtrack and try to think of what to say. He contorted his face, and hoped it looked like a gentle smile. "Why… why bother worrying about stopping?"

Eren furrowed his brow in puzzlement. "What?"

"I mean… don't you want to become his lover?" he enquired enticingly.

Realization dawned on Eren's face, but then quickly vanished under a scowl. "He'll reject me. I'm not stupid. I'm aware that he doesn't harbour any feelings for me." his voice trailed off at the end, as though he was trying to convince himself that this was true.

"Oh, Eren. He might've changed back to his usual self, but he talks about you all the time. He's always going on about how great you look and… yeah, he basically never stops talking about you." Eren didn't look convinced.

Erwin cringed at his previous false enthusiasm. The brat better fucking believe him after this because if he didn't…

Okay, Erwin. It's all or nothing.

"Did you know that he makes you clean the floors as punishment because he likes that he can see your ass?" Erwin squeezed his eyes shut.

"What?!"

There it was; Eren Jaeger took the bait. Waiting for the idiot to do something about it was all he needed to do now.