.・゜-: ✧☾　☽✧ :-゜・.

She couldn't stop shaking.

Stella sat inside the car, resting in Levi's lap with blood and sweat covering her skin. Her hand was wrapped around Levi's and all four doors were locked, still she felt no sense of security.

Her eyes were puffy from the lack of sleep and the crying. Neither of them had managed to get a minute of sleep. The fear and horror from last night had forced Stella awake and she doubted that she would get any more sleep in a good while. Levi had stayed up, watching her trembling body and the ragged breaths she would take. Even though they had murdered everyone in Joe's group, he wasn't going to take any more risks. He was never letting her out of his sight again.

The sun was now rising and they were planning to leave as soon as possible. Rick and Daryl were talking outside as Carl and Michonne had taken it upon themselves to pack up their supplies.

Stella and Levi hadn't said a word to each other since they reunited. In fact, Stella hadn't said a word to anyone. She was afraid that any word leaving her mouth would release a river of suppressed emotions.

She gave up on trying to fall asleep and sat up, leaning her elbows against her knees as she dragged her hands over her puffy face. Levi stared at her with concerned eyes, worried that she might break down any minute. He placed a warm hand on her lower back making her turn to face him.

"Hey." He whispered softly.

"Hi," her voice was weak and croaky.

"How are you?" He knew that it was a stupid question to ask someone who had gone through what she had just done last night but he wanted to show her that he was there for her in any way possible.

Stella's gaze met her shoes, that somehow had managed to get blood stains on them. She sighed as she shook her head. "I- don't." She stumbled over her words in an attempt to break the silence. "I'm okay now that you're here."

Levi send her a sad smile, knowing that she was more broken from the night's events than she was leading on.

Stella swallowed hard as she intertwined her hand with Levi's, warm and comforting hand. "I can't believe you're here." The girl shuddered, despite being draped in Levi's jacket.

"Me neither," Levi said. "It thought you died." His voice broke as he uttered the last words, feeling the pain and grief wash off him.

Stella locked her gaze with his as she listened to him continue to speak. "I watched you get shot. I watched you die. I couldn't find your pulse. I should've never left you. When I came back..." his voice was thick with suppressed tears. Stella watched his chin tremble slightly as he spoke. "I thought they blew you up. I watched them do it."

Stella clung to his hand even tighter and placed their united hands in her lap, moving closer to the boy.

"I don't know what I would've done if I didn't find you," Levi said except he knew exactly what he would've done if he didn't find her. He would've given up, taken the easy way out like a coward. He knew that it would've been selfish but he wouldn't be able to live without her.

"But you did. You found me." Stella smiled. "We found each other."

Her words lingered in the air for a moment while the two stared at each other. Levi's face was bruised and swollen from last night and Stella didn't even want to imagine the many wounds he had under his shirt from being kicked by the men. They had done their best to treat his shoulder from the arrow wound but neither of them was sure how to actually treat a wound like that. However, none of this mattered to Levi as his full concern was permanently attached to the girl in front of him. She had been emotionally hurt last night, not to mention the scattered bruises on her body.

Levi grabbed a small towel from his pocket and damped it with water. He turned to Stella, bringing the towel to her face as his hand held her cheek. He tried to wash off the dried blood from her face and neck after gently scrubbing her skin he finally got some off but the rest seemed to have inked into her skin making it impossible to wash off. He didn't want to scrub too hard so instead he just put the towel back.

Levi's hand met the side of her cheek and his thumb brushed over the cut. Stella instantly trembled under his touch and it felt as though an invisible noose tightened around her neck at the feeling of Levi's finger on the spot where the man had touched her last night. For a brief moment, she was brought back to the moment before she was shoved into reality again. Levi noticed her slow-rising panic and replaced his thump with a small kiss on her wound as his hand held hers.

He removed his lips from her cheek, bringing his mouth close to her ear.
"I'll never let anything or anybody hurt you again." He moved his face so that he was in front of hers. "I'll never leave you again."

Stella's eyes fixated on his and she squeezed his hand tighter. Their faces were inches apart and she could feel his warm breath, brush against her lips sending a shiver down her spine.

"I found your letter." She whispered. She watched Levi's face turn slightly in confusion. "The one you wrote when you thought you would die from the flu."

The boy stared at her with an unreadable expression.
Stella's pulse thundered but she couldn't waste another second. She had to tell him the truth. She had known it was true for a long time, even before the fall of the prison but she had never said it before.

"I love you." Her words came out as a low whisper.
Her confession lingered in the air for a moment as a smile grew on Levi's face. Stella felt a twisting sensation in her stomach as the seconds passed.

"I love you, too, sweetheart." He said against her lips, sending a flutter to her stomach so strong it could've healed her bullet wound. Levi captured her mouth in a warm kiss. His hand traveled to her cheek, brushing against the cut. A stab of anger consumed him at the memory of how she gained the scar. The way she had been forced to her knees with the governor pressing the blade against her throat. The way he smiled as he marked her cheek and how he whispered something to her as he did.

.・゜-: ✧☾　☽✧ :-゜・.

They traveled over the train tracks again. The cold autumn breeze grazed Stella's skin and she wrapped Levi's jacket around her even tighter. Levi's hand rested inside the pocket of her jacked, clinging onto her hand. They walked in silence and Stella wanted to say something. Something to Carl. Something that would heal him from the trauma from the night before. But no words could ever heal someone from that. Stella knew.

They were getting closer to Termius but the hope and faith that the girl had felt the day before had extinguished.

"We're getting close." Daryl's voice broke through the silence and he stopped in front of a sign hidden under the leaves. He used his foot to brush the leaves off it to reveal the black letter that read TERMINUS.

"We'll be there before sundown," Daryl said.

"Now we head through the woods," Rick spoke up. "We don't know who they are."

The group nodded and together marched into the forest. Levi and Stella circled the perimeter to Termius, several feet in front of Michonne and Carl. Stella glanced over her shoulder, trying to read her brother's expression but his head hung low, his hat covering most of his face as he walked.
The blonde sighed as she looked back down on her feet again.

Levi brushed his thumb over Stella's hand before squeezing it tighter inside her pocket making her look up at him with a small smile. He was endlessly grateful to have found her, alive and almost well. Her gunshot wound seemed to be catching an infection and her stab wound caused her to have trouble waking but nothing stopped her from stubbornly marching through the woods around Terminus. He smiled proudly at the sight.

He looked down at her, letting his gaze dance over her face soaking in every inch of its beauty. He found no imperfections on it. Not even the scar that trailed over her chin could ever ruin the sight of her for him.  She was flawless, regardless of the dirt and blood that stained her face, of the bags under her eyes from the crying the night before, of her dirty and torn clothes. He wanted nothing more than to get her to see that as well.

"Whatever happens at Terminus, you don't leave my side." He said, with a mask of full seriousness on his face. Stella looked up at him and nodded before the two fell into a silence.

"What do you think it'll be like?" Stella asked after a moment.

"I don't know." Levi shook his head and glanced over Stella to the building behind the fences. "There's something about it... I don't know."

Stella hummed in agreement. "Maybe they have dogs there." She smiled earning one back from the boy next to her.

"Yeah, maybe."

_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____
𝟏𝟔𝟏𝟔 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
_____ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ _____

𝐀/𝐍
short but sweet and sad chapter.

I love my babies Levi and Stella together. I've missed writing my fav couple