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When Hinoka wakes, it’s to the light from the window hitting her directly in the eyes and the sight of Camilla still sleeping on her chest.
For a moment all she can do is gaze at her girlfriend with a stupid, stupid smile on her face. Their relationship is still new, and just being near Camilla makes the butterflies in Hinoka’s stomach go crazy.
When Corrin had been kidnapped and Hinoka chose to walk the way of the Pegasus Knight, she was afraid of heights, even moreso than the thought of battle. Maybe she could have become a lancer, but the child in Hinoka reasoned that she couldn’t very well walk to Nohr on foot and pegasi were much more reliable.
Even so, her first flight wasn’t something she was looking forward to. Ryoma was there for once, encouraging her on. She didn’t blame her brother for not always being there for her, as she knew he had a lot on his plate, but the idea of backing out of this just because she was a little scared while Ryoma was watching was a daunting one. So, even though was she was terrified of what might happen, she mounted her pegasus and took to the air.
Hinoka won’t lie- at first, suspended in the air with only a pegasus that she didn’t trust yet between her and the ground, she was still scared. She could feel her fear all the way up to her throat, threatening to choke her. Hinoka held onto the reins of her pegasus and feared for her life, questioning every decision that she had made thus far on her journey to become a pegasus knight.
But then Hinoka kicked herself, remembering Corrin and Ryoma and her stepmother, Mikoto. Corrin, who must be terrified in the Nohrian castle. Ryoma, who despite only being a little older than Hinoka herself, was having the weight of the entire kingdom being placed upon his shoulders not yet even fully grown. Mikoto, who was trying her best to secure peace for Hoshido despite being mistrusted by most, including Hinoka at first. The bravery of those closest to Hinoka led her to forcibly relax her limbs, take a deep breath, and open her eyes.
Once she had calmed down a little, Hinoka found that she actually really loved flying. There was something about being so high in the air, away from her worries, that really soothed her.
It was on that day that Hinoka really realized what bravery meant. Coincidentally, it was also the day that she ignored the opinions of almost every other noble in court and cut her long hair off, all the way to her chin.
The feeling that Hinoka gets when she is around Camilla can only be compared to the feeling she gets while flying her pegasus, as silly as it may sound. The feeling of breathless delight, the feeling that she is free of all her worries, the feeling that she is at peace.
The feeling of home.
Hinoka takes the hand that isn’t trapped under Camilla and brushes her hair away from her face. Before, when Hinoka cut her own hair, she thought of long hair as a nuisance and a hindrance in battle. Seeing Camilla makes Hinoka believe otherwise, at least for her. In fact, if Camilla ever decides to cut her hair, Hinoka may cry. (Though, not for very long. One thing that Hinoka has realized since meeting Camilla is that she looks great in quite literally everything.)
Camilla lets out a soft breath, nuzzling closer to Hinoka and smiling in her sleep. Hinoka can almost feel her heart melting. It’s a foreign feeling, though certainly not an unwelcome one. She’s never had any substantial feelings for anyone until she met Camilla.
Hinoka first met Camilla- really met her, not just traded insults on the battlefield- after their ragtag army entered Valla. Hinoka had been absentmindedly brushing her pegasus when Camilla walked up behind her, saying, “Princess Hinoka. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Hinoka had been startled, too focused on her pegasus and weak from fatigue to notice her approaching. Her warrior’s instincts fortunately stopped her from showing any surprise. She refused to look at her as she replied, “I wish I could say the same to you, Princess Camilla.”
When Camilla hadn’t responded, she turned around to see Camilla with an upset look on her face. When they made eye contact, Camilla tilted her head and said, “You wish? ”
Hinoka sighed softly, turning to her mare with her back to Camilla, a show of trust in her that Hinoka didn’t realize at first. “I don’t wish to argue with you. I will respect my sibling’s wishes and not fight you,” Hinoka said. “However, I do not see why that means we have to be close friends, Princess Camilla.”
Strangely enough, Camilla just smiled softly at that. Even though Hinoka’s back was turned, she heard Camilla take a soft step towards her. “I meant what I said before, Princess Hinoka. You remind me of my dear Corrin. I am interested in getting to know you better,” she said as she walked towards Hinoka. She reached out a hand from behind Hinoka and stroked the pegasus’s snout. “I don’t see why we can’t be friends. We’re allies now, after all.”
Hinoka didn’t say anything at first. She had a hard time trusting Nohrians because of what happened to Corrin and her father. However, she is also sister to Azura, a Nohrian princess. Corrin, despite growing up in Nohr, is also her sibling, and she fully trusts and loves them. And Camilla is right, the royal siblings of Nohr and Hoshido are allies now. They can be friends- in fact, Sakura and the youngest Nohrian daughter, Princess Elise, seemed to have formed quite a close friendship. Hinoka isn’t too proud to admit that she might be wrong sometimes. She wasn’t willing to trust Camilla or any other Nohrians yet, but she was willing to let Camilla convince her otherwise.
She told Camilla as much, and had her breath knocked out of her as Camilla genuinely smiled at her. She barely heard when Camilla made plans to meet in their tents the next night to just talk, her mind focused on the way Camilla’s eyes slightly lit up when she smiled and the way her lips turned up a little more on the left than on the right. She was so beautiful when she smiled, Hinoka had realized.
In the days that followed, Hinoka grew closer to Camilla- closer than she had ever grown to anyone else. Hinoka began to confide in Camilla, telling her things she had never told anyone else before. Hinoka told her how she trained until her hands bled because she didn’t believe she was ever enough. She told her how she still had lingering regrets that she never did enough for Mikoto, who had sacrificed so much for a country that gave her so little. In turn, Camilla told her of her childhood. How her mother, eager to rise up in the brutal Nohrian court, forced her to murder other royal children. The numerous royal children, her siblings , who were forced by their parents to fight and kill each other before they even hit puberty, before they were old enough to even be thinking about death. When it was just Camilla and Xander, Leo, and Elise, she swore to protect her remaining siblings with her life, a feeling only heightened when Corrin was introduced to their family.
The stories Camilla shared made protective feelings of her own to rise in Hinoka. Logically, she knew Camilla’s mother was long dead and that Camilla was more than able to defend herself, but she still felt the urge to protect her from her own family. Hinoka didn’t understand how anyone could know Camilla and not feel the urge to keep her safe.
It was strange. They were at war. There was a high chance that any of them could die at any moment. They were in imminent danger. And yet, Hinoka found herself happier than she had been in, well, ever.
This lazy morning, in which Hinoka is cuddling with the love of her life, is something she hadn’t even considered when she began training to become a pegasus knight. At best, she would live the rest of her days dedicated to fighting, figuratively married to her weapon. At worst, she would end up married off to some noble she didn’t like, forced to be someone she wasn’t.
Never had she expected this. This soft morning spent with her girlfriend and best friend. Smiling again, softer this time, Hinoka leans down and kisses Camilla’s hairline. Camilla sleeps on, content.
Hinoka thinks that the way they had finally admitted their feelings for each other was slightly embarrassing, at least on Hinoka’s end. Camilla insists that is was adorable, just like Hinoka. She always kisses Hinoka’s nose after she says this, so even if she inwardly disagrees, she doesn’t complain.
Hinoka had realized that she was really and truly in love with Camilla after Anankos fell, when she looked at her and thought she was beautiful. Camilla had sweat pouring down her face, numerous cuts on her face, and her hair was in disarray for once. And Hinoka thought she was truly, absolutely stunning.
A few weeks after his defeat, it was Camilla’s birthday. In between Corrin’s coronation, Prince Xander and Ryoma’s rise to the throne, and dealing with the end of the war, the overall mood in all the kingdoms was hectic. Hinoka knew Princess Elise and Prince Leo would do something for their sister’s birthday, but Hinoka wanted to so something special for her. So she asked Sakura how to make a cake.
Sakura had asked if Hinoka wanted help. They both knew Hinoka’s record with cooking, but Hinoka insisted that she made the cake alone. She had wanted to do this one thing for Camilla by herself.
Inevitably something somewhere went wrong. The cake didn’t taste at all good. Hinoka was briefly discouraged but decided to try and make another cake. That cake, predictably, also failed. And the one after that. And the one after that.
Sometime during the seventh try, she heard the door open. She yelled something about leaving her alone, Sakura, her concern was appreciated but not welcome, until she heard a familiar voice say, “I’m not Sakura.”
Hinoka whipped around to see Camilla standing there, looking more confused than anything at the amount of disastrous cakes that Hinoka hadn’t thrown out yet. Hinoka stared at Camilla in silence, her face slowly heating up to match her hair color. “What happened in here?” Camilla finally said, walking up to one of the cakes.
Hinoka stuttered for a moment, averting her eyes. Camilla grabbed a piece of the cake between two of her fingers and then faced Hinoka. “Darling, did you make all these cakes?” she asked.
Hinoka looked up and instead of judgement or laughter, she saw Camilla smiling at her in the soft way that she always smiled at her. Hinoka managed to respond with a simple “yes” to her question, but her words got stuck in her throat when Camilla asked why.
“It’s your birthday tomorrow. I just thought it might be nice to give you a cake, since we’ve all been so stressed lately. I kept messing up though and kept restarting. I’m sorry,” she told her. The level of sincere sorrow at messing up Camilla’s gift was a little unnerving. Usually she was so unflappable.
Camilla split the cake in her hand into two pieces, handing one to Hinoka. “Anything you make can’t be bad, sweetheart,” she said, popping the cake into her mouth. She didn’t flinch. She actually smiled . At something Hinoka cooked. “See? It’s good.”
Hinoka, uncharacteristically bashful, took a small bite of her piece of cake and immediately regretted it. She had obviously replaced the sugar with salt. “Camilla, you liar,” she laughed. “This cake tastes awful. It isn’t sweet at all.”
Camilla put her hand on her cheek, stopping Hinoka’s laughter in its tracks. “You’re sweet enough for me.”
The line was ridiculously cheesy. It was awful. A child could have come up with something better. Hinoka’s knees still went weak.
Camilla leaned her head towards Hinoka and whispered, “Would- Would it be okay if I kissed you?” Hinoka’s answer was to press their lips together.
It was Hinoka’s first kiss, and it was odd. It was also amazing, because frankly everything with Camilla was, but her first thought was that it was odd . Growing up, first kisses were always described as electric and something magical. The only adjective Hinoka could use to describe it, as Camilla sighed softly into her mouth, was just- right. It felt right.
They had discussed their relationship after a few moments of kissing. The line between friendship and romance was already blurry between them. Falling into a relationship turned out to actually be easy. Hinoka also didn’t end up minding the PDA that came with dating someone as tactile as Camilla.
(The same couldn’t be said for Takumi, who gagged every time they did anything sappy near him.)
They had taken to sleeping in the same quarters together. Hinoka lives for these early mornings when it feels like it’s just them. It doesn’t hurt anything that Camilla is beautiful when she’s asleep.
“How long have you been watching me sleep?” Camilla asks, her eyes still closed. Hinoka smiles and continues petting her hair.
“Not long enough,” she replies. Camilla finally opens her eyes and smilingly presses a soft kiss to her lips. Camilla’s hair brushes her face, and Hinoka swats her hand away when Camilla tries to pull it back.
When they part and Camilla goes back to laying beside her, Hinoka moves to get out of bed. As much as she may want to stay in bed with Camilla all day, their duties as both warriors and princesses can’t wait.
Before she gets very far, Camilla grabs her wrist and pulls her back down. They end up cuddling back together again, this time with Hinoka’s head on Camilla’s chest.
“The outside world can wait a few more minutes,” Camilla says, pressing a kiss to her head and rubbing her hand up Hinoka’s back. “Just lay with me here until then.”
Hinoka smiles.