"Life is tough my darling, but so are you."

~ Stephanie Bennet Henry

-Emmryn's POV-

I looked at the paperwork in my hands, trying to stop the huge grin that threatened to spread across my face. In my hands was the official document for Levi and I's marriage, and according to this document, my name was officially Emmryn Ackerman. It was kind of surreal to be honest. Looking at Levi out of the corner of my left eye, he may have the same bored expression on his face that he always has, but I noticed that his muscles didn't seem quite as tense as usual. He was happy even if he didn't want to show it.

"What the hell are you looking at, Cadet Ackerman?" he grumped, though the way he called me by his last name without missing a beat made it lose any sort of punch that would have upset me. Despite my best to hold it in, I giggled slightly, not even caring that I probably looked like a blushing school girl who had finally been acknowledged by her crush.

"So sorry, Corporal Ackerman. I didn't mean to get caught staring," I teased with a flirty wink causing him to click his tongue and roll his eyes as we made it back to the barracks. When we got to our barrack, he pinned me to the wall beside the door, still in the hallway that was thankfully empty, as he leaned close to my ear.

"Get in and prepare yourself, Emmryn. I've got to go turn this shitty paperwork to Eyebrows, and when I get back, I'm going to make sure you can barely fucking walk tomorrow," Levi growled huskily in my ear causing a heat to begin in my stomach as my face flushed red, but I refused to let him beat me and get me flustered that easily this time.

"Is that a promise, my dear husband?" I leaned forward and whispered seductively letting my hot breath hit his earlobe. At this, Levi clicked his tongue and pushed me gently towards our barrack door and walked away, no doubt towards Erwin's office. I smiled to myself. I really had missed that grump.

Deciding not to push my luck by going against his orders, I walked into the barrack, eagerly awaiting the night promised by my raven-haired lover. We had barely been together much during my training as I had only gotten one break where I had been able to stay away for longer than a day, and we couldn't exactly risk going at it in the woods near the training camp. (Also, Levi would rather go without sex than get himself unnecessarily dirty. Freaking clean freak.)

Next thing I know, the door opens, closes, locks, and Levi is on top of me leaving a plethora of love bites across the parts of my neck that he had not marked earlier in the day. And with that, our night had just begun.

-No Lemon again. Sorry. I just feel like I suck at writing them :/ -

True to his word, Levi had made sure I was incredibly sore the next morning, but it was in the best way possible so I didn't mind. Luckily, I could easily blame my limp on my messed up foot. Can't believe I'm saying this, but thank you, Mikasa! As I looked in the mirror in the bathroom, I groaned.

"Levi, you asshole! How am I supposed to hide all of these?" I demanded as I went and glared at the man responsible for the dozens of bruises on my neck and shoulders.

"You're not," he replied, his voice sounding bored but a small smug smirk on his thin pink lips and a proud glint in his steel gray eyes.

"Ughhhh! Levi! Seriously! I really don't want to deal with all the stairs from this! People already think I'm on your squad because I'm using my skills from the past to be there. So can you please help me figure out how to hide these?" I begged slightly, my tone going from irritated to upset at the thought of even more rumors being started about me. It's not that I cared that much about what others thought. It was more so that when they brought up the past, it made me relive it sometimes. Damn PTSD.

"Emmryn…" Levi stated, his voice softening as he walked over to me and cupped my cheek in his warm hand and his gray eyes staring into mine as if trying to find the answers to all my thoughts in them before sighing and pressing his lips to my forehead, "If it bothers you that bad, just borrow one of my cravats."

He takes one of the white pieces of cloth and tied it in barrel knot (Basically like a bowtie), sucessfully covering a majority of the marks that my hair did not. I gave him a grateful smile as I tried to adjust my hair to where it covered the rest of the marks the best I could. Once I was done, Levi placed his hand on the back of my head and pulled me up into a chaste kiss causing my attention to turn to my raven-haired lover.

"I won't fight your battles for you, but I also won't allow the squad members to hold your past over you anymore. It's pointless," he stated bluntly before giving me a rare small smile that I swore could not be good for my heart, "Besides, you're my wife, and I don't have a fucking problem with it. Stay by my side. That's an order." I couldn't fight the huge smile that spread across my face as I pulled back from him and gave him a salute.

"Yes sir!" I exclaimed happily causing Levi to roll his eyes and click his tongue as we headed out of the barracks and towards the horses.

"Emmryn! You're okay! We missed you so much!" Petra yelled as soon as she saw me as she ran up and grabbed me into a bonecrushing hug, causing me to wince slightly from the pain in my ribs as I gave a light laugh.

"Yes yes. I'm okay, minus the messed up ribs you're currently hurting," I responded back with a small smile as Petra jumped back apologizing. Suddenly, I felt a hand ruffle my hair.

"Hey, Emmryn. You're gonna be back on Squad Levi right?" Eld inquired with a small smile which I responded to with a nod. The sound of 'tch' turned all of our attention to a haughty expression wearing Oluo who then gave a small smirk.

"Welcome back I guess, greenhorn. Just don't be holding the rest of us back," Oluo sneered, but the maliciousness that used to be in his voice and face were missing as I smiled back.

"I missed you too, Oluo, you moron," I teased as he glared at me, "And I won't be holding anyone back. I'm still going to be beat your kill count in the next two expeditions." At this, he gave me a smirk again and ruffled my hair as well.

"Welcome back, Smith," Gunther greeted with a small smile, and I laughed awkwardly.

"Emmryn!" an enthusiastic voice yelled, saving me the anxiety of deciding whether or not to break the news to the rest of the squad about Levi and I yet.

"Morning, Eren!" I responded with a small smile as he walked up to me with his horse. He looked at me nervously.

"Hey, are you okay? I thought Captain Levi was going to kill you after what happened in the dungeon?" Eren asked worriedly in a loud whisper. I groaned to myself, knowing full well the rest of the squad had heard him.

"Tch. The captain never goes as hard with Smith on punishments. It's been that way from day freaking one, greenhorn," Oluo sneered though his eyes narrowed at me in curiosity to which I shook my head.

"Hey. Quit wasting time, all of you. We have a couple of hours worth of riding to accomplish. You all can interrogate Cadet Jaeger and Cadet Ackerman later," Levi ordered causing me to literally facepalm as I felt five pairs of eyes borrowing into me, "We're leaving now."

"Thanks a lot, Levi," I muttered to him once I had saddled up my horse, Icarus, and had ridden up beside him. He and I were both bringing up the rear of the formation since I was trying to avoid the inevitable interrogations from my fellow squad members.

"Stop being a brat about this. You would have freaked out about how to tell them if I hadn't done that," he replied boredly, "Now go flank, Jaeger. I don't want just Oluo keeping an eye on him." I sighed and did as I was told right as Oluo bit his tongue, spattering blood everywhere. Levi was right, but still. We could have eased into that since it was literally my first day back on Squad Levi.

"Emmryn! I thought your last name was Smith?!" Eren interrogated loudly as soon as he saw me beside him, earning the attention of the rest of the squad.

"You really don't do quiet or subtle, do you Eren?" I retorted, irritation showing on my now flushed face. Oluo snorted at this.

"Yeah. Did the Captain mess up and call you the wrong name or something?" Gunther chimed in. I rolled my eyes and heaved out a large sigh, shooting a glare back at a slightly smirking Levi, before turning back to the rest of our squad.

"No, he didn't," I answered and took a breath before answering quickly, "MylastnameisAckermannowbecauseLeviandIgotmarriedwhilewewereinthecapital." Oluo's eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of his head as Petra let out a shrill shreek of "are you serious?!" and Eld and Gunther just looked gobsmacked. Eren, meanwhile, still didn't seem to believe and looked back at Levi.

"Is that true, Captain?" Eren asked nervously as he moved his horse away from mine a bit almost running into a still shocked Oluo.

"Watch where you're leading your horse, brat! And yes, it's true. If it wasn't, I would have said something," Levi responded plainly, acting as though we had not just dropped a huge fucking bomb on our squad. Right as he said that, we entered a clearing that contained what I recognized to be the old HQ.

"Geez, this place went to shit didn't it?" I muttered in awe as I dismounted Icarus and stabled her, walking up to the building. Gunther nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, the place looks absolutely run down and unmaintained," Eld remarked. That's when I realized. Levi. OCD. Dirty HQ. Shit…

"Well I guess we have a problem then don't we?" Levi asked plainly as he walked up behind us, "Everyone best get a broom and get to work." As everyone else went into the HQ with the cleaning the supplies, Levi called out to me, causing me to stop my limping towards the HQ.

"What is it?" I asked curiously as he walked up to me and pulled me into his chest for a moment.

"You're supposed to be resting because of your injuries. I'm going to have you starting on some of my paperwork since you know how to do it, and you're also going to be supervising the titan brat's cleaning," Levi stated before looking into my eyes with a serious look on his face, "I know you were very uncomfortable earlier, but you handled it well. The training really did help with your confidence." I smiled at the indirect compliment. Sometimes that's the best anyone can hope for from Levi Ackerman. He gave me a soft kiss on my lips before pulling away and walking towards the HQ.

"Hey, Levi," I called out softly causing him to turn back to me with one eyebrow quirked iin acknowledgement, "I love you… And I'm really glad to be back with you again." He gave me a small nod, his stormy gray eyes shining with a clear returning of my feelings.

"I love you too. I'm glad to have you back where you belong, Cadet Emmryn Ackerman."

Song: High Hopes by Kodaline