The Red String of Fate

57. Always with You

"I love you too, Mikasa." He said softly, his voice barely a whisper that only she could hear.

She turned, and started to walk away. Towards a door that she knew would send her back to the time and place she came from.

"Before you go, Mikasa..." He choked back a sob, and she could hear it in his voice, "just know that... I'm always with you,"

Mikasa awoke, feeling the warmth of her tears on her face. She sniffled, and used the sleeve of her hospital gown to wipe the wetness from her face before letting out a sob, and clutching her pillow. After a few moments of laying there, knees to her chest and tears pouring from her eyes to the now damped cloth of the pillowcase, she turned her head and looked to Jean, who was asleep on a nearby chair, "I'm sorry, Eren," she mumbled, before turning back to her pillow and sobbing again.

The afternoon came and went, all the while Levi and Anya refused to let their four precious little children out of their sight for even a moment's time. Mikasa had told them about her vision of Ymir and Eren, which brought all three of them to tears. They learned how to feed and change them from the nurses, and Nathalie had ordered that there always be a nurse outside the door - just in case. Anya had gotten to feeling better thanks to the cocktail of drugs that Nathalie had ordered, but was in and out of resting - all the while Levi took care of her, and spent as much time as he could taking turns holding each of the little ones who laid next to them in their shared bassinets. He changed them, and fed them, and burped them, and rocked them to sleep. In those moments when all four were asleep he would go back to the small hospital bed and lay next to Anya, holding her close as he head fell to his chest. He watched her breathing, and admired the soft smile on her lips.

At one point he felt himself drifting off into a light sleep, Anya asleep on his chest and the four little ones all asleep in their bassinets that he could see into from where he was laying. His eyes fluttered closed, and he let himself relax for the first time that day.

He thought back to those endless nights of pulling his hair out in his office at the Survey Corps HQ, begging whatever Gods were out there for him to one day find her against all odds. To all those expeditions, when he would watch other soldiers reunite with their loved ones - their husbands and wives and partners - and he wished that she would be there, among the crowd, waiting to greet him and take him back to a warm, comfortable home. To all the nights of doing endless paperwork and hoping that maybe among the names of new recruits he would see hers, so he could run to her and see her again. He thought back to all the nights he would look up at the stars from the rooftops and the trees, and hope that she was safe and alive and looking up at the same sky he was.

It was all worth it, he thought, to have this now. To have her there, safe and alive - wrapped up in his arms and smiling. To have those four precious little beings to love and care for and raise. To have their quaint little home, and the life that they were finally getting to build together.

Every night of crashing against the walls, every prayer, every moment of disappointment when he would hope to see her face in the crowd, every night of pouring over the names of new recruits, every night looking at the stars alone. Every hope and dream and prayer. Every moment of convincing himself she was dead, and every moment of looking for her in spite of thinking she was dead- it was all worth it.

He took a moment, and looked at those sleeping little children, content and happy, that already brought him so much joy, so much happiness. He already loved them all so, so much. His little Isabel, and Kuchel, and Furlan, and Eren. He was going to make sure they had everything. He was going to make sure they knew every day how much he loves them, and how much their mother loves them. He was going to keep them safe, and happy. He was going to give them the childhood that he and Anya were robbed of, and make sure they never wanted for anything. Those four little precious babies, they were everything to both him and Anya. All they had ever wanted was to be together, to have each other, and to start a family together - and it may have taken so, so much longer than it should have, but it was finally their reality.