It was another peaceful day on the farm. The sky was clear and blue, the chocobos were roaming the field and playing, and all seemed well with the world. On top of that, Maevan had caught up on all the work she had needed to do, and this in turn allowed her to while away the sun-filled hours, watching her birds play and run as they often did.

"Miss Maevan? Something's wrong with Chipper…"

The woman blinked and looked beside herself, a little surprised that one of her chocobos – a large, dusty brown one with light yellow-green eyes – had managed to more or less sneak up on her. "Oh?" She asked, an eyebrow rising as she took in what had been said. "What do you mean, Niknak? He didn't light himself on fire again did he?"

The large male shook his feathery head, his gaze wandering the field as though searching for the chocobo in question. "No, not on fire. But he's been doing strange things. He'll be completely fine one moment, and hiding from something the next. He hasn't explained why he does it either. There's not some strange bird disease that causes that, is there? Because I'm not exactly small enough to hide half the places Chipper had squashed himself into."

Maevan shook her head, frowning mildly in contemplation of what she'd been told. "That doesn't sound like an illness… but I'm not actually sure what he'd even be afraid of. Where'd you see him last?"

Niknak nodded towards the barn. "He was hiding in there last I saw him. Don't ask me how he did it, but somehow he got himself into the loft."

That one had Maevan baffled. Sure, Chipper could flap his wings and maybe get a little bit of lift, but getting to the loft? Something really must have had him ruffled to get him up there. She set off right away, frowning as she went. Whatever it was that managed to rafter her bird was in for a new problem; all she had to do was find out what it was and hunt it down. Niknak gave the impression of grimacing as he scurried after her. "Uh… I've seen that look before, Maev. You aren't gonna… go on the warpath or anything, are you? That's kind of why you hired-"

"Ken's not here to deal with monster harassment, and if it's bad enough that Chipper isn't gonna scare it off on his own then someone has to." The woman cut in, frowning further as she marched into the barn and looked around. Oddly, nothing seemed too out of place. Everyone was outside, there were no signs of dangerous creature previously being in the building… it was all normal. "Nak, if this is a joke…"

Something shifted up above, drawing Maevan's attention immediately. Sure enough, there Chipper sat in the loft, peering awkwardly down at her as he ruffled his feathers. "O-oh, uh… h-hi Maevan."

"Chipper, what are you doing up there?"

The yellow chocobo shifted uncomfortably as he seemed to deflate a bit, awkward sheepishness visible in his eyes. "H-hiding…"

"I see that." Maevan answered. "But why?"

The silence from Chipper only further drew Maevan to question the situation. Frowning again, the woman headed for the ladder up to the loft, climbing up and sitting beside her currently silent bird. "Chip…" She coaxed gently, ignoring Niknak as he ruffled his feathers and made an uncertain noise. "What's the matter?"

"I-I…" He burbled, though he shook his head afterward and tried to hide it under one of his wings. Tried being the key word here, as Maevan was quick to catch hold of his beak and stop him from doing so.

"Chip, you aren't actually afraid are you…" She mused, lightly stroking his head feathers and beak as she studied his face. "Not the sort of afraid Niknak thought." When the bird shook his head a bit, she smiled in relief and gently let go of his beak, continuing to stroke his feathers as she poked a little further into her investigation. "It's a girl, isn't it?"

An awkward chirp escaped him as Chipper's feathers ruffled up, his eyes showing even further embarrassment at the situation. "Y-yeah… I-it… I-it's Coral…"

Coral was a new chocobo to the farm, a bit on the shy side but quite friendly and overall just a treasure to be around, as far as Maevan saw it. It was little wonder to her why Chipper would fall for the lavender bird, but she had never expected him to react like this about it. "Aw Chip…" She said, giggling as she hugged him. "You don't have to be afraid to talk to her. If anything, she'd probably be very happy that you did."

"B-but she always got kinda weird about it before…" Chipper protested awkwardly. "Whenever I said hi to he before she'd get real quiet and refuse to look at me… n-now I like her but I don't wanna make her unhappy by being around…"

Maevan couldn't help but laugh as she took this in and thought it through. "Chipper, she's not trying to shun you. She likes you!"

The chocobo blinked in confusion as he looked at her. "She… does? B-but why does she avoid me if she likes me?"

"Well, why are you avoiding her?" The woman pointed out. "I'd bet a bucket of apples that she's afraid to confess she likes you because she doesn't want you to get upset at her. So, here's what we're gonna do about this." She smiled encouragingly at Chipper as he tilted his head at her in bewilderment. "You're gonna pluck yourself up a bit, get back that courage and cute that everyone knows you for, and you're gonna tell her how you feel. And!" She lightly put a finger on his beak as he tried to protest. "If my guess on her liking you is inaccurate, I give you full rights to sleep in the house for the rest of the month, and access to the apple orchard whenever you want."

Chipper stared at her in surprise, blinking a bit before ruffling his feathers and giving a tiny nod. "O-okay. I… I'll do it! I-I'll find Coral and I… I… I'll tell her how I feel! I-I'll tell her exactly how I feel!" He then nuzzled the woman, gave a happy little 'kweh!', and just like that jumped from the rafters, flapping the whole way down and scurrying off out of the barn to see if he could find the girl he'd been hiding from.

Niknak watched him leave in bewilderment before looking at Maevan as she made her own descent. "So… how'd you pull that one off, and how are you so sure he's actually gonna get the answer he wants? You gave a pretty big cushion to fall back on if this plan of yours backfires."

The woman merely grinned at him as she walked past, stroking his wing on the way by and stopping in the barn doorway to watch Chipper scurry off across the field toward a lavender chocobo. "I'm sure because I know something that you don't, Nak." She teased.

"Oh? And what's that?"

She grinned. "I had the exact same conversation with Lavender yesterday. She's been trying to find him since."