nick kn(ack!)ermann

"captain," levi pulled the cloth from his face and looked up at the young cadet standing before him. "water?" levi nodded and took the mug from the cadet, opening his throat and gulping it down. "the commander wants us to return indoors."

"we're not done here yet," levi mumbled, though his words lacked a conviction, melting to the stool he sat on.

the cadet gave a single head nod. his jaw tensed, not wanting to disobey the commander, but too timid to bite back against the captain. "we can, uh, return tonight when it's cooler, perhaps?"

levi thought on it, a trail of sweat tickling down the front of his shirt. the sogginess of the socks in his boots. the clamminess of his hands. with a grunt, he tilted his head to dismiss the cadet.

it took him a few minutes to muster the energy to stand up again. like a wounded man, he limped his way through the stables on his way back to the barracks. but as he crossed the stall of the great white mare of their commander, something caught his attention. a small scribble, easy to miss for those that weren't trained to notice the unnoticeable. squinting, levi leaned forward to try to make sense of the graffiti, piecing the letters together into words, and the words into a phrase...

the heat rushed so quickly to levi's face that he needed to stabilize himself against the gate. he swung his head around to see if he was alone in the stables, causing himself to lose his balance further, his back smacking against the gate and collapsing onto the floor. his cheeks were on fire, the heat climbing through his limbs to the point that the tips of his fingers were red. fumbling around in his pocket, he snapped open his switchblade and scrambled back up the wood braces of the stall door. with knife edge to wood, he emphatically scratched out the wording, wood shavings flying and fluttering to the swept floor below.

"absolutely fucking..."

scratch scratch

"big eyebrowed..."

scratch scratch scratch

"idiot!"

scratch

with a dramatic huff, levi quickly surveilled his surroundings to make sure nobody saw him carve the saucy message made for him out of the wood grains. he didn't have it in him to drag the body of a new cadet's body into the woods on such a horribly hot day.

kicking the shavings aside, levi rushed out of the stables, the heat on his face being replaced with the heat of the sun. when he returned back to the canteen, the same cadet from before greeted him. he looked pleased that levi had listened to him afterall. "sir, you look flushed. can i get you something?"