Something Precious by moremojo
"Nineteen...turn twenty come September," answered Ennis to Jack's query about his exact age, a bit puzzled as to why he would even want to know, and finding himself namelessly drawn to the kind, sympathetic spirit he discerned in his new friend's eyes, whereupon Ennis cast his eyes down to the breakfast fire, stirring the embers aimlessly with a stick.
Jack sensed a discomfort in his work companion, and felt a twinge of regret to think he might have been the cause of it; Jack had seen a fair amount of life in his brief years, and had assumed that someone like Ennis, coming from such a similar background, had done the same...clearly this summer on the mountain would prove different from last year, when Jack had had no problem coaxing Dave, his assigned mate, into some on-the-side fun when Aguirre wasn't around.
"You're a bit older'n me," Jack stated, taking a healthy gulp from his coffee mug, continuing with "I turn twenty in October..the thirty-first, to be exact...Halloween!", whereupon he flashed a buck-toothed grin to Ennis to lighten the mood; there was something about Ennis, something different from all the other guys Jack had known and sometimes played with, that inspired a deep tenderness in his heart that was almost unbearable in its sweetness...this Del Mar fellow deserved something more than a rough and passing tumble, the intimation of which Jack felt all the more keenly as he gingerly patted Ennis's back, the first time he had dared to do so, as he prepared to set off for the sheep.