The Humanity's Strongest & The Graceful

I Love You

The Following Morning

Tessa's sky-blue eyes flutter open when she feels someone's arms around her waist. Looking over her shoulder to see Levi sleeping peacefully with his raven hair mussed, his mouth slightly, followed by light snores as his strong arms tightly wrapped around her waist. Tessa gently runs her fingers through his raven locks, earning a slight grumble before he pulls her closer to his chest. Tessa notices the sun hasn't risen, though it will be soon, making her sigh because it's one step closer until the Scouts would have to leave for the expedition. After all, today had finally arrived, and Tessa couldn't avoid it anymore. Since it is still early, Tessa decides to let Levi sleep a little longer while she's in the shower. However, Tessa has run into a problem, the problem of how to get out of Levi's tight embrace without waking him. Realizing she has no choice, Tessa takes a deep breath while turning in his embrace again to pry his fingers apart, only for Levi to grumble something in his sleep again before pulling her closer to his chest, to the point her head rests under his chin.

Tessa huffs with her head stuck under Levi's, "Such a pain in my ass even when he's asleep. He's lucky that he's cute." She mumbles, unaware Levi is smirking while his eyes remain closed and his arms tightly holding onto her. In truth, Levi was only pretending to be asleep because he was enjoying keeping Tessa close to him since he would soon have to leave for who knows how long until he could return to having her in his arms again. Levi quickly hides his smirk when he feels Tessa move her head again, only now freeing herself, "Now, for the hard part." She whispers while trying to undo the binding hold of Levi's arms around her waist. Levi tries to hold a snicker as he listens to Tessa talk to herself about her struggle not waking him while she tries to get out of his arms. However, when Tessa finally frees herself, she falls off the bed with a squeak as she lands on the rug, which softens her fall, only for Levi to finally let out the laugh that's been building since he heard Tessa call him a pain in her ass then saying he was lucky he was cute.

Tessa lowly growls as she glares at the raven-haired man, who is now awake and is staring at her with his beautiful gray eyes, "You know, you wouldn't have fallen if you didn't leave my arms, Tess," Levi chuckles after propping his hand under his head, "Are you okay?" He asks after he gets done laughing, only for Tessa to roll her eyes as she stands, "Yeah, just going to have a bruise on my ass because someone wouldn't let me go," She answers before sitting on the bed, "Anyways, did you get enough sleep?" She asks while tracing the top of Levi's knuckles, only for him to bring her hand to his lips, "Better than I have in a long time," He answers, "Did you get enough sleep?" He asks before kissing Tessa's hand again, and Tessa sighs while rubbing her thumb against his cheek, "I haven't slept that well since the night before my ninth birthday," She confesses before biting her lip, "It's hard to sleep like that again after hearing something traumatic when you're young." She weakly smiles before looking away.

Tessa hopes to hide the tears swelling in her eyes before Levi sees them, only to feel him kiss the inside of her palm again, making her take a deep before looking at him again, "I'm sorry for waking you. I was trying to let you sleep a bit more while I went to take a shower." She admits, and Levi smirks, "Oh, how thoughtful of you," He teases, "Well, I was relatively comfortable, mind you, hence why I didn't want to let you go, especially after I heard you call me cute." He informs while rustling his hair, and Tessa narrows her eyes at him, "How long were you pretending to be asleep?" She asks, and Levi smirks, "Long enough to hear you say that I'm still a pain in your ass even while I'm asleep with you finishing how lucky I am that I'm cute." He answers with another smirk, only for Tessa to roll her eyes, "Well, I wasn't wrong, Levi," She says before leaning over to tap his nose, "You are rather cute, especially when you scrunch up your nose." She teases while poking his nose. Of course, Levi scrunches his nose up before glaring at her, "Brat." He mutters, and Tessa laughs, "Only yours, Dork," She reminds him before sighing, "You may as well get out of bed because we have important things to do today, or did your old age make you forget?" She taunts before trying to escape the bed, only for Levi to pull her back, careful not to crush her with his weight, and their eyes meet.