Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"I'm back" Christa called as she walked into her dorm, arms full of groceries. She pushed the door shut with her foot, before kicking off her heels and briefly trying to straighten the shoes as much as she could with her arms full of bags. 

Ymir stepped out from the small kitchenette holding a plate in one hand, while the other worked a pink rag on the plate in methodical circles, "Welcome back – do you need help with those?" 

Christa only shook her head; "Nope I got it" she responded as she pushed her way past the bigger girl and set the bags on the tiny island in the center of the kitchen before immediately rummaging through them and going about putting the groceries away. 

"Hey you didn't check the mail earlier did you? Because when I chec-" her question was cut off when Ymir was suddenly shoving a stack of envelopes in her face. She blinked owlishly before taking the pile with both hands, "Oh, thank you".

"Yup," was Ymir's gruff response as she turned back to her task of drying the freshly washed dishes, "More love letters I presume?"

Christa laughed, still flipping through the letters when a plain white one with her name written in bold on the cover caught her eye, "Weird."

"What's weird?"

Christa 'hmm'd in thought, before setting the other letters down and turning the plain envelope about in her hand, "Well this one has no address in it, so I wonder how it was delivered to the P.O. box?"

"Let me see that," Ymir practically growled, reaching for the letter to snatch it from Christa's grasp, who only giggled softly and jumped back out of reach. 

"Nu uh – didn't anyone ever teach you not to read other people's mail?" she taunted before tearing the envelope open and taking the letter out to read it, "Hello His… toria."

And Ymir could only watch as the color drained from Christa's face.

"This is a copy of the letter sent to our victims P.O. box," Commander Keith Shadis handed the pages to Mikasa, who took one for herself before passing it to Eren, who took his own as well before handing the last one to Armin.

"It's pretty straight forward," the raven haired girl mused once she had finished scanning over the letter.

"The letter was sent in an address-less envelope with the name 'Christa Lenz' printed on the front-"

"That's a different name from the one in the letter," Eren grumbled, eyes frantically looking for any kind of hidden meaning in the letter; though that was more of Armin's specialty rather than his.

Shadis' eye twitched at being cut off before continuing, "That is correct. Historia is our vic's legal name though she goes by 'Christa' and has been doing so for years. She and her family claim that the only people who could possibly know her actual name are those from her childhood or anyone that has access to her records."

"I am more concerned about how this came to her possession. You said she had a P.O. box right? How was this delivered if there wasn't even a send to address?" Armin questioned.

"Perhaps P.O. box isn't the correct term. This was placed in the outbox of Miss Lenz's college. The local authorities already checked it out and the man on staff at the current time claimed to have just went ahead and put it in her mail slot – said anyone who uses the outbox in the school's mail office is a student on campus and since it didn't actually have to be mailed anywhere he assumed it would be okay."

Mikasa 'tsk'ed in annoyance - she hated when people didn't do their jobs right.

"So there's no security footage of the guy dropping it off?" Eren questioned.

"The mail office closes at six on the dot and after the place is locked up the cameras are shut off."

"How convenient," Mikasa mumbled softly and Armin nodded in agreement.

"The letter was in the mail out box the next morning, meaning whoever left it either had access to the area or is good at picking locks. Only partial prints were found on the letter and so the authorities are unable to get a perp."

Armin stared at the letter in his hands, re-reading the words again for what felt like the hundredth time in the past five minutes, 'Hello Historia. I bet you haven't heard that name in a while. Am I right or am I right? Now, I'm sure you are wondering who I am, but don't you worry your pretty little head over it – we'll be seeing each other soon enough.'

Armin cleared his throat, "Sir, if you don't mind me asking, how exactly is this in our jurisdiction? It sounds like your typical stalker case to me."

"That is what I thought at first too, but as I mentioned earlier, Miss Lenz has been living under an assumed name for years. She is the illegitimate child of a well off family and any threat made to her is seen as a direct threat to the family. I'm not going to lie, with all of the money they are throwing around they are pulling the strings here, and after the incident they've been using their influence to get their way."

"Incident?" Eren spoke up.

"Hey hey, I don't know why you look so down," Christa set her drink down so she could lean across the table and pat her frowning companion atop her head. 

"You know why I look like this,"

The two girls were currently in a small club located a little ways off campus. Even though she was of the legal drinking age, Christa was tentatively sipping on a virgin strawberry daiquiri while Ymir was downing her third beer. It had been a whole week after the whole 'mysterious letter' fiasco and Christa was refusing to let it bother her, but Ymir was a different story - constantly keeping an eye on anyone who so much as looked at her blonde friend. Christa had thought going out for a drink would help calm her friend's nerves, but it seemed to have the opposite effect as Ymir was glaring at anyone and everyone in their vicinity.

"Well I'm not having any fun," Christa pouted and Ymir's hard gaze softened a bit.

"Sorry."

Christa smiled before leaning back into her seat and stretching her arms over her head, "See? This would be so much more fun if you would just relax a little bit." 

"I guess" Ymir grumbled into her bottle, before chugging the last of it. 

"Would you like me to get you another one?" Christa smiled, gesturing to the now empty drink.

"I can get it myself."

Christa only waved her off, "Nonsense. I have to use the restroom anyway – I'll just get it for you on my way back."

She was already standing up when Ymir lurched across the table to grab her wrist, "I'll go with you."

The blonde scowled, "We're not in grade school anymore – I'm a big girl. I can handle a trip to the restroom without you."

"But-"

"No buts! Now just sit here and wait, I'll be back in a flash!" and then she was skipping towards the ladies washroom, leaving Ymir to carefully eyeball her the entire way. 

It was only after five or so minutes that Ymir began to get worried. She had given her friend the benefit of the doubt, assuming the reason she was taking so long was because she was fixing her hair or adjusting her makeup. But then as the clock kept ticking, she started to grow more and more worried, and the what ifs started plaguing her mind. It's not like she could see the door the entire time, crowds of people were constantly blocking her view and Christa was so short – what if some creep put his hands on her?

That was enough reasoning for Ymir, and she quickly stood up, practically running to the girl's restroom. It was empty save for a drunk girl sitting on the floor, presumably trying not to throw up. Just as she had thought – Christa was gone and Ymir hadn't seen her when she passed the bar.

"You – did you see a small blonde girl in here?"

The drunk girl looked up at Ymir in surprise, before she started laughing, "There was one – she had the cutest shoes, said she'd hold my 'air for me. So sweet o' her,"

That sounded like Christa alright, but this girl obviously wasn't going to be of any help and so Ymir wasted no time booking it out of there. She scanned the crowds, looking for a head of blonde hair, but not seeing any that could be Christa's. 

"Damn it!" she cursed, prepared to rip this place apart brick by brick in search for the girl, when she caught the sight of a swinging door out of the corner of her eye. It was in a small, easily overlooked alcove, partially obscured by a black curtain – the back door of the club, no doubt. And though she had not seen Christa pass through there, Ymir couldn't help but feel it was the best place to check.

She immediately ran towards it, practically ripping the metal door off its hinges with the force she used to barrel through the door. The sight she saw in the secluded alley had her blood boiling – there was a tall man, probably about 8 or so inches taller than Ymir herself - and she was pretty damn tall – dressed in all black and carrying an unconscious Christa on his shoulder. 

With a scream of rage, she lunged at the man, who had stopped to look at her when he'd heard the loud cry. The three fell to the ground, Christa's body rolling away from the impact. Ymir rolled ontop of the guy and immediately swung her fists down, knocking the man in the side of the face. The kidnapper quickly raised his arms to defend himself, and Ymir almost laughed at how pathetic the masked man was. This guy was trying to kidnap Christa and yet he didn't even have the balls to try and overpower her – pathetic. She raised her fist again, intending to sock him once more when suddenly he arched his back, one of his hands grabbing her forearm and effectively tossing her off him. 

The man got up before she did, but she easily rectified this by kicking her leg out and sweeping his feet out from under him, Ymir 'whoop'ing in success when he landed on his back with a grunt - the force of his fall effectively winding him. 

"You caught me off guard once – it won't happen again," Ymir quickly jumped to her feet before swinging her leg back and putting all her force into kicking him in the side.

"This. Is. What. Happens. When. You. Mess. With. My. Christa!" each word was punctuated by another swift kick to the side and Ymir watched with glee as he curled up on himself.

Suddenly there was a loud bang, and Ymir quickly turned to the source of the sound - where the metal door she had come through earlier was smacking against the concrete wall on the outside of the bar. A blonde girl stood in the doorway, calmly looking around before she spotted Ymir standing over the guy who was slowly getting to his feet. 

"What the hell do you want?" Ymir called and the girl scowled, slowly making her way over.

"I heard a commotion and came to investigate," her eyes flickered to the side where Christa lay, "Is that your friend?"

Ymir's eyes widened, before she was running towards Christa, momentarily forgetting about the masked man as she went about examining the unconscious girl; there was a small trickle of blood dripping from her forehead and judging by the small stain of blood against the concrete, the head injury had probably happened when she knocked the small girl away from the man.

The man! Ymir gasped, swirling to her feet to look behind her – he was gone.

"Looks like he got away," the blonde girl from earlier spoke up and Ymir swiveled her head to look at her, glaring fiercely.

"And you just watched him go?!" 

The girl raised her hands in defense, "I wasn't about to risk my life attacking some guy, besides… Shouldn't you be more worried about your friend? Head injuries can be a bitch."

Ymir cursed before scooping Christa up, but not before casting one last glare to the darkness Christa's assaulter had disappeared into.

Eren whistled lowly, "Sounds like some friend. But are we sure that guy wasn't some rapist? He could be unrelated to the letter for all we know."

"We can't be sure, but her family is paying a large sum of money to get this issue resolved – company can't afford to turn them down."

Armin frowned, "Alright. So what's our mission?"

Shadis smirked before handing a thick file to the blond who took it and immediately opened it, where Christa's, or rather Historia's picture and file lie nestled inside.

Both Eren and Mikasa received their own folders as well.

"The three of you will be going undercover at Miss Lenz's college. Your goal will be to blend in and look for any suspicious persons on campus as well as gathering intel amongst both the students and faculty."

"Why do I have to be a student?!" Eren whined as he looked at the contents of his folder which held a picture of himself and his new "student id". There was some false background information about his new self that he would need to memorize along with a printed schedule amongst other things. He leaned towards Mikasa who was looking awfully smug about herself, and a glance at her file showed her to be a new part-time teacher on staff.

Armin watched the exchange with wide eyes, before looking back at his folder where the picture of Christa Lenz was still smiling at him, "Sir… Why do I have the victim's file?"

Eren whipped around towards Armin, taking one look at the contents of the folder before sniggering into his hand; Mikasa's lips upturned into a smile too.

"You have a special job Arlert. You'll be taking Miss Lenz's place. Her family does not want to risk her getting hurt again and I have to agree. It is in our best interests to have a man on the inside in the event that the perp tries to abduct her once more. This isn't the first time we have had someone pretend to be the victim – you shouldn't be so surprised."

Armin hesitated, "Sir… I'm a boy. Surely there is another officer more fit for the job!"

Shadis only shook his head, "That's a negative. Out of all of our members on staff, you are closest in stature and appearance to Miss Lenz."

Armin frantically read the girl's file, looking for a way out, "She's nearly five inches shorter than me – people will notice!"

"It isn't uncommon for someone's height to suddenly shoot up and Miss Lenz wears heels constantly - no one will notice. You're the best man for this job, or are you going to risk putting an innocent girl in danger?"

Armin bit his lip, trying to think of something to say. But the commander was right. What kind of soldier was he if he let something like this obstruct his sense of duty? Eren placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and Armin smiled up at him hesitantly.

"Alright sir, I accept the mission."

"Good. In a week's time, all of you will begin your mission. Please thoroughly read your files and wait for your next order."

The three friends saluted, "Yes sir!"

Chapter Text

"What the hell is that for?!" Armin screeched, frantically backing away from Hanji, who was advancing on him like a hawk on a mouse. The women only cackled, waving the blue and white striped panties (that slightly resembled that of a thong) in the frightened blond's face. He was currently standing in nothing but his boxers, arms wrapped protectively around his chest – legs trembling from the utter fear wracking him.

"It's called a gaff and it's how we're going to keep your goodies in," Hanji explained casually as she backed the small boy against the wall, "You shaved down there like I told you to, correct?"

Armin gulped and then nodded hesitantly. The older woman smiled before she was looping an arm around the blond's shoulder and taking him behind a curtain, "Now let me explain how tucking is going to work."

Armin came stumbling out nearly an hour later - after a very detailed lesson given by Hanji - followed by help he did not want with the tucking process. He was now wearing the gaff and a blue pleated skirt that fell about mid-thigh and looked utterly humiliated.

Hanji looked especially pleased with herself as she admired Armin's waxed legs and the way the skirt swayed as he stumbled about like a new born calf.

"You got a pretty nice ass there Armin," she complimented, either not noticing the blond's embarrassed and disturbed demeanor or choosing to ignore it. She ushered Armin to his seat, who did so tentatively, "It doesn't hurt does it?"

"Ah uhm no. It was a bit uncomfortable at first, but it is fine now," and then under his breath, "you witch."

Hanji smiled in relief before clapping her hands, clearly excited for the next part, "Alright next it's time to fit you with your ladies~"

This part, thankfully, went by fairly quickly and it was just Hanji having him put on a bra which had fake silicon breasts attached to the inner cup. Hanji threw a white button up shirt at him along with a short sleeve V-neck sweater to go over it, which Armin slipped on no problem.

The eccentric woman squealed in delight, gushing about how cute he was before she was rushing off to go fetch the extensions she would be adding to his hair.

"Fortunately you and Christa have the nearly the same hair color and this is definitely a safer bet than having you wear a wig," she informed, or rather that was all Armin cared to listen to as she went on to babble about hair styles and other things he lacked the motivation to listen to.

"Lastly, and you'll have to learn to do this on your own Armin, I'll be giving you false lashes, applying makeup, as well as slightly contouring your face – your face is pretty feminine enough as it is, so this shouldn't be too hard."

And Armin wasn't sure if he should be embarrased or insulted – in the end he went with both.

Hanji smacked Armin upside the head with her notebook for seemingly the hundredth time, who pouted and rubbed the place of impact even though it really hadn't hurt too much.

"I didn't tell you to speak in a falsetto – that just screams cross dresser!"

The blond only sighed, it had sounded pretty good to him; his voice wasn't exactly gruff so he didn't see the need to try sounding like a girl but Hanji kept stressing the need for him to raise his voice an octave. Fortunately, his speech pattern leaned more towards the proper side and so he didn't have to worry too much on changing his speaking habits.

Currently, Hanji was giving him speech lessons as well as information about Christa's habits as well as likes and dislikes. (He was also given a complete list of any and every one Christa has ever met – fortunately there weren't too many people to memorize, as her friend Ymir tended to keep most people away.) He tried telling the woman that he already had a file chalk full of all this information, but Hanji wasn't having it and felt the need to tell him everything she had gathered from her interview with the girl. Armin being Armin politely listened, doing his best to not fall asleep during the lecture - the last thing he wanted to do was offend Hanji and risk being put through even more degrading treatment.

With a sigh he attempted to talk in a more believable feminine voice; his long day it seemed was going to keep dragging on.

"It is a pleasure to meet with all of you," the head master of private school Trost greeted. He was sitting at his desk, legs crossed as he leaned back in an expensive looking desk chair, one arm over his waist and the other propped up so he could tap his chin lightly with his pointer finger.

Armin, Eren, and Mikasa all stood before the man, determined expressions on their faces as Mikasa calmly re-briefed the mission and introduced themselves.

"I am Mikasa Ackerman and I will temporarily be posing as your faculty's new student teacher." She offered a small head tilt before gesturing to her left, "Next to me is my colleague Eren Jaeger and he is just a transferee," it went without saying that Eren's primary role was to gather intellect from students as Armin was serving as bait, for lack of better words.

"Last, is Armin Arlert and as you can see he will be taking the role of Christa Lenz."

Armin smiled gently; feeling more confident dressed as a girl than he had a week ago. Still, he wasn't used to being sized up like the Principal Erwin was currently doing. Armin knew it was purely professional, but he couldn't help the flush of red steadily staining his cheeks.

"It is… quite remarkable how much you resemble Miss Christa," Erwin finally stated, before flicking his gaze to the open folder on his desk, eyes lingering on the words briefly before turning his attention back to the three soldiers, "I had been under the impression that there were two boys and one girl. I assumed the student teacher would be male."

Armin frowned and Mikasa raised a brow, "Is it a problem that I am not a man?" if looks could kill, Mikasa's glare would have had Erwin up in flames.

The older man shook his head, "Not at all, I will just have to make arrangements as I had originally placed you in the men's faculty dorms." He hesitated before turning his attention to Eren and Armin, "Are the two of you boys?"

Eren smiled, "Of course."

"I hope it does not pose too much of a problem with your school's policies that I am male- we already cleared that it would be okay with Ymir to be sharing a dorm with me," Armin hastily explained, not missing the slight gleam of surprise in Erwin's eyes, followed by an almost indiscernible dusting of red on the bridge of his nose. The man coughed lightly into his hand before sitting up straight and grabbing a couple sheets of papers off his desk, "Yes well, here are Mr. Jaeger's and… Mr. Arlert's room keys as well as a map of the campus," Eren took the keys and map, an almost inaudible 'thank you' falling from his lips before he tossed one of the keys to Armin – he was actually pretty eager to get this show on the road.

"Interesting," the man mused from where he was leaning against the wall outside the headmaster's office, he peeked his head around the corner and stared through the frosted glass of the door once more, eyes lingering on the backside of one of the occupants of the room. The professor slipped his hands into the pocket of his lab coat before turning on his heel, silently walking back the way he had come, "Seems like this semester is going to be fun."

"I don't see why," Eren panted as he dragged his suitcase up another flight of stairs, "I have to carry all this crap and you don't have to."

Armin patted his shoulder affectionately, "Sorry." As it was, Christa had moved into her shared dorm with Ymir at the start of the first semester, and so Hanji had it arranged to have all of Armin's stuff moved to the room over the weekend – it would have been suspicious if the petite girl suddenly moved in all new luggage. Actually, Armin had yet to see what kind of clothing Hanji had sent for him and he shuddered at what could possibly be waiting for him.

In Eren's case, he was transferring at the start of the second term as a new student and most new students would typically be seen carting their luggage in.

When they reached the top of the flight of stairs, Eren dramatically flopped to the ground, collapsing against his suitcase and reclining against it, Armin glancing around the hallway and making sure no one spotted Eren being an idiot.

"What was your room number again?" Armin asked as he eyeballed the hall of doors.

"202" Eren huffed. The blond smiled down fondly at his friend and offered his hand, "Well you're in luck – it's at the end of the hall."

"Awesome," was the brunet's cheered response before he was snatching Armin's hand and hefting himself up, "Hey, will you help me unpack?"

'To help or not to help, that is the question,' Armin mused as he walked up to the door, not caring for the breeze between his legs this skirt offered, "Mm… Only if you buy me dinner after."

Eren chuckled as they came up to his room and tried the door knob; it was unlocked. Good, his roommate must be in then, "It's a date."

The first thing the duo were greeted with as they walked in, was a masculine screech of "God damn it Connie you knocked the marinara sauce on the carpet!" followed by a boy with a buzz cut running into the entrance hall with a "Alright alright, I'll clean it up!" before he was skidding to a halt at the sight of Eren and Armin standing in the doorway. He looked between the two before his eyes landed on the suitcase next to Eren – he smiled widely.

"Oi Jean," he yelled over his shoulder, "Looks like your roommate just came in!"

There was a shuffling of feet followed by a cry of "Aww shit I stepped in it!" before a tall boy with light brown hair came hopping in on one foot, his other hand working on taking the stained sock off.

Armin and Eren shared a glance with one another before Eren was laughing at how idiotic the taller boy looked.

Jean, as the other boy had called him, frowned before tossing his sock aside (Armin cringed) and storming up to Eren, "Hey buddy who do you think you are laughing at?"

Eren narrowed his eyes, clearly not liking the challenge the other man just blatantly issued and Armin could already tell these two would be butting heads for the rest of their mission – he could feel the headache creeping up on him.

"Who do you think I was laughing at?" was Eren's gruff response, not at all perturbed that Jean was taller than him, as he defiantly stared him in the eye, "You're the only idiot I see here."

Connie, or at least Armin assumed that was his name, let out a childish 'ooh' and the small blond felt like he was surrounded by kids. He was hungry, he wanted to hurry and get Eren settled in, and he was tired of standing here – it only made sense to step in.

"Excuse me," he cut in as he placed his hand on Eren's shoulder and offered a smile to Jean - who clamped his mouth shut and stared down at him in surprise as if just noticing his presence, "Eren just can't seem to control his mouth sometimes. You'll have to excuse him. As it is, I'm a bit tired and I want to help him settle in as soon as possible. So if you would please allow us through that'd be great" It was only by a miracle Armin remembered to talk in his 'girl' voice.

Jean stared blankly at him for one… two… three seconds before he was covering his mouth with one of his hands and averting his gaze. Eren raised a brow at the small blush that suddenly formed.

"Ah… I'm sorry," and then as an afterthought and definitely in an slightly huskier tone - because jeez he didn't want to be a stumbling idiot in front of this smoking hot girl, "What's your name?"

Armin smiled gently, his hand slipping off Eren's shoulder and down his arm – a sight Jean did not miss – before offering his hand to Jean, who blinked at him in confusion and Armin wondered if maybe girls didn't shake hands in greeting. He chuckled nervously and instead grabbed the hem of his skirt – again something Jean did not miss, "I'm Christa."

And that was enough introductions as Eren seemed to have time for, before he was nudging Armin forward - they were standing in the door way this whole time after all, "Alright so which room is mine?"

Jean begrudgingly led the way to Eren's room, bypassing the kitchenette in the front hall and then cutting through the living room and to the right to a small bedroom, "This is you room – bathroom is on the other side of the living room."

"Thanks," was Eren's lackluster reply as he strolled into the room, Armin trailing behind.

"Wait!" Jean practically yelled, and both boys stopped to turn to look at him – Jean really wanted to yell at Eren that he wasn't talking to him but decided against it, "Well I haven't seen you around – I could show you around campus."

"No thank you," was Armin's reply, "I've actually been going to this school for a while, and besides, Eren's taking me out to dinner after this."

Jean looked confused at the mention of "Eren" but judging by the shorter brunet's cocky grin, he was Eren – Jean felt like dying a little inside.

"Oh…"

And then Armin was shutting the door in his face and Jean could hear Eren practically howling with laughter, "You rejected him so mercilessly!"

And then Armin's slightly confused response, "Did I?"

'So cute,' Jean thought as he just imagined the girl tilting her head to the side in confusion; never mind the way "Christa" blew him off. With a sigh he made his way back to the living room where Connie had resumed playing their video game, but not before stepping in something cold and wet. He looked down at the splash of red marinara sauce on his foot before turning to look at Connie who highly resembled a deer in headlights, "Damn it! You didn't clean this shit up?!"

Chapter Text

Armin sat in Christa's first class of the day, frantically scribbling down short hand notes of everything the professor was saying. Really, he could get away with just sitting and doing nothing - it's not like he'd fail out or anything - and Christa was taking night time supplementary classes to make up for the lectures she would be missing (and her parents had already worked out a deal with the dean to exempt her from all assignments and exams until she returned – something that took a ridiculous sum of money and coercing) but he didn't want the poor girl to return to her classes in a month and not know what was going on. He already decided he would give Ymir all the notes he took down to give to the other girl and he was actually having a bit of fun doing this – he might even learn a bit.

The teacher stopped to take a swig of his water bottle and Armin allowed his attention to drift to Eren, who was sitting on the opposite side of the room, seemingly dozing off as he stared out the window and at the lush forestry of the school's campus. He supposed it was to be expected, this was just a job after all, so of course Eren wasn't paying a lick of attention. It made him think of Mikasa and how even if she wasn't actually getting paid for being the new student teacher she would have to do all the work required of one. He bet she hated that – she didn't like doing un-necessary things.

The old teacher at the front of the room began talking again and Armin went back to scribbling down notes.

As much fun as this was, he couldn't wait until he got to the actual part of his job – finding out who was after Christa and taking him down. He wasn't much for the whole action part of it – that was more of Eren's element – but he always loved "solving the mystery" and just getting that happy ending where the bad guy is locked up and the damsel in distress is rescued.

'She's gorgeous,' Jean thought for the hundredth time as he sat in one of his afternoon classes, staring at the back of Armin's head as he sighed dreamily into his hand. To think, there was a girl like her going to this school and Jean had never noticed before! How could he not? She had the prettiest blue eyes – sparkly and big – the brunet could probably get lost in them for hours. Not to mention her smooth pale skin and how nice and pink her lips looked – so kissable. Jean sighed again, wishing he could see more than the back of her head – but then again there was nothing wrong with this angle either. Her hair was soft and shiny looking and if Jean stared hard enough he could make out her bra strap and shoulder blades through the back of her shirt.

"You're creeping me out," Connie whispered before jabbing his tall companion in the side, who jumped slightly before turning to glare at him.

"Mind your own business," he hissed, clearly annoyed at being interrupted. 'Christa' was cute, so what if he stared? Guys did it all the time, he wasn't hurting anyone.

Speaking of hurting someone, Jean seriously wanted to kick his new roommate's ass. Who the hell did he think he was? Acting all cocky and shit just because he knows a pretty girl like Christa and took her back to his room and went on a date and what the hell kind of relationship did those two have anyway? Were they friends? Were they dating? Because Jean seriously needed to know! He needed to know if that gorgeous angel was available or not. Eren might piss him off, but there was no way he'd steal another guy's girlfriend – no matter how pretty and sweet and adorable she looked.

And now he was back to staring, chin propped on his hand as he admired her. (Connie made a gagging noise, at which Jean rolled his eyes and elbowed him in the gut). Eren wasn't in this class thankfully (he had seen the two walk into a class together earlier this morning, and had been a little too jealous, but now he had a class with her Eren didn't), so maybe he could approach her after, introduce himself properly and maybe get to know her. Yeah, that'd be great.

Armin was relieved when two o'clock rolled around and class let out, because someone had been staring at his back practically the entire class period – ugh just the feel of those eyes raking up and down his body made his skin crawl. He wasn't used to being stared at. Actually, his small build and timid personality made it so people often overlooked him, so this was just too much.

That being said, he hadn't sensed any ill intentions from the stare, but he had still pulled out his compact from his purse (Hanji insisted he carry one around at all times) and used the tiny mirror to peak over his shoulder. Admittedly, it was a bit extreme as he could have just glanced over his shoulder, but the last thing he wanted was to lock eyes with a pervert. Plus there was also the possibility that the person staring was Christa's kidnapper and so he couldn't just whip around and look every time he felt someone's eyes on him.

In the end, the person staring was Eren's roommate, Jean, Armin remembered his name was. Eren had told him yesterday to stay away from him and the blond couldn't help but to agree. It's not that he seemed like a bad guy or anything, but it was obvious the other boy thought he was cute and that was just embarrassing and also problematic. If this boy approached him thinking they could get involved with one another it would cause problems for Christa when she returned. The goal was to skate by quietly undetected – no matter how much he and Christa looked alike, anyone that tried to get close within the next month would surely notice if one day Christa showed up to school a little bit slimmer, a little bit shorter, and not remembering any interactions between them.

So when he was hurriedly trying to leave the classroom and Jean clamped a hand on his shoulder and greeted him, Armin felt like cursing. He offered the other boy a polite smile, "Oh hello. You're Eren's roommate from the other day right?" Of course Armin knew who he was, despite their brief meeting; it was in his job description to remember a person's face and name. The same couldn't be said for the average person however.

Jean blushed, absently scratching the bridge of his nose before shaking his head and steeling his facial features - doing his best to look the epitome of cool and collected. And Armin had to admit he'd done a pretty good job, but his trained eyes could see the small bead of sweat forming on the side of his cheek and the way his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed excessively.

"Yeah I'm Jean Kirschstein, I didn't get to introduce myself properly the other day."

"It's nice to meet you Jean, I'm Christa Lenz," and honestly it was, because Jean seemed like a pretty nice guy and under different circumstances Armin might have tried to be his friend. However, he really didn't want to lead this poor guy into a friendship that would not be genuine. Even so, "Christa" is a naturally friendly person and as long as Ymir wasn't there scaring people off, she almost always made friends with those who approached her. Well, if worst came to worst he would just tell Ymir about the boy. Ymir didn't seem to like him too much, and he could just feel the way the taller girl was nit-picking at his appearance whenever he was dressed as Christa. She wasn't the best company around but since this involved the real Christa, he was sure Ymir wanted to be involved.

Armin watched as Jean's hands twitched, no doubt from his reflex to want to scratch the back of his head nervously, before Jean was smiling at him (a small smile, unlike the large lopsided one he tended to give when he was embarrassed), "So I was thinking we could go out for coffee or something… My treat."

Decisions, decisions. On one hand this could potentially prove to be a good chance to maybe gather some information, but he wasn't sure how much help Jean could be. Obviously he had been going here for a while but he'd never met Christa before and Armin wasn't too keen on wasting his time. Coffee did sound nice though, and he had about an hour or so to kill before his, or rather, Christa's next class.

"Coffee sounds nice," Armin agreed, mentally laughing at the stupid grin that consumed the taller brunet's face.

Mikasa was currently standing in the teacher's lounge, leaning against the far wall, a mug of some of the nicest coffee she'd ever had held in her hands. She was lazily sipping at her beverage while her eyes wandered over the other occupants of the room. Most of them were professors and she crossed them off one by one, recognizing each face and running through he head the information she had read about them in their background checks.

She had been debating on leaving and touring the school grounds when a tall guy about her age came wandering in, arms full of haphazardly stacked files. She scoffed at the way he fidgeted with the small burden, looking very much constipated and not at all composed. A glimpse at his face told Mikasa exactly who he was.

Bertolt Hoover was his name, age 22 and he had recently been employed as a teacher aid like Mikasa, so it wasn't a surprise that he was doing brunt work. There was nothing incriminating on his background check and when he attended college he was a straight A student – excelling in all categories.

There really was no reason to be suspicious of him, but it was her job to not rule anyone out until they had been investigated thoroughly. Bertolt had been part-timing here for almost sixth months now and as much as Mikasa did not want to associate with such an awkward looking guy, he was her easiest bet on gathering information. It wouldn't be weird of her at all to ask her fellow teacher aid about the professors on staff.

So she downed the rest of her coffee before setting the mug on the counter and approaching the guy. She reached for some of the binders, not even bothering to smile when Bertolt looked at her with a mix of shock and relief, "Let me help with these."

The café on the school's campus was fairly small, but pretty nice. It didn't seem to be too busy and Armin could see why – the drinks and pastries were ridiculously overpriced. Or it at least seemed to be to Armin, who typically bought his tea in bulk and brewed it himself rather than buy it at any of the café chains around.

As they waited for their order – a small Earl Grey tea for Armin and a large coffee with extra creamer and a donut for Jean – the brunet made small talk with the barista on duty. He was a bulky fellow, about a few inches taller than Jean; a fact that made Armin frown because seriously, why was everyone here so tall? The tall blond seemed at ease making the simplistic drinks while simultaneously engaging in a conversation with Jean – his name was Reiner and he was apparently an upperclassman Jean met a while back.

Armin felt like squirming underneath the man's gaze – not because Reiner was eyeballing Armin up and down, his eyes lingering on the petite blond's thighs longer than he was comfortable with – but something about him just seemed… off.

Armin liked to believe he was a good judge of character - he had to be in his line of work, and usually he could tell if someone had bad intentions. He wasn't necessarily giving off any bad vibes, if anything he was surprisingly nice, warning Armin multiple times that the drink was hot and telling Jean he was going to get a cavity from all the sweets he ate, but still he couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling the older boy gave him.

Jean seemed to notice his unease and so he bid Reiner farewell and they took a seat at a small two person table across from the counter, Armin watching the barista subtly from his seat. Jean coughed lightly into his hand and Armin turned his attention to the other boy and smiled pleasantly, "Thank you for the drink."

"Right – no problem," and really it wasn't – Jean was actually ecstatic that Christa had agreed to get a drink with him. What he wasn't excited about was the way Reiner and his new friend kept staring at each other. He and Reiner had a similar type – cute sweet blondes – and he hadn't missed the way his upperclassman had looked at the girl and hey a guy was allowed to look but... Christa was paying more attention to Reiner than she was him. He wondered if maybe she liked muscly guys and his eye twitched at the thought – this was supposed to be his chance to get to know the girl and she was trading goo-goo eyes with some other guy!

Armin, for his part, sat quietly and watched as Jean angrily munched on his donut – the brunet was pretty good at keeping his facial features in check (from what Armin had gathered Jean unconsciously made rather angry looking faces when he was thinking) but his eyes gave him away. If Armin had to pin point the emotion swimming through his eyes, he'd have to call it jealousy; though he didn't see a reason for Jean to be jealous, unless of course he had mistaken Armin's interest in Reiner for a romantic one.

Girls did that didn't they? Stared at the guys they liked? He'd have to ask Mikasa later (he didn't want people to get the wrong impression) – but right now he had some digging to do.

"So Jean, tell me about yourself," pretty straight-forward if Armin said so himself. He actually wanted to ask about Reiner but well… he'd hold off for now. He made a mental note to do a background check on both these boys later.

Jean seemed pretty excited about the question – that endearing lopsided grin consuming his face once more, ears tinged red, before he was back to making that angry face (Armin assumed it was supposed to be suave) and began telling Armin about his course of studies.

Chapter Text

"Oh! I didn't know you had a friend over," was the first thing Armin said when he returned to his dorm one afternoon. He had been undercover for well over a week now and he was settling in pretty nicely. So far, no suspicious activity had been spotted on his part, though he still had a sinking feeling in his gut whenever he saw Reiner on campus. He had requested a background check for the man, but he had yet to hear anything from headquarters. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, but it couldn't be helped and besides, Armin had yet to talk to Reiner again (and it wasn't like he had any reason to be suspicious of the other man) since his "date" with Jean.

Speaking of Jean, if Armin could classify that boy as one thing, it'd have to be a puppy. Armin knew the taller brunet didn't mean anything by it, but whenever one of their shared classes ended, Jean was quick to join him at his side and start chattering about class and "that one thing Connie did" and other things. Armin guessed he didn't mind, even if he didn't particularly care for what Jean had to say, but it was definitely going to be a problem with how attached the boy was becoming to "Christa."

Which brought him back to the situation at hand - he had been planning on inviting Ymir out with him to dinner with Eren sometime, so they could talk about the "Jean" situation. Armin got the feeling the girl disliked him - but it could just be her abrasive side talking – so he really didn't want to involve her. He could see it now, her calling him unprofessional for seducing guys or something else irrational – it wasn't like he intended for Jean to be so… persistent. And his persistency would prove to be a problem once Armin was done with his mission and he felt Ymir should have a heads up about Jean since the girl seemed to show no interest in anything that was not her friend Christa's well-being.

So, Armin could honestly say he was surprised to see a small blonde girl that was not Christa, sitting on their couch next to Ymir. Though she was petite in body stature, she carried herself in high regards – shoulders back, jaw set, and expression neutral. She reminded him a bit of Mikasa – head strong and confident. Ymir was a natural bully, so this girl did not seem like the type of company Ymir would share, and yet here she was.

"Christa!" Ymir yelled before she was hopping up from the couch and throwing an arm around Armin's shoulder, pulling his face against her chest. Judging by Ymir's acting, Christa must know this girl, though Armin could not recall any information about her.

"Speak of the devil and here she comes. We were just talking about you and the time some fuck tried to steal you away from me!"

Was Ymir always this excitable around Christa? It was pretty different from the cold treatment she usually gave him. He remembered Christa stressing not to let Ymir push him around, so Armin swatted her away, but she just held on tighter, and proceeded to scrub her knuckle on his scalp.

"You don't remember her cause you were knocked out, but Annie here was in the alley that time. She left right after though."

Interesting. Armin hadn't known there had been any witnesses. He would definitely have to put this in his report.

"Really?" he tilted his head up to look Ymir in the eyes – he was a fairly good actor if he said so himself, but he wasn't one for taking the lead – looking for a signal as to where to steer this conversation, "Oh did you help me? I suppose Ymir didn't thank you properly, so thanks for helping me out that time."

'Annie' as Ymir had called her stood up, "I didn't do anything," was her grumbled reply – not even glancing Armin's way before she was scooping up her bag and bowing her head slightly.

"See you later, I'll be leaving now,"

Armin offered a small wave before Ymir was pulling him aside so Annie could brush past them. The moment the door clicked shut behind her, Ymir released Armin and was throwing herself on the couch.

"The report said there were no witnesses," there was no use beating around the bush.

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that. I didn't even think about it – she heard the commotion and came to check – it was when I was talking to her the bastard got away," Ymir seemed really fired up talking about Christa's almost kidnapping and it was obvious the woman cared for her, so Armin didn't think she would have kept the information on purpose.

Still, to 'forget' something as crucial as another witness was a little far-fetched, though judging by what Ymir said, it seemed Annie wouldn't have any good information to share. It sounded to him like your typical wrong place at the wrong time scenario. However he was still going to report her as a potential witness to HQ.

"You wouldn't happen to know Annie's full name would you? Also I would like to know why she was here." He too sat down on the couch, before he was pulling a pad of paper and pen from his purse – the bag was pretty useful in his opinion, he wasn't sure why Mikasa refused to carry one around – it carried all sorts of stuff and doubled as a weapon for self-defense - he thought it was practical.

Ymir leaned back, stretching her arms above her head before she was lazily turning her attention to Armin, "Her names Annie Leonhardt, goes to this school apparently. Not too surprising though, a lot of students here go to that bar by campus."

Armin nodded, scribbling the name down as well as a reminder to check out that bar sometime.

"I ran into her during my daily coffee run," and under her breath, "Christa was in charge of making coffee, now I gotta go out of my way to buy one every day."

Armin frowned. It must be tough having to adjust to life without someone when you were used to them always being there. He couldn't imagine living without Eren or Mikasa; he wouldn't be able to handle it if one of them were to be hurt.

"Are the two of you friends now?"

"Me and that chick? Not a chance. I just made her buy me my coffee since I felt she owed me." She laughed and though Armin didn't find it too funny, he forced a small chuckle out. This would be the extent of his questioning – he knew Ymir wouldn't be telling him anything else about the matter – breaking into sarcastic laughter was usually how she ended their conversations anyway.

"I see," now how to go about bringing up the Jean situation. It wasn't that he was worried how she would react or anything, he just didn't want to seem unprofessional about all this. In any case, he could hold his own and if someone were bothering him he had no problem telling them to give him his space. As it were though, he found he didn't really mind Jean's company and even if he did, Christa was polite so long as the other party was as well and Jean hadn't done anything wrong, so he couldn't push him away without breaking character. So unless Ymir stepped in, Armin was stuck with the boy and he just hoped he wouldn't do something ridiculous again like tell him he's the "prettiest girl I've ever seen" because that had been embarrassing.

"So as I am sure you are aware," Armin started, "Any people that meet me while I am posing as Christa and any acquaintances I have to make will then become acquaintances with her as well. I've made it a point to interact with as little people as possible, but I still need to maintain the image of the social butterfly Christa carries, as well as gather what little intel I can."

Ymir nodded, the look on her face a mix between annoyance and skeptism, and Armin swallowed the knot in his throat.

"So there's a classmate of Christa's named Jean Kirschstein that has been hanging around me recently and I just want to make sure he doesn't get any ideas-"

"This guy been hitting on you?" Ymir practically growled and Armin scratched the space behind his ear nervously, because she looked kind of scary glaring at him like that – poor Jean.

"Ahm well… Not yet?"

And then Ymir was standing up, "I'll kill him!"

Armin's eyes widened – well he hadn't expected that reaction – was she really that worried he would go after Christa once she returned to school? Armin wondered if Jean would notice the change between them – makeup did wonders and as far as Armin was concerned they could pass for twins. But Armin wondered how Jean would react to the drastic height difference – then again Jean didn't seem to be very aware of his surroundings and coupled with Christa's need to wear heels all the time (she had a bit of a height complex it seemed and Armin had only been wearing flats) he supposed he wouldn't be too surprised if Jean didn't really notice.

If there was one thing Armin hated about his job, it would have to be not knowing what they would be leaving behind once they were done with the mission. How awkward would it be meeting someone for the first time that has supposedly known you for a month or longer? And what about the person who thought they knew everything about their new friend and then one day something is slightly off and they just can't place the reason why. Do the relationships they build while undercover crumble to pieces once they were gone? Armin sighed – yeah, he definitely hated this part of his job.

"It's alright Ymir; you don't have to go quite that far. I guess just be your normal possessive self the next time we are together – Jean will get the point."

Ymir glowered at the possessive comment, "I resent that."

"Hey what's up?" Eren greeted as he let Armin into his dorm room, "The bastard is out so we can watch TV or something in the living room. Did you bring the snacks?"

Armin laughed, before raising the bag of groceries he picked up from the convenience store about a block away from the school, and waving it in Eren's face - who snatched it greedily, "You know I came over here to talk about work not have a guy's night."

"I know, but it doesn't hurt to have a little fun sometimes," was Eren's response, already tearing open a bag of candy - and they hadn't even sat on the sofa yet.

Once they were seated - the television on and providing background noise - Eren immediately went into professional mode.

"I've been checking the doors at night and making sure security has been locking up properly and I've dropped by the mail office like three times now and there's no one suspicious – just some poor bastard sorting through a mountain of envelopes."

"As for suspicious activity, I haven't seen any and none of my classmates have said anything that could tip us off on if the kidnapper was a student here. Mikasa sent me an e-mail earlier today about how all the teachers keep pushing their work off on her and she hasn't met anyone suspicious either."

Armin nodded, listening intently as he absently chewed on a cookie, "The only thing I've really found out was that there was a witness the night of Christa's kidnapping."

Eren perked up at the news, scooting closer to Armin until they were practically face to face – up to this point they had been whispering back and forth. They probably didn't need to but there was always the chance of someone listening in and it was better to play it safe – plus Eren usually insisted they whisper because it made him feel like a spy. Armin swore, when Eren wasn't taking his job seriously, he could be so immature sometimes.

"Really?!" he asked, excited and Armin nodded, about to answer when—

"What are you two doing?" Armin flinched, practically diving into Eren's lap who swore under his breath – they hadn't heard Jean come in – what kind of professionals were they if they didn't hear the taller boy unlock the front door and enter?

"What does it look like we're doing?!" Eren snapped as Armin scooted away to put some space between them.

His answer was, 'It looks like you two were kissing on my couch,' but Jean wasn't going to say that because he didn't want them to say it was true, "Tell it to me straight Eren! Are you two dating?!"

"So what if we were?" Eren challenged and Armin groaned – these two were such children together.

"Eren don't tease Jean," Armin quipped before turning to look at Jean, "Eren and I are just good friends."

Jean looked relieved before he was looking around the room – taking in the snacks and movie playing on the TV – before he was plopping down on the couch next to Armin.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Eren demanded, practically leaning over Armin so he could glare at the taller boy.

"What does it look like?" Jean taunted - cocky smirk in place, "I'm watching TV. Hey Christa can I have one of those?" he pointed to the bag of cookies on Armin's lap.

"Oh sure!" the blond was going to hand the bag over to Jean when suddenly Eren was snatching them from his hand.

"Don't share our snacks with this bastard!"

"Who you callin' a bastard – Christa said I could have one you thief!"

The blond groaned into his hands, sliding down in his seat a bit – it was going to be a long night.

"I'm coming in!" a loud voice suddenly boomed – one that sounded suspiciously like Ymir's – from the doorway, before there was a slam of the door (Jean really needed to get in the habit of locking it) and Ymir was emerging from the hallway in time to see how Jean and Eren were both practically hovering over Armin, from where they were fighting over the cookies.

"Who are you?" Jean demanded and Ymir glowered.

"Your worst nightmare."

Correction, it was going to be a really long night.

Eren was still hunched over cackling from his place next to Armin, who had Ymir on his left and Jean was sitting on the floor by the foot of the couch.

"His face, his face!" Eren wheezed.

After Ymir had stormed in, with the bellow of a cheesy line, she had proceeded to effortlessly lift Armin up (a blow to his pride as a man) before she was sitting down between Eren and Jean and placing Armin on her lap, "Christa you left me all alone~" she had said and Armin had to wonder if Christa normally had to put up with this kind of thing, or if Ymir was just tormenting him on purpose. The girl had looped an arm around Jean's neck, "Any particular reason why you were all over my Christa just now?"

It had actually been quite amazing how quickly Jean had went from fired up, to confused, to downright terrified in a matter of seconds.

Ymir eventually introduced herself properly to Jean, after some prompting from Armin, because the girl had kept referring to herself as a nightmare in the dark and Jean looked utterly terrified before he was squirming out of Ymir's grip and sliding to the floor.

Eren of course had found the whole ordeal hilarious and kept teasing Jean who would snap back at him, all while tentatively trying to start a conversation with Armin who was beginning to regret telling Ymir about him because surely she was going to scar the poor guy for life at this point.

The group bantered back and forth for a couple hours before Armin decided it was time to go (next time he and Eren decided to talk about the case they'd do it back at the blond's dorm).

Eren began cleaning up the mess (courtesy of him and Jean fighting over every snack Armin tried to eat) while Ymir and Armin walked to the door – Jean trailing behind them.

"I'm sorry about my friends," Armin apologized as Ymir walked out the door– Jean looked a little worse for wear - but the blond's apology had him smiling a lop-sided grin.

"You can make it up to me by going to a party with me tomorrow night," he said quietly, in the hopes that Ymir – who already started walking down the hallway – or Eren would not hear.

Armin frowned, "Sorry – that's not really my kind of thing," he rejected immediately and Jean cringed before laughing forcibly.

"Ah, I thought so. No big deal then," except it was a big deal – or at least to Jean it was. Armin could tell by the way Jean was scratching the back of his head – something he tended to do whenever he was trying to not show emotion - that he'd hurt his feelings. Jeez, this guy sure had a way of making Armin feel bad.

"I really am sorry," and not wanting to look at the obviously hurt Jean any longer, Armin quickly bid him farewell before leaving.

What a waste of a night.

Chapter Text

Armin could distinctly remember rejecting Jean's offer to go out to some party on campus, and yet he found himself leaning against a wall, tentatively sipping cheap beer and wishing he was anywhere but here. He supposed he could only blame Eren for this; it had been the other boy's idea after all.

This morning Armin woke up to a text from Eren that read 'There's a party tonight – it'll be a breeding ground for Intel'. The blond boy wanted to sigh. He wondered if Jean had told Eren about the party – the two boys fought left and right, but it was obvious to Armin that they got along pretty well – they were just too stubborn to realize it. And honestly, they'd been living together in the same dorm for weeks now and they bickered back and forth like an old married couple – so they had to get along at least a little bit - so maybe Jean had told Eren about it. Did that mean he told Eren about 'Christa' rejecting him too? Probably not, because knowing Eren he would have teased the hell out of Jean for it.

Of course he had rejected Eren's proposal as well – they could look for suspicious people anytime they wanted to - but Eren insisted that when there wasn't classes to worry about then people would be more open and so on and so forth and Armin really hadn't been listening because no matter what reasoning Eren came up with, it still sounded like an excuse to go to a party to Armin.

Still, the blond boy had a nasty habit of indulging his childhood friend and so now here he was in a crowded room with a bunch of barely legal, drunk, college students making asses of themselves. Eren had long since disappeared into the crowd – after shoving a drink in Armin's face – and so Armin found himself standing alone. He didn't mind though – he liked people watching – and so he sipped his drink while eyeballing the crowd, classifying people into groups and making up fake background stories for them.

"Sup Christa?!" a voice suddenly shouted and Armin turned to look at the goofy kid in front of him – he had a buzz cut and looked a bit familiar and oh – this was the kid that was at Jean's when Eren moved in. Armin mentally scolded himself when he could not remember the boy's name and so he offered a tentative nod.

"Marinara sauce?" he greeted and the boy's face twisted up in confusion and Armin could swear he saw a light bulb flicker on above his head when he finally caught on, before he was bursting into a fit of giggles.

"Aha yup that's me! The name's Connie~" he greeted and Armin made a mental note to remember his name this time, "So you here with Jean?" the boy asked, waggling his eye brows suggestively (obviously Jean mentioned Christa a lot to Connie) and Armin shook his head.

"No actually, Eren convinced me to come, but he ditched me it seems." He responded and Connie nodded, before patting him on the shoulder, "Ah I feel ya. My friend Sasha ran off to eat all the snacks off the snack table the moment we got here. She's a glutton I tell ya."

Armin laughed along with him – the boy hadn't said anything funny but Connie seemed to ooze this really carefree aura that made it comfortable to be around him. Something Armin was grateful for because he was already on edge about having to be here but he also had this nagging feeling at the back of his head that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite place it.

It had been just around the time Connie was telling Armin a funny story about his friend Sasha, that Jean showed up. There was a brief look of surprise before Jean was smiling and approaching with a wave.

"Christa, you came!" He sounded really excited and well if that didn't make Armin feel a little bad, he didn't know what would.

"Ah, yeah, Eren pretty much blackmailed me into coming," he explained and Jean flinched slightly at the mention of the other boy and so Armin quickly tacked on, "He ran off though, so I'm glad you and I ran into each other."

Accident averted it seemed (because for a second there Jean had looked like he wanted to find Eren and punch him and Eren was a trained professional in hand to hand combat and also a bit of a hot-head so that wouldn't have gone over well) as Jean perked up, "In that case, I'll keep you company."

Connie chuckled, "Aha Christa, you got Jean whipped" he teased, Jean elbowed him in the ribs as retaliation.

"Shut up Connie, don't you have somewhere to be?" he growled and Armin laughed because watching the two of them argue reminded him a bit of himself and Eren. Ah, how he missed being one of the guys – now he was walking around in skirts every day and painting his nails and it was actually pretty nice wearing face masks and what not, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't miss joking about guy stuff. Granted, he didn't really have any other friends other than Eren and Mikasa (Did Hanji count?) but he was a bit jealous that Eren could joke around freely. If he were a guy right now, then Jean would probably treat him normally and Armin wouldn't feel like he needed to be so on edge around him. Oh, but that was if Jean would have even given him the time of day if he weren't a girl. Guys like Jean didn't really like guys like Armin, but then again the brunet seemed to get along with Connie just fine and Connie was your typical class clown so under different circumstances they might have been friends. Ah but this was making Armin a bit sad and so he shook the thought away.

"Ah, finally found you."

The girl quickly glanced around the room, making sure no one was looking before ducking into the doorway she was eyeing. She smiled as she took in her surroundings – eyes taking in every last detail – before she was grinning triumphantly. She knew she had a limited time to pull this off; people were bound to show up sometime, so she quickly made her way across the room.

"I know you're hiding somewhere," she practically cooed, making a point to step lightly before she opened the nearest cabinet and started rifling through it, "Come to Mama."

Jean was, for the most part, a lot easier to be around when Connie was with them. He was more himself, less tense, less flirty, and overall wasn't trying so hard to impress 'Christa'. And Armin appreciated it. Jean was actually a pretty cool guy and after watching them joke around a little bit, he felt comfortable joining in on the conversation. Of course, he had to be careful to not be too out of character, on the off-chance that someone recognized Christa - and of course there was also that lingering fear of his that if he started acting all buddy-buddy Jean might mistake it for flirting and that was a wall Armin didn't even want to begin to scale.

After a while, Connie excused himself (Jean's not so subtle hints for Connie to 'beat it' the cause) and so that left just the two of them and Jean immediately switched from 'friendly' mode to 'flirty' mode – his whole demeanor shifting as he ran a hand through his hair, lowered his eyelids, and pulled his lips into a smirk and Armin had to admit Jean looked good, but he much preferred the other Jean to this one. Maybe it was the countless bottles of beer Jean had downed (it was just beer though and Armin had trouble believing the taller boy was that much of a lightweight) but the boy was being slightly more bold and he leaned his left arm against the wall and flashed him a toothy grin.

"You know the difference between you and me?" he asked and Armin immediately felt sweat gathering on his brow – was Jean seriously about to use a pick-up line on him?

"About twelve inches, that's almost the size of my-" and then he was pointing downwards and wow a dirty pick-up line? Though Armin could honestly say he hadn't heard this one before, so kudos for originality.

"Feet. Which are about nine." Wait, what?

"And you know the difference between your feet and my feet?" Armin absently scratched his arm – unsure where Jean was going with this. Where was the punch line? Armin wasn't even sure if this was a pick-up line anymore and was 99% sure that Jean had somehow managed to mix up multiple lines to come up with this monstrosity.

"I said it earlier – twelve inches. Which we all know is the length of a foot." Jean was pretty much babbling now – his words tumbling out hurriedly – the brunet obviously nervous – probably because he realized he jacked up the line but knew he couldn't stop without embarrassing himself further.

"And if I were to take my foot and take a twelve inch step towards you, you know what the difference between you and me would be then?" Jean asked, taking a tentative step forward and Armin leaned back some.

"I… I don't know?" Armin offered because he was still a bit confused where Jean was going with this, but he did the math anyway," Negative nine?" Again – Armin had no idea where this conversation (or was this still part of the pick-up line?) was going.

"That's right. My foot would be on your foot because," and Jean flashed him another grin and then said in a husky voice, "I'm coming on to you."

The two boys stood in silence for one, two, three seconds before Armin started laughing uncontrollably – one of his arms coming up to wrap around his cramping stomach from laughing too hard, while his other hand found purchase on Jean's shoulders – holding himself up because honestly he thought he might keel over.

"Oh – oh god," he rasped and Jean chuckled nervously – looking torn between hightailing it out of there, or dying of happiness because holy crap Christa thought he was funny and was even touching him!

"That was the best pick-up line ever," and by 'best' he meant it was so bad it was great, "What was with that really long set-up? Did you come up with that yourself?"

Jean cleared his throat, "Yeah. You liked it then?"

And Armin nodded frantically, gasping for some more air, before releasing Jean and stepping back, "Yeah, I loved it." He said, wiping tears from his eyes, "Do you always use that one?"

"Nope. I made this one especially for you."

Armin smiled, "Well I appreciate the effort," Yeah – he definitely liked dorky Jean better.

The two boys fell into a comfortable silence, Armin chuckling lightly under his breath every once in a while and Jean just smiling to himself – the pick-up line hadn't really been drop your skirt effective like he had hoped but he couldn't help thinking that Christa looked even more beautiful when she laughed and he had been beginning to think the girl didn't like him but now he felt that he really did have a chance and man was it a breath of fresh air.

It was as Armin was taking a sip of his – by now – warm beer and thinking that it wasn't so bad coming here, that a familiar bulky blond walked into his field of vision and Armin suddenly remembered why he was here in the first place.

He was supposed to be looking for suspicious persons and while Reiner wasn't suspicious in any way, shape, or form - Armin had learned to trust his gut instinct and his instinct told him there was something about Reiner that just didn't sit right with him. So Armin watched as the guy weaved his way through the crowd – Armin not so subtly craning his neck so as to not lose sight of him – before Reiner was stopping to talk to a tall, lanky boy. And by tall, Armin meant really tall; because this guy was a full head taller than Reiner and Reiner was not by any means short. The two men greeted each other like old friends and it was obvious they were close. Armin had never seen the other boy before, but that wasn't anything to be concerned about because he hadn't seen a lot of the people here before. The stranger seemed to be nervous, and did not seem to be comfortable around all these people as he kept glancing over his shoulder and if that wasn't suspicious then Armin wasn't currently dressed in drag.

He took a step forward – intent on approaching the duo; say hello to Reiner, maybe get the other guy's name – the action snapping Jean out of whatever day-dream he had been in, who quickly caught Armin's shoulder.

"Hey, where are you going?" he asked curiously and Armin blushed – he'd completely forgotten about Jean.

"I noticed that guy from the café the other day," Armin explained and Jean looked past him – immediately spotting Reiner in the crowd – before narrowing his eyes; he hadn't forgotten how the bigger boy had seemed to catch 'Christa's interest.

"I was going to say hello," he finished and Jean reluctantly nodded.

"I'll go with you then."

Armin opened his mouth to reply – he supposed it wouldn't be a problem, maybe Jean knew the other guy too – when suddenly there was shrill, ear-piercing scream coming from the other room – the scream so loud and unmistakable it was clearly heard over the music that was constantly playing.

Everyone seemed to freeze in shock, and Armin quickly shrugged Jean's hand off before he was bolting full speed through the crowd – headed in the direction of the scream with Jean trailing behind him with a soft cry of "Christa wait, what are you doing?!"

Armin skidded to a halt in the doorway of the adjacent room and noticed that Eren had beat him there and they immediately locked eyes - Jean stumbling up behind Armin a moment later, clearly winded from the high-speed sprint he'd just engaged in.

The blond quickly surveyed the area – making his way to Eren's side in the process – and immediately processed the situation. First things first, they were standing in the kitchen and it was apparent someone had been looking for something as drawers were half open and every single cabinet drawer was wide open.

A brunette haired girl was lying face down on the floor and judging by the groans she was emitting she was still alive, but seriously ill. Connie stood above her looking a mix between horrified and queasy and Armin wondered if he was the one that had screamed like a girl. Since no one was moving – Eren had moved to the doorway and was shooing away the few nosey party-goers who had come to investigate – Armin walked over to the prone figure and kneeled by her side.

With a bit of effort, he rolled the girl over on her back and frowned at the sight before him. The girl's mouth was wide open, a bit of drool sliding down from the corner of her lips, cheeks flushed, and eyes glazed in what Armin immediately classified as a sugar high.

"What the hell Sasha," ah so this was Sasha the glutton, "You ate all the freakin' cake!"

Armin reached for a pack of tissues from his purse and immediately set about cleaning the splotches of cake and frosting littered across the girl's face, "Are you okay?" he asked and the girl nodded, still looking like she was in the process of a food-gasm.

"Does she normally pass out face first into a pile of food?" Armin asked and Connie nodded.

"She is always doing stuff like this – she'll stuff her face with any food she can get her hands on, that's why I hid the cake I'd brought for later."

Well that explained why it looked like a tornado had blown through the kitchen.

Jean and Eren approached then – Eren with a glass of water for Sasha because seriously the girl had just consumed enough cake to give someone diabetes.

"Was that you who screamed like a chick?" Jean teased and Connie huffed before punching Jean in the shoulder and telling him to shut up. The two bickered as Armin helped Sasha to her feet – introducing himself to the girl who took the glass of water gratefully and began spouting about how great the cake was.

Jean watched as Armin turned to look at Eren – the two seemingly holding a conversation with their eyes. Jean frowned – it had shocked him when 'Christa' had suddenly bolted the moment they had heard the scream; most girls didn't do that and then there was the fact that Eren had seemed to have the same idea as well - and then there was the fact that such a petite girl had easily outrun Jean who had been on the track team back in his high school years. The more he got to know the girl, the more surprising she turned out to be.

Chapter Text

Mikasa was sitting in one of the many chairs in the teacher's lounge, nibbling on a bagel, and glaring at the guy sitting across from her - who was sweating nervously and had yet to touch the bagel Mikasa had shoved in his face before she had sat down.

Finally after what seemed like ages, Bertolt decided to speak up, "… Good morning Mikasa?" he offered tentatively and the girl nodded stiffly, and said "Eat your bagel."

Bertolt flinched, flailing his arms briefly before he was taking a bite of the food. The two were currently alone, something that left the tall man with conflicted emotions. On one hand he was glad there was no one around to see Mikasa bully him (not that she was bullying him but he was a sensitive soul and he wasn't sure how to handle her half the time). On the other hand however, he wished there were teachers in here so he could slink away – Mikasa was nice in her own way but Bertolt would be lying if he said she didn't scare him.

As for Mikasa, Bertolt was her go to guy. Any questions she had regarding their fellow faculty members she could ask him and he always had something to say. The man annoyed her in the sense that he so easily gave into her demands; not only that, but he only ever seemed to have nice things to say.

"Busy day today?" Mikasa asked and Bertolt shook his head 'no' even though some (a lot) of the teachers had conned him into doing their grading for him – something Mikasa knew because she was always eavesdropping on others conversations in hopes of catching anything incriminating. But the only thing these people ever seemed to talk about were lesson plans or other school related things that Mikasa hadn't bothered to listen to.

The two fell into silence once more, with the occasional prompting from Mikasa to, "Finish your bagel," which Bertolt responded to with an audible gulp before following orders.

Finally, after seemingly forever (at least for Bertolt) Mikasa stood up, and started walking away – a sight that had Bertolt slumping in his seat and sighing in relief.

"Oh," Mikasa said and the man visibly shot up in his chair, "I'm doing grading for a couple of teachers but I forgot their passwords. You know them don't you?"

It was a lie of course. In actuality there were a couple teachers Mikasa had her eye on – she wanted to go through their computers and check their history and all that jazz - not the most legal thing in the world, but it wasn't any skin off her back. Unfortunately the principal didn't have each individual teacher's password, but Mikasa knew Bertolt did. He was always following the orders of the teachers and it was obvious they trusted him to not snoop through their stuff.

"AH! Uhm sure… Okay. Which ones do you need?"

Armin stood in the bathroom, one leg propped up on the side of the tub as he examined his legs to make sure he hadn't missed any hair. Once he deemed his legs hair free, he sat down on the toilet and lavishly applied lotion to his legs. Then he grabbed his clothes, which were resting on the counter (because he wasn't planning on walking to his room in only a towel, even if Ymir was the only other person in the dorm) and proceeded to get dressed – a sleeveless button up chiffon blouse and a plain black pleated skirt. Once that step was done, he started digging through his makeup bag resting on the sink's counter before pulling out his tweezers and proceeding to maintain his eyebrows, and then he examined his face for any stubble before tsk'ing in annoyance, because he couldn't seem to grow facial hair for the life of him (the occasional hair here and there at most) but he supposed it was a good thing considering his current mission. Still, he wished he'd grow a little something.

With a sigh, he applied moisturizer and then set about putting on his makeup with practiced ease and a steady hand. Once that was done, he unraveled his hair from the towel it was wrapped up in before he was applying heat protectant and then blow drying and styling his hair.

It was the weekend and he didn't have any classes fortunately, so he was planning on stopping by that coffee shop in search of Reiner. He also had plans with Mikasa and Eren to meet up off campus so they could thoroughly check in with one another and discuss any change of plans. He figured he'd pick up breakfast while at the coffee shop - he didn't exactly know the guy's work schedule and he still hadn't gotten that background check he ordered - so he'd just have to drop by at random intervals throughout the day and pray he got the timing right.

Armin sat at a small two person table, facing towards the door to the café. Reiner wasn't in and the girl at the help desk wouldn't tell him Reiner's work schedule so Armin figured he could eat here and maybe, by some stroke of luck, the man would show up.

It seemed fate was not on his side;however, just when Armin was losing hope – absently picking at his scone – the door jingled and Armin's head snapped up and in walked Jean and before Armin could stop himself he was raising his hand and waving.

There was no time to scold himself however, as Jean visibly perked up at seeing him and made a beeline for him, bypassing the order counter and everything.

"Morning Christa," he greeted, taking the seat across from Armin who said hello back, "Eating breakfast?"

Jean always had a knack for pointing out the obvious – it was one of his many traits that Armin found absolutely hilarious, because it seemed to him that Jean didn't even realize how ridiculous he sounds half the time.

"Yeah, are you planning on eating too? Or do you just come here to lounge?" Armin questioned, half teasingly, half seriously. The question made Jean flush, because as soon as he saw Armin he had found himself gravitating towards the "girl". It probably would have been less awkward for him to have just waved, gotten his food, and then joined Armin – actually it definitely would have been.

"Aha," he chuckled, "Yeah, I'm gonna get something now," and then he was clambering out of his chair with the grace of a newborn colt before making his way over to the counter.

Armin resumed watch of the door, sipping his tea as he waited for Jean to come back. Excluding Sasha almost eating herself to death, last night had been pretty fun. The brunette girl's stomach ache had eased up a bit shortly after they had found her and the next thing Armin knew – her, Connie, Jean, Eren and himself had all been hanging out. It was fun and a nice change of pace and Armin found himself wishing they could hang out more - which in retrospect was a terrible idea - considering the fact he was pretty much deceiving all of them. Eren had it easy because he wasn't pretending to be anyone else but himself; whereas Armin had changed both his appearance and personality to match Christa's somewhat. Though Christa was a lot more bubbly and friendly than Armin made her out to be; not that it could be helped really because there was no point in him making friends while he was pseudo Christa. Of course, after all of this was said and done, Christa was more than welcome to explain her situation if she felt like it – so long as she did not give away any of Armin's personal information.

He wondered if they would be mad when they found out – if they found out - and honestly they probably would; anyone would notice if the friend they'd made recently one day looked more feminine and sweeter; and the kicker – didn't know you at all.

'What am I thinking? Of course they'd be mad,' Armin shook his head; he'd really messed up hadn't he? So much for laying low – never mind the fact that it really couldn't be helped – he wasn't looking forward to how betrayed Sasha and Connie and Jean would be. Fortunately for him though, once this job was over he wouldn't be seeing them again and so he'd never have to find out. Which really was a terrible thing to think, but the blond couldn't help it, this was just a job and that's it.

"Hey is something wrong?" a voice suddenly said and Armin screeched in surprise, his eyes focusing (because at some point he had fallen into a daze) on Jean who was sitting in front of him once more, this time with what was presumably coffee and a couple of pastries.

"Oh, no! I'm fine. Just daydreaming is all," Armin answered and Jean gazed at him – nose scrunched up and shoulders sagging – looking a mix between relieved and skeptical. He looked like he might say something too – possibly ask Armin if there really was nothing wrong – "Christa" had looked sad and if it had been one of his friend's, Jean definitely would have said something, but considering he wanted to be more than friends he didn't want to come off as too invasive and so he just nodded and said 'okay'.

"Do you come here a lot Jean?" Armin asked and the brunet boy nodded.

"Yeah, their pastries are amazing," he said enthusiastically, "Like this apple turnover is great – fruit is super crisp and fresh."

"Hmm, I'll have to try that sometime" then, "Hey so, that guy you introduced me to last time – Reiner – he's your friend right?"

Jean tried not to frown at the mention of Reiner, mind drifting to last night when "Christa" had spotted the buff guy and Jean had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from scowling because what was so damn interesting about Reiner?

"Yeah. You could say so," Jean responded. In all actuality they weren't that close – just acquaintances really – they had a couple of classes together and talked a bit, but outside of school they didn't really interact much. Jean hadn't known him as long as he'd known some of his other friends.

"In that case," Armin asked, "You wouldn't happen to know if he is working today would you?"

And Jean would happen to know that actually, but he wasn't too sure on if he was willing to share that information or not. On one hand he wanted to keep Armin and Reiner as far apart as possible because Jean was ninety percent sure that "Christa" had a thing for Reiner. On the other hand he didn't want to be a dick and lie – he was an honest man after all, and he prided himself on that.

"It depends," Jean said after a moment, "On if you'll go on a date with me next Saturday or not."

Ah. Armin probably should have expected that. Really, Armin didn't need to know the answer that badly – he was bound to run into Reiner at some point or another so long as he kept frequenting this shop. That being said, Jean was doing a terrible job of not looking hopeful and Armin couldn't help but think about how upset the boy had looked when Armin had rejected his offer to go to that party together the other day. It was tempting to say yes, but at the same time it would be really cruel of him to give Jean the wrong idea that they could be together.

"As friends?" Armin asked, but it was more of a rhetorical question and Jean wasn't sure if he should jump for joy (because he hadn't been rejected) or if he should be upset that it wouldn't be a date.

"… As friends." Was his reluctant reply, but Armin's smile made it worth it, "He actually has the afternoon shift today."

"Thanks Jean,"

At noon, Armin found himself sitting in a corner booth in an Italian restaurant about a block away from campus. Mikasa sat on one side by herself and Eren had the seat next to him. The two boys hadn't had much time to talk to the girl in person, which even then they kept strictly personal and never mentioned the investigation – and so Eren was briefing Mikasa and Armin on the security of the mail room and other places, as well as what he was able to find on any suspicious personnel and so on and so forth.

"I went through some of the faculty members' computers," Mikasa said once Eren was finished – ignoring the scolding look Armin was giving her, "It was unsurprisingly fruitless. The more I dig up the less reason I have to believe that they are working with the culprit."

"Well at least that narrows our suspect list down," Armin said, though it wasn't really much good news because they really had no leads and it could be anyone in school and for that matter the person might not even be associated to the school. Though the likelihood of the perpetrator being someone outside the school was highly unlikely because it wouldn't have been easy for just anyone to wander onto campus and leave an unaddressed envelope there.

"There is one teacher though," Mikasa said, "I don't know much about him. However he keeps to himself and I get a bad vibe from him."

Armin could relate to that. So far it seemed the only leads he had were gut intuitions and no hard evidence. They'd been doing this undercover job for a while now and honestly it was proving to be harder than it should have been. Not to mention there had yet to be another threat and Armin wondered if maybe they were wasting their time and all of this was for naught.

The three friends continued to talk – albeit quietly – about work before they allowed themselves to relax and enjoy their lunch together.

"How are your classes Eren? They aren't too hard are they?" Mikasa asked – the question making Eren shout indigently.

"I'm not some kid, and it isn't like I'm actually enrolled in the school," it would be an understatement to say he sounded offended, "Although…"

Armin and Mikasa looked at Eren curiously.

"There's this one teacher who gets all pissy when I sleep during lecture,"

"Well you can't blame them Eren, it is rude." Armin said.

"Well what else am I supposed to do? I don't see the need to do the work; I already have a job, I don't need to study too."

"Maybe you can transfer to a different class?" Mikasa suggested and Armin shook his head.

"I don't think so. Like Eren said earlier he isn't legitimately enrolled, Irvin would probably just ignore Eren's complaint. It's just one teacher though, so I think you can endure."

Eren groaned, "Yeah, yeah. Whatever, I'll do my best."

"I can do your coursework for you Eren."

"What? Mikasa, no. None of this is going on my record. I don't need it."

"Hmm, is that it then?" the man asked, legs crossed as he reclined in his seat.

"That's it; I told you everything I know." Erwin answered – not so subtlety glaring at the man in front of him.

"You constipated or something? You seem angry,"

Erwin's eye twitched, "That's because I'm trying to work. And you should be too." He gave the man another harsh glare before the man scoffed and got up, white coat swishing lightly as he headed for the door, one hand casually resting in his pocket. And then he was leaving without so much as another word.

Jean sat in the school's café, donned in a baseball cap with the bill pulled low, shoulders hunched, and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible in the small corner he had situated himself in. He didn't know what time "Christa" would be showing up, but he'd been sitting here for about an hour now ever since Reiner's shift started at three. He could admit that what he was doing was creepy and possibly – definitely – morally wrong; as this bordered on the line of stalking, but Jean was a curious man and he needed to scope out the competition.

Jean liked Reiner, he really did, he was a nice guy and Jean had admired that about him… though he wasn't so sure how he felt about that anymore. A part of him was hoping that maybe "Christa" wasn't interested in Reiner in a romantic sense and just wanted to make friends, but if he was honest with himself, there were a couple signs that "Christa" really wanted to get to know Reiner.

The entrance chimed and Jean slouched further in his seat, eyes inconspicuously drifting to the door to see who had entered.

'It's Christa!' Jean thought, before quickly turning to look in the other direction, lest the girl somehow spot him. He waited a moment, before turning to look again, and now "Christa" was standing in front of the counter. From where Jean was at, he couldn't really hear their conversation – not with the drink machines buzzing and the idle chit chat of other customers – but he could at least see Reiner's face (as Armin's back was turned).

Jean watched as Reiner smiled – that charming smile he tended to do - that Jean had tried to replicate a million times but never quite looked as good whenever he practiced it in the mirror. Then Reiner was talking and he could see "Christa" bob her head and now, 'Holy fuck is Reiner blushing?' Reiner was scratching the back of his head and seemingly chuckling – Jean swore he could see him flexing his muscles with his raised arm. Their conversation went on a bit longer, Reiner stepping away to make Armin's order – serious face back – before he was handing her the drink and she was paying and then rather than sitting down, she walked right out of the café and now Jean was pretty sure the girl had come here solely for Reiner.

The brunet waited a couple minutes after Armin left, before he was yanking off his hat and strolling up to the counter, "Hey there Reiner."

"Ah, what's up Jean," the bulky man replied and Jean studied his face - looking for any sign that gave away what he and Armin had talked about.

"Nothing much. Saw you talking to Christa earlier," might as well get straight to the point.

"Oh yeah," Reiner answered, "She's cute,"

"Super cute," Jean said, "What were you two talking about?"

Reiner didn't seem to be too concerned with the whole twenty questions Jean decided to engage him in, and instead fished a slip of paper out of the pocket of his apron, "First, check it out – she gave me her number when she paid."

Jean practically choked on his spit – eyes bulging in shock – something Reiner seemed to take as a sign to go ahead.

"Earlier she was saying she thought I was interesting and said we should talk some time, so I think I'll call her when my shift ends."

Jean had never heard something so horrifying.

'Shit,' he thought, 'Christa was just starting to warm up to me – I can't lose now.'

"That's cool man," Jean said – and really it was – you know, if it had been him getting "Christa's" number and not Reiner, "Gotta go though. See ya later."

And then Jean was stiffly turning around and walking out of the café, 'I still have a chance – we still have our unofficial date Saturday – I can't give up yet!' he told himself. And with renewed vigor, Jean practically bolted to his dorm, intent on googling 'How to plan the perfect date'.

Chapter Text

Levi was a man of little words. He was more of an observer if anything. Of course, he detested a person who stuck their nose into business that wasn't their own – even if he himself had been guilty of such a thing before. In his defense, he felt he was justified. Because you see, as a teacher here at Trost private school, and a close friend of headmaster Erwin Smith, Levi was fairly confident this was part of his business. Of course, there were other forces at play here – for instance his other job, but that's a story for another time.

He had pretty much learned about the three undercover students their first day on campus, though that had been purely coincidental – he had originally been on his way to talk to Erwin when he happened to overhear the conversation.

They were pretty shitty at their jobs if you asked him, one would think someone who served as a spy for a living would be able to notice if someone was lingering outside the door. No matter, this just made it all the more interesting for him.

So after calling up a friend – who chattered far too long about stuff he'd rather have lived without hearing – he'd learned his fair share about the three. He'd pretty much known their names – as he had heard them introduce themselves – but the added information was nice too. Like for instance how the one with the really nice ass was going to be in one of his classes and, most importantly, was legal – not that that came as a surprise.

Mikasa was never one to mix her private life with work, but she couldn't help but be worried about Eren. The conversation from the other day – in regards to the teacher that was harassing Eren (not that Eren even said the teacher was harassing him) – kept replaying in her mind and the longer she thought about it, the more she felt something needed to be done.

With the first step being to figure out which teacher was the thorn in Eren's side – she started with checking his grades, all of which were pretty bad, and then moved on to checking his attendance list. For how much Eren had complained about having to attend class, he sure did show up to the majority of his classes.

There was one though, where he had been marked tardy and absent several times and so it was a safe bet that that particular class was the one he disliked. A quick look at the teacher's name told her everything she needed to know – this was the man she got bad vibes from.

It had been her first day on the job, and she had been standing in the lounge, carefully eyeing each and every person in the room. She was calculating weights and heights and doing body profiles to see if anyone here was physically fit enough to potentially kidnap someone.

"Who pissed in your cheerios?" someone asked and Mikasa snapped her gaze forward- seeing nothing – before allowing her gaze to drop down on the small man standing in front of her. She hadn't even noticed him walk up, and quite honestly that irritated her. Still, that was hardly a reason to snap at someone – never mind his crude question – and so she bit back whatever potentially insulting greeting she had been tempted to say.

"I beg your pardon… sir?"

The man hardly looked pleased with her response, and judging by his soft sigh and pointed look, he was used to his brash comments being overlooked.

"Forget it," he said, still not moving away and Mikasa was beginning to get unnerved with the way he kept staring up at her with annoyance – she hadn't even done anything, so why did this guy have to look so pissed?

'No one told you to come talk to me,' she thought when he sighed again.

"You're blocking the coffee machine." He finally said, when it was obvious Mikasa wasn't catching the hint to move out of his way and now Mikasa really had to restrain herself because honestly, was it so hard to say something? A little, "Could you step aside please?" too much for him? Add on the fact that he had just expected her, just because she was a teacher aid and not a teacher herself (or so she seemed to think, never mind the fact that she wasn't even really a teacher aid either) to just move.

"Sorry," she bit out, before moving aside.

'I don't like this guy.'

Admittedly, just because the guy was a little socially awkward and rude (she was in the same boat herself actually) she shouldn't dislike him as much as she does, but for some unfathomable reason he just grated on her nerves. Maybe it was because the other teachers were kind and so in contrast he just seemed awful, but she found herself heavily disliking him.

His personality was lackluster and he was blunt, crude, and generally terrible company. And he was definitely the type of person she wanted to keep away from Eren.

Jean was currently in his bedroom, sitting cross-legged on his bed with his laptop on his lap and a pad of paper and pencil sitting next to him with the words 'The Perfect Date' scribbled across the top. To say he was doing extensive research would be an understatement.

He wanted this – no, he needed this – to be the best date ever. Of course, "Christa" had stressed the fact that this was, in fact, not a date, but the way Jean saw it, if it was amazing enough, then the girl would want it to be.

And the first step to an amazing date would be the venue. His first idea had been dinner and a movie – the classic. But the internet had pretty much called him a moron and told him that was a big fat no - because two people couldn't get to know each other, apparently, if they were sitting quietly in the dark for two hours. Jean disagreed, in his opinion; two people could get to know each other really well in the dark, if you caught his drift. Christa wasn't like that though, and honestly he wasn't interested in a girl like that anyway, so the movie idea was out.

So in order to pick the best place to go, Jean did the logical thing and looked up the top ten places for a first date. There were things like golfing and bowling and that seemed pretty cool to him and wow, he hadn't known that hiking was a good first date idea. Oh, but it said not to bring a high-maintenance girl and Jean didn't think he'd ever seen "Christa" in anything other than a skirt and she always smelled really nice and so he guessed that was out. Plus he didn't think getting bit by mosquitos was very attractive anyway. And there was also the chance that he was an axe murderer (he wasn't, he figured he'd know if he was) and was trying to lure Christa out into the woods and yeah, not a good idea.

In the end, Jean went with aquarium. Those were pretty cool right? He hoped so. He hadn't been to one since grade school. Fortunately there was an aquarium downtown and a quick Google search said the tickets weren't too expensive. More expensive then bowling though. Whatever, Christa would be worth it.

Now that he had a place picked, it was time to decide on a place for dinner, and what he should wear and he didn't have a car but downtown wasn't too far of a walk, and he didn't think Christa would mind. Maybe. Now he was having doubts.

"Why is this so hard?!" he screeched, tugging at his hair in frustration. He knew he was being a little overdramatic but… "Christa" is the prettiest girl he's ever met and she is smart and pretty and honestly too good for him, but he really, really wants things to work between them. Even if it meant being just friends – though he'd much rather prefer actually going steady with her. And as it was, this was his only chance to prove to the girl that he'd be a really great boyfriend and that he's so much cooler than Reiner. Sure he wasn't as muscular and nice as Reiner, but Jean thought he was pretty good.

"I have a great personality, and my face is pretty good – better than Reiner's," he grumbled, absently scrolling on his computer.

"This date has to be perfect," it was his new mantra and served as his motivation. And with that thought, he started making a list of things to do on the date.

Armin was the one who had suggested going hiking. And Reiner had been pleasantly surprised.

"You don't seem like the type of girl to enjoy things like this," Reiner said as they walked the trail at the park. He had a backpack with him filled with water bottles, snacks, and their lunch. It really wasn't hiking, per se, rather a walk through the trails before a picnic by the river. It was a pretty nice date if you asked Reiner.

It was entirely different for Armin though. He only suggested walking because it meant no crowds, which meant he could talk to Reiner freely without being interrupted. The picnic was Reiner's idea, and Armin didn't mind too much because again, no crowded restaurant, which meant more observing and information gathering on Armin's part.

Armin laughed lightly, "Well there's something soothing about the outdoors," he said, "Don't you agree?"

Armin had his hair pulled back in a low ponytail, and was wearing his only pair of jeans, which (in his opinion) were uncomfortably tight and he almost missed wearing a skirt. He had some high-top converse on (which weren't even proper walking shoes and was it so hard to ask for a measly pair of tennis shoes?) and a long, baggy button up that reached his thighs. Nothing fancy and yet he could see Reiner stealing glances at him every few minutes and it was unnerving and yet flattering at the same time.

"I guess so," Reiner answered and Armin hummed in agreement.

"So Reiner, how long have you been going to our school?"

Eren angrily stood outside his microbiology teacher's office – waiting for the guy to arrive. Last time he was in class, the man had asked him to come see him whenever he was free and so now here he was. There was a ninety-nine percent chance he was going to be scolded and the brunet was not looking forward to it. It was a hassle he'd rather not deal with, and Eren almost regretted skipping class so many times. In his defense though, the teacher was not pleasant at all and the information even less so. And now he would have to come up with some bullshit excuse as to why he was doing so poorly in class and it was more effort than it was worth. He was eternally jealous that Mikasa got the easy job of teacher aid and didn't have to attend class every day. He'd taken his fair share of college courses; he didn't want to take more. Not to mention, microbiology? It's not like he'd ever use something like that. Who even enjoyed it enough to teach something like that? Mr. Levi did it seemed.

Eren snickered, "It makes sense for a tiny guy like him to teach a class about microscopic junk."

"Would you like to try saying that again?" Levi asked and Eren flinched before looking down at the teacher in surprise – he hadn't even noticed him walk up.

The brunet chuckled nervously, "Uh… No?"

"That's what I thought," was the clipped reply, before he was unlocking his office and walking inside, expecting Eren to follow, who did so without fail.

"I suppose you know why I called you in here then?" Levi asked before Eren even had time to take his seat.

"It's about my grades sir."

"Yes, and what about your grades?"

"They're not so good?"

"Not so good is an understatement. Shitastic is more like it."

Eren chuckled dryly. He'd forgotten how blunt his teacher could be.

It wasn't that Eren disliked Levi; it was more of a, he didn't want to be in this situation in the first place, kind of scenario. Eren was sure that if he were an actual, legitimate student then he would no doubt put more effort into the class, but unfortunately things weren't like that.

"Right…"

"Keep it up and you'll fail."

Well, technically Eren couldn't fail, but he couldn't really say that so he chose to just nod along. Eren had always been hot-headed and a part of him just wanted to yell for Levi to get off his case (and while Levi was being pretty tame right now, the majority of class was spent with him calling Eren an idiot for not understanding the material) but that would probably land him in more trouble and it really wasn't worth it.

"Tell me Eren, how far are you willing to go to bring your grades up?"

Eren blinked in confusion, not sure if he was taking this out of context, of if his professor was maybe, possibly, hitting on him.

"Excuse me?"

Reiner's story was pretty solid. And by that Armin meant the bigger boy had not said a single suspicious thing and was proving to just be pleasant and Armin was beginning to think he had seriously misjudged the guy. He wasn't bad at all, and while Armin had never had reason to be suspicious of him, he couldn't help it. So far it seemed like his gut feeling was wrong.

Armin sighed, and when Reiner turned to look at him in curiosity, he flushed when he realized he had done so aloud.

"Do you not like the sandwiches?" he asked and Armin shook his head.

"Oh, that's not it – it's really good."

Reiner frowned and Armin panicked internally.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about class. I'm really having a great time," he lied smoothly and Reiner eyed him for a second before nodding in acceptance.

They were currently sitting under a tree, eating lunch. Reiner had gone the whole nine yards and set up a blanket for them to sit on and everything.

Today felt like a waste of time for Armin. He had fun, yes, but it irked him a bit that he came away with no leads. But then again what did he expect? For Reiner to suddenly confess that he was a bad guy or something? Well, he supposed it wasn't all for naught. Reiner was pleasant and once Armin got that background check back, he could cross the man off his suspect list. Which reminded him…

"Oh hey, Reiner?"

"What is it?"

"You went to that party the other night right?" he asked and Reiner nodded. Armin smiled.

"Ah see, I thought I saw you but I wasn't sure. I wanted to say hi, but I saw you talking to some guy and I didn't want to intrude, so I decided not to."

"That's too bad," Reiner said after a moment of silence, "You should have. Bertl wouldn't have minded."

Armin's smile widened, it was really easy to get information out of people.

"Bertl?" he asked and Reiner nodded.

"Yeah, he's my friend. We've known each other for a long time."

"That's always nice. I haven't seen him around though; does he go to our school?"

Reiner shook his head, "Nah." And Armin frowned internally when he didn't say anything else on the matter.

"Well I'd love to meet him sometime," Armin said and Reiner stared down at him before offering a lopsided smirk.

"Yeah? Well that can be arranged. The three of us can get together sometime."

And Armin wasn't sure why, but he couldn't stop the shiver that ran down his back.

Eren almost wished Levi had been hitting on him. It would certainly be better than this. This being him cleaning out some old storage closet on campus.

"Why am I doing this again?" he asked and Levi shrugged.

"Cause you want less shitty grades?"

Eren groaned, "I know that, but what does this have to do with micro biology?"

"Nothing. Just wanted you to clean this room for me."

"Why?"

"Cause I want to use it for storage."

Eren felt like screaming, what storage did he need?!

"Hey if you're gonna do it – do it right."

Eren huffed, he was sorting boxes is all, was there really a wrong way to do it? He didn't think so, but Levi was another story.

Levi, for his part, was having a pretty good time watching Eren gripe and moan. Not to mention the view of the kid's ass was pretty nice too. You could call him a terrible man, but this was fun. It's not like he was doing anything bad, anyway. A little manual labor never hurt anyone. Levi was actually surprised how gullible Eren could be. Who had detention in college anyway? No one as far as Levi was concerned. Despite Eren's bad grades and poor attitude, he wasn't so bad. Levi could see why Hanji liked him so much.

Speaking of Hanji, she'd asked him how things were going recently and he'd yet to respond.

He'd have to do that before she started hounding him about it.

There were still a couple of days until his unofficial date with Christa and Jean found himself in this perpetual state of anticipation. Fortunately classes kept him distracted and the chaste conversations he had with the girl helped stave off his excitement. There was also the fact that Christa had given her number to Reiner and Jean often found himself wondering if they'd gone out already and how it went.

So one afternoon he stopped by the café and asked the bigger boy how it had gone. According to the blond it had been great and they had a wonderful time and he was planning on hanging out with her more and Jean was torn between being happy for the two of them, or crawling under a rock and crying, or maybe kicking something in frustration – that would work too.

At the same time, he found he also had the motivation to prove himself to the blonde girl even more and so once he got home that evening he looked up do's and don'ts for dates.

Saturday afternoon, Armin found himself sitting on the couch in Eren and Jean's dorm, listening to the two boys argue about who was better at what, and wishing the two would just admit they were friends already.

They were both acting a bit strange, a little fidgety and Armin wondered if something had happen and if they were just using each other as a way to vent. He had an inkling of a feeling as to why Jean was acting weird, but as for Eren he hadn't the slightest clue.

He'd been showing up to class more, Armin knew that, but he didn't know why and while he wanted to know he did not bother asking because Eren would tell him whenever he was ready. He wondered if maybe it had something to do with that meeting he had with Mr. Levi, but Armin didn't have any semblance of an idea as to what could have possibly happened for Eren to be so… maybe skittish was not the right word but it was all Armin could think of. The first day after the meeting he had seemed fairly angry but as the week progressed the anger died down into Eren's current sketchy behavior. Well, so long as the brunet wasn't causing any trouble, Armin figured it would be alright to let it go.

"Whatever, I'm leaving. Let's go Christa," Jean suddenly said, snapping Armin from his thoughts, who blinked up at the taller boy before nodding.

"Hey where are you two going?" Eren demanded and before Jean could say anything Armin answered.

"We're going to hang out for a little bit." He said as he stood up, patting his skirt down in the back before grabbing his purse. He gave Eren a look that told him he would explain later, but the boy just chuckled.

"Alright, have fun on your date," he teased, smirking at Jean who immediately flushed before yelling.

"It's not a date!"

Just as Armin responded with his own fierce denial, "It isn't a date."

Jean turned to look at Armin in shock, whose cheeks were burning from embarrassment before he averted his gaze to the floor when he realized how hurt Jean had looked at his words.

'Stupid,' Armin thought, 'You said it too,' But while Jean's denial had been that of embarrassment, Armin's had not. He sighed internally; here he was trying his best to not hurt Jean's feelings and that's all he seemed to be doing.

Eren looked between the two boys in confusion before chuckling awkwardly at the tension in the air, "Right, sorry," he apologized and Armin nodded before stiffly walking towards the door, Jean following him.

"I'm sorry," Armin apologized once they were out of the room.

"It's okay." The brunet responded, but he certainly didn't look okay. His face was scrunched up in what might have been a funny expression if it wasn't so obvious to Armin that he had seriously hurt the other boy's feelings and he was just trying to cover it up with a smile.

"No it isn't," Armin said, stopping to turn to look up at Jean, "I know you like me, so it was cruel of me to be so harsh earlier." It had been his intention to say more, but he stopped when Jean's whole face turned red.

"You… You knew I liked you?"

He seemed surprised and Armin might have laughed at his reaction under different circumstances, "Which is why I told you we'd be going out as just friends. I didn't want to get your hopes up Jean."

"Oh," Jean said and Armin watched as he clenched his fists and frowned, "So I take it you don't like me then?"

Armin wondered how much courage it took Jean to say that and he had to bite his lip in frustration.

'You don't like me,' he thought, but he very well couldn't say that and then he found himself at a loss of what to actually say. On one hand this was an opportunity to get Jean to give up, on the other hand… Armin knew that if he were in Jean's place he would not have had the courage to ask what the other boy had. He was pretty much setting himself up for rejection. And the worst part of it all was Armin actually kind of liked Jean, but as a friend. And Armin had to wonder if he hadn't been playing a role this whole time if maybe he would have reciprocated Jean's feelings in a romantic sense.

"I…" and he would probably, no, he was sure he'd regret this later, "I do like you Jean. Probably more than I should. It's just that I'm not interested in a relationship right now."

Jean didn't look too thrilled however, so Armin grabbed his arm gently and offered a smile, "I really do like you Jean."

"… thanks," the brunet responded, offering a small smile of his own before gently shaking Armin's arm off and walking down the hall. Armin frowned before jogging slightly to catch up.

"If you're going to mope our entire date," he said, Jean really was easy to please if his raised eyebrows and slowly forming goofy grin was anything to go by, "I'll just go hang out with Eren instead."

Jean scowled at the mention of the other boy before looking at Armin curiously, "So it's a date then?"

Armin bit his lip, "Yes," and before Jean's smile could get any wider, "Only this once! Don't expect another chance!"

Jean smiled cockily, "Don't worry – I'll only need this one."

They decided to go to the aquarium first, and Armin chattered by his side excitedly once he'd found out where they were going. Jean felt pretty confident now that the girl seemed to be so excited and he found himself able to push that conversation from earlier out of his mind. He didn't think "Christa" pitied him or anything. Her eyes were pretty expressive and after knowing her for nearly a month he found he could tell if she was enjoying herself or not. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't hurt about the girl so vehemently denying this was a date earlier, but looking at her now he had to wonder if maybe she had just been embarrassed and that's why she had responded so negatively.

Actually, he'd never even heard "Christa" raise her voice before today, and so maybe that had been what had shocked him the most. Eren had seemed pretty shocked too and Jean didn't know if that was a bad thing or not. The blonde typically seemed to be such a kind girl, and – this could be his high hopes speaking – Jean thought, maybe, if he really didn't stand a chance with her, she would have let him down gently a long time ago. Especially since she apparently knew he'd liked her the whole time. But then again Jean hadn't really been too subtle.

Jean shook his head. He'd think about it later. Right now, he had a date to woo.

"Did you know jellyfish can range in size from bigger than you, to the size of a pinhead?" "Christa" asked, smiling up at Jean with sparkling eyes.

"I didn't."

"Yup, the largest jellyfish found had tentacles about fifty yards long! They're really resilient too! They were around before dinosaurs were and there are even some places in the ocean where only jellyfish can survive."

Jean never would have pegged the girl as an information nut, she tended to keep quiet and Jean was usually the one doing all of the talking. He didn't mind though, it was really cute the way she got so excited and her eyes would light up and she'd go off on tangents and then when she'd realized she was talking so much she would blush and apologize and Jean felt better about his decision to bring her here. It was an obvious hit. The online sites said she would think it romantic and that they could hold hands while they looked at the displays in low light and while that had not, and probably would not happen, Jean didn't think this was such a bad alternative.

"Christa" seemed to have something to say about almost every animal they saw and Jean was sure he'd learnt more about aquatic animals then he'd ever wanted to know, but it was alright by him. As they got closer to the bottom level and some of the last exhibits, Jean noticed their pace was slowing and that the girl was lingering behind.

"What is it?" he asked and she blushed (Jean almost did too but that was because 'wow this girl is so cute and gorgeous and we're on a date together').

"Nothing. Are you having fun?"

"Yeah, aren't you?"

"I am. Do you think we could stay here a bit longer then?"

Oh. Oh so that was it. She was having so much fun she didn't want to leave. That was actually really cute.

"Sure. I don't mind."

Armin was honestly having way too much fun. He hadn't expected Jean to take him to an aquarium of all places and honestly he'd assumed they'd see a movie or something. Not that Armin minded, he actually preferred this over a movie. It'd been a long time since he had the chance to just relax and do the things he liked so this was a nice change of pace from his usually hectic schedule. Plus Jean was listening to all of his ramblings and didn't seem to mind and if there was anything Armin loved, it was to share his knowledge with others.

He hoped he wouldn't get in trouble for going out with Jean like this, but he didn't suppose it poised too big of a problem. Well Ymir might have something to say about it, but the company he worked for wouldn't mind. He was still a bit worried about how Jean might be taking this. Of course, he had gone and said it was a date, but he made sure to tell the other boy that this would be a one-time thing. A part of him felt bad, and he knew come tonight he would scold himself for not just letting Jean down when he had the chance, but for now he would ignore those nagging feelings.

He knew that by the time it was all said and done, that Jean would get hurt and he felt awful about it but… things were a bit different now. Because Armin would be hurt too. He really, really shouldn't have gotten involved with Jean. But he'd tried to be nice (after all Christa was apparently a goddess incarnate) and now things were like this.

They were currently sitting at a small family diner, nothing too fancy, and as the excitement from earlier in the day wore off, Armin was beginning to feel awful. It shouldn't be any of his concern what happens to Jean after this job ends, but now he knows Jean will definitely be hurt. Another part of him, a small part that he keeps pushing to the back of his mind, wonders if once Jean meets the real Christa if he'll like her too; Armin wonders if Jean can look past what had happened between himself and Jean and if he can accept Christa freely. After all, none of this is Christa's fault and Armin would hate for her to get hurt because of something Armin had done. He hoped they got along, and he hoped Jean wouldn't feel too betrayed by the time this was all said and done. He wondered if maybe Jean would wind up liking the real Christa as well. The thought made him squirm and Armin had to take a sip of his drink to distract himself from the feeling.

Jean was telling a story about some guy named Marco, his old roommate who transferred apparently, and the time he'd dared Connie to streak through the campus and Armin laughed at the appropriate times, but he was hardly listening.

"Today was great," Armin muttered and Jean visibly brightened despite being cut-off mid story.

"Really?"

And really, it was. There were a couple odd moments where Jean had used a mediocre pick up line and kept on sneakily (thought Armin had noticed anyway) glancing at a scrap of paper. It had been after the third odd gesture that Armin had snatched it from him and then laughed when he realized it was a do's and don'ts list. He had been able to count four things which Jean had already done and it was endearing how embarrassed the brunet had gotten. Over all though, it had been a pretty great date.

"I'm glad," Jean confessed, "I actually worked really hard on making sure this would all go so well."

Armin smiled sadly, trying not to frown – now he felt even worse.

"It's getting kind of late. We should go."

"Oh sure," Jean said before digging out his wallet and gesturing the waiter over. After they had paid they started walking back to campus and Jean offered to walk him to his room which Armin accepted.

When they got to his door, Armin thanked him for the night and Jean just chuckled nervously.

"Christa," he said and Armin peered up at him curiously.

"What is it?" he asked, only to be cut off by the ring of his cellphone, "One second," he said apologetically before digging for the device in his purse. From where Jean was standing, when Armin pulled the phone out of the bag he could see the name Reiner flashing across the screen.

Armin forwarded the call before putting his phone away and smiling sheepishly.

"Why… why is Reiner calling you so late?" he asked before he could stop himself.

"Oh well we've hung out a few times during the week. He was probably just calling to see if we could hang out again."

The answer didn't sit well with Jean. Especially since, as far as he had been aware, they had only hung out once and now he'd learnt they'd hung out several times in one week? It really wasn't that big of a deal, because there was a ninety percent chance hanging out meant lounging at the coffee shop but Jean couldn't help the twist of jealously that coiled in his gut.

When Jean didn't answer Armin said, "Well I should probably call him back, so I'll see you later Jean."

"Wait!" Jean called, before stepping forward, "Let's hang out again sometime."

Armin bit the inside of his cheek. He still felt guilty about all this and plus nearly a month had gone by and he really needed to start focusing on work more.

He was trying to think of a way to respond when suddenly Jean said, "I'm going to kiss you."

What? What?!

"What?" Armin yelped in surprise – where had that come from? He quickly waved his hands in front of his face, but the brunet just caught his wrists and stepped forward once again so they were almost touching.

"I like you a lot Christa," he said and Armin froze as one of Jean's hands lightly cupped the back of his neck, "And I think you might like me too. So give us a chance." And then Jean's hand was sliding from the back of his neck and with his pointer finger he tilted Armin's chin up and placed a chaste kiss against his forehead.

"I get jealous when you talk to Reiner and I know I shouldn't, but it's because I really like you." Then he pulled away and hurried off before "Christa" snapped out of it and he got punched or something.

And Armin stood outside his dorm room feeling incredibly happy and terribly miserable all at once.

Sometimes, when Mikasa was working overtime grading for some of the professors, Bertolt would be there too. They usually worked quietly and for wasting a Saturday night he didn't seem to mind all that much.

It was as Mikasa was packing up her things, getting ready to leave for the night, that Bertolt's phone rang and he apologized before hurriedly excusing himself to take the call. He stepped out into the hall so Mikasa found herself standing with her bag awkwardly, not wanting to disturb him if he was having an important conversation. It was when he'd been out there for well over five minutes, and Mikasa had been listening to indistinguishable rapid fire whispers for far too long, that she got fed up and decided she would just leave, be it rude or not.

"What are you doing?" Bertolt whispered loudly and Mikasa froze because the tone the man had used wasn't that of one of casual conversation. She pressed her ear towards the door, intent on listening in, when suddenly Bertolt sighed and there was the distinct sound oh his phone clicking shut and so she quickly stepped away from the door before he could walk in.

"Sorry," he apologized again.

"Okay," was her response before she was slipping past him and out the door.

Sunday morning Jean woke up in a state of bliss, followed by one of panic when he realized exactly what he had done. A kiss on the forehead wasn't too bad, but it had been pretty bold and the only reason why he had done it was because Jean felt a strong urge to remind the girl that 'hey, I'm a pretty good looking guy. Look my way and not Reiner's'. He hoped she wasn't mad and he hadn't stuck around long enough to find out, but he was sure she was and 'oh god what if she tells Eren' and that thought was enough to make Jean roll out of bed and leave the room before Eren could say anything to him. He figured he would lay low in one of the more secluded areas on campus, lest he face the wrath of Eren, and it was as he was cutting between a makeshift alley between two school buildings, that he spotted Reiner at the end of it talking with that one really tall guy he was with at the party last week. Jean ducked behind an air ventilation system and strained his ears to listen. He was hoping they were talking about Christa, and they were, but it definitely wasn't what he had expected to hear.

"She's really sweet," Reiner was saying, "We're going to hang out again in a few days."

It was quiet for a moment before the other guy was saying, and it was hard to hear, but if Jean concentrated it sounded something like, "You're… You're doing this to get closer to her right? To kidnap her?"

But that couldn't be right. Could it? The guy was joking wasn't he?

"We can hold off on the plan can't we Bertl?" Reiner asked and Jean almost turned so he could sneak a look at them, "I think she might like me. If I can woo her a little more, she might even go willingly."

What were these guys talking about? Jean felt like jumping out and asking them what the hell kind of game they were playing but… he didn't want to hear anymore and so he snuck back the way he came before running back to his room.

He had probably been pacing around the living room area for almost an hour now, trying to make sense of what he overheard and wondering if maybe he should tell someone. But who would believe him? He could hardly believe it himself, but Reiner had sounded so sure of himself and the longer he thought about it the more he felt like it wasn't a joke.

"What the hell are you doing?" Eren asked and Jean froze, not even realizing the other boy was there, before resuming his pacing.

"Hey don't ignore me!" and when that still failed to cause the reaction he wanted Eren frowned, "Hey… is something up?"

Jean stopped again, looking at Eren and debating on if he should tell him or not. He was positive the other boy would laugh at him but on the other hand…

"Say figuratively," he started, "That a person overhears this conversation. And there's like a hundred percent chance the people he heard talking were joking, but the guy isn't so sure and he doesn't know if he should tell someone about it or not."

"It depends," Eren responded, work attitude in place, "On what that person heard."

Jean hesitated, "Well…"

Chapter Text

"I just… I don't understand," Bertolt muttered and Reiner offered him a toothy grin, heavy hand clamping onto Bertolt's shoulder, where he gave a light squeeze in reassurance.

"You're worrying too much," he soothed, "We have plenty of time. I don't know why you're rushing."

Bertolt hesitated for a moment, hands burying themselves into the pockets of his slacks, "I'm… Not rushing." He said, "I'm just worried that maybe you might drop the plan."

Reiner had the decency to look scandalized, and his hands fell back to his side, before replying, "Don't be such a worry wart. I know what I'm doing."

Bertolt hardly looked convinced though, and Reiner grit his teeth in annoyance.

"Just trust me alright?" he asked, but it was more of a statement if anything.

Bertolt just stood there silently, but Reiner knew the taller boy well enough to know that he had something to say.

"What-" the blond started to ask, only to be cut off by a small beep that had Bertolt jumping and pulling his phone from his pocket.

"I have work," he said with a sigh, hesitating once more, "Please don't forget our goal in this," and then he was scurrying away, leaving Reiner to his thoughts.

"What's his problem," Reiner asked aloud, once the boy was out of sight. He didn't understand why Bertolt couldn't see it his way. What was wrong with attracting "Christa"? This should be a good thing. He hadn't been kidding earlier when he said there was a chance she might come willingly.

He had seriously misjudged the blonde girl. Actually talking to someone firsthand was a lot different from stalking them from afar. She was a bit more withdrawn than she had used to be, but Reiner chalked that up to her almost being kidnapped. He figured that might make a person a bit more cautious.

But he had actually gotten to know her pretty well over the past week. And he'd learned a fair amount about her, just from Jean dragging her to the café whenever he had the chance. He'd have to thank the guy for it later. But as he was saying, "Christa" might have held the appearance of a girly girl, but she was anything but and Reiner since thought they had a lot in common, he thought that if "Christa" were in a similar situation like him, she'd do the same thing. Maybe if he got her to trust him a bit more, she'd be more understanding and willing to help.

He knew all about her background, and knew that she hated the family she came from. He bet with a bit of coercing she'd willingly help scrounge a couple hundred thousand bucks from that stingy family of hers. It was for a good cause after all. And another thing – if he could get "Christa" to come along willingly, then there was a lower chance of them being caught and convicted of kidnapping and ransom. Reiner didn't want to hurt the girl, and Bertolt didn't want to either, so Reiner just couldn't see why the taller male didn't think this was a good idea.

'He should just let me do as I please,' he thought to himself. Bertolt failed the first time anyway. If he had just swiped "Christa" at that club like he was supposed to do that night, then Bertolt wouldn't have to worry about Reiner trying to woo her. Reiner scoffed again, a bit annoyed that Bertolt seemed to be getting frustrated with him. Shouldn't he be the frustrated one? They could have been raking in the cash forever ago if that night had gone according to plan.

Bertolt was his friend, and they were in this together, but for all of his preaching for Reiner to do something, Bertolt sure wasn't doing anything either.

There wasn't any reason to rush was there? Reiner hadn't thought so, but with how nervous Bertolt had been recently, he was beginning to second guess it. Still, rushing it could lead to failure and that was the last thing Reiner wanted. Reiner wondered how he could help soothe Bertolt's nerves, prove to him that this would be better than their original plan, and that "Christa" definitely liked him. He bet if he went and asked her out right now, she'd definitely say yes. And from there he could… If it was the "Christa" he'd come to know, then she'd definitely understand.

The road to a girl's heart was a delicate process, but he supposed, if it would calm Bertolt down, then he could just get the ball rolling earlier than planned.

Bertolt is worried as he makes his way to the lounge, but then again he is always worried, so he tries not to let it bother him too much. If he tells himself to trust in Reiner's judgment and that Reiner had never made a wrong decision before, than he can find temporary solace. But then he remembers that he's never seen Reiner so careless before either. And his nerves make his stomach twist and it isn't long before doubts upon doubts are colliding in his head and he tells himself he is getting worked up for no reason and yet he still finds himself picking up his pace as he makes his way to the lounge.

One of the teachers, Levi, is leaving the lounge as he approaches and Bertolt timidly asks him to not bother locking it and that he'd do it later, and the man raises a brow before shrugging and walking off. Bertolt sighs, relived that no one else was here, as he had an important call to make, and so he walks into the room, not bothering to switch on the lights and makes his way towards the back of the room, positioning himself behind one of the shelves situated there.

From there he grabs his phone out of his pocket and calls Reiner, intent on apologizing and telling him they can work on a new plan together, later.

Mikasa is sitting in her room, checking her work (the teacher aid one) e-mail, when her notification bar goes off. She scowls when she sees who it is from, heaven forbid she have to do anything for this man, and then nearly slams her laptop shut when she reads the message.

"Left a folder in the lounge. Get it."

She glowers at the clock when she realizes Levi's class will be starting shortly and she knows it'll be more time efficient for her to fetch it for him, but that didn't mean he had to be rude about it – he was the one who forgot it in the first damn place. Annoyed, she grabs her messenger bag, slips her shoes on, and is out the door.

The door is locked when she gets there, so she uses her staff key to silently unlock the door and then frowns when she hears a voice carrying from the back. Her first instinct is that a student had snuck in here somehow, but she recognizes the voice immediately and so she forgoes switching the light on, and instead closes the door slowly with one hand, and with the other slips her bag off her shoulder and sets it down.

"D-do it without him?" Bertolt's voice carries from the mini library area and Mikasa crouches behind the closest book shelf and listens. She can't help thinking how unaware of his surroundings Bertolt seems to be, and if he is the culprit like she thinks he is, he is no good at his job.

"Of course he's in it for the money!" Bertolt protests softly, "Christa is just… an added bonus I think… maybe. For him."

He sounds worried, Mikasa muses and she assumes things are not going well with Bertolt's partner. She'd had suspicions that the perp wasn't working alone, and this just further deepened those thoughts.

"Lima syndrome?! That's impossible!"

Mikasa bit her lip. Lima syndrome? If she recalled correctly, that was the opposite of Stockholm syndrome. But they hadn't kidnapped "Christa" yet had they?

"You can't get that just from stalking someone from afar can you?" Bertolt sounds confused, and maybe even in a bit of denial and Mikasa decides she doesn't have time to waste for whoever it was on the other line to explain the schematics of the syndrome and so she stands up, cursing the fact she doesn't have her gun with her, and walks around the bookcase.

Reiner is pacing outside Christa's dorm. She never told him where she lived, so he is trying to think up an excuse. He doesn't know if Jean knows where her dorm is, and the last thing he would want to do is be caught lying.

The door clicks, and Reiner ducks into the nearest hall, opposite the stairway and peeks around the corner to see Ymir walk out, hands tucked into the pocket of her jeans. Reiner mentally curses at himself for forgetting the bigger girl was there, but – she started heading down the stairwell – looks like he didn't have to worry anymore. It gave him a good idea actually. If "Christa" asks, he could just say he knew where Ymir lived and knew they roomed together. Ymir wasn't exactly shy about her thoughts about Christa, so it wasn't too far-fetched and he had met Ymir before so he figured it would be fine.

He was trying to think of the best course of action here. Bertolt wanted him to hurry up and get a move on, but it wouldn't be good if he scared the girl away. But then he thought about all the conversations he'd held with the girl, and the way she held herself, and the subtle hints she would drop about getting alone time with him, and if he thought about it she was pretty bold. They were young and "Christa" was gorgeous and who was he to deny her any longer when she had been blatantly sending him such strong signals?

With that mindset, he went up to the door and knocked.

"Christa" opened it right away and Reiner offered her a smile.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, but she still stepped aside as if inviting him in and so Reiner took it.

"I couldn't wait to see you again," he said and the girl's nose scrunched up in a way that Reiner thought was cute and her lips pursed and if that wasn't a signal then Reiner didn't know what was and so he grabbed the sides of her face, and claimed her lips with his own.

Then Reiner's hands were falling to her shoulders and "Christa" is pushed backwards into the room with the force of the kiss – rough and bruising – and next thing she knows her back is pressed against the hallway wall and the door is clicking shut behind them.

Bertolt's whole body tenses, and Mikasa's trained eye zeroes in on the way the muscles in his arm flex and suddenly there is a phone flying at her face. She has just enough time to jerk out of the way, and Bertolt uses the distraction to lunge at her and off-balance like she was, Mikasa finds her back colliding harshly with the tile floor and 180 pounds toppling on top of her, her legs on either side of his waist. But she is a professional for a reason, and when his hands go to fall on either side of her head, she crosses her arms and slams the palm of her hands against his shoulders before he can touch the floor and brace himself. She quickly pivots onto one hip, and pulls it up and under Bertolt before tilting the opposite way and repeating the process with the other leg – she is quick and the maneuver is done within a matter of seconds.

The taller male quickly realizes what is happening and he quickly reels back, but Mikasa's hands slide down his arms and she grapples his wrists in an iron-clad grip and then is raising her leg and kicking the man in the face with her heel. She kicks once more with the other foot, and then she is letting him go and he is falling back and she rises up and goes to pin him.

Even though he is shaking, he catches her off guard by swinging at her face and she crosses both her arms in front of her face, recoiling back before he can get a hit in. Light on her feet, Mikasa rolls back and away, before getting to her feet just as Bertolt stops mid swing and clambers to his feet as well.

He uses a lot of force, and Mikasa knows one hit would hurt. He was also tall, and that could be intimidating. But – Mikasa smirked – by his body stance, despite attacking her first, he is nervous and she knows he doesn't know how to use his height to his advantage – this should be fun.

"So there's this guy, y'see, and he likes this girl and all and I hope she doesn't but, say the girl likes that guy and well, so they've been hanging out a lot recently – figuratively of course." Jean is saying and Eren motions for him to get on with it, "Well okay so they might have something going on soon and okay so imagine like some guy hears the first guy – the one who likes the girl – talking to another guy about the girl and the guy is saying weird stuff. Sketchy stuff. And it seems like he is implying he is going to kidnap the girl that he likes, but that's a little extreme, and the guy that may or may not have heard all of this thinks the guy is just joking at first, but the guy sounds so serious and his friend seems serious too and they – for the sake of the story – were having this conversation in an alley and whispering and it's really suspicious. So what I'm asking is, if someone heard people talking about kidnapping someone, joking or not, should that someone report it to the police? And if that someone knows the person that might be kidnapped then it's totally cool if he freaks out and you don't think he's over-reacting or something do you?"

Eren stares blankly at Jean, and for a moment Jean thinks he might have made a bad choice by choosing to tell the short boy, but before he can yell never mind and that it was a stupid question anyway, Eren is holding a hand up to silence him and Jean watches as Eren pulls his phone from his pocket and – Jean is assuming – sends a text to someone.

"What's the big idea?" Jean asks, not liking being ignored, but Eren continues to ignore him in favor of staring intently at his phone. He waits two minutes, before he decides he's waited long enough and he is hitting speed dial and holding the phone up to his ear.

"Damn it," Eren curses, when the call isn't answered, before shoving his phone back into his pocket, "I'll be back," and then he is jogging towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Jean asks, chasing after him, "What about my question?"

"Don't worry about it, just stay here and don't leave!"

"What? Why?"

"Just listen to me idiot!" and then Eren was out the door, not even bothering to grab his shoes and slide them on and Jean watches him go in confusion.

"What the hell," he muttered, "You're such a freak Jaeger!"

Though Mikasa is stoic on the outside, internally she is patting herself on the back for a job well done. It had been harder than she had thought, but after a brief struggle she had been able to pin Bertolt face down on the ground - arms twisted behind his back - long enough to pull her bag towards her with her foot and pull her handcuffs out (all thanks to strategic movements on her part, she had been able to lure the man away from the back and closer to the door where she had left her bag) and cuff him.

Once done with that, she took the chance to call it in, and then she called Eren, who picked up after three rings.

"Armin?!" he screamed into the phone, and judging by the way he was breathing, he was running. Mikasa frowned.

"Did something happen?"

"I think, Armin might be in trouble," Eren supplied and Mikasa bit the inside of her cheek in worry as she listened to what the boy had to say.

"Once someone comes to get the perp," Mikasa said, "I'll come too."

"I'm at his room now!" Eren shouted in triumph and if Mikasa listened carefully she could hear the rattling of a door knob, followed by Eren sucking in air through his teeth and then the telltale sound of a door being kicked in.

"Is Armin alright?" Mikasa asked when all she heard was static.

And then there was a deep guttural scream and the line went dead.

Levi stood in the security room, arms crossed, and weight distributed onto his left foot as he watched the security cameras in interest. After tipping Mikasa off to Bertolt's suspicious behavior – subtly mind you – he had made his way here and sat back and watched the show.

When she finally cuffed him, the raven-haired man quickly lost interest and allowed his attention to drift to the other screens just in time to see a blur run down a hallway.

Levi could recognize that ass anywhere, "What's this shitty brat up to?" he asked aloud – it probably had something to do with work and – judging by the way he was heading to the girl's dormitories – something to do with his cross-dressing friend.

Levi scoffed when the boy kicked the door in, "What kind of shit form was that?" he'd have to teach the idiot how to properly kick a door in the next time he saw him.

His phone rang and since he couldn't see the action anymore anyway, he pulled it out of his coat and looked at the name flashing on the front, "Well, looks like my time's done here." And then he was silencing the call and strolling out of the security room.

It was when Reiner decided it would be a bright idea to shove his tongue into Armin's mouth, that the blond took the chance to bite the appendage and then push the bigger guy off him.

Reiner looked shocked, before he was wiping his lips with the corner of his thumb and then holding his hands up in surrender, "Too sudden?" he asked and Armin narrowed his eyes.

"What are you thinking?" Armin demanded, moving behind the couch to put space between them, "Why would you do something like this?"

Quite honestly, Armin was worried. Because Reiner hadn't seemed like the type of guy to just force himself on a girl and it wasn't often that Armin's intuition was off. The bigger guy had seemed perfectly pleasant the other day, so why this…

Armin bit his lip - his gut feeling about Reiner having to do something with the kidnapping, pulling at his intestines. If he played his cards right, provided Reiner was involved in some way, then Armin could possibly drag a confession from him. And if this was all a coincidence and Reiner wasn't involved, then he could play it off as being scared by Reiner suddenly coming onto him.

"You're – you're him aren't you?" Armin asked, and the tremble in his voice wasn't him acting – this was his chance. He could end all of this now.

"You're the guy, who sent me that threat, aren't you?"

Reiner had the audacity to look shocked, before he was smiling – that same smile from the other day that had a chill racing up Armin's spine.

"I knew you were smart, but you sure catch on quick Christa – it's what I like about you."

"I never told you where I lived," Armin responds, "And… and the Reiner I know wouldn't force himself on me."

That comment had the blond frowning, "I didn't mean to – you're just so pretty – and Bertolt was getting antsy, so I had to get a move on."

'Bertolt,' Armin thought, 'his friend.'

"And I didn't think you would be so opposed to being with me."

Armin frowned. What? Was this a stalker case after all? Or had it evolved?

"I see how you're always looking at me, you know."

Had his prying perhaps been misconstrued? Had he really given off such signals? Briefly, Armin wondered if he had been unconsciously flirting with everyone he met? He hoped not.

"That's-" and then there was a loud crash and both Armin and Reiner turned towards the entrance in shock and next thing he knew Reiner was cursing, stepping around the couch, and tugging on his arm – trying to escape most likely – and just as the blond was covering his mouth with his hand, the other arm wrapped around Armin's waist, Eren came barreling down the hall.

Armin could see the shock register in the brunet's eyes, and then Eren was yelling a battle cry - he must have looked frightening because Reiner's grip around his waist loosened and Armin took the chance to jab his elbow back into Reiner's gut – the blond released him, and Armin ducked just in time for Eren to leap over him and tackle the bulky blond to the floor.

"Eren!" Armin called out, relieved that the other boy had shown up even though he had been able to handle Reiner himself. Since the two guys were struggling, Armin took the chance to run to his bedroom and grab his handcuffs and stun gun – just in case Eren couldn't handle Reiner in hand to hand – which, going by their sizes, he probably couldn't.

When Mikasa ran into Armin's dormitory, a passed out, handcuffed Reiner was leaning against the couch, and Eren was excitingly demonstrating to Armin moves he had apparently used against the assailant. She was relived they were okay but…

"Oww what was that for?!" Eren yelped, rubbing the back of his head where Mikasa had slapped him.

"You should have called and told me you were alright," she scolded and Eren grumbled in annoyance – Armin laughing at the two as they bantered back and forth.

"So Eren mentioned you caught someone too?" Armin asked and Mikasa nodded.

"I don't know if he is an accomplice or if he is the main guy – we'll have to wait and see."

Armin nodded, "I didn't get much out of him," he said, referring to Reiner, "Eren kicked the door in before I could get anything useful out of him."

Eren laughed, "Dude's better off – I've seen the way you mind fuck people and trick 'em into saying what you need to hear."

Armin ignored the comment in favor of continuing to speak to Mikasa, "You didn't leave your guy all alone did you?"

The girl just waved him off, "Campus security showed up, so I left them with him. Our guys should be here any minute though."

"Yeah," Armin agreed, "When I called it in they said they were already on their way over."

"Well I'm just glad this is all over," Eren said, accentuating his statement with a stretch of his arms, "It'll be nice relaxing at home and in my own bed after so long."

Armin nodded softly.

"Yeah… same for me."

Once Bertolt and Reiner had been carted off to HQ to be questioned, Hanji told them to pack up and get ready to leave. Mikasa excused herself, and since he was there, Eren helped Armin gather his things, provided of course, that Armin do the same for him.

Armin had groaned internally, because the last thing he wanted to do was see Jean. Not after last night, and not now that he was finally leaving. He was sure the boy would have a lot of questions too, like why Eren was suddenly packing up and if "Christa" was leaving too and Armin would have to lie through his teeth and say that he was still staying on campus. Armin could just picture his happy face. He bet Jean would look like Christmas had come early if they told him that Eren was leaving and "Christa" was not. He wouldn't be surprised if Jean just threw a party then and there.

He didn't like thinking about this. For him, this would be goodbye and all the things he had been constantly thinking about for the past week would all be happening at once and quite frankly, the thought made Armin sick to his stomach.

He still wasn't over the fact Jean had kissed him, and he bet the brunet would want to talk about it. And what could Armin say? Starting tomorrow or maybe the day after, the real Christa would be returning and it would be like everything they had just shared went up in flames.

With how far things had gone, and how much Jean had involved himself with Armin, the blond figured he would have to carefully explain to him what exactly was going on. And he was not looking forward to that. Not only would Jean be skeptical, but HQ would be mad at Armin for not staying on the down low. But he really couldn't help that Jean was as stubborn as a horse.

Armin didn't think he'd tell Jean the whole truth. And he certainly wouldn't tell him in person either. After they returned he'd write a proper letter to him and give it to Christa to give to Jean the next time they met. He'd have to apologize to the girl too, for attracting unwanted attention.

Armin sighed – it was all a headache waiting to happen.

"What's up?" Eren asked curiously, noticing Armin's foul mood.

"It's nothing," Armin shook his head, "Just work."

They walked up to the door and Eren reached for the handle and noted it was unlocked just like it had been the first day they had come here – it gave him a sense of deja vu, "Oh good Jean's still in,"

Armin groaned internally.

"I forgot my key," Eren explained as they walked in. The living room light was off and Eren scoffed, because knowing Jean, that horse face was probably in his room cursing Eren's existence for running off on him.

"He isn't here?" Armin asked; doing his best to not sound relieved.

"He's probably in his roo—what the fuck?" Eren shouted, when he stepped in something, still barefoot from earlier.

"Marinara sauce again?" Eren complained loudly as he examined the red stain on the carpet and the bottom of his foot, "I swear-"

"Eren," Armin cut him off, and Eren stiffened at the tone in the smaller boy's voice.

With a shaky finger, Armin pointed to the corner of the coffee table, where red was smeared across the wood, "I don't think that's marinara sauce."

The two boys shared a glance before actually taking a look around the living room – their eyes having adjusted to the dark by now. It wasn't that the light was off; it was more that the light stand had been knocked over behind the couch and it seemed there had been a struggle.

And that was all they needed to see before Eren was running towards Jean's room, Armin hot on his heels, the blond cursing himself for not noticing something was wrong earlier.

Jean's door was open and things had been knocked off the desk, window wide open and curtains billowing in the wind. Eren rushed to the window – they were on the second floor after all – and peered out. There was a bush beneath the window and it looked as if it had broken a person or two's fall already.

Armin studied the room, before his eyes were zeroing in on an envelope placed neatly on the bed, the name 'Historia' written across it in neat letters.

Chapter Text

Armin kept scolding himself the entire way back to headquarters. He knew he had been forgetting something - he knew it - and yet he hadn't thought of it until it was too late. He'd been so distracted, and then coupled by the fact that he hadn't received the background check on Annie like he had ordered (he knew now that her full name was Annie Leonhardt) it had completely slipped his mind.

 And he hated himself for that.

Something so important – such a crucial piece of evidence – one that only he knew – was not something he should have forgotten. To think he'd forget to report that Annie had been there on the night of Christa's kidnapping. If he had just done his job right, then all of this could have been avoided. Now, because of him, he'd gotten an innocent person involved. And no matter how Armin looked at it, it was solely his fault.

He shuddered at the thought that Annie, or maybe Reiner or Bertolt had been watching him as well – had been watching his interactions with Jean and came to the conclusion that he was someone close – someone that would drive "Christa" into their trap. He was ashamed. (Ashamed because if he thought about, honestly thought about it without making excuses for himself, he really had warmed up to the guy. And Armin thought, under different circumstances – provided of course Jean was open to same sex relations – he would have given the taller boy a chance).

And as much as that shame drove him to want to track down Annie and, as cheesy as it sounds, save Jean from her clutches, Armin was never one to jump into things without a plan.

And so plan he did. The meeting point Annie had set was an abandoned house in the woods, 'how cliché' Armin had thought and 'Historia' was to meet alone with the money and not contact the police and every little thing one would expect when someone is being held for ransom.

When Armin had seen the requested amount he had been scandalized, and perhaps even a bit mortified that Annie wanted that much. That's not to say he didn't think Jean was worth that much, after all one couldn't really put a price on any human being's life; however, the fact that Annie believed 'Historia' would pay that much for Jean based on the interactions she had seen between the brunet and himself, made Armin wonder.

Had he really made it seem like that? That he would go to any lengths to save him? Armin shuddered at the thought, and it seriously made him question his behavior over the time he'd been undercover. He comforted himself with the thought however, that if he hadn't been playing the role of a girl, then his and Jean's friendship wouldn't have been mistaken for anything else.

But that was enough of that. Currently, Armin sat at a meeting table with Mikasa, Eren, and Shadis – Hanji whistling quietly to herself as she went about removing the extensions from his hair.

They were planning on how to go about the impromptu rescuing of Jean. Fortunately, they had experience in hostage cases before and it wasn't like Annie was trying to hide him. Of course, matters like these were delicate because the goal was to catch the culprit without anyone getting hurt, and they all knew that not all plans go accordingly. It had been unanimously decided that Armin would go in alone; as per Annie's request - and with a camera brooch attached to his shirt, he would survey the situation. Annie was working alone, they knew this, but it was better safe than sorry and once the coast was clear they'd put the plan in action.

"Letter of resignation huh? Can't say I'm surprised." Erwin said and Levi just nodded - attention on his nails where he was examining them closely - making sure they were healthy and clean.

"I'd be lying if I said I thought you would stay this long."

"Hanji's been bugging me to come back," was Levi's response, 'And you know how she gets when she wants something,' went unsaid – Hanji could be annoying but they were friends so he put up with it.

"Ah, I think it's because she can tell you want to go back as well." Erwin said after a moment of silence and Levi arched an eyebrow – an unspoken question on his lips.

"I'm referring to the way you helped Ms. Ackerman," he said and Levi scowled.

"I didn't help her, it was just frustrating watching her miss that guy by a fraction of a second each time."

"Ah sorry, guess I misread the situation," Erwin responded, but he didn't sound at all sorry, "Though I find it awfully curious that you even investigated the situation,"

"I'd hardly call it an investigation when Hanji is spilling all the details like mouth diarrhea," Levi turned his attention to the man across from him, hands falling into his lap. He'd really only helped her out on a whim, and it hadn't been for her benefit. More like Levi was bored and he couldn't help but meddle some. It was why he was here in the first place after all.

"When are you coming back?" Levi asked and Erwin just offered that diplomatic smile of his that grated on the smaller man's nerves.

"I'm not. I'm retired."

"You're too young to be retired."

Erwin just smiled.

Here, in the quiet stillness of the woods, if Annie closed her eyes and listened she could hear the crickets chirp and the trees sway. The watch on her wrist read 9:56 pm – it would still be quite some time before the arranged meeting.

So many years had passed since she had last been here – in this tiny one bedroom house in the woods -the floor and tables were covered in dust and the walls seemed to creak with every gust of wind.

A curled up body, arms and legs bound and mouth taped shut, lie prone on the floor next to the unlit fireplace - and since the nights could get chilly here Annie had tossed a threadbare quilt made up of baby clothes and Easter dresses atop him.

Dull blue eyes narrowed in on a trickle of copper dripping down the side of Jean's face, brown sugar colored locks clumped together at the base of his forehead from where he'd knocked it earlier.

"Idiot," she mumbled, but jumped down from the wooden crate (it had been a coffee table when she was a child) she had been resting on, and snatched up the oil lantern by her feet – there was no electricity after all.

Up close, it really wasn't so bad, head wounds always bled with a flare and, "It's your fault this happened," anyway - but she still dug a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide and gauze out of her duffle bag.

Jean groaned in his sleep when she far from tenderly dumped the peroxide on the small gash, but Annie ignored him in favor of wiping up the excess peroxide spillage.

If his increasing muffled groans were anything to go by, he'd be waking up soon – he was tied up really well though, so even if he did wake up she was hardly worried.

Her watch read 10:22 – there was still so much time.

"Uhh… I think you have the wrong room," was the first thing he said to her when Annie took it upon herself to just saunter into his dorm – the door was unlocked, hardly breaking and entering – he didn't seem too concerned with her presence, a little weirded out, but other than that it was obvious he did not see her as a threat.

Good – it was better this way.

She took a deep breath, both arms behind her back, and Jean opened his mouth to ask if she was okay, only to be caught off by Annie slamming her shoulder into his stomach full force.

The brunet dropped to his knees with a yelp of pain and a cry of "what the fuck?!" but Annie ignored him in favor of standing over Jean's lap, a cloth soaked in chloroform in her hands.

"Oh hell no!" Jean screeched when the saccharine odor radiating off the cloth registered in his brain, he'd seen enough horror films to know where this was going and he caught Annie's wrist with his hand before shoving her backwards where she landed on her back with an 'oompf'.

Taking his chance, Jean scrambled to his feet, lunging over the small girl to make a break for the door – he wasn't about to fight some psycho chick who'd wandered into his dorm- when suddenly thin but strong arms were wrapping around the sides of his waist and having a girl's face this close to his crotch had always been a dream of his, but he'd hoped it was under different circumstances, and with a different blonde haired, blue-eyed girl he knew.

Jean grabbed her arms to try to pry her off, but she had positioned herself to the side of him, partially in front of him, her shoulder digging into his ass and knees bent.

Again, Jean had watched enough T.V. to know what was happening. He knew from class that a man's center of balance was in his chest while a woman's was in her hips and that if this girl bent back enough he'd lose his balance and be toppling over like a domino head-first with his and this girl's weight on top of him.

Panicked, he tightened his grip around her forearms and tried to lift her up, if her feet weren't on the ground then she wouldn't be able to push him backwards, but Annie just hunched forward, soles digging into the carpet just as Jean lost his footing, stumbled back a few steps, and then was falling all on his own.

Annie's eyes widened in shock and she quickly let go, toppling forward as Jean twisted to try and regain his footing, knees hitting the ground and the side of his forehead smacking against the corner of the coffee table.

Annie froze at the crack followed by a thud and she glanced over her shoulder with wide eyes at the now unconscious figure lying sprawled across the floor, scarlet blood dripping from the corner of the table and onto the carpet.

'I'm sorry,' she thought, sitting there for a moment longer, before she was snapping back to attention and getting to her feet. She stuffed the cloth into her back pocket and set about hoisting the guy onto her shoulder and with a bit of struggle, thanks to Jean being a lot taller than her and weighing roughly thirty pounds more than her, she started dragging him to another room – cursing silently to herself when at one point he slipped from her shoulder and knocked a floor lamp over, the bulb shattering with a crackle.

With a heave, Annie unceremoniously dropped an unconscious Jean against the wall next to the window in one of the rooms – she couldn't care less as to whose room it was, all that mattered was it faced the opposite building and she'd be able to sneak away easier in the alley than she could taking the front doors.

The window was unlocked and Annie scoffed – did these people never lock anything? She slid it up, removed the screen, and then shoved Jean halfway out; he'd probably have a bruise on his stomach from the window sill.

Then she crouched and grabbed his legs, before lifting him up and out, watching as he fell the short drop and down into the bushes below, silently thankful he didn't land on his head.

Then she got the ransom note, placed it gently on the bed, and then was slipping out the window herself.

"I hope everything's alright," Christa muttered. She was sitting cross-legged on her hotel room bed, Ymir sitting in a similar position across from her with a box of pepperoni pizza resting in her lap.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Ymir said around a mouthful of food, and Christa's nose scrunched in annoyance but she didn't say anything.

"They're professionals, besides that little Armin is smart."

Christa smiled, she'd only met the blond boy once, but he was pleasant and from what Ymir had told her about the guy, she figured they would get along really well.

"I guess you're right," Christa finally said and Ymir swallowed the bite she was chewing before pushing the box of half-eaten pizza aside and pulling Christa into a one armed hug.

"It'll be nice having you back – I miss my morning coffee."

"Gee thanks," the smaller girl said, "I miss having you drinking it all and not letting me get seconds."

The two girl's fell into quiet laughter – it would be good to finally be home.

Armin hated this part the most; he had said it before and he would say it again, but he didn't think he'd ever not dislike the final moments of an investigation – when it came down to the point of no return and the culprit was within their grasps. Don't get him wrong, he'd be relieved when Annie was caught, but it was the caching that put him on edge. There was so much room for error and too many split second decisions that could either make or break the situation – and driven by desperation sometimes the culprit would do the unimaginable. It was hard to not fear for the worst, but at least in doing so, Armin could prepare for the worst as well.

Still, Armin wished from the very core of his being that everything went according to plan. They had planned extensively, and had several different backup plans just in case. It was always harder when a civilian was involved and even more so when it was an injured one at that. And to make matters worse, none of them knew the extent of the brunet's injuries and that worried Armin more than it probably should.

Annie wasn't dangerous, or at least Armin assumed she wasn't. But the blood stained carpet back at Jean's dorm said otherwise. Of course, Armin wouldn't go so far as to say any lives were in danger, after all there had been no death threats – Annie just wanted money and that was all there was to it.

The plan was to disarm Annie with the element of surprise, and so Armin found himself in yet another skirt, a mini faux brooch that served as a camera attached to his blouse (so the people on the outside could monitor what was going on), and a wig atop his head to make up for the length lost when Hanji had removed his extensions. He looked exactly like he had for the entirety of the investigation and there was no way Annie could mistake him for anyone other than the "Christa" she had been spying on.

Standing outside a cabin in the woods, Armin supposed knocking was out of the question.

The door creaked as Armin pushed it open, and when he peered inside the first thing he noticed was how embarrassingly small the inside was, and then there was Annie – standing amidst dust covered furniture and looking very much like the plain-faced girl he'd seen weeks ago. She hardly looked sinister – but Armin knew more than anyone not to judge a book by its cover.

"Historia," Annie greeted as Armin stepped inside the room fully, the door clicking shut behind him.

A quick survey of the room said they were the only one's here – there was a room in the back someone could potentially be hiding in, but Armin doubted it. A small duffel bag lie by Annie's feet and Armin had no way of knowing what was inside, and then finally his eyes stopped on the body-sized lump curled up on the far right side of the room.

"Jean," Armin breathed, taking a step towards the unconscious figure, before stopping himself.

"I don't understand," Armin said after a moment's pause, "Aren't you the girl who helped me in the alley? Didn't Ymir say so?"

Annie stared at him hard and Armin wondered how good she was at reading people. He took another half-step towards Jean, and he wasn't sure if he was acting or not, but either way Annie didn't seem to care.

"You can go over there if you like," Annie said and that was Armin's cue to rush to Jean's side, and dance his fingers lightly across the bandage wrapped around his forehead – careful not to turn his back to Annie completely.

"Thank god," Armin breathed under his breath, before turning back to Annie, "If I give you the money, you'll let us both leave?"

The petite girl smiled, "That was the plan."

Armin nodded, before standing up and slipping the bag off his shoulder and tentatively offering it to Annie. Armin took a step back as she unzipped it – knowing what was waiting inside.

"It's empty," Annie's voice made Armin's blood run cold, and when she snapped her head up to glare at him, Armin couldn't help the chill that ran down his spine.

Armin had thought maybe she would demand answers - would yell and curse, but Annie's voice had been low - scary - and she looked like a caged animal.

"It's empty," Annie repeated again and Armin wondered when Mikasa and Eren would show. They were supposed to jump in before things got bad, and Armin felt it in his bones that things were quickly turning sour.

"… I'm sorry," was all Armin could think to say and it had apparently been the wrong thing too, because suddenly Annie was lurching forward and nails were digging into his scalp and the wig came away with a yelp from Armin as he stumbled onto his knees, followed by the clack of bobby pins scattering across the floor. Armin wondered if this had been the reason Hanji insisted on removing his extensions, because even if it had been Annie's intention to do nothing more but grab "Christa" and possibly tie her up and hold her for hostage as well, there was a chance the extensions would have come off into her hand, and it would have hurt a hell of a lot more than the wig just had.

Armin watched wide-eyed as Annie stared at the blond wig in her hands, and shock quickly turned to confusion and then bled into realization. The look on her face as it dawned on her that she'd be tricked made her earlier one look harmless.

Armin had been right – you really couldn't judge a book by its cover.

Once Armin entered the house, Mikasa and Eren immediately set about scanning the outside of the place. In such an out of the city place, they had to be quiet and that was part of the reason of sending Armin in first – with him inside to distract Annie, it made their job a little bit easier.

The only source of light seemed to be coming from the front room Armin was in, and with a quick peek through the window, Mikasa could see Armin kneeling at the side of what she presumed to be Jean. Annie's back was turned to the window, but breaking the glass and jumping in that way would definitely not work, even if Eren insisted it would be cool.

"Be serious," she signed with her hands, and Eren offered her a cheeky grin before nodding and darting towards the back of the house – he could be serious when he wanted to be.

Mikasa cast one last look through the window, before quietly following after Eren.

"We can probably sneak in here," Eren said when she turned the corner and Mikasa examined the door, the hinges looked a little rusty, but they'd worked with worse. A padlock was attached to the door and as Mikasa reached for a pair of metal cutters, Eren examined the lock – which gave way at the slightest touch – the lock hadn't even been clicked into place.

Eren and Mikasa shared a look, a little skeptical at how easy it had been before slipping in quietly, Mikasa at the lead. It seemed to lead into the backroom and they were – fortunately, alone and so they quickly and quietly scanned the area in search of any potential threats such as a bomb or any other device. Once they were in the clear, Mikasa motioned towards the door that would almost undoubtedly lead to the main room where Armin was.

There was no way they could just peek inside, so instead the two positioned themselves on either side of the door, Eren kneeling to dig the video camera out of his backpack so he could see how things were going on Armin's end.

"It's empty," a voice filtered through the door and Mikasa tensed, Eren stopping mid-motion. They strained their ears to listen, "It's empty," was repeated again and Eren got out of his crouching position, not bothering with the video screen anymore – their cue would be coming any second.

Mikasa's hand rested above the doorknob and she nodded to Eren – the signal to stay. The last thing they wanted was to burst through the door when Armin or Jean were in Annie's arm reach – that was how people got hurt.

As quietly as possible, Eren crouched down once more, before lying face down. He slipped a small mirror from his pocket and slid it under the door – they wouldn't be able to see much – just their feet if there was nothing blocking their line of vision – but that was all Eren needed – to ensure Annie's back was to the door.

Eren shook his head, before sliding back to his knees and Mikasa frowned as the boy signed, "no good" meaning they'd have to risk opening the door.

Mikasa grabbed the doorknob lightly, preparing to twist it slowly and quietly when there was a yelp – Armin her mind supplied. She motioned for Eren to stop – who had stepped forward at the cry – before opening the door and peering in.

'Looks like the cat is out of the bag,' she thought when she saw the wig in Annie's hand – it was time to step in.

She caught Armin's eye, who was kneeling on the ground, as she slipped through the door – Eren lingering behind – and Armin quickly shoved himself back towards Jean's still sleeping figure, and away from Annie.

It wasn't much – but it bought Mikasa enough time to clear the distance between her and Annie.

"Ah, I'm glad I made him wear that wig," Hanji commented, absently scratching the back of her head, from her spot in front of the security monitors – watching what she could through Armin's brooch camera.

Levi clicked his tongue in annoyance, not really in the mood for Hanji's play by play - she might as well have been stuffing her face with popcorn with how much she seemed to be enjoying the show.

"Oh look at that form!" Hanji crooned as she watched Mikasa.

"Ah and Eren… he tries hard."

Mikasa had caught Annie off guard with ease and Hanji had, quite honesty, been shocked by how quickly Annie seemed to surrender. Eren had cuffed Annie as Mikasa held her in place and all seemed to end quite uneventfully.

"I'm curious as to what her motive was," Hanji commented and Levi nodded, not really listening.

"It's a shame she gave up so quickly… she must not have needed the money as badly as others might have,"

Hanji opened her mouth to say more and Levi took his opportunity to get up and leave the room lest he be pulled into a discussion about theories – he had things to do anyway. Like go find Pixis and let him know he was back.

The first thing Jean was aware of when he came to, was that his head hurt like a bitch – the second was a voice that sounded distinctly like his roommate Eren asking, "You don't think he has a concussion do you?"

"How long has he been out?" this one was definitely a girl, though Jean couldn't say he'd heard the voice before.

"A couple of hours for sure," Eren was saying and if Jean's head didn't hurt so badly and his eye-lids didn't feel like they were glued shut, he might have yelled at the guy to be quiet.

"That might be a problem," the woman's voice commented.

"No," a soft voice said right next to his ear, and Jean couldn't help the groan that slipped from his lips, "Head injury wise I think he is fine. There were sleeping pills in Annie's bag so I'm sure she drugged him."

Oh, so that was why his head felt so fuzzy.

"I actually think he's waking up now," that soft voice commented again and Jean realized he must be leaning on this person for support.

"Oh so you're awake now?" Eren asked loudly and Jean was able to muster up enough strength to open one eye and – oh looks like they were in a van or something.

"Shuddp," Jean groaned and Eren just laughed.

"Either he has shitty tolerance or he got more than the recommended dosing,"

Jean wanted to ask what was going on, but his head was still throbbing and since he still felt groggy, sleep seemed to be the better option so he just turned his head and nuzzled further into the shoulder he was resting against, but not before peeking a glance at his pillow.

They looked familiar, Jean thought, like maybe if Christa had an older sister – yeah, that was it.

"You're pretty," he commented thoughtlessly, breathing in the soothing floral scent the other was emitting. And the last thing Jean heard was Eren's boisterous laugh before he was out again.

"Well I guess that's it," Eren commented as he collapsed into his chair back at headquarters, Armin taking the seat across from him with a little more grace.

After checking Jean in at the hospital, they returned for headquarters to start on their paper work before they had to give their report to Commander Shadis. Mikasa was in there now, so Eren and Armin allowed themselves to take a breather with a warm cup of coffee from the cafeteria.

"It's nice to be wearing boxers again," Armin commented and Eren chuckled before stopping when his blond friend didn't join in.

Eren frowned.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he offered and this time Armin really did laugh – they both knew Eren was no good when it came to conversations like these.

"I really messed up didn't I?"

"Nah, it's not your fault Jean was a horn dog," was Eren's response as he wiggled his eyebrow for show.

Armin laughed again, "Yeah, he really was stubborn," he shook his head, "But what about you – you made some friends right?"

"Oh yeah, Connie from the party ended up being really cool - it's not often we get such low maintenance undercover jobs."

Armin's nose scrunched in distaste, "Easy for you to say - you're not the one who had to shave his legs every day and wear a gaff," he said.

Eren visibly shuddered, "Yeah, no thanks. I'll pass on that."

They fell into an easy silence before Eren was speaking up once more, "But seriously Armin… you're going to be okay right?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Armin asked and Eren sighed loudly.

"Because I know you Armin and I know you guilt trip yourself over everything and you're probably thinking it's your fault that Jean got involved."

When Armin said nothing Eren kept going, "It couldn't be helped that Jean stuck to you so much – you pushed him away as much as you could but he kept on, even with me and Ymir antagonizing him."

The memory of that afternoon – when Ymir had taken it upon herself to try and scare Jean off – had the corner of Armin's lip twitching in an actual smile – not the soft sad ones he'd been using this whole time.

Eren smiled back before patting Armin's shoulder, "Don't sweat the details okay? Give that brain of yours a rest."

Armin nodded – smile still intact, "Roger that."

"I'm home!" Christa yelled loudly as she dropped her last piece of luggage onto the living room floor. Yesterday had been tense and this morning busy with all the formalities she had to go through now that the case was over. She'd gotten to talk with all the people on the case and that had been exciting – interesting really. Their line of work seemed interesting and she wondered what kind of credentials one needed to land a job like that – she made a mental note to call Hanji later and ask her about it.

"Welcome back," Ymir responded, eyeballing the room as she did, "This place is a mess – let's order takeout."

Christa laughed, "Were those two separate thoughts or did our cluttered living room draw you to that conclusion?"

"I just don't want to have to cook and clean," was Ymir's response as she snatched the phone off the wall, "We can get you unpacked while we wait for the food. Chinese okay?"

"Yeah that's fine," Christa responded, already dragging suitcases back towards her and Ymir's shared bedroom, "Make sure to get the gluten-free fried rice!"

"I got it, I got it!"

"Oh look," Jean commented as he walked into his living room, "They cleaned."

This morning he'd woken up completely re-charged, albeit with a bit of a headache. He actually felt a little lame that he'd apparently slept through his supposed kidnapping – he'd missed out on the action. He'd met with Hanji this morning – one of the people working on his kidnapping case and she'd pretty much told him everything that had gone down.

He had to say, he never would have thought Eren of all people would be some top-secret spy or whatever it was he did. Hanji really hadn't been too clear on that, only really issued a formal apology – if there was one thing he disliked about anything to do with the law, it was how they kept everything under wraps. Even that blabbermouth Hanji hadn't really revealed anything. It was annoying really – his curiosity levels were at the max and he hated not knowing.

"Ah but," Jean thought – Hanji had mentioned Christa. He didn't get any details, but he'd apparently been held hostage because of his association with her. It made Jean blush to think some crazy kidnapper – when he told Connie the story he'd be sure to omit the fact that the girl who kidnapped him was barely five feet – thought he was Christa's lover or something. He hadn't known Christa was such an important person that people tried to get ransom money from her.

He supposed Christa could tell him more about this; Jean smiled at the thought of the girl. He was still nervous about how she had reacted to him kissing her and he childishly wanted to avoid her for a few days – or at least until he could stop the flush that rose to his cheeks every time he so much as thought of her name.

But there were more pressing issues at hand here.

Jean wondered if this was why Christa always seemed to distance herself – if she was worried something like this might happen.

Well, there was only one way to find out he supposed.

The knock on the door made Christa frown – when Ymir had gone down to the lobby to get their food, she had told her not to forget her key. With a sigh, Christa finished folding the blouse she was holding before getting up to answer the door.

"Didn't I tell you- oh!" she stopped mid-sentence when the person on the other side was not who she expected it to be.

"Hello, can I help you?" she asked, albeit awkwardly when all her guest did was blink rapidly at her.

"Uhh…" he said, "Uhm… You look like…" he shook his head, "Is Christa here?"

'Oh,' Christa thought with a frown, "You must be Jean."

"Yeah… I am… Did Christa mention me? Are you two twins or something? Because you look just like her - she never mentioned she even had a sister though."

Christa offered him a gentle smile and patted his shoulder so he'd stop with the word vomit, "Not quite," she said, "Why don't you come in?"

Jean was, to put it bluntly, a little weirded out. This whole week had been pretty weird it seemed and if the look this girl was giving him was anything to go by, then things were only about to get even more so.

"Let me start from the beginning,"

Armin knew he had said he would write Jean a letter, but he couldn't help wondering if maybe he had taken the easy way out. Granted, he was in no way obligated to explain himself to Jean – in fact he couldn't even explain as thoroughly as he would have liked because of confidentiality issues.

In the end, he'd ended up writing a letter more or less ranting about how hard Jean had made his job – it was a passive aggressive letter, and Armin wasn't sure who he was mad at – Jean or himself – hell, he didn't even know why he was so irrationally angry in the first place.

There had been a time where he'd felt sad about his whole not really a relationship but kind of awkward flirting thing they had going on. And then he'd get embarrassed, and then he'd feel guilty, and by the end of it all he just felt frustrated whenever he thought about it.

Frustrated that they'd met under these circumstances, and angry that there was no way it could be anything more than what it was, and pissed at himself for even thinking there was a chance for things to pick up where they left off.

He'd tell himself they really didn't know each other, except Armin probably knew everything there was to know about Jean whereas Jean knew next to nothing about Armin – he didn't even know his name, or his gender for that matter, and Armin felt a little cheated.

He'd spent the past week wondering how Jean would feel once he learned the truth – what little bit he could anyways – but now that things were actually all said and done for - he felt a little silly.

'Would Jean really be that hurt?' he asked himself. And the more he thought about it the more he convinced himself that if anything, the brunet teen would get angry and would steer clear of him – not that they'd probably ever see one another again.

Armin figured in Jean's case he'd be angry too – maybe even feel violated. He liked to think it was kind of like meeting someone online and trusting them enough and liking them enough to meet them in person, only to find out the picture they'd used wasn't even them. It was creepy and stupid and definitely a deal breaker.

He knew he wasn't solely at fault, but he couldn't blame Jean for being a persistent flirt, not when the guy didn't know what he'd been getting himself into.

So yeah, in the end Armin had ended up writing a two page hand-written letter to Jean about how much he hated that stupid lop-sided grin of his - and how his pick-up lines and jokes could have been written by a five year old and yet he still laughed at them - and Armin was a trained professional and yet Jean made him look so scrawny - and Armin couldn't even dream about pulling off a hairstyle like that without looking like a douche and yet Jean rocked it - and the letter probably made no sense and there was no denying by the smudged ink and water marks that he'd cried writing it.

He still felt like he was taking the easy way out. Though lying in his bed for the first time in what seemed like ages, Armin told himself it was probably better this way.

Besides, he didn't fancy getting punched in the nose or whatever else he felt like he had coming to him.

By the time Christa finished with her explanation, Jean wasn't sure what to think. So he quietly excused himself, but not before Christa – like actual Christa (and even though she said it was alright to call her Historia, the fact remained that this was the legitimate Christa) handed him an envelope from 'Armin' – the name felt odd on his tongue.

As he was leaving, he noticed Ymir leaning against the wall outside the dorm, holding a bag of cold food, and giving him a knowing, sympathetic look that pissed Jean off. If he wasn't still so scared of her he might have flipped her off, but instead he bit his lip and stomped off to his room feeling mad at the world and in need of a pity-party.

It'd taken him roughly an hour to work up the nerve to open the letter, and another thirty minutes to actually read it.

He really wasn't sure what to think – because foolishly, he'd really liked Christa. And she – no he – had simply been playing a role. And the worst part, the absolute worst part of it all was every single thing he'd liked about Christa, 'No Jean, his name is Armin' had been tiny traits that Historia didn't seem to possess.

He'd liked the way Chr-Armin would brush his hair behind his ear, or the way every napkin he ever had always ended up folded into a lotus flower, or the perpetual blush that seemed to always tinge the bridge of his nose red.

Historia did none of those things and had none of those things, and sitting with her – even if her mannerisms and appearance had been closely linked to Armin's – didn't make his heart thrum in his chest like it had been doing non-stop for weeks, and even though he'd been confused the majority of the time during their conversation, he hadn't once had trouble concocting sentences and all and all he'd just been himself.

The letter only made things worse, because he could just picture "Christa" saying all of it and could hear his voice and he re-read the letter ten god damn times, each time feeling like a love-sick teenager when he did because even if the word 'stupid' had been used practically every other sentence, it was technically a confession.

But then reality would kick in and he'd remember that he'd been lied to, that things weren't really as they had seemed, that "Christa" had been some girly-faced guy named Armin the whole time.

And when he'd finally drilled it into his head enough times - that this was the harsh reality of it all - he went to bed feeling frustrated and sick to his stomach.

Chapter Text

"Put down, 'Cried at my college graduation'"

"Ymir, how long are you going to tease Jean about that?"

"Yeah Ymir, when are you gonna man up and admit you cried too?"

"I didn't cry about graduation shithead! I cried because that awful gown covered up Historia's A+ figure!"

"Bullshit – you weren't even looking at Christa!"

"How would you know, were you looking at me? Gross I don't swing that way buddy."

"Ymir! Jean! Can you guys be serious? Ymir if you aren't going to be productive, then leave us alone."

"-Like I'd leave you two alone together. 'Sides he's a big boy, he can fill out his application by his self."

Christa sighed. The three of them were huddled around her coffee table, filling out job applications together and things weren't going as smoothly as she had hoped.

As time passed, the three of them (along with Sasha and Connie occasionally inviting themselves to hang out) had all gotten really close. After meeting Armin and Hanji and the others, Christa had toyed with the idea of joining the Scouting Legion – and the longer she had thought on it the more she realized it was something she was really interested in. Of course, wherever Christa went, Ymir went too and so they switched majors and that was it.

Jean was a different matter. He hadn't been sure of his major to begin with, and after some gentle coercing on Christa's part, Jean realized that that line of work interested him too. It wasn't just that though - the past two years had given him plenty of time to think and get his thoughts in check.

He had seriously been hurt back then, with the whole Armin/Christa debacle, and the childish part of him just wanted to mope and be pissed and just hate Armin with every fiber of his being; except he didn't hate Armin – not really. At first, he had told himself he did. But he'd woken up one too many times with his heart thumping in his chest, and with erotic images of a man he couldn't say he even knew lingering in his thoughts. So he broke down and admitted, okay, he liked Armin. But he told himself that didn't matter, because he couldn't really like someone he didn't know. His heart, as Christa had put it, seemed to disagree.

'You need closure,' she had said, but Jean thought applying for a job at the same place Armin works was a little much.

Actually, he didn't even know if Armin was still working there. It'd been a long time after all – for all he knew, Armin had forgotten about him completely and moved on.

Connie had gotten his hands on Eren's Facebook awhile back, but the brunet refused to share anything and Hanji, for all she was worth as a chatterbox, had told Christa it was against protocol to give out information about their current and past employees.

Well, even if Armin wasn't there, Jean was still interested in the job. If Eren could do it, then Jean could too. Though he wished Armin was there, because they really needed to talk.

Jean wondered if he got to see Armin as a man if his feelings would change. Jean didn't think he was gay; but then again, he had been dreaming about the blond for the past year. He'd never actually seen Armin naked though, and Jean's dream Armin was pretty feminine - flat-chested - but still feminine.

Well, whatever - now wasn't the time to be thinking about it. He couldn't really exactly face the past fling - was it a fling? - he had with Armin if he couldn't get the job.

"So, how you liking the trainee division?" Eren asked and Armin scowled – he hated when Eren said it like that, he made it seem like he was a trainee himself.

"If you must know, it seems to grow worse and worse the longer I stay. Were we as bad back then when we were trainees?"

"You weren't Armin, but Eren was." Mikasa cut in, taking her usual seat across from Eren.

They were at a local diner in town - the same diner they met at every Saturday morning to have breakfast. After the fiasco with Jean, Armin had asked to be moved to the mentor section of the Scouting Legion, where he would teach people that were in training. It was just a temporary thing, he hadn't planned on staying long, but one of the teachers had quit and now he was stuck.

"Hey! What the heck Mikasa?!"

The blond smiled at the two before sighing. Armin knew he had been away for too long if he was missing Eren and Mikasa's banter.

Hanji had told him that they were looking for a new mentor and that maybe Petra Ral in department affairs would take the mentorship, but even if she did, Armin would still have to train the next batch of people that came in so Petra could get in the swing of things.

Well, beggars can't be choosers – and he'd put himself in this position in the first place. It was just, after all that had happened he had felt he needed a breath of fresh air to help get his mind off things.

Armin couldn't say he was completely over Jean, but he was getting there. He'd actually been really good lately – before, Jean had always been on his mind, and now Armin could go days, even weeks, without thinking of him once. It hurt to think of him, and Armin knew it was better to let go, but it'd been harder than he had anticipated. Still – he was making progress – he was getting there.

He wasn't ready to find someone else per se, but he didn't feel so tender anymore. There was no use pining over someone who most likely hated him, Armin knew that, and so he used it as fuel to get past it.

It just pained him that even though it'd been so long, he still wasn't completely over Jean. But where he was at now was enough. His chances of ever meeting Jean again were slim to none, and so long as things stayed that way he wouldn't have to face the facts. For now, this was enough.

"Any promising new recruits?" Hanji asked - barging into Levi's office, said man not even bothering to look up at her as she did so.

"… Seems like it. Things are going to get interesting around here."

"Hmm?" Hanji walked around Levi's desk to peer at the folders he was looking at, "How so?"

"Tell me Hanji, do these names look familiar to you?" he thrust several applications into the brunette's face, who sputtered and snatched them away so she could read them at a distance.

"Oh," she breathed as she read the name on the top of the first resume, before breaking out into full blown chortles as she flipped through the pages, "Aha yes, you're right – it'll finally be less dull around here. I can't wait!"