Author's Note: Another fic I've been wanting to write for far too fking long. Inspirations and timings make it long due and about time to be poured out.
Baby Levi is 2 on the first part, and almost 5 on the second part.
Disclaimer: I still don't own Shingeki no Kyojin, Levi or Kuchel.
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"Moooommy, akap! Helloo, mommy~"
Kuchel was already smiling before being able to properly open her eyes, tiny fingers poking her face in their own fashion of cuddling.
"Akap! Waake up, Wevi's up! Up up!"
"Yes, I can see that, Levi."
"Hi, mommy!" he squealed for his successful task, smiling as he jumped back and sat with one leg on each side of his thighs. He then immediately proceeded to give a speech rather impressive in length and apparent eloquence, but to which he had forgotten to fully teach Kuchel on the particular baby language he used. "Hmm... yes, I caught 'food' between all that, and I agree."
Levi felt accomplished with Kuchel's giggle, clapping softly. They couldn't fully see each other, the candle put out many hours before and their eyes adjusted as much as they could to the darkness. After a quick struggle, the flicker sparked light on the room in the familiar and cozy atmosphere. Baby Levi's eyes squinted for a moment in which Kuchel merely watched him in silence, his long soft hair falling in strands over his face and his focus set on the flame. The sound from outside was muffled and low, far too early for the brothel's employers or clients to start the usual staggering through the corridors.
"Hi, light," he waved at the candle, flinching back when the moviment made the flame twinkle.
"Did you sleep well, love?"
"Yes, mommy."
Kuchel yawned and stretched longly and lazily on the bed, while it was Levi's turn to watch her attentively and mimic her moviments, raising thinny arms way up and yawning loudly.
"Ah so you're starting to be lazy like me?" Levi chuckled and nodded his head, mumbling 'lazy' as if it was a funny word. "Come here, love. Let's see what else you know. Do you still remember all the body parts we learned? Say, where's your nose?"
Baby Levi threw his hand to flip the long bangs away from his eyes, and hesitantly recalled midway where the correct location of his nose was, poking at it twice and grinning.
"Very good! Your hair tickles your nose, right?" She tickled him accordingly and he rolled to the side between giggles. Kuchel made a mental remark to trim his bangs, they were getting a bit too long again. "And now, your eyes? Where are your eyes, Levi?"
Another slightly clumsy and loud slap when he clasped both hands over eyes.
"Ow. Wevi can't see."
"Don't be so harsh then, silly. Here, where are my eyes then?"
Their early morning ritual continued, Levi poking his tiny fingers on her face as he pointed accordingly to what she asked, until Kuchel threw herself on top of Levi and showered him with kisses until he could barely breathe, rolling between the sheets and almost evading her grasp a couple of times. He only missed the location of his knees and heels, otherwise he got everything right. His progress was on that unbelievable peak of growth, noticeable even within a week, including his speech and articulation, though he sometimes fell back to his baby talking. And truth be told, Kuchel secretely adored his baby talk so much she didn't really want to scold or correct him every time it happened. It was too delicious to hear him talk and the sign he was still her baby for a while longer, even if he was growing so much and so fast.
They combed each other's hair for some long moments, so Levi could touch and compare their hairs' length and figure which one was the longest, puffed the candle out together and exited their room, fully ready for the day Kuchel hoped would go smoothly. She kept the cloth purse between Levi and her body, glad to finally put the money to good use. She had got two tips the previous days that were surprisingly and pleasantly high enough to allow Levi to taste something new and that Kuchel had been eager for him to try. Hopefully, the merchant had got a recent fruit supply!
It so happened to be the case. It could be Kuchel's own slightly rumbling stomach creating the wishful thinking, but she could almost swear she could smell the sweet scent of the merchant's stand even from the top of the street. The small variety of fruits displayed were still fresh, and to Kuchel would always appear so as long as they kept the faintest colors from up above; even if they were several days old, until the dark smudges started spreading on the skin, any fruit looked as misplaced splashes of color on the otherwise dirt colored, brown and yellowish tainted Underground.
It was so hard to come across fruit stands on the Underground (and to find stands that weren't raided and destroyed by buglars or starving people), but Kuchel had found this small stand some weeks before, apparently belong to a mid age couple, and took note of their elevated prices. Fruits' value were exponentially higher from bread, for obvious reasons.
"Good morning," the merchant greeted, his mouth missing a couple of teeth opening into a rather polite smile. His wife was sitting next to him and cooed at Levi's attentive gaze to the colors on the stand, while a younger man was sitting on a crate nearby - seeing it was the same one from when Kuchel passed by the times before, she guessed it was either a family member or a henchman the couple had hired to help them avoid attacks and thefts. It was most likely was a family member, even though some people would gladly work for food. These merchants were clearly far from rich. "May I help you?"
"Yes, please." The price of the apples had increased since she had come by, but it was still affordable and the man handed her a red apple after she searched for the coins. The younger man by the crate was eyeing her attentively, but she ignored him.
"Look, Levi! It's for you!"
The couple smiled in reflex to Levi's widening his eyes and smiling, holding the apple between his hands with a strong grip.
"Tanks, mommy!"
"You like apples, little one?" the woman asked, and Levi promptly nodded his head.
"You've never tried one before, silly," Kuchel recalled, bopping Levi's nose.
"Oh, you poor little thing," the man sighed. "Is it a boy or a girl? Sorry, it's..."
"He's a boy," Kuchel nodded, more than used to people misgendering Levi to mind it, specially as he mostly wore an oversized shirt that could easily make turn for a dress, legs and bare feet dangling against her body. Besides, he was still far from the age to past androginy and his petite features and big eyes with long lashes would still bring confusion even if she cut his hair short.
People said how much he resembled her, a fact which Kuchel was quite appreciate of. He was her child, no one else's.
"We had a little boy too," the man added. Kuchel noted how his hand moved to touch his wife's arm in reflex. "He was older though, and his legs got bad. You know, the sun..."
"I remember when he was so small, though. He was just as pretty as your little boy. We turned our business to fruits afterwards," the woman said, without really needing to explain what the 'afterwards' meant. "It's very expensive, but we're able to get a bit of sun ourselves when we get our supplies."
"I wish you good luck to your business, then," Kuchel said, and reajusted Levi on her arm. "We'll return if we can."
"We've seen you before, haven't we? You've come by the street with some other ladies?"
"Uh, yes," she confirmed, but was now immediately on alert. Using a more polite word didn't deflect Kuchel's trained sense for recognizing that categorization and scorn that followed. For a moment she almost cursed herself, wondering if she really looked that promiscuous and that much like a prostitute for people to immediate tell her apart from everyone else and mistreat her. Levi was oblivious to her discomfort, brow frowned in concentration while studying the apple.
"You poor thing," the woman sighed, sympathy rather than spite in her voice. Kuchel's own brow furrowed slightly. "We really have to do our best in this world, right? We wish you the best."
"Please keep safe," the man added, lowering his head and waving at baby Levi. "Keep your mommy safe, little one."
Levi's gaze raised at the sound and locked on the man for a while before nodding and waving goodbye at him, apple tucked against his chest to do so.
"Thank you," Kuchel said and turned her back to the couple, blinking at the simplicity of that final moment and how well it made her feel. The younger man by the crate had overheard the conversation too, but even though he didn't appear as indifferent to her way of living as the couple, he was silent about it.
Kuchel taught Levi how to eat the apple, nibbling a small piece off while they walked back to the brothel and with the merchant couple's eyes following them as they climbed the street. She could almost hear them chuckling as they saw the baby immitate his mother, a small moment of happiness for them as well.
"You want, mommy?" Levi asked after he bit several pieces, fought against the rough texture and squealed in delight, apple juice smudging his mouth.
"No, Levi, you eat."
"Eat," he more or less shoved the apple against her mouth, smudging her as well and she ended up complying.
Kuchel tried to make a little detour to extend their morning walk, peeking at Levi's satisfied look occasionally. He had grown so much already. Even when he was just some months old, he was already suspicious and his brows frowned comically when people talked to him, but within some soft or playful words he would start smiling and widening it in face of people's mirrored expressions. Kuchel remembered those times and a smile of her own made its way out of the memories along with that disbelief on how fast time had gone by. Two years! Of course her fear and worry were as constant as then, but when he smiled then, and when days like these happened now, it almost made her feel safe and that everything would work out.
She nibbled the apple to the core after Levi was full and tossed it to a corner of the street. Both of them dried their mouths against the back of their hands before walking back to the brothel, morning routine already starting to set there as well and some employers starting to get busy.
"Mommy, titan!" Levi gasped a bit too loud, but Kuchel hushed him and smiled at him.
"No, Levi, it's not a titan. It's just a very tall man," she explained, looking at the brothel employer that had caught Levi's attention, one of the henchmen that worked as muscle for good or bad, either to help around with heavy lifting and kick out clients or to roughen up the prostitutes if need be. These ones didn't work for food, like the young man by the merchant's fruit stand. He was carrying a pile of dirty bedsheets to one of the side corridors.
"Wooooh, titan!" Levi exclaimed pointing readily at the man. Luckily, he was one of the normal people around the brothel, which meant he turned to the sound of the baby voice and chuckled rather than diss or yell a complain.
"Nah, we're safe from the titans down 'ere, little one!" he reassured, and Kuchel chuckled at Levi's intrigued expression to the talking titan man.
"See? Not a titan."
His small mouth gaped, lost in his own thoughts and eyes fixed.
"Cute kid," the man said. "It's a boy, right? Levi?"
Again, Kuchel's body language immediately turned defensive, trained since early years of her life and polished to perfection after Levi was born.
"Uh, sorry, I've been helping out aroun' 'ere lately," he elaborated, his tone far more submissive than what she was used to hear from these men. She had to be mistrustful of these henchmen by proxy. "I heard some of the women that look after the kids, and heard his name. I didn't mean to be creepy. Sorry to have interrupted ya."
"You didn't," Kuchel recalled, preparing to leave.
"Sorry, I..." the tall man clearely wanted something more. "Ya... ya're very pretty, if ya don't mind me saying. If... with your kid and all, it must be hard to be 'ere."
"I'm sorry, but you I can't give you a free turn," she interrupted, a bit harshly, knowing where this was going.
"No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that- I, if ya want to, I'd pay ya. Not this brothel shit, to ya," he explained, almost embarrassed. Kuchel blinked, holding Levi closer on her lap. "If ya wanted to be with me, I..."
"No, mommy mine," Levi intervened suddenly, brow still frowned in mistrust for the talking titan man. "Bye."
The man turned almost surprised to the child's nerve and then nervousily back to Kuchel.
"I have to go work, I'm sorry."
"Oh, ah... alright," he said, nodding his head almost in defeat.
Kuchel almost pitied the man, a feeling she barely gave herself the luxury to feel anymore, but found the man was actually harmless. He was probably younger than her, and ignorant to consequences of certain requests. The scene was awkward, but almost funny when she played it out again in her head while climbing up the stairs to the corridors.
"Thank you for standing up to me, Levi," she told him, kissing her little man on the cheek.
"Wevi mommy safe," he explained simply, serious features opening to a proud smile.
The rest of the day went by faster than she antecipated, even with almost all the clients. When she had met the dues required for the pimp and the necessary money for herself the next day (money that appeared to turn more like alms as each day passed, if she couldn't get direct tips from the clients themselves), she called the day done and went to fetch Levi. Kuchel caught up with the other women who had been free to look out for some of the children, in one of the common rooms that were almost exclusively for the use of the brothel workers. Two of the women there were talking with each other, while the third, a very much pregnant Sophia, was sitting on a chair and playing with the children, passing a ball made of rags between themselves. Kuchel heard Levi's squeal before turning to the room and found him kicking the ball to the older girl in front of him and in turn to another girl with pigtails.
Kuchel greeted the women and exchanged some casual words with them, finding that the tiredness for the day was almost welcome. Life could almost border the tolerable if everyday was like this one. Out of the four women, only Foxy, the youngest, didn't have children, but she shared their conversation and comments about how the kids had behaved or what they did during the day.
The said children exchanged their play while the women talked, and baby Levi enthusiastically started spinning around while the older children sang a nursery rhyme.
"You'll get dizzy if you continue, silly," Sophia warned, but obviously Levi found himself untouched by such strange notions. A couple more spins and his legs bunked beneath him, making him fall on his butt giggling and holding his head.
"Whoa, Wevi's dizzy."
"Well, Sophia warned you, didn't she?" Kuchel approached him and tucked a hair lock behind his ear. "You all good now? Then..."
She helped Levi back to his feet and then as she hooked her arms firmly around him, he started laughing, knowing what what coming as she lifted him up and turned him upside down, one hand holding his back straight and the other beneath his waist.
"Whoa, Olympia, be careful!" Foxy pleaded in a rush, hand against her chest even though both of them were laughing. Sophia almost covered her eyes as well.
"Look look, Wevi's flying!" And he raised his arms and legs, to the gasps of the women while Ana too was giggling next to them.
"Well now, time to bed! Say good night to everyone, little flying bird," Kuchel said, ignoring the pinch in her back for the awkward pose, knowing Levi liked it too much.
"Bye Sofi," he waved at Sophia upside down, all baby teeth exposed from his puffy breathing and laughter when Kuchel pretended to drop him a couple of centimeters. "Bye bye Foxy, bye Ana!"
Kuchel pulled him up to sit properly on her arms, hair turned into a cute mess and cheeks flushed. He tried to fall and hang back down again, but the straining on her arms was already too much to hold him twice. She passed by two of the henchmen that came peeking the room, one of them the tall titan man from before.
"Girls, shouldn't you be working?" the other man said, an employer of the brothel for years, an order rather than a suggestion.
Foxy looked concerned to the rest of the group, while Ana quickly dismissed the authoritarian tone by saying it was her break and she had more than seven clients already. Sophia barely cared to wave at her giantic belly.
"I'm done for the day," Kuchel said when the henchman turned to her, looking for one woman to pick on. "You can go check downstairs if you need to."
"No, no need," the tall titan man reassured, and Kuchel left them behind and took Levi to their room.
The day had gone as smoothly as she could have hoped for. Levi was restless when she tired tucking him in bed next to her, but with a little tickle play and a story about forests and big blue skies, he started to blink against sleep holding her hand with his tiny fingers and a soft smile lingering until he fell asleep.
One day she wished would repeat many times over.
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to be continued
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Author's Note: All my Levi fics are independent but have a continuity between them, and this one technically takes place after the 1st chapter of my 'The Window to the Sky' fic which I invite you to read.
The flying thing came up unexpectadly while listening to Élan by Nightwish. Needless to say, it's a lame nod to 3DMG.
Thanks for reading and hope you can leave a review, point out mistakes please. There'll be just one more chapter.