Of all the things that Levi has to get used to after the war, spending his birthday with the same people every year is by far the weirdest experience of them all. Not that he'd ever given much thought to celebrating that occasion but somehow Eren got the date out of Hanji and ever since there is no way out of it.

At least there's this unspoken rule that there never are any gifts. Being alive and sharing a cake together seems to be more than enough for a whole lifetime, more than anything bought could ever exceed. And as the last guests of this year's party leave—Hanji supported by a grinning Sasha who promises to bring them safely into their own bed—Levi irritatedly considers himself lucky. Even more so when a pair of slender, long arms wrap around him from behind.

Peace has brought more than just a change of his duties. The military flourishes, encouraged by the victory over the Titans, and most of the handful of survivors from the final battle are Squad leaders of their own now. One day a few weeks ago Eren has stood on Levi's doorstep, a hand in his neck, his ears pink, and asked if he could stay for the night.

It hasn't really surprised Levi. Thinking back this probably has been inevitable for a while now. What does surprise him, however, is how easy it has been ever since that first step had been made. Eren has snuck into the monotony of Levi's everyday life like a cat—light-footed, silent, persistent—and has been making it a part of himself.

Waking up means ruffled hair now. Sleepy eyes and tentative embraces, warm from slumber. Working is accompanied by open smiles over the training grounds and meetings for lunch and the evenings are filled with tea, shared paperwork, and a pair of lips in his neck when they go to sleep.

Life is surprisingly good these days, a fact that makes Levi twitchy and restless. Even on his own birthday.

No, he corrects himself, especially on his own birthday. He's told Eren that he doesn't know how to handle this whole being in a relationship thing. Opening up to someone doesn't come easy to him and sharing one's life with a person is still odd at some times. He knows he isn't easy to live with, with his strange sleeping patterns, his constant need for cleanness and control, and his inexperience when it comes to intimacy…

Despite all that Eren has only shrugged and smiled. "I don't mind. I only want to be yours."

Levi can hear these words again in his head now, so loud and clear as if they were still there, and as he feels Eren breathe against his back while Sasha and Hanji wobble out of their sight, he wonders for the umpteenth time, why.

"You're brooding." Eren's voice comes quietly, spoken softly into the top of his head. It isn't an accusation or a question. It's simply a statement that leaves it open to Levi whether he wants to respond to it or not.

"I'm old," he gives away after a moment and turns around to look at Eren, facing the visual proof of his own words.

"Hm…" Eren looks back, his eyes searching for something Levi can not see and begins to smile. "I know just the thing for that." The smile becomes even wider, enticing and untamed. "Dance with me," he says.

"What."

"Dance with me," Eren repeats with eagerly twinkling eyes that make Levi's stomach flip. "You know, two people leaning against each other and moving to music? It's supposed to be fun."

"We don't have any music," Levi points out.

"Got it right here," Eren says and slips his left hand into Levi's right, as naturally as if it was meant to be this way. Sometimes Eren does things like that and Levi never knows why it fills him with a deep warmth like someone had blown on cold coals to make them glow again, against all odds.

Eren's right hand is on Levi's left arm to guide it to his waistline and then wraps around Levi's side to come to a rest on Levi's lower spine.

"Please, Levi?"

"I don't know how," he admits, too aware of the hand in his back that gently presses their bodies together from hips to shoulders. Swallowing Levi holds on tightly to Eren's shirt. The thought occurs to him that this idea might be a terrible mistake. He only hopes it's one of his better ones.

"Don't worry, I've got you," Eren mumbles and with that he sets into motion.

Their movements are slowly at first and careful. Gentle rocks from side to side, one small step at a time.

It is weird moving like this in the silence of the room, being so close that Levi can make out the golden dots in Eren's green eyes that always pull something inside of him towards the man in his arms, like a moth to the flame. He doesn't know how to call it. He only knows he's never felt anything like this before and it is tremendously scary and too big for words at the same time.

"Just like that," Eren says quietly, his fingers brushing over Levi's to correct their grip.

"You said there'd be music." Levi wants to tease but his voice disobeys him, granting him nothing more than a hoarse whisper.

"Soon. For now think about flying in the woods. Think about the sun glistening through the leaves and the wind. Think about the world rushing past you and the feeling right before the fall…"

Levi doesn't know why this would be helpful, but he does Eren the favour to comply, recalls the sensation as his body is being moved more fluently now and their steps are getting longer.

Eren is even closer now, or maybe Levi is closer to Eren, their chests just barely touching as he is led through his living room—their living room if Eren wants to stay—and he feels his shoulders loosen the rest of their tension as Eren starts to hum a soft tune.

It's a sweet melody and Levi lets it carry away his thoughts while his feet carry his body on their own. The room around them is blurring, its objects melting into moving shapes and diffuse colours. Only Eren is all clear, his eyes fixed on Levi's, and his lips curved in a compelling smile as he draws Levi even closer.

"Do you trust me?" he asks and all Levi can do is nod before these green eyes sparkle with mischief and Levi is spinning, whirling out of their route, away from Eren, only to spin back again, guided by a frim grip on his hand, until their bodies are pressed against each other once more, circling around in fluent motions.

He hears an unfamiliar sound and needs a second to realise that it is his own laughter. It is bubbling out of him out of nowhere, bright and surprised and untrained, yet freeing and lifting. He closes his eyes in wonderment and lets himself been directed, willingly loses himself in the movements, in the comfort of Eren's embrace, in the flow of the melody, and in the strange feeling of timelessness. It truly does feel a bit like flying outside.

Immersed in that newfound freedom he is startled by the unexpected, soft brush against his forehead, accompanied by a gentle puff against his hair just as their steps are about to slow down into more leisurely turns. He wants to open his eyes, but now Eren's warm lips find his eyelids, then the tired bruises underneath, the sorrowful wrinkle between his eyebrows, then his cheeks, his temples, and the tip of his nose before they softly press against the top of his head.

Levi suddenly has to think about the kid he's met all these years ago, raging and unbroken in shackles behind bars in a mouldy cell with a fire in his eyes that could have been frightening. In moments like this it's hard to believe that the furious teen from back then has grown into the man that now is holding Levi like holding him was all he ever wanted to do.

The fingers that are wrapped around Levi's right hand have begun to move as well. They hold onto him with small, playful gestures that let his fingers go, only to catch them again and let them go once more in a constant loosening and intertwining.

In all these weeks they've never talked about what this is, never even so much as lost one word about it. Eren has simply been there, painting Levi's world with stars, dazzling him with light. Blinding him, apparently. The epiphany hits Levi like a rock, like the sudden recoil of his gear in the middle of the air, and his stomach seems to somersault right up into his throat. Fuck.

"You know," Eren whispers into his hair, amusedly interrupting his hummed song and Levi's dizzying thoughts. "I've always known you'd be a great dancer."

"And you're a sap," Levi grumbles against Eren's chest.

"Mm. But I'm your sap."

And before Levi can react he's spun out of Eren's arms for the second time this evening and drawn back again, back to that knowing smile against his hair and that powerful heartbeat against his ear. Back to that soft hum against his chest. Back into an embrace that makes everything so clear, that he has to ask himself why he's never realised it before.

Eren holds him close, holds his gaze and Levi knows, feels it in his chest, that he's been lost from the moment he's let Eren through his door…or probably even much, much longer.

Allowing himself to melt against Eren's shirt, Levi inhales deeply, and feeling miraculously secure he lets his mouth silently form the three words that flood his chest and spill over with a checkless flutter of his pulse.

Eventually, maybe one day, he might be able to say them out loud. For now however he breathes them once more before he lets himself fall and fly, knowing that Eren will catch him.