"You look deep in thought there, Armin," Hanji hums as she passes him in the mess hall. Armin startles at her voice; he hasn't even touched his food yet, thoughts so preoccupied with something else. "What is that devious mind of yours coming up with this time?"

"Oh, well, it's not really of any help to the titan problem…"

Hanji still plops herself beside him and smiles. "Must be something fun to keep you so interested in it. Do share."

"It's just… More of a mundane observation, really…" Hanji is still watching him with rapt attention so Armin sighs before sharing more. "I've just noticed that Captain Levi seems to be a little more demanding about cleaning lately. I guess that in and of itself isn't all that odd, he has a bunch of new recruits to get up to his standards. But… It seems like the only one whose workload has increased is Eren."

"That is a curious observation," agrees Hanji.

"Even more than that, Eren, though he seems to try to hide it, almost looks… happy to be doing all this extra work."

"Fascinating!"

Armin shrugs as nervous fingers fidget and pick apart his loaf of bread. "It's not really worth wasting any thought on, I know, but-"

"Oh, no, you're quite wrong, my friend." Hanji cuts in, a devious smile spreading across her face. "Even now I find our Captain Levi a bit of an enigma, and I welcome any chance to annoy him by digging into his private matters. I hope you'll excuse me if I do my own information gathering on this first before we work further into the problem."

Now that is has been pointed out, Hanji realises just how spot on Armin had been. It seems every time she turns around Eren is being assigned a new chore. Eren, scrub the kitchen floors. Eren, clean out the fireplace in the common room. Eren, go hang the linens. Eren, Eren, Eren, Eren. And only ever Eren. And what she finds ever more curious is, that though Eren gives the occasional whine or lets his shoulders droop and his salute be more than a little half-hearted, his displeasure is only a show! As soon as he thinks his comrades' eyes are off him, he is as light-hearted as ever, no matter how displeasing the task given to him.

Finally, Hanji can't bear to wait any longer, the evidence is damning. When Levi tells Eren to go clean out the stables, she is quick to hurry off and find Armin. "Sorry, Ness, he's going to be exempting this lesson!" she calls over her shoulder as she drags the boy from the classroom.

"W-wait, Section Commander, wh-what's going on?!" asks Armin, bewildered.

Once they are a good ways down the hall she turns to whisper to him, hand over the side of her mouth in a very conspiratorial fashion. "You were right! Instincts dead on, as always. Now that I knew what to look for, I realised just how often Eren was being singled out. Moreover, he was just sent to clean out the stables, and you know what? He had a spring in his step! I understand wanting to learn more through bodily functions, but even I've never been eager for that task."

Armin blinks then nods once. "We ought to go ask him about this, right now."

"My thoughts exactly," grins Hanji.

"Levi… Ohh, L-Levi!" Eren feels as if his quivering knees will give out at any moment, the threat growing larger with every lewd slurp as Levi bobs his head down the length of Eren's member. Eren fists his hands tight in the captain's hair and tries to fight off the urge to desperately buck his hips in search of his release. Damn it, Levi is too talented to use blowjobs as foreplay; Eren already finds himself so desperate to blow his load.

He tries to step back and find a wall to steady himself against but only manages to knock into a broom. "Did- did we really have to do it here?"

Eren shudders at the wet noise Levi makes when he pulls off the boy's cock to look around the supply closet. "This is the best place in the whole castle," he deadpans. He stands up as he unbuckles his ODM gear then slides his trousers down to mid-thigh. "Besides, it's near the stables, so once we're done here you can go actually do your job."

"You're the one who wants to fuck four times a day and decided that chores would be the most discreet way to say it!"

"I don't hear you complaining this much when you're in my ass."

Eren can't find a decent response to that.

Levi jumps up to wrap his legs around the boy's waist, Eren quick to catch him under the thighs. Levi grabs his cock to hold steady and they both moan as he sinks down on it. Eren turns to press Levi's back against the wall, finding a good angle before he moves his hips slow. Almost immediately Levi buries his face in his lover's shoulder. He's so responsive to pleasure, body already shivering as he gasps out quiet moans; it makes Eren hard as a rock. Definitely not complaining now.

Armin and Hanji head quickly to the barren stables. "Ah ha!" Hanji grins, hitting her fist into her open palm. "I knew it! The castle simply isn't clean enough for Eren having done all these chores. Which means that these phrases are simply a cipher of some sort - so what is it that these ciphers are hiding, hmm?"

Hanji paces as she ponders this but Armin feels the hair on the back of his neck rise. He's starting to feel uncomfortable with this like he doesn't actually want to know the answer to his question. Not like Hanji will let it go until she gets results.

So, when she exclaims loudly, Armin follows her with timid steps. "Eren must be somewhere near here, he would have to give the illusion of going to clean the stables, right? So he's somewhere around-" Her head whips around as if she heard something, Armin thinks he can hear it too, and a slowly a broad grin splits her face.

"That," she says, pointing to the closet of cleaning supplies. "Is where I think our friend is hiding. So let us learn what this secret of his is."

Armin wrings his hands as he follows Hanji's purposeful stride. "S-Section Commander… Maybe- maybe it might be best for us to leave well enough alone… I mean, we can't always know everything about the people around us. And-and it might be embarrassing for Eren, so that's why he kept it secret in the first place."

His protests fall on deaf ears, which only makes Armin's unease even worse. He almost tries to stop Hanji, but then she has flung the door open and he utterly freezes at the sight.

There, crowded against the far wall, Eren has the Captain in his arms as he thrusts into him with abandon. Levi's legs are cinched around Eren's waist, his eyes screwed shut as he bites desperately into the titan shifter's shoulder to muffle his cries of ecstasy as Eren strokes him to completion and he spills sticky fluid onto their stomachs. Eren growls the Captain's name in such an animalistic way as spends inside Levi, who whimpers high in his throat as overstimulation sends his nerves into overdrive. Eren snarls again at the noise and pulls Levi back by the hair to lock their mouths in a tongue heavy kiss, panting harshly into the other's mouth.

Mortified, Armin's hands fly up to cover his bulging eyes as he nearly shrieks, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

Eren quickly whips his head around as Levi stares over his shoulder. They all freeze.

All except for Hanji, who starts to cackle so loudly it echoes through the courtyard. "Your-your code is chores, and-and-and this is what you two use it to hide?!" she shouts as she holds her stomach, laughter ringing. "You act like you're cleaning so-so you can go off and fuck?!" She all but screams as she laughs, holding onto the door frame to keep upright.

The other three don't dare move as her laughter slowly dies off and she lifts her goggles to wipe tears from her eyes. "Ahh," she breathes out and places her hands on Armin's shoulders, face still red and beaming. "Thank you for setting me on this path, Armin. It has been quite the discovery. Oh, what a day, ha!" she laughs once more as she walks off.

All colour drains from Armin's face and he glances at the couple, still holding onto each other as they regain their breath. Eren is blushing from his ears to his chest, absolute horror written across his expression; meanwhile, grey eyes glare daggers at Armin as Levi seems to be thinking of all the different kinds of "accidents" he could cause out in the field that would end up with Arlert getting eaten.

"I-I should get back to class!" Armin squeaks, high pitched and strangled. He doesn't think he's ever run away so fast, not even from a titan.

As he prepares for bed that evening, Armin scrubs at his face with a soapy rag as if that could wash away the events of the day. He knows sex happens, it always has. Even as a bunch of young cadets in training, it wasn't totally uncommon to walk in on a couple getting it on where they thought was a secluded place. The fact is, they all know the next mission might be their last. That thought doesn't give them a lot of cause for restraint. So, while they still all might be shy about telling their crush their feelings, when two of them are horny, they go for it. It's not as if a one night stand makes a couple. Armin knows most of his friends have boned someone in the last couple weeks at least. Just a few days ago he, Mikasa, and Eren were in town where they saw Reiner and some girl cleaning up after an obvious round together. These things just happened, it was part of life. There's no stigma to them - a guy wants to sleep with a guy, go for it; a guy wants to sleep with a girl, go for it; a girl wants to sleep with a girl, go for it. They all just indulged themselves, knowing it might be their last.

In the mirror Armin catches a glimpse of Eren and Mikasa as they head to bed. He turns a bright red and resumes his scrubbing. Just because he knew people around him had sex didn't mean he wanted to know his best friend was having it, and with Captain Levi of all people.

Armin rinses off the soap then looks at his raw skin. When it comes to day-to-day life in the castle, he vows to keep his ponderings to himself.