"Hey," Eren murmured, fresh morning light falling across his face to highlight high cheekbones. Mikasa only curled tighter into his chest, fingers finding the nape of his neck in her reluctance to wake. "Mikasa," Eren tried again, this time following her name up with a slow stroke of his open palm down her back. Again, the dark girl only wriggled closer to him, hot breath fanning out across his bare sternum. Eren would never cease to be amazed by the fact that he had found her. That among all the chaos and the bloodshed of their world, they had managed to come together. He inhaled slowly, breathing in the soft smell of her hair, and the bite of September air that permeated even their cloistered bedroom.
Still caught up in his own thoughts, the shifter boy pressed a kiss to the crown of his lover's head and tried again. "If you don't get up soon, Levi will catch us." The girl in his arm shook her head and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "fuck him" under her breath. "I'd rather not," Eren laughed, tightening his arms around her lean frame, and rolling so that his head was cushioned among the pillows. The second-to-last Ackerman brought her head up with the movement, hair disheveled as she (weakly) glared at him from somewhere between his armpit and collarbone. "That wasn't fair." He gave a cheeky grin and pressed a kiss to the bridge of her nose. "Sure it wasn't."
Mikasa leant closer, wriggling up his body and shooting him a sly smirk when one leg brushed against the unmistakeable bulge in his sleep pants. "If you don't get up soon, Levi will catch us." She parroted back at him, laughing gaily until her titan-boy stopped her with a kiss. Silence fell over the room, caught up in the warm wood walls and the off white of the slowly tangling sheets. Eren's hands found the small of his lover's back, cradling her close and pressing her harder against him all at once.
They both knew how little time they had. Knew that mornings like these weren't promised in the slightest, didn't come as a guarantee. That reality hung in the air, suspended between kisses and the jerk of Eren's hips when her fingers played along his hipbones. This morning wasn't just one of many, it was a rarity, a moment of almost-suspended reality. It wasn't so frequent that Eren got to run his fingers along the inside of her thigh, opening her with his broken keys.
It was special.
Something to be treasured and hidden away for the long nights spent riding furiously past slumbering titans, or sunsets that fell on too many dead (too many too many). And Eren thought that maybe he loved it all the more for it. Loved the girl in his arms even more ferociously simply because their time together wasn't any kind of promised. Although, he mused as her lips followed her fingers, pressing farther and farther down his torso, that didn't mean he wasn't going to fight so they could have this always.
The idea of having mornings like this every day hung heavy in the room, pressing against the wooden walls and the top of his chest. Eren wanted that security just as much as he wanted Mikasa, wanted it like he wanted to see the world. He knew the girl atop him did too, could feel it in her grip on his hips and the fan of her breath across his lower abdomen. "I love you," he managed, breath catching in his throat only to rush out again at the touch of Mikasa's lips just beneath his navel.
And then he couldn't think at all.