A/N: Based on "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri.
Green. Orange. Red. The world is a chaotic blur of bright colors that he can't make out, and behind the pounding of his heart in his ears there is only silence.
With all the obstacles before them—the titans, the fact that she is his subordinate, his past—he has been afraid to love her. And it's not just about caring and being vulnerable; it's that he's so broken and she is herself. Petra, who is so fierce in her capability and confidence and beliefs and goodness, Petra certainly doesn't need him, so he can't understand how she can want him.
Evidently the universe agrees that he doesn't deserve her and so has rectified the matter.
Except this isn't right. Petra can't be dead with so many of her dreams unfulfilled, and he was wrong to love her in fear and doubt instead of unreservedly.
It becomes Levi's mission to see Petra's dreams fulfilled, and he takes to his grave the images of her he can never forget—her body crushed against the tree and abandoned to the titans—and his indelible love for her.
Lyle isn't the least bit romantic, but he feels more dead than alive until the day he meets her and he just knows that he's been searching for her across lifetimes and waiting for this day. Her friends inform him that Rachel doesn't jump into relationships, but they take pity on him and also tell him that she's enthusiastic about making friends. Lyle's own friends find the situation hilarious as "he's wearing his heart on his sleeve and the only reason Rachel doesn't know how he feels is because he's emotionally constipated and fails at communication". They congratulate him when he finally manages to ask her out, but return to ribbing him about being romantically clumsy when Rachel pulls the brakes after Lyle accidentally tells her he loves her on their second date.
Lyle is simply grateful she wasn't frightened away: she thinks he's brave and feels they might have something special, but she wants to take things slowly and really get to know him. For the woman who absolutely floors him with how beautiful a person she is, he gives years.
When he kneels before her with a ring in his hand, time stops and he can't breathe, but she flings herself at him and her embrace sets the world spinning again. The wedding isn't the biggest day of his life but of lifetimes. He is so blessed because she loves him and life has led him here, and in his vows he speaks of love and devotion for her to span all time.