hello Crunchy! may i get ereri and 'I missed you'?
You certainly can. You ever seen a shearer AU?
Even though it was supposed to be early spring, Levi could see his breath in front of him as he walked along behind the flock, the dogs warmer than he was as they guided the sheep into the pen adjacent to the woolshed. In a few weeks it would be sweltering hot in there, but right now he was looking forward to the warmth.
The shearers had arrived the day before, complaining as always about the draughty bunkhouse Kenny billeted them in, and as always Kenny told them to clear out if they didn’t like it.
“Reckon this’ll be the year, Levi?” Eren asked, grinning at him as he walked in. Eren was only a few years older, but he’d been the ringer here ever since he’d arrived, back when Levi was only allowed in the shed to deliver the tea before going back to his schoolbooks.
Levi shrugged, not game to look him in the eye. He wasn’t good with words, but a man didn’t need to be.
Kenny growled at them and the shearers took their stations, Levi included. He didn’t seem to be getting much taller, but at some point he’d grown much stronger than the sheep, and he thought maybe, just maybe this might be the year.
He bent over the animal, clipping away its fleece with swift, sure strokes. He took pride in not nicking the animals, his fingers growing greasy, sweat dripping down his face as he focused on sheep after sheep, while Kenny sat back and smoked and kept tally of the fleeces on a chalkboard.
It was only when the holding pen outside was nearly empty, that he realised he was being watched.
He glanced up for a moment. Eren was still bent over, focused, but a lot of the others had stopped working, and even Kenny wasn’t bawling them out for it.
“It’ll be close,” his uncle said.
Levi got back to work. He tried to block out everything but the sheep in front of him and the glide of his shears through the wool. When he let the creature go it bounded away into the pen on the other side, finally free of the weight of wool. He looked around in hope.
Eren had already finished. Just. Levi exhaled. So close.
“Looks like those lessons weren’t wasted then,” Eren said, nodding at him approvingly.
“What’ll you do if he beats you?” someone asked him.
“Then I’ll give him lessons,” Levi spoke up, and the group laughed, and someone ruffled his hair, but Eren just raised an eyebrow as he turned away to go and wash his hands. Levi tried not to smile.
They queued up at the wash basin and most of the group drifted outside to stretch their backs and smoke.
“I missed you,” Levi said quickly and quietly, as Eren examined the tally board.
“Levi, fetch the bloody tea!” Kenny called from outside.
Eren glanced away and back before briefly pressing his finger to Levi’s lips. “Later,” he said. “There’s still things I can teach you.”
