“to me, you are the morning.”
(a RivaMika drabble)
Art by @onigiri-dorkk 🍙🤍
“Oi, brat. Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
Mikasa’s hand pauses just before she can pour the sugar into her tea, and the sight nearly makes him twitch in discomfort. She follows his gaze, seeing that he’s staring at her hand, and then looks back at him with an incredulous expression.
“What are you? The tea police?” Mikasa teases as she watches him take his seat across from her.
“If I was, I’d have you arrested by now, brat,” Levi says dully, but Mikasa doesn’t miss the hint of humor in his tone, “You’re ruining the natural flavor of the tea leaves.”
She dunks the spoonful of sugar into her tea cup and looks at him with a kittenish look in her eyes, never passing up the opportunity to spite him.
“It’s a matter of preference, Levi,” she sips, enjoying the slight grimace in his features, “Just like how you preferred to fall in love with me when you could’ve chosen someone much less – ” she gives him a little smile that further validates her point, “ – bratty.”
Levi rolls his eyes with an amused smirk, a small scoff escaping, “Touche.”
With an amused beam herself, Mikasa pours tea into his cup and slides it over to him, “Good morning, by the way.”
He chuckles in defeat, his quiet smile forming softly upon his lips as he lifts his teacup, “Good morning, Mikasa.”
They sip their tea in comfortable silence, their ritual of peace that unintentionally became reserved for one another every morning. Mikasa observes his poise, elegant as it's always been even in his most simplest states, as he sets his cup down and lets out a small breath of contentment. She also notices he’s wearing the light blue dress shirt she had bought him, the very one that he had nagged about her wasting her money on. Her heart warms at the sight, warming up even more with the tea that reaches her soul in more ways than one, a delicious reminder of what she has with him, with each other.
The sounds of birds passing by suddenly fill the air and Levi turns his head to gaze out the window beside them. Outside was a flock of birds soaring through the air, weightless and free, almost symbolic in the way they fly in unison, yet still go in their own direction. She smiles, her spirits lifted, like that of a mother’s reassurance saying she’s done well. The world knows how much she’s needed just that.
“The mornings have been quite beautiful these days, haven’t they?” Mikasa tells him softly as she stares out the window in admiration with him, seeing the life she once believed she would never live long enough to witness – a life of color, clear as day.
She watches the warm hued leaves float gracefully down from the luscious autumn trees, complemented with the soft rays of golden sunlight streaming through the window pane that cast a gentle glow across the room, and when she sees the birds fly off into the clouds of the morning skies, she thinks to herself: Ah. So this is a peaceful life.
“Mikasa,” his voice draws her back in like an embrace.
“Hm?” her eyes embrace him back.
And it’s when that very bodiless embrace pulls away that Mikasa stands corrected on what a peaceful life looks like.
“Marry me.”
The wind chimes play a melody and it’s her heart that sings to its beat.
“W-what?”
Levi reaches for her hand across the table – his touch gentle and kind as she’s always known it to be – while his other reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small, wooden box, resurfacing a feeling of belonging she thought was long gone and far beyond her reach.
Yet, here is this man, strong and true and real, handing it right over to her.
“Marry me, Mikasa,” Levi says again, this time with more conviction, more heart, “Grant me the privilege of loving you, as I always have, all these years. Because I know no greater honor than to be yours…officially.”
Levi gently wipes a tear from her cheek that she didn’t even realize had escaped, framing her cheek with his palm as he concludes his promise, “And let’s keep staying here. Just you and me, in this cabin, sipping tea every morning with as much damn sugar as you want.”
How can she ever say no?
“Yes,” Mikasa says in a breath, her heart welled up in utter euphoria as her smile touches her ears, “Yes, Levi. I will marry you.”
Levi smiles back in response, another reserved smile made just for her. He frames her face with his palms, leaning across the table to kiss her tenderly, gratefully. Her tears reach in between their lips, and for the first time in a long time, they no longer taste bitter.
Mikasa sniffles and lets out a soft, exasperated laugh, wiping her tears away with her free hand while Levi slides the ring on her finger. “Isn’t a man supposed to ask for a woman’s hand in marriage, not demand it? You’re not my captain anymore, you know.”
He only smirks, bringing her hand to his lips and planting a trail of light kisses across her knuckles, “Because you don’t have a choice.”
She gives him a playful smile. “Funny to always assume you’ll get your way.”
“Well…” Levi eyes the ring on her finger before looking back at her, his eyes both pooled with humor and love as he stands and walks to her side, pulling her up into an embrace, “Didn’t I?”
Her usual urge to correct him ceases to exist. With a fulfilled heart, Mikasa wraps her arms around him as well, her gaze peering out the window behind him, watching as the morning sun blankets the world in the same way he blankets hers.
“Yes. Yes you did.”
—
THANK YOU AGAIN @onigiri-dorkk FOR DRAWING SUCH A BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZING PIECE THAT INSPIRED ME TO WRITE AGAIN! You’re seriously the greatest to ever do it! I love you so much and I’m so honored I got to collab with you 🍙🤍 Please keep doing what you do, because you’re AMAZING AT IT PERIODT.
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