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“PAPA!” Sasha calls out again. Levi loves her, but it is 3 in the morning and he isn't planning on sleeping for 2 hours again because his daughters are nocturnal. “Papa! Papa! PAPAAA!”
Levi sighs, throwing off the deliciously warm blanket from himself and moving slowly so as to not wake up his husband, who immediately stretches out his arms in search of Levi. He's so cute. Levi wraps the heavy black robe (that is Erwin's, but is bigger and comfier than his own) around his shivering body and quietly opens their bedroom door, tiptoeing out and hoping Erwin doesn't hear.
“What is it, muffin?” Levi asks irritatedly, only sighing when he sees the huge mess of whatever-the-hell-that-is all over the floor and all over Sasha’s small crying face. “Where is Mikasa?”
“In the closet!” Sasha wails, pointing her dirty little finger at the closet that is littered in Crayola-madness. “She's hiding from you!”
Levi sighs, kicking through piles of toys and blocks on the floor, then he swings open the door to reveal a scowling, angry 6-year-old.
“Mikasa, why did you rub that crap all over your sister?”
“She tried to steal my honeybun!” Mikasa’s dark eyes leave the face of her father and she makes eye contact with the 5-year-old, who just cries more. “Nobody takes my food. Not even you, papa.”
The scene gives Levi a keen sense of deja vu. It's almost like that time Mikasa smashed Sasha’s hot potato and smeared her face with it, except Sasha and Mikasa are normal little girls, not soldiers, and Levi is their dad, not their captain. Levi kneels down, blocking Mikasa’s vicious eye-contact with her sister.
“Miki, I never gave you permission for a snack,” Mikasa's glare dissipates instantly, she knows that's another law broken in the Ackerman household. “It's too late for sugar, you know that. Go back to sleep, girls.”
“Papa, can I have a bun, too?” Sasha asks as Levi is walking (shuffling) through toys again.
“Do you promise to go to sleep afterwards?”
“Pwomise.”
Though Sasha and Mikasa “pwomised” to go to sleep, they did not. Levi feels stupid for allowing them sugar way past their bedtime. Levi wasn't in the comfort of his husband’s arms for even 10 minutes before more ruckus made him get up.
Mikasa was biting Sasha's plump cheeks and calling herself “Titankasa.” Absolutely disturbed, Levi put his girls in their separate beds and turned off the lights. But once again, he had gotten up to the sound of Mikasa screaming this time. When asked why she had a hair ribbon tied around her waist and kept jumping off her bed, she replied “We're training for the next expedition.”
Having adopted the little girls 3 and half years ago, Levi was very used to things like these. Sometimes the girls would wake up from nightmares that left them sobbing all night, and other times they pretended to be the monsters of their past lives. Levi can't complain though, he is more than happy to have another chance at life with both of his squads from his first life.
This time, he wants the brats to be the happiest they can be. It's the least he can do for them.
So he doesn't scold the little girls when he ends up sleeping for only 2 hours and he doesn't punish them for falling asleep in PE class that day because they stayed up all night. Nanaba had told the girls’ fathers that they gave their best, then collapsed on the cushions, with Eren hushing the other toddlers so the girls could sleep. Erwin, who teaches math, thought it was so cute he had Nanaba take a picture of the girls.
Needless to say, a very sleepy Levi ended up picking the girls up so Nanaba could finish teaching other kids PE without two little girls snoring in the corner.
Because Levi is very unlucky, Sasha and Mikasa finished napping in the car and continued to wreak havoc as soon as they got home.
Levi is so drained by the time Erwin gets home, the little girls greet their daddy, and Erwin, ever the Superdaddy full of energy and life, picks up the girls and kisses their plump cheeks, telling them how excited he is to be home. He eventually puts the girls down and makes his way over to Levi, wrapping his hands around his waist.
“Good afternoon, my love,” he says, looking over Levi's shoulder at the pot of boiling noodles that Levi forgot to take out of the packaging because he is just that damn tired. “Are you making spaghetti?”
“No, I'm trying to boil plastic,” Levi scoffs, but Erwin just chuckles and kisses his cheek, understanding Levi's crankiness is just sleep deprivation. “Of course, I'm making spaghetti, you toad.”
“I don't think you're supposed to boil the packaging with the noodles, love.”
“Really? No shit, I thought it might add a little flavor, " stupidly, Levi tries to pull the still-packaged noodles out of the hot water and burns his hands. “Damn it!”
“Papa, that's a bad word, " Mikasa says, standing behind her parents with Sasha chewing on something she isn't supposed to. “You're not supposed to say a bad word, papa.”
“Honey, why don't you and Sasha go play?” Erwin tells the little girls. “Why don't you take your sister to go play with dolls? I'll join you after dinner.”
“Rweally?” Sasha asks, the unidentified snack still in the girl’s mouth.
“Really, " Erwin smiles sweetly. “Now go play, I'm going to help papa with dinner, then we can play, okay?”
“Okay!” The girls say in unison, little feet running on the tiled floor until it becomes silent when they are in their room.
“You can't cook, " Levi immediately says, though the idea of Erwin helping him with dinner sounds godly. “Just go make sure those midget Titans aren't killing each other.”
“No, " Erwin gently removes Levi's person from the stove. “Go rest, I'll finish making dinner.”
“But you can't cook!” Levi argues, though he is already washing his hands at the sink, thus washing his hands of making dinner. “Can I atleast make the sauce? You know the girls are picky.”
“They're obsessed with cheese,” Erwin shrugs. “I'll add cheese.”
“I think you're brilliant, but you shouldn't be allowed to make spaghetti sauce, move,” Erwin obliges and let's Levi make the sauce, to which Erwin adds a pound of Parmesan cheese to, earning a glare from the shorter of the two. Levi adds basil, Erwin adds minced garlic, Levi kicks Erwin out of the kitchen, Erwin comes back in only with express permission from Levi that he can boil angel hair pasta and roll ground beef to make the meatballs. They are ugly and all different shapes and sizes but for once, Levi allows it. “Good job. But remember, Erwin: if you must add cheese, let it only be mozzarella cheese, please?”
“Yes, captain Levi.”
Levi stands on his tiptoes to kiss Erwin's crooked nose before washing his hands and drying them, then retreating to their bedroom, where he collapses immediately, snuggling up the pillows and soft blankets before he falls asleep.
“Give up on your dreams and die, I will take down the Beast Titan.”
Levi's hands were shaking, but he didn't want Erwin to see how shaken up he was. He knew this moment would be his last with the man he loved, he wanted it to be sincere and he wanted Erwin to be free, no longer chained to his childish dreams. Erwin's eyes were warm and softer than the cotton sheets they'd lay in after expeditions-Levi knew those times were now behind them- But Erwin's last words to him were what sealed it.
“Levi, thank you.”
That was all Levi needed to hear. Erwin had accepted his proposal.
And Levi gave his very best, he tried with all his might to kill the bastard, but he was off kilter, distracted. He'd seen the moment Zeke tossed the fatal blow to Erwin's side.
A rock of all things, he couldn't even give the man an honorable death.
In the end, Levi couldn't even kill him.
Levi doesn't wake up because his nightmares startle him to the point of tears, no, he wakes up to weight on his belly, bouncing and yelling “PAPA!” Loud enough to wake the dead. Sasha, the girl he'd seen bleed out once, is the same one jumping on his midsection.
“Papa, there's a spider!”
“Baby, let your papa sleep,” Erwin says rounding the corner with Mikasa hanging off his arm- an arm that is whole- and he looks… Beautiful. “Hello, sweetheart, do you want dinner? Sasha ate all of the mozeralla, but it's just as good with Kraft’s singles. Right, Mika?”
“Yeah, it's good, papa.”
Erwin. His Erwin. His Erwin with the crooked nose and gorgeous blue eyes, standing before him with their beautiful daughters, his blonde hair tied hilariously atop his head in ponytails. Spaghetti sauce on his shirt. Levi laughs at him because the scene isn't only comical, but it's a testament to his new life with all of the people he's loved and lost.
“Nah.” Levi is just content watching his husband and his daughters play.
Erwin smiles fondly at Levi, who returns the smile, and he grabs Sasha's little hand to guide her out of her parents’ bedroom.
Levi hears his family playing as Titans again, not something normal like princesses and dragons, and he gets out of bed. He doesn't know what is compelling him, all he knows is that he doesn't want to waste time anymore, he doesn't want to waste time not telling his girls he loves them, he wants to show them how much he loves them every day. Even if that means sacrificing his precious sleep.
Hopping out of bed, still tired, Levi watches Erwin pretending to eat Sasha's Barbie doll in the living room, and Mikasa whacks at him with a cardboard sword.
It's beautiful.
This is what Levi has always wanted.
“Captain, we have another abnormal!” Mikasa tells her papa excitedly, offering him the other cardboard sword. “We have to strike its nape, hurry!”
Erwin and Levi make eye-contact, Erwin's smile and eyes are soft and warm like they were that day, but this time Levi knows that this isn't the last time he will get to see his Erwin smile at him so sweetly, no, he will see that smile thousands upon thousands of more times.
Levi accepts the makeshift sword from Mikasa and joins his daughters in playfully whacking his husband.