Fragile [Gardener!Levi x Paralyzed!Reader] AU

(www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyI6aL… Please listen while you read!)

“How does this look, Levi?”

The man simply grunted in reply, his head lowered, focussed on his work.

“Aw, come on. Just one look?”

“Hang on, [Name],” he grumbled.

With a short sigh in defeat, you leaned against your arm, the soft grass tickling your skin. You watched his strong, calloused hands pull and tug at the weeds, infesting the little garden. Who knew such rough hands, often used for fighting, would tend to such delicate and breakable forms of life?

Then again, it added to the many reasons why you loved him so.

He was a soldier, a mere tool once used to defend the safety of your homeland. He had witnessed many a comrade and friend fall to the hands of the enemy. He watched lives of both friend and foe slaughter one another, humanity pitted against each other, and all for what? He refused to care. All he knew was kill or be killed.

All you saw was his shattered mind when he returned. He came home to you a broken man, refusing to show his pain, refusing to tell anyone of the horrors he had seen.

Not even to you, his fiance he was once to close to.

Although your heart crumbled at his distancing, you couldn’t imagine his pain, constantly filtering images of bloodshed, explosions, death, destruction. It wasn’t fair, you thought. It wasn’t fair for him to be forced into drafting, something he said for years he would never do.

The opportunity he longed for, the chance to have a normal life and escape his dirty deeds of the past, was stolen from him.

You urged him into therapy. You used what little money you earned to fund medicine and help just to bring him back to you. You hated his withdrawals from you. You hated his lying awake into the long hours of the night, reliving his fights, remembering his losses, everything.

Over...

...and over....

...and over again.
You cared not that your limbs were withered and splintered. You cared not about whether or not you would ever take your first step again. You gave not the slightest hint of sadness for your own sake.

What did it matter if Levi was not at your side?

What did it matter if he was too exhausted or distracted to function in your life anymore?

Little by little, he came back to you. You helped him piece himself back together. He came back to his life, back to the sanctuary of your arms. He picked up new habits that he would never have considered before to occupy his troubled mind.

And you loved it.

So, this secret garden came into being, hidden from the terrors of the outside world. He handled it as if everything within this haven had been made of glass. He planted flowers of all species and colors. He wrapped vines around the poles of the house, the little swing, allowing them to grow into a green shade from the sun. He created a little pond where a small family of goldfish dwelled.

It was straight from a fairytale.

No, better yet, it was straight from him. He created this, this home away from home.

And you wouldn’t trade it for the world.

At last, after removing the small, green infestations from his beloved garden, Levi grunted as he sat next to you. Carefully, he removed the grime from his slender fingers.

With pursed lips, you waited. You worked hard to compose this small crown of blossoms. After it falling apart so many times, your persistence brought this piece into being, and you were proud.

After releasing a slow exhale, Levi turned to you. Though he never smiled, the softening in his crystal eyes was enough to show his approval.

You grinned. “You like it?”

He gazed at you longingly a moment. Then, he clicked his tongue.

“You usin’ my flowers to make shitty pieces of jewelry? Moron.”

You scoffed. “Aw, come on, Levi! You know I wouldn’t blatantly pick your flowers,” you adjusted the ornament squarely on your head. “These had already fallen!”

“Whatever,” he retorted.

He moved a little closer to you, urging you to lay back in the cool, clean grass. After caging you with one arm,  his free hand rested on your leg, skimming over the wrinkled skin, the immobilized limbs that hung beneath you.

“You feeling okay?” he whispered, pressing his forehead against you.

You nodded and released a breathy hum. “Just going through day by day.”

He pressed a chaste kiss to your forehead. “We’ll find you a doctor one day. Don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried,” you said and wrapped your arms around his neck. “Just as long as you’re here, I would be happy with all the ailments in the world.”

He rolled his eyes. “You sappy brat.”

“I’m just being honest!” you lightly flicked his head.

“Ah-! Come here, you.”

Earning a cry from you, he feathered your face and neck with light kisses, sending tingling sensations through the remaining nerves you had. Despite your handicap, you drowned yourself in happiness, in him.

You were both fragile, but you at least had each other to piece everything back into place.