The reason why Levi never used his bed was he wasn't really a big fan of sleeping.

It wasn't like he could do that. Sleeping soundly. And he meant it.

His insomnia didn't help either with his habit as a light sleeper, it could make it more difficult to get a good night's sleep as he woke up frequently and barely entered the deeper levels of sleep. Every little sound at night, as a soldier, he would've stayed conscious in his sleep in order to be ready whenever the Marleyans tended to ambush them and countless times, they had aimed to kill him at night in his sleep, as he was the greatest threat of Marley - he was humanity's strongest soldier after all.

He was usually only able to sleep whenever he was extremely physically tired and when the surroundings had to be greatly quiet and calm. And his body has to be sore to the bones after a long expedition outside of the walls, with lack of sleep for a few days. Exhausted, even mentally drained after he didn't have a choice but to kill someone's life, or losing some of Survey Corps's young cadets in the name of war didn't let him get a proper sleep.

He never used his bed, he chose to sleep in a sitting position - an easier position whenever he had to be ready to face an unexpected enemy, he couldn't exactly remember when it became a habit for him to sleep in a sitting position. It wasn't like he could sleep either.

And when he finally drifted to sleep, the nightmare came right after he closed his eyes, as if it was like a reminder for him of all the sins he made that he didn't deserve a life he had now. The guilt he carried always remained the same, or worsened whenever someone had to die. There was no way he could sleep soundly or live in peace with those sins within him, rooted for a lifetime guilt.

His back soreness that greeted him whenever he woke up in the morning didn't surprise him as he was always sleeping in a sitting position. The soreness was bearable and almost convenient, as the familiarity he felt almost every morning he dealt with. Levi always had a headache shortly after he woke up, from the lack of sleep and his endless nightmare, and he somehow felt fairly tired to start his day.

He felt disoriented at first as he woke up, and found a small wood room instead of his room in the castle.

But something unusual made him wonder, his back wasn't sore and it didn't meet the headboard as usual the last sitting position of sleep he had, but he found himself actually lying on the bed instead. And he found something - someone was warm and soft beside him sleeping.

It was definitely a certain young woman, clinging into his arms tightly.

Mikasa Ackerman held him.

And he was some kind of pillow to hold onto.

Levi Ackerman should have seen that coming from her, to take a note the woman actually slept like a real baby - how jealous he was. Being with her a whole day yesterday, he learned so many things about her and she never stopped to surprise him. She didn't seem like a type of clingy woman when it comes to sleep, he had guessed it before, as she always presented herself - as an independent, smart-mouthed, clever, and an intelligent observer, truly one of a kind woman.

But look at her now, she was clinging onto his arm in a manner that was uncorrupted from any moral wrong they had before, even innocently - and what funnier they looked like a real couple, as if they never despised each other.

He was sure he had made a sufficient distance, a full forearm of space between them and he was sleeping in a sitting position as always. What in the name of Titan, how did he end up laying on the bed with her clinging into him anyway?

It was morning. He figured the thunder had stopped outside but there was still a light rain that probably would stop in a few minutes, but the sun was shining so brightly already. Yesterday there was a big thunder, he was wordlessly glad that they were stopping by. They really could've gotten into trouble if they continued their trip. But the woman beside him was still sleeping like a baby and seemed like she didn't mind the thunder.

He released an exasperated sigh.

Levi looked down to his sleeping wife for a mere moment, he slowly moved aside to distance himself from her but unable to do further at the way she snuggled into him closer as if she was searching for his warmth to make no amount of distance between them once again made him shift uncomfortably. They probably had sorted things out yesterday but that didn't mean he was comfortable with this kind of physical proximity.

For her looked like a goddess-alive, he figured she was heavier than he thought behind those simple dresses she always wore. He always thought she was kinda slender, but in reality he couldn't help but he felt those skin against him that she was fully healthy, with her subtle yet strong arms clinging into his and her breasts snuggling against him. Her skin was incredibly soft and she had a feminine muscles behind those soft skin.

Levi pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hands, anticipating a usual headache would come, but to his surprise his head felt light and there was no incoming headache, and he tried to remember what kind of nightmare he had… But he couldn't remember any, the truth was he didn't have any nightmares, and for the first time he actually had a good night's sleep.

He tried to wake her up, failed twice and his third attempt was finally making her wake up in confusion at first and then the realization hit like a cold water probably made her stomach dropped after a mere second to notice that she actually slept with her husband, and there was a pink blush on her cheeks afterwards as she distanced herself with him. She acted like nothing happened as she put her passive face back.

"Did I.. Um.. I'm?" she stuttered awkwardly, avoiding his gaze on her.

"Yeah - "

"Don't." She cut him off.

Levi narrowed his eyes. "Don't what?"

"Don't even utter a single word." She said firmly as she was looking away.

"I haven't said anything." he replied.

"Don't even think about it." She said peevishly, this time she looked at him and the blush was even more noticeable. He couldn't help to hide his smirk, amused.

"Too late." he said.

He folded his arms, "It is exactly what you're thinking. You sleep like a damn octopus. I thought I was dying of breathlessness." Levi continued.

"Don't exaggerate it. It's not like I willingly did that." She said, turning away. "Couldn't help because you feel warm, yesterday was cold."

"That doesn't explain why you sleep like an octopus."

"Can we drop the word octopus now?" she let out an exasperated sigh.

He didn't hide his smirk now. "Octopus," he said flatly. The way he said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe that she slept like an octopus.

Mikasa stood up, gathering her previous dress in her hands. "Can you get out? I should get changed." she said, with a hands on her hips waiting for him to get up.

He stayed still with his sitting position, back against the headboard, with him folding his arms and his legs crossing and the light irradiating him from the window. From her point of view he looked younger and noticeably good looking, even handsome, she never had a thought of it before the moment she met him. But she understood now what Hanji had said before why Levi was famous among women, she actually in fact married a quite good looking man.

He didn't immediately reply her request, but set his gaze all over her, deliberately slowly went from her eyes, her neck, her evident collar bone from her untidy nightgown, to her breast peeking up behind those slightly top two unbuttoned latches, until down to her stomach and her… She tried not to think about it. The fact that his gaze intentionally lingered the longest on somewhere between her legs and her obvious thighs at the end of her night gown. Mikasa felt like she was naked in front of him all of a sudden, it made her blood rush to her cheeks.

What is he doing?

"You didn't seem to mind changing your dress with my presence here yesterday," he said boredly.

"Don't even keep that in your mind." she said annoyedly, she wasn't sure her blushed on her cheeks was all because of the fact that she had just slept with her husband, or he kept teasing her or it was entirely because of his looks this morning she just found out that her husband was a quiet handsome man or… maybe because of his gaze landed on her so intensely.

It was still morning and near to the winter season, so why was it hot again suddenly? She was turning away and got out of the room before his gaze actually could burn her alive.

She went out so quickly that she missed the fact that he spent his time alone in the room to cover his stupid laugh with his hand.

"I must have lost my mind." he mumbled between his laughs talking to himself, "But she's funny." was all he said.

They returned to the castle after the Braus had successfully made them stay once again, this time for breakfast.

"How's your leg?" he asked as they arrived at the castle.

"It's fine." she said shortly, approaching her room.

"Can you walk to the stairs?"

"Yeah. Why?" she wondered.

"Would you like to visit the library tower?" he offered as they stopped in front of her room. Mikasa turned to him, she had unmistakably an excitement in her eyes with a genuine smile on her face.

"I would like to." she said eagerly.

"You sure you're fine? The library tower has a steep stairs, you know."

"I'm doing perfectly fine. I can assure you, I can't wait until your return next weekend."

Levi blinked for a second to hear her actually saying that she couldn't help to meet him again next weekend. But he brushed off the thought knowing all that because of her excitement over the library, not him.

"Wait, it's Monday, don't you have to return to Trust for work?"

Levi cleared his throat. "I'm taking a week off."

Mikasa frowned before she made a snorted amused sound. "For me?"

Yes, actually.

If he lost his mind he probably said it.

He scoffed, "Obviously." he commented in a snorted sound, hiding his true intention, when the truth was, he really considered spending his time with her the moment he practically determined to make everything better with her, he wanted to understand her. He wanted to know her.

There was this unspoken things about her that actually took his interest. He still couldn't figure out why.

"There is a Harvest Festival on Wednesday. The people of the village has invited us to come." he said.

"What is that?" she asked this time she didn't hide her interests as she usually did.

"Harvest Festival, it's an annual event that is held once in a year a month before winter, it's a sign of their gratitude for this year's harvest."

"Sounds interesting. I've never been to any festival before." she said. "I'm looking forward to it."

"And I'm looking forward to you showing me your secret library." she added.

"It's not even a secret." he sighed. "Would it be fine after lunch?"

"Yes." she nodded eagerly.

"You sure your legs are fine?"

"Perfectly."

For the first time after a long time they had a lunch together, he'd expected their lunch would be dead in silence as they usually had. But it turned out unexpectedly pleasant. She showed him any interest in talking with him, she asked about the festival, the library and his works at the military, even with her bored looks she had, he knew she was genuinely interested with everything he'd said to her. He couldn't figure why but he found talking with her was actually pretty fun. It was always fun when someone put their best interest in you. It was like he just discovered something new about her everyday.

He noticed that she liked to read a lot and had spent her time in her previous house and the castle when he was away killing her time by reading. She showed a glimpse of excitement whenever he mentioned something particular that he still learned about her. She didn't mind and tended to chuckle at his unusual vocabulary he got from underground, she didn't find it amusing when he talk something about her dresses or the best tailor in the island, but her dull eyes lighten up shortly as he mentioned about a candy store he told to her in Sina.

He knew money wasn't something that would interest her. She didn't care about money at all. He learned that she liked physical exercise as much as she liked the warmth of the sun but her old servant prevented her from doing any outdoor activities.

Shortly after lunch, he opened the library tower, it was a grand library. Kenny had mentioned Utgard Ackerman was the only ancestor of Sina Family that had an interest in reading while the rest of the family was only all about fighting. He watched her gasping in awe as she covered her mouth-gaping with her hands, and her eyes lightened up right away exploring tons of books fully on the wall with a spiral staircase up to the top of the tower. It was the purest emotion she had shown to him so far besides her monotonous face and being angry at him before.

She stepped in and looked around, examining the books on the wall with her delicate hands. He could see how fascinated she was by all the books with her eyes sparkled with so much life, so much happiness and with a smile that landed on him all of a sudden. It was the first time she actually smiled at him. Levi stood motionlessly as he watched her remarkably happy. He was astonished at the sight and loss of his words.

"Levi… this is amazing." she said, genuinely smiling at him, a smile that reached to her eyes not the one she always displayed for the sake of politeness, while she almost sounded like a whisper.

Levi cleared his throat and quickly recovered from his thunderstruck, "Yeah, sure, take it easy, brat. The library won't go anywhere."

And then it took a simple laugh from her and left his throat dry all of a sudden. It was the first time to hear her actually really laugh, not a chuckle, not a giggle, not a snort and clearly not a scoff. But the immediate non-filtered laugh you heard when something genuinely funny.

"Would you like to read with me?" she tried not to sound coy, but he caught that she sounded hopeful.

"Sure." He nodded shortly despite being not a big fan of reading and he had paperwork to do later, he agreed to her straightly and right away.

It wasn't like he dislikes it, it was just that he never get used of reading, when he was a child all he did was stealing food and surviving, there was literally no time to read a single damn book, and growing up after he joined military all he could read was those pile of report he needed to sign that he barely had a time with exhausting expedition and endless meeting.

It turned out that she caught his disinterest in reading as he was unable to show any particular excitement even for one book, it slightly concerned him that she would be disappointed. But to his surprise, she offered herself to read for him. She chose one of the books called "The History of Ymir."

She sat on the couch on the circular room where the sun came through from the window as she closed her eyes, sighing in content feeling the warmth on her skin. He sat in front of her and watched her in silence. She never failed to mesmerize him by her beauty. Even though their marriage started for the sake of necessity, he must agree with people saying that he was indeed lucky, he might probably had married the most beautiful woman on the island.

And then she opened her grey eyes and it shot him right to his soul and it left him stunned. He didn't hear what she read to him, he was occupied by the sight of her; effortlessly beautiful sitting there and what she actually did to him was nothing but left him unexplainably unsettled; this was something he never experienced.

He didn't know how long she read to him, he closed his eyes until all he could hear was her voice only, he knew he didn't fall asleep as he noticed every single word coming from her; and her several yawns until she stopped reading and there was only silence accompanying them. When he opened his eyes the sight of her innocently sleeping greeted him. He wasn't sure how long he - like a creepy man watched her sleeping soundly.

He found it fascinating to watch her sleep in peace; like she was the peace he dreamed of. How innocent she was, there was no sin she had to terrified; or guilt that burdened her; no nightmare as a reminder when she closed her eyes; how easily she fell asleep made him jealous but it meant that she didn't have anything to worry or bother her, not like him having a difficulty with sleeping and he wished it should stay that way with her. He quietly wished her nothing but peace, even happiness if that's possible.

He watched her sleep in silence until she woke up, until it was almost dawn. She stretched out as she yawned from the stiffness of sleeping in a sitting position.

"How long have I been sleeping? It's almost dawn. Why don't you wake me up?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"I just woke up." he lied, the truth was he never fell asleep, he watched her sleep and unwittingly it was almost dawn.

"Let's have dinner. Mrs. Springer has cooked for us." he stood up, feeling slightly odd of asking her to dinner when they previously barely could stand each other's presence even for a simple meal. Dinner went quite well, she said something about she wanted to know about the area and to start cooking by herself and he promised her to take her to the farm tomorrow.

The next day he took her to his farm by walking, he figured that she really had never been in the area before, the farest she'd ever visited was the river and she never knew about the hills, the farm or the orchard. She almost jumped in surprise and grasped at him tightly when a cow mooed at her. The inconvenience of the dirt of the farm didn't bother her. She didn't seem to mind about the smell and dirt but he noticed how she jolted easily and acted cautious even warily around the animals. When he asked her if she was okay, she just nodded saying that she had never been fond of a big animal in her life.

They visited the apple farm and introduce the area to her and to his worker, he let her use his coat as he noticed her shivering from autumn wind. He taught her how to pick a good apple and they ended up harvesting together, and she told him that she was having so much fun as she enjoy the warmth of the sun in a cold wind. i

"So you're saying that tomorrow we should prepare some meals for the festival." she said, giving him a two fresh apple, her cheeks flushed in pink from the sun.

"It's not for the festival. But each family usually prepare a meal for a dinner later to enjoy together at the Ragako Square."

"So what should we prepare? Yesterday Mrs. Springer is taking a day off to help to prepare the festival."

"I was thinking of making an apple pie."

"You can do that?" she asked, raising her eyebrow.

"No."

"Sounds brilliant. How do we supposedly do that?"

"I have a copy of Mrs. Springer recipe."

"Are you sure you can do that?"

"No."

She chuckled. "Wonderful."

"That's why I'm asking you to help."

"But I can't cook."

"Didn't you say you wanted to learn to cook yesterday?"

"Yeah, but not clearly with you."

"Don't underestimate me, brat. I'm capable of doing a lot of things." he lifted a basket full of fresh apples in his hands.

"What was it? The perks of being humanity's strongest or something?"

"Sort of."

She laughed again for the third time today.

"I think this should be enough. Let's go back to the castle." he said lifted the basket to one of his shoulder.

"Do you want me to help?" she offered as they started to walk side by side.

"No. I'm good."

He noticed she looked at him attentively for a moment, watching him carry the basket full of apple effortlessly that probably too heavy to carry alone by a man alone.

"You're quite strong." she commented flatly.

"Many people have said that."

"Is it because you're an Ackerman?"

"I actually never believe such a thing but to notice I kinda have a super power compared to a normal human being, it comes to that and from surviving life, I suppose."

"I heard you were from an underground city before."

"Yeah."

"What was it like?" she asked carefully.

"Dreadful, cruel, horrible, disturbing, you name it. Not exactly a recommended place to live if you are interested."

"No thank you. I'm quite comfortable at the castle. So were you really a thug down there?"

"A feared one. I stole things from people to survive. I'm not exactly a saint as you think, don't even think highly of me."

"What did you do down there to live?"

"We don't have a choice but to steal, there wasn't any potential stuff to live up besides a brothel, there isn't really anything left of that dumped city. All that left was violence. We have to make a great amount of money to pay our way to the surface, to get out from there, to survive, to finally live a life,"

"So you made it to the surface by paying it with money?"

"No. The outcome of stealing barely counted, it was only enough to survive a day. Erwin found me and recruited me to the Survey Corps, he said something about my potential and so on and the rest are history."

"And you have everything now." she said.

"Not exactly. I wasn't born lucky, I know and I believe that. Some people were lucky enough they weren't born down there and didn't grow up watching a violence and stealing. I don't exactly have an admirable childhood. When I came up to the surface, I believed that my life would never be safe until I reached my freedom to be free from what against me. The Marleyan."

"That's why you become like this?"

"Yeah. I don't care if people call me I work under the royals. If this is the way for me to reach my peacefulness, my freedom, my dream, then let's keep it that way."

"You really have something against the royals."

"We, Ackerman, don't deal with the royals. The sins of the royals through generations to our people is unforgiving, that's why I refused to marry Frieda Reiss."

"Why?"

"Have you ever wondered why it was only you and your father as an Ackerman and Kenny before you met me? And what about your family lived in the mountainous area far from people?"

"It was because my father was a hunter and we were just poor and we have no relatives at all."

"Partially correct. But the truth was, the remaining of Ackerman was only you and I and Kenny, and your father were hiding you from the royals before he died by them. That's why I never used my last name. Until today they still hunt us endlessly."

She stopped her step. "What?"

"Your parents didn't die because of a thug. You were a poor family, there wasn't anything worth to steal, I think you deserve to know that."

"They… died because of the royals?"

"Because of Rod Reiss, the successor of the throne. My uncle had made a peace with the King long before your parents' death, but his brother wouldn't let it go. He knew you didn't die from that accident, the reason why I chose to marry you is to protect you."

"Why? There's nothing from my family. My parents didn't have special things like you or your uncle!"

"He feared us. A great power is within us through generation, each of us are special. Has there ever been a moment where it's felt like power suddenly awakened inside you?"

They shared glances, until her answer was, "There has."

"It was only one time, the moment I watched my parents died, and all I could heard was Eren's voices to tell me to fight, and all of a sudden I felt an absurd amount of strength surging within me and - "

"You know exactly what you had to do." he continued her lines.

Mikasa gasped, "Yeah."

Levi put his basket to the ground, he stared at her, "Mikasa," he said, slowly but firmly. "You had awakened your power."