Always

*Quick note: This story was inspired by the fanart above. I found this art on the Instagram account eruri.real but they're not the original artist. After much searching I couldn't find the original artist, so any help with that would be much appreciated. Anyway, hope you enjoy the story!
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It was Levi's idea to go to the carnival. Well, not if you asked him, but it was the undeniable truth. The idea first came to be when Levi had brought home a poster for their town's carnival. Erwin was vaguely aware of the existence of this carnival, it was an annual event in their town, but he never thought much of it until he saw the poster. When he questioned Levi about it, he brushed Erwin off, claiming someone had "forced him to take one." This wouldn't have been odd except for the fact that Levi wasn't the type of guy forced to do anything. In Erwin's eyes, Levi's stubbornness was adorable, but it also had a habit of being incredibly annoying.

For example, sometime last year, Erwin had tried to get Levi to drink more water. He had noticed Levi would only drink tea. The problem was, they only brewed tea when they were eating a meal. That equated to three 12 oz mugs of tea every day - which was not enough liquid for any living human. This fact surprised Erwin because Levi took the utmost care in planning meals. He would ensure their meals were balanced and even went so far as to set out vitamin supplements every day for the both of them.

Erwin confronted Levi about this multiple times, only to earn a middle finger from Levi each time. Erwin even went so far as to buy Levi a water bottle that tracked how much you drank and outlined the amount you were supposed to drink every hour. Soon after Erwin gave Levi the bottle, he found it in the trash with the top melted shut, making it impossible to drink anything from it. When Erwin saw this, he only smiled and chuckled to himself. Even when it made Levi harder to take care of, his stubbornness was adorable.

The situation ended with Erwin settling for brewing tea more frequently. Even though this was more work than Levi simply drinking water, Erwin didn't mind as long as Levi was drinking something.

Knowing no one forced Levi to take the poster, Erwin questioned Levi further about it, asking him if the carnival was something he was interested in attending. Levi, of course, brushed him off, saying something about the carnival being for children, and they were not children. But Erwin couldn't help but notice the way Levi looked at the poster. It was rather dramatic, to be honest. It was as if Levi and the poster were in some forbidden relationship, so the most they could do was stare longingly at each other - which is precisely how Levi looked at the poster.

A couple more of these looks, and Erwin could bear it no longer - he sat Levi down and told him they were going to the carnival. Levi, as predicted, protested, but after enough insisting from Erwin, Levi finally agreed, and they had a date set for tomorrow evening.

Levi tried his best not to seem excited about going, but Erwin couldn't miss the cute smiles that flashed across his face when he saw the poster or Erwin brought it up. Thinking about all of this should've brought Erwin to a state of frustration, but he could only smile. Even after five years of being together and two years of marriage Levi could not admit he wanted to do something deemed "childish" or immature." Levi has no problem insisting that the couple goes to an art museum or a fancy restaurant. But, the moment it was fun instead of snobby adult shenanigans, Levi insisted he wanted no part of it. This was where Erwin had to pick up the slack. Over the years, he'd gotten pretty good at noticing the small longing glances and knowing that when Levi came home with a poster, he wasn't truthful when insisting he wanted no part of it.

"Erwin" ahead of him, he saw Levi bounding toward him, two wristbands in hand. "Here," Levi said, handing him a neon orange paper bracelet. It only took a moment for Erwin to fasten the bracelet against his wrist, but Levi was still struggling with it when he looked up.