Work Text:
"Ena."
…
"Enanan!"
Silence.
"Your Royal Highness Shinonome Ena, crown princess, heir to the thro-"
"What is it," Ena finally, finally asked, peering around the side of her easel to look at Mizuki. She scowled, not unlike an agitated cat. Mizuki stifled a giggle behind her gloved hand.
The two were sat on intricate, wrought-iron chairs out in the gardens as the sun set over the castle, a warm, golden glow cast over all the manicured greenery. It was truly beautiful, the way the green of the leaves and jewel tones of the flowers were spotlighted at this time of day. For that reason, Ena went out to paint at this time whenever she wasn't busy being pestered by her father to meet suitors or talk with nobles her age over tea. As Ena's personal knight, Mizuki went out to the gardens with her. However, this didn't leave Mizuki with much to do.
Her job was to look for potential threats and detain or eliminate them if necessary: assassins, snipers, stalkers, et cetera. But it was quiet in the gardens, secluded away from the main courtyards and entrances to the castle. Not that Mizuki wasn't cautious, of course, but she would survey the area every five minutes and her hearing was sharp and alert; Ena, the one to be guarded, wasn't able to effectively paint and engage in conversation simultaneously.
All in all, Mizuki was bored, and Ena had been painting for two hours now. She could use a break.
"Aren't you finished with that yet? You've been working for so long that I'm afraid that a search party will be sent out for you!"
Ena groans, dropping her paintbrush onto the palette beside her. "Yeah, but… it's just not right. No matter how much I try to correct the mistakes I seem to only make them worse."
Mizuki tilts her head at her and Ena waves her over to the other side of the canvas. "Woah! That's the gardens, alright. If I didn't know any better I'd have thought I was looking at them through a window."
"Sure," Ena sighs, running her hand down her face. "I should just scrap this and start over tomorrow. The daffodils look more like tea stains than flowers."
"Hey, hey, it's not that bad!" Mizuki gestures towards the top right of the canvas. "Like the gazebo over there. Those shadows are perfect."
"Thanks," Ena says, but she doesn't have her heart in it. She pushes her chair back and leans a little into Mizuki, who puts her arm around her in return.
The gardens may be a little boring once you've been in them nearly every day with only one other person for company, but when that person is the love of your life, you grow to appreciate those moments for what they are. Mizuki and Ena weren't supposed to be involved with each other any more than professionally, Mizuki was just a talented and hardworking knight meant to watch over the crown princess, always at an arm's length away. Ena was meant to view her as a presence to be ignored unless she felt unsafe or had a request to be fulfilled.
And Ena's only requests were that of company.
There were many nobles her age she was supposed to spend her time with, passing tea sandwiches and biting gossip across lace-clothed tables. But the gossip was just that- biting. It would manifest itself at the slightest faux pas or misinterpreted statement and Ena always had a feeling that much of it was about her. After all, everyone wants to be royalty until they find themselves with weighty crowns atop their heads.
So she stopped attending, her father's feelings be damned, and before long she and Mizuki were the best of friends.
Shortly after, they were more.
Mizuki presses her lips against Ena's forehead, and she leans into the touch.
"You should step away from the easel for a bit, sweetheart," Mizuki says, and holds out her hand to her. "Would my princess care to dance with me, for a while?"
Ena rolls her eyes, but she can't keep the smile off her face as she slips her hand into Mizuki's. "Anything for you, my darling knight."
Their fingers intertwine as the pair makes their way through the rows and rows of blossoms, from orange and peach to white and violet. The sun continues its descent to the horizon and Mizuki finds herself unable to look away from the girl next to her, brown hair falling in soft curls over her shoulders, face free of makeup to reveal the smattering of freckles dotted across her nose. Mizuki doesn't think that she'll ever get over how lovely Ena is, to see and to know and hold her hand in her own. She may be an artist, but she herself is art all the same.
They step up onto the gazebo, the white arches adorned with ivy just as beautiful as the gilded ceilings of the ballroom that lay indoors. As long as she's with Ena, Mizuki prefers it out here, just the two of them with their love for each other.
Mizuki pulls Ena in, one arm around her waist with her free hand in hers, but Ena looks up at her expectantly before they can start to twirl each other around. "Would you like to sing?"
"...what?"
"We don't have any music," Ena says. "And you have a beautiful voice. So, would you like to sing?"
"Wait, when did you-" Mizuki stammers. The only time she's ever sung around Ena was when she was fast asleep, running her fingers through her hair to help her to rest on nights when the responsibilities of being Her Highness were too much for her to bear. It was a decidedly more forward expression of Mizuki's love for her, one she didn't quite have the confidence for when Ena was wide awake. Certainly, she wouldn't have known anything of her musicality. Unless…
"I've heard you, a few times," she admits, a little sheepishly. "It's nice. I sleep much better when the last thing I hear is the sound of your voice."
"Y- you're sure? You want to hear me sing?"
Ena reaches up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "Of course. There's no one else I'd rather listen to. You're my love. "
What was it with Ena and coming up with just the right words to tug on Mizuki's heartstrings when she least expected it? Was it the proximity between the two, blissfully alone together at sunset?
She laughs, laced with nervousness. "I don't know how I could refuse after hearing all that."
"You don't have to if you really don't w-"
"No, I do!" Mizuki interrupts. "I do. I trust you."
"And I trust you." Ena squeezes her hand tighter and shifts a little closer.
So, Mizuki begins to sing. It's some old waltz, a love song, and she can't recall the name, but it's one that she's heard other knights and bards pass around to fill in the dull moments of their patrols. Despite how much she's heard it, it's never grown too repetitious to enjoy, probably because it reminds Mizuki of her own love, right here in her arms.
The two spin around the gazebo for what feels like hours, stealing kisses in between songs. Before they know it, both their feet ache and the moon has taken its place in the deep black fabric of the night sky.
"I'm so tired," Ena mutters, tucking her head under Mizuki's chin. "I don't want to walk all the way back."
Mizuki pulls her impossibly closer. "Do you need me to carry you, princess?"
She groans. "If you would be so kind."
"Yeah, yeah."
Mizuki scoops Ena into her arms, and before Mizuki has a chance to react, Ena's pulling her lips down to meet hers. "Thank you for this, Mizuki. I had a wonderful time."
"I'm so glad," Mizuki whispers against her mouth. "I love you so dearly, Ena."
She smiles. "I love you more."
"I love you more."
"Are you making this a competition? Because you're on. "
As they return to the castle, they banter until they're tucked into bed, cuddled close, whispering and giggling to each other until sleep weighs their eyelids closed.
When Mizuki returns from breakfast that morning, she finds Ena's painting laid out on her bed, a note scrawled beside it. The artwork remains seemingly unchanged from the day before, but when she looks a little closer she finds that, in her depiction of the gazebo, Ena has painted two figures with their arms around each other: one with pale pink hair, the other brown.
I think I prefer it more, now. the note reads.
Mizuki, unabashedly grinning, agrees.