She had just taken the covers off of her couch. It had been in her possession for well over a year, and for the majority of that time, the protective plastic layer remained cloaked on the furniture. She wasn't particularly a slob, but like most people, she would fall victim to the occasional spills and stains that plagued household fabrics. When her stays at Levi's house became regular, she felt comfortable enough to remove the plastic and enjoy the suede material during the rare event that she was in her own domicile. 

"Not the couch, please," she begged between pants.

"Get over the damn couch, you have no choice!" Mikasa ordered.

Levi was comfortably able to lift _______ in his arms and lay her on the couch. Having no phone on his person, he told his cousin to dial the paramedics while he moved the loveseat directly next to the couch, making a larger area for him and her to stay. He managed her pants and underwear off. 

"I'm not getting a signal," she walked over to the couch fortress and held her friend's hand, "Honey, where's your phone?"

"That was cut two weeks ago."

She ran to the window, cursing at the source of their isolation: snow. It had been snowing since before the two left for the confrontation, however, it had considerably picked up since their arrival. The cars had already been covered in a blanket with no leniency in sight. The wind was obnoxiously audible, even a little violent. 

"I think we're caught in a blizzard."

"You're shitting me," he snapped.

There was no ceasing of the agonized moans. He tried to hold her attention by coaching her breathing and holding her hand. In the meantime, Mikasa left the apartment to ask any neighbors for help.

"Come on, through the nose, out the mouth."

"Levi it hurts," she whined.

"I know, I know," he insisted. 

"Levi?"

"Yes?"

"Kill yourself."

"Don't worry, you'll beat me to that."

By the time Mikasa returned to the scene, ______ was merely a few decibles away from screaming. She lamented that none of the neighbors appeared to be home. She even took the liberty of checking all five stories the building held. The women were just about equally glazed in sweat and irritation.

"Jesus fucking Christ. Mikasa, grab me towels from the bathroom," Levi requested.

"What are YOU doing?" She asked as she left for them.

"Coaching, don't question me. I've read up on this."

"How do you have NO towels!" The oriental stormed.

"I brought them to his house since he complained I went through his towels too much."

"Now what?"

"There's a supply closet in the lobby. They have towels, sheets, and pillows for sale if you live here."

Levi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Though the woman in labour had no desire to move, they had all rationalized that it would be better for them to be on the first floor should emergency repsonders reach them. After the couches were seperated, he stood and pulled _______ to her feet. He proceeded to carry her bridal style as they left for the lobby.

"What the Hell is this?" Mikasa asked, tearing at the warning tape.

The doors to the staircase had been taped off. Looking through the windows revealed a stairless section under reconstruction with no workers actively building them. Luckily there was an adjacent elevator. They entered the car and pressed for the main floor.

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

"No," she moaned, clinging to him.

"How long have you been feeling your contractions?"

"I thought I was just being sensitive, but I think I've been feeling them for a few hours."

Before he could reprimand her carelessness, there was an abrupt shake followed by a stationary state. As spontaneous as the stoppage was, the protective coverage from the Ackermans was just as instantaneous. The consolation light at least illuminated the buttons, allowing a frantic surge of pressing on the emergency signal. She began to cry again.

"Calm down, we're getting out of here."

He gently laid her upon the floor. His cousin and himself exchanged a glance of mutual understanding, then placed their fingers inside the slit of the door. It was after the third count that they began to pry the door open, pulling towards themselves. Their collective efforts managed to reveal a crawlspace to the floor below, as they were nearly on it. 

"Stay here with  ______ and I'll try to get help. Hopefully by now they're plowing the streets."

"Be careful," he instructed.

She wormed her way through the crevice by inching slowly when the narrow space met her hips. A slight manuever sideways allowed her to slip out. Her landing was a tad bit harsh, but nothing she could not handle. She declared that she would be back shortly, and ran, wishing to come back as soon as she was able to.

"Levi, I just remembered something."

"What is it?"

The tears poured out heavier, "It's your birthday tomorrow. I ruined your birthday. And I ruined Christmas. But I ruined your bitrhday! I'm so sorry."

"Hey, shush. You're not ruining my birthday. I'm glad to be here," he assured, sitting behind her and encasing her body with his legs and leaning her on his own frame. 

"How could you be? I'm a walking disaster. I lost my job, my money, my apartment, and now we're stuck in an elevator while I'm in fucking labour. I should have never got you into this mess-"

"Don't make me tell you to shut up again."

She looked up at him.

"I can't believe you're being so dense. I wouldn't have gotten you pregnant or wanted you to move in with me if I didn't l-" He cut himself off.

"Please," she squeezed his hand over her shoulder, "I need to hear it more than ever."

"I do love you."

He expected a cringe-worthy and unjustifiably emotional response, but instead he was met with the shrillest scream she emitted yet. She sobbed as the waves brutalized her body. Through the midst of her moaning, she asked Levi to check on her birth canal and see if anything was odd. He looked at it, finding nothing exactly peculiar. She then asked him to insert his fingers so that he could find her cervix and tell her how dilated she seemed to be. He was intially timid in the endavour. However, an aggitated howl from her was enough to motivate him through the discomfort. 

He delicately passed through her vagina using his middle and index digits. It was helpful that they were rather slender, as he was able to reach the area of her cervix. He felt around for a bit before his eyes widened.

"What?" She asked, growing in concern.

"I feel the head. All of it."

"I can't already be fully dilated! It's been half an hour!"

"It happens. It's rare beyond rare, but it can happen. You have to start pushing."

"No! I can't have the baby here!"

As if to prove her point, the lights had also let out, subjecting them to complete darkness. This only irritated her already fragile state. She screamed like a martyr with no salvation. He could no longer listen to her abase herself.

"Listen!" He screamed, holding her shoulders and glaring into her eyes.

"You were brave enough to get past these last few months. You were brave enough to live the life we all did years ago. You survived then, and you will now. And, like before, I'll see you through it."

She continued to bawl.

"I'm sorry," he confessed.

His small empowerment soliloquy was topped of with a chaste kiss on her lips. He instructed her to grab onto the handles on the wall and to place her feet onto his shoulders. She would take a deep inhailation, push for ten counts, then rest. They repeated this cycle for the better of fifteen minutes. Constantly, he interjected tender encouragement, congratulating her at the end of every push. 

"You're doing great, you really are."

He went to check her cervix, but he was met with an obstruction right at the opening of her birth canal: the baby.

"You're crowning now. These pushes have to count. Tell me when you're ready."

Heavy moments passed.

"I'm ready."

He instructed her to push with every ounce of her remaining strength. At this point, her eyes were perpetually shut as a minute outlet for the pain. The strain in her lastest push was present throughout her entire body and was forceful enough to cramps her legs and feet. He indicated that the baby was making further progress, inspiring her to focus solely on finishing the delivery.

In that, she hadn't seen the lights turn back on, nor had she noticed their descent. She raised her torso upwards a bit with the progression of the movement. In this action, she could see the baby's head beginning its external rotation. When her efforts on the push ended, she had to pick right back up and climb to infinity from zero. 

"______!" Mikasa yelled.

Levi's attention never left the birth. Had he looked to his side, he would have realized that Mikasa was holding the doors with paramedics promtply behind her. It was especially prudent that his focus wasn't lost, as the baby completed the rotation, and finally emerged from its mother. 

The sound of silence hadn't dared be disturbed by astonished breaths; rather, the newborn's cries. 

"My baby," she happily wept as the child was placed on her chest. Seconds after, Levi took off his shirt and tucked it around the baby as it began to suckle on her breast. He crawled back to her side. His shaking hand ever so gently stroked its cheek. The baby offered him a quick glance before focusing on its meal.

"Ma'am?" A worker asked.

Levi whipped his head toward them, "Took you long enough. Don't worry, though, we got it."

He placed her on the gurney, and he and Mikasa joined the new duo in the ambulance.

"Well? What did you have?" She asked.

"A girl. A beautiful, healthy girl," Levi smiled.

Both ladies had to stare at his face in the utter astonishment of the prized expression. It went without hyperbole or stressing to mention that neither of them have ever seen him smile in the many years they were close. But his deliriously happy gaze never left his daughter even as she was assessed by a paramedic. 

"Sir, do you want to hold your daughter?" He asked, handing him the newborn.

Levi transfixed onto her face as if he were looking into the face of God himself. He actively questioned how the reddened and squished face had simply been the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He worried that she was crying already considering the tears on his face, but the falling allowed him to realize they were his own. He chuckled into a smile before weeping himself.

"I love you, sweetheart," he kissed both the baby and the new mother.

                                                                                 Epilogue

"Enya! Come inside, it's getting dark!" She yelled from the kitchen window.

She continued washing the dishes while her daughter came into the house and crashed into her mother's legs with a tight hug. She stopped doing her chores and picked her child up, polluting her adorable face with kisses.

"When's daddy gonna be home?"

"Soon, honey, soon. He's getting out of work now."

"Can I dust the dining room for him?"

"Uh... How about you draw a picture of all of us instead? Here," she grabbed a stack of papers and a box of crayons from the hutch, one of many coloring stashes placed throughout the house, "and make sure you get everybody in this."

"Okay, mommy."

"Good. Now give me another heart attack."

The little girl pounced into her mother's open arms. She stared into the steely grey eyes of her daughter, prompting her to wonder at the features of her face. Every detail screamed Levi to the point where her paternity was undeniable. Had she not inhereted her mother's serene smile, she would have been a perfect carbon copy of her father. She sat in her chair to begin coloring as her mother got a start on making dinner.

Levi pulled into his driveway. He sighed as he sat back for a moment. After his recuperation, he grabbed the paper bag from the backseat and made for the front door. He hardly had an entire moment to absorb the atmosphere of his own home before he heard the siren call:

"HEART ATTACK!"

The seasoned patient tossed the bag and dropped to his knees, holding his daughter tightly as she hugged him. He picked her up into his arms, and like her mother, he littered her face with kisses as he asked how her day was. 

"I missed you, daddy!"

"I missed you too, sweetie. You and mommy. Speaking of, where is she?"

"Making supper."

"Good," he walked into the kitchen, finding his beautiful wife over the stove.

"Sounds like daddy's home," she left the food briefly and joined her little family to kiss her husband.

"How was the shop today?" She asked, returning to the counter.

"Alright. Mikasa came in, she asked about you and Enya."

"That's nice. Was Jean or Eren with her?"

"Both," he noted, sitting in a chair and placing his daughter in his lap, "They got into it not even five minutes after coming in. I kicked both of their asses and made them leave. She didn't get in my face about it this time."

"I don't blame her, she's probably so used to their shit by now. Which, she'll need to really rely on, if she really is getting married. Then Jean's going to be Eren's brother-in-law. God knows how that will reconcile," she laughed, fondly reminiscing on various times spent with their group of friends.

"I want aunty Mimi to come over," Enya complained, "When can Mimi come over?"

"Mikasa gets to come over when she gets the stupid wedding over with. It's going to be hours long, and that's not even the reception. Fuck that," he counter complained as he braided his daughter's long, dark hair. 

"Bitch all you want, you're still going, now fork over a dollar," she held her hand out with her own bill already in place. He groaned as he forfieted the money, watching her deposit it into a container.

"What's the point of the swear-jar? We both still curse like sailors, and Enya knows better than to swear, right, sweetie?"

"It's gross."

"That's my girl," he kissed her head.

"Did I get presents, daddy?"

"What do you mean?" He smirked.

"Daddy! You had a big bag, did it have presents?"

He rose from his chair and seated the child rear-facing on the table, "If you shut your eyes, it might."

She covered her eyes with her hands until they where white. He retreated back into the foyer and came back with the mentioned bag. The man sat in the chair once more, inviting his wife to sit on his lap. He grabbed the first item from the bag.

"Okay sweetie, you can open your eyes now."

Like that of any other melodramatic child obtaining a new toy, she loudly gasped upon seeing the grey stuffed elephant hovering right in front of her. She clung to it like a vice, drowning Levi's paretnal title in gratitude. He smirked again, enjoying the sight of his daughter appreciating a cute little animal toy. 

"You get two more, and then mommy gets one."

"Yes!" She declared, waving her elephant around.

"Tell me, Enya, how do we spell our last name?"

"A-C-K-....E-R-...-M-A-N."

"Good job, sweetie," he commended, rewarding her by presenting a similar stuffed elephant, this one being her favorite shade of color, "Last one, and you only get it if you answer correctly."

She eagerly nodded.

"How much do mommy and I love you?"

"This much," she stretched her arms as far as she possibly could.

"That's right, sweetie. Here you go," she obtained an apron this time, an ebroiderment of her father's tea shop stitched in the upper corner.

"Levi!"

"Well, I know the brat misses me when I'm at the shop, now she can come to work with me."

"I will not allow our daughter to become enslaved by the caffine, nor the machine."

"Oh, get over it, she'll just hang out and have an apron. What do you think, sweetheart?"

By the time he looked at her again, she was fumbling to tie the strings behind her back, so her mother took the liberty of securing the knot. The child modeled her look much to the approval of her parents. In the light of the joke, she insisted that Enya finish preparing dinner, but the child took the challenge personally, as she dragged a chair to the counter and began toying with their food.

"What is for dinner, anyway?" He asked.

"I was going to just throw a salad together," she whispered, dreadfully watching peanut butter go into the lettuce medley, "But I think we earned a pizza night."

"Agreed," he kissed her head, then noticed the paper on the table.

"Did you draw this for me, Enya?"

"Yes!" She neglected her food to beside her father and explain the picture, "It says 'to Daddy, from Enya, and that's the house, mommy, that's you, that's me, that's the baby and that's a broom!"

"I don't see why I'm scowling.... The baby? What baby?"

He turned to his wife only to be met with the shittiest grin he had ever seen. The barely articulated question of confirmation was replied with a kiss. He held the both of the women in his life close to him, mentally coaching himself not to begin crying.

By the time Enya ate dinner and bathed, she was winded and placed into bed. As per their usual nightly routine, the parents talked to their daughter about her day at kindergarten, then would read to her until she fell asleep. They stayed an extra few minutes to observe her peaceful slumber. Especially in the child's infant days, Levi would spend his wakeful hours of the night in her room, sometimes to check that she was still breathing, other times to absorb and appreciate that she was his.

The adults nestled into their bed soon after. Ever since the birth, they found that they had less energy for scandalous late night behavior, but that night, the lusty spark had been reignited. It started as he kissed her neck, working his way down her body. He teased her netheregions by blowing air in its direction. Right as he went to taste a sample, he heard the door knob rustle. The speed at which he darted back up and laid down as if he was going to sleep was inhuman.

Enya managed to open the door, and with it, opened the flood gates more clearly for her parents, as they could hear her sobbing. On pure instinct Levi left the bed and scooped his daughter into his arms, placing her between himself and her mother.

"What's wrong, honey?" She asked.

"I had a bad dream," she sniffled, "that I looked everywhere but I couldn't find mommy and then daddy died!"

Reliving the nightmare triggered the onset of more tears, inducing a dual secure hug around her person.

"Sweetheart, mommy will never leave you. And I'm not going to die for a very long time. I love you, mommy, and the baby too much to leave."

"Promise?" She started to calm down.

"Promise. Now go to sleep, you can stay in here tonight."

"Yay! Goodnight mommy," she hugged and kissed her, "goodnight daddy," she kissed him, too, snuggling into his side and stealing his body heat.

______ cut in on the action by snuggling beside him as well, holding her daughter in her arm. The ladies fell asleep very shortly, leaving Levi alone to marvel at his wonderful family.

"I don't derserve you... I love you beyond death."