Morning: Aftermath (Maria)

Maria blinked and tilted her head to the side at his answer. But it made sense when looking at his handsome features. It's not even a little surprising either. She nodded while understanding him. It seemed awfully strange someone from the music industry would get involved in the dirty and gritty work of the Cadets. But she had some good reasons that can't be judged against.

The Cadet was silent for a moment, trying to gauge what kind of answer to give. But she smiled again, "Mhm, I help out at the Church. They gave me a place to stay after the whole Divide. I had to pay them back somehow to keep it my place of residence. It's really tiresome, but I'm grateful."

Maria crossed her arms, fidgeting a bit and firmly grasping at her own sleeves in the cross. In the back of her mind, she could still remember those painful moments. There was a kind of need to talk, but silence was the action to take. There was no need for him to know. Never. Think good memories, good thoughts...

"We do some drives for food for the needy. Do community work. And cook for the gatherings we have after mass," Maria continued to explain and then stopped for a moment with an idle finger on her lips. "Say. Why don't you come by after school to clean up the classes? The janitor and I could use some help."

She wasn't entirely serious about the suggestion. Nor is she going to be surprised that he'd turn him down. With those pretty features? He probably wasn't interested, maybe too good for it.

He gave his answered and received a small silence in return as the other with him simply gave him a blink and tilt of the head. In response to that he would tilt his head the other way watching her for a bit as he briefly wondered what she was thinking; however, he never parted his lips to ask as he gave a light blink to her nod and let the thoughts pass away with ease. Maybe he didn’t really care about judgment calls or perhaps he was just comfortable around the girl to not worry about such things.

Whatever the deal was there would remain a mystery as the idol took in what the other had to say. He would stay quiet until she had completely finished. He took note of the girl’s clenching of her arm like something was bothering her, but she wouldn’t state what it was...and as much as he desired to know what was going in her head for now he would not pry to deeply into the matter. Maybe if they were closer he would’ve poked more, but for now she was more or less in the safe zone. Regardless of thoughts, the idol would keep them from his face as he responded back.

“I’ve read of Temples offering that sort of service to the weary, but I didn’t know other religions practiced the same sort of kindness. It does seem like hard work though, but the good sort,” he would say with a small smile. Hard work to help others...he had never extended himself like that before. Everything he had done had been to help himself stand strong. Sure, he may have helped Lisa out here and there, but to go all out for strangers? That seemed a bit bizarre in the idol’s mind. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around randomly helping someone he did not know. It didn’t seem logic, but Maria did it somehow. He had to wonder...“Do you like doing the work though?” he would ask, wondering if she did it to just pay the people who sheltered her back or if she actually loved it and would do it regardless. As for her request, the idol would pause to think on this one for a few moments before nodding.

“Alright. I can lend a hand,” he would say easily enough not finding the matter a big thing to work into his schedule. Yeah he had that performance to do later, but he had some time scattered throughout his day that he could use for this. Besides extra exercise never hurt, right? Though on that note... “So hey. If we finish said task in a timely manner, would you care to join me for a cup of coffee or a bite to eat?”

He would deliver the question with ease, his expression not showing any sign of shame or embarrassment. In his mind, this seemed like a logical way to hang out with the other a bit more and chat about things that were perhaps not business related if she accepted. Though how the other interpreted that was yet to be seen.

"Mhm. The Lord provides. We are just some kind of extension of that. It's great to connect with the Community. The work can be kind of dull," Maria admitted sheepishly, "But I like it nevertheless. We are helping those in need after all."

Volunteer work had been one of Maria's past-times. Work is all that she knew from a young age, helping out her father. It was something to get your mind lost in from the typical mundane nature of it. It's what she really needed to escape from what the Church does to her at their whim and now, it's to help her cope with what the Cadet work requires of her. It's not like she was lying about liking this kind of labor, but it's what she really needed.


She was actually a bit surprised he would take up on her offer. There wasn't anything he could get in return. But, he'd join up anyway. There was a kind of respect for him now. Other than being a fellow Cadet, but as another human being who was willing to do these mundane things.

She blinked at his offer at first. Blushing at first, but then snapped out of it. There's no way someone like him could be interested in her like that. Stop it, Maria. Those trashy romance novels have poisoned your mind.


She would've continued to talk more, but a call from her phone caused her to pause. Looking at the caller I.D., her face darkened. But she smiled back at her colleague, as if assuring him that everything was alright. "I'll have to take this call. I'll see you later, Haru. It was nice meeting you, see ya."

She made a wave of farewell at him and then began to leave the area as she took the call.

[Exit]

Humans were the extension of a greater being that provided and took care of them faithful or not...While Haru did not follow the typical belief system he could agree easily enough with that as he gave a light nod and then hearing the rest gave a small lopsided grin to the other. “Well that is good. It would probably be worse if you didn’t enjoy it.” Volunteer work or not, a job was much more bearable and easy to perform when one actually loved the job. He was happy she enjoyed helping others….even if he still didn’t quite get helping random strangers. Maybe it was something he’d never get. Ah well.

“Sure,” he would respond back to the other, his behavior calm and relaxed. With his schedule it was rare he got to do the little things in life even harder when Mother had someone to keep up the house. The only time he actually got to do what he suppose was normal things was when he escaped away from home to East Eden. Yes, the work was harder since he did the things himself instead of someone else, but at the same he kind of liked that. Doing things for himself rather than having someone else take care of it for him. He wasn't sure why, but the mundane relaxed him and reassured he'd be alright alone too. It was nice, but a topic for another time. As for why he said yes to the offer made, well it was something different and he didn’t mind helping out someone he knew and actually tolerated well, so why not? In any case, that was settled easily enough; however, things became slightly amusing as he asked his follow up question and saw the reaction to it.

He saw her blush and become flustered a bit. It was honestly quite cute considering the woman could seem quite intimidating in other situations. It was small thing the idol appreciated about her because it showed despite what was going on, she was still human under it all. A human he could respect easily enough. It never crossed his mind that asking her to join him for coffee or a bite to eat could imply something beyond that because as cute as she was, the idol hadn’t gotten to a point where he would consider her more than a friend just yet. So he didn’t quite get what made her act this way, but even so he never said anything about it and the only reaction he gave was a slight tilt of the head. Outside of this his expression remained calm until he received an answer.

“It’s a plan then,” he would say giving her a rather charming smile and maybe the conversation could’ve gone further; however, the joyous air would end with a phone call. Haru would catch a glimpse of the other’s expression, but in the end she smiled and excused herself. Not wanting to hold her up, the idol would give her nod of understanding.

“Alright then. Catch you later then,” he would say and then fell silent as he watched her leave. Once alone again, he would stick around to mediate a bit before finally leaving the training area to do other things.