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The black tea at Mission Control was barely acceptable, but Levi drank it anyway. He had brought his own loose leaves from home and a special infuser because he refused to drink the stale instant garbage the night shift workers left in the breakroom. It was three o'clock in the morning, and the massive room was mostly dark, illuminated only by the glow of dozens of blue and green computer screens. Giant maps of the Earth and the moon projected onto the main wall, tracing a slow, curved line that represented the path of the spacecraft.
This was the Scout project. It was the most expensive, highly anticipated lunar mission of the decade, and unfortunately for Levi, he was the lead flight director. That meant he was the one who had to stay awake and listen to the crew.
But more importantly, it meant he was stuck on Earth while his person was floating in the dark abyss of space.
Beside him, Armin was typing furiously on his keyboard. Armin was the primary communications officer for the shift, his eyes wide and bright despite the hour. He actually liked this stuff. He had star charts taped to his desk and three different monitors tracking orbital trajectory.
Levi rubbed the bridge of his nose, right where his headset pinched. He looked at the empty space on his desk where a small, framed photo of Hange usually sat, currently packed away in his locker for professionalism.
"Armin, tell me they are sleeping," Levi muttered, his voice rough from lack of rest and a deep, aching loneliness he would never admit aloud. "Please tell me they are all unconscious and I can have twenty minutes of peace."
Armin checked his telemetry data and winced slightly. He gave Levi a small, apologetic smile.
"Well, Commander Erwin is sleeping," Armin said, pointing to a neat, flat line on the biometric screen. "His heart rate is perfectly steady. Onyankopon is resting too, since his shift as pilot doesn't start for another four hours."
Levi took another sip of his hot tea, holding the mug by the rim like he always did. "And the research crew?"
Armin hesitated. His finger hovered over the audio channel indicator, which was flashing a bright, steady amber color.
"Moblit is currently trying to log some data," Armin explained, his voice softening with amusement. "But Hange has been in the observation cupola for the last two hours. They discovered the high-resolution camera zoom feature. And, Levi, they have been asking if you were on duty yet every ten minutes."
Levi felt a small, rare warmth blossom in his chest, though his face remained perfectly blank.
Right on cue, a burst of static hissed through Levi's headset, followed by a loud, breathless gasp that made him flinch and pull the speaker away from his ear.
"Levi! Levi, are you there? Look at the screen right now! Moblit, tilt the feed three degrees to the left! No, the other left!"
Levi sighed heavily, pressing the button on his desk to open his microphone. A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips, hidden by his hand. "Hange, turn your input volume down. You are shouting directly into my brain. And Moblit, do not move that camera, the calibration takes three hours to reset."
Through the crackling audio, Levi could hear the distinct sound of someone floating and bumping into a metal bulkhead. A muffled apology from Moblit echoed in the background. Moblit sounded like he had not slept since they launched from Cape Canaveral three days ago.
In the video feed on the main wall, Hange's face suddenly filled the entire frame. Because of the zero gravity, their brown hair was floating wildly in every direction like a stormy cloud, completely defying the neat ponytail they usually tried to keep. Their glasses were slightly crooked, held to their head by a black elastic strap. They were wearing a simple, sleeveless gray flight shirt, their arms covered in faint pen marks where they had scribbled down physics formulas directly onto their skin.
"You are being a grumpy Earth-dweller, Levi," Hange said, their face leaning so close to the camera lens that their nose looked giant. Then, their expression softened, their eyes crinkling behind their lenses as they stared directly into the camera, knowing Levi was watching on the other side. "I missed the sound of your voice. You took too long to start your shift."
Levi swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry. He glanced at Armin, who was very intentionally pretending to be deeply interested in a thermal readout.
"I was making tea," Levi said quietly into the microphone. "I can see the data on my screen, Hange. The view really is spectacular. The white curves of the moon look sharp and clean."
"It is not the same as looking at it with your own eyes," Hange insisted. They moved away from the camera, and the feed widened to show the inside of the Scout capsule. Hange was floating completely upside down, their boots tapping against the ceiling of the module while their hands quickly adjusted a lens on the window bracket. "I wish you were here, Levi. You would hate the dust, but you would love the quiet."
"I like the quiet right here," Levi grumbled, but he did not close the audio channel. He leaned back in his mesh office chair, watching the chaotic, beautiful floating scientist on the screen.
"Moblit, go get some sleep," Levi ordered into the microphone, taking pity on Hange's stressed assistant. "That is an official instruction from Mission Control. If you faint from exhaustion, Hange is going to use your forehead as a whiteboard."
On the screen, Moblit appeared for a brief second, looking incredibly pale but deeply grateful. "Thank you, sir," Moblit sighed, floating backward into the crew quarters compartment. "Please keep them away from the oxygen valves. And please keep them entertained."
"I heard that!" Hange yelled, sticking their tongue out at the camera. They did not actually look angry. They looked completely alive, floating effortlessly in the small metallic home they would share with Erwin and Onyankopon for the next two weeks.
The room fell into a quiet rhythm for a little while. Armin kept running background checks on the life support systems, the quiet clicking of his keyboard filling the dark office. On the big screen, Hange was still hanging upside down by the window, staring out into the dark space with a look of pure, quiet wonder, occasionally glancing back toward the camera as if checking to ensure Levi was still there.
It was times like this, when Hange stopped talking, that Levi realized just how far away they actually were. They were floating in a tiny metal tin box, thousands of miles above the ground, separated from the freezing vacuum of space by just a few inches of aluminum and glass. It terrified him, but he trusted Hange more than anyone else in the world.
"Hange," Levi said quietly, his voice dropping to a softer, private tone that was meant just for them.
"Yeah, Levi?" Hange answered, their voice unusually calm as they looked down at the blue earth through the glass, then directly back at the camera monitor.
"Don't forget to drink some water. You've been up too long. I need you to be functional for the orbital insertion tomorrow."
"I will, Levi," Hange murmured, their eyes soft and full of affection across the vast distance. "Thanks for staying awake with me. I love knowing you are the one watching over me down there."
The clock at Mission Control ticked closer to five in the morning. The dark room was beginning to buzz with a little more activity as the early morning shift workers started trickling in with their breakfast bags. Levi ignored all of them. His focus was entirely locked on the main screen, where the Scout spacecraft was finally preparing to enter the shadow of the moon.
Beside him, Armin was monitoring the thermal readings of the ship as it transitioned from the bright sunlight into the freezing darkness of lunar orbit.
"Telemetry looks stable, Levi," Armin whispered, sliding a fresh cup of hot water toward his supervisor so Levi could steep his second round of tea leaves. "They are approaching the lunar horizon now. Radio blackout will happen in about twenty minutes."
Levi nodded, his fingers gripping his headset a little tighter. A radio blackout meant the spacecraft would pass behind the moon, cutting off all communication with Earth for nearly an hour. He hated the blackout. It meant he would be completely blind and deaf to whatever Hange was doing up there.
On the video feed, the cabin lights of the Scout capsule suddenly shifted from a bright white to a soft, deep red, signaling the start of the night orbital phase. Hange was still floating near the window, but they had finally strapped themselves into a loose wall harness so they wouldn't keep drifting into the control panels.
"Levi, are you still there?" Hange's voice crackled through the static. The sound was a bit more distorted now as the distance stretched. "The sun is going down behind the Earth. You should see the atmosphere, it looks like a glowing neon blue ring. It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."
"I am here, Hange," Levi said, his voice low and steady. "Enjoy the view while you can. You have a full schedule of soil sample analysis once you clear the dark side."
Hange groaned loudly, letting their head fall back against the padded wall of the cabin. "You are such a romantic, Levi. Truly. A poet of our time. I am looking at the cradle of humanity and you are reminding me about dirt protocols."
Before Levi could fire back a sarcastic response, a heavy, familiar voice echoed from the background of the spacecraft.
"Hange is right, Levi. You could stand to appreciate the scenery a bit more."
Commander Erwin Smith floated into the frame of the camera. Even in the middle of a space mission, wearing a simple navy blue flight suit, Erwin managed to look incredibly neat and professional. His blonde hair was perfectly in place, completely unfazed by the lack of gravity. He floated into the pilot's chair, clipping his safety belt into place with an easy, practiced motion.
"Morning, Commander," Armin said into his own microphone, straightening his posture in his chair. "We have you loud and clear. Trajectory is looking perfect for the orbital insertion burn."
"Thank you, Armin," Erwin replied, checking the glowing glass displays in front of him. "Onyankopon is warming up the thrusters now. We will be ready for the burn on your mark."
Right on cue, Onyankopon's cheerful face appeared in the edge of the screen as he floated into the co-pilot's seat. He was wearing his favorite brightly colored watch, which floated slightly on his wrist. "Good morning, Mission Control! I hope you guys left some good weather for us down there. It is a bit chilly up here."
"The weather is miserable, Onyankopon," Levi said, though there was a hint of familiarity in his voice. "Just like always. Make sure your alignment is correct before you hit the dark side. I don't want you firing the engines in the wrong direction and sending my research team into deep space."
"Understood, Boss," Onyankopon laughed, his hands moving quickly across the overhead switches to prepare the ship's propulsion system. "We are locking in the automated guidance now."
While the pilots were busy exchanging technical data with Armin, Hange had managed to unclip themselves from the wall. They floated silently behind Erwin's seat, making ridiculous faces at the camera whenever Erwin wasn't looking. Levi watched them, a heavy feeling of fondness settling into his chest. They were thousands of miles away, heading into the dark side of a massive rock, and they were still trying to make him smile.
"Moblit is still asleep," Hange reported, floating upside down again so their face was right next to Erwin's shoulder. "I checked his vitals. He is snoring. I think he dreamt about uncalibrated sensors because he kept twitching."
"Leave him alone, Hange," Levi said. "And get back into your harness. The burn is coming up in five minutes."
"Fine, fine," Hange sighed, flipping themselves upright with a graceful twist of their hips. They floated back to their science station, clicking their boots into the floor restraints. "But it is getting really quiet in here. The radio silence is coming up, and I don't like the silence."
"You have work to do," Levi reminded them.
"Work is boring when I can't hear you complaining about my handwriting," Hange mumbled. Their eyes caught the camera lens again, and their expression softened into something incredibly sweet and private. "Hey, Levi?"
"What?"
"Are you going to be there when we come out on the other side of the moon?"
Levi took a sip of his tea, the warmth spreading through his chest. He looked at the tracking map, seeing the little cursor of the Scout ship getting closer and closer to the grey edge of the moon.
"I'm not leaving this desk until you get back, Hange," Levi said softly, ignoring the fact that Erwin was definitely listening on the line. "I'll be right here."
"Good," Hange smiled, their eyes bright behind their glasses. "Then I'll make sure to find something special for you back there."
"Signal degradation starting in one minute," Armin announced, his voice snapping them back to reality. "Losing video feed now."
The main screen suddenly flickered, the clear picture of the Scout cabin dissolving into a screen of green static before going completely black. The audio remained, but it was filled with a heavy, rushing hiss of cosmic interference.
"See you on the dark side, Levi," Hange's voice came through, faint and distant, right before the line went completely dead.
The room became incredibly quiet. Levi stared at the empty screen, his heart heavy as he waited for the countdown to begin.
The countdown clock for the radio blackout was ticking down from forty-five minutes, and every single second felt like an eternity to Levi. The dark room of Mission Control seemed even darker now that the video feed from the Scout spacecraft was completely gone.
Levi sat perfectly still, his hand still resting on his headset cord. He stared at the giant tracking map on the wall. The little glowing dot representing the ship was hidden behind the massive grey circle of the moon, completely cut off from the rest of humanity.
Beside him, Armin was quietly organizing his data logs, trying to give Levi some space. Armin knew exactly how much Levi worried, even if Levi never said it out loud.
"They are doing the orbital burn right about now," Armin said softly, keeping his voice low so the other workers in the room wouldn't hear. "Erwin and Onyankopon are the best pilots we have. They will be fine, Levi."
"I know," Levi murmured, his voice tight. He picked up his mug, but his tea had gone completely cold. He didn't care about the pilots. He knew Erwin could fly a ship through an asteroid field with a blindfold on. He was worried about the chaotic scientist who didn't have a single drop of fear in their body. Hange was probably staring out into the pitch-black void of the lunar night right now, completely captivated by the danger of it.
Suddenly, a strange sound broke through the heavy silence of the control room.
It wasn't the usual harsh screech of static. It was a faint, warbling melody, cutting through the cosmic background noise.
Armin’s eyes went wide, and his fingers flew across his keyboard. "Levi, look at the emergency audio channel. Someone is manually overriding the high-frequency transmitter from the ship. The signal is incredibly weak because they are reflecting it off an old satellite relay, but it is coming through."
Levi quickly adjusted his headset, pressing the speaker closer to his ear.
Through the crackle of a thousand miles of empty space, a voice began to sing. It was soft, a little breathless, and completely unbothered by the fact that they were currently falling through the dark side of the moon.
"Fly me to the moon," Hange’s voice hummed into the microphone, beautifully clear despite the distance. "Let me play among the stars... Let me see what spring is like on a Jupiter and Mars..."
Levi felt his breath hitch in his throat. A massive wave of butterflies erupted in his stomach, the sweet, familiar sound of Hange's singing completely melting the icy tension that had been gripping his chest. They were supposed to be completely silent, yet here they were, breaking every protocol in the NASA handbook just to reach him.
Down in the control room, a few other technicians started looking up from their desks, murmuring in confusion as the music faintly leaked out of the main speakers.
"Should I cut the channel, Levi?" Armin asked, a huge, knowing grin spreading across his face.
"Leave it," Levi ordered immediately, his voice thick with emotion. "If anyone complains, tell them it is a communication frequency calibration test."
On the audio feed, Hange kept singing, their voice getting a little stronger as the ship began to curve back toward the communication window. "In other words, hold my hand... In other words, baby, kiss me..."
Levi leaned forward, his elbows on his desk, his heart hammering against his ribs. He closed his eyes, imagining Hange floating upside down by the glass window, looking at the stars and thinking only of him.
"Fill my heart with song, and let me sing forevermore," Hange continued, their voice softening, turning into a gentle, intimate whisper meant entirely for the man listening on Earth. "You are all I long for, all I worship and adore."
The song trailed off into a soft, affectionate chuckle. Hange knew Levi was listening. They knew he hadn't moved an inch from his chair.
"Levi?" Hange’s voice came through, the static beginning to clear up as the spacecraft finally prepared to emerge from the shadow of the moon. "Did you hear me?"
Levi pressed his microphone button. His hand was trembling just a little bit, a rare sight for the usually unstoppable flight director. He took a deep breath, his voice dropping into that incredibly soft, private tone that made the entire world outside of them disappear.
"I heard you, you ridiculous person," Levi said, a genuine, breathless smile breaking across his face in the dark room. "Your pitch was terrible."
"Oh, come on!" Hange laughed loudly, and the sound was like music all over again. "I am literally floating in a vacuum, give me a break! But admit it, you loved it."
Levi looked up at the tracking map, seeing the little cursor of the Scout ship finally pop out from behind the grey circle, bright and safe.
"I love you," Levi whispered into the microphone, his voice so quiet that even Armin couldn't hear it over the typing. "Just get back to the bright side in one piece."
There was a brief pause on the other end, a soft gasp from Hange that told him they had heard him perfectly through the static.
"Always, Levi," Hange promised, their voice sweeter than anything Levi had ever heard. "The moon is beautiful, but it doesn't have you."
The video feed snapped back to life with a sudden flash of bright light on the main wall of Mission Control. The Scout capsule was flooded with the sharp, white glare of the sun reflecting off the lunar surface.
Hange was still floating right by the observation window, their glasses pushed up onto their forehead as they squinted at the massive, glowing grey world beneath them. Their face was practically pressed against the thick glass, their eyes wide with a level of excitement that could have powered the entire spacecraft.
"Levi! Armin! Look at it!" Hange shouted, completely forgetting about their earlier quiet, romantic tone. They were back to their full, chaotic scientist mode. "We are directly over the Descartes Highlands! The details are incredible! Look at the ridges on those craters!"
Levi rubbed his eyes, but the massive grin from earlier hadn't completely faded from his face. He quickly pulled up the high-resolution mapping data on his central monitor. "I see it, Hange. Keep your breathing steady. Your oxygen consumption spiked the second we re-established the link."
"Because it is breathtaking, Levi!" Hange insisted. They reached out, grabbing a digital marker tool that was connected to the ship’s primary mapping system. "Look at the main monitor. I am sending you a live telemetry pinpoint right now."
On Levi’s screen, a tiny, bright red crosshair began to blink. It was hovering over a specific region just south of the moon's equator, a smooth, dark lunar plain surrounded by rugged mountains.
Beside him, Armin leaned closer to his screen, his fingers flying across the keys. "I see the coordinates, Hange. You are looking at a previously uncatalogued impact structure near the edge of the Mare Nectaris. The satellite surveys missed it because of the shadow angles, but from your altitude, it is perfectly visible."
"Exactly, Armin! Good eye!" Hange cheered, their floating body doing a slow, joyous backflip in the middle of the cabin. "It is an ultra-reflective impact crater. The rock inside is highly concentrated anorthosite. When the sun hits it at this exact angle, it reflects almost eighty percent of the light. It is, without a doubt, the brightest spot on this entire side of the moon."
Erwin turned around in his pilot’s chair, looking back at Hange with a calm, amused expression. "According to the Scout mission protocols, the research team leader has the official right to register a temporary designation for any newly confirmed lunar surface features."
Hange’s eyes instantly locked onto the camera lens, a mischievous, incredibly soft smile spreading across their lips. They leaned into the microphone, their voice dropping into a proud, happy hum.
"I already have the perfect name for it," Hange said, their eyes crinkling behind their glasses as they looked directly at Levi through the monitor. "I am officially logging it into the Scout regiment navigation charts as Crater Ackerman."
Levi froze, his teacup stopping halfway to his mouth. He blinked at the screen, his face turning a slight, noticeable shade of pink in the dim blue light of the control room.
"What?" Levi muttered, his voice dropping into a stunned whisper. "Hange, don't be ridiculous. You can't name a giant piece of space rock after me."
"I can, and I just did!" Hange laughed, tapping the digital console to finalize the entry. "It is completely official, Levi! It is listed in the permanent mission log now. Erwin, tell him he can't change it."
Erwin gave a small, rare chuckle over the audio channel. "The log is locked, Levi. Protocol is protocol."
"Why would you name a crater after him anyway, Hange?" Onyankopon asked from the co-pilot seat, a wide, teasing grin on his face. "Levi doesn't even like the outdoors, let alone space."
Hange’s expression softened completely. They leaned back against the window frame, staring down at the beautiful, blazing white circle of light on the dark surface of the moon, then back at the man watching them from the earth.
"Because it is the brightest thing up here," Hange said quietly into the microphone, their voice filled with so much genuine warmth and affection that Levi’s heart completely flipped over. "No matter how dark the rest of the sky gets, that spot stays perfectly bright. It reminded me of you, Levi. You are the one who keeps us grounded, and you are the one who keeps me safe, even from thousands of miles away."
Down at Mission Control, Armin looked away completely, a huge, happy smile on his face as he pretended to be intensely fascinated by a fuel temperature graph. A few other operators who had caught the exchange were quietly whispering and smiling at their desks.
Levi looked down at his desk, his heart hammering against his ribs in the absolute best way possible. He took a slow breath to steady his voice, though he couldn't stop the soft, helpless smile from taking over his face.
"You are an idiot, Hange," Levi murmured into his microphone, his tone incredibly gentle, full of a deep, unspoken love that carried perfectly across the empty void of space. "A complete and total idiot."
"But I'm your idiot," Hange reminded him, their eyes sparkling on the screen. "And now you own a piece of the moon."
Moblit rubbed his eyes, clutching a floating pouch of space-ration tea as he drifted back into the main cabin. He stared at the newly locked navigation log, then at Hange, and finally at the camera lens that connected them to Levi back on Earth.
"Hange," Moblit sighed, his voice a perfect mix of exhaustion and fondness. "You cannot just rename major lunar features on a whim. The international astronomical databases are going to have a stroke when we submit these files."
"Oh, hush, Moblit!" Hange laughed, waving a hand dismissively as they floated upside down again. "Erwin said it is perfectly within protocol. Besides, look at it! It fits him perfectly. It is sharp, it is bright, and it is surrounded by a bunch of rough rocks."
"I am right here, Hange. I can hear you," Levi’s voice cut through the static, sounding dry but completely lacking any real anger. "And Moblit, thank you for being the only person on that ship with a shred of sanity left."
"I am trying, sir," Moblit muttered, quickly typing on his console to add a formal scientific description next to the newly labeled Crater Ackerman so the NASA review board wouldn't immediately reject it. "Though I think I lost the battle for sanity the moment we cleared Earth's atmosphere."
Down at Mission Control, the atmosphere had shifted into a comfortable, warm rhythm. The sun was finally starting to rise over the real Cape Canaveral, casting long, golden beams of light through the high windows of the control room. The blue and green screens didn't look quite as harsh now, and Levi’s second cup of tea was finished.
Armin cleared his throat, tapping his headset. "Scout Crew, this is Mission Control. We are approaching the end of this orbital block. Onyankopon, we need you to initialize the secondary stabilization thrusters for the mapping run."
"Copy that, Armin," Onyankopon replied, his fingers flipping a row of guarded switches above his head. "Thrusters warming up. We are holding a steady altitude of one hundred kilometers."
With the pilots back to work, the cabin grew a little quieter. Hange had drifted over to the storage lockers, pulling out a small, specialized camera tool to take personal photos through the thick glass of the cupola. Every few seconds, the soft click of the digital shutter echoed through the open audio channel.
"Levi?" Hange called out softly, their tone changing from chaotic scientist to something much more gentle.
"Yeah?"
"I am taking a picture of it right now," Hange murmured. On the video feed, Levi could see them adjusting the focus ring, their eyes filled with a deep, quiet reverence as they looked down at the bright white crater. "The sun is hitting the eastern ridge perfectly. I am going to print it out the second we land. I want it on our wall."
Our wall.
The words hung in the air, sweet and heavy, carrying the weight of a future they were building together back on Earth. It was a reminder that no matter how incredible the stars were, Hange’s favorite place in the universe was still the small, clean apartment they shared near the space center.
Levi leaned back in his chair, his eyes fixed on Hange's floating form. The distance between them felt a little less terrifying now. "Just focus on taking clean data readings, Hange. If the photo is blurry, I am not hanging it up."
"It won't be blurry!" Hange scoffed, though their smile was massive. "I am a professional, Levi!"
"Debatable," Levi muttered, but the fondness in his voice was undeniable.
Armin looked over at Levi, giving him a supportive nod. "We are locking in the final orbital tracking loop now, flight director. Everything is green across the board. They are safe."
Levi let out a slow, quiet breath that he felt like he had been holding since launch day. He pressed his microphone button one last time for the shift.
"Good job, Scout crew," Levi said, his voice steady and proud. "Keep your heads down and finish the block. Hange, don't break anything."
"Mwa! See you on the next pass, Levi!" Hange blew a dramatic kiss directly into the camera lens, causing Moblit to duck out of the way so he wouldn't get hit by a floating arm.
The video feed remained stable this time, showing the beautiful, chaotic crew of the Scout regiment continuing their journey around the bright side of the moon, completely safe under the watchful eye of the man who loved them from the ground.
The Florida sun was incredibly bright, reflecting harshly off the blue water of the Atlantic Ocean where the Scout capsule had splashed down just an hour ago. The recovery ship was buzzing with intense activity. Helicopters hovered overhead, and teams of technicians in bright jumpsuits were securing the flotation collars around the charred, metallic spacecraft.
Levi stood on the deck of the recovery ship, completely ignoring the sea spray and the loud roar of the engines around him. He was wearing his standard NASA flight director jacket, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. He had barely slept a wink in the last twenty-four hours, but he refused to sit down. Not now. Not when the capsule hatch was finally being opened.
With a heavy mechanical hiss, the thick side door of the capsule popped loose.
The recovery team stepped forward to help the astronauts out. After two weeks in zero gravity, the human body forgets how to handle the heavy weight of Earth's gravity. Fluid shifts, muscles weaken, and balancing becomes nearly impossible.
Erwin was the first to emerge, supported heavily by two medical technicians on either side. He looked exhausted, but he still managed a proud smile. Onyankopon and Moblit followed shortly after, both of them blinking rapidly at the bright sunlight, their arms draped over the shoulders of the recovery crew as their legs wobbled under the sudden weight of the planet.
And then, there was Hange.
They emerged from the hatch, wearing their bulky blue flight suit, their brown hair completely messy and tied back in a rushed ponytail. The moment their boots touched the metal deck of the ship, their knees instantly buckled. Gravity hit them like a physical wall, and their balance completely vanished.
But Hange didn't hit the ground.
Before the medical team could even step in, Levi was already there. He moved faster than anyone else on the deck, stepping forward and catching Hange firmly by the waist before they could fall.
Hange gasped, their heavy arms automatically wrapping around Levi's shoulders for support. The familiar scent of clean laundry and black tea instantly filled their senses, a sharp contrast to the recycled air of the spacecraft. They looked down, their eyes locking onto Levi's sharp, gray eyes, which were filled with an overwhelming amount of relief.
Levi held them tightly, his strong arms keeping them perfectly steady against his chest, refusing to let the heavy gravity pull them down. He looked up at their tired, sun-kissed face, his expression incredibly soft.
"Took you long enough in space," Levi murmured, his voice thick with an emotion he couldn't hide anymore. He tightened his grip on their waist, pulling them just a little bit closer. "You deserve to be here, where I can see and hold you."
A massive, watery smile broke across Hange's face. They rested their forehead against his shoulder, letting out a long, shaky breath as they finally relaxed completely. They didn't care about the cameras, the recovery team, or the rest of the crew watching them. They were finally back.
"I missed you so much, Levi," Hange whispered, their voice cracking slightly. "Earth is really heavy."
"I've got you," Levi replied gently, his hand moving up to cup the back of their head, his fingers tangling into their messy brown hair. "I'm not letting you go."
Down on the deck, Erwin gave a quiet, approving nod from a distance, and Moblit let out a sigh of pure relief, knowing that Hange was finally someone else's responsibility again.
Levi slowly helped Hange transition into a medical transport chair, but he never let go of their hand. As the ship began its journey back to the port, Hange looked up at the blue sky, then back at the man sitting right beside them. They were finally home, and the brightest spot in their universe wasn't on the moon anymore—it was right here.