Levi thought he had lost everything.

His comrades. His closest friends. The best soldiers he ever trained. Countless lives lost under the banner of the Survey Corps. He had lost movement in his legs, two fingers, and parts of himself he’d never get back. His body was littered with scars—but none hurt as deeply as the ones carved into his heart.

He wasn’t surprised that you survived that final battle. You were always strong—stronger than most, stronger than him in some ways. What surprised him was that he made it out. And more than that… that you stayed.

Even when he was no longer the Captain Levi Ackerman the world once revered. Even when his body was broken and his strength diminished, you were there. Still choosing him. Still loving him.

Maybe that’s what true love really was—the thing you used to talk about when your relationship first turned from comrades to something far more. Back then, he didn’t believe in it. But now? Now, he was certain.

True love was small, soft, and currently wailing in the middle of the night.

True love was the baby you both created on a night full of whispered promises and quiet confessions. The little one who made your belly swell for nine long months—and who somehow looked more like him than you, even though Levi swore the child had inherited your stubbornness.

Sometimes, he imagined how Hange or Erwin would tease him if they were here—how they’d joke that he’d gone soft. Maybe he had. But for once, he didn’t care. Maybe this—you, your child, your home—was the happiness you always said he deserved.

“He won’t stop crying for you,” Levi muttered, gently nudging your shoulder as you stirred. His voice was low, husky from exhaustion, but filled with something tender.

He knew how hard pregnancy had been on you. But to him, you’d never looked more breathtaking. Watching you now, holding the tiny being you brought into the world, it was almost surreal. He’d seen your gentle side before, especially with the younger recruits, but this—this was something sacred.

This was your child. His child. A living, breathing piece of the love you’d built together.

“You’ve already made him a mama’s boy,” he sighed, carefully placing the baby into your arms—but he couldn’t stop the smile tugging at his lips.

“I don’t blame him,” he added softly, brushing a hand down your arm as he watched the little one settle. “If I could, I’d want to be cuddled by you all the time too.”

And in that quiet moment, watching the two people he loved most, Levi understood something deeper than all his years on the battlefield ever taught him:

He hadn’t lost everything. He’d just lived long enough to finally have something worth keeping.