19th of May:

Levi wanders into the living room, kneeling onto the couch as he looks out the window, a borrowed mobile phone in his hand as he waits for the other line to pick up. What a great view of their drug dealing neighbours' houses they have... "Damn, shitty signal..." he mutters.

On the other couch, Bertholdt grimaces, repeatedly tucking dark brown hair behind his ear as he sits cross legged on the leather seat. "Are you sure you want to go through with this? What are you going to do if you get found out? That's uh, going to be a pretty awkward situation to get yourself out of."

Although he can feel a flush on his cheeks Levi shoots Bert his best "does it honestly look like I care right now?" look. "I can think on my feet Bert," he reassures the shorter man. "This isn't nothin' I can't deal with- Hiiii this is Annie Leonhardt I'm calling about the ad from the library noticeboard...?" Squeezing his eyes shut, he cringes at the pitch heighten and accent change.

"Oh! The advert! I almost forgot about that, heh." Eren chuckles through the speaker and Levi sighs quietly because sometimes you just gotta appreciate the little things in life. "I'm Eren, the one who plastered that shit onto the library noticeboard. So you're interested in auditioning for the film?"

"...Uh huh." Levi squeaks as girlishly possible, Bertholdt starts silently laughing, clutching his chest as he deflates on the couch and hides his face in the mismatched floral cushions. "U-um, did you, uh, should I practice something...? Pretty sure there's some books at the library about audition pieces-" Levi coughs as his voice breaks, then he's back in action.

"I can drop by and pick up the script to practice? Or, no, you'd want me to improvise wouldn't you? I had to do that for the first peice I auditioned for. Or are you looking for past experience in particular-"

("How can you say all that in one breath, Christ almighty." Bertholdt wheezes some more into the cushions, seemingly enjoying watching Levi make a complete fool of himself)

"Woah, hey, hold up there friend," Eren interupts Levi aka Annie. Sigh. Levi never thought he'd have to slip into this persona again...

"Nothing that complicated! Look, listen." Eren clears his throat before continuing confidently. "This film is your average indie film, we're entering it for a competition and the deadline's in September. September!" he repeats for empahsis, his babbling reflecting his child-like excitement. If only Levi could be cute and enthusiastic like him...

"We've still to go over, like, what we're going to actually do, and uh, I don't really think we've got a set script so you might end up helping come up with ideas." Eren pauses long enough for Levi to confirm he understands. "You might think that September's a while away, but, the film's gotta be around an hour long and we have to work software magic and I have no idea how to do that. My computer guy's out of commision with a fractured shin."

Levi's eyes flicker up to the ceiling as his considers, almost tempted to flutter his eyelashes considering he's now apparently a girl. "A fractured shin? How would that stop him from doing computer stuff?"

"I don't know, I mean, we live in the same house so I don't really get what his problem is, it's not like he has to travel to Timbuktu to do technical stuff. He'll probably change his mind. If not, then we can have an adventure with computers! Yay!" he cheers half-heartedly. "Do you know anyone smart? Please tell me you do."

"Um, I do."

"Really?!"

"...No."

Eren falters on the other end. "Oh. You had my hopes up there, Annie. Don't do that to a man's pride. My dreams don't deserve to be dashed like that. I mean, they already have been, but that's a story for another time."

Right, right, he's Annie to Eren now. He wouldn't have had to go through with this if Eren had just invited Levi into his house last time. Then Levi wouldn't be paranoid that Eren didn't want him in his house, where the letter said the filming would take place and hence how he realized it was Eren's advert. That, and the fact that it had Eren's name next to his phone number.

He couldn't think of a reason why Eren wouldn't invite him in, so he figured the problem must be himself. To fix the problem, he became someone else. See, Levi's smart like that. Thinks so far out the box that he realizes he can use said metaphorical box for his plans.

It looks like he'll be joining a club like Google told him to all that time ago: Film Club.

It's all for Eren, he tells himself. So that Levi can spend more time with him and so Eren can see how awesome Levi is, er well, Annie. Damn. How does he get past that milestone? Bertholdt's right... Still, he'll have a plan when the time comes.

"You never answered my question." Levi points out.

Eren hums confusedly. "Question?"

"Should I practice something to audition with or will you give me something to improvise?"

There's some noise in the background of Eren's line, followed by the microphone being muffled as Eren shouts at someone. "Sorry, right, uh, well like I said, we don't really have anything set up. No script, basically. Just come over to mine and we'll see if we like you."

"Who's we, exactly?" Levi doesn't really want to have to put up with a massive group, because that'd mean they'd steal all Eren's attention. "Other actors?"

"Ah, no, see; we've kind of got one person per job. There's... me, I'm doing camera shit and cinematography, Jean's on sound, Biscuit's on lighting, er, maybe props as well since he works at a second hand store-"

"Biscuit?"

Eren picks up his confusion and full on sniggers. "Y-yeah, we call him Biscuit because I can't pronounce his name. Sounds like "Oreo" when I say it, and you know. Oreo Biscuits are a thing. He's Jean's twin brother, actually. There's a heurna lot of nicknames they get from me, you kinda have to be there to find it funny."Eren hums tunefully.

"Who else? Oh, Armin and Mikasa would join us, but Armin's half dead apparently and Mikasa's got work. In her spare time, she's manager. She might make it for your audition though."

"And that's where I come in. I'm the one-man, I mean one-woman- show. The actress. All by myself." Levi flops down onto the couch. Damn, this means all the attention is going to be on him. And if Eren's the camera man, it means he can't not look at Levi. Annie. Dammit.

"You might end up doing stuff with Biscuit, Jean and Mikasa, since it's not like they won't have no time to act, but we thought we'd make sure to have a single person solely doing the acting so we've got a protagonist, or whatever. That sound cool? We're meeting on uh, Wednesdays. Two til four. Might have to rearrange that to fit more rehearsal times, but we'll deal with that later. We're meeting at my place. The address was on the advert, yeah? I can give it to you if you need directions..."

The two of them continue to arrange Levi's visit, and Bertholdt seems to have disapeared, only to return to the living room with a cup of tea for him and Levi. That's one of the benfits of living with middle aged women as staff.

There's so many tea bags. Everywhere you look: teabags. They were spilling out of his cupboards in the kitchen when he first looked in them. It was heaven. Sadly, no black tea. Tetley will have to do him for now, until he can find an Asian cuisine shop that sells it. And with how tiny this town is, he probably won't have much luck.

Eren's voice brims with didactic enthusiasm as he talks. "Well Annie, it was nice talking to you. I look forward to meeting you in person."

"You too." After Levi says that there's a pause, and Eren hurriedly tells him "bye bye bye!" then hangs up. Yeah, Levi's never really been good at closing conversations.

He glances at Bertholdt as he passes back the phone.

"Looks like we're going wig shopping."

(Because that line is so epically climatic, Levi decides that that's tonight's entry for his calendar)

21st of May:

"Okay I might've lied a slight tad. I'm actually really worried about doing this." Levi confesses as he fidgets with the hem of his plain, black t-shirt.

Bertholdt peers into the bathroom as Levi calls out to him. "You decent in there?"

"Well I'm fully clothed so I should hope so."

He gets a thumbs up from the shorter man as he walks inside, patting Levi's arm who leans against the sink in despair. "You look like a girl! Congratulations!" Bertholdt claps, hopefully uninronically. "The transition is complete. Now just imagine you have a top secret mission and you have to infiltrate the Jaeger residence."

Big, olive green eyes gleam as a slow smirk spreads across his face. It drops as suddenly as it appeared and Bert sighs contentedly. "I have to admit, this isn't like other times when I've seen guys cross dress."

Levi rolls his eyes. "Why, because I'm not wearing a skirt?" he scoffs while eyeing up his own denim clad legs and white trainers.

"Probably." Bertholdt pouts thoughtfully. "I mean, girls wear skinny jeans all the times these days so I never get why people think when guys "dress as girls" they have to wear skirts."

"It's 2014. Shit's got real."

"That it has. Are you ready? Make-up on? Wig as beautiful as we first bought it?" Bert coddles him like a mother to her child leaving home for the first day of school, though really it's a pep talk. "You didn't drop it in bleach and turn it green?"

"Give it time, I'll do something to ruin my own plan eventually."

The sound of the doorbell beckons Bertholdt and he groans. With a whisper of "good luck!" he leaves the bathroom to let Reiner in. (Because of course it's Reiner, the guy shows up every five minutes)

"Oh wait," Levi can easily hear the tall blonde at the door. "I forgot something. Be right back." (He always does this too)

Looking into the mirror, he fiddles with the itchy blonde fringe that hides his eyes, turning slightly to see the loose bun that it's styled in (courtesey of Bertholdt, who's experienced in styling girls' hair for some reason).

He'd only needed a thin layer of lip gloss, mascara and a padded bra to have him on his way. He's still a little flat chested, but does it really matter? Are people honestly going to question his gender due to the fact that they were staring at his chest? If so, he's got something to say to those fuckers. The door bell goes again but Levi ignores it in favour of perfecting his story, complete with a higher pitch than his usual and a more Northern accent (although Bert said he sounded Irish).

"Name's Annie Leonhardt. I've always wanted to be an actress, been in plays, need some shit to do; fit's up, lads?"

Nailed it.

He's made it so Annie's a woman of few words and a total badass, that way it's easier to stay in character in case he slips up. Now all that's left to do is to actually go to Eren's house and ace that audition. Kind of. He needs to liked, anyway. Annie needs to be liked. He escapes the bathroom and darts down the hallway, only to be stopped halfway to the door as Reiner stares down at him and blinks.

"Hi." Reiner says with a vacant expression.

Levi huffs in annoyance, noticing Reiner's wandering eyes. "Hi. I need to leave, so move your ass."

"Woah! No need to be rude!" Levi pushes past him, thankful he's a slim guy. "Damn, tidy girls think they can-" Not waiting around to hear the rest of that sentence, he drags his sorry ass to Eren's, praying that it doesn't rain.

It spits, but that's good enough.

(He'll still curse the weather though, like any other scotsman would)

Levi finds himself standing outside a familiar crumbling house, still as gardenless and barren as it looked last time. He sweeps the hair of the wig behind his ear, takes a deep breath, and knocks on the brown door that looms over him.

Because Life loves him so much and the karma from the time he laughed when Erwin stood on a lego brick is coming back full circle, Eren's not the one who answers the door.

It's the chick from the night of Eren's party. The Asian looking one. And see that, it's like the scarf never even left her neck. Her dark eyes cast downwards at his feet and small lips timidly tighten, chin hidden beneath the red fabric. She's wearing an ironed white blouse, carefully rolled up at the sleeves and a crimson skirt falls to her ankles.

A short puff of air from her nose pushes straying strands of her black bob from her face. Well. She doesn't seem too bad. Soft eyed but alert; like a cat peering into the new neighbour's garden.

"Hi, I'm Annie." Levi drawls softly, widening his eyes in hopes that he'll seem more feminine. "Is Eren in?"

The girl before him continues her staring until it's broken by a blonde boy in a preppy vest shoving her to the side with a crutch. "Mikasa, that's the lady Eren told us about, the one that's gonna be the actress?" Blondie grins in his direction, grabbing Levi's arm (not noticng how Levi stiffens at the contact) and ushers him inside, leading him through the house as he hobbles beside Levi. "I'm Armin!" he chirps. Ah, Mikasa and Armin: the overprotective and smart foster siblings.

"Eren's not here at the moment, but he texted me a few minutes ago saying he's on his way back from the shop. God knows what he bought. Hopefully we'll actually get groceries this week." he glances back at Levi, who's struggling to keep up with his rapid speech that's much like Eren's.

"You're a little early aren't you? Well, no matter, means we can get to know you before Eren comes in and steals the stage. Has a habit of that, really. He could make a living in interrupting people with his life story and speeches."

With no time to take in the hallway, he observes the living room as best he can while Armin "fetches mandatory water for the guest". There's two worn out, possibly flea ridden, sky blue couches facing towards a sturdy, African looking coffee table and behind that a large, outdated T.V with a VCR. The walls are lined with flower silhouettes (tacky, in his opinion). "It's small," he says out loud without meaning to. "But I can easily imagine myself getting comfortable in a place like this."

Mikasa nods where she sits beside him on the other end of the couch, sinking into the material and curling her legs beneath herself. Her voice is muffled beneath all the layers of fabric. "We didn't have money to decorate properly. And when we did, we were too scared that we'd make a mess of everything. It's cheap and hipster looking, but I guess it's quite family-like." Levi nods, unconsciously rubbing a finger between his knuckles and crossing his legs.

Armin shouts in the kitchen as he hops back to Levi and Mikasa with a dinner plate that acts as a tray for the glasses. He's telling someone or other to "go into the living room!" like they're in for a surprise (such a shame that Levi's not a hired stripper that could pop out of a cake for them).

Just as Armin sets the three, indentical glasses of water onto abstract art coasters, two boys poke their head around the door and peer into the living room. Oh, it's that guy that was giving Eren birthday bumps, the same one who went to his store and held up the queue.

Both boys wear cocky smirks, sport the same two tone undercut and casual suits that are complete with wasistcoats, though one boy looks old and sleazy whereas the other one looks like an attractive asshole and sleazy. Such eye candy, wow.

"We have a person." Two Tone One says.

"Ah," Two Tone two starts, raising a finger. "But can we keep said person?" They swagger into the room and plop themselves onto the other couch, seeing as the one Levi's on is occupied by Armin and Mikasa and he's sandwhiched between the two.

"Depends if we like her." Mikasa mumbles sleepily. "Eren wouldn't know a good actor from a bad one so it's best we decide."

"Eren might be the host, but we're the judging panel. All of us except him are Simon Cowell."

"He's the Queen and we're the government; just because he rules over us doesn't mean he's got power."

They may not look identical, but they have the same inflatable ego that Levi sees all the time in guys at bars and clubs. Which isn't often, granted, but even he can make a quick judgement when necessary.

"Guys," Armin scolds them with a scowl. "He's the one that started all this in the first place so his opinion matters as much as any director's. Now, Annie; I'd like you to meet the lighting and sound guys: that one's Jean," he points at the more attractive twin with lighter coloured hair. "And for some reason we call him Biscuit," he refers to the male with a slight silver tinge to his hair and aged appearance. "I'm sorry man, I don't think I even remember your real name anymore."

Biscuit stares up at the ceiling in a mock existential crisis. "Neither do I, son. I tell myself it's okay so I might as well tell that to you too."

Armin chuckles tunefully, gesturing to Levi. "This is Annie. This is person. Do we keep person?"

"What music do you listen to?" Mikasa randomly asks him.

Before Levi can answer, Jean jumps up from where he slouches on the couch. "Shit, question time! We could use a Facebook note, that might help us out." he whizzes out the room for a full two seconds before he sprints back with a laptop and sits it on the coffee table.

Half an hour and ninety questions later, they've all crowded round Levi, still furiously firing question after question at him. It's not bad, to be honest. He's always kind of wondered what it'd be like to be interviewed. Yeah, Levi had dreams about being famous, what's it to you? Their reactions are priceless as well, because he's been making each answer a little more interesting than is strictly true. So far, Jean and Biscuit seem utterly fascinatedwith him.

Mikasa glances at the screen, having chronologically chosen each of her questions from the note. "Oh yay, it's the music one I wanted, what do you listen to?"

"Uh, Coldplay, Snow Patrol... Arctic Monkey's? I tend to go for the mood of the song rather than specific bands." He can't lie to Mikasa. That'd be like... Lying to himself.

"Awesome, me too." Mikasa offers him a sweet, geunine smile, less of her face hidden by the scarf she seems attached to. "Armin, next question. Make it a hard one."

Armin, however, has been making all questions up on the spot. He lights up with devilish glee. "Okay, okay, hypothetically, if you were in a burning house and you had to save your hypothetical sister in the furthest room or five people in a room closer to you, who would you rescue?"

"If I save said five people could we go get my sister afterwards?"

"Nope, it's either one or the other."

"That's kinda harsh and unrealistic."

"That's life, Annie!" Levi grins in return as Armin clenches his fist in faux fury. "Since when is life actually logical?!" he collapses onto the couch, head falling onto Levi's lap.

Levi leans back into the couch, resting an arm over the edge. "Well, if I had to, I'd save the five people because you know, morals require me to do so and all that. If my sister was actually related to me and not some step sibling, then she'd have the same badass blood in her and be able to save herself. Would probably save a kitten on the way out too."

Everyone around him chuckles and look at him fondly: yup he's getting this part. No doubt about it. Mikasa's phone goes off and she tuts at the message she gets.

"Is that Marco again?" Jean asks.

"Yeah," she sighs heavily. "Says Eren's got "a surprise for us". Poor Marco. God bless that man. And you know, you have to think pretty highly of someone to ask someone else's god to bless them for you."

"You keep tabs on Eren?" Levi blurts out, then covers his mouth because shit he isn't supposed to know that. "At least, that's what it sounds like. Are you having Marco stalk him?" Nice save. Smooth as a water slide that's been out all day in the sun. Levi that was not smooth that was a total crash and burn.

As Armin ascends from Levi's lap, Mikasa flings her arms up and stares at the ceiling in annoyance. "Why does everyone think that? He really doesn't help either, going about being a drama queen, telling people I'm "so overprotective"." She glances over at Levi, slamming her hands down on the arm rest of the couch.

"Listen, I'll tell you the real deal: Eren's a public menace, one step away from being electronically tagged. You know, having a GPS attached to his leg so he can be tracked. I told work 'no, I'll save you guys money, I'll do it myself because he's my little shit to be responsible for'. Marco helps me when I'm not out with Eren 'cause he's my coworker."

"You're... Are you with the police?"

"Yup," she winks at him. "Officer Ackerman at your service, sweetheart."

Oh, oh god. Eren's sister... No, don't wink at Levi. He's gay but he's not the kind of gay that you want him to be, or even a he at all, fucking sweetheart.

This is not a day he wants to relive, oh man.

Mikasa takes his humiliated flush the wrong way and shuffles closer to him and he does his best to hide a whimper. Just think happy thoughts, happy thoughts Levi! Think of Eren and his sunshine demeanor! How well he can bandage people up! The fact that he's a legit public menace being watched by the police!

Speak of the devil: there's a loud thud at the front entrance and soon Eren shuffles in, whispering to... What seems to be a house plant about the size of Levi that he's hugging, along with plastic shopping bags hanging like fat, white bats off his arms.

"Honey, I'm home~"

Levi's brain short circuits at the idea of Eren saying that to him, not to mention how his heart flutters upon seeing the man. Biscuit turns to Levi when he stiffens his posture completely. Eren's wearing a red checkered shirt with the sleeves roughly rolled up, much like the green one Levi has and damn, he wears denim jeans a lot better than Levi can.

Mikasa flops back onto the couch, arm resting over her eyes in sheer exhaustion. "Eren, please tell me you didn't dig that up from the Biblical Gardens." she says calmly, not quite pleadingly. "Or the primary school. Or someone's garden."

He peers round the plant at her with a huge shit eating grin. "Yes darling, I had a wonderful day. Hey Armin, remember when you said that carbon dioxide feeds plants?" Armin thinks for a minute, nodding instead of trying to correct him. "Well, I also remembered that when you speak, it lets out carbon dioxide and I was talking to the plant to make it healthy!"

"So you... Talked to the plant, all the way home."

Eren scoffs, shuffling around the room to sit the plant beside the window. He dumps the shopping bags beside them, clearly forgetting them as soon as he sets them down. "You say that like it's a bad thing. And Mikasa, I got this from B&Q. I even got one of them little bug shaped windmills to sit in the soil!" he mimes a spinning windmill with his finger. Is no-one concerned with why Eren has the plant in the first place...?

Jean frowns, along with Biscuit, the two of them folding their arms and sighing at Eren. "You do know that the windmill will be pointless..."

"Y'know, considering it's going to be inside."

The glare Eren shoots them is unmistakably feral. It's pretty damn hot. "Don't ruin the image I had in my mind. I will dream, you fucking crayons!" he trots away with his nose high in the air, heading towards Levi. "Well how'd ya do! You're Annie right?" Levi nods dumbly. "I'm Eren," he bows down then offers a hand and Levi raises an eyebrow at his sudden, possibly reserved for strangers and very much fake, politeness. "We spoke on the phone?"

Before Levi has the chance to shake Eren's hand, Mikasa darts over to him, hands clamping around his waist and making him squirm uncomfortably. "We're keeping her." Not unkindly, he pries her hands away from the danger zone. Meaning his entire person.

Armin nods, scratching his cheek as it reddens. "I ditto that."

Simultaneously, Jean and Biscuit look at each other and nod in comfirmation of the other's thoughts then back at the group. "It's a Big Yes from me."

Levi's definitely wondering why on Earth these people like him when he's only known him for half an hour. Then again, they're not too bad themselves.

Glancing around at the unanimous agreement, Eren's surprised expression wears off and he reaches out to Levi's head. Levi can practically feel the stars in his eyes as Eren smiles kindly down at him, his breath falling short as the hand nears his hair, then promptly ruffles it roughly.

That's uh, when the wig falls askew.

"Wait," Eren falters upon seeing the flash of dark hair, squealing as he rips his hand away from the wig. "Levi?!"

Armin bursts out laughing, wheezing hysterically and clutching his sides as he falls to the floor. "For the record I knew the entire time. You didn't do a very good job at hiding your Adam's Apple."

Jean coughs. "I'm beginning to question my sexuality." he whispers lowly and hides his face in Biscuit's chest.

Mikasa frowns dirtily at Armin, enough to silence him as he picks himself off the floor, taking a seat next to Levi. "Don't make fun of Annie because they're transgender." she growls.

Levi just wants to melt into the furniture. Eren's still staring at him and before that made him feel special but now he just feels like a complete moron. He pulls the wig off properly and crosses his arms, avoiding Eren's gaze. Shit what's the plan what's the plan- "I'm not. Look, I'm really sorry-" he starts.

"You actually managed to convince me you're a girl. Didn't recognise you, I shit you not." He glances at Mikasa. "'s like Johnny Depp, right? With how well he can slip into a character, totally unrecognizable." Eren's... Complimenting him?! Why...?

Mikasa's quiet for a few moments. "Are you implying that An- I mean Levi helped you discover your sexual orientation? Stayed with you, epecially during loud episodes of masterba-"

"-Mikasa!" Mikasa simply blows a raspberry at him. "I never should've taught you that." he runs fingers through his hair, griping the brown locks and hiding his flushed face behind his forearms. He catches Levi's eye accidentally, then holds it as he motions towards the group, hair flopping over his green eyes.

"Do you think you can handle these guys? I mean, they obviously don't care what or who you are. Man, I should've checked with you to see if you were up for this. You don't really seem the type? To act? Uh, yeah, so what do you say?"

Levi wipes the remnants of the lip gloss away with the back ofhis hand, and when he looks back to the group he's found to be pretty agreeable, he finds all the attention is on him. "Uh, sure..."

Eren shrugs with a dopey grin then claps his hands. "Looks like we've got everyone we need: now's to figure out what the hell we're actually doing."

This is... Not what Levi expected when his identity was revealed.

"No,"Armin interrupts Eren. "You're putting the shopping away since you bought a huge plant for no reason. Remember that that's our money. And we asked you to buy FOOD, not inedible plants." He points at the abadoned pile of shopping bags, smacking his lips and looking at Eren sternly.

Eren whines. "But Daaaaaad..."

"Get going you stupid crayon, or I'm returning it to B&Q." Eren rushes towards the bags and drags them to the kitchen, still complaining to his "Dad".

Armin goes to cross his legs, hissing when he realizes he can't do that and grimaces in Levi's direction. "So when were you going to tell us?"

The entire room's stare is on him and he baulks. "Um. When you found out, I guess?" Maybe they wouldn't be as accepting about the fact he lied about his identity as Eren made them out to be...?

"Well I don't know about you guys," Armin gestures to the others. "But I know."

Mikasa bites her lip, frowning in confusion before she watches Armin's face. "Oh." her eyes widen and she visably tries to compress a smile. "Yeah, I knew from the beginning." Jean and Biscuit just look at each other, both as lost as the other.

Jolting him, Armin nudges Levi so hard he almost falls over. "Right, now that we, as a majority, know, we're going to give you some tips!" he exclaims.

...Tips? Wait, what?

"First thing's first: make sure you know your films." Armin states.

Mikasa nods wisely. "Your next best bet is to look really impressed and give him your full attention when he starts showing off or babbling, especially when he's going on about cinematography."

Huh?

Armin and Mikasa nod to each other, glancing at Jean and Biscuit. Jean seems to understand what they're doing. "Make sure you say his name a lot when you're talking to him. Gets his attention, makes him flustered as hell."

"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" Levi shifts to the edge of the couch cushion, taking in each of the group in turn as he frowns confusedly.

Ignoring him, Armin continues. "You've got to be a yes voter."

"I would advise offering to take him out to the cinema. The bigger the screen and the more obscure the title, the better."

"He's a sweet tooth! Buy him a shit ton of sweets."

"Oh, I bet if you offered to write the script he'd marry you in a heartbeat."

That's when it breaks through to him and when he realizes, he slaps a hand over his mouth in an attempt to hide the burning on his face. He's really... Well it's not like he was trying to hide it but, but still, it wasn't that obvious, right? Apparently it was... He's only known these people for half an hour and they can already read his mind.

Solemnly, Armin nods and pats his back, stifling a giggle. "I can tell what you're thinking, and yes; you've got it pretty bad." Armin doesn't even lie about his telepathic powers. "Everyone's fallen in love with Eren at some point, but I'll be damned if we don't work together to get at least one of our friends with him. Say, what were you saying to him that night at the bar?"

"That's when I noticed." Mikasa adds. "You looked very nervous that night, and you don't seem like the easily flustered type."

Lowering his hand from his mouth, he cups his knee with it and hisses inwardly. "I-I told him... Uh, his hair looked fluffy." Jean shoots up from where he sits, pointing at Levi as he grinds his teeth. "I told you that was a valid complement."

Beside him, Biscuit rolls his eyes. "Yeah, but probably the worst pick up line," he glances at Levi. "No offence."

Jean slumps back down, a frown deepset on his face as he snarls at his brother. "At least I don't lacerate my own tongue every time I try and look cool."

"Oh so you admit to trying to look cool-" They continue bickering while Levi focuses on Mikasa and Armin.

"Does he... Talk about me? At all?" Levi asks.

Mikasa tilts her head to the side as she ponders. "When did Eren talk about Levi... Ah, there was that time he told us that we couldn't phone a taxi because he pissed them off, and then while we were walking we made him explain why. Do you really speak Hindi?"

Levi nods, chewing on his lip. "So what does he think-"

Stumbling through into the living room with his jaw hanging loose as though he's in a daze, Eren's eyes flicker from Armin to Levi. "I'm done with the shopping, can I go talk to the plant now?"

In a low voice Armin whispers "I've got an idea." Then he turns away from Eren, focusing all his attention on Levi. He, along with Mikasa, starts questioning Levi again, basic things like what his schools were like, what hobbies he has, what his roommate is like and Levi goes along with it although he's not really sure why.

Eren asks how Levi's "audition" went; Armin shushes him and lets Levi continue talking. It makes Levi a little uneasy, because he can see Eren steadily growing more and more annoyed the longer he gets ignored.

"Is that so? I never really knew they paid attention to the pupil's preferences that much. I remember learning about the acts that were put into place and seeing a few signs on the train that told me how big of an offence it was to discriminate against the opposing football team but-"

"Armin."

"I don't really watch football," Mikasa pipes in. "I go down to the Dojo in my spare time and the sport's channel is always on when I'm watching T.V, although I only tend to watch-"

"Mikasa."

"I kinda gave up on T.V when all the daytime stuff went to shit. I remember when I was in Glasgow, we had to put coins into the T.V because it was just that old but at least it meant we didn't have to pay for a licence-"

Eren barges in, shouldering his way past Armin and Mikasa. "Alright that's it." And all of a sudden Levi is being picked up bridal style off the couch and he yelps then swings his arms around Eren for dear life. Warmth envelopes him while Eren jogs out the room, up the stairs. He's touching Eren okay, wow, wait WHAT.

Green eyes stare down into grey as though they're trying to stop his heart from working properly. "Stay close to your friends but stay even closer to your enemies." Eren tells him. He smells like citrus and fresh laundary detergent and holy hell Levi better not pop one here because that'd definitely end his life.

They reach a door on the first floor and Eren lowers his arms so that Levi can let himself down, and naturally he lingers with his hands at Eren's neck, but the latter's more occupied with seeing if his roommate's in.

"Yaaas, my room is vacant of the Daz. Come in, Levi!"

Either this is a torture room where Eren is going to decapitate him for stealing his friends from him or, or... No. It's going to be a torture room.

It's... A very clean torture room, so maybe it's not the worst way to go out.

The walls have been painted dark blue, and there's a questionable throw of what should hopefully be faux fur on the floor at the foot of the oak bunk bed. Eren makes his way to the desk with piles of stationary and random books and pulls open a drawer, telling Levi he can sit on the bottom bed. Because that's his. Yeah. Not a bad way to go out, he must admit. Maybe he already has? It wouldn't surprise him.

With a box in his hands, Eren walks back over to him and sits on the floor opposite him. "This is the camera I got during my last shopping trip when I knew I was going to do the competition. It's brand new, and I don't trust myself to open it." He passes the box to Levi like he's a kid holding a glass figurine. Resting his nose at the edge of the bed so that his mouth is covered, he graces the box with his best puppy dog eyes. "You do it." he tells Levi, still staring at the box.

"A-are you sure?" Eren nods. He winces in pain when he hits his nose off the bed frame. "You know you're going to have touch it at some point, right? After all you're the camera guy."

"But touching a sacred camera that is worth more than my big toe is like, like walking on a fresh layer of snow in the morning. I just can't let myself do it. I would break it."

Levi smirks slightly. "You sure sound confident in your camera man skills."

"The only skill I'm confident in is being able to tell the difference between window wiper and bleach, and my Impulsive Plant Purchasing skills."

"You have a name for what you do?"

"If we're going to be spending more time together I would suggest you don't question half the things I do." Eren chuckles, cheeks rounding as he leans away from the bed, covering his mouth to hide his smile and crinkling eyes.

"So I can't ask you why you bought the plant in the first place?" Levi asks, trying to memorise how the light from the window hits his hair.

"Ah well," Eren says with a sigh. "There's a no pet policy for our house. No cats, dogs, birds, lizards... It's dandy that I get to make friends with the neighbour's cats, but at this point I'd be over the moon with a goldfish."

Beyond the bedroom door, someone shouts "You're the pet dog, Eren!"

Eren turns to face the door. "Shut up you shitty crayola stick!" he pounces at the bed beside Levi. "Come on! Open it, I wanna see what it looks like."

It's not like Levi can turn him down... He unwraps the plastic outer packagaing to reveal a Nikon brand logo on the box, flinching when Eren hisses fearfully as he pries away the tabs to open it.

"Oh my god it's beautiful."

"It's all still in packaging and it's not even assembled-"

"BEAUTIFUL! We're totally testing this out." He snatches the camera away from Levi and examines the device once it's free of the protective layer. "How the fuck do I turn this on."

Levi's never been one for instructions, so he peers at the buttons on the side and top. "The biggest one is our best bet."

"AHA!" Eren squeals when the red light turns on and the screen awakens. Then flashes off in the blink of an eye. "Levi you broke it."

"I did not! It just needs charged."

"You broke it! It comes precharged. It doesn't need charged." Eren insists. He fishes out the instructions and reads the first page. "Nope, needs charged. You would'a paid a mighty fine penny if you'd broken this, Levi."

Eren begins talking to himself, trying to figure out "how the fuck this thing works" (oh yeah their movie is going to be such high quality) and Levi thinks back to the advices the group gave Levi on, uh, winning Eren over. Because that's definitely what family members and friends do for strangers?

"Eren, what's cinematography?"

"Oh." Eren lowers the camera from his face where he'd been inspecting it closely. His eyes and mouth widen simultaneously, making him look a little crazy. "I'm glad you asked."

After a few minutes of explaining, Levi remembers he's heard of that before, specifically when he was browsing through wikipedia.

"I think I know what you're on about. I remember there was a scene in Fight Club that really annoyed me because the actors looked like they knew something, like... Fuck what's it called.. Dramatic irony, I think. Uh, anyway, there was a scene where they were in the projector room and they looked like, I don't know, it meant something when they were talking about replacing one frame of film with something else." Eren folds his arms, lying down on them as he watches Levi.

He continues, spurred on by Eren's apparent interest. "When I looked it up, it turns out they'd put snippets of Brad Pitt in the scenes before to get you used to seeing him without realizing it. Because you know, he'd had the split personality even before he'd met the soap dude and that's how they managed to pass off the split personality through the entire thing. And nobody knew. And apparently they filmed in darker places on purpose, to give it a homo-erotic feel to freak out the audience..."

"Wow." Eren stares at Levi, a little slack jawed. For once, Levi doesn't feel embarrassed about rambling. Sure he's getting a little hot under the collar, but that's comepletely because Eren looks like Levi told him he invented sliced bread. "Maybe you should be the camera guy. I feel so incompetent, like, wow. It's good to know shit like what you said. Learning from the previous masters, and all that jazz."

Shaking his head in disbelief, Eren hands Levi the camera. "I still wanna see if this works and what settings it's got. Hook it up to my computer and see if you can turn it on."

After a while they manage to figure out what went where, Levi has to turn off the night mode and that causes some... "excitement" but they manage to get the camera up and running.

"Has it got one of them big microphones like you see in the movies...?" Eren rummages through the box. "Nup. Right. We shouldn't need it, but we'll see how high the quality is with just this. Alright." he flops onto his bed. "Film me like one of your French girls." He rasps in a French accent and poses as he bounces on the mattress.

Just as Levi lifts the camera to peer into the screen, there's a loud thud at the door and the twins barge in. "Oh, oh my! They're filming porn, we better get out of here." As the scuttle out, Eren leaps off the bed and chases them, all of them cursing their way to the living room. Levi sighs. He was invited to the guy's room, it's not like he's not getting anywhere...

In the living room, Armin assembles everyone around the laptop. "Okay guys, we have no idea what we're doing, so I think we're going to have to do it."

Mikasa hums unsurely. "Are you really going to...?"

He takes a big sigh, glancing at Eren who insisted Armin sit on his lap. "It's not like it's the end of the world but... Some measures have to be taken at the price of our pride and happiness." He begins typing into the url bar.

"I-is that..." Jean screeches and attempts to flip down the screen. "Don't resort to it! You're better than that!"

"We have no choice!" And thus, Wikihow covers the screen. 'How to make an Indie movie' is typed into the search bar, and everyone groans.

As Armin's reading the screen contents to himself, Levi's phone goes off: it turns out to be Bertholdt reminding him about the resident meeting at Swansea. Shit. He has to leave. He doesn't... He doesn't really want to... But damn, Armin made a good point about having to take measures.

"Guys, I'm gonna have to run. I've got a meeting at the place I'm staying at." he could just slip away while they all stare at the screen...

But no, all eyes are on him as he tries to stand up. "Wait a second! Can't we get your number? You're coming back next week, right? Maybe we could go out for coffee before then?" Armin eyes are fearful, along with the rest of the group, which... really doesn't make sense because he's only known them for a few hours.

Levi nods at the brunette's directions. "Eren's got mine. You can get it from him, right? I'm coming back next week, uh, text me if you want." They all agree with a sigh of relief and quickly wave him goodbye. When he's away from the couch, he sees that he's left the wig on the couch... Sitting there like a mop of eternal lies for all to see...

Eh, they do drama. It might come in useful with costume. He leaves it at that and trudges home.

Half an hour later, he attends the pointless meeting that gets a little heated when Petra is accused by Mina for not cleaning the dishes on a regular enough basis, and Sasha gets upset when she finds out it was Reiner, Bertholdt and Keith who were playing knock-a-doorie in the middle of the night. Apparently the meeting was supposed to have them sit down and fix a bunch of problems, but yeah. That's not really what happens.

The three boys ditch Swansea to go drinking. Surprisingly enough, they invite him out, but he declines and says he wants to wash the make up off his face and go to bed early. One little lie never hurt anyone. They're social people, so they wouldn't understand that he just needs a quiet house and a clean bed to recharge in, even if he's not sleeping.

His phone rings out four times that night, all from unknown numbers:

(Unknown number at 18.05) -Heeey it's Armin! Got your number from Eren like you said :D Nice meeting you! You coming back next week? Think we finally know what we're doing LOL

(Unknown number at 18.37) -It's Mikasa. You're the only sane one that's ever entered our house. Please visit again.

(Unknown number at 19.52) -Hi Levy, this s Jean's no. Im the CUTE twin bro, Im sure u remember ;) xxx

(Unknown number at 19.53) -They won't stop talking about you. It's Biscuit btw. We asked Eren what he thought of you. He says you're cool. GET IN THERE YOU DOG xxx

He saves them in his contacts, shooting them all comfirmation texts with a small smile and puts his phone on silent as he fishes out the calendar from under the pillow.

"The day I joined a film club, and Eren's group. What am I doing with my life?!"