Risk: Chapter Forty-Five

The following morning, Rose woke up a little bleary and with a small crick in her neck. Upon fully waking up, she realized she wasn't in her bedroom, but in her sitting room. Memories of the previous night's escapades returned to her, and her face instantly turned hot. She lifted her head from where she was sleeping, noticing then she wasn't sleeping on a pillow at all – it was on Levi's leg.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, lifting her eyes to look at him. "I'm so sorry." Chagrin consumed her as well as slight guilt. He probably couldn't move all night because of her.

"Why? I didn't care." Once again, his expression revealed nothing, to her dismay, but there was a slight softness behind his eyes, she could tell. That made her feel better, at least.

Despite his words, he used the opportunity to stand, stretching his back a bit. He then turned his head a bit to face her. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did," she answered, so many other questions lingering on the tip of her tongue. Did he want to talk about last night? To him, was it worth talking about? What happened now? Were they… a couple? Did he even like labels?

"What is it?" he asked, fully facing her now, his arms crossed. He seemed to suspect something in her short answer.

"I – " She didn't want to bring up last night if he wasn't going to. She didn't want to make things awkward between them. "I'm just hungry, I think." She pushed herself off the couch, and now on her feet, walked to the kitchen, keeping her eyes forward – because if she didn't, she didn't think she could keep herself steady.

In the kitchen, she pulled out the milk from the fridge and then a box of cereal from her pantry, deciding that a bowl of cereal was the only thing she could bring herself to make; she didn't feel like cooking this morning. Last night came back to her in a flood: her on his lap, straddling him, feeling him under his shirt, his hands all over her stomach and then her back, and then she had moaned his name into his mouth

Shaking her head, Rose nearly spilled her milk onto the counter from her distracting thoughts, and she tried her best to focus again on one thing at a time: breakfast now, discussing last night… later.

Levi joined her in the kitchen, sneaking up behind her, and then – unexpectedly – wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her body to his. She gasped, quickly setting the carton down so she wouldn't drop it in her surprised state, and she pressed her hands on his, glancing back at him in confusion.

"Is this okay?" He was searching her face, probably assessing from her expression her shock and thinking she didn't like being held.

"Y-yes," she said, intertwining her fingers into his, gaze not leaving him. "I'm going to be honest, I-I thought last night was a dream."

"If I slept, I would agree with you." She could tell he was joking, despite that blank, stoic face of his. "Speaking of sleeping, you snore very loudly in your sleep."

She felt her face turn bright red at the comment. "I do not!" she said defensively. "Besides, I've slept around you before, why haven't you said something in the past?"

He shrugged. "Didn't think about it." He leaned a little closer to her face, causing her whole body to warm up. "Is there anything you want to say about last night?"

"You ask that like you do," she responded, her eyes glancing between his eyes and his lips, which were mere centimeters away from hers. She was tempted to kiss them again, but it appeared he wanted to talk first.

"I was just thinking about the fact that you moaned my name, and…" He leaned down then, burying his face into her neck, as he spoke softly, "How I greedily want to hear you do it again."

Rose liked this side of Levi. She didn't want this moment to end; she wanted time to stop so she could keep this intimate moment all to herself. She knew, however, he needed to get back to his own timeline, get back to his Captain duties. His whole point of being here was to take care of her, and he'd accomplished that – in more ways than one. Not in the way she'd expected, for sure, but still…

She leaned into his body, squeezing his hands, and sighed happily as he started brushing soft kisses along her neck, behind her ear, onto her cheek, until he was a breath away from her lips. She pushed up on her tip-toes and closed the distance between them, pressing her lips against his, her heart feeling like it might leap out of her chest. She then released her hold on his hands and turned around in his arms, slipping her own around his neck and pulling him down closer to her, deepening their kiss.

His hands began to roam, and she suddenly felt glad that she'd chosen such a short top to wear, as it allowed him so much freedom to touch her skin. Anywhere his hands touched, she felt like he would set her on fire, and she found herself moaning into his mouth in response. He seemed to respond well to that, as his hands first hovered over her stomach, then he gently grazed his nails into her back, before bringing his hands back to her front, just underneath her chest.

She broke the kiss, gasping for air, and she, with eyes closed, her forehead pressed against his, moaned his name like a prayer, begging him to touch her wherever he pleased. She'd long forgotten about eating breakfast; to be quite frank, she wanted Levi for breakfast, in every sense of the word, and she felt she would have him.

He suddenly released his hold on her, and she whimpered in response, despite herself. She opened her blue eyes, searching his, wondering if there was something wrong. Did he suddenly not want her? However, by the hungry look in his eye, that seemed to be the opposite. So what was holding him up? He hesitated last night as well.

"Let's go upstairs," he said softly, holding his hand out to her.

Smiling softly, she took it, deciding to lead the way to her bedroom. Once there, she turned around to him, then pulled him close to her, wrapping her arms around his waist. "I-I will say," she began nervously, averting her gaze for a second, "I've only done this one time. So… I don't know if I will know what I'm doing but –"

He stopped her by grazing his lips along hers, then said, "Good thing I'm here, then."

She wanted to dive into that, wanted to know just how experienced he happened to be. Not that it mattered to her – she loved him either way – she was just deathly curious. However, as her continued to kiss her, pushing her back onto the bed, simultaneously pulling the t-shirt he was wearing off and tossing it to the side of the room, she would forget all about that.

Amidst their bodies getting so close, she would find she couldn't think about much else.


Rose lay on Levi's chest, and he was aimlessly playing with one of her strands of wavy hair, both of them rather spent. She didn't expect to have so much… fun, but she was glad for it all the same. She felt a tiny bit sore from it all, but she wouldn't complain. It was from something that she would remember for a long time, she knew.

It also made her wish that Levi was her first time. Sure, her last boyfriend had been cute and silly and she wouldn't forget her time with him either, but this time with Levi had been beyond special. She couldn't go back in time and tell herself not to sleep with her old boyfriend, though.

She could, kind of, but she wasn't about to mess with Father Time like that.

"You're making a face," Levi commented, letting loose the strand of hair he had on his fingers. "What are you thinking about?"

"Just that…" She felt embarrassed even beginning to say this out loud. She lifted her head away from him to look at him directly. "I wish that you'd been my first and not my last boyfriend, that's all."

"Does it make a difference who was first?" His question sounded harsh coming from him, but she knew he was being sincere.

"I guess not," she answered earnestly. "You're just… special."

They locked eyes for some time before Levi said, "Strange. I was just thinking the same about you."

Her eyes widened at the confession, lips slightly agape. He thought she was special? Truly special? To him? That had to mean a lot coming from him, considering how carefully he seemed to hold his heart.

"Levi… what does this mean, then?" she finally asked, the question that had been burning within her all morning.

"What do you mean?" he returned, lifting a brow.

"For us. What does this mean for us? What do we… call ourselves?" Then she added quickly, "I mean, we don't have to put a label on it. I just wondered, do I call you my boyfriend? Or lover? Or anything – "

"Stop talking," he said, putting a hand to her mouth for a moment before dropping it. "You can call me whatever you want. I'll just call you 'mine'."

Mine. The word rung in her head, and she liked the sound of it. She thought, though, she would refer to Levi as her boyfriend, just for the sake of ease. Though, she had to admit, his sentiment was so sweet.

Consumed suddenly by passion, she leaned close and pressed her lips against his, tilting her head to deepen the kiss immediately. He lifted a hand and held her face, and she brought her hand to meet his, squeezing lightly.

I love him, I love him, I love him, she thought over and over. Sure, it was too soon to tell him that, but she could think it to herself for now.


It was later in the day they'd traveled back to Levi's timeline. He immediately went into Captain Levi mode, checking the cleaning of the headquarters to ensure that it was spotless and critiquing everyone's work. She smiled at him as he did so.

There was so much that she knew about Levi: he was a clean-freak. He was demanding sometimes. He could be really rough around the edges and really hard to get along with, to the point that one would find him rather intimidating and maybe even scary.

However, she knew that he was sweet, and that he had a soft spot for his cadets and wanted to take care of them – and see them live. She knew that, despite his stoic personality, he held a heart that could really love and was capable of opening itself up to it. She knew that he had a soft spot for her, and treated her differently than he did everyone else – even called her special.

Rose wanted to discover even more about Levi. She wanted to discover even more about this timeline. She knew that there was a place called Marley just beyond the sea that they hadn't quite reached yet. She knew that there was literally a whole entire world of people beyond this one island, and she wanted to watch everyone here discover it.

She still needed to know what happened to her uncle. She still needed to discover more about the "Heart of Titan". And she still didn't know much about her heart, its condition and its overall general health.

She didn't know what her future would entail. Her timelines were all jumbled, after all, going back and forth. However, she knew that she was there for a reason, and she wanted to find out just what that was. She wanted to do that with the people she'd come to know and love here on Paradi – especially with Levi by her side.

So Rosemary Aer would wait for those discoveries to unfold before her, with her loved ones alongside her, as time would only tell what the future truly would hold.

THE END.

A/N: Thanks if you've made it this far. I plan on making a school-life spin-off based around this story so stay tuned (if you're excited for something like that).