Note: The 2nd and 3rd memories (latter for next chapter) are based off some scenes from EP 5.

Splash.

The sound of a bucket splattered through its surroundings, while the object itself landed on Sheele's head.

"Ooohhhh..."

Groaning wearily, the bespectacled woman cursed herself yet again due to her frequent clumsiness. It was supposed to be a simple task - her and Bulat cleaning the base's hallways, which shouldn't be difficult for two skilled assassins to accomplish.

Yet somehow, Sheele took it upon herself to do various chores simultaneously, be it from hurriedly collecting dust with the pan and sweeper to wildly mopping the floors and walls in various directions. She thought that by completing the task within a short amount of time, the end result would be satisfactory.

Oh, was she so wrong...

Sheele was on the floor, dampened by the cold reminder of her habitual inelegance, as well as her clothes. By contrast, a dry Bulat was on his feet, performing his duties one chore at a time. Knowing that something like this would happen, Bulat tried to put on cheerful face as he was reassuring Sheele.

"Ha, ha, ha. Don't worry about it!" he chuckled. "Just let me take care of the rest, okay?"

Distracted by self-depreciating thoughts, it took several seconds for Sheele to mutter an "okay." But it took the next few seconds to realize that Bulat was bending down, offering his hand.

"C'mon, get up. Wouldn't want to sit there forever in this condition, now would ya?" There was no malice in his words - just sincere friendliness with a bit of concern.

Slightly comforted by his generosity, Sheele took Bulat's hand as the latter pulled her up. The tall man was careful enough not to make the small woman slip from the puddle below her. But even then, his small act of kindness wasn't enough to bring Sheele out of her dismal state.

And Bulat took notice of that. "Hey, you don't have to push yourself to do everything at once," he advised. "Doing things one at a time makes life a lot easier to handle than all at once."

Sheele had no response. Her head looked down, concealing her expression. The fact that the bucket was still on her didn't help as well.

Bulat tried to overlook the peculiar object as he tried to give his advice more depth. "I mean, it's not like we're in the battlefield right now or anything like that. It makes sense when you're in dire times and have to make quick decisions that may involve some multi-tasking, but you don't have to carry this mentality outside of situations like these, ya know?"

Again, no response. Sheele kept her downward gaze to the floor, still as a statue. The only part of her that made any movement was the bucket, which lightly wobbled by its bent position.

"So, uh... try not to get too hung up over this, okay?"

"..."

Eventually, the bucket's presence made Bulat feel awkward in having to give some serious advice at a somewhat silly sight. "Um... I'll just take this," he said, and gently used his hands to remove the bucket out of Sheele's head. Even without the object, her expression was still hidden by the opaque lens in front of her eyes. "And I'll do the rest of the chores, then..." he continued, trailing his voice off. Sheele still had no response, despite Bulat's attempts to incite one out of her.

An awkward moment of silence surrounded the two for several seconds. Neither of them knew what to say or how to say it. Resigned by the overwhelming silence, Bulat went up and gathered the dust pan, sweeper, and mop (all while holding the bucket). He turned the other way to resume his cleaning duties.

The moment of silence continued for several more seconds.

And it was only after that several more seconds that Sheele broke the silence.

"I'm... I'm such an idiot, aren't I?"

Startled by the dejected tone, Bulat turned around. "Huh?"

"I can wield Extase just fine, I can cut down my enemies within a few hits, yet I can't even do something as simple as this..."

It was always like that for Sheele. Outside of assassinating foes, she never had a specialty in anything else, no matter how mundane the task might be. That one time she tried to cook meat? Burned it to a crisp and angered Akame. That one time she tried to buy salt? Bought a bucketful of sugar by mistake and was the butt of Leone's jokes. That one time she tried to do the laundry? Almost drowned Mine without realizing that she had confused her for a piece of cloth. No matter how hard Sheele tried to prevent it, her clumsiness was her bad luck, waiting at her door to strike at the right moment.

"It's okay though, because I know how all of you are painfully aware of my terrible habit. So, so much aware..." Sheele clenched her fists as she uttered the words, trembling burgeoning within her bones.

Bulat immediately tensed from her voice. He knew that Sheele wasn't the most cautious person around, but he had never seen her like this. Not like this at all.

"And I know it too. I know that I'm just a stupid klutz. I only kill and do nothing else after all," Sheele bitterly responded. The trembling increased with each passing word. "But I can't help it, because that's all I'm ever born with."

Bulat tensed even further, eyes widening as tiny sweat drops form on his face.

"And yet, I don't even know why I can't help it. Everyone else in this place is so careful at all the little things, so I wonder what do I have to do in order to..." Unable to figure out how to complete her thought, Sheele left the sentence dangling into uncertainty. "To... to..."

Seeing the bespectacled woman tremble to the point of restlessness, Bulat tried to intervene. "H-hey, wait..."

"To be honest, I don't even know why I'm doing this anyway," Sheele interjected, ignoring the man's faint plea. "It was only inevitable for me to screw it up all over again."

"Wait, Sheele-"

"That's all I ever do. I only screw up."

"Sheele-" The once helpful look on Bulat's face now transformed into full-blown concern. And once trembling increasingly, Sheele was now shaking uncontrollably.

And with the uncontrollable shaking, her voice finally cracked.

"That's all I ever am. A stupid, worthless screw-up and nothing more."

With that confession out in the open, Sheele quickly loosened her fists and rose them up to her face. The palms of her hands muffled the pained wails she cried out, as well as the hot tears that trickled down her face. "I'm such a screw-up, a screw-up, a screw-up, a screw-up..." As she kept hurling the self-inflicted insults, her broken voice made them sound more disjointed with each passing blow.

Bulat panicked. Every time he saw Sheele having her clumsy episodes, all he ever got was a whine and a groan - but that's it. For a long time, he always thought that her clumsiness was a trivial flaw - a bad habit that Sheele was used to, swallowing her pride whenever she replayed the mistakes over and over again. It never occurred to Bulat that the supposedly "trivial" flaw bothered Sheele so much, she couldn't contain her woes any longer.

And how ignorant he was. If clumsiness were to somehow transport itself from Sheele to him, he probably would've ended up in her position a long time ago. To only be good at fighting and not at everything else... although Bulat loved to fight, he knew that there was more to life than just senseless violence.

And at the same time, there was more to life than just trivial carelessness.

Not wanting to see his dear friend cry her heart out, Bulat grabbed Sheele by the shoulders. "N-no, you're not like that!"

Unconvinced, Sheele kept weeping. "Yes, I am. I'm worthless..."

"No, you're not!" Bulat exclaimed.

"But I am..."

"You're not!"

"I am though..."

"Sheele, listen to me! Please listen to me!" If his worried pleas weren't enough to halt the woman from her grieving state, then shaking her in a rough manner was another way to go. It was by no means the gentlest way of comforting someone, but he did believe in the term "tough love" after all.

But shaking Sheele wasn't the only way for Bulat to get to his point. It was what he said next that drove it even further.

"You're worth far more than what you think you are!"

With that admission out in the open, speechlessness completely rendered Sheele. So did the crying. She couldn't believe what she had just heard - nobody had ever told her something so bold before, not even her own comrades (though it wasn't like they didn't care for her, it was more like how they passed it off as a trivial flaw too). But somehow, his bold admission made her loud wailing substantially decrease to a small whimper.

When Sheele could no longer hide herself from Bulat, she lowered her hands from her face. Sniffling, she raised her head so that her eyes can meet his. Bulat saw the watery eyes flowing from her red face, as well as the misty glasses that slightly shrouded them.

He sighed in relief. At least she was consolable for the moment. With that in mind, he made complete sure to let her know who she really was. "Sheele, let me say this again: you're worth far more than what you think you are."

Although Sheele did not say anything, she was listening closely. There was no use in arguing with him anyways. If she believed Bulat had anything worthwhile to say, now was the time.

"Sure there are times where you slip up occasionally - and I'll be honest, some of them do get out of proportions - but in the end, it's all just a quirk. No matter how small or big the quirk is, it doesn't define you completely. Besides, everyone else on this team has their own quirks in their own ways. There's Akame with her meat obsession, Mine with her really feisty temper, and then there's me showing off my incredible body..."

To his surprise, the last part caused the tear-stained woman to let out a small giggle. It was a surprise to the woman as well, for she never expected to laugh at a time like this. Seeing that small ray of happiness shine over her, the man couldn't help but smile. He was pleased that his words were starting to get to her.

"And out of all the members of Night Raid, you're the one with the kindest heart. You always treat everyone with respect, you never badmouth anyone in any way, and you're always compassionate towards the ones that hold the greatest suffering." He continued. "Like just recently, when you brought flowers to the graves of Tatsumi's friends. I'm so used to seeing people die on a regular basis that I've forgotten what it's like to honor the dead. And considering where we are right now, it's always nice to have someone remind us of how death isn't something to be brushed off so easily. Plus, it's also nice to have someone remind us of how precious life is."

Sheele was stunned. As an assassin, it was required to keep personal feelings out of the way when it came to mission-related situations. But she thought it wouldn't be a big deal when she paid her respects to the victims of horrific torture. Did she really have that effect on him?

"So please, don't ever say that you're nothing but a clumsy woman. Yes, you do have your moments, but not everyone is perfect. No one is. Not you, not me, not everyone else. That's just how the world works. In the end, what matters more is the effect of your actions. And believe me, you kindness has a far greater effect than your clumsiness. So don't you ever forget that."

The magnitude of Bulat's words took its time for Sheele to absorb what she just heard. Once the words finally settled into her, a realization slowly budded within the woman.

All this time, Sheele only defined herself by two things: a professional killer and a silly klutz. In times where she played the role as the latter, disastrous reactions would occur, whether it was Akame's silent wrath, Leone's hysterical laughter, or Mine's sheer irritation. But Bulat never reacted like that.

Instead, he saw another side of her that she undermined so much. He saw another side of her that portrayed her capabilities not just in a physical manner, but an emotional one as well.

Her kindness.

Her gentleness.

Her compassion.

Her heart.

A heart of gold that she left in the cold, until a warm touch from the man had lit it up again. It was a reminder that would make the bespectacled woman learn how to appreciate herself more.

Wiping the tears from her face, Sheele gulped to clear her voice. In a meek tone, she asked, "You... you really mean it?"

Bulat gave her a thumbs up. "I mean it. You're an amazing person, and that's all that matters." The glitter in his grin also meant it as well.

Sheele smiled back, albeit far more shyly than his. Her recovering heart fluttered to know that he had such a high opinion of her. Likewise, she also viewed highly of him. I think you're so good, and I'm nothing like you.

If only she was like him. Confident, outspoken, honest, caring. Or better yet, if only he acted like that towards her far more frequently. It was a somewhat selfish wish, but a simple one to dream.

If only.

If only.

END of Chapter 2.

(Fun fact: Sheele really did give flowers to Sayo and Ieyasu's graves, according to Tatsumi in EP 7. Sweet of her to do so, don't you think? Also, the line "I think you're so good, and I'm nothing like you," is a shout-out to the Love Like You/Nothing Like You song from the Steven Universe OST. Listening to that song, I can't help but imagine Sheele singing this to Bulat to some degree.)