Something New (Nina/Mitama)
Nina had always had trouble talking to men; those weren't news. What was surprising was that she found it hard talking to Mitama one day.
The poet and the thief became fast friends over their interest in Literature, Mitama praising Nina's talent for story-telling, finding the subject intriguing, even, and Nina applauding Mitama’s ease with words, how she could come up with haiku like it was nothing. They would waste their free time away exchanging works, learning from each other, even taking small naps. Nina discovered she much preferred to expend some extra time with Mitama than to spy on the guys in camp.
But now, she suddenly felt too anxious about something to talk to Mitama. Nina would get too embarrassed when the poet pointed a mistake in her writings, and she would overly excited when she got some praise. Nina just felt like she was making a fool of herself, it got awful to the point that she decided to evade Mitama for a few days. Maybe she could do some work in the meantime, but what to write about?
Nina just lets whatever comes to her mind first on the page before her.
There she is, the famous poet princess sitting under a cherry tree in the garden of her palace, radiant under the morning the sun, writing poem after poem, masterfully laying stroke after stroke on the paper as the blossoms fell around her, eyes shining with the passion of her craft. Exhausted by all the work, the poet decides to take a rest, leans against the tree that watched her write her souls away.
Oh, but she doesn’t know the fate that is about to befall her when a group of thieves breaks into her home. The leader of the band finds her, ready to execute her mission, o either kill her or take her away, but the ruffian finds herself stunned by the beauty of the princess. Her original purpose momentarily forgotten, Nina leans over the sleeping poet and plants a kiss on her lips–
No, wait–
It wasn't like Nina to insert herself into her stories. It wasn't like Nina to write about girls, either. And who she imagined as the princess?
Mitama. She was thinking of Mitama.
Oh, could it be? That, somehow, she had fallen for her friend? Nina doesn't remember feeling anything like this, not towards another girl, at least. She didn't know she could feel like this about another woman. This was new to her, but it would explain why she couldn’t stay quiet around Mitama these days.
What should she do now? Figures the best thing would be talking to Mitama about it. Oh, no, she couldn’t talk right now, not in this state, she would get too nervous and ruin it, and she didn’t want to scare Mitama away. No, Nina had to think about this a little more, maybe she could speak with someone else first. Yes, yes, maybe that.
Nina hoped that even if Mitama rejected her, they could still be friends. She would miss the poet too much.