It was a sunny afternoon at Beacon with many Huntsmen and Huntresses in training either studying or relaxing. However, one Faunus girl named Phila Mai was currently doing maintenance on her team's weapons, by her request. She was checking if the weapons' changing mechanisms and the firearms' barrels weren't rusted, which was a standard job for Phila. Her work corner where she did maintenance wasn't huge, but it held all the essentials to make sure the weapons wouldn't fail during battle; extra parts, oil, the tools required, just to name a few. Despite the complexity of her and Yasu's weapons, she loved the sound of the tools and the feel of new, oily weapon parts and couldn't help but become fully immersed in her work; a fact that her teammates notice. Especially Rod Bruin. He returned from studying and saw Phila working on his weapon, Schnappschauss, but no evidence of her taking a break was in the room.
"I'm back, Phila. It looks like you're almost finished, but did you take a break?" He asked the question, but the girl appeared to not hear him. He sighed and walked until he was right behind her. Once she wasn't holding anything, Rod patted her shoulder, making Phila jump in her seat.
"Eep! R-Rod, you scared me…! U-uh…did you just get back?"
"Yeah."
"I didn't hear you enter, though…" Rod sighed.
"I know. You were completely immersed in your work again. I guess that means you didn't take a break from working again?"
"Um…ahaha…" Phila giggled nervously, but Rod gave her a light bop on the head.
"Ow…"
"You know that working as much as you do without taking a break will eventually wear you out. I appreciate that you're working hard, but you need to take breaks every now and again." It was Phila's turn to sigh as she gave him a concerned expression.
"I know, but if I get all the maintenance done at once, I could relax afterward. Plus, if I get it done all at once, we'll go on missions with our weapons in top condition!" Both of them knew the dangers of missions and the Grimm, although Phila seemed to prioritize her teammates over herself at times.
"Which is great! But our team isn't just made up of Hadia, Yasu and myself. You're also part of the team and you're a vital part to it. Not just that, but outside of missions, you're really nice to hang out with! I just don't want you to get so tired and worn out helping us." Rod had made Phila a sandwich and a glass of milk as he was talking and placed them on her work desk.
"Thank you, Rod. I know that I don't take enough breaks, but Grimm aren't going to wait for us to be in prime form…" She was fiddling with the tools on the desk, itching to finish Schnappschauss' maintenance.
"Then how about we help you do the maintenance? We can even take notes so that we can do it when you don't have time! Here, I'll help finish my weapon." Rod grabbed a chair and sat next to Phila ready to get to work while the hawk Faunus became somewhat nervous.
"Um…are you sure? Schnappshauss isn't the most complicated weapon, but the mechanisms and barrels are kind of tricky to check because it's a quarterstaff…"
"I'm sure. Besides, while I've done some maintenance, you've been doing it almost every time you've had free time. As your partner, I should have done this sooner."
"P-partner..?! Erm…r-right, as team partners. Right! Of course. A-anyway! I was just about to oil the changing mechanisms…" Phila gave Rod some directions about the quarterstaff and musket weapon, her face somewhat red from the partner comment. A half hour later, the maintenance was complete.
"I wasn't aware that even if the weapons were being used that the gears could still get rusty…" Rod was examining his weapon, new curiosity about it bubbling up.
"Well, the rust really builds up in between missions and training. I'm more surprised at how quickly your weapon gets rust, actually!" She laughed a little as Rod looked shocked.
"Wait, my weapon gets rust quickly?"
"Yeah. Well, not now obviously, since we changed out the older gears."
"True. Oh? You got some oil on your face." He grabbed the cloth and wiped the oil off of her face, with her face quickly turning bright red.
"Th-thanks...but I could've done that myself…" Rod realized what he did and he quickly finished wiping her face putting the cloth down, his face also turning red.
"R-right…sorry, I just felt like I needed to wipe your face, since I can see the oil better."
They sat in an awkward silence, their minds racing and their faces burning. The only sounds that could be heard were the footsteps and voices of the other Huntsmen and Huntresses in training either changing for another class, preparing for a mission or some other activity. The awkwardness of the silence finally getting too much, Rod stood up.
"Hey, since we finished the maintenance, how about we go to the city? It's a nice day after all. Besides, Hadia's stuck with rewriting a test she failed and Yasu's in the training room, preparing for a string on duels he accepted."
"O-oh, sure! Let me change first, I'm sure going out in oily clothes would be kind of wrong." Phila and Rod laughed lightly and Rod nodded.
"Alright! I'll wait outside of the dorm." He exited the dorm and left Phila to get changed.
"…Did he ask me out on a date…? N-no, it's just to get me out of the dorm today and he had free time."
Phila pushed the thoughts of a date out of her head as she began changing to go to town.