Until You Put Me Down

Ulric smiled around the shovel he was holding between his teeth as Aranea came to collect hers, momentarily tempted to sneak a kiss after she took it from him though he resisted. He set to work clearing away the snow and ice, pushing the shovel along the ground and creating piles of the frozen crystals on either side of the designated greenhouse area with her. Even though he could have probably done all of this work himself, he enjoyed her company and the fact that they were building something together. He did his best to stick to just clearing his side of the area so she could have an equal share of the task - though he might have sneaked onto her side just a bit since he was able to finish it more quickly. Occasionally he'd sneak glances in her direction, smiling softly each time. It made working through the aches and pains worth it.

Once the snow was cleared away, he went to where the post would go on his side and attempted to start digging with the shovel he had, but the shape didn't seem very good for digging. It was too wide and flat - better for pushing or moving stuff than digging. Besides, the shovels were already slightly awkward to hold on their own. He dropped the shovel and gave digging normally with his paws a go and that got him some better results, but with how hard and cold the ground was he only made a little progress before his paw pads joints began to ache. Considering how large his paws were and how much he was having trouble with it he couldn't imagine Aranea doing this part on her own. He turned his attention toward her and saw her struggling to get the shovel to pierce the ground. Theoretically hers should have an easier time of it since it was more narrow and had a sharp edge on the end so perhaps it was just a matter of adjusting their tactics.

He abandoned his post spot and walked over to her. "Maybe a little team effort will make it work?" he offered, a warm smile lingering on his face. "You get it into position and hold it up, I'll push it down." He waited for her to line it up with the edge of where the hole would be and then positioned his paws on the wider back edge of the curved shell of the shovel, using his weight to shove the blade into the hard ground with a little grunt. "There we go!" He chuckled softly, flashing her a grin. He shifted his weight toward the handle to leverage the scoop of dirt out of the ground, collecting it into a pile off to the side before handing it back to her so the process could repeat a few more times to get the hole deep enough to make sure the post wouldn't fall over after they buried it.

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