A.N: I hope you enjoy this. Inspired by 'Innocence' by Halestorm. It's a great song and, for me, Levi x Eren fit perfect for that whole album~

Chapter 1: February

'You're running towards the wall'

He was forced onto his knees as a finger rustled through his hair. Gripping on to the strands that threw his head back. He yelped feeling the pain. How did this become routine?

Fingers traced along his lips. He leaned in to the graceful, yet, razor-like touch. Why did he let it get like this? He remembered the all too sudden decision he had to make a while back.

He was sitting at the simple, brown table that was inherited to him by his late mother. As he sat there with his head buried into his hands, stacks of letters piled onto each other. Some were opened, some were not. They all said the same thing, that he had owed this much on his college expenses.

He didn't know he could let this slide the way it did. Ever since he was little he was good with money, but a lot has changed when his mother died three weeks ago. He sighed.

Before then, she had been the one paying his bills for college. Now that she was gone he had nothing. The insurance money, that he had gotten for her death, was being used for half of the funeral expenses. The rest was being paid with half of his rent money.

The only little money he had was for basically a quarter of the rent and to provide himself with food. He combed his fingers through his hair. For him getting a job was impossible enough.

Everytime he would go apply they would always either turn him down or not even give him a response. He could admit, he was struggling a lot. It was getting a lot worse actually.

It even has reached to the point where he was going to use the rest of his rent money to, at least, pay off a little bit of the college bills. It seemed like a great idea, but he didn't know how to go about doing that without getting evicted. A lump came up in the back of his throat, everything was circling him and he had no idea how to fix things.

He decided that he needed some fresh air for a while. He headed into the living room where he opened the main window and sat at the ledge. He looked outside and wondered if he was the only one struggling like this.

Suddenly, a familiar face came into view. He wiped a tear away, "Good afternoon, Sir." he greeted from the second story window.

His landlord, Levi, looked up and waved a bit, before heading into the main gates of the apartment building.

He smiled as he took a gulp of the fresh air that smelled of coffee and donuts. It had always smelled like that throughout the day since a coffee shop was right across the street. Thinking about it now, the university that he went to was also conveniently across the street as well.

He shut the window and walked back to the pile of messy papers. He stared in awe and let out a huge sigh. It must be about at least 3,000 dollars he had owed the college now.

He was starting to get sick of this. He needed some advice and maybe someone to vent to. He slid out his phone ready to call a friend.

But who could he possibly call without them worrying so much? Armin would only insist on offering him money, which Eren didn't want to deal with having to owe him money. Mikasa would only want him to move back in with her, but he'd only feel like a burden. He sighed once again.

He could always call Jean, he had helped him many times before with advice. He was the only one he could go to when he didn't need anybody worrying about him. He groaned as he called him.

He tapped his fingers vigorously on the table waiting for the ringing to stop. "What?" Jean answered sounding pissed off like usual.

"Jean, I need help." he said, his voice lined with sadness.

Jean sighed. "It's that bad that you called a loser like me?" he joked.

"Kinda, yeah." he stated. "Just come over, I really need someone to talk to." he said almost about to cry. He could still feel the lump in the back of his throat, that was now hurting him.

Jean sighed. "Alright, I'll be there in 15 minutes."

"I'll be here." he said trying to fight back all his feelings. He hung up the phone, turned it off, and laid on his bed. He decided to take a nap for a bit.

Minutes later, Jean knocked on the door. "Eren," he called through the closed door a bit worried like. Groggily, he propped himself off the bed and headed towards the door.

He opened it to see Jean who looked shocked at Eren's appearance. "Come in," he said opening the door a bit wider.

Jean walked in. "Jeez, Eren," he said in complete shock. "You look like a mess."

Eren sighed closing the door and then heading over to the table he had been sitting at all afternoon. Jean sat across from him still looking worried. "Do you want something to drink?" he asked.

"No, thanks, I wanna know what's up with you." he insisted.

He took a deep breathe in and breathed out slowly. "As you know, my mother died. A week ago, I got the insurance money and I used, almost all of it, to pay for the funeral. But," he paused taking a sigh. "It wasn't enough, so I used half my rent money to pay the rest."

Jean leaned back a bit. "Wow, so what are all these?" he asked looking at the piles of bills.

"College expenses, before, my mom would pay them. I was thinking I should use whatever rent money I have to pay the rest of it." he simply stated shaking his head.

"What about finally getting a job? You said that you wanted to get one, right?" he asked.

Eren scoffed and rested his head on the table. "If anyone would hire me, everyone who I applied to turned me down."

"I know something that you can do." Jean said standing up and walking closer to Eren.

"Hm?"

Jean sat at the edge of the table and leaned in uncomfortably close. "I had a friend, who lived in these apartment buildings a while back." he began. "Who ran into the same thing as you did."

Eren listened intently raising an eyebrow. "What did they do?"

He smiled. "They 'payed with their body' if you know what I mean." he said leaning back smirking to himself.

Eren stood up. "What do you take me for? Some manwhore who goes around fucking everybody for free stuff?" he semi-yelled.

Jean took Eren into the bedroom and closed the door. "Shh," he said raising a finger to his mouth.

"What?" Eren whispered angrily.

"Armin told me not to tell you, but I think it's about damn time." he semi-whispered. "You're 'landlord' is a huge pervert."

Eren raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "How would you know?"

"Remember when you first moved in, me and Armin were bringing up that sofa. When your landlord, what was his name?" he recalled.

Eren sighed. "Levi," he answered.

"Right," he said and then continued. "Levi came up to us asking if we were your friends. Of course we said 'Yeah' and if I remember correctly he said something about getting the telescope ready." he looked down trying to remember exactly what the man had said.

"He said that in front of you guys?" he asked questionably.

"No, when he passed us by. Like he was talking to himself." he answered.

Eren laughed. "So, you're telling me: My landlord, for two years, has been spying on me?" he asked rhetorically.

Jean nodded and pointed to the bedroom that was right across from his. "He's spying on us right now."

Eren glanced looking out through his peripheral vision. He could easily see the other bedroom's light on and resting next to the window was a telescope. He laughed looking back at Jean. "And you wanted me to fuck him for a free apartment?" he said jokingly.

"It was a suggestion. He already likes you plus my friend did the same thing. It's not like it's hard to do." he said sounding serious. "Plus, you'll get a good fuck out of him." he said jokingly with a wink.

Eren narrowed his eyes. "Jean, just leave. I shouldn't have called you." he said angrily.

"Fine," he said acting offended. "I'll go." he turned around leaving the apartment.

He almost had jumped when he heard the door slam. He walked over to the door and locked it up with a sigh. Maybe Jean was right, maybe he should just go over to Levi's place. Give him a night of his life in exchange for free rent.

He shook his head as he weighed his options. It either could go one of two ways. He would go over there, do it, and live in the apartment for free while paying his college bills. Or don't go and suffer more as the bills stack up.

He sighed for the final time as he headed into his bedroom. With a flick of the switch the bedroom across his' light turned off. He turned his back to the window as he opened up his closet.

He slowly stripped off his shirt and replaced it with a loosely fitted one that was basically see-through. Next he pulled of his jeans and replaced them with white ones that, according to his friends and exes, made his ass look great.

He looked over his shoulder to the other bedroom. Their light was still turned off. He smiled and turned his own bedroom light off and headed outside.

It was dark out now as he walked down the stairs. His stomach was churning as he knew what he was about to do. It wasn't a very long walk since their apartments were side-by-side.

He took a deep breath in and out as he knocked on the door before him. He gripped on the edge of his shirt as he knew what was, yet, to come. In his head he was rehearing lines.

Soon the door opened to a short man with a cigarette in his mouth. "What?" he asked puffing out smoke. He leaned himself against the doorway.

"Um," Eren paused for a moment trying to calm his nerves. "I wanted to talk about the rent."

Levi paused for a moment. "Fine," he said turning heading inside. "Come in."

Eren followed him and closed the door behind them.