I reached for you but you were gone

I knew I had to go back home

you searched the world for something else

to make you feel like what we had

but in the end, in wonderland, we both went mad

Part VII - His Consternation

For the second time in his life Levi's temerity in believing he could control almost any outcome had cost him. The first had been at the expense of Isabelle and Farlan's lives, a pain that had cut so deeply within him that the trauma was forced back into the deepest recesses of his mind just so that he was able to look himself in the mirror each morning. Even then the shame fought its way to the surface.

The second was him ever being foolish enough to think that his love and time with her would eclipse the agony of watching her slip through his fingers. That it would even marginally dilute the loss and fear that festered inside him, and he hated her for insisting that it would. He hated that she had always been so assured of that very belief, so certain that the regret of not loving him would bypass any pain. Except it was never his death that had been inevitable, it was hers. They were both wise enough to understand that. So he almost resented her, because she would eventually be the one to leave him; she would feel no loss, or mourning.

'Hana.' Saying her name left a bitter taste in his mouth.

He leaned in closer to her still form, her short intake of breaths so few and far between that it was almost undetectable. It was the breaths of someone on the verge of letting go, and he wouldn't allow it. The pandemonium that had erupted around them after the battle of Shiganshina forced the field medics to frantically run between patients. Whoever could be transported back to base for medical attention had already gone, but others - like Hana - were left to be treated in the field. Their injuries to dire to risk moving them.

'I know you can hear me.'

The sight of her covered in blood would haunt him for years to come. The raw and flesh of her burned skin weeping around her neck and torso, it was sickening to look at. He felt the desperate urge to pull her close to him, to hold her and feel the warmth in her body, but he wouldn't dare. Instead, he bent his head lower, kept his voice at a volume that wouldn't allow for others around to hear.

'I'm not letting you go. I won't.' He paused, inhaling a breath. 'I love you too damn much.'

They were words she had never expected him say, words that he couldn't bear to say out loud. Yet he here was, only saying it out of a desperate fear of losing her, again. He had moved past the point of return now, beyond pulling away from her and locking himself away with an impenetrable vault that he would never make the mistake of unlocking again. He was all the way in, and he'd be damned if he let her die now.

48 Hours Earlier

'You know,' Hana drawled, brushing her hair in the mirror of the dressing table Levi had moved into his room, 'if you keep on with that dark face of yours people are gonna' think I'm a terrible wife.'

'Nobody even knows you are my wife.' Levi stated, his comment was merely meant to counter hers but in reality he was particularly annoyed at no one knowing.

Levi was prone to a possessiveness of things that belonged to him, and although Hana was not an inanimate object that could be owned, and was her own person, she did legally bear his family name. That gave him some room to essentially claim his territory, especially as a young ginger recruit appeared to have taken a shine to her.

'I thought you wanted to keep our matters private?' She teased, her eyes drifting away from his in the reflection of the mirror.

He had been undoing his cravat, having removed the suspenders of his uniform as he readied for bed. It was their last night in headquarters before they parted on their mission to take back Shiganshina, and Hana was no longer his lieutenant. He watched her closely, as her blue eyes followed the brush as it softly pulled through her brown hair, her fingers threading through it afterwards. A soft hum of a melody he did not recognise escaped her lips, low and soothing, absentmindedly as she sat in her nightgown. She was so content for someone who was on the eve of battle, her actions akin to a wife of a nuclear family, whom had nothing to worry about come the morning.

His chest ached for a life they would never have, for a future they would never share.

Levi was aware of what she had meant by his dark face, but he had chosen to deflect from it. Focusing on the constant anxiety that this would possibly be their final night together would sour the mood, he didn't want his last memories of her to be of reassurances or painful declarations of love. He wanted to remember her as she was; glowing, happy, and his. So inherently beautiful and bright that it almost pained him to look at her for too long, but unable to look away from the only person who could burn brighter than the sun itself. She brought the dawn with her, clear skies that he had only ever fantasised about seeing when living in the underground. He would not tarnish this.

With his hand digging deep into the pocket of his trousers, his fingers gripped the cold metal inside. His calmness betrayed the jittering nerves that simmered beneath his skin, and without looking at her reflection in the mirror he strode over to her. Levi pulled the chain from his pocket as he moved to stand behind Hana, and she halted in her actions as she watched him, slightly perplexed. He placed the chain around her neck, the gold ring dangling at the centre of her chest, and fastened it at the nape of her neck in silence.

His hands rested on either side of her shoulders, and her hand rose to finger the ring that now rested against her chest. Hana smiled, one that was both joyed and sad.

'You actually got a ring.'

'Tch. Of course.' He said, 'we're married, aren't we?'

He received only a soft chuckle in response, and Hana put down her hairbrush to stand, turning to face him.

'I love it.' She said quietly, fingers playing with ring. 'Thank you.'

She could sense he didn't want to linger on the moment, the tenseness in his neck and shoulders indicated as much. So she moved on, placing a soft kiss on his cheek before moving around him. It was disorienting how quickly she had acclimatised to sharing a room, and a life, with him. In a matter of months they had become more than friends, and in weeks she had become his wife. On the outside everything would seem too fast and sudden, too dramatic for two adults to behave in such a way, but for both Hana and Levi it had been a natural progression. Something that was almost inevitable after he had given in, and allowed himself to want her.

'Can you wake me when you get up at the crack of dawn, please?' She said casually. 'I need to tend to Shimmer's hooves . . . I forgot to this afternoon.'

Sleep did not come to him that night, which wasn't entirely out of character for him. Circles lingered beneath his eyes regularly enough that none would question it, not that they ever would to begin with. This time, however, it wasn't his insomnia that kept his eyes open, it was her. He watched her fingers curl around his shirt in her sleep, and her chest rise and fall softly, her mouth parted only slightly to inhale and exhale. It could be the last time he was afforded such a sight, and the idea of sleep stealing these final peaceful moments from him felt cruel, so he fought against it, fingers ghosting the skin on her cheek as the sun rose.

He didn't rise at dawn as he usually did, and he didn't disturb her sleep either. Intent on letting that singular, perfect moment linger as far as it could. His mental and emotional state at an equilibrium that she had only ever been able to provide for him.

'Why didn't you wake me?' Her voice disrupted the silence, and her soft tone was laced with sleep as she rubbed at her eyes. When focused on him, she would catalogue the look on his face for however much longer she lived.

It was the look of a lost child, one that she knew he had probably never shown since he was a young boy in the underground. It wasn't scared nor anxious, but despondent. Her blue eyes became concerned, the previous exhaustion in them vanishing.

'Why are you looking at me like that?'

He didn't answer, instead his hand drifted across the ring dangling from her neck, slender and strong as they guided past it to her neck and gripped the back of her head. Levi kissed her fervently, with a hunger and desperation not so different to their first. All at once, amongst the intoxicating scent of him and his kisses, Hana received her answer; he was holding off on what the day would bring. He was taking in his last moments of her, and as her heart shattered it also opened. She reciprocated, savouring the taste of his lips and the feel of the palm of his hands against her neck.

Shivers reverberated across her skin, and her veins felt like they were simultaneously freezing and on fire as his fingers drove the hem of her nightgown up above her hips. Their movements were erratic and jarring, fumbling to pull his night shirt off and to bring his lips back down on hers. The memories of that morning would be distorted, but Hana would remember the euphoric sensation of him between her thighs. Of his fingers digging into the skin at her hips as he thrust into her with an abandon that he hadn't exhibited before.

She would forget the mistake they made of allowing him to reach his climax inside of her, eclipsed by the memory of her high as she gasped his name. Levi would only remember the tightness of her thighs around him, and her nails scratching across his back, he would only remember how she always felt like she fit perfectly against him. Her warmth and heavy breaths seared his skin as he ardently made love to her. He would remember the fire in his chest at how she became undone because of him.

Hana would remember when he'd collapse on top of her, his forehead matted with sweat as he settled into the crook of her neck. She would remember his four final words before he pulled away from her, words that she had once uttered to him.

'Come back to me.'

'What the fuck are you looking at, four eyes?' Levi's tone was low, almost daring Hanje to respond as he arrived to their table in the mess hall.

Hana followed shortly after him, only catching Hanje's cheeky response and childlike grin on her face. Looking simultaneously sleazy and gleeful.

'You two are awfully late for breakfast, busy morning?' She said suggestively, indicating that she knew exactly what they had been doing.

While Hana's cheeks reddened, and averted her gaze, Levi merely scowled. They sat beside each other, though he left enough of a gap between them that no one in the mess hall would assume they were more than comrade's. Hana's embarrassment at effectively being called out had left her in silence for the remainder of breakfast, she ate in silence quickly before leaving to tend to her horse in the stables.

Levi didn't turn in her direction as she made her leave, choosing to keep his gaze ahead as he drank his tea. He never had breakfast, it made him feel nauseous to eat so early in the morning. Erwin was nowhere to be found at the table, and Levi assumed that he would stay locked in his office pouring over battle plans until it was time to leave. All of the scouts had been briefed the night before, and except for himself and seasoned scouts, the newest recruits created a small buzz of excitement at the prospect of taking back Shiganshina. Ignorant of the bloodbath they would be riding into because they had only witnessed the scouts victories of recent.

'If you lovebirds keep at it you're gonna knock her up,' Hanje sniggered, and Levi shot her a dark look.

'Do you love to prod at other people's private lives so much because you haven't been fucked in a decade?' Hanje cackled at his jab, and the tension around her eyes eased slightly.

Even she, Levi sensed, was apprehensive of what the next twenty-four hours would entail. She didn't respond to his question, and Levi preferred it that way. It saved him from thinking about the fact that he and Hana would never make it far enough to even entertain the nightmare of getting her pregnant.

'She'll be just fine with me, Levi.' Hanje's sombre tone caused him to blink. 'Besides, wasn't it you that always said she's stronger than she looks?'

His steel gaze appraised her face for the briefest of moments before he nodded.

Hana wouldn't see him again until all one hundred scouts had gathered their horses by the stables, and begun mounting them. Much like before, he found her tightening the reigns of her horse with a softness and grace that only she had been able to exhibit in times that would typically elicit anxiety. He remembered standing there, almost a year ago now, doing a similar action before he kissed her for the first time. However, on this second occasion she was not alone.

The redheaded brat, who had taken an embarrassingly juvenile shine to Hana, towered over her as he helped with her saddle. With a scowl, Levi made his way over to stand silently by the pair, Hana noticed him first, grinning as Floch took a step back to admire his work.

'How have you lasted all this time without my help?!' Floch's grin fell off his face instantaneously as he registered the shorter man on the other side of Hana. 'Ca-Captain Levi.'

Floch's fist flew to left side of his chest in salut, which went ignored by his superior as he merely stared at the redheaded cadet.

'Get back to your horse, cadet. There's isn't time for fucking chit chat.'

The order didn't seem to startle Floch as much as Levi had expected, in fact he seemed barely phased.

He only nodded, 'yes Captain.' Turning to look at Hana with a smile that was too friendly for Levi's liking. 'See you later Hana!'

He made to leave, and as he became level with Levi his captain stared directly up at him.

'It's Lieutenant Ackerman.'

Floch halted, a brief flicker of confusion crossed his face as he looked at Levi.

'Huh?' He said dumbly, and the reaction caused Hana to stifle a grin beneath her hand.

'Have some respect and address her as Lieutenant Ackerman. She's your superior.'

A comical amount of seconds passed as Floch's eyes flickered back and forth between his two superiors, and when realisation dawned he visibly flushed. Stuttering out his apologies before he darted off.

Hana's eyes rolled as she turned back to Levi, 'was that really necessary?'

'He was getting too friendly, it was unprofessional.' He stated matter of factly.

'Oh, and me marrying my former squad leader isn't?' Hana retorted, her tone playful as she readjusted the gears on her hips.

Levi's response was a scowl so deep that it elicited a laugh from his wife. She shook her head at him, unable to take any of his obvious jealousy seriously.

'He's a kid, Levi. His infatuation is harmless.'

The statement was met with silence, and she watched as his hand reached out to touch the end of her braid, resting over her shoulder. It had grown out in the months over the winter solstice, and with spring came a period so busy that it was the least of her concerns. He found he liked it; he liked any length of her hair that did not resemble the shortness of when Erwin had sent her on that mission. A task that had altered her being, though she would never admit to so.

Curling his finger around the ends of her hair, he focused his gaze on the colour of each strand between them. Committing her to his memory every time they parted would seem so silly to others, so juvenile and sickening, and he was inclined to agree. Yet the certainty that this may be their last moment was high, and perhaps that was what amplified what he felt for her. Levi found that he didn't care, because it was inconsequential. It didn't change the fact that he burned for her, that it consumed him from the inside until he found her absence unbearable.

'Be careful.' He murmured lowly, unable to look at her as he spoke.

Hana didn't touch him, she knew that in that moment he simply wished to savour her. To form a vivid picture of her that would not be tainted, and being touched by her would only bring him pain. He turned away from her soon enough, and it wasn't until he was a few steps in that he heard the sudden softness of her last words to him.

'I love you.'

Levi continued his pace, not daring to look back in that moment. It was as Erwin had once asked him; if it came down to between humanity and her, he would choose humanity. That was what he had decided as he continued to walk away from her, and she knew that. Which was why it didn't hurt when he didn't look back.

Shiganshina

Thunder spears were heavier than Hana had expected, and thus far had proven difficult to manoeuvre more than her blades. The impact of the explosions were so sever that it was vital, to your survival, to aim precisely and administer quickly. Over the course of Hanje's training she had improved the fastest, thus making her the leader of the subgroup that would deliver Reiner's killing shot.

Smoke filled her nostrils at the last explosion, and the wind whipped at her face and hair as she sailed through the air, Jean, Sasha and Conny fast on her heels.

'Now!' She ordered, and she rereleased the grapple to propel her upwards, her subordinates crossing each other on her left and right. Hana released the thunder spear simultaneously to theirs, with hers lodging just above his shoulder blades, and beneath the armour in his neck. Propelling herself backwards, and away from the explosion, she felt the heat of the blaze on her skin, her ears ringing with the consistent sounds of each spear detonating one after another.

The gasps of Conny and Sasha, a few yards away from her, indicated that it had worked. It would take multiple blows to eventually bring him down, and just as Hana and Hanje felt they were on the cusp of a small victory it was yanked from their grasps. The squads were forced to retreat away from his titan and the billowing smoke as he begun to heal and his titan vessel disintegrated.

When the explosion came, with Bertholdt's transformation incinerating everything within a two mile radius, she had been on the outskirts. The force of it knocked her, and fellow scouts, so violently that the exploding rubble of surrounding buildings went with them. The remnants of fire singed their skin and hair, and whoever wasn't left completely burned had been buried beneath the smashed debris.

Across Shiganshina, and over the wall, Levi perched on the roof of an abandoned home. The scouts that surrounded him dispatching the last of the the three metre titans. His head inclined back to the wall, the plumes of smoke and ash ascended high enough to peak over and reach his line of sight.

His mind only lingered briefly on what the explosion could have been, and whether anyone was even still alive. A brief image of her flashed in his mind, and the sharp fleeting pain of his chest was put out as fast as it had arrived. Concern for her wellbeing was futile, and as he locked thoughts of her away into the recesses in his mind, the first barrage of stones hit.

When survivors were scouted for, long after Armin had been saved, whomever hadn't been found was presumed dead. The bodies that appeared intact, or held signs of life, were carted to the wall for immediate attention. A medic, beaten and fatigued so grotesquely that it became evident in the darkness around his eyes, tiredly placed two fingers to the side of Hana's neck. He blinked, releasing a deep breath, almost missing the faint pulse.

'We've got one!' His throat ached as he yelled out, the stomach and ash he had been inhaling searing his throat and increasing the difficulty in his breathing..

She had been pulled out along with three others, whom had all been dead, and through the third degree burns and blood that coated her face and torso it was difficult to make out who she was. He quickly got to work as more medics arrive, focusing first on CPR. Her pulse was barely present, and the colour drained from her lips as she continued to go without oxygen.

'There's a wound to the right of her ribcage.' He recounted to the two medics that joined him, his intertwined fingers continuing to press into her chest. 'Two ribs have broken and punctured the skin.'

He was inclined to leave it as it was, because for now the two broken ribs that protruded from her chest was the only thing that kept her from bleeding out.

'Third degree burns on the left side of her face, neck and shoulder. We need to treat it to avoid infection.'

'Stefan,' his colleague said softly, gently, 'she's not breathing.'

She stated it to him as if he were a child, cautious of upsetting him. But he knew, he knew she wasn't breathing.

'She's still got a pulse!' He said through gritted teach, and leaned down to breathe into her mouth through chapped lips.

Elsa released a sigh from behind him, pulling herself together as she unclasped her medical bag and begun to pull out what was left of her supply of gauze and a flask of saline, tentatively beginning on the soldiers burn marks as Stefan continued on. She understand, on a deeper level, his unwillingness to stop. They had failed so many that day, had been unable to save so many in the last several hours, so if one life was brought back from the brink of death, he would consider joining the scouts not a futile attempt to save humanity's soldiers.

As she began to dab the saline onto the first burns, washing away the ash and dirt that had accumulated on the red and weeping skin, the unidentified soldier took her first breath.

'Do you want to stay here?'

The disturbance of Levi's thoughts was abrupt, and he dragged his eyes away from Hana's face to ahead of him. Hanje stood with a bandage wrapped around her head, her left eye lost in the explosion that had taken place mere weeks ago.

Her uniform was pressed, no crease detected in the shirt beneath her green trench coat that wrapped around her waist. It was out of the ordinary for her, as the scientist was prone to looking dishevelled from long nights in her study and manic episodes. Now, she stood before Levi as a commander, the loss of Moblit not detectable on her face. She was ready for their legion's debriefing in the capital, which would undoubtedly take weeks.

That was why she even bothered posing the question to Levi.

Hana had yet to awaken - if she was going to awaken at all - and Hanje's most capable captain within the legion had not left room for debate in remaining by her side in that time. Gauze swaddled the top half of her torso and neck, partially covering her face as the burn scars had slowly healed. She had fallen sick with infection multiple times, and Hanje had had no choice but to administer enough milk of the poppy to induce her with sleep until she could recover from the worst of her injuries. The truth was, Hanje didn't know if she would survive, she was already clinging to life.

'No.' Levi's word held no air of uncertainty.

He unfolded his arms, not sparing Hana a glance as he stood from his wooden chair. The gold band he had gifted her tucked in his own pocket, slightly disfigured from the heat of the explosion, yet he held onto it. For her.

'Let's go.' He finalised, stalking past Hanje out of the medical quarters.

A nurse nodded in their direction, and Hanje halted by her subordinate for a small moment before continuing. 'Send word if she wakes.'

For the briefest of moments she forgot who - and where - she was. The distant sound of her father's singing in the kitchen felt real, and the ache in her body could have been explained by Otto training her too hard for when they enlisted. She felt safe, familiar with that setting in mind, until her eyes opened to the darkness that surrounded her. The singing of Hana's father faded away, and in its stead came the flickering sound of candles, and the steadiness of her own breathing.

She felt hot, and the soreness in her body magnified as a searing pain rippled through her body. She made to turn on her side, and a scream of agony ripped from her throat. The panic at being unable to move any of her limbs, without feeling as if they were on fire, consumed her quickly. She was cloaked in mostly darkness, unsure of her surroundings and a cloud of smoke obscuring her memories. They came came slowly as her hard breathing turned into hyperventilating, as tears stung her eyes and skin as they dripped down the sides of her face.

Hana could only lay on her back, staring at the pitch ceiling as she continued in that state.

'It's okay, Lieutenant Ackerman. Please, breathe. You're in the medical wing of head quarters.'

The softness of the voice out of her line of sight was unfamiliar, and it wasn't until she felt a small hand lightly rest on her shoulder than she began to heed the soft demands. As her vision, blurred from tears, began to clear, she came to realise that the voice was that of a nurse. Though she didn't recognise whom it belonged to.

Hana opened her mouth to speak, only found herself unable to form any words. The skin around her neck burned as she craned it to look at her nurse, only for it to be gently pushed back to face the ceiling.

'Please, don't try to speak. Commander Hanje suspected you had laryngeal burns from inhaling all of the smoke at the scene of the explosion. Your vocal folds are most likely severely damaged.'

Slowly, the images invaded her mind. Sasha, Jean and Conny had been not far from her. They had taken down Reiner, and then Bertholt had ...

Hana inhaled a sharp intake of breath at the memory of the explosion from his transformation, and how the the heat of the fire had blasted her skin. That's why she couldn't move.

The nurse patted her hand softly.

'You must rest, Lieutenant Ackerman. I'll inform Commander Hanje and Captain Levi of your condition.'

The beating of her heart accelerated, and Hana was desperate to say his name out loud. The relief flooding through her chest unwilling to be controlled, because he was alive.

It had taken four days for the letter of Hana's condition to reach Levi, and a further four days to ride back to head quarters after abandoning the rest of schedule. Hanje wouldn't chastise him, for regardless of Hana awakening she knew he didn't care for the formalities of a medal ceremony.

So he had taken a lone horse that didn't belong to him, and returned. His heavy steps - rushed and unlike him. - echoed down the stone halls of head quarters, and his steel eyes zeroed in on the same nurse that he had last seen in the medical wing. The mousey blonde startled at his sudden entrance, and stilled as his eyes flitted to the empty bunk which had once been occupied by his wife.

'We discharged her this morning, she's returned to her private quarters.' He turned before allowing the nurse to finish her sentence, leaving her unable to inform him of the state off her current injuries.

Levi sensed the feeling of deja vu as he tore through the halls looking for her, noticing to disturbing similarities between now - as he searched for Hana - and all those years ago, when he had found her with a bruised face and broken look in her eye. He'd spared only a few minutes in their living quarters, unsurprisingly empty, yet the essence of her lingered. The corner of their bed sheets creased, as if she had run her hands of them. Her hair brush just slightly crooked where it lay on the dressing table. The wardrobe door only slightly ajar, all things she knew irritated him. All things he would never complain about again.

He found her in his study, standing behind his chair, a discarded blazer of his gripped in her good hand. It was pressed into her face, momentarily shielding her nose and chin as she inhaled his scent. The scene before him tore at his chest, and the sound of the door being abruptly opened and caused her to snap her head up, like a child caught stealing snacks.

Levi's fist remained tight around the door handle as he took her in; her hair longer, tied back and out of her face. Dressed casually, but bandages peeked from beneath her collar and ascended up to cover the entirety of her neck, chin and left side of her jaw. Her left arm and hand were also bandage, cradled in a sling that remained tight against her chest. Over the past two months he had seen her in a significantly worse state, but the brightness in her eyes concealed any pain she would have evidently been in. Every haunted image he had of her faded into the recesses of his mind, because her smile, though slightly twisted at the corner of the left side, illuminated the room.

Before he could form words, or process that she stood there before him, alive, his feet moved. Levi closed the gap between them in mere seconds, and his hands halted a breath away from her face, his restraint locking on as he thought of her incredibly fragile her body was right now. He couldn't hold her, at least not yet. His hands remained in the air, surrounding her jaw as he took in every blemish, every scar or soft patch of skin on her face. Every eyelash, and fleck of colour on her eye, anything that he may have missed before.

In that time, Hana had remained perfectly still. Her unbridled joy never ceasing, and allowing him all the time he needed to compartmentalise every single detail about her, every assurance he may have needed that she was indeed real.

'I thought I'd lost you.'

The blue in her eyes almost darkened in sadness at his words, and she opened her mouth to respond.

'I ...' Hana's voice was hoarse, and the effort to speak pained her so visibly that Levi halted her in her attempt.

'Stop. I know. Hanje told me.' He paused. 'Your voice will come back.'

The certainty in his tone was ironclad, the possibility that he'd never hear her laugh again wasn't one that he entertained. Not after she had come back from the brink of death.

He rested his hands back down to his sides, and Hana let go of his blazer, placing it back on his desk, to free her hand. She reached out, grazing her fingers across his lips, and then his chin, before resting it on his chest. Taking a small, tentative step towards him, she raised her head to meet his eyes, and Levi bent lower until his forehead rested against her own.

They remained that way for what could have been hours, or minutes.

SPOILER TALK: Sooooooo hello, I was holding off on this chapter because I was waiting to see if Levi died, haha. I had the first half of this chapter written up because - honestly - I was expecting him to die. So naturally I was going to kill of Hana. I've always had two different endings in the works for this, one where she dies and one where she does not. I didn't really want to give a tragic ending, tbh, because he's lost so much, so I'm a little relieved he survived the ending of chapter 139.

I went back and forth with hating and loving this chapter, because I had to change the second half drastically. But I ended up writing it to Taylor Swift's song 'LOVER' and it put me in a better/romantic mood.

This chapter was originally meant to also be longer, but it felt right ending it here instead.

Replies:

Wintereveorchid: Thank you! It makes me happy that you love it so much! Also, I think perhaps one or two chapters are left in this. It ended up being WAYYY longer than anticipated.

bbymojo: Thank you! I personally really love writing their fluff after so many chapters of building their longing and angst, it felt like a good pay off. Hope you enjoyed this one!

konsla: Thank you for liking the last chapter! I hope this one didn't let you down or anything, I didn't delve too much into the specifics of shiganshina because everyone pretty much knows what happens in it.

marcela: thank you so so much, really sweet to know you keep rereading. It gives me lots of motivation to finish!

miku tqm: thanks for both your reviews, haha your second one pushed me to get this one out actually! and yeah, I also have FEELINGS about how the manga ended, really really questionable tbh.

lizyeh2000: thank you so much, glad you loved it so much! haha the ring isn't too flashy, just a plain one as I felt it was like levi to get one that wasn't over the top!

guest: hii! my thoughts exactly on this! Thank you for reading and hope you continue to enjoy!

elentari: that's so so lovely to hear, and hope you've enjoyed this chapter!

I got NINE reviews for that last chapter guys, thank you so much for reading and leaving your thoughts!