Levi and Erwin were sitting in their new, two story home happily when Erwin mentioned something to his now-husband, Levi.
"Hey, I was thinking, why don't we try adopting kids?" He asked, looking up from his book. Levi stopped shining Erwin's work shoes to look up at him with shock. Erwin smiled at his shocked face.
"Well, I don't see why not but it might take some time before we get kids," Levi said, looking down. Internally, he was freaking out because he didn't know how to deal with kids, but on the outside, he tried to keep his cool, stoic face. Erwin saw right through that and put a hand on Levi's shoulder.
"I know kids are intimidating but we can do this. We may be in the military but we don't have the same deployment times lined up so they could have you sometimes, me sometimes or both of us sometimes. Luckily, they let us have time off so we can start looking tomorrow," he said reassuringly. Levi only nodded and went back to shining Erwin's work shoes. Erwin turned back to his book and they sat in silence while enjoying time being with one another.
-2 years later-
After many attempts at trying to land a child, people kept turning them down because they are a same sex married couple. Levi started losing faith in this whole deal and just wanted to call a quits. Erwin always was able to bring back up his spirits but Erwin noticed that it wasn't going to work this time. They sat in bed together, after being rejected by another agency and Erwin was rubbing Levi's back, hoping it would calm him down.
"There's one more agency we can try. After that, I won't continue this," He said, comforting Levi. Levi just kept his face in his pillow, trying to hide his tears that were in his eyes. It was only 7 in the afternoon and they haven't had dinner yet. Erwin stood from the bed and made his way to the phone. He dialed a pizza place and made an order for 1 pizza and some cheesy bread. After hanging up, he went back to Levi and kissed his head.
"Go ahead and take a shower. It'll help you calm down," Erwin said before leaving the room. It took Levi 5 minutes to move in order to get to their bathroom to sulk under the shower head.
Erwin sat down on the couch and picked up a packet, looking at his and Levi's handwriting that was on it.
"This is our last hope. Please be the one," he said before taking out his cell phone and dialed the number. It rang a few times before someone picked up.
"Hello, thank you for calling Children's Heart Agency, I am Lisa, how may I help you?" She asked. Erwin noted that she sounded kind and gentle.
"Hi, this is Erwin Smith and I wanted to talk to you about how the adoption work with your agency," he said, hoping she wouldn't take his statement in the wrong way.
"Of course I can help you. So, at Children's Heart Agency, we give out these packets to families who want to adopt a child under our roof. Do you have a packet like that, Mr Smith?" She asked.
"Yes, I do," he said, staring at it.
"Alright, so, when you filled at the packet, you were asked what age you'd like to receive, if we accepted you. Now, sometimes you won't get a child in the age range you'd prefer because we have a lot of foster kids on hold for families. So, in order for us to accept you, we go over to your home and inspect it, seeing how kid friendly the home is. We also suggest having a room prepared for the child so we can see what their room might look like. Since it seems you have already gotten our packet, we would love to know your address and the appropriate time for us to come over for the inspection, of course the packet needs to be filled out. We will do 2 inspections, one with just an agent from the agency and if you get accepted, we will inform you of what child you'll be getting and their age. With that, on the second inspection, we will have the child with us and we will see if you guys bond. Any questions?" She gave him so much information that some didn't process all the way.
"No, I don't, thanks for answering my question," He said, he gave her his address and said that he was available at 6 in the afternoon tomorrow.
The inspector left and the tension in the house has lightened up. Erwins hand was still clutching the doorknob and he tried to calm down his racing heart. He never felt so much pressure on his shoulders than he did today. He was still in his work uniform and Levi stayed behind to work on the house. Cleaning it to even where not even a speck of dust could be spotted. Erwin turned around to his short, raven-haired husband and smiled.
"I believe that went great. I'm sorry I had to leave all the house work to you," he said, rest a hand on his shoulder. The short man gave Erwin his famous 'tch' sound before walking up and hugging him. It was rare to see Levi like this but it made it all worth while to Erwin. They decided to have dinner early and to just relax. They ate together in the living room while watching a movie they both love. Levi was sipping wine while Erwin had his beer. It was rare that they drank alcohol but they felt like they needed to celebrate on their first step towards having a family together.
"So, what age did you put in for the agency?" Levi asked, glancing towards Erwin.
"I asked for someone ranging 5-8, I thought maybe young enough for them to attach to us but not young enough to where we have to do all the work 24/7," he said, taking into account that Levi wants to raise the kid to clean. Levi nodded and went back to watching the movie. Erwin put down his beer and placed his arm onto Levi's shoulder, holding him close. Levi rested his head on Erwin's broad shoulder and they sat there in silence for the rest of the movie.