Prompt: Touch

She is in the middle of a dream. It is a good one, one where she can move and make love again. It is a blur of tangled limbs and heat as she gasps out Levi's name, her hands touching him everywhere because she can. Her body responding to his touches because she can. She never wants to wake up because that will mean the end of this feeling, something she has not experienced since that fateful day in the forest. However, life has a different plan and she finds herself being pulled from the dream.

Her eyes flutter open as she is awoken by a tingling sensation on her side.

Wait.

She turns her neck slightly – an action that takes much concentration and effort – to find Levi's arm slung over her body in the exact place she feels the new sensation.

"L-Levi!" she chokes out, tears flowing down her face.

He jolts up, "What's wrong? Are you okay?" he asks quickly, looking around the room and finally resting on her face.

Concentrating as much as she can, she brings her hand up to cover his own and moves it up and down her skin. She shivers at the feeling of calloused hands brushing over her bare side. After almost a year of recovery, this is the first time she has been able to feel anything below her shoulders.

"I can feel you," Petra says excitedly, "Your hand is warm."

A smile finds its way on Levi's face as he moves his hand all over. "Tell me when you can't feel it anymore," he tells her as he starts by her collarbone and traces one of her many scars down to her navel. He trails it around her stomach and is surprised when a little laugh escapes her.

"That tickles!" she responds, her hips squirming slightly, causing both of their moods to elevate.

Levi pauses for a moment looking Petra in the eye where he sees his own nervousness reflected back to him. It might not be her whole body they both realize, it might just be an anomaly.

Petra nods, urging him to go on, which he does, cautiously. His hand diverts to the right where it rubs over her hipbone before moving downwards over her thigh.

"I still feel it," she exhales her eyes hooding over. Before the accident, her thighs had always been really sensitive to his touch and a mere brush against them often led to other things, it seems that this fact still holds true.

Instead of using his hand, Levi moves his mouth to her knee, placing a soft kiss on it. He brushes her lips down the rest of her leg, pausing to tickle the bottom of her foot with his finger.

She giggles again and carefully begins testing her limbs. She rotates her ankles and wrists, shifts her shoulders and bends her knees, of course, it is all fairly difficult and she feels exhausted after each action, but the high of regaining motion and the elated look on Levi's face, give her the urge to continue.

The only thing she cannot quite do is lift her legs and support her weight, but she does not let this stop her.

"Put me on top," she whispers to Levi, and with a reluctant look, he does as she instructs, pulling her body on top of his. She lets out a little squeal of excitement as she brings her hands up to stroke his hair. She feels the familiar softness and plays with the strands for a while before her arms begin to feel fatigued. She runs them down his chest, tracing the dips and rises of his muscles.

"You should rest," Levi tells her, his own hands tracing a nonstop pattern on any areas of her skin that he can reach.

"I don't want to," Petra says defiantly, shifting her legs so that they intertwine with Levi's. "It's been so long," she breathes out, quickly kissing his chest.

"Petra," Levi bites out between clenched teeth, his voice strained. "I don't know if you're ready for this."

She looks at him sadly, dejected, and Levi feels his heart wrench within his chest. Reaching out, he tucks a stray piece of ginger hair behind her ear and rubs a thumb over her cheek lovingly.

"I want to Petra," he tells her, "I really do, but I don't want to risk anything."

She nods in understanding – her face still pressed securely against his chest – but the somber expression still remains.

Determined to keep the mood light, after all, a bloody miracle just occurred, he rolls to the side and pulls her back against his chest. When she gives his arms a comforting squeeze, he buries his nose in her hair, enjoying the smell of jasmine.

He is about to tell her goodnight, when a thought dawns on him. To test his theory, he barely runs his fingertips over the area directly above her hipbone. She shifts a bit, muttering a "quit it," and Levi knows he is going to enjoy this.

Repeating the action, but a bit more quickly, Petra laughs a full-hearted laugh that reminds him of wind chimes, the first time she has laughed like that since her paralysis.

He continues to torture her tickle spot until she is gasping for breath and calling surrender.

I've missed touching you, really touching you, he thinks before closing his eyes and thinking of the next day.

Note: I'm a firm believer in miracles, and I think these two deserved one, so there.