There is something truly special about returning to places you've only been as a child.

It was like visiting your middle school when you're older. You're reminded of what was just as thoughts of what-could-have-been's fill your head. And you're reminded of who you used to be, how you used to act, who you used to be around all the time. Like all things and all parts of life, there would have been highs and lows here, and they'd come rushing back into your mind as flashes of memory. Reminders of what you'd done, what you'd said, how you acted, and what shaped you will flood into your brain.

Remembering fun times with friends, long exam days, getting the gym teacher out in dodgeball or when they would join your team, even getting in trouble for something stupid. Remembering your favorite teacher, your best subject, that teacher you hated, and the subject you couldn't stand. Remembering silly arguments with friends, getting teased for your acne or your glasses or your height, being told that you had so much potential, being told that you needed to start catching up.

Visiting a school, as an example, will be a good way to see where you've been and remind you of how far you've come, no matter how far into the future you returned.

It'll also remind you of the cringy shit you did.

But then again... if you don't cringe at what you remember, did you really grow as a person? Everyone is cringy in middle school. It's just how it goes. It's a rite of passage, even.

...

The example is getting out of hand.

As I was trying to get to, it's fun and oh so special to return to a place you used to frequent as a child. Your old stomping grounds, in a way. Such was the case of where I was now, and with Levi: we were walking the streets we used to run along when we sneaked out of the orphanage together, and what an experience it was.

After our dinner here in the city (which was lovely by the way),we decided to revisit the route we'd walk downtown as stupid kids with no money and looking for trouble, hand-in-hand and seeing it as something innocent. 

And now we were adults, probably still stupid but at least we had some money now, and we were still walking with our fingers interlocked, only now we realized what it was that our dumb little brains couldn't hope to fathom: we were meant to be together.

And at long last... we were. We were together, and what a beautiful thing it was. Goodness, had we really, at some point not too long ago, thought that holding hands and doing all that we had done left us only as best friends? It's what we programmed ourselves to think, anyway, but now I was so, so glad that we had found the courage to push through it and finally give in to what we both wanted all along.

Our love story was beautiful, and it was only just beginning.

Like Jack and Sally, Elizabeth and Will Turner, Jack and Diane, Han and Leia, Rose and Jack, Ilsa and Rick, Inuyasha and Kagome, Jim and Pam, Gomez and Morticia, Roger and Jessica, Carl and Ellie, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, Romeo and Juliet, Baby and Johnny, Sandy and Danny, Edward and Winry, Bonnie and Clyde.

Each love story beautifully unique, and unique in their beauty... But ours would be better.

We might be meant to be like Jack and Sally, and perhaps took much too long to figure out what we felt for each other like Jim and Pam. Maybe we'd live long, happy lives together and grow old like Carl and Ellie yet end in tragedy like their story and that of Romeo and Juliet. Perhaps our romance was a whirlwind filled with light and love and music and all the angst we could ask for like Sandy and Danny. Or maybe we were like Han and Leia, always teasing and bickering the other but know that only love lies beneath it all.

Maybe all of it was true, but similarly, maybe none of it was, but it did not matter because our love story was our own. We were all those things and more, so much more.

Once again, I'm getting lost in thought. Focus, dumbass.

I inhaled a deep breath and focused on where I was, what I was doing, and who I was with.

Where was I? I was in that city where Levi and I grew up together, for a few years anyway. Specifically, we were in the city that the orphanage was in. We were downtown, on the very street we used to frequent on our nightly escapades. 

Across the street was the bakery we would buy pastries from with what little money we had. Over there was a library that Levi had broken the return book box for, allowing us to search through them for anything good. A few blocks away was the park we loved to go to, the one that I went to on my own - on my first time leaving the orphanage on my own - to wait for him.

Now, what were we doing? We were walking the streets, rounding the blocks, taking the sights in that we hadn't seen since we were children. We noted what had changed and what hadn't. And being taller than we were then, we could now experience it differently. Now that we were adults, we could go wherever we wanted, do what we wanted... within reason, of course.

And finally, who was I with? Well, that's easy. I was with Levi.

I am with Levi.

I still wasn't used to being able to say that. Everything was still so fresh and new, but with the foundation we had, it wasn't alarming or scary now that we were in an official relationship. It just felt... right. Like we really were meant to be. That's about the best way I could describe it, anyway.

Walking next to him now, holding his hand in a way that we both knew that meant more that we were simply friends like we might've once fooled ourselves into believing, it was wonderful. It felt liberating, almost, like we finally had given into what we wanted after so long.

I allowed myself to briefly wonder what it might have been like if we'd figured it out sooner. If I'd stopped being so cowardly months ago, even a few years ago, and just admitted to myself what my heart had already realized. And maybe if he'd realized that he was worth it sooner, that the happiness he wanted for himself wasn't that selfish to ask for...

Things might have turned out a lot different, but at the same time, my heart knew for sure that many things would be the same. We were a sure thing, him and I. Kindred spirits, with souls interconnected, if you will, meaning it would always have ended this way. 

So long as my heart was beating, I was his, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the same rang true for him.

To know this for certain now, and to be able to give into what I wanted, what I desired, and tell him all the things I wanted to say...

Wow.

I wondered if he would let me hold him closer as we walked. Would it be too much for me to hold onto his bicep with my free hand and hug his arm close as we continued to wander? It wasn't like this was his college campus and that it would risk people that he knew and worked with seeing him. No, it was unlikely that we'd run into anyone that we knew while here. 

Still, I couldn't help but feel like maybe it'd be too much PDA for him. But maybe, just maybe, he'd allow it and even if it embarrassed him at first, he'd warm up to the idea of showing his affection in public.

I rolled my bottom lip between my teeth and gazed sidelong at him, my mind stirring with ideas on how to phrase it while my heart fluttered at the prospect of him saying yes, all the while my indecision simmered.

All I really had to do was ask.

It was that simple, huh? It'd always been that way.

Just get the words out. That's all I had to do.

And so, that's what I did.

---

Just as the bathroom door creaked open and Levi rolled out in his chair, I took that as my cue and let out a long, exasperated sigh. I stretched my limbs out, groaning when some of the tension from our activities tonight was released from my muscles before rolling onto my side, watching him with half-lidded eyes as he approached the bed.

"What's the point of having a man if he abandons me like this?"

"The hell are you going on about?"

I only sighed again, letting one hand prop my head up while the other came to rest against my hip. Now laying in a rather sensual, suggestive manner, I knew he would look because well, who wouldn't?

Regardless, I'd been right. I  knew he would look, and look he did, his eyes roaming across my body rather obviously for something.

His eyes roved across my body slowly, one eyebrow arching up as though to ask me what I thought I was doing even as I knew he was actually focusing on the curves of my body that he knew so well, that were now on full display. Because of course, I was still naked, and I'd tossed the top comforter away from my body. With only the thin top sheet covering me, well, it didn't exactly leave much to the imagination.

And his imagination was surely running wild with ideas.

He shook his head as though to forcibly remove any inappropriate thoughts from his mind and got to moving again. I laughed through my nose, a smug smirk on my lips as I sat up. He'd need my help getting up into the bed of course. And so that's what I did, slipping out from under the covers and though chilled immediately, I helped him up into bed.

For the most part, he was getting used to life confined to his chair. It was aggravating to all hell for him of course, and it wasn't without its challenges for me being his partner. But none of that mattered, because he was worth so much to me and nothing would change that. Not scars, not injuries, not even a life doomed to remain in a chair.

There was certainly a lot to work through. His physical therapy was a lot to take on already, what with his exercises to slowly regain that muscle he'd lost in his legs. But there were also the challenges of him being unable to do so much for himself. What irked him more than anything was his inability to do things for me, as though that mattered to me.

This man, who so often showed what he was feeling through acts of service, could no longer do any of that anymore. Ways he would typically care for me, and show his love, like carrying me or holding my bags for me or doing the shopping and cleaning so I wouldn't have to worry after a long workday...

He couldn't do those things anymore.

And he hated himself for it.

I was happy enough that he was safe and sound and home with me.

He didn't see things that way. Not quite.

And it bothered him every single time someone else offered to do something for me, like if we were out and about and someone would hold the door open for me, or if someone picked up something I dropped, or even when he would look up from the couch and see me doing the cleaning by myself, or when I would pick him up from his appointments and find that I'd done the shopping.

It didn't bother me to do those things. I didn't mind doing the shopping or doing the cleaning or spending more nights in because he couldn't comfortably go out right now.

But for someone who knew the worth of actions and believed in them being more powerful than words could ever hope to be... the only option he really had left was to speak, for he could do so little for me now. That's what he thought, anyway.

It was far from the truth. Very far. His words meant more than I could ever hope to say, in a contradictory way and yet it was the honest truth.

I didn't mind doing things for him, for myself, for the apartment we shared. I didn't mind carrying things myself. Did I enjoy it when he would be a gentleman and do those things for me, just because he could? Well, sure. Did I enjoy it when he would carry me or playfully throw me over his shoulder, just for the hell of it when he was in one of his rare, playfully affectionate moods? Of course I did. 

But as he was now, I couldn't ask him to do anything more than just do his best and do what he needed to do, as advised by his doctor and by what felt comfortable for him. What I wanted was secondary to what he needed. Yes, what I wanted was important, but if there was hope that one day, he would be able to walk on his own, it would take hard work and patience and a whole lot of love... all of which I was more than willing to provide for him.

He meant that much to me.

His words were more than enough of an affirmation of his love. He didn't think he showed it through his words and what actions he took now, but to me his affections were crystal clear. Despite not being able to do as much for me physically, as in literally doing anything for me, I knew that his entire heart still loved me, and always would.

Because when he said that he loved me, I believed it. When he remembered the little things about me, about what I liked and disliked, about how things were in my life, from the best stories I told him to the minute details of my worst day, it proved that he cared. When he looked at me with those amorous eyes, so feline and reflective, I could see through to his soul and tell that I was who held his heart.

And so when I helped him into bed, I took care to make sure he was comfortably sitting before drawing away, knowing that he'd want to get more comfortable and adjust himself. And he did, while I rounded the bed to my own side. And when I was lying on the mattress beside him, we were exactly how we'd been before he'd needed to get up to use the bathroom.

He wordlessly invited me into his embrace when the covers were up over us both and I wasted no time in accepting. With him on his back, I had a clear route to lay my head against his chest, to hear that familiar and soothing rhythm that his heartbeat drummed.

"What were we talking about, again?" I asked as he adjusted the blanket over me.

"I don't remember," he responded quietly. "But you should be heading to sleep anyway."

"So should you," I said.

"I'm not tired."

"Then neither am I," I said.

"Really? You yawned ten minutes ago."

"You can remember that, but not what we were talking about before you used the bathroom three minutes ago?"

He didn't reply, but one of his hands began raking through my hair gently, and I sighed wistfully at the sensation. My eyes fluttered closed, despite my best efforts. I really didn't want to go to sleep right now and waste this time together that we had. In the state of the world today, free time was so limited. Well, free time that was free time, that is, and not free time that was spent decompressing from the stresses of the modern life, which wasn't really free time.

Anyway.

"Levi," I murmured, my breath ghosting across his chest.

"Mm?"

"Do you believe in soulmates?"

"(Y/n), come on."

"Hear me out," I said. "I saw this thing online, right? And it said that because we're all made of stardust, right, what if when the universe was born, the atoms that were formed next to each other spend eternity trying to get back to each other, and can only do so in the form of soulmates? We could be made of atoms that were always meant to be together, Levi. Isn't that amazing?"

"Seems statistically improbable to me."

"Yeah, but..." I sighed. "Even without the stardust thing, I think it's a sweet thought. Just thinking that someone might be, you know, meant only to be yours..."

"You're a hopeless romantic, you know that?"

"You make me that way," I said, smiling now. "I used to think it was all so cheesy, you know? But then I fell in love. And somehow, I fall harder for you every single day."

"Yeah," he said, as though my words confirmed something he'd been studying for months, "you're hopeless."

"It's true, though," I said, lifting my head. I searched his eyes, looking for anything that might betray what he was feeling, what he was thinking. "You don't believe me, do you?"

The silence that followed spoke volumes, echoes of years of feeling this way shining through.

"I'll tell you however many times it takes," I said earnestly, seeming to take him by surprise by the simple truth of the matter. "Something about you has me falling back in love with you in different ways every single day. Shall I list the ways?"

His eyes narrowed, as though he thought my words were bullshit. He didn't think to call my bluff with words, only doing so with his expression.

I smiled cheekily at him. "I'll tell you all the ways. If it sounds rehearsed, just know that it's because I might have written my vows about... exactly this."

His eyes widened. "(Y/n)..."

"You still don't believe me, do you? Alright, fine. Let me go find it..."

Needless to say, when I returned to the bed after retrieving the draft of my vows that I'd had hidden away and sat cross-legged before him to read them, detailing every single way he'd made me fall back in love with him, over and over...

Understanding finally dawned in his eyes, and now they glazed over with untapped emotion and unshed tears.

By the end of it, well... I think he finally started believing me. I didn't even care in that moment that I would have to rewrite my vows, or perhaps just come up with them on the spot like so many people did. Those thoughts were the furthest from my mind that they could possibly be.

All I really cared about right now, and all I cared to focus on, was the man before me and the way he took my words in. I watched the way he went from not believing me at all to slowly being swayed, because he knew that I was many things but a liar was not one of them, and so these vows had to be true, which they were, and so...

Every word I said, sweet as they were, with lots of flourish and overflowing with pretty language, was true. I meant each and every word that I said to him as I read my vows.

Even when understanding finally dawned in his eyes, I didn't dare stop. I continued on until I'd read all of it and the weight of my words came to rest against his shoulders, but not in a way that burdened him, but made him feel warm, cherished, and loved.

He had taken me into his arms and for as long as he quietly repeated thank you against my skin, I smiled, and my heart was warm.

---

"Room 301," the lady at the reception counter said.

I noticed a lot about her right away.

Her uniform was clean-cut, professional and sleek. She fit right into this beautiful lobby of this beautiful hotel, especially if I was to consider her face of classic beauty and the pretty way she wore her hair. Her trained smile was warm and friendly to begin with, and it was so sweet it might have given me a cavity if I continued to look at it.

It was... perhaps too sweet, and at any rate it was far sweeter than I would ever use at any job where I had to deal with customers. I was well accustomed to that kind of smile, to having to always be warm and friendly and inviting even when you wanted to scream and rip your hair out for the stupidity of our fellow human beings. I knew what it was like to deal with people all day. However...

I distinctly noticed the way her eyes remained trained intently on Levi, following his movements closely as he took the documentation into his hands: the room keys, a schedule of the activities available at the hotel for the weekend, the channel list, and more. And then her eyes trailed to his arms, to the toned muscles and then... downwards. And she was pressing her arms together before her, pressing her girls together and batting her eyes at him in a dreamy way.

I think the fuck not.

Here we were, on our first night away together as a couple. Of course, we only started dating a few weeks ago, and I was still getting accustomed to the idea of acting romantic with him. Due to this, I had no idea whether or not this would go over well, but I couldn't let this woman stand there and think she could make eyes at my man.

My man.

God, it felt good to say that.

I almost smiled, if not for the woman's gentle laugh as he nodded politely at her. "If you need any further assistance," she said cheerily, "just call down and someone will help you!"

"Thanks," Levi said, sounding rather bored for his part as he did his best to be polite. But I could tell he just wanted to get to our room so we could freshen up and explore the town. And that's what I wanted to do, too. However... it could wait another moment.

"Come on, baby," I said, taking his free hand into my own. A sly smile slid onto my lips as I looked at him, relishing in his embarrassed, surprised look. "The sooner we find our room, the sooner we can test the bed."

Well, that got her attention. Her eyes narrowed at me, but only briefly, before she remembered that she was on company time and if I complained about her, well, who would a manager believe? Their employee or the guest whose business they're trying to save?

I smirked at her before pulling Levi away from the desk. We hadn't brought our luggage in, only because we were early to our check-in window, and we weren't sure if our room would have been ready by the time we go there. Thankfully, it was, and so at least if we headed to our room now, we could check it out before heading all the way back to the car to get our things.

That's at least what I thought I was doing, and where I thought I was leading him.

But instead of pulling him down the hallway towards the elevators, I accidentally went down the wrong one and now we were by a small gym, a rec room, and... an indoor pool!

"Ooh," I said, letting go of his hand only to pull the door open and dash inside. It was empty, and I chanced a guess that it had something to do with the fact that it was nice outside and there was an outdoor pool on this property with a number of other water amenities: a lazy river, a hot tub, and more, for example.

Still, that didn't keep me from having my fun. A pool was a pool, and right now for whatever reason I had the strongest urge to leap in. Only waiting long enough to take my valuables out of my pockets and set them hurriedly on a chair, I ran and leapt into the pool with an excited laugh escaping me just as my body broke through the surface of the water and I went under.

The water rushed past my ears as I sank to the bottom. I got my feet under me and pushed myself back upwards towards the surface. As soon as I breached, I began to tread water, one hand coming up only to slick the hair back from my face. I grinned as soon as I saw Levi's incredulous expression and another jubilant, triumphant giggle left my lips.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I wanted to jump in," I said, "and so I did! What's the problem? We're going to freshen up from the drive anyway, right?"

"But now you'll reek of chlorine."

"Oh, please," I said with a huff. "That's what the shower is for." I waded over to the side of the pool closest to him and rose up to rest my forearms against the edge. "The water's nice," I said. "You should join me."

"I'd rather not."

"Aw, why not?"

"I'm not interested in swimming right now."

"But there's no one here," I said.

"Are you forgetting that we were supposed to go to the room? You brought us down the wrong damn hallway."

"Right," I said, my cheeks flushing embarrassedly, "but I'm wearing a white shirt, and-"

"(Y/n)," he said firmly, "no."

"Fine," I said. "How about I get out and start drying off and you head up to the room or to get some of our luggage?"

"That's fine," he said. "I'll meet you in the room."

"Ok," I said. "But first, a kiss?"

"You're a pain."

Even as he said it, he crouched down, none the wiser to what I had planned. The only things of value in his pockets were his phone and wallet, all the documentation there in his hand... Coyly, as soon as his lips were pressed to mine, I placed a hand on his cheek, enticing him closer. He leaned into the kiss, reaching down to set the documents down beside him before setting that hand on the back of my neck.

His things were in his back pocket. With one smooth motion, I sneaked a hand around him, nabbing the items out of the pocket and setting them down. Before he could react in any way, both my hands were then pressed to his cheeks, pulling him further, further, further into the kiss...

I pulled him into the pool.

A loud splash accompanied rocky waves as the water resettled with the addition of an extra body having jumped... having been dragged into the water. He emerged from the water with a glare aimed right my way that would turn lesser women to stone. I lowered myself into the water only enough to conceal my smile, but I'm sure he could see the satisfaction in my eyes anyway, coupled in this moment with so much mischief.

He didn't waste much time arguing with me, thankfully. Rather, he seemed content to get payback on me by pressing me against the cold stone wall of the pool, his arms bracing himself on the edge of the pool on either side of my head. I held onto him to stay afloat as he surged forward, catching my lips in a kiss.

We might as well have been naked, honestly, with the water making the fabric of our clothes cling tightly to our skin. It was doubly true as we finally broke away, breathless, and rushed to get out of the pool, clothes still hugging our bodies tightly. 

In Levi's case, they held onto his muscles, displaying just how defined they were and for me, they clung to my every curve, leaving very little to the imagination. I should have been embarrassed after that, because I wasn't in a swimsuit, I was in normal clothes and so to be soaking wet was something that I wouldn't do normally. 

I mean, I was in my everyday clothes for a reason, I didn't want people to just see me naked! But I wasn't. I wasn't embarrassed because all I could think about was him. Him seeing me. Him holding me. Him helping me up and out of the pool.

Not bothering to dry off, we just gathered our things into our hands and dashed out of the poolroom still dripping wet, holding hands and in a mad rush to get to our room as fast as possible.

And along the way, we ran right through the lobby, catching the attention of the sole receptionist at the desk, the woman from before. Her eyes went first to Levi, whose shirt still clung to his skin in all the right ways, but then they found me again, giggling and holding hands with that gorgeous man.

Her expression soured once more, but I didn't find it in myself to glance over and gloat. No, I simply ran along with him, happy and so incredibly excited for what this weekend had in store.

And so, off to Room 301 we went for the rest of our weekend away.

Truly, what a weekend this was shaping up to be.

---

What we see in memories is often fragmented. We don't typically remember all of what happened, but rather the best remembered bits are what we were focused on at the time it happened. If, for example you remember the day you got your first puppy, you would likely remember everything surrounding the puppy. You wouldn't recall what you had for breakfast that day, nor how you day at school that day had been, nor what socks you were wearing. You'd remember the dog, playing with it, trying to decide on a name.

Similarly, the older a memory is, the harder it is to recall those details. If when you are fifteen you recall that first day with the dog when you were six as you sit with it in its final moments, it'll be far easier to remember than it would be later down the line, perhaps when you are thirty, and see a dog that reminds you of the dog you once had.

That was the case for everyone. There was no getting around it.

Sometimes, though, your mind latches onto a specific memory with all its might, so that whether you think back on it a year after it happened or many decades after, you can still recall it with all the clarity that you'd experienced it with for the very first time.

That was how it was for many of my memories regarding Levi. There were lots of quiet, mundane moments that I'd likely forget, but there were lots more important, incredible ones that would forever be imprinted into my memory.

I'd always be able to recall the day we met so clearly, the day he left, the day we reunited.

What happened between was sometimes where it got fuzzy.

Sometimes I'd see these memories when I slept, in the form of dreams, and I'd wake up wondering just how much of my memory had been changed for the sake of a dream. Still, I preferred those walks down memory lane than the sleep where I didn't dream, where I didn't see anything at all.

Of course, while Levi had a great deal of memories that he would like to remember, there were lots that he didn't.

Many of them being those shared with Kenny, his uncle. Most of what Kenny taught him was how to survive on his own, and provided for him via various trials by fire, offering little room for mistake. How could one dare make a mistake when you were fighting for your life?

It was during a rare, vulnerable moment for Levi on this night, this long night where both of us were restless and instead remained awake in each other's embrace, that he got to talking about his uncle. It was a rare occasion simply because he didn't remember much about Kenny, and what he did remember, he didn't like.

But he began telling me a story, of one day when Kenny had shown a little bit of humanity and mercy, perhaps what little he had left....

It was only when he stopped talking that his phone buzzed with a notification.

Confused, for who would possibly be messaging him at this hour other than for an emergency, he checked his phone. I allowed him to have his privacy, but all that was thrown out the window when Levi cursed and showed me the phone.

I could only hope that what Levi remembered about his uncle was wrong. I hoped that he was a kind, gentle soul, for the words displayed on the screen scared me to my core. But it was because his words scared me that let me know deep down that Levi was remembering him properly.

Unknown Number: yo, levi. heard you're getting hitched. what, were you not going to tell me you found yourself a little whore? I'll be in town tomorrow. I'll meet you at the sandwich place down the street from your place at noon. paulie's gyros, you know the one. don't be late, boy.

note: so, how about that new episode today? also the full version of the rumbling op??? hello????

anime-onlies please share your theories and things because I am so interested in what you have to say pls

anyway, in other news... I'm rewriting the eighth chapter of B&W now and already we are well past 62,000 words. so uh. it's going to be long. i'd say oops but I know damn well I am completely incapable of writing short stories but it's so much better in my eyes now and I'm so excited for you all to read it!!! if you choose to, anyway.

regardless, thank you all for reading and for the continued support. love you all endlessly, and I'll see you in the next one! <3