{LEVIHAN} Always

Chapter 25: Ships

Levi's POV

Raven was overjoyed to see the ship, but Zayne started to cry. Why? He said the ship was too big. Too big... sometimes, I want to go back to being their age, wanting to know why he cried at the ship is too big. Either way, we continued onto the ship. Hanji went into one of the rooms to lie down; Reiner and Connie went with her to put our stuff in our room. I was left with Raven and Zayne, and they were both eager for stories.

"Raven," Jean walks up to me, smiling at her, "I have a question for you... why don't you like my stories?"

"Not fun." She replies, turning to Armin. "Do you have any stories?"

"A few." He chuckles, beckoning the children to him. "Would you like to hear them?"

"Yes!"

Raven jumps off my lap and towards Armin. Zayne still clung to my leg, looking up at me. He looked scared, but I nodded my head, "You can go with your sister. It's alright." With those words, he scurried off to Armin. This time, he brought little puppets to help tell a story.

"She loves those stories..." Jean mutters under his breath. "Raven loves everyone's stories, but mine."

"Maybe yours is a bit stupid," I grumbled, watching my two children. "Raven takes after Hanji with stories. She'll be entertained if the stories are good enough. She loves hero stories. Stories that have mythical creatures. And pirates. As well as snakes."

"You said the snakes meant death."

"We used snakes to hide death. Hanji started it with Moblit turning into a snake. That's why she loves them. If you use snakes in your stories, then she might like you. Otherwise, I can't help you."

"Levi," I looked back to Jean as he walks close to me. "How could you do it? Live with Hanji and lying to us about her existence?"

"There were many nights I convinced myself she wasn't real. Some nights I believed she was. Some were times I couldn't decide. My head kept playing games with me... so it wasn't as great as you think it was, Jean. Every day since she was back with me... Hanji did her best to convince me she was alive and well."

"What convinced you fully?"

"Raven. With her birth, I knew everything was real. I will always have them... even when they're not here with us."

"Are you talking about the child you lost?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah. Hanji and I are planning to tell her. Sooner than later."

"How are you going to tell her?"

I chuckled, repeating Hanji's words to the same question I asked her. "We give her a snake. And tell her it was her sister. When she's older, she'll understand what we meant."

"Where was she buried?"

"She's not buried... we turned her body to ash. We have her ashes on the ship... there was no way we could leave her behind in that cabin... alone until we returned when Hanji and I are old with gray hair. We want her to be with us, to watch her siblings grow. Then, we will return to the cabin with her... so she's never alone."

"Is it rude of me to ask for her name?"

I shook my head, replying to him. "Petra. We were going to name her Petra. We were at a loss for girl names, and we went with one that seemed right. I would like to see what she would've looked like..."

"I bet she would've been beautiful."

I nodded my head, wondering what gender our next baby is going to be. Maybe it is going to be a boy like Raven claims. I'm not too sure.

"Zayne! Don't go there!"

Shooting up my head, I see Zayne waddling towards the rail. If only I could move my legs quickly... "Zayne Erwin, get back here."

That stops him in his tracks before he waddles back to me. "L-Levi, I'm so sorry, I didn't know he wandered out of my sight-."

"It's fine," I say to Armin as Zayne hugs my leg tightly. "If he fell off the boat, then I wouldn't forgive you." I looked down at Zayne, gripping his shirt tightly. "Don't you ever walk to the end without an adult, understand? Stay with me."

Zayne's hands shook as I hauled him up and onto my lap. Firmly wrapping my arms around him, he began to lean on my chest, closing his eyes. "Dada..."

"Your mommy would've killed me if something happened to you, Zayne... don't leave us."

I listened to a few of Armin's stories to Raven... and a few disappointing stories from Jean. Even I got bored listening to them. In the end, Raven began to drift off to sleep, so I took them to their mother for a nap. She was still sleeping...

I smiled softly, tucking the two of our children to bed. I'm not going to tell Hanji that Zayne almost fell off the side of the ship... she doesn't need stress as she's carrying our... next child. I can't believe Hanji's this strong to carry at least 4 children inside of her... hearing her cry out in pain as she gave birth reminded me of the titans. Perhaps we have gone too far with the children. Maybe we should've kept it with Raven... maybe we wouldn't have to suffer the pain of losing our second daughter... but it's what made Hanji smile... and I always wanted her to keep smiling...