Esther looked up from her plate just in time to see Drake and Leonce enter the mess hall. Leonce flashed her a sparkling grin, which caused her to drop her utensils. Clumsily fumbling to grab at them, she quickly picked them up. Snapping her head to the side, she ignored his grin. Her 'good circulation' flushing her cheeks red. Turning back to her food, she kept her head low and eyes on her food. More playing with it than finishing what was left on her plate.

Leonce then startled her by suddenly dropping into his seat in front of Esther. **"Thanks for saving us a seat,"** He grinned again. Esther shot him a glare that seemed more pouty than anything. She was about to correct him to explain that she didn't intentionally save them a seat when she saw him bow his head to quietly utter something. Blinking, she was confused for a second as to what he was doing. She quickly realized that he was 'praying'. It was rather odd to see someone be religious in times such as these. But, she kept quiet out of respect and courtesy to him. She wasn't particularly religious herself. Her father never really instilled any such beliefs in her, growing up.  She couldn't remember seeing any religious objects of any sort during her youth. Did her father even have a religion?...

**"Your meal help you calm down?"** Leonce asked, rolling his bottom lip to remove his lip rings. She wanted to angrily retort, but decided against it.

_"Right. Be nice.."_ She pouted.

**"Y-...yeah."** She huffed, blowing a few strands of her bangs up.

**"Not to say that you weren't calm. Just..."** He paused to take a bite of his food.
**"Aggressive... Yeah, aggressive."** He shrugged, continuing to eat.

_"I'll show YOU 'aggressive'"_ She muttered in her head.

**"A-ah...I'm sorry. I tend to get a bit cranky and grumpy when I get tired or hungry. Heh, it's something I got from my father. M-my real one, that is! Not..._him_"**

**"You've been starring at me a bit, y'know. S'it the piercings or the tattoos or...?"** His words trailed off, unfinished. His words caught her off guard.

Her mind exploded in a flurry of multiple voices screaming at her. She put up her hands and shook her head furiously. **"O-oh, n-no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude and stare at you! It's just, uhh..."** 

Quick, some sort of excuse!

**"It's just I was...admiring your piercings and tattoos!"** She lowered her hands after scratching the back of her head. Nervous habit.

It wasn't a complete lie, maybe a white one.

**"I always wanted to get a bunch of piercings and tattoos myself, but I was always too chicken-shit to. Ha ha, sorry..Bit of wuss when it comes to needles and stuff. I hate 'em."**

She nervously laughed and resumed to play with her food. She was quite full and done already, but couldn't find it in her to gather her plate and leave. I mean, Leonce and Drake just got here. It'd be rude to just ditch them, right?