#the-laurel-tree

Standing between the pair, he has a child hanging from either arm, alternating them as he lifts them up in a show of strength and silliness. His own smile bright, so much so it’s almost blinding as he laughs, throwing his head back with his mirth. It shakes his shoulders as he pulls both arms up, earning him a squeal of elation that she can hear through the window pane.

Burning pride ignites inside her chest, leaving nothing in its path except the feeling that has tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

As life had had it, Gajeel had come to her a darkened thing. Dealt a bad hand, he’d let himself believe that his life was forfeit to his circumstance, but Levy had known better. She’d always known better. And even in his darkest times, she’d always held onto hope that as long as she believed enough for the both of them, it would all work out.

And now, she knows it has.

Before her, with their children tucked in his arms against his chest now, Gajeel is the man she always knew he would be.

The dragon slayer starts to pepper the twins’ faces with kisses as they swat at him playfully. That only makes him kiss harder, laughing into their skin as his arms tighten just enough to squeeze.

With her own smile large and wide, Levy turns away from the scene, pushing open the front door without hesitation as she tears into the home and jumps at her family without announcement.

“Mama!” The twins shriek as she feels small hands grab at her shirt, tugging at her as Gajeel chuckles and loosens his grip on the kids so she can take them in her arms. They’re warm against her skin as they mirror their father and begin to press quick kisses all over her cheeks.

Levy sees the crinkles at Gajeel’s eyes as he smiles at them, turning his garnet eyes warm as she steps toward him.

“Shrimp,” he says lowly, a greeting balanced on the tip of his tongue. She never gets to hear it as she presses up on her toes, snatching the words from his mouth as she pushes a burning kiss against his lips.

There’s so much she could say to him about how proud she is of him, and of their life, but she hopes that for now, this is enough.

Levy nips at his lip playfully before pulling away, cheeks heating at the sound of the twins’ disgusted chorus of ew’s.

“I missed you too, Lev,” Gajeel breathes, reaching between their kids and cradling her cheek within his palm as he stroked a line across her freckled cheek. The moment is sweet and tender, a picture of everything she knew that they could have, and suddenly the weight of all her insecurities dissipate with the heated touch.

“Keith,” Shiro manages as he trains his eyes ahead, searching the screens until he sees the quick movement of white and red cutting across the desert sand. Dark hair twisted with the ferocity of his speed as Keith pushed across the earth with his focus set on the Atlas.

It’s singleminded and unwavering, a testament to what Shiro loves about him most.

“I’m coming,” Shiro says before snatching the out his earpiece, slamming it down onto the console before turning on his heel. If any of the crew members notice their captain tearing from the ship, they don’t say anything as his footsteps echo through the halls before transforming into the hard slap of his soles against hard, cracked dirt.

They meet in the middle in a hug that crushes what air he has left out of his lungs as his hands find Keith’s hair, tangling within its waves as he holds onto him as if he might get away.

At one point and time, Shiro had thought he would.

But that was so long ago. In a different time, and in a different place.

This is here, and now, and they’ve done it.

Moisture collects at the juncture of his throat and shoulder where Keith is burying soft sobs and nonsensical words as his fingers clutch at the back of Shiro’s uniform.

“Shh,” he hushes, not daring to raise his voice above a whisper as he loses himself to the feel of Keith’s burning breath on his pulse. They line up in an erratic rhythm, only evening out after several moments wrapped within each others arms and the soft glow of victory.

“We did it,” Keith’s voice tickles before he pulls back, capturing Shiro’s gaze with his own tear stained stare. “We saved the world, Takashi.”

The enormity of the statement truly hits then as he drags a breath of the dry desert air down into his lungs, reveling in the burn if only because he was alive to do so. Through crashes that had stolen his life as he had known it; through adventures that had taken them lightyears from home; and through fights that had left them both scarred, they had done it.

Loosening his grip on his hair, Shiro slid his palms along the sharp diamond cut of Keith’s jaw and ran a gentle thumb across the healed burn on his cheek. It pulls something soft from Keith’s lips as he pushes into the touch, his eyelids fluttering at the contact. With care, Shiro leans down slowly before brushing a kiss across the raised skin, lingering long enough to elicit another sweet sigh.

“Yes,” he breathes as he pulls away, looking down at Keith. This close, he can count the stars that are trapped in his eyes. “We did.”

The victory burns itself into his skin as a full crescent smile breaks across Keith’s face before he slides a hand to Shiro’s chest, fisting it into his uniform. With a sharp tug, he presses that smile against his.

They did it, Shiro thinks as he opens for Keith.