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Hinoka didn’t know if she would ever truly get used to fighting against the Vallite army. Three battles had come and gone since she and the rest of her allies arrived in the hidden nation of Valla, but Hinoka still wasn’t entirely sure of how she was meant to combat forces she could barely see. She was getting better at identifying the telltale distortion of the air that indicated something was headed in her direction, but it was much easier said than done to keep track of all of it at once. There were far more of them than she had expected, and keeping an eye on every single one of the enemy soldiers was simply impossible for a single fighter to do alone.
Hinoka was doing her best to swerve out of the way atop her pegasus, going in for attacks where she saw weak points and retreating before she could take too much punishment. It was difficult to make out what weapons the Vallite soldiers were holding as long as their bodies were transparent, and their blades seemed to fit the description too. Hinoka was getting really tired of having to squint in order to make out what enemies she had an advantage over, and she wished more than anything that their foe would become kind enough to make soldiers she could actually see.
Hinoka saw the curve of a bow out of the corner of her eye, and she knew she would have to stay as far away as possible. Someone else would be able to take care of the sniper before they tried to shoot her out of the sky… But Hinoka wasn’t the only flier on her side of the battle. Camilla was nearby, and she was in the perfect range to be shot down when the archer next nocked an arrow and aimed.
And that was exactly what they were doing.
Hinoka’s body seemed to move on its own, and she redirected her pegasus in the direction of the arrow. “Look out!” she yelled into the chaos of the fight, but she already knew her words were going to arrive too late. Hinoka hoped Camilla wouldn’t mind her ramming into her side atop her steed. At this rate, that was the only chance they were going to stand of getting out of this in one piece.
Unfortunately, Hinoka miscalculated her speed, and Camilla turned to see what she was speaking about just before she arrived at her destination. Hinoka had thought she would be fast enough to get them both out of the way, but instead, the arrow flew free a second sooner than anticipated. It did not strike Camilla, but it did pierce through the steel lining Hinoka’s shoulder, and she let out a strangled cry of pain as blood began to burst from the injury. Tears immediately rose to life in her eyes, and for a moment, Hinoka thought the force would knock her clean out of the sky.
Camilla had a tome in her hand, and she raised it high, summoning a thunder spell to strike the archer down into ash on the breeze. In a single fluid motion, Camilla hooked her other arm around Hinoka’s waist, yanking Hinoka off her pegasus and onto Camilla’s wyvern instead. “Come on,” Camilla said, her voice offering no room for objection. “We’re going.”
Hinoka wanted to argue, to say that she had fought through worse than this before, but an awkward flap of Camilla’s wyvern’s wings silenced her. Pain raced through her shoulder, and it was a miracle she didn’t drop her weapon in an attempt to press against the injury. Biting back a swear through gritted teeth, Hinoka nodded stiffly. “Fine.”
~~~~~
The rest of the army was able to clear out the rest of the Vallite soldiers with relatively few issues. Hinoka was luckily the greatest injury on their side of the fight, though that only embarrassed her more. She had made an error of judgement, and now, it felt like everyone in the camp was going to be talking about it. The last thing she needed was for anyone else to think she was weak for failing to escape the range of the archer in time. The second to last thing she needed was to inadvertently add more fuel to the fire of Azama mocking her for being reckless and impatient.
Camilla had been strict about taking Hinoka back to the infirmary tent at the army’s current base in the desolate wastes of Valla. Hinoka wanted to just down a vulnerary and let that be the end of it, but Camilla had asked for Felicia’s help in healing the injury with a staff. Once Felicia had done her part, she offered Camilla a nod and retreated from the tent, leaving Hinoka alone with the wyvern rider.
Hinoka sighed, staring up at the roof of the tent and doing her best to ignore the dull throbbing in her shoulder. She and Camilla had been getting to know each other better and better ever since they joined up with Corrin to defeat Valla’s army, but their relationship was still… Strange. They had fought on opposite sides of the war between Hoshido and Nohr, and that was bound to leave an uncomfortable presence in the air between them on its own. That didn’t even begin to get into the fact that they were both Corrin’s older sisters, and that meant they had an inclination toward competition because of their parallel positions.
The strangest part of all, however, was that Camilla was… Affectionate toward Hinoka at times. At first, Hinoka hadn’t known how to describe it, but every time Camilla spoke with her, she seemed to bring out the worst in her. Camilla enjoyed it too, and she gladly returned Hinoka’s fumbling tongue with a smile that made Hinoka want to ram her head into the nearest wall she could find. Hinoka didn’t know what about her made Camilla so eager to push on her buttons, but apparently, she was the elder princess of Nohr’s new favorite target.
Camilla sat down beside Hinoka, studying every tiny detail of the pegasus knight’s face as the seconds ticked by agonizingly around them. “You certainly acted dangerously,” Camilla mused, though Hinoka could tell there was far more on her mind than just that. Camilla was great at masking her true intentions when she truly wanted to, and as far as Hinoka could tell, this was one of those times. “Mind telling me what possessed you to rush into the middle of the field and take a hit that was meant for me?”
“I thought I would be able to push you out of the way,” Hinoka told her even though she knew the excuse was beyond poor. She had miscalculated, but it was an embarrassing thing for a warrior like her to have to admit. “I didn’t know if you would be able to get out of there in time if I had just yelled for you, so…”
“You yelled for me anyway, and if you had said to be careful, then I would have moved,” Camilla retorted. “I think you underestimate me. I know how to get out of the way of an arrow when someone is trying to shoot me.”
“I just…” Hinoka bit back a groan. Why did it feel like she could never explain herself properly around Camilla? Her words always fell short, and any attempts to fix that only frustrated her more. “I wanted to make sure you would be fine. Is that really so hard to believe?”
“Then you didn’t think I would be able to take care of myself,” Camilla concluded, her voice smooth to the point of Hinoka not being able to tell how much of it was playful teasing or genuine hurt. “I’m stronger than you realize, you know… Or do you Hoshidans still think you’re better than the rest of us?”
“That’s not it,” Hinoka countered, but she knew that getting defensive was only going to hurt her case more. She was laying perfectly horizontal, but if she had been sitting up even slightly, she would have flopped backward into the mattress. Instead, she opted for glaring daggers through the roof of the tent so she had an excuse to not meet Camilla’s gaze.
“Then what is it?” Camilla asked. “I knew you were reckless, but I thought you would be smart enough to not charge into the middle of an archer’s trajectory. Perhaps you’re not as sharp as I thought you were.”
Hinoka’s hands flew up to cover her eyes, pushing down until stars exploded against her eyelids. Her shoulder continued to pound in protest of the movement, but she couldn’t bring herself to show her face. Her cheeks were flushed and then some, and at this rate, she feared she would dye herself the same color as her hair if Camilla pressed her too much more. “You don’t get it,” Hinoka complained into her palms, her voice muffled by her hands’ proximity to her face.
“No… I’m afraid not,” Camilla replied airily, but Hinoka knew what she was really trying to do. Her goal was to see if she could egg Hinoka on enough to convince her to confess what she was really trying to imply. “You could change that though. If you really want to, that is. I’m sure it would be less dangerous than rushing forward so you can be shot.”
Hinoka sighed. She was never going to live the events of that day down… But she doubly wouldn’t be able to live down everything she was going to end up saying with Camilla pushing on her nerves like this. “I was worried about you, alright?” Hinoka finally admitted, tearing her hands away from her face. “I didn’t want to see you get hurt, so I did what I thought would be best to get you out of trouble! I didn’t realize I wouldn’t get there in time to get us both out of the way! If I had known that, then I would have been more careful! I just… I didn’t want anything bad to happen to you! Is that what you wanted me to say?”
Camilla remained silent for a long moment after Hinoka’s outburst, and Hinoka shriveled into herself as much as she could without jostling her shoulder. She knew she was indelicate at times with her words, but that had to be a new low for her. She couldn’t just say things like that, especially not to the princess of Nohr of all people. Had she hit her head when she took that arrow to the shoulder and just not realized it? She must have if she was being so open with things that she hadn’t even fully processed. Hinoka was no genius with emotional connection, but she knew enough to be able to say that she had just made a massive mistake. It would be a miracle if Camilla ever looked at her with anything other than a teasing smile on her face.
But much to Hinoka’s surprise, Camilla didn’t seem mocking at all when she leaned in a little bit closer to her cot. “I appreciate you wanting to look after me,” she admitted, and Hinoka wondered if she had ever seen Camilla look this… Genuine. “But in the future, I would prefer it if you would be more careful. I don't want to see you get hurt either.”
Hinoka blinked at Camilla once and then twice. Had she heard that right? Camilla… Was worried about her too? Hinoka supposed they had been getting closer, but she hadn’t realized it was to such an extent. She hadn’t even recognized the depth of her own feelings until she began to move to get Camilla out of the reach of that arrow, and now… Camilla seemed to feel similarly. Once upon a time, they would have hated each other simply because they had the misfortune of locking eyes, but now…
“I’m alright with you worrying about me, but I would ask that you refrain from putting yourself in active danger to keep me safe in the future,” Camilla went on, taking Hinoka’s hand on her uninjured arm between her own. Camilla’s fingers were softer than Hinoka’s, and they carried with them all of the love that Hinoka had never thought would ever live between them. “I don’t want you to get hurt on my behalf, and I don’t think you would want the reverse to happen either. Be a bit more careful in the future, would you? I don’t want you to scare me half to death with another move like that.”
Hinoka continued to stare at Camilla, only remembering to snap herself out of her trance when Camilla squeezed at her fingers to bring her back to reality. Camilla didn’t want her to put herself in danger because she cared about her. Against all odds, they had come to enjoy each other’s company. They had once thought themselves to be enemies, but there they were, sitting in the medical tent as Camilla helped Hinoka through the recovery process on a wound she had received in the name of protection. It didn’t feel real at all, and yet…
Hinoka found herself enjoying it. She couldn’t say why she felt so warm when Camilla began to chart out soothing circles across her knuckles using her thumb, but Hinoka forgot about the pain in her shoulder entirely. All that seemed to matter was the person she had tried to protect when she sustained the wound in the first place. They belonged together, and Hinoka couldn’t believe she was thinking this about Camilla of Nohr out of everyone across the continent.
“I… I can do that,” Hinoka agreed with a slow nod. She couldn’t just charge off into combat recklessly anymore. There were people who cared about her, and they wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to her. It wasn’t about Hinoka alone; it was about the people she had come to find comfort in over the course of the war. They needed to get through this lengthy battle together, and that meant Hinoka had to take care of herself as much as she could.
“Good.” Camilla reached for a vulnerary on the nearby table, but she was careful to not let go of Hinoka’s hand. Hinoka was glad for it; she wouldn’t have liked it if Camilla had pulled back. Right now, it was the greatest source of comfort she could have ever asked for, and she wanted to cherish it. “Drink this. You need the energy.”
Hinoka nodded, and she tilted her head up just enough for Camilla to drip the vulnerary through her parted lips. Once she had swallowed, Hinoka laid down again, and she sighed as she looked up at Camilla. This certainly wasn’t what she had expected would happen when she took that hit, but she couldn’t complain too much about the outcome. “Thanks,” Hinoka whispered, and she wondered what the her of a year ago would think seeing this.
Camilla did not have the same questions, simply smiling and tilting her head to the side in a picture of amethyst radiance. “You’re welcome.”