“I think I found something!” Luhan’s excited voice is hard to miss; he’s almost squealing, and seeing as Yixing is currently crouched in the trench that adjourns his, he could hardly not hear him. Still, it would be nice if Luhan could try and keep it down to a less ear-piercing level. Futile hope rues the lives of many.

Kris, their supervisor and the veteran of one too many digs filled with utter idiots on par with both Luhan and Sehun, tuts. He toes the ground with his boot, just to prove a point, despite the fact that if anyone else tried that, Nikki would have their head on a platter. “Nah, that’s just bioturbation.” The words are soft, without inflection, and yet they all hear the unspoken insult. What a .

Luhan deflates. “B-but, I thought it might, y-you know, be ch-char…coal?” He wilts under Kris’ withering state. The message is obvious. How could a newbie such as Luhan find anything?

He shakes his head. “Just decayed plant matter. Trowel that back, and if you’re still not level with Jongdae when I come back to check on you guys, I’m moving you back to trench 1.”

Yixing shudders with sympathetic horror. It’s called the geology trench, but everyone knows that’s just because there’s all in there. You just stand around with a mattock, hoping against vain hope that something will appear if you go just another few centimetres down. It never does.

He can tell Luhan is about to whisper furiously about his confusion (he seems to have gotten the idea that as they’re both Chinese, they should stick together and be friends in his head from somewhere. Yixing’s not sure how that happened. He’s made it quite obvious he’s too busy flirting with Jongdae to care), and is almost glad when Kris appears behind him. Luhan’s a nice kid, but he talks far too much.

The assistant director gives a long-suffering sigh. “Hey, you.” Yixing knows he’s talking to him, but is too afraid to answer. “Clean up your loose. You can’t even see the soil transition underneath all this crap.”

Is fear blocks his throat and stops him from informing Kris that the reason he has not cleaned up his loose is, in fact, because he was just about to do it. He’s pretty sure Kris wouldn’t care anyway. He just likes to instil fear into the newbies.

Yixing does not get a chance to reply, as Kris has already moved onto his next target. “It’s tea break soon,” he tells the boy next to Yixing kindly, Tao – the only person Kris seems to like. The boy is ridiculously bendy and observant, something Yixing would have to hate him for if he didn’t always look like he was on the verge of tears.

Maybe Kris likes the depressed ones because his work is done for him. He spent the entirety of their introductory seminar telling them that they better get the idea that digging is fun out of their minds immediately, and that if they were expecting to find anything ‘cool’ (Yixing was not sure that the air quotes were really needed here), they better off to another dig, because the most they’d be finding would be flint and charcoal.

So far, nobody’s found anything, except for Tao, who found a piece of worked flint practically within seconds of stepping into his trench. (Upon further consideration, this is probably why Kris likes him)

Still, they’re all going to carry on looking. They’re here to be trained, even if Kris’ idea of training consists of well-timed glares and slow, torturous one-liners. The only ‘training’ he’s received thus far has been in the form of Joonmyun’s well-meaning but confusing directions. Yixing’s pretty sure he’d learn a lot more if Joonmyun stopped trying to flirt with Junghwa.

There’s a lull in conversation once Kris leaves to go and terrorize trench 1 instead; after Luhan was put down so cruelly, no one is brave enough to pretend they’ve found something exciting. No one, that is, except Jongdae.

He clears his throat gently: “Yo, Junghwa. I think I got a bit of worked flint.” Joonmyun’s face falls as Junghwa abandons their (clearly desperately important; Yixing snorts) conversation to check on her minions. Luhan’s ears prick up with curiosity; everyone stops trowelling in order to see if – at last – something has actually been found. Yixing doesn’t miss the way Jongdae’s hand trembles in fear as he hands the dirty piece of stone over to his supervisor.

She rolls her eyes. “You could have cleaned it, at least.” Sighing impatiently, she waves off Jongdae’s stuttering comments about allergies and not wanting to put his fingers anywhere near his mouth when they’re so filthy, because real archaeologists would taste the dirt. She does, however, bestow him with a fond smile because she’s actually a nice person.

“Hmm.” She contemplates the dirty little thing, rubbing off a clump of mud with her thumb. “What makes you think it’s worked?” Her voice is neutral; no one can tell whether or not he’s just handed over a dummy or not, although Baekhyun’s shaking his head already and starting to trowel back once more. It’s best to always be working, or else Kris might decide you’ve not got much to do and send you over to trench 1.

“Um,” Jongdae extends a hand so that he can show her what he means. She drops it on his palm delicately. “T-there’s a bulb of percussion here, you see – “ Yixing can’t see it, but then he’s always been at identifying flintworking. “And, uh, I think this bit is the striking platform.” He points to the flat space just under the supposed bulb of percussion with a grubby finger.

Junghwa grins, and Yixing almost wants to laugh at the way Joonmyun’s face lights up to see it. “Yeah, I see what you mean. I’m not totally sure it’s worked – we’ll have to show Cara – but it’s definitely a possibility. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.” With that wisdom imparted, she stretches out of her crouch and goes to put it in the previously empty finds box.

There is a collective gasp of surprise; Jongdae settles back on his haunches with a smug smile, and then – to everyone’s delight – tea break is called.

Yixing wonders if the kettle will actually be working this time.

Yes, this is totally based on my training dig. Title comes from the phrase my supervisors kept repeating at me when I was too precious with my trowel.