1.19 I Love You

Finally the big spouse reveal. Does Athena choose Mason or Levi? It was actually pretty close both on here and the forums. Thank you for reading and voting 🙂

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“Levi!” Athena shouted, while Elliot cheered him on. Levi wasn’t too thrilled to see Mason even though he anticipated his arrival.

“You bastard. How dare you even show your face around here! You’re not welcome!”

“I don’t really care what you or the puppy dog over there thinks. I’m here to speak to my wife and my son. I have to apologize.” Mason said through gritted teeth.

“An apology isn’t good enough for what you did. She was raising a child, YOUR CHILD on her own for five years. Do you know how she must have felt alone for all of those years.”

“Kick his ass, Levi! you can do it!” Elliot cheered.

“Who the hell is this brat?”

“I’m her brother alright so back up.”

Mason looked at him and saw Caleb in his arms. “Why are you holding my child?”

“Mason please.” Athena begged as she saw him, “lets talk out here, just the two of us.”

“Mason…” Athena began but he cut her off.

“You’ve gotten even more beautiful since the last time I saw you. I was stupid for leaving someone as wonderful as you, but I wish I had a choice…” His voice trailed off as he got closer to her. Levi had been watching the entire thing and couldn’t contain his emotions. He went inside the house to vent to Elliot and punch something.

Athena was so lost in his eyes that she didn’t even notice Levi hadn’t gone inside until now. She didn’t care. She loved Mason and he was back for her and their son Caleb. “I missed you so much.” She breathed.

“I know. I’ve been dying without you. It’s been terrible, I couldn’t wait any longer to see you.”

Suddenly his lips were on hers and she was in complete bliss. How her lips felt under his made her heart flutter, just like their first kiss. When the two pulled away, they gazed into each other’s eyes. She leaned into his chest, completely forgetting about everything bad that had happened. “Why did you leave us?” She whispered, head buried into his chest.

“I wish I could tell you, but it’s not safe. I don’t want to involve you or Caleb in any of this.” He placed his hand on the back of her head and stroked her lovely pink hair.

“I can handle it. We’ll be safe, I have Levi and Emit, they’re both time travelers. They won’t let anything bad happen. I knew you weren’t the one destroying the future.”

“You can’t hang around with Levi and Emit anymore.” He stated.

“Excuse me?” Athena asked.

“Levi and Emit are bad news. They’re the reason we’re apart. You saw how Levi attacked me when he saw me.”

“You can’t tell me Levi’s attack was unjustified. I refuse to be away from him any longer. I gave up our friendship for years and I can’t do it anymore. He’s a good friend of mine, and I refuse to stop seeing him. Caleb loves him too.”

“Athena, are you hearing yourself? Levi is some weirdo that is trying to take my place in your and Caleb’s eyes.”

“It’s not like that at all. He’s your little brother, why are you acting like this towards him?” 

“You know about that? Damn Emit. We never got along…” Mason started but it just made Athena angrier.

 “I know everything! Why do you keep lying to me? If you loved me, you’d tell me the truth. One day you’re sitting at home with us, and then you get this call to go to work and you never come back. I called your ‘office’ and do you know what they told me? You don’t work as a business associate. You’ve just been lying to me this entire time.”

“How did you expect me to keep up with your lavish lifestyle? You wanted a big house, a wedding, new furniture. There was no way I could fund all of that by making an honest living.”

“I never asked you for any of that Mason. If you didn’t want to marry me, then why did you? Was it to destroy Oasis Landing? You got the kid you wanted and then you just left. Is that it?” Athena stared at him menacingly. She didn’t understand how she could hate someone as much as she loved them.

“Is that what Levi told you? Its not like that! I’ve been keeping my actual activities quiet because I didn’t want you or Caleb getting hurt and I…” 

“You guys come in here! I want to talk to all of you!” Bruce shouted from the doorway.

“You owe me an explanation and it better be good, Mason.”

“Thank you for inviting me inside sir.”

“No problem, lad. You need to understand one thing though, under my roof you follow my rules. Now I don’t know what the story is between you two but I want you to know that Athena is my daughter and if you hurt her, you’ll have me, Levi AND Elliot to deal with.”

“Sir, I don’t intend to hurt her anymore. I don’t want to see her cry. I’m in love with her.” Mason reached for her hand and squeezed it. She wasn’t sure if she could trust Mason any longer. Levi, refused to look at him and Elliot wouldn’t look away. 

“Who is that outside?” Athena asked, breaking the awkward silence that fell after Mason’s response.

“Oh!” Elliot gasped and shook his head, “I forgot all about Ella! She’s my friend from university! I invited her over this weekend but that was before you guys came and I forgot to cancel!”

Levi was actually relieved to keep his friend out of unnecessary drama. “Go and hang out with her, you invited her and now you can’t leave her stranded. Besides, she looks like just your type.”

“But…” Elliot wanted to be in the center of the action.

“Trust Levi. He cares about her just as much as you do.” 

Elliot looked towards Levi and smirked. “I know he’s got all of this under control.” 

Once Elliot left, no one could stand the awkward silence anymore. Bruce had to go to bed because he had work the next day. He left Levi in charge, who couldn’t stand even being in the same room as Mason. He stood in the kitchen and watched from a distance as Mason tried to pick up his son. When Mason had his hands on Caleb, the baby cried and screamed. Athena had ran in the room and watched the chaos. Caleb didn’t even want to be held by his father…

“Are you serious?” Mason growled as Levi came into the room and picked up Caleb with ease.

“It’s alright buddy. I don’t like him either.” Levi said softly. Caleb giggled and buried his head into the crook of Levi’s neck.

“He is my son!” Mason said angrily.

“By blood, but that’s it.”

“Mason, can we talk again? Levi, please watch Caleb.” Levi nodded to Athena and held onto the baby tighter.

Mason held onto Athena tightly. “I don’t understand why nothing is going my way. Athena, I’m honestly trying to give us the family we never got time to cherish. Your parents…my parents…I thought that we could do it. When Caleb was born, I was so happy, but at the same time I was terrified. You were a natural but I was afraid to go near my own son. I thought that I was going to lose him, just like I lost my little brother. I left Levi with your mother, she was so sweet and kind. She raised Levi like he was her own. When I saw you…the pink hair mesmerized me. It made me think of Sierra and I knew that I had to get to know you. I didn’t think that I’d actually fall in love with you. I came to Lunar Lakes to find out about this top secret mission my parents were working on from Oasis Landing. I did come to destroy Lunar Lakes once I found out that I could hurt the same government that destroyed my family. When I was gone for those five years, I plotted and plotted but the only way to destroy Lunar Lakes involved our children 9 generations into the future. You, Caleb, Erin and Lars would all be safe, but the tenth generation of Grays wouldn’t and I don’t know if my petty revenge is worth all of that. That is the full truth.”

Athena leaned into him and absorbed the information. “Mason. I don’t know what to say, except that destroying a world to get revenge on another is ridiculous. Did you expect to time travel and accomplish all of that?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore, because I’m positive that you’re the one worth protecting and I won’t try to do anything ridiculous anymore.” Mason leaned down and kissed her forehead.

Athena got up and held her heart. What she was feeling wasn’t normal. She didn’t know what to do, Mason was her first true love. He was willing to drop his life of crime for her. But he was gone for five years and she kept picturing Levi’s hurt face when they sat together in the dystopian future. The future was already destroyed and Mason’s declaration to cease fire wasn’t going to fix anything.

“I think you should go. I’ll tell you how we stand tomorrow. I need to think about it.”

Mason left, and Athena went inside. She took Caleb from Levi’s arm and told him to go to bed. When she put Caleb to sleep she went upstairs. She was surprised to find Bruce awake in his bed, reading.

“Whats up, sweetheart?” Bruce asked, patting the spot on the bed next to him. Athena sat down and looked at her father. 

“I..I don’t know who to choose. How..how do you know when you’re in love?” 

“You just know. When I met your mother..she was this weird girl with pink hair. She looked like she didn’t belong. It intrigued me, but when I got to know her, she was the only normal constant in my life. I wanted to be with her and only her. When people would whisper about her pink hair, I would get upset and angry. She made me smile, laugh and even when I was upset, I couldn’t stop thinking about how wonderful she was.”

“Is the place where you guys met still around?” Athena asked.

“Ahh yes, I visit it often. Azalea Community Gardens. Its a lovely place.” He leaned back and closed his eyes.

“Thanks dad.” Azelea leaned in and kissed his cheek. She thought it’d be weird having a new father in her life like this, but it wasn’t and she was happy.

The next morning, Athena had left to Azeala Community Garden. Bruce happily watched Caleb. She dialed both guys numbers and told them to meet her at the garden. She had finally made up her mind. 

Her parents had feel in love in this very spot.  She had thought about it excessively while looking at the flowers and only one name kept popping into her mind. She couldn’t shake the thought of him.

Both had arrived pretty quickly, which wasn’t surprising. Mason was wearing his usual outfit, but Levi’s look surprised her. He wasn’t wearing his ridiculous eighty’s getup. He was wearing a nice vest with a pink undershirt. There was no doubt he’d been in Elliot’s wardrobe. She appreciated the effort and how much thought Levi had put into this meeting.

“You look good, Levi.” Athena smiled towards him and he smiled nervously back.”Mason, I want to talk to you first.”

Levi got up to give the two space. “Mason, I really care about you..” He held his hand up for a moment and pulled out his phone that began ringing. “Are…you serious!?”

“How dare you, Mason! You leave for five years, come back and lay this sob story on me and when I try to tell you my decision, you stop me to answer your phone!?”

“It’s very important, Athena, just give me a second.” He held his hand over the speaker of the phone.

She couldn’t believe the disrespect he was showing her right now and she hated herself for even giving him the time of day in the first place. “Just leave Mason. I don’t ever want to see you near me or Caleb again, you inconsiderate jerk!” Athena slapped him and watched him storm off, still on the phone.

“I’m sorry, that it didn’t work out Athena.” Levi whispered.

“I’m so stupid. I thought that maybe, he’d have the decency to just hear me out. I appreciate how you dressed up to see me, and I appreciate everything you’ve done for me and Caleb and for introducing me to my family and telling me the whole story and…” Athena could go on and on about how happy she was to have Levi.

“You’re welcome. I didn’t have the chance to tell you that I’d be here for you even if you chose Mason. It goes for this situation as well.”

“Levi, I wasn’t going to choose Mason. I was going to choose you. It’s been you this entire time. I was just so enamored with the idea of Mason that I blatantly ignored you and I am extremely sorry for making you suffer.”

Levi placed his arm over her shoulders. “There is one good thing that came from all of this…Caleb.”

It was at that moment that if she had any doubt about anything, it would all be erased. Levi cared about her and Caleb and he wanted her to be happy. He never once ostracized Caleb despite his intense hatred for Mason.

She captured his lips with hers and the feeling of butterflies came to her stomach. She felt completely different when she was with Levi. She was never nervous or trying to impress Levi like she had done with Mason and it was obvious that he loved her even more than Mason could ever had. She didn’t know where they would go from here, but she didn’t care as long as she had Levi by her side.

“I love you so much, Levi.”

“I love you too.I’ll never leave you, Athena.” 

                                                          ~

Did you guys expect it to be Levi? Levi got one more vote than Mason, it was really close. The simmers on the forum were voting mostly for Mason and here on the blog, the votes were for Levi. In the end, Levi won and left the friend zone. Yay! Also, I think I’m keeping that new look for Levi, what do you think? Thank you for reading, voting and supporting this blog, even you silent readers out there! Stay awesome!