Thinking about the past [Private:Lloyd/Airi]

Lloyd was roaming around the school as he was exploring parts that he never set foot upon yet. He was in a small hallway that had a red carpet covering the floor toward a small room that was well decorated. There was the same red carpet that was in the hallway. There was a nice little fountain that had similar trait than the one in the courtyard, some potted plants and a small table with two chairs placed in the style of a table for two in small cafe. Lloyd stopped his exploration and decided to sit on one of the chair and enjoy this small room a little. He looked back and forth between the hallway he came from and a door that was on the other side wondering if someone would come and if so, by which way would they arrive. He then recline on the chair and started to feel some similarities with this room and his home back in Vale. He did have a room quite similar that he used with his mother to drink tea, coffee and other drinks while talking about all and nothing. Remembering those moment made Lloyd shed a tear to those good old days.

(This is placed just before Lloyd would arrive, with the room being done clean already, etc.)

The later evening was rather well set in motion from what she had originally had planned for this evening. The maid let out a little yawn as she looked out of a window in the hall, looking out at the full moon. It’s very appearance captured her entire attention but for a moment as she had stared at it, oddly hypnotized by the very sight of it. Maybe it was the look of the moon reacting with her faunas bloodline. Being that her father and his side of the family had been half faunas in the wolf family to be specific. Her mind jumped as she had heard a small crashing sound and turned around to see a potted plant on a small table stand had fallen and shattered. Her hand was held over her mouth in surprise. She hadn’t seen that she was that close to it… in fact she was rather distanced from it completely. She decided not to waste any time and began to clean it up.

It took her sometime of sweeping up the glass, disposing of it, and vacuuming up the mess before she had finally finished some time later, though her total amount of time was unknown, it wasn’t as much as she had actually thought it to be. However, with the amount of work she had already done over the course of the day, she let out a loud yawn, one that seemed to stretch her mouth out, but her hand had covered it from sight. Now that the mess was cleaned up, Airi had stumbled for a moment from having exhausted herself from wanting to and completely cleaning the entire academy in a single day, this area had been the last of her rooms. The maid caught herself on the sill and took in a deep breath and exhaled. Looking along, she held her head from a slight exhaustion and began to walk slowly into the next room and taking her time getting there. With another yawn, Airi approached one of a couple seats, the door left half way open and sat herself down in a chair before falling asleep rather quickly. Left alone in the room with a faint audible breathing not quite to the sound of snoring.

Lloyd came back to himself after that small flashback. He looked around the room a little and notice that a girl dressed as a maid was sleeping on another table. He most have missed her as he entered probably because of the fountain was between both of them and was blocking his sight. He looked at her a minute wondering why she was wearing that outfit. Was she an actual maid? What was she doing here anyway? He looked around again and saw that a small cart was not far from her. "Well I think she might be one after all..." did he muttered to himself trying not to wake her. He decided that he could try to leave slowly to let her sleep. As he stood, however, the chair got stuck and made Lloyd fall backward with the chair, made the table toppled on him and bumped his head on the wall, all that making the worse sound possible. "Well there goes my subtility..." He was stuck in a rather uncomfortable position and couldn't get up by himself that way...

She squirmed for just a second as she laid herself down and got herself comfortable on a table. For something rather hard, she found it to be very comfortable, and she hadn’t cared really to look for if anyone had been in the room, she just had to lay down and it hadn’t mattered to her otherwise. With a smile, she laid on her side, arms bent and tucked under her head to act as a pillow while she kept her legs together and bent as well. The act of her being able to rest had been the most relaxing thing she had to her and she refused to want to move for quite a while if she could help it. She felt like she had slept for quite a while in just the few moments of her sleep, but she had begun to hear things in the room, but she pushed them away as just being in her head.

However in the moments of her app, the maid jumped to the sound of a crashing noise near her. The sound terrified her from it’s loud noise and she jumped up and off the table, falling down onto her back. Airi sat part way up from her leaned position to see a boy looking over before noticing the position she sat in; her legs spreading apart to show a shadowed color of her underpants. She screamed with cheeks growing extremely red and she sat up and pushed her dress down, standing up and bowing, refusing to lift herself up. "I-I-I’m sorry master! I-I didn’t know anyone was in here and I was feeling exhausted. Please don’t be angry, it won’t happen again sir, I promise!" She spoke loudly, now hanging her body in shame of her unprofessionalism in front of another student or faculty member as it showed her off as inadequate service.. or at least to her it did.

Lloyd felt sorry for waking up the maid as his intention were the complete opposite. He could have heard her fall as well and her scream and he looked toward her to see if she was alright and looked away the second he saw in which position she had fell. He felt awkward and hope she didn't noticed that he saw her underpants as he couldn't know this would happen. As he heard her apologizing and calling him "master" and "sir", he felt even more awkward as he wasn't use to be called like that, at least not anymore. As he tried to look toward her with all the difficulty of the world in the position he was in with the chair and the table stopping him from moving and the fact that he didn't want to cross her sight if she was mad, he could see her all flustered and hoped it wasn't for the reason he thought of. Not being able to move a lot, Lloyd said: "Please don't apologize, I'm the one who should as I'm the one who wake you up,and in the worse way possible I think. Can I ask you one little thing please? Do you think you could help to get out of there? I feel a little squitched under that table..." He looked toward her with a gentle yet goofy smile as he felt embarrassed of the situation.

At first the maid refused to move from her position. She was too embarrassed and her lightly trembling body had come to show the same thing as well. She felt her heart beating way too much for just that simple error, but she had never had anyone see under her uniform but her mother and sisters. The ever so occasional child in the mansion she grew up in, but she had found it to be only in her childhood as well. It wasn’t so much that she had wanted to ignore the idea that someone had seen her, but it was already a little too late to ignore it. Airi remained silent after she pleaded for the man’s apology, hoping he didn’t find her napping to be inappropriate timing or lazing around on the job, but it seemed to be a little off.

She looked up from her half bent position to see the predicament the man was in. Her red face calmed quickly as she rose up and her hand covered her mouth. "Oh my.." She spoke softly, just before running over to his aide. "Hold still now ok? You seem to have really caught yourself in well." She contemplated for a moment as her orbs scanned over the predicament, slowly moving the things aside and guiding his trapped leg from possible injury. "Now now, let me help you up!" She gave a rather cheery tone, giving a hand to pulling the man up. "Let’s sit you down here~" The maid guided him to the seat and once he was seated, she had smiled and stood in her normal position, standing erect with her hands cupped over one another at the center of her uniform. "I hope you’re ok, sir. I’m Airi Kohana, the academy maid. It’s a pleasure to meet your acquaintances, unfortunately not under the best of circumstances…" She gave a curtsy and still smiling lightly, bowed her head simultaneously before returning to her normal position. "Is there anything I may get for you, sir?" She gave a close eyed smile as she waited, hopefully him being kind enough to let their incidents blow over.

As she helped him, Lloyd couldn't help but think how quick her expression changed as he clearly needed help. He also couldn't help but laugh as she said that he caught himself pretty well with his fall. "Well yeah, luck runs in our family, either good or bad, it always follows us." As he stood up with the support of the maid and sat back on the chair he once fell with, he couldn't help but think that it might happen again. As the maid introduced herself with the curtsy, Lloyd stood up and bowed to introduce himself. "My name is Lloyd, Lloyd Vanheim and it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Airi. And please don't call me "master" or "sir", I don't want to get used to those titles again... just Lloyd will be perfect. Also thank you for helping me out. It would have been a little shameful if I was to be stuck there for hours if you weren't here. So thank you." As he raised his head, he scratched the back of his head from the embarrassment. As she offered to get something for him, Lloyd appreciated the thought s he said: "Well I'd have anything you'd take, as I wouldn't want to be the only one to drink something. I always think that every drink or meal should be share with someone." He smiled to her with a gentle and warm smile.

Just a subtle little thought had popped into her head as she heard the man speak. He had quite a calm tone, which had immediately resolved most of her worries and troubled mind of what he would react to her with. He was very cooperative and quiet as the maid had assisted him from his small mishap and hadn't spoken a word as they did so. In some cases that could have been a rather good thing to have so that she had no real reason to avoid wanting to think otherwise about him snapping at her and wanting her to hurry up and insulting her.. Not that she ever dealt with people like that.

As it came around for him to introduce himself, Airi was a bit worried as he stood, but her expression changed with simply just his action. He gave a rather kind gentlemens bow to the maid and gave her the courtesy of his name to her as well. As it really seemed he wasn't into the whole semantics of being called 'master' or 'sir'. It was odd to the maid as several people rather were taken in by her calling them master or mistress as it gave them a bit of a more prideful ego to inflate their already oversized one.

With an odd look of confusion, the silver haired maid simply blinked and nodded quietly as she had no real idea how to respond to it. "I.. I suppose I can.. Try that at least. I was raised to call everyone that whether I was aquatinted with them or not. However, I apologize now if I happen to address you as either in the future... S-s- Lloyd. Ah gahh! That was harder than I thought it had been." she shook her head, a little disappointment in herself in having said what she did.

As he requested his more open options, Airi began to think things over for something. She wasn't much for the type of person to really ever have a chance like his, so she wanted to give this a chance where she couldn't really screw it up. "Hmm.. I see. This option is new to me to be honest with you... How does some Chamomile tea sound? It's one of my favorite tea flavors as it has a taste of mint in it and it is quite calming and refreshing." She smiled and waited before his response before she would fetch out more things. Before long from getting it, she would walk out to go prepare the drinks and any valid food ideas if any that were good to go.

Lloyd couldn't help but chuckle as she tried to address him without any formality. He released a sigh before saying: "I guess if it's easier for you, "sir" would do. Just avoid "master" if you can... As for the tea, I would gladly accept as I like chamomile as well." As she walked out to prepare everything, Lloyd would sat down on the chair, carefully to avoid falling again. He would then look at Airi before asking: "I was wondering, since when the Academy hires maids? I mean I never saw one in here before you and you look young enough to be studying here. So I wanted to know if you were a maid, a student or maybe even both. I sorry if my question seems a bit blunt but I was curious. You don't have to answer if you don't want to though, I wouldn't want to force you." Lloyd gave her a sincere look on his face to show that he was with good intention and would want her to reveal anything she wouldn't want to. He then jump out as he thought that with his fall from earlier his watch could have been damaged and looked at it in a hurry to be sure it was intact. He sighed as he saw that not even a scratch could be seen on it. He looked back at the maid and gave her a smile hoping that if she saw him in his earlier state of panic, she would understand that everything was fine now.

The maid let out a little smile as she stood by Lloyd. He was a kind person from what she could gather; higher upbringing that he seemed to dislike for some reason or another, retained manners of said upbringing, and considerate to others even of those he hadn't known.. in said case was Airi this time. She seemed to already enjoy being around him, and even the small commonality of drinks had been something that would make their future interactions on her return to be rather long term compared to just returning with some tea for the two. Mays had gathered many questions in the time she had just listened to the few things he told her and the body language in which he gave off to the maid, but then again human observations were much in her forte of skills that she mostly withheld from others if they didn't necessarily note her overlooking, which was a standard patience of an experienced maid. "Ah, thank you sir. I much appreciate it, although I will try to get used to just calling you by your given name.. I've just only grown up addressing others as that, sometimes my own mother, however I shall explain that on my return."

She turned to head towards the door, when Lloyd began to speak to her again. The maid adjusted her body to face the man again and she simply smiled and gave a bow. "As I have said before sir, all shall be explained upon my return. All good stories are best told with tea, no?" She ended, giggling with joy and giving a wink before she turned back once more and skipped off to gather up and prepare fresh hot tea and place it onto a cart with several snack like treats in a cabinet of the tea cart. It took her about 5 or so minutes before she had returned with the cart of tea and parked it past the two seats in the room and lifted the pot. She placed a small towelette underneath as she poured into the cups and set it down, placing the towelette overtop as to keep in the warmth. Airi would pick up a single cup and hand it to Lloyd, waiting until he took it before she would get her own and sit in the other seat.

"And as requested, I shall begin I suppose." She paused and took a sip from her tea and smiled before picking up again. "Now, the fact of my last could come soon once we get into that part, however to answer you on the act of my servicing the academy.. It is a tad bit of all of the above. I am here as a student, since my papa enrolled me after I moved in with him in town and I asked the school if I could be the school maid. I dislike not being able to be a maid, it's something I love very much." She ended finally, not wanting to be a bother to the man by giving him a life story about her love of what kind of work she did. "Now, if it isn't too much to ask, Lloyd. Why is it you dislike being called 'sir' or 'master'? I've had people flirting over calling them that.. But never refusing it." She stopped again, waiting for him to get around to her question while she took another sip of the tea. "Sugar and honey are on the cart if the tea is not to your liking by the way, my apologies for not mentioning it sooner."

Lloyd's eyes widened as Airi gave him a wink before going to gather the tea. Surprised, he gave her a smile both as she came and go with the tea on her return. The perfume of the tea quickly engulfed the room with its aroma. As she poured the tea and gave him a cup, Lloyd closed his eyes to smell the perfume of it with more focus. "It smells very good. Are you the one that prepared it? I mean from picking up the herb yourself to this amazing result?" As Lloyd grabbed the cup, he gave her a small bow with his head as he thanked her. As she explained her role in the Academy, Lloyd nodded to show that he understood and yet couldn't help but be surprised that someone could love so much being a maid. It could be understandable why Lloyd was so surprised as the people who he knew and worked as maids or butlers all wanted to do something else, at least back when he lived in Vale.

As Airi asked the reason behind the the fact Lloyd disliked any form of formality towards him, he went silent a moment with a gloomy expression on his face. He thought about it a moment before looking at his tea as Airi mention the sugar and the honey. Lloyd was always the kind to put some sugar in his tea as usually they would be fade a little, still good but fade. Like it was always missing something. But since he didn't want to look rude for not giving a taste first, he took a small sip to realize that it was perfect. No need of sugar or anything. Lloyd looked at Airi saying: "Wow, it's amazing! Never thought that a tea could be so sweet naturaly. How did you do that?' Lloyd took another sip of it right before starting his explanation. He put the cup on the table, put his hands together and lean on them while his elbows rest on the table.

"That might be a little long story. I was born in Vale into the Vanheim family. My father runs a freelance developing industry that specialize in weaponry. My father quickly became famous and grew a small fortune. Nothing compared to bigger companies but at least he had made a name for himself. The problem is that he couldn't run the company by himself so he had to hire people. That's when he hired some servants to take care of me and my brother. They were always referring my father as "Master Vanheim" and because of my "relationship" with my father, being called "master" as well as bearing the name of the Vanheim family gives me the impression of being closer to him. Something I can't bear..."

He then looked at Airi and gave her a smile to let her know he was alright even thought his gloomy face was still visible. He took the cup of tea in his hands and took a sip to make him feel better and it worked. He was already calmer and released a sigh before saying: "I guess it's not that big of a deal when said like that..." He looked back at his cup before taking another sip.

Airi found a bit of amusement in Lloyd’s reaction to his first sip of her tea. She smiled a little watching him and even further as the man had mentioned how good he thought it had been. The maid rather enjoyed when everyone had found her tea to be so good, ever since she had learned to make it as a child it was always something tasteful and fun to make. She nodded in reply to him, giggling a bit as she leaned in a little bit. "Yes sir! I would never make tea that wasn’t freshly prepared. It NEEEEVER tastes the same premade than it does by hand." She replied, getting to her own cup and sipping it in wait. She set her cup down on the tray and stood before Lloyd as if she was waiting on him hand and foot, a personal maid despite her only standing there by force of habit.

The smile on the maid’s face vanished as she had taken her seat and discovered the lack there of in his own. Even though he had come to enjoy her tea, his own personal issues seemed to have gotten to him and made him change his mood rather quickly. It was easy then to tell whatever it was had seriously affected him, or at least enough to show such a big change so quickly. Airi snapped back as he had spoken again, his tone completely changed from before from one sip of the tea and claimed it as perfection. She blushed and averted her gaze from him as she held her own cup and shook her head. "Sadly, I can’t tell you. It’s a family secret that I learned as a child and intend to keep to myself. I’m sure someone like you can respect that." She sighed and then closed her eyes as she took a sip. Naturally, doing so had seemed to always calm her down some, and relaxed her body though she never really knew why.

Her eyes opened and peeked over to the man as he started to reply to her question. She listened intently to his story and she seemed to know what he was talking about, though having been in the opposite shoes, the maid did rather tend to see what he was talking about when it had come to it. "I take it you dislike your father then? I know of an average percentage of children that grow up in that kind of environment tend to either dislike the lifestyle, they dislike the parents for their lack of attendance in their lives, or they just become spoiled brats with a bad attitude. Some fall into more than a single category and that seems to be your case, but your manners tell me otherwise. However, that is only my initial thoughts and you can feel free to correct me if I’m wrong." She nodded quietly to herself, sipping her tea once more.

After a moment, Airi stood up and set her cup on the tray and reached her hand out toward Lloyd with a smile. "If you would like more tea Lloyd, I will refill the cup for you." Whether he would or not, the silver haired maid would return to the cart and pick up the towelette and the tea pot and poured herself another cup and had Lloyd handed her the cup, would pour him another cup and return it to him. Had he not she would simply set the pot and towel back where they were and seat herself once more. "Now.. As I’ve asked you something, feel free to ask me anything you wish and I’ll reply… My family secret aside of course." She looked over, playfully sticking her tongue out as she amused herself and possibly him with the small joke.

Lloyd thought that it was great to have a secret family recipe and reply that it's was okay for him to not know. "Don't worry about it, it's fine. Although it's true I would have loved to learn it, it is not my right to know as I'm not part of your family." He sipped the last of his tea and gladly accepted another cup as Airi was so kind to offer. he gave her a smile as well as his empty cup. As for the question she asked about his father, Lloyd only replied with a nod right after a sigh. Yeah, me and my father were never really close as he was always giving all his attention to my brother, who ended up leaving the house to avoid the fate  my father as decided for him. Plus, after my brother left, my father decided to put me in the place of my brother. Funny as I ended up doing the same as my brother." Lloyd gladly picked back the cup as Airi came back as he gave her a smile. He took a sip from his cup and released a sigh of well being as the tea made him feel better, which was good for next part. "But this isn't the reason that I despise my father. If it was just that I would thank him as it gave me a reason to come here to become a huntsman and meet great people. I wouldn't have met you if I didn't come to this school."Lloyd would gave her yet again a smile before looking at his tea. "The reason I truly hate him is because of what he did to the staff. He would often hire more faunus than humans as he enjoyed exploiting them. Not caring about their well being, their health or their family. He even..." Lloyd suddenly stopped and his eyes started to feel themselves with tears. He closed his eyes and looked away a moment as he didn't really wanted to be seen in this state as he wanted to stay strong and continue his story. He then rose his head letting the few tears that he wasn't able to stop flow on his face. Sorry, but just thinking about what he did... He even drove them to death by exhaustion. Most of them were friends, and I couldn't help them. My father wouldn't never care and replace them as machines. I hated him so much that I would hav-" Lloyd was so angry at that moment that without noticing, he broke the cup with his left hand, sending small shards flying as others lodged themselves in his hand. I'm sorry, I should have calmed myself. Now I broke that cup, great...

Lloyd felt horrible as he would try to pick the shards on the ground and saw his blood coming from his injured hand. And now I'm making a mess in a room that you already cleaned. I'm truly sorry. Lloyd would look toward the ground ashamed of what just happened.

As the two continued to sit and chatter, Airi quietly sipped on her tea, enjoying the calming taste she had always gotten from it while she had sat with her eyes closed. For some reason it felt much more soothing to do so in that fashion so that she had felt more comfortable than had she had been looking about somewhere else. She smiled at his comment, chuckling a little as he went along with the joking, but found it a little strange that he had skipped over the maid’s offer to ask her anything. Instead it had gotten rather quiet. So quiet in fact, Airi’s right eye peeked open and she looked over a bit to see him starring into his cup. He carried a look of wallow and hate in a shared expression and he seemed to be a little bit more agitated possibly just on the thought of reminding himself of his past. She nodded contently as she listened to his first part of his reasoning, which had been rather reasonable explanations for his actions and the silver haired huntress couldn’t dislike the reason, but she had rather found it to be logical and understanding.

While Lloyd continued on, the male seemed to further become frustrated. His story of the things his father did had come to bare a rather large resemblance to the way her masters had come to treat their faunas “workers” as well. Still, the maid kept to her calm senses by sipping her tea and just listening. She let Lloyd have his time to speak, not wanting to further agitate him at all in what he was doing she wanted him to let it out and hopefully loosen a bit of his worries about any doubts that he may have. However, the maid jumped and her eyes and head shot over as she heard the shattering of glass. Her jolted reaction shook her tea and she hadn’t realized at all she had spilled some onto her plate, she rushed to get a fresh towel and set her cup down before she had come to his aide. "Please no sir, it’s fine. You’re calm now and your wounds aren’t too serious, so let’s be thankful about that and let me tend to this, okay?" She gave him a small smile before she reached over and pulled a few more towels out from the shelf under the cart and placed them down to dry off all the wet spots while taking his hand to herself closely and picking small shards of glass out carefully until she had collected them all.

"Please hold still. I have a first aide kit for all sorts of emergencies in my cart, so we can seal this, just keep pressure on this for a moment, Lloyd." She ordered, her tone caring and soft as she wrapped a towel as tight as she could and made him close his fist around it until he clenched it tightly himself. She then reached herself around and pulled out a first aide kit and pulled it out and opened it up, sitting herself next to his seat on her knees as she pulled his hand down and pulled out her gauze and removing the towel. She then placed a couple pads down and grabbed some bandages, wrapping them tightly, but not so tight that he could not move his hand and form a fist. She then wrapped it around until it ended and taped it off with some medical supply tape and smiled. "All done!~ Mama taught me a lot of things I would always need as services as a maid, and I hope you like it." She huffed a little and her smile faded a bit and she sat herself down onto her legs. "However.. I think I can agree in those thoughts.. I.. W-Well.." She paused, her mind too afraid to wanna say anything more and wanting to push things in to saying something.. but she didn’t know whether she could amount to saying it…

Lloyd was watching Airi as she tended to his wound with a smile on his face yet still sadness and rage in his eyes. He should have stop thinking about the past as he knew it could have happen as it already did before. Except this time just a cup has broken and nothing more. He breathed slowly and deeply as she was posing the bandages, not because of the pain as he didn't have any sensation in his left arm since a long time, he was just breathing to try to calm himself. He felt so bad for what happened as everything seemed to went well as they were talking to each with smiles. Lloyd thought that it was his fault that it turned out this way and his guilt could be seen on his face."I'm really sorry about that. I thought I would have been able to keep myself together. I guess not." He gave her a smile to apologize but knew it wouldn't do nothing to help.

As she finished nursing him, he looked at his hand wondering how many time she had to do this to get that good at taking care of wounds. "Are you sure you're just a maid and a student and you're not also a nurse?" He hope pulling out a joke could liven up the atmosphere a little as he saw that Airi's face was the one becoming gloomy. He decided to pick her up as she was still on the floor and help sit down on her chair as she was now seemingly in a state more sad than his. "Now is not the time to feel down. It's already a shame to see such a lovely and lively girl in this state, I would feel even worse if it was actually my fault." He gave her a sincere smile in hope to see hers and continued:"I would love to know more about you, although I don't know if you feel like it now that I basically killed the mood." Lloyd wished it would have gone in a different way than the one it took as he hated when a situation goes from great to horrible in a matter of minutes.

She sat and happily wrapped his wound like a mother tending to her child’s scrape. Airi seemed to enjoy this, though she wasn’t very used to doing this thankfully enough, the maid was still keen in how she could very much so wrap a wound as she had practice in her childhood. "There’s no need to be sorry, Lloyd. Things happen and I understand the frustrations as my old master’s home was the same, however they just fed them better and just used them for more menial and ridiculous things." She spoke as if it were natural, but to her she had to get used to the idea of having to live with it like her mother and sister had. She tried not to get too much into it, but as the male had brought up a joke about her being the school nurse as well, the maid giggled and shook her head lightly. "No no, I am just very used to having to wrap wounds, what with lots of children being around and causing trouble for one another." She spoke up, keeping a soft tone for the moment.

It was when she had choked in her words that it seemed Lloyd didn’t waste time thinking. He picked the maid up, to which she only blushed and yelped lightly like a little dog as she had been carried to the chair she sat in and placed in it. Her eyes looked away again as he spoke while the blush on her face remained still in her complexion. She kept herself quiet and choked up. "C-Could I tell him? I.. I want to.. but.. But.." Once he finished speaking, the maid’s body shook with hesitation before she finally couldn’t hold herself back from saying it any longer. "…I’m a Faunas!" She shouted loudly, winging her hands up and slapping them over her mouth. She waited a moment before her hands began to slide down until they rested on her lap and she sighed. "I.. My papa was a slave worker for my master.. and he and mama had a small affair which lead to my birth…" She paused to sit herself up a bit and took in a breath before exhaling. "Papa became a runaway from the masters mansion and came to the town while I stayed and became a maid and grew up normally, despite being half faunas.. But I was to ALWAYS keep it from people… PLEASE don’t tell anyone Lloyd, I.. I’m afraid of what people would think of me.. It’s.. I’m still afraid what what you think…" She looked away, tears starting to flood her eyes, droplets staining her uniform as she pondered frightening scenarios in her mind of what he would reply to her with.

As Airi said that she was a Faunus, Lloyd looked at her in surprise as he would have never knew if she hadn't told him herself. He listen closely to her short story and realized that they basically lived the same thing only in different roles him as a master and her as a maid. The same story, two sides of the coin. As she started to cry, Lloyd felt bad as, yes he wanted to know her better, but he never thought it would lead to her crying. He wanted to see her smile again so he approached her and swiped the tears off her face and looking her in the eyes. "Listen, you shouldn't be afraid to say that you're half faunus here. A lot of people here at Syne are very open minded and we have a lot of faunus attending the school. And if someone would make the mistake to harm you, they would have to answer from me." He gave her a soothing smile in hope she would feel better afterward before continuing. "But if you really want me to keep it a secret, that's the least I could do. All I ask is that we have more moments like this one, without the painful memory though. Just us drinking tea and talking about anything really." He made sure she wasn't crying anymore before giving her a closed-eyes smile"You don't have to be afraid"

Airi sat and explained herself, the maid watched Lloyd's reaction be what she would have expected, but still better than she had imagined. Maybe just in the fit of the previous short nap giving her the idea to come out and blab a secret, it seemed that the boy had no real intentions of putting something like that out more than she had hoped for. She looked away fro only a moment as he started crying only to jump a bit as she felt something brushing her cheek, only to open watery eyes to see Lloyd before her, wiping the tears coming down her cheeks. She shook her head less than violently on the idea of just coming out with her secret so nonchalant like, as if it wasn't such a big deal. "We just went through this Lloyd. Both are families did the same thing to Faunas, and I don't know when or where someone my master could have around here. He could send me back and make me a servant like the rest of them.. And I don't want that at all!" Her hands trembled even as she balled them up on her lap with parts of her uniform tucked in them.

She sniffled a bit and sat herself up, wiping the rest of her tears from her eyes. "I.. I know everything my papa went through in there, and I won't let him go back either. I can't let my team down by being forced out of here either, it's not fair to them, or to anyone..." Finally, Airi took in a big breath, waited a couple seconds, then exhaled and repeated it with much smaller breathes until she had finally calmed herself own fully. "I.. I appreciate every little thing you've done for me so far.. It's.. More than I've ever gotten before." She blushed, averting her eyes after seeing him giving the maid a big smile, she felt comfortable around him, but it was only the fact she wasn't used to a strangers kindness that had her rather embarrassed. "B-But you're right! W-We should definitely talk about something else! And.. You shouldn't need to worry about someone hurting me, I am a combat specialized maid of course!~" She giggled, winking playfully at Lloyd, trying to raise her spirits before she had felt like she would stumble back into her saddened corner of depression.

Lloyd released a sigh as he was glad that his efforts to comfort her weren't in vain. Seeing her smiles and giggling as well as winking at him putted him at ease. He nodded as Airi agreed to talk about something else so he slowly stood up and went back to his seat. He pondered for a moment about what they could actually talk about and decided to just go with a simple question to learn more about her. "Tell me Airi, beside your work here, what do you like to do? Any activities you like to do or places you like to go for a walk for example." He looked at her with an expression that said "I can't come up with a better question but at least I'm trying, right?" before smiling with an innocent look.

As he was about to listen to her answer if she was going to give one, he couldn't help but think about what she said about being taken back as a servant in the mansion she was in before. As he wouldn't let that happen for any reason as she was worried about what would happen to her team, but also he was worried about her to. So he tried to come up with something, an idea that could help her someway. He thought of something, a good idea, and it could work, but it might not be the best time to ask. It would be better to wait and see how things goes...

He didn't miss any of her word as he was thinking as he could still hear her and it would have been awfully rude to ask her a question and not listening to the answer. It was already rude of Lloyd to think about something else in the meantime she was talking. He shook his head a little to gain more focus on her.

The subject had finally seemed to begin to change. It had already started to raise her spirits to see Lloyd taking humor in her playful joke, the maid watched him walk over and take a seat. It grew silent for a moment as it gave Airi a chance to calm herself back to a more reserved and calm mind. When Lloyd called for her attention, the maids head turned right to him, a look of curiosity like a little kid on her face while he began to ask her about what she liked to do besides working. She blinked and starred like an idiot at him before she looked away and began to think about it. She never had really thought about it, she wanted to exclude everything that she enjoyed doing that revolved around a maids duty an she could only shrug at the start of her response.


"I.. Have nothing really. My entire life I have done nothing but maid related work, so that's all I really know. I can cook, clean, provide good company, fight, and so on and so forth, but as far as hobbies, I have none. I never had the time in the mansion and I only ever spend enough time with Papa to be able to catch up and spend time with him." She smiled and began to twiddle her thumbs, happy to speak about the personal time she got with her father recently that had come to after so many years.

Lloyd's eyes widened as he was surprised that a lovely girl like her didn't have any hobbies. He then looked around a little thinking about it and came up with something. "Well, this is a problem. I think that a girl like you need to have something to do aside from working and studying. Maybe I could help you." Lloyd closed his eyes and put his hands behind his head before smiling and opening only one eye to look at Airi. "I have a suggestion, if there is anything that you would like to do, really anything. Somewhere you'd like to go, something you'd like to do. Just ask and I'd be happy to accompany you wherever you'd like to go. I'd be happy to help you find a hobby of your own. And before you say anything about not wanting to ask anything from me or something like that, don't worry as it would be my pleasure." He gave her a smile and bowed is head a little as he wanted to show that he only had good intentions with his offer.

He waited for her answer has he started to think about the idea he had about protecting her in someway. He wasn't able to think of another way than the one he had already found and yet wasn't sure she would agree to it. Also he didn't want to bring the subject back as he would rather being torn apart right now than to see her in tears or even just being sad again. He then focused himself back to her to hear her answer.

(I'm so sorry for the late reply! My work is really kicking my rear x.x)

Her feet gently swung back and forth in a childish manner as she waited in th silence after her response to Lloyd. It was a little embarrassing now that she took the time to think about her lack of having really anything to do aside from being a persons maid and tending to anyones requests. However there wasn't so much as a single thought to it all and she hadn't necessarily given a care to it at all until Lloyd had come to ask her about it. Anything at all? ...She remained silent as she began to think about it. The thought wasn't really that keen in mind about what she had maybe wanted to do, but as she had began to think about it there was a couple ideas that crossed her mind. Airi however was way too stubborn in thought to want to do it, nor would she want to impose anything on him. It would make her feel awful for having him do it.

The more th maid thought about it, the same one idea had come to cross her mind. Her cheeks grew a light powder pink color as she came to a conclusion in her mind and a small smile formed on her face. "W-Well there is a c-couple of things I have always wanted to do.. but I refuse to bug you about most of them." She paused and giggled lightly as the thought in her mind made her blushing become a darker shade. "W-What I've thought of the most.. was maybe to see the beach... W-well.. now that I think about it.. it seems silly.. Forget I get asked..." She began to twiddle her thumbs as her head sunk. It was stupid to think she could ask for anything. She wanted to see the beach, but she knew it was something she would never see until she maybe was done here or if her papa took her. To ask Lloyd was embarrassing and stupid, and she was feeling really dumb for it.

Lloyd smiled as Airi said that she would loved to see the beach, he then sighed as she did say that she didn't want to bother him, even if said not to. He put his hands on the table as he stood up. "Then it's settle, I'll bring you to the beach myself one day or another and there's no way you can avoid it." He gave her a smile before asking her something."Also, what did you meant by "refusing to bug me about "most" of them"? You got something else than the beach on your mind? If yes, then go ahead and tell me. You won't bug me with it."

He saw by her look that she was embarrassed of asking, by not asking, but she seemed happy that he insisted so he continued. He walk to her side and kneel near her as he patted her shoulder. "Listen, I know you might not be used to it, but you need to do something other than working or studying. Also, doing things with friends is always better, so why not enjoying yourself once in a while?" He gave her a closed eyes smile before listening to her answer.

The maid looked over curiously at Lloyd as he used the table by him as a support to rise to his feet, smiling. She tilted her head in confusion of why he would be smiling it what she had said. If she hadn't come to know how sweet and gentle he was, than maybe she would have thought him to find her idea to be a joke and something to laugh at, but it seemed too much like a more genuine form of a smile and it had made her a little bit happy to see it. She blushed a bit as he all but bluntly said he may have to kidnap her to bring her to the beach. "N-no Lloyd, you don't need to do that, honest! That seems like such a hassle to do.." She spoke worriedly, not wanting to make him go out of his way and do things that would make her feel bad to have done JUST for Airi.

As he asked her about the other ideas she had, she shook her head valiantly at it. She refused to mention any of them. It was bad enough he was going to be taking her to the beach some day, she didn't need to have such a big burden of having more than what he already knew. "It's... nothing really. Besides, some of them are a little more.. private than I care to admit. I do have other ideas, but I would hope you respect my desire not to share them."The maid had only turned her head for a second before she felt a hand touching her shoulder and she jumped, her head jutting back toward her right shoulder to see Lloyd right beside her, giving her a mini speech about her habits. Of course she had always wanted to do other things, but the way she grew up didn't allow for her to expand, and now that she spent so long with it, she didn't care to stop. "W-Well, I know your intentions are good, but I love what I do and maybe some day I'll get to relax and enjoy myself and then other days I won't want to do anything but work and study. I.. As I've told you before have ALWAYS been a maid. It's the only thing I knew how to do properly before learning combat. So in that case I don't tend to branch out unless I'm pushed into it or -against my better judgment in saying so- forced to do so." She gave him a close eyed smile and placed her left hand on his own and gave a soft giggle. "These things take time, right? All we need to do is be patient and I'll some day learn." She asked, still giving him her cheery smile in hopes he would understand, though something about it seemed as though he probably would.

Lloyd immediately shook is head as the word "hassle" came out of her mouth. "How many time do I need to repeat myself? I would gladly do it. Now stop thinking your a burden to me as I'm the one imposing myself here, if someone is hassling right now, it's me and not you." He gave her once again a smile before nodding as she insisted on keeping her other ideas for herself. "I'm okay with that, I won't inquire longer on those. But remember that if you want to do any of them, just ask me and I'd be happy to be there." He listen to her once more as she said that she loved her work and wouldn't do anything else than that sometimes. "I never said that your love for your work was a bad thing, but sometimes it's good to do something else as it can get repetitive to do only one thing you like. Which is why I thing a hobby would be nice for you to have. Although in the end it's decision and I will have to accept it. At least I would be able to say that I tried, right?" He gave her a smile as she placed her hand on top of his before standing up going back to his seat. As he sat down, he looked at the table realizing he didn't have a cup anymore since he broke his earlier. He had wishes for a cup of soothing tea. He pouted at himself for that...