#grace ackerman

“I did. I did say that,” Levi mumbles. He reaches behind him, waving Grace off so that she’ll stop choking him with his shirt. He slowly sits up in bed, ignoring the amused giggles from his wife at seeing him like this when he’s usually up and about by five in the morning. He rubs his face and looks tiredly over at his daughter, who doesn’t seem to notice how exhausted he is.

“Presents!” Grace says again, throwing her chubby arms up in the air when she sees that her father has finally gotten up.

“Give your dad some time to wake up first,” Petra says to her daughter. She reaches out to brush a lock of hair from Grace’s face. She sits up and pulls Grace into her lap, pressing a sweet kiss on her daughter’s forehead. “How about we sit outside and wait for Daddy first? We can eat some of the cookies that Santa didn’t eat. Do you want me to warm some milk for you?”

Grace squeals in delight, jumping off the bed and running down the stairs to the living room without waiting for her mother.

Petra laughs and looks over at Levi who is still slouched over half-asleep in their bed. She reaches out to brush his cheek with the back of her hand. “I’ll meet you downstairs,” she tells him, giving him a quick peck on the top of his head. She gets up from the bed, her absence making it a little colder, but she makes sure to straighten the sheets before she leaves, making sure that they don’t drag on the ground. As she leaves the room, she tells him, “I’ll have some tea ready for you when you come down.”

Levi only grunts in response.

He yawns, not even bothering to cover his mouth because he’s so damn tired. He had underestimated his daughter and her stubbornness. After last night’s party, he was sure that Grace would fall asleep immediately, but it seems that playing with her uncles and opening presents weren’t enough to wear her out. She still had enough energy to stay up until two in the morning to wait for Santa Claus to come, and Levi had struggled to stay awake to tuck his daughter in her own bed and then put all the presents under the tree. He should stay in bed for at least another hour – after all, she was the one who had made it so difficult for him to get up in the morning – but he’s not that cruel of a father. In the end, Levi manages to stumble out of his bed and down the stairs where his wife and daughter are waiting for him.

“Daddy, hurry!” Grace whines, getting up from where she was kneeling in front of the tree. She hurriedly walks over to where her father is and takes him by his hand, pulling him after her so he can sit next to her mother on the floor.

“Tea?” Petra asks cheerfully. She holds out a steaming mug of tea for him.

“Thanks,” Levi says groggily, taking the cup from her. He takes a long sip but regrets it immediately when he tastes the overwhelming flavor of peppermint mixed with chocolate. It’s far too rich, creamy, and festive for his taste, but Petra had insisted that they at least try it out for the holidays. He makes a face after swallowing, frowning when he hands the mug back to Petra, but she only giggles back at him.

“Daddy,” Grace says. When Levi looks up, he sees his daughter standing in front of him with a restless frown on her face. “Can we open presents now? We’ve been waiting for you forever!”

“Go ahead,” Levi yawns, waving her away.

Grace doesn’t need to be told twice. She immediately reaches for the largest box, tearing off the shiny wrapping paper and discarding it carelessly on the ground. The girl gasps when she finally sees the picture printed on the box – a pastel pink dollhouse, one that she had been begging for ever since it had come out. She squeals excitedly, opening it up to show her parents all the different rooms and the tiny, ornate furniture.

“You must have been such a good girl this year, Grace!” Petra says with a smile. She holds up her phone, holding it sideways so that she can capture a picture with Grace and her gift. “Now smile so we can send a picture to grandma and grandpa later!”

Their daughter happily sits next to her new dollhouse, hugging it and smiling for the camera even though the plastic chimney pressed against her cheek can’t be too comfortable. Still, she grins widely even as her mother counts down from three and finally takes the picture.

“Can I see?” Grace asks, getting up from where she was sitting to walk over to her mother. She taps on her mom’s shoulder, making that same pout from before as she waits for her mom to let her look on the screen.

Petra flips her phone over so that Grace can see. “Aren’t you such a beautiful girl?” Petra coos.

“She takes after her mother,” Levi says, relishing the faint blush that flushes across his wife’s cheeks. He reaches out to ruffle Grace’s hair. “Go and open the rest of Santa’s presents, Grace. Let’s see what else you got.”

“Okay!” Grace says gleefully, rushing over to her presents and picking out a bag where she pulls out a stuffed rabbit.

Levi watches as Petra snaps yet another picture of their daughter and listens as his daughter takes her time admiring the snow-white bunny, fiddling with the pink ribbon tied around one of its ears. It might have been difficult for him to get up this morning, but he’s glad he did so in the end. Even though he hates the mess of opening up presents on Christmas morning, he adores his daughter’s delighted smile too much to care.

Petra notices her husband’s gaze and she reaches out to squeeze his hand. “Merry Christmas. And happy birthday,” she says to him softly. “I do have a surprise for you…but I wasn’t able to wrap it.”

“It’s fine,” Levi assures her. He pauses for a moment to let Grace – excited this time because she had just opened a set of beautiful crayons – sit on his lap. He wraps his arms around his daughter and strokes her hair. “The two of you are more than enough for me.”

“Then would one more be too much?” Petra asks with a soft smile.

It takes Levi a moment to understand what she’s saying, but it all becomes clear when he lowers his gaze and sees that her hand rests on her belly. Her stomach is smooth and flat, but he knows that in a few months it will swell and a few months after that he’ll be able to put his hand against her belly and feel a kick from the baby inside. He’s not even sure if it’s a boy or a girl, but he’s sure it won’t matter. He’ll love them just the same.

The young girl does look an awful lot like Petra, although her hair is more golden in color. Petra says her hair will darken into a darker ginger color as she grows older. Like her mother, the girl has such sweet expressions on her faces, but she can look surprisingly like her father when she doesn’t get what she wants. Her hair is cut in a bob just like her mother’s, making her look even more like Petra’s mini-me. It’s just her eyes, a light gray just like her father’s, that she’s inherited from Levi.

“Sweet like her mother too,” Eld grins. He’s especially sweet on the young girl now that he’s expecting a child of his own with his wife soon. Of Levi’s men, he’s the one that looks after Grace the most. “Can you imagine having a miniature version of Levi with the same temperament? I’m sure that’d be a nightmare.”

“No, she’s nothing like either of them,” Auruo sniffs as he ties off the end of the girl’s braided pigtails. He holds her close to him as if to keep her from running away and morphing into her parents. Glaring at the others, he says, “Don’t you ever say that about Grace! She’s a complete angel, nothing at all like her mother! Petra can be cruel sometimes, you know.”

“That’s true,” Eld says darkly. “She did kick my ass at practice a little harder than she needed to.”

Gunter rolls his eyes. “But didn’t you once say you were going to marry her before, Auruo?”

Even if it is true, Auruo looks horrified at this reminder. “As if she’s anyone special!” Auruo scoffs, but there’s a slight blush of pink in his cheeks hinting at his embarrassment. “I could have any woman I want, you know. I let Captain Levi have Petra as his wife. I was the one to give them their blessing after Petra’s old dad, and I was their best man, wasn’t I?”

“But if you could have any woman you want, why are you still single, Auruo?” Eren asks curiously.

“Ah, you youngsters don’t understand love and woman,” Auruo splutters, visibly turning redder by the minute. “I said I could have anyone I liked! It’s just that I choose to stay single, you hear? I’m perfectly happy by myself! Don’t I just seem like the happiest man – gah!” He groans, a hand clasped to his mouth because he’s bitten his tongue from talking too fast again. Even after all these years, he still hasn’t gotten out of the habit of it.

“You don’t seem all that happy right now,” Eld says unsympathetically. He, like the others, makes no move to comfort Auruo or see if he’s okay, used to the man hurting himself in this way already.

“Hurt?” Grace asks, turning to the man after hearing his cries of pain. She reaches up to pat his sandy locks in the same way that her mother does to her when she needs comfort. She struggles to stand, clinging to his shoulder to help her upright, and reaches up to press a sweet kiss against his forehead. She pulls back to observe his reaction, tilting his head to ask, “Better?”

To her surprise, Auruo bursts into tears and throws his arms around her, holding her more tightly than he had just done before. “Never change, Grace!” he cries, sobbing as he holds her close. “Just stay the way you are now!”

“Still hurts?” Grace asks, her tiny brow knitted in confusion. Using the sleeve of her dress, she dabs at his face to wipe away his tears. When she still sees that he’s crying, she kisses her hand and repeated presses it against his face – his cheeks, his forehead, his nose, his chin – until his crying has stopped and he can’t help but smile at her. Seeing Auruo’s smile, the little girl smiles herself. “Good!”

“Ah, Grace,” Eld says, pushing himself off the wall he’s leaning against. He crouches down so that he’s eye-level with Grace now. Holding out a perfectly fine finger, he says to her, “We’ve all got boo-boos, Grace. Can you make them all better for us?”

“You shouldn’t trick her like this,” Gunter murmurs as he watches Grace toddle over to where Eld is to kiss is finger better. Still, he doesn’t object when Grace makes her way to him to kiss the side of his head to make his imaginary headache disappear. He gives her a gracious smile, which only makes her all the more enthusiastic to give Eren his kiss.

“Oh, it’s okay,” Eren laughs when she runs to him, arms outstretched to throw around his neck. He tries to wave her off, but the girl is stubborn and is beginning to look more like her father the more upset she gets. Finally, Eren gives in, allowing her to give him a kiss on his cheek.

It is, of course, right when she presses her little pink lips against his cheek that Levi opens the door, returning home after his meeting with the other military officials. When he sees Eren with his child, his face grows dangerously dark and Eren can only squeak out a weak hello while his comrades watch in amusement.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing with my daughter,” Levi growls.

“Daddy! Welcome home!” his daughter squeals. Grace, seeing that her father has come home, quickly forgets about the rest of them. She springs up, stumbling over to her father and nearly tripping over herself in her excitement.

Levi’s expression softens, and he bends over to pick her up. “Where’s your mother? Is she still sleeping upstairs?” he asks Grace. He reaches up to brush a lock of her golden hair away from her face as she nods at him. He listens to his daughter as she babbles about her day – how nice it was to play with Uncle Eld and Uncle Eren, how fun and silly Uncle Auruo, and how Uncle Gunter promised to teach her how to make flower crowns once springtime came along and the flowers began to bloom again – and it looks as though he’s forgotten about his daughter kissing Eren until he passes by the poor boy and shoots him a deadly glare.