Eren stares down at his hands, worn from use and slightly wrinkled from age. The scars made by his own teeth have faded over the years, but they'll never go away completely. They remind him of big black wings and stormy gray eyes - things missed but never forgotten.

Between his palms he holds a sketchbook, it's pages slightly yellowed and its cover worn and faded, the spiral holding it together slightly bent. He calculates in his head how old it must be, and decides it's held up pretty well over the course of forty years. It, along with a dozen or so others, had been stashed away in the closet of his room in a box, safe and sound. It wasn't the first, but if he remembered correctly, it was one of his favorites.

Gently, he lifts the cover to reveal the first drawing - simply the design of his first thought on how he wanted the sign for the tea shop to look. It's scratchy and messy, but it brings back fond memories of getting the place into the works. The second drawing is a general floor plan he'd mapped out in his head, and the rest of the pages contain similar things - plans, plans, plans. Some that had stuck and still remained in that small wooden building inside Wall Rose, over a thousand miles from where he lived now, run by Lilly Arlert and her soon to be husband whose name Eren can never seem to remember. She'd volunteered to continue its business, even said she might try and expand if it was okay with Eren and her father, and they'd left it totally up to her, so long as she kept the legacy alive.

Eren had remained close to the tea shop as long as he could, just as he traveled to the top of the wall as long as it was physically possible for him. After sustaining surgery and being told he needed to take it easy, he retired and moved outside the walls with Armin in the guest house. After Armin's wife had died, he allowed Eren to move into the main house with him where there was nothing to block the spectacular view of the ocean, and if not for their age, it would've started to feel like the days they lived together when the shop was just getting started, and Eren's content with it. They both are.

On the last page of the book is simply the sketch of a wing, somehow bringing forth more nostalgia than any of the other sloppy sketches.

Levi.

Eren can still feel the tightening of his throat at the thought of the name - one he hasn't spoken in decades. He can still feel the ache of emptiness in his chest where his raven-haired companion is supposed to be - physically, right there next to him.

And yet he can still smile at the memory of him. At the fact that somehow, whenever he speaks with the intention of Levi being able to perceive his words, he knows the man can in fact hear him.

Eren glances up. In the window sill still sits the glass bottle, sealed with a cork, containing that jet black feather. It's a reminder to Eren - whose head is still foggy from PTSD and simply old age - that he really had come back and given Eren another little piece of hope and peace. And a reminder that Levi loved him, at least back then.

The saddest of smiles gracing his lips, Eren replaces the sketchbook back on top of the others and pushed the box aside, deciding it was late and he'd look through them another day. After readying himself for bed, he crawls in and let himself relax into the mattress, feeling the pacemaker keep a steady rhythm for his heart and counting the beats as he always does until he drifts into a quiet, peaceful sleep from which he would never wake.

* * *

"You're just in time."

"Did you expect me to be here any later?"

"No. Not with the way things have been going for you. But I hoped you'd stick around at least a little longer."

Eren's eyes are on his feet, bare in the white sand as the tide washes gently over his toes. The water is calmer than he's ever seen it, even with the air free of wind and the sun sinking towards the horizon.

"The ocean, huh?"

"Your favorite place."

He smiles, looking up. "Of course that's why."

"Was I wrong?"

"No. But the setting doesn't matter much, don't you think?"

"I've been here all along, Eren. To feel closer to you."

His head swivels to his right; he's grinning widely.. "I missed you too."

Levi doesn't return the smile,, but he's never been much of a smiler. His eyes say all Eren needs to know, though. His chest is still bare and he wears nothing more than torn denim shorts, his wings hanging lazily from his shoulder blades so that the tips brush the sand.

He turns, taking the four steps it takes to stand directly in front of Eren, gazing up at him all the while. His hand lifts and extends toward Eren - resembling the appearance he bore in his early twenties rather than the way he looked when he passed - who expects to be touched on the cheek or shoulder and is surprised when his hand goes further than that, brushing over something else entirely, and that when Eren feels it. The extra weight on his back, the extension of some other limb-like thing he's never felt before. He gasps and whips his head around to find Levi's fingertips stroking down a giant white wing.

And suddenly he's aware of the extra muscles, the extra nerves extending back, and they twitch. Just as his lips pop open to speak, Levi's talking first.

"I'm not surprised yours are white," he says softly.

"H-huh?"

"White generally represents purity." He brushes the feathers just once more before dropping his arm at meeting Eren's eyes again.

The brunette brings his wings forward a bit, looking more closely at them. They truly are a flawless white, almost glowing even in the dimming light. He stretches them out, tucks them in, testing. Shrugs. To him, Levi's are still more beautiful - dark and mysterious, but powerful at the same time. And they suit him. They always have.

And suddenly it becomes impossible to resist throwing his arms around the shorter male, tucking his head into his shoulder and holding as tight as possible. Even his wings follow the motion, wrapping themselves around him as if that would help him hold onto Levi forever. In turn, Levi's arms slide around his waist, his face buried in Eren's shoulder.

After Eren ceases feeling the cool tide washing over his feet, he pulls back, tilting Levi's chin upward. The other meets his gaze steadily, the corner of his lips just barely tilting up.

Eren had never felt this light or this free. Had almost forgotten what it feels like not to have the uneven thunking of a malfunctioning heart, or how it feels to so easily pull fresh air into his lungs. He smiles himself, causing Levi's to widen as well.

Suddenly Levi finds himself being tackled into the sand with a pair of lips crashing into his own, sending a shock of surprise and a thrill to rocket down his spine at the same time. Eren is everywhere - his warmth and his wings as his lips move together against Levi's.

Once Eren rolls off, they remain there, talking and exchanging affectionate gestures, making up for lost time where time didn't seem to exist at all, save for the sun eventually disappearing to reveal an entire galaxy of stars.

"You never got married," Levi whispers at one point.

"I never found anyone," Eren whispers back, mildly preoccupied with tracing Levi's ribs.

"That's a lie. You found a few. And you almost did marry one of them." Eren swallows, saying nothing. "That dark-haired woman, remember?"

"Of course I remember her. And I realized I was never really in love with her."

"Why not? She loved you."

"I know." Eren pulls his knees up, curling into Levi's side, wings spread out behind him. "And I'm still mad at myself for hurting her."

"Why didn't you love her?"

The brunet's fist presses over the spot where Levi's heart used to beat steady and proud. "I realized...that I only wanted to marry her because she was the closest thing I found to you."

He feels Levi's body go suddenly stiff for a moment. His fingers card through Eren's hair and his other hand lifts to tilt his chin up to see his face, giving him the tenderest of looks.

"It's not like it matters now anyway," Eren murmurs with a small smile, dismissing the conversation and moving on to something else.

It's only when the sun is beginning to rise again that it hits Eren and he jumps up. The water is still calm, the light shines from behind them and he's tugging on Levi's hand, urging him to stand.

"What are you suddenly so excited about?" Levi mumbles, but doing as asked anyway.

"I think I figured it out," Eren responds excitedly, pulling his companion right down to the water and wading in without a second thought. It's cooler than before, and Eren takes a brief moment to realize he, too, wears nothing but a pair of shorts. He moves in until the water is halfway up his calf; he searches the surface for his reflection. Once the water has calmed back down, he sees his and Levi's faces clearly against the backdrop of the dawning sky.

"Figured what out, kid?"

"Our wings," Eren says.

"What about them?"

"Hold your wing up. Extend it as high as you can," Eren tells Levi. The raven gives him a quizzical look before doing as told, his wing reaching almost twice his height into the air. Smiling, Eren says, "Now stay there." He begins moving away - sidestepping to the left a ways before stopping and doing the same with his right wing, holding it right against the front of Levi's so they overlap.

And when the water calms once again, they see it. Their eyes meet in the reflection.

"The Wings of Freedom." 

~The End~

---

This doesn't feel exactly the way I wanted it to, but I guess that's okay. Thank you to everyone who read this, commented, and voted on it; it means more than you can possibly imagine. I hope you like the way I ended it, too; there were a couple ways I was considering, so...yeah, haha.

I can probably go through and find some trivia about it if you guys want me to post another part with that xD But as always, let me know what you thought. ♥

(Also, I'm gonna be editing this all the way through and updating it - just a head's up. (; )