Paper Airplanes (Ereri - SNK)

Sunrise.

A song that helped me write this chapter. (There are others, but Wattpad won't let me add more than one.)

I wake in a cocoon of inky black feathers, surrounded by heat and drenched in sweat. Already I can tell my muscles are stiff with a dull ache residing in my hips and lower back. Yet somehow I'm content, lying in Levi's arms with his scent engulfing me.

I move forward just enough to press a kiss to his collarbone and his breathing changes, deepening before his wings shift.

"You awake?" he asks, a palm brushing up my side.

"Mhm," I mumble sleepily.

"How you feel?"

"Okay," I say, finally peeling my dry eyes open to the dark room.

"You're not in pain?"

"Not really," I manage to articulate past a yawn. "What about you?"

"I'm fine," he says. "Need anything?"

I pull in a deep breath, stretching my arms and legs out, working on waking myself up. "To pee. And maybe a shower..."

Before I can entirely figure out what's happening, I'm being lifted from the bed, still concealed by a wing and held in a pair of strong, pale arms.

"Whoa..." Instinctively, I hang onto his neck. "What's this for...?"

"I'm taking care of you," he says.

"It's fine...I can walk on my own..."

"Hmph. After last night, I doubt that."

"Levi..." I complain.

He shuts me up by kissing me, leaving me dizzy, before carrying me into the bathroom and leaving me alone to do my business for a moment. As I'm standing at the sink attempting to wash my hands, the dull ache has morphed into something more like a searing, pinching sensation throughout my hips, thighs, lower back, and ass especially. It's all I can do to keep myself on my feet...

Levi re-enters without invitation and I yelp, automatically trying to cover myself up before I realize it doesn't matter and that he's still naked, too. Oddly enough, I'm still trying to keep my eyes away from his body.

"I think a hot bath is in order," he murmurs, stepping around me to start the water in the tub.

I watch him for a moment as he runs a few fingers beneath the stream, testing the temperature. "Only if you take it with me," I tell him.

He huffs something of a laugh, turning to light a few candles sitting on the sink before extinguishing the torch and pushing the door shut. Taking this as his answer, I muster a small smile in his direction, only causing a mildly suspicious look to cross his own features directed at me. Before I can question him, though, he's moving around me to search through some bottles on the shelf above the tub. He chooses a green one - peppermint oil - and pours it into the steaming water. Immediately the smell fills the small room almost dizzying me; Levi cracks the window.

"...Can you feel everything I feel now?" I can't help but ask.

"Not everything, I don't think," he murmurs, watching not me but the water. "But since last night...it's like some of your thoughts have to be just loud enough for me to hear. And I know you're in more pain than you let on."

"You mean you can feel it, too?"

"More or less."

I instinctively grind my teeth together. On top of his own, he has the burden of my pain, too. Even if it's the good kind. Even if it's the kind brought forth out of an infinite amount of pure and utter love. Love I hold for only him.