‘How was this possible?’ Levi thinks as he looks at his precious little bundle for the first time.
Alina was all swaddled up in a powder pink blanket that was a few shades too gaudy. The small newborn was crying while you rock her as best you can in your arms as you lay there upon the medical cot. Levi moves forward a bit and you smile up at him tiredly. “Levi, I’m tired. Can you hold her?” You ask.
Levi stares at you dumbly. What were you just asking him to do?
“Levi, do me a favor and fricking hold your daughter please.” You say with frayed patience.
The man hurries to comply as he holds his arms out stiffly. You shift forward a bit and place the small babe in his arms. However instead of bringing the baby to him securely the corporal simply stands there holding her like he would with a sack of feed that was just tossed to him. You roll your eyes, apparently your sleep would be held off for a bit longer.
“Levi, you’re holding her wrong.” You sigh.
He looks at you, “Exactly how am I supposed to hold her?” Alina suddenly begins to cry again and Levi’s eyes widen as he looks at you helplessly.
Just as you were going to sit up to show him your father, Erwin, along with Hanji come into the room. You groan and flop down against the bed, “Dad, please show Levi how to hold and calm Alina down. I really need to sleep.”
Erwin kisses your forehead, “Get some sleep. I promise I’ll help.”
Your eyes drift to a close and your breathing levels out, you’re gone.
Erwin turns to look at his son-in-law and subordinate who looked like he was about to be sick. Alina is squirming in his arms crying and he’s just holding her away from himself. Erwin shakes his head, this man could face titans and take down nearly a dozen in the blink of his eyes yet he can’t even hold his daughter without looking constipated.
“Levi, give me Alina.” He says. The flustered father hurriedly hands the squabbling child over, “Now, look,” He brings the child to his chest and gingerly holds the back of her head and underneath her legs. “Children, babies especially, want to know whoever is hold them has a firm, supporting hold.” He says.
Alina quiets a bit but really stops crying only when Erwin starts rocking her back and forth gently.
Levi soaks up everything he’s seeing and stores it away for later. Hopefully he wouldn’t be too bad at being a father.
LINEBREAK
“Levi, you’re holding her wrong again.”
“No! Levi you have to warm that up first!”
“Ah! That’s way too hot, that’ll burn Alina!”
“No, no, no, don’t try and force her to feed from the bottle there, hold it and let her go to it.”
“Levi, that’s not how you change a diaper…”
Levi takes a deep breath as he sits down on the couch in the living room and places his head in his hands. He wasn’t cut out for this, it was obvious in the way that he’s constantly having to be told what NOT to do. It’s not like he’d know anything about babies though. First being a criminal in the underground and then joining the military had left him with any time to even look into domestic things like that.
“Okay Levi, I have to go into the hospital wing for a bit to go and help out with a quick seminar with the newest cadets joining, I need you to watch Alina while I’m gone.” You say breathlessly as you flit around the living room grabbing up things here and there and shoving them into your bag.
“Tch, are you sure that’s such a good idea?” Levi almost snaps. Why the hell would you leave him alone with Alina when he clearly had no idea of how to raise a child?
You stop and look at him, “Levi, I know you feel like you’re a shit father but honestly you’re not even giving yourself a chance to try!” You peck his lips and look him in the eyes, “I know that you’ll be a wonderful father if you’d only allow yourself to really give it your all.”
“Tch, (Y/n), I’m really trying dammit. It’s not like I enjoy making stupid mistakes.” Is his reply to you.
“Just… give it a shot.” You stand back up, “Now, if you need ANY help or you think ANYTHING is wrong then go and get dad. I know he’ll help you understand how to be there for your daughter better than anyone else. Anyways, she’s sleeping and I honestly doubt she’ll probably do much else. She’s a really quiet child.” Giving him another kiss you then head out of the apartment toward the Medical HQ.
Levi watches you go with narrow eyes, he can’t believe you would just leave him alone with Alina like that. When he figures that he’s stayed there long enough Levi gets up and goes into his little girl’s bedroom to check on her.
Quiet as possible Levi opens the door and pads over to the small crib. Peering over the rails he sees that his three month old daughter is indeed still sleeping soundly. Sighing he stays there for a moment and watches her sleep. She was nearly a carbon copy of you yet with his hair color as well as his ears. Even now it still amazes him that this tiny thing lying there in the crib was really his daughter.
Feeling that he should probably leave Alina before she woke up Levi exits the room and cracks the door open a bit so that if she woke up and began to cry he’d hear it.
Sitting down at the kitchen table he unpacks some of the paperwork that Hanji had been sent to bring to him the day before and begins to work on it. The hours pass by in blissful silence and Levi believes that perhaps everything would stay this way until you got back.
A piercing cry startles him.
So much for that…
Pushing away from the table Levi swiftly attends to his daughter’s cries for his attention. As he gets over to the crib he finds Alina clutching at the crib bars and just wailing away. Picking the child up Levi holds her to his shoulder as Erwin and (Y/n) had shown him countless times. Placing his hand on the back of her fragile head and body he tries to find the place where he held her just right, not too tight and not too loose.
Alina squirms in his arms and continues to cry and cry. Levi attempts to rock her back to sleep but that isn’t working either. Wondering if the unhappy child was hungry Levi takes her into the kitchen and sits her down in her high chair. Grabbing down one of the baby bottles he puts lukewarm water in it before grabbing the rations of breast milk powder and mixes that in.
Taking it over to her he picks Alina up once more before holding her in one arm and putting the bottle toward her face. For a moment the child latches onto the bottle and he relaxes visibly but then she spits it out and continues caterwauling. Levi then grabs up her pacifier and places that in her mouth an attempt to placate Alina that way but she just spits the pacifier in his face.
Levi holds her back in his arms but is surprised to find her attempting to bite on his ear. Pulling Alina back he looks at her with confusion. Alina, however, didn’t like that. She reaches her arms out for her father and continues to cry. Holding her back to his chest Levi sits down in the middle of the living room floor and sits her in his lap. All of her crying and screaming was beginning to give him a headache.
“Alina please, please baby girl… just give me an idea of what you want.” Levi nearly begs.
All the child does is grab onto his pointer finger and put it in her mouth.
Without thinking he snatches the digit back with a disgusted face, “Alina that’s not for putting in your mouth, that’s filthy.” He says.
The three month old whimpers and screams so loud that Levi gives her his finger back just to get her to stop. She happily grabs onto it and begins gumming on it. At the sound of gradual silence the lance corporal sighs and leans back a bit in relief. He has no idea of why she would want to gum on his finger rather than her pacifier but if this was going to keep her quiet then he was fine with it for the moment.
However when he feels a sharp sensation Levi jerks his hand back. Looking at his fingers Levi’s eyes widen to find blood dripping down from where Alina had managed to somehow make him bleed. Looking at his whimpering daughter Levi gingerly opens her mouth.
“Hush now baby girl, let me look at you.” He says soothingly as Alina begins to whine again.
He gently pushes open her lips to peer into the small girl’s mouth. His eyes widen as he notices that there were a few teeth beginning to push through pink gums. How could she be teething already?
“Ow!” He takes his finger out again and Alina starts fussing. Grabbing her up into his arms he begins to root around in the baby things in Alina’s nursery for anything that she could chew on without any issues. Finally he pulls back a teething ring. Making sure to disinfect it he then gives his fussy little girl the thing to chew on. She happily takes it and Levi sighs as he is finally able to sit down on the couch with his little girl and relax.
Bringing her up further to lean herself on his chest, Levi leans his head back and closes his eyes for a bit. He really needed to rest.
LINEBREAK
You sigh as you walk through the front door. The teaching seminar at the medical institute was really busy and you were glad to be home. Shutting the door you look and smile at what you see, Levi and Alina both asleep on the couch. You knew he could be a good father, he just needed to try. Going over and trying to separate the two as gentle as possible your eyes widen when Alina grips onto Levi’s shirt tighter.
Apparently the feeling of something tugging his shirt was enough to wake Levi. His hands fly to where the hold Alina and his eyes rip open. For a moment Levi is about to take a swing at you but then he wakes up further. “(Y/n)? You’re finally back.” He yawns and sits up.
You smile and kiss his cheek, “See, I told you that you could be a good father.” You say.
“Tch, she didn’t make it easy. Apparently she’s beginning to teethe.” He has a slight blush on his face.
“Really? She already has some of her teeth coming in?”
“Yeah, she attempted to take a chunk out of my finger while she was at it.”
Alina whimpers slightly and Levi is quick to begin to rock her back and forth gently. You watch this action and smile big, it may have taken a bit to get Levi’s paternal instinct kicked into motion, but now it was in full force.
You can tell that Alina would grow up to be a complete daddy’s girl.
“Ow!- Alina you have a teething ring, use it!”
“WAH!”
Then again, who knows how this could turn out? Having Levi as a father that is.
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Okay Loserkidproductions here you go!
Ah this was just too adorable! I love the idea of Daddy!Levi XD
BTW the picture isn't mine! I found it on Deviantart so go there and check it out! XD