Underground (Levi x Reader)

Sea

He watched me take off my shoes, digging my toes into the sand beneath my feet, as a gleeful smile flicked across my face. Holy hell, I'd never felt anything like this before.

"What the hell are you doing?" He spoke up as I continued to run my feet back and forth through the sand, his voice skeptical as he watched me with an expression close to horror flickering across his features.

I shot him a grin. "I"m living for today. Come on, Levi. Who knows when we'll see the ocean again?"

He muttered something under his breath, but before I could say anything else to him, we were interrupted by someone calling to us from down the beach.

"Mama (F/N)! Papa Levi!"

I glanced up as the girl bounded toward us across the sand, a smile lighting her features and her long, blonde hair streaming out behind her in the breeze coming off of the water. As she came to a stop in front of us, she grasped my hand in hers and excitedly said, "Come and see! Loren taught me how to build things out of the sand! We're making a house!"

My gaze flicked past her, over her head, to where Miller sat beside the sea, patting the sand into shapes around her. I directed my attention back to her and gave her a smile as I said, "That's amazing, Mory."

Mory's face brightened with another smile and she tugged on my hand again, hopping excitedly from one foot to the other in front of me. "I know! Come on! You have to come and see!"

Levi stepped up beside where I sat on the sand and tousled Mory's long blonde hair affectionately, before he said roughly, "Come on, brat. Show me what you're making."

Mory grabbed his hand in hers and began to pull him down toward the edge of the water, chattering to him excitedly as they walked.

I watched them go, headed toward the surf and Miller, and I couldn't help but think how much things had changed in just a few years.

Mory had come to live with us from her foster family after the walls had been demolished, and she was almost nine now. It had taken her the past two years to get comfortable with calling us anything other than (F/N) and Levi, but one day, of her own accord, she had started calling us mama and papa. And I took that as a sign that she was finally happy. And that's all I wanted for her after all she'd been through and all she'd lost-happiness.

I watched, a slight smile on my lips, as Levi crouched down beside Mory on the sand, listening to her as she pointed out all of the shapes she and Miller had been making. I wanted the same thing for him after all he'd been through and lost-happiness. Everyone I loved, I just wanted them to finally be happy.

After all, we deserved it, didn't we?

I watched them for a few more moments, soaking in the feeling of finally being here, the chance that maybe we could all finally be happy, and then I stood from the sand. I glanced down the beach and saw that Ackerman had joined Arlert and Hange by the water, as Hange gestured excitedly with her hands and motioned to something at their feet.

Walking down the beach, in the opposite direction from the rest of the group, I took a moment to just really appreciate the feel of the cool ocean breeze against my cheeks and the sharp smell of salt in my nose and the sound of the waves crashing in and out against the sandy shore.

It all still felt like such a dream. We had won. We were safe. We had made it outside the walls.

I came around an outcropping of rock that jutted out into the water, creating a small, calm area of sea within its walls. The area was a small inlet, hidden from the view of the others down the beach, and the water looked too blue and cool for me to resist.