Eren saw from the distance as the blond rolled his eyes when he recognized him. It demanded a lot of effort to note it among this curtain of heavy rain and carrying the umbrella which was restricting the field of view.

As soon as Eren stood under leaky roof of a derelict house, next to soaking boy, hit him: "God dammit! When will come this day when you leave me alo–"
"Here." he didn't let him end the sentence. The blonde's eyes widened.
"What is it?" asked taking the envelope from Eren's hands and peering in.
"150$ as you said. I'm renting you for a while." stated. He could swear he saw the blond jerking at those words.

The boy said nothing but hid money and straightened.
"So you come with me." The brunette grabbed the boy's wrist and tugged. Surprisingly, the other didn't oppose – he followed Eren with no expression on his face, trying to avoid direct eye-contact.
Eren took him under his umbrella and leaded to his flat.

As they went into small flat they saw tall raven-haired girl with milky skin and beautiful black eyes.
"Ah, Mikasa! This is the friend I've told you about. He missed his last bus, so I offered him stay here for a night."
The girl eyed their guest. It was clear the style of his clothes made her wondering but she greeted warmly and went to the kitchen. The blond was staring at the floor whole this time and said nothing, just nodded at greeting.

"Sister won't disturb us. C'mon." he leaded the blond to his room and sat on his bed. "Wait a minute here." said with smile and went out.

Few minutes later the brunette got back with two mugs of tea… and almost got the heart-attack on the threshold of the door.
"W–?! Wh-wha-wha-wha-what are you doing?!" scowled Eren as he saw the boy undressing his reticulate T-shirt.
"I'm stripping." respond as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe. "You want to do it yourself?"
"I can see! But WHY are you doing this?"
"You've paid for what?" cut with sarcasm.

Eren put mugs on the desk sighing and looked at bedraggled boy. He headed to his wardrobe, took out his shirt and gave it to the boy. "Put this on." commanded. As the blond did so, Eren handed a mug with warm tea. The sapphire-eyed was hesitating for a while, glancing once at Eren, once at mug but finally he started to sip.

Cute… went through brunette's mind as he was watching the small blond wearing a bit too big shirt. He sat on chair at the desk in front of the boy and also sipped some tea.

"Can you say something about yourself?" Eren cut the silence.
"There's no need to be so polite. We can go to the point at once." said, putting the mug aside and… started unbuttoning the shirt.
"No! Stop."
The blond looked at him surprised. "Okay… So, you got rid of 150 bucks only to talk with me?"
"Is there something not okay?"
"No. I mean, I've seen a lot of weird things and deviations – oh man, there are so fucked up guys that even Freud couldn't imagine it! – but you are at the very top of this list, right now." said with a smile. Eren wasn't be sure: was it smile of true amusement or just derisive smirk?

"What's your name?"
"Minnie."
"… Really?"
"No. It's nickname. I'm Armin, short-cut Min, diminutive Minnie. And it's because I'm the smallest from the 'workers'."
"I see. Just Armin? But your surname?"
"Who cares about it?"
"Just answer."
"Arlert. Content?"
"In ecstasy."
Hearing it Armin raised his eyebrow and eyed the brunette.

Great job Jeager – your crooked sense of humor made another uncomfortable situation.
Eren slurped some tea wondering how to use the 'rented time' in the beast way and make the blond trust him.

Armin was sitting with crossed legs on the bed and looking around the room discreetly. There wasn't anything special – just ordinary room of the ordinary teenager. It could be me who was living with peaceful life, only if… No! No more retrospections.

"So what are you planning?" he asked Eren who glanced at him torn out of his reverie. "Will we be sitting like that whole night? Why did you brought me here?"
"You would rather stay outside during this downpour? I wanted to talk with you, as I said. You'd never allowed me to that, so I tried out other way."
Armin turn his head back to the window which was ringing with sound of rain-drops, and suddenly he felt grateful. "Are you talking with each whore you meet?"
"How old are you?"
"Don't answer with another question!"
"Quiet. Tonight I'm your master. I've asked how old are you – answer." said Eren with firm tone. He hated himself for that, but he knew, he must show that he controls the situation.
The blond didn't respond immediately. He looked at the clock hung above the door and was watching hands of the clock. When all three reached number 12 he said "Now I'm 17." Eren was a bit confused what made Armin continue. "It's after midnight, we've got 3rd November, so I got 17 years old now."
"Oh. Happy birthday, then!" said astonished.

Armin said nothing, looking down at the floor with fluffy carpet.

"The longer I'm talking with you the more I'm sure I was right." said Eren gazing at modest and figure of the boy with legs curled up to his chest.
"About what?" asked suspiciously.
"About you. You're the last person who should be a bitch."
"Sadly, it's out of my choice." Armin sent him a short smile.
"Listen, I want to help you. You shouldn't be… like that. You're in the wrong place."
"Help?" the blue eyes widened and there was the gale of laughter. "You totally have no idea how works the black-business, right? And that's good. It's better for you to stay in this blessing unawareness."
"C'mon. Let me help yourself."
"Stop it, please. You don't want to listen to this, and I don't want to remind myself whole this mess once again. Anyway, why would I tell you the story of my fucked life?"
"You got no reason to do this, as well as you got no reason to trust me. But there must be any way to draw you out and–"
"But maybe I'm glad here where I am? Who said I want to be helped? Who said I want to be rescued?!" cried out with trembling voice, but his sight were saying: Help me.
"Armin, you're too smart for that. You've mentioned Freud, haven't you? How would you know him if you weren't cultured? The way you talk and act makes me more and more certain that you're extraordinary intelligent. And this what you are doing now is the last thing you should, and don't play you want to keep on this live. I just can't leave you like that, I couldn't stand it. I don't know how can I help you, but I'll try. However, to do this I must know something about you. So, could you tell me about yourself? Everything."

In halfway of Eren's speech Armin's nerves broke and stream of tears flowed down his face. The brunet sat next to boy and gave him a tissue. Armin didn't accept it but wiped off his eyes with a sleeve.

"Eren," said the blond when his sobs went down. "there's too much to tell, and one of the basics rules of that world is: when you stepped in once you'll stay forever. It's too huge shit to drag me out of there. Just leave it as it is."
"I won't." stated firmly. Inside he was delighted as Armin first time called his name. Maybe it's good omen?
"Why are you so pissing off?"
"Why are you getting so hostile when you must say you're grateful or happy or you want to hide you willingness?" retorted with smile.
This guy… he thinks who is he? Why suddenly someone decided to help me? Why… why did he unmask me so quickly?

The growing anxiety made Armin involuntarily reach to his pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes. "Can I?" he asked coming to his senses at the last moment. Eren frowned but he sighed and opened the window. Armin lit up his cigarette, and blew out the smoke through the window's gap visibly relaxed.
"You would be more cute without this." mumbled Eren, giving the blond a sidelong glance.
"Oh, how I am bothered...!" cut the blond based with his elbows on the windowsill. He was looking outside turned with his back to Eren.
"The sarcasm doesn't give you any charm."
"Nobody's perfect."
Eren eyed the leaned boy. His sight unwittingly stopped at the blonde's butt. "But you're really, really close…" Hot.
Armin extinguished the cigarette and threw it out the window, sitting back on the bed. "Are you complementing me?" asked flirtatiously fluttering his eyelashes.
Eren felt his blood started going down south. He wanted to respond when the blonde's belly growled. Armin flushed and looked down pretending he was clearing his throat to hide the embarrassing sound.

The brunette smiled. "So, you'll stay till the dawn?"
"I can't stay. My superior is taking me away between 4-5 a.m. from that street, I must be there back."
"Okay, so I'll turn on the alarm-clock, you won't be late." said freely. "Now I'm going to make you some sandwiches, and then we'll talk a bit." the brunette blinked and went out.