Mirage

A/N: I've been a fanfiction writer for years yet this is the first time someone asked me if he/she could make a fanart out of my story. Really touched. Thank you so much for this, blackisnotacolor! I loved your drawing, it was really cute!

Summary: Humanity's strongest soldier had secrets of his own. So when the woman he thought he loved died, he turns on another for pure companionship and comfort. But a night of mistake has its consequences. Levihan.

Warning: ICK!

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: SHIFT

The nightmares are back. But they were much different this time.

Everything looked so real – the unending gush of blood, the tears, the eerie cries for help as the Titans enter Wall Rose and cleared up everyone in their tracks. Levi was running fast, not quite sure of where he was heading but trailing one direction for certain. And then everything went dark. An eerily gigantic Titan was standing on his path, its huge incisors moving as it bit off the leg of its victim.

He looked down to the creature's feet and noticed the two small blankets pooled on the ground, the whiteness of the sheets stained by nothing but angry, red marks. His heart jumped, and when he gazed up the Titan's face once more, he recognized its woman victim.

The lifeless body of his wife.

At that sight, Levi's eyes cracked dead open and he scrambled up in bed, wiping the water off his face. His heart was beating frantically, his whole body sweating as his nightmare taunted his conscious mind once more. It was just a nightmare, he thought. Levi shut his eyes, buried his face against his huge palms as he waited for his breathing to ease to normal.

Beside him, he could feel Hange breathing, still soundly asleep and buried beneath the blanket of their bed. The serenity in her slow breathing calmed his nerves a bit and he sighed in relief at the fact that his wife was there, as do their sons who were tucked in their cots by the bed. They're alive, the Titans hadn't breached Wall Rose and the darkness that enveloped the night was so peaceful. He stayed in that position for mere minutes, his eyes closed as he waited for his heartbeats to slow down until he felt a hand slightly tap his shoulder.

Hange stirred on the bed, squinted her eyes gently as she made out Levi's figure sitting on their bed. She sat up. "Levi? What's wrong?" Her voice sounded worried. She placed a hand above his shoulder and squeezed it, assuring him that she was there, whatever it was troubling him.

Levi looked over his shoulder and gave his wife a small smile, but he knew his eyes still encompassed the fear he was feeling. "Just a nightmare…" he croaked out. He lifted her hand and pressed it against his chest, making her feel the thundering of his heart inside, which hasn't receded until now. His nightmare still taunted him and he swore he'd never felt scared for anything like that in his entire life.

The woman breathed hard before moving behind her husband's back and wrapping her arms around his body. She gave his neck a small peck then rested her chin above his right shoulder. "I have them too, you know," she uttered, her breath hot on his neck. "They stopped when I was pregnant, but now they're back…"

He exhaled, feeling Hange's warm body wrapped against his own finally calmed him down. His heartbeats had eased to normal and his breathing was no longer in ragged pants. "Really? What is it about?" he asked.

She hesitated for a moment, but she wanted to tell him. No more boundaries, no more limits. She was tired of holding back everything she felt for him. "They're all about you, leaving us," Hange pointed to their twins. "It was the same nightmare every night. We were in the dining room of our little house, I was cooing to our kids when suddenly, you stood up and declared that you're leaving me. I pleaded for you to stay, but you still left and never came back."

Levi bit his lip, feeling the bitterness in her words. Had he still been the cold and stoic person that he was before, he was certain that her nightmare is possible to happen. But everything is different now. "I would never leave you and our kids, Hange," Her grasp on his body tightened, and he could feel her moving closer to him. "No matter what happens, I'll stay by your side."

Hange smiled. His assurance has lifted the boulder crashing against her back. She'd been having this nightmare for a week, after she gave birth to their twins but she had no way of telling him because what right does she have to say that she was afraid of losing him? She hummed. "What about you? What are your nightmares about?" she asked.

"You, dying along with our children in the hands of a… Titan… There was fucking blood everywhere," he gritted his teeth. The grotesque scenes from his nightmare flooded his mind and he shook his head to avoid it. "It all looked so real, so I tried convincing myself that it was all just a nightmare. But it nearly killed me. I've never feared for anything in my life." This was the first time the two of them had been so honest and open to each other, but he didn't care.

"That's not gonna happen… I know you'll always be there to protect us. You yourself said that you'll never leave my side, so I'll hold on to that promise. I want to. I need to." Even without the words to confirm it, Hange had seen the fear in his eyes earlier. He rarely displays affections; these were honest feelings and emotions, things Levi was not good at, but here he was. The man she had grown to love now had a cracked façade, but she still loved him. She will always love him.

And then she realized, she's done with running away with her feelings and trying to mend her severed heart on her own. "I don't want to lose you, Levi," There's no stopping as the words escaped her lips.

A lump formed on Levi's throat and before the tears could well up in his eyes, he gently broke free from Hange's grasp and faced her. He looked her straight in the eye, not minding the darkness their room was in as the moon illuminated his beautiful wife's features. Unable to stop himself, he trailed his finger against her cheek, tangled it against a wisp of her brown hair before pulling his hand back. "I don't want to lose you either. You, Ciel, and Theo…" he paused, then gave her a wry smile. "Hange…. About that divorce that Erwin and I worked on for months. We haven't really talked about it, right?"

At that exact moment when she was sure her heart will burst at any given minute, the happiness she felt abruptly faded along with his words. The divorce. They have not discussed it, she'd been desperately trying to avoid the matter whenever she sensed their conversation inching towards that one certain topic. But she figured, she can't ignore it forever and eventually she had to face it. She released a sigh, her chest suddenly tightening. "What about it? Have you… Have you prepared the necessary documents for our s-separation? Is there anything I can do?"

Levi's lips formed into a thin line. That was not the response he was anticipating from his wife but he shrugged it off. He got up the bed, feet wobbly as he walked towards his personal drawer. He opened it and pulled the brown envelope Commander in Chief Darius Zackley issued him a month ago. "I have the papers. Our signatures are the only things needed."

Hange blinked, pain stabbing her insides as she stared at the brown envelope Levi had in his hands. One moment they were just confessing how one didn't want to lose the other, the next they were back to the dilemma they've had for months.

The soft look she had seen in his eyes earlier was gone, replaced by the usual cold and stoic gaze that bore a hole through her. "Then hand it over and I'll sign them. I've told you before, if that is what you really want and if you think that this is the best for both of us, then fine. We'll get separated, but we'll call our halves of our children. We'll make their lives as normal as we possibly could and-"

"No. That isn't what I want," He immediately cut her off. "I want you with me. All three of you. I want us as a family. I want you as my shitty wife," Levi opened the brown envelope and pulled the documents out. Without any more hesitation, he dropped the envelope on the floor, then tore the divorce papers in pieces.

She just watched as her husband tore the divorce papers he had worked on for months. She couldn't explain what she was feeling in her chest, but hearing him say that he wanted her, he wanted their family – she felt everything click into place.

"We'll work everything out," He trotted towards the bed, walking past the torn papers and crashing them further against his feet. Levi sat on the edge of the bed, the mattress giving in to his weight. He took one of her shaking hands in his and gave it a slight squeeze. "I should never have sought for a divorce. I know I was an asshole. I would never deserve you, but… I want you to accept me, Hange,"

A smile lifted her cheeks. "You're always grumpy, cold, and you always look like you're about to shit where you eat. You're a clean freak, you have your own shortcomings…" Hange saw him smirk. She continued. "But I will always be glad that I married you, Captain Shorty. Since the day I said 'I do,' I have already accepted you as a part of me." She squeezed his hand in return. "I know that in the end, things will work out between us, Levi. I know."

After Erwin finally signed the paternity leave that Levi had asked for, he and Hange had brought the twins to their little home far away from the buzzing Survey Corps Headquarters. The ambiance of the place was peaceful, it helped Hange to easily recover from the post pregnancy jitters and even the twins seemed to like it there. They've been staying there for three days, living a normal family life – it was kind of weird, not having to deal with Titans, death, and work, but Levi somehow liked it.

Especially now that things between him and his wife are getting much better as each day went by.

A month of dealing with his children and Levi realized how rare tonight was. They had managed to feed and put the twins to sleep earlier than normal and Hange was in a good mood thinking of the extra hours of sleep she could get. She had told him as much. It was still pretty early, so right now she was just slumping on the couch in the small living room, her nose busy on a book.

Meanwhile, Levi was sitting cross-legged on the floor, wiping his naked skin off the sweat and resting his fatigued body as he spent the entire afternoon chopping firewood. The twins are in their room, tucked in their cots. They had left the door open just in case one of them cries.

They stayed like that for a moment until Levi scrambled up to his feet, tugging the now wet piece of cloth and tossing it into the table. He climbed into the couch next to his wife and Hange scooted over to give him some space to fill in. Hange's brown hair had been tied messily into a bun with wisps of loose hair framing her delicate face. She was lovely and Levi found himself being completely in awe at the sight of her.

"What are you reading?" he suddenly asked. He lifted both her feet and placed them above his lap, massaging them a little.

When the woman didn't reply, Levi grabbed the book from her hands and decided to take a look for himself. Some of the pages of the book were already torn, the sheets have those yellow stains that marked its age. The intoxicating smell of the book reached his nostrils and he instantly realized that Hange sometimes smells like that. "Hmmm. Definitely not my genre," he muttered before hastily dropping the book on the floor, infuriating his wife even more.

"Hey! Give that back! I'm already at the climax of the story, I need to see what'll happen next!" she yelped. Hange attempted to pick the book from the floor but Levi moved so fast, he held her wrists and pinned her down the couch. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Levi just smirked at her as Hange desperately tried to get loose from his grip, but it wasn't happening. "I think I can give you something better than that," he murmured, leaning down and pressing a kiss on her neck. He moved further down, his lips trailing hot kisses down the column of her throat, eliciting a moan from her.

"Levi…" she whispered. "I'm not kidding anymore. What are you doing?" She couldn't deny that what he was doing was having some effect on her, her arousal evident by the uncomfortable feeling between her thighs. She could feel the hotness of his lips against her neck, the heat that came off his naked skin.

"I want to make love to you, you shitty glasses," his voice came out as a husky whisper, continuing on his task as he kept on pressing his lips against her neck, licking the skin it exposed.

"I don't think this is a proper time, Levi..." Hange murmured, but she could feel herself on the verge of giving in. The man is driving her crazy with her burning touches. "The children are just there in their room! We've only had the twins and what if they hear -"

"They're babies, Hange. And even if they do hear anything, they won't be able to understand any of it," he grinned. Levi released her wrists and positioned them above his shoulders. He then pulled her glasses off and placed it gently down the floor.

"You're an asshole, you know that?" she frowned. With no more alibis to blurt out, Hange decided to give in. She released a sigh and leaned back, wrapping her arms around Levi's neck as he proceeded on kissing her exposed skin gain.

Levi smiled to himself as he very expertly removed the thin fabric hiding her breasts from his sight, sucking one nipple and toying with the other. Hange moaned as Levi continued his journey further south, kissing and sucking lightly, inching towards his goal...

When suddenly, they heard one of the twins crying.

The piercing wail subdued his movements, causing Levi to emit a low growl from the back of his throat. "Goddamn it," he grumbled.

Hange laughed, the sound of it mocking as she looked at her husband and noted his frustration. She cupped his face between her palms and brushed his hair soothingly. "See, I told you they'll hear! One of your kids is complaining. You go put him back to sleep!"

"Fuck it, Four Eyes, why me?!" Levi's forehead crossed, but he pushed himself up and hurried to the room where the twins are supposedly tucked in.

He peered over the two cots and saw that it was Theo crying, his little face now flushed red as he continued to wail and bawl on his crib. He was wearing the blue onesie his Aunt Nanaba had given the two as a present. Levi sighed, leaning down and cradling the baby gently against his arms. He was about to rock him back to sleep when the rotting odour wafted from Theo himself reached his nostrils.

Levi put him down the bed and checked, biting his knuckles as the sight of the baby's diaper tumbled before him with an overwhelmingly pungent smell. He backed away instantly, gulping as he thought of his move. Finally, he moved towards the cabinet, pulled out a white cloth and placed it on his face like a mask. He put on the gloves he kept for storage and got to the task.

Outside, Hange patiently waited. Levi got out ten minutes later with Theo on his arms, the man's face all smug as he walked towards the couch and sat beside her. "What happened to my baby boy hmm?" she asked as she started stroking the soft brown hair on the baby's head.

Levi tilted his head and gave his wife a sideways glance. "He took a shit. Woke him up," he said bluntly, putting in the words he usually used.

Hange grinned at him. "Must have been an awful lot of work for your Daddy, Theo," she crooned to their child before dropping a kiss on her husband's cheek. "What about Ciel?"

"He's still asleep. I checked on him before going out here," Levi narrowed his gaze down the infant on his arms, taking in his son's slowly developing features. His small mouth formed a very small 'o' and his breath hitched at the sight. Trailing his eyes up, he noticed the baby's cool, grey irises that mirrored his own. Ciel also had the same grey eyes. Levi cracked a smile. "I've already cleaned you up, now it's Mommy's job to put you back to sleep. Ain't that right, Theo?"

"Not fair, I put both of them to sleep earlier," Hange mumbled.

"But you woke him up this time," Levi pursed his lips. He stood up before gently shoving Theo into Hange's arms, to which his wife made an automatic cradle. "I'm going to sleep,"

The affronted look on her face made him smirk. With a wink, he left and trotted towards their bedroom with the smirk still plastered on his mouth. He'll make it up to her later.