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Recently, rumors had been flying around Chaldea. This was nothing new - when you put a bunch of strong personalities together, sparks were bound to fly, and stories were bound to spin out of control. Nobu was used to people talking about her, embellishing both the good and bad, but there were a few things that reached her ears recently that she wanted to set straight.
- One: She does NOT think her rival, Okita Souji, is cute.
Just because she may have made a comment without thinking does NOT mean anything. Sure her smile COULD be called cute, her victory cries COULD be considered endearing, her face COULD be called adorable - especially when she smiles, or when she’s embarrassed, or when Nobu ticks her off and she’s in the middle of blowing up but she’s got this look on her face that makes it impossible to be scared of her. If this information had happened to get out from her drunken mouth, there was no reason to lend it any credit. Drunk people say stupid things, after all! Of course, that didn’t mean Okita wasn’t cute. It’s just that there was no reason for Nobu to be actively thinking she was cute. Simple logic, really.
She was especially not cute when her eyes were shining at the parfait brought to the table, a smile lighting up her face; which leads into the next topic.
- Two: She is NOT taking Okita out to a cafe because she wants to.
So what if Okita had been in a bad mood recently? She didn’t care about that at all! In fact, it was better that way! But at some point, Nobu had probably lost one of their stupid bets - there were too many to count, it’s reasonable to assume she was on the losing end of a few by now - and rather than let Okita cash that in later, she took initiative in repaying her side. In fact, thinking about it like that, taking Okita out to her favorite cafe was a tactical victory for the Oda clan! Unfortunately, word had gotten out that they were out together, and that had quickly spiraled out of control. The Demon King of the Sixth Heaven was NOT getting soft, thank you very much. The fact that they were out together shouldn’t have even been made public, but it seems nothing escapes the watchful eyes of her fans. Either that, or her brother couldn’t keep his mouth shut for five minutes.
And just because the aforementioned idiot brother seemed to think otherwise, she was not doing this to make Okita happy.
- Three: This is NOT - repeat, ABSOLUTELY NOT - a date.
First of all, that would imply she had a crush on Okita, which was absolutely ridiculous. They were rivals! Falling in love with your rival only ever leads to disaster! The explanation was simple: this rumor was just the result of a joke taken too far. Maybe Nobu had approached her rather forcefully, trying to make an offer she couldn’t say no to - “Come with me. We’re going out!” - and the kabedon was just to be intimidating, nothing more. But Okita had turned it into a routine, acting all embarrassed, asking “Going out like...on a date?” like they were in some romance novel! It was a perfect bit!
She did think it was a little weird that Okita dressed a little nicer than normal, but decided not to say anything about it. She was stealing glances at her, too, when she thought Nobu wasn’t looking. Seriously, this felt like a scene directly out of a romance novel. It was great acting, but wasn’t it going a little far?
Maybe there was something to be said about the fact that Nobu didn’t mind it.
But that’s not the point!
- Four: Okita Souji is NOT HER GIRLFRIEND.
For some reason, this was the most popular rumor that had been flying around recently. They were RIVALS! You don’t fall in love with your rival! That’s the number one recipe for disaster! And the fact that maybe she’s said Okita’s cute more than just when she’s drunk, or that this plan was suspiciously curated around things that would make Okita happy, or that maybe, just MAYBE she could imagine this being a real date - none of it meant anything! And neither did the fact that she couldn’t take her eyes off Okita when she wasn’t looking, and neither did the fact that she let Okita feed her a bite of her parfait. Baseless rumors, all of them.
The whole time, she had been thinking about how to set the record straight, because it was better to stomp this rumor mill out before Okita could hear, because god knows Nobu would never hear the end of it. So that was that - she didn’t think Okita was cute, she didn’t take her out out of the goodness of her heart, this wasn’t a date, and they were not romantically involved.
There was no doubt about any of it.
And then Okita kissed her on the way back home.
Nobu blinked in shock - it’s not like the other to be so forceful. Shouldn’t she be the one initiating the kiss? Wait, no - that wasn’t what she should be concerned about.
“What...?”
Okita blushed, avoiding eye contact, turning away. There was the face she knew - but she looked strangely...upset? Embarrassed? Expectant?
And then it all fell into place.
Okita had fallen in love with her.
Nobu stood there stunned, her past few hours of thought crumbling down around her.
“I..Um, I’m sorry! I - I just thought, um - I’m so sorry!”
Okita turned to run away, but Nobu grabbed her hand.
“It’s okay.”
Her voice came out a lot more sure than she felt right now. Okita looked back at her like she had just told her she was a ghost. (Whether she technically was or not wasn’t the point.) It took a few seconds for Nobu to try and get her words together before deciding that it would never work out that way, and she opted to move her hand so that she was just holding Okita’s, standing right by her side.
“It’s okay,” she said again, because she honestly didn’t know what to say. Okita let out a sigh of relief, and something finally reconnects in Nobu’s brain.
“I love you too.”
Okita smiles again, and this time, Nobu initiates the kiss like she’s supposed to.
There were a few revisions to be made to some of her points made earlier.
- One: Maybe she thinks Okita is cute.
It’s impossible not to, after all. Everything she did was cute in some way, but it was weird to call your rival cute, right? So she had joked about it, mocked her about acting cutesy, but really, it had never been untruthful. Yeah, Okita was cute when she was angry, when she was embarrassed, when she smiled. It was like when she was happy, the world lit up just like her eyes. Not seeing Okita smile was putting a damper on Nobu’s mood, which leads into the second point.
- Two: Maybe she took Okita out because she missed her smile.
The ever-so-cheerful Okita had been upset about something or another, and Nobu had jumped at the chance to make her feel better. She knew what made Okita happy, probably better than anyone else, so naturally, it was her responsibility to better her mood. It was almost torturous to have responses to her jokes fall flat, and seeing Okita off her game threw her off too. Normally she would deny such a thing happening, but now there was no reason to.
Simply put, when Okita was happy, she was happy; when Okita was sad, she was sad.
- Three: Maybe it had been a date.
Two girls, sharing food, chatting away happily like the world was made for them and them alone, stealing glances at each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking? How could that be anything but a date?
- Four: Maybe she was in love with Okita.
No, there were no maybes about that one.
All things considered, she was in love with Okita. She had always been in love with Okita. But it’s a scary thing, love - especially when it’s impossible to tell the other person feels the same way. Between the fights and the jokes, it was sometimes hard to tell the difference between what they meant and what they just said. Looking back on it, though, it had been obvious on both ends. No rumor is truly baseless.
So, regarding the rumors about the relationship between Oda Nobunaga and Okita Souji:
- Yes, Nobu thought Okita was cute.
(Okita had known all along.) - Yes, Nobu took Okita out to make her smile.
(Okita had been grateful, but didn’t stop teasing Nobu for being soft.) - Yes, Nobu and Okita had been on a date.
(Okita had been mad that Nobu didn’t mean it that way, but it was fine on account of how it ended up.) - Yes, Nobu and Okita were girlfriends.
(Neither of the two could be happier.)