Wings in the Dark

Chapter 36: Check In

*Levi's POV*

Levi stayed throughout the night.

He could have gone back to his room after she fell asleep, made sure there wasn't any chance for one of them to be caught spending the night in the other's room, but he decided tonight could be an exception.

Besides, he was comfortable where he was, basking in her warmth and the feeling of her resting over his heart, his hand at her side feeling the steady rise and fall of her chest beneath his fingers...she'd fallen asleep so quickly when she was curled up next to him like that, he didn't want to risk waking her up trying to untangle himself from her.

He didn't fall asleep in part because he didn't want to soil the peace of the moment with the nightmares that would no doubt be waiting for him if he did allow himself to fall asleep. He was still resting, still settled into the silence of the room with her and relaxing into their embrace, he just didn't sleep, not really. At most, he might have started to doze here and there, caught between the waking and sleeping worlds.

The fact Y/N kept waking up from nightmares was the other half of the reason he didn't sleep. There were periods of time when she was falling back asleep where it would be calm and quiet, and Levi would start to doze near the end, feel his eyelids grow heavy and his vision blurring as his focus on the room around them slipped.

But then her legs would twitch, her hands would clench and unclench, head twitching as if she was looking around, small noises slipping past her lips...

He knew she was going to abruptly wake long before she did, and it would pull him out of his sleepier state and back into the present, already seeking to soothe her before she even finished waking up. He'd thread his fingers back into hers in a reassuring grip, gently smooth the hair from her face before resting his hand on her head, keeping her held securely against him so that when she woke with a full body start as if she was about to lurch into action, she would find herself already grounded and safe in his arms, far from the danger, blood, and screams that were no doubt haunting her sleep.

She didn't fall asleep as easily after a nightmare. She'd hold him tighter, bury her face in his chest–sometimes he'd feel the slip of tears rubbed from her eyes and onto his chest, but he didn't say anything about it–and work on steadying her breathing, keeping her eyes closed. They didn't say anything, she didn't share what her nightmares were about–they didn't need to. They both knew. If Levi had been sleeping, he was certain he would have been suffering from similar nightmares.

While she worked on calming down and slipping back into sleep, Levi would keep an eye on the room around them, keeping watch to help put her fears to rest until she felt secure enough to fall back asleep.

No matter how many times she startled awake, she kept her hand resting over his heart with her head nestled right next to it, curled up and letting the beating of his heart lull her back to sleep.

He couldn't have peeled her off him even if he'd tried, though it was the last thing he wanted. He was savoring this, the sensation of not being alone on one of the bloody nights, the peace he would never have found tonight on his own, the way having her close to him like this made him feel, the way having her fall asleep to the beat of his heart made him feel like...

He couldn't pin down a word to describe it. Light, like he would float away? Warm–she always made him feel warm and comfortable, but this was special, this was something else. Bright in his heart didn't make sense and yet for some reason it did at the same time.

Whatever it was, the feeling in his chest at that moment, he wasn't going to disturb it or cut it short. He stayed right there beside her the whole night, dozing in the comfortable quiet and keeping watch over her and helping lull her back to sleep when the nightmares returned, long after the lamplight went out on it's own from a lack of fuel and no one tending to it, until he started to hear the birdsong and the darkness outside her window started to brighten with the approaching dawn.