Canorous

Seven

Erwin was silently painting the carved lines as Levi tried his best to slow down his work so he will have at least, an ephemeral eternity with Erwin for Erwin is a busy man that had too many things to worry about and Levi was certain that he, Erwin, will not have time for romance.

As he carved lines down the wooden stool, he thought of burying his feelings and he did it while he was carving the lines. An outline of lavender began to appear but it was unfinished. Levi's eyes ran through the fine lines and gazed at them like it was something that can comfort him.

He could see Erwin in his mind, bloodied with torn limbs and he was certain that he was the one who did it but everything was fine since it was all in his head.

Later on, he was convinced that he held no more feelings for the knight and that he wasn't a sinner anymore as what the people who brought him up would say.

Meanwhile, Erwin was uncomfortable with the silence that Levi was offering. Levi always talked to him most of the time, no matter how absurd Levi's topics were.

"Do you think men can possibly give birth?" Was one of Levi's absurd statements and Erwin chuckled a bit as he reminisced the things Levi used to say as a substitute to the silence that Levi was giving off as of the moment.

Levi put the carving tool down and looked at the little scrapes of wood that were present on the floor of his room. He did not really notice Erwin smiling to himself for the mess was keeping him occupied. He clicked his tongue since untidy things always bothered him.

The taller man didn't pay him any mind as he dipped his thin paintbrush on a goop of violet and added a small dot of white to the top of the brush. He started painting the second lavender and he hummed as he did.

"Levi," He said to the squire who was gathering the thin strips of wood. "Would you want something else to add so that the lavenders would not look demotic?"

Levi did not reply immediately and focused on picking up the wood carvings.

"Well, if you could burnish the lavenders-" Levi suggested but Erwin cut him off with a question.

Erwin placed the palette filled with diverse drops of colors on the floor, careful to not spill any of it. "Could you please tell me what burnishing is?"

Levi looked up to him, one brow raised. "You do not know what burnishing is?" Levi inquired the man who shook his head.

"I am not fully acquainted with art." Erwin admitted as he folded his hands. "So please enlighten me about it." Erwin stated as he reached for the pallete and handed it to Levi. "Here."

Levi accepted it and Erwin gave him the brush. He began to brush at the lavenders but he used green and painted the bottom part of the lavender and he added a little bit more of the mixture of violet and white to blend the green in so that it would not look outrageous. Erwin leaned forward, eyeing Levi's hands as he painted through the used to be plain, flat, violet lavenders.

He smiled at the talent Levi was showing and said, "So, is this burnishing?"

"Aye." Levi replied as he added little white dots around the sides of the lavender. "This is burnishing."

"So, where did you learn to do art?" Erwin asked as he saw Levi add little orange dots over the the white ones and Erwin could see that Levi was being careful enough to not cover the white dots fully with the orange ones and he could see that Levi was trying to make the white dots look like the shadow or highlight, whichever was it.

"My uncle..." Levi said as he covered the white dots partially with the orange ones. "Aside from teaching me survival, he taught me art which was not really expected from an executioner like him. He taught me all I know about art and he always told me that the best art comes from pain." He stopped talking and began pondering if him talking about his uncle, Kenny, was a good idea.