James let out a yawn as he laid on the roof of the greenhouse and watched the clouds roll by. He had finished his work for the day and was actually kinda bored at the moment as he had nothing to do, deciding to just lay on the roof, watching clouds. Midnight, of course, had come over and laid on his chest, curling up into a ball of fur and purring while she fell asleep, and he just softly pet her head. He was pretty sure that he'd get nagged at by the head butler, whose name he could never remember, because he was "slacking off" but it wasn't like he cared. This was his relaxing time and he'd do what he wants. Besides, he'd prefer to see one of the maids come out to get him for once. Let's see...what was her name again...? Annie...? Yeah that's right. He honestly thought she was pretty cute. He certainly wouldn't mind if she came out to see him sometimes...He shook his head to stop the dirty thoughts from forming before placing his hat over his face and starting to doze off, figuring a nap would do him good.

It had been about two months since Annie and her brother James were hired by the Master of the estate, well more like Adrian the head butler; but the two were truly enjoying their time at the manor and the work they were doing. Annie excelled at her job as a maid, working circles around the others to prove she deserved to be there. Jasmine, the head maid was really appreciated it and showed her more and more things she never would have thought she’d be learning.

“Annie.” Adrian stopped Annie as she was carrying a basket full of cleaning products. “I need you to go check on the gardener. Make sure he’s not slacking off.” He said with a nod taking the basket from Annie.

“Alright!” The dark blue almost purple haired girl said as she turned and started towards the garden.

It only took her a few minutes to find her way out to the gardening area. “Hello?” She called out as she pushed the door open and stepped outside into the gardening area. “Adrian sent me, he said ---” Her voice trailed off as she looked around. The garden was beautiful and full of life. The colors were bright and welcoming; everything looked really healthy and stunning. “Wow…” She said under her breath as she shut the door behind her and slowly ventured into the garden along the path.

Her caramel eyes expanded in shock as she stopped in front of a large rose bush. “Oh wow…” Yellow was her favorite color and the bright yellow roses instantly drew her attention. A small hand reached out and brushed the pedals of the flower. A bright smile moved across her full lips, “So pretty!”

James peered down over the edge of the roof alongside his cat, blinking as he noticed Annie looking at the yellow roses. He'd worked hard to grow those and he was glad to see that someone was enjoying his work. He had actually been woken up by her yell of "So pretty!" and was merely checking to see who was being that loud. He hopped down off the roof of the greenhouse, just after tossing his hat in the air, landing beside her just before his hat landed on his head and his cat landed on top of that. "Well, hello there," he said, smiling.

Focusing completely on the flower in front of her, her fingers brushed against the flower peddles as she beamed. The color was amazing and so well grown. Annie’s personal lack of a green thumb left her missing the brightness of flowers. Roses were always her favorite and when her parents were alive they had rose bushes outside. However Annie was never in charge of them due to her inability to keep plants alive. Her bother still teases her to this day about all the plants she had unintentionally killed over the years.

Annie was so focused on the plant that when the young man landed next to her she let out a yelp of surprise and jumped sideways away from him. “Ah!” In doing do her hand scrapped against the rose bush. “Ouch!” The pointer finger of her right hand received a lovely cut from the rosebush. Wrapping her small hand around her finger she turned her caramel gaze up to the young man and gave him a small smile; the amount she could muster from the shock of the small cut. “Hello. Nice hat trick.” At that her gaze turned up and saw the cat sitting on the hat. “Aw how cute! Is that your cat?”

James gave a small smile. "Well, thanks. Took me forever to figure out how to do it. And yep. She's mine. This is midnight." He reached up and pulled the cat off of his hat, holding it in his arms. "So, what brings you way out here? Or did the grumpy head butler send you out here?" He chuckled, his smile changing to a grin. "He's always so worried that I'll slack off or something." He then noticed the cut on her finger and his smile all but vanished as he looked at it, leaning down a bit. "Ah. Seems you cut yourself on the roses." He turned and looked down at the thorns of the rose he'd seen her looking at, nodding in satisfaction when he noticed all the thorns were still on the stem. "Well, luckily enough, none of the thorns broke off in it, so it shouldn't get infected, but you should probably get it cleaned and bandaged anyways."

Not giving it much though, Annie stuck her finger directly into her mouth. While it did prevent her from continuing the conversation for a moment, her finger felt a lot better. Nodding softly in response to his question about the head butler sending her out here, her eyes focused directly on the purring cat in his arms. It was so adorable. Slowly and carefully she reached out her hand. The cat seemed hesitant at first before sniffing her hand and tilting its head towards her palm.

The young woman grinned as she pulled her finger from her mouth and gently glided her other hand over the purring cat’s head. “Midnight is adorable.” She said with a giggle as the cat purred during the petting. “But Adrian wanted me to make sure you had completed all your work for the day and… well yeah, that you weren’t slacking off. I only got here a few months ago,” At that she glanced around the garden as she continued to pet the cute cat in his arms. “But I haven’t been out here until now. You do a lovely job!”

James smiled brightly. Apparently he took pride in his gardening. "Yeah, I try to keep it looking as nice as possible. This is the one thing I don't screw up at so, I'd hope that I'd be really good at it." He chuckled, looking at her. "It looks like she likes you," he said. "Though she is a bit of a suckup towards everyone. I think she's just a little attention hog." The cat meowed, looking totally innocent, and he sighed. "Jeez...you see? At home she's nothing like this. Just sleeps all day."

Annie shook her head as she looked back around the garden before turning her gaze back to him and pulled her hand back from the cat while letting out a little laugh. "I'm sure she's an attention hog because she knows she's adorable." Dusting off the front of her outfit she looked back to the entrance back into the house. "It sounds like the staff is going to have a dinner tonight, Chef's making some large pot roast or something. Will you be joining us?"

James shrugged. "I don't know. I don't get along all that well with the head butler. He's a bit too prudish for my tastes. Doesn't like my sense of humor or my carefree attitude. All business and no play." He sighed. "I'll probably show though, just because I'm a glutton who can't resist food." He chuckled.

Her small shoulders rose and fell with a gentle shrug. "He's not all bad, sure he's quite a bit strict but he understands how this place needs to be ran and helps those who are actually in need... but," Annie said with a small cute giggle, "He could use some vacation time here really soon and maybe help avoid the stick that is currently shoved a bit too far up inside of him." With that she went to the door leading into the house and pulled it open before looking back at him over her shoulder. "I'm Annie by the way. See you soon." With that and a bright smile she left him to his garden.

Nighttime rolled around and the manor was a buzz over what the chef was cooking for their monthly group meals. Eating outside by the pool was the best feeling ever; besides being in normal clothes. Annie helped herself through the buffet line in a green summer dress enjoying the warm weather outside as she stacked a plate full off food. "Mmmm..." She said softly as she looked at her pile. Balancing it along with her drink she found a large couch on the grass near the pool which she sat down at and began to dig in.

James walked out there about 10 minutes later, smiling, just wearing a t-shirt and shorts, though he still had his hat on, with his cat sleeping on top of it. "Yo!" he said. "Sorry I'm late. A black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way around." He grinned as he went over and got a plate, going through the buffet line, and quickly filling up his plate with food before taking a seat beside Annie, seeing as it was the furthest seat from their prude of a head butler.

Annie pulled the strap of her green summer dress back onto her shoulder as she dug into her plate. A mouth full of food she muttered, "Mmmmmm" through the chewing. That was until she felt a presence next to her and her attention turned upwards to see that James had arrived. Her face turned bright red as she realized that she could easily have food on her face and her mouth was already full. She gave him a small nod as she continued to chew. This wasn't exactly lady-like and now she wasn't sure how 'cool' she looked.

Apparently James didn't care how Annie looked at the moment, as he was busy stuffing his face with food, somehow eating quickly yet at the same time not leaving any mess, none of the food missing his mouth. He also ignored the head butler(who he still couldn't remember his name) when he said his excuse was stupid. He glanced over at Annie and chuckled a bit.