Chapter Text
Takumi wakes bleary-eyed and groaning in the morning, regretting every second of last night. His muscles complain as he stretches them out. They’re not as bad as he’d feared- his body is used to being pushed to its limits, after all- but by no means is it going to be pleasant to go through the day like this.
“Are you okay, Lord Takumi?” asks Hinata, falling into stride with him as they walk towards the mess hall to break their fast. “You’re walking like a granny.”
Takumi groans, linking his fingers and stretching his arms out over his head to help alleviate the pain. “I’m fine. Just not enough sleep and too much practice.”
“You should take better care of yourself,” scolds Oboro from his other side. “I know you want to train, but you need to think about your health, Lord Takumi!”
Takumi groans even louder this time. “Ugh, spare me the lecture. I’ve heard it already. I just wasn’t thinking about how much I was practicing, all right?” It’s close enough to the truth- it’s not that he doesn’t trust his retainers enough to tell them what he really did last night, he just… doesn’t exactly feel like reliving the nightmare as he tells them about it.
“All right, but be careful next time. I’ll make you some strength-restoring soup tonight to get you your energy back,” Oboro responds.
“Who was lecturing you, anyway?” Hinata asks. “Lord Ryoma?”
Takumi sighs. “Prince Leo’s retainer, Niles.”
Oboro’s face twists alarmingly. “That Nohrian? Who does he think he is, bothering you with unwanted advice like that? What’s he plotting?” She seems to be ignoring the fact that the unwanted advice is the exact same advice she just gave Takumi, but judging by the look on her face, Takumi decides it’s safer not to mention that to her.
“He’s not so bad,” Takumi says, to his own immense surprise. He looks both ways, checking to make sure Niles isn’t somehow right behind him and listening to the conversation- this camp is too small sometimes. “Well, he mostly is. We’ve been practicing together so I can improve my concentration and my patience, but that just means he keeps making dirty jokes at me all the time, and when I get annoyed at him for it he just thinks it’s funny, and it would be great to punch him in the face. But...” He thinks about Niles’s concerned expression last night, and how he’d offered to try to understand Takumi’s worries, even if Takumi didn’t take him up on it. “I guess he’s not terrible all the time. Just most of the time.”
“I’ll punch him in the face for you if you want,” Hinata offers. “I’ll be really stealthy about it so they can’t trace it back to us. Like a ninja.”
Oboro laughs. “Like you could ever have the stealth of a ninja. Anyone could hear you coming from a mile away.”
“Well, maybe I’ll bribe Kaze to do it. That way no one will ever know it was us.”
Takumi rolls his eyes and leaves his retainers to their bickering. It lightens his spirits having them around, ridiculous as they are, and it heartens him to know the absurd lengths they’d go to defend his honor. He guesses he probably doesn’t really need them to punch Niles in the face, though. He’ll settle for daydreaming about it.
-----
He doesn’t have another joint training session with Niles that day, which, honestly, is probably for the best. They both have their own responsibilities, and they really don’t have time to meet every single day, and anyway, Takumi has no idea how he’s even meant to feel about Niles right now. Should their encounter last night make up for every single other encounter they’ve had since they met? The subject is just as frustrating as Niles as a person routinely is. He needs some time to think about it, or maybe to avoid it entirely and hope that his subconscious comes to some conclusion or other while he’s not looking.
Really, though, if he had planned to put Niles out of his mind, he should have thought twice before agreeing to play chess with Niles’s lord and master in the evening. That might not have been his best plan.
“So I hear you’ve been spending time with my retainer,” Leo remarks as he casually captures Takumi’s rook with his knight, flicking it off the board and onto the table while absolutely ruining Takumi’s strategy for the next two moves.
Takumi’s only response is a long groan, directed at Leo’s damnably good chess skills and the concept of Niles in equal measure. He props his head on his hand in disgust and stares fixedly at the board for some way to salvage this game.
Leo snickers quietly, a hint of a sardonic smile appearing on his face. “Is it going that well?”
“He’s impossible,” Takumi responds. “How do you deal with him every day?” He pauses, considers how he’d feel if someone said that about Hinata or Oboro, and hastily adds, “No offense meant.”
“None taken,” Leo responds. “He tends to have that effect on people. I’ve always been of the opinion that it’s their loss. It’s your move, by the way.”
Takumi glares. “I know it’s my move. Be patient.” He sighs, hovering his hand over his one remaining rook in consideration. “I know you’ve known him longer than I have, and you wouldn’t keep him around if he didn’t make up for… everything else… but, well, the first day we met he came right up to me and started insulting-” His eyebrows draw together. “Well, he was right, which made it worse.”
“That is one of his flaws,” Leo agrees. “But it’s not for me to discipline him in that, unless it starts causing problems within the army. He may be my retainer, but I don’t own him; he’s his own person. If he wants to introduce himself to people like that, it’s his prerogative.” His lips twitch. “And facing death via divine weapon is the risk he runs, I suppose, although I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t actually kill him. He’s rather irreplaceable.”
Takumi drops his head into his hands, looking up at Leo from between his fingers. “Look, I’m really, really sorry about that. I know I should have a better handle on my temper than that, and I definitely shouldn’t be running around threatening Nohrians, especially not Nohrians you care about. He was just…” He trails off, since there’s really no justification other than ‘he knows exactly how little my family is proud of me and I couldn’t handle the fact that he realized it so quickly,’ and while Leo’s already one of the few people in the world he thinks he can trust with the truth about his family situation, he’s not in the mood to get into it right now. He focuses on the chessboard instead, using his pawn to take Leo’s knight.
Leo shrugs. “Well, my feelings on the matter would be very different if you’d actually hurt him, but as it stands, no harm done. Gods know I’ve done things I regretted before as well, so I understand how easy it is. Just don’t do it again. From what he tells me, though, the two of you are getting along much better recently, so I don’t think I need to worry.” He captures Takumi’s offending pawn in revenge for his fallen knight. Well, that’s all right, it’s done its job.
“Are we really? It’s news to me.” Takumi brushes a stray strand of hair out of his face, staring back down at the board. When did Leo’s bishop get that close to his king? “Well, I mean, he is… better than I thought. I think.” He still has no real idea what to make of last night; evidently, not thinking about it has only served the purpose of making everything more confusing. “But he won’t stop making fun of me, and flirting with me, and making all these sexual innuendos…” He runs his hands through his hair and sighs loudly. “How do you even handle it?”
“Well, to be fair, he doesn’t do that to me as much.” Leo seems to be repressing the urge to laugh.
“What, am I just special?” Takumi grouses. His irritation is tempered slightly when he finally sees a move, using his queen to a prime position to capture Leo’s threatening bishop. “Your move.”
“No, I’m the special one,” Leo responds, squinting at the board. “I’m his lord, and I spared his life when we met. Even then, he’ll still tease me, although not with quite the same edge. But he does it to most people. He likes… testing them, I suppose.”
“If it’s a test, I’m failing,” Takumi mutters. He’s not even sure if he wants to succeed- what kind of person would he have to be for Niles to like him instantly?- but there’s still a bitter taste in his throat.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Leo says. “From what I’ve seen, he seems interested in you.”
“Interested?!” Takumi squawks, jumping so violently he nearly knocks a few pieces over. “But I thought he said none of the flirting was serious?!”
This time Leo bursts out laughing for real, warm and full-throated, the kind of laugh that Takumi’s only gotten out of him a few times so far. He’d enjoy it a lot more if it weren’t coming at his expense. “Not that kind of interested, Takumi. But I think he’s enjoyed your company. I didn’t order him to spend any more time with you, you know.” He moves a pawn forward, a fairly innocuous move.
“He did say that,” Takumi says. “And he is being… helpful, I guess. I do need to work on not letting things get to me, and he’s great practice for that.” It’s a little uncomfortable admitting that he has flaws that he needs to work on, but it’s not nearly as bad with Leo as with anyone else. Leo gets him.
“That’s a good start,” Leo replies. “You know, I think the two of you could really get along, eventually. You have a lot in common.”
Takumi looks up in surprise from taking Leo’s other bishop. “Really? What could we have in common?” He pauses, thinking about how little he actually knows about Niles. “Hey, what’s his whole deal, anyway? He keeps mentioning things like how he came from nothing, and his childhood was a war, and stuff like that, but he’s never really explained anything.”
Leo hums, surveying the board. “He’ll tell you, probably. He’s not usually too shy about it, but I’d rather not say anything and deny him the chance to tell you in his own time. It’s enough to say that no matter where he came from, I’d trust him with my life.”
Takumi sighs. “Well, I trust your judgment, I guess. Maybe someday I’ll get what you see in him.” Maybe he should try the whole getting-along thing with Niles again and see if it sticks this time, he thinks. Niles has been annoying, but, well, Takumi guesses he hasn’t been much more pleasant. And if Leo thinks they could be friends, there’s always a chance he’s onto something.
“Well, your taste has been getting better since you met me,” Leo comments. “But for now, we’re at least even. I don’t see what you see in that retainer of yours, either, the one who constantly looks like she’s just bitten into a lemon.” He uses his oh-so-innocuous pawn to take Takumi’s queen as the tactical part of Takumi’s brain screams in horror. “Check.”
Takumi rakes his hands through his hair in intense frustration as he stares at the board, assessing his rapidly narrowing options. How could he not have seen this coming? “Next time we’re playing shogi, and I’m going to grind you into the dust,” he grumbles.
“I look forward to our match,” Leo replies, smirking. “I’ll enjoy being able to beat you in two different games.”
Takumi groans again. For such an excellent friend, Leo can sure be a pain in his ass sometimes. No wonder he and Niles get along.
-----
He and Niles had planned to have a training session the next day, but their plans are disrupted, as so many things often are recently, by the fact that they’re at war. Corrin leads them out on a skirmish against some Vallites that have been plaguing the area recently, and, as Corrin can seemingly do no wrong, the skirmish ends in a rout. His arms still ache from his idiotic behavior of a few nights before, but Takumi thinks he’s acquitted himself well. He saw his arrows fell at least ten enemies, just as many as any of his siblings. Not that he’s counting. (Well, maybe he’s counting a little.)
He’s exhausted after the skirmish, and his tasks don’t even end there- he has to pull a full shift hunting for meat for that night’s dinner, and then take weapons inventory, making sure that none of their weapons have been too damaged from the cumulative effects of battle. It seems cosmically unfair that these tasks don’t just do themselves while the army is off fighting, but he guesses whining won’t make them do themselves either, so he buckles down to work, only whining under his breath. It’s late by the time he finally finishes with the weapons, and all he wants is a hot bath and then sleep, preferably with no nightmares this time. He drags himself to the hot springs, stripping off his clothes in half a daze, and immerses himself in the hot water. It’s the first time he’s felt relaxed all day.
Of course Niles would show up at a time like this.
Takumi doesn’t even notice at first- he’s sunk almost all the way underneath the water, enjoying the feeling of the hot water against his scalp. He only realizes someone else is here when the ripples from someone entering the water splash across his face and into his nose. He pushes himself up quickly, spluttering, hair plastered across his face. It’s far from his most attractive moment.
“Peace, Lord Takumi. It’s not an assassin, it’s just little old me. Although perhaps you’d prefer the assassin?” Niles sits down on the ledge a few feet away from him, just close enough to make Takumi feel vaguely awkward.
“...Hello, Niles,” he says, and pauses. What does he even say now? Should he be trying to start a conversation at all, or should he just leave Niles alone to a nice, peaceful bath?
Luckily, Niles doesn’t leave him to stew for too long. “You fought well today,” he says, leaning back against the side of the bath. “The way you pierced all those enemies… It almost made me wish I was one of them.”
Takumi sighs. “That wasn’t even one of your better innuendos,” he says, trying hard to look languid and casual and not-at-all flustered. Luckily, he’s already pink from the heat of the water.
Niles flaps his hand lazily in acknowledgement. “They can’t all be winners. It’s been a long day- I’m spent.” He does look tired, Takumi notices- there’s a dark circle under his one visible eye. (He’s wearing the eyepatch even in the bath, which is interesting. Is what’s under it so terrible that he doesn’t want to risk anyone seeing?) “On that note,” he continues, “I wanted to compliment you on your stamina. I thought you’d be exhausted after that little nighttime adventure of ours the other night.”
Takumi bites his lip and sinks a little lower in the water. “Um, so, about that…” he begins reluctantly. “I’ve been wanting to… um, apologize. Again. You were just trying to help, and I was, um, well… I was a real jerk to you. ...Again. So… sorry.”
Niles shrugs. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve had a lot worse, trust me. I’ve had worse from you."
Takumi blushes and looks away. “Is that supposed to make me feel better about it?”
“Well, maybe. To be fair, I’ve also given worse, to a pretty long list of people. Don’t sweat it too much.”
“Still, it really wasn’t fair of me. I know we got off on the wrong foot, and, well, stayed on the wrong foot, but you were right, I shouldn’t have been out there that late. I just… I wasn’t myself.”
“So you snap at me when you’re yourself and when you’re not yourself? Lucky me.”
Takumi sighs. “I guess I deserve that. I just… I had a nightmare,” he confesses. “A pretty bad one. And I guess it… rattled me.” He glances over at Niles nervously, already wishing he could unsay those words; he feels like he owes a full explanation to him now that he’s apologizing, but admitting his own failings still feels much too personal. Niles has already pegged him as a pathetic prince; what’s he going to think of Takumi having nightmares like a child?
To his surprise, Niles’s eye is sympathetic rather than mocking. “Hmm, I see. Well, you’re not the only one. Why do you think I was up to catch you practicing?”
Takumi’s eyes widen. “You? Really? You don’t seem like the type.” He really doesn’t. Takumi can’t imagine what would bother Niles enough for him to have a nightmare about it. He doesn’t know what bothered Niles would even look like.
Niles shrugs, the water rippling slightly. “Another one of my hidden depths, I guess. I’ve seen things you can’t imagine. Behind my mature, unruffled facade, there’s a shell-shocked, crying child just begging to get out.” Takumi honestly can’t tell if he’s joking. His smirk widens fractionally, though- he, at least, doesn’t seem to be treating it as a personal revelation. “But that’s all in the past. Now all I have to deal with is war. It’s a step up. And at least I have better ways to deal with my nightmares than picking up my bow and firing until my fingers fall off. Although I’ve been known to spend time shooting off a… different kind of arrow, for distraction.”
“Well, I don’t do that,” Takumi responds, flushing. (It’s not as if he never does it, but it’s difficult to picture himself being in the mood, after the kind of nightmares he has.) “And I don’t usually get up and start training, either. That was just… a lapse. Usually I just go walking.”
Niles nods. “That’s a much better cure. I’ve been known to go for some moonlit strolls myself. Or I’ll just sit and watch the sky.”
“The sky?” Takumi echoes. He remembers a few nights ago, after his nightmare about Niles, seeing the adventurer sitting out in a clearing, gaze trained upwards. Had he been recovering from a nightmare as well? The idea makes Niles feel less like an enigma and more like a human.
“The stars and the moon are always there, even if they’re hidden on rainy nights,” Niles replies, lazily tracing circles in the water with an index finger. “They were here before we were born and they’ll be here long after we’re dead. No matter what we dream about, they’ll be there when we wake up to comfort us. When you see something like that, it’s harder to think that your little problems actually matter. They’ll die with you, and the moon will shine down on your bones.”
“That’s… kind of a morbid way to think about it,” says Takumi doubtfully. He can see a way in which it would be comforting, knowing that something in the sky will outlive even the most overwhelming of his struggles, but did Niles have to add that part about the bones?
Niles laughs. “I prefer to think of it as ‘bracingly realistic’.”
“Well, I see what you mean, I guess. Maybe I’ll try that next time I can’t get back to sleep.”
“I hope it helps,” Niles replies, sounding unexpectedly genuine (although Takumi never expects him to say anything genuine, so perhaps that modifier’s unnecessary). “You certainly aren’t what I thought, are you? I expected a bratty little princeling without a care, not someone so… tormented.”
“Hey, I’m not tormented,” says Takumi hotly, feeling blood rush to his cheeks. “They’re just nightmares. You just said you had them too. And are you saying you like me because I’ve got problems?”
Niles holds both arms up in an exaggerated shrug. “Maybe I’m tormented too. We can have a little broken-souls party. And I haven’t even said I like you. Getting ahead of yourself a little there, aren’t you? Are you projecting?” He holds out a hand to stop Takumi before he can protest. “Sorry, couldn’t resist. Hmmm, I wouldn’t put it in those words, but… I’ve never really been able to relate to perfect people. How would you feel, confronting someone who’s only ever been happy and has no idea how it feels to suffer? Would you actually want to spend time with them? Wouldn’t you be a little bitter?”
“Of course not,” says Takumi automatically, but a niggling feeling gnaws at his chest, telling him different. What about his siblings? They’ve all suffered, certainly, but they’ve grown past it, matured, gotten stronger (left him behind). And how does he feel about that? “Well… I wouldn’t be proud of it,” he amends.
“I never said I was proud of it. And I never claimed to be a good person,” Niles reminds him.
“You’re not that bad,” Takumi says slowly; it’s been his knee-jerk reaction over the past few conversations he’s had about Niles, but now he might be starting to understand what makes him say that. “Maybe you’re a little sadistic, or a lot sadistic-” Niles snorts- “but you’re not really what I thought, either. Maybe Leo was right when he said we had some things in common.”
“Lord Leo said that?” Niles raises an eyebrow. “Hmm, well. If that’s Lord Leo’s judgment, maybe we should try harder at this whole friends thing.”
“Maybe we should,” Takumi agrees. He feels like he has a better picture of Niles now- he’s a pretty bizarre person, and certainly not an angel, but… he understands Takumi even better than Takumi had thought, and he doesn’t seem to judge him for it. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt, to have a friend like that.”
“So… friends?” Niles extends a hand across the distance between them. It takes Takumi a second or two to realize that he’s offering another Nohrian handshake. Takumi scoots a little closer so he can reach Niles’s hand and takes it.
Niles’s strong, confident grip feels more welcome this time; Takumi returns it in equal measure. “Friends,” he replies. “I’ll be in your care.”
“Ooh, you want me to take care of you? That’s perfectly all right. What desires shall I satisfy first?”
“Gods, no!” Takumi yelps. “I didn’t mean that, it’s just a thing we say in Hoshido, you-” Lost for words that will convey the effect he has in mind, he settles for using both of his hands to splash a wave of water in Niles’s direction. Some of the droplets splash up to Niles’s face, making him splutter in a very satisfying way.
“Heh, I always knew you were a feisty one,” Niles replies, amused, as he wipes water off his face. “Trying to drown me, since your Yumi’s not nearby?”
“No, I’m not going to drown you,” Takumi says, rolling his eyes. He thinks he’s getting a little more used to Niles’s teasing; perhaps all the practice really has had an effect. But he can’t have been expected to resist the urge to splash him when he had the perfect opportunity. “I just hoped that us being friends meant you would lay off the whole-” he waves his hand ineloquently in the air- “flirting thing.”
Niles chuckles. “Sorry to disappoint you there. I’m afraid the flirting thing is part of the whole Niles package. Although I think you’ll find I’m well-endowed enough to compensate.”
Takumi’s revenge for that is an even bigger splash of water, straight into Niles’s face. He belatedly wonders if Niles’s eyepatch minds getting wet. Oh well, if he wanted to keep it dry, he shouldn’t have brought it into the hot springs. “Say another word about your package and I’ll change my mind about drowning you.”
Niles wipes the water off his face again, smirk still firmly in place despite the stray water droplets dripping off his nose. “Ooh, you’re getting all hot and bothered now, aren’t you? Well, if you shove my head underwater, at least I’ll have a good view as I die.”
Takumi had somehow managed to put the fact that they’re essentially having a conversation while completely naked mostly out of his mind. He’s used to taking communal baths, anyway, and it’s not like Niles can actually see anything under all this water. That thought flies right out the window now, along with any stray remnants of his composure. “Oh, you- you pervert, don’t you dare-” Lost for words, he responds with the biggest splash yet, a wave crashing over Niles’s face and slopping over the edges of the pool and onto the tiled floor around it.
Takumi isn’t really sure if Niles is laughing or choking on some water; possibly, he’s doing both. Well, whether he’s honestly amused or honestly choking, at least it’s an unambiguously honest sound. “Gods, you are so fun,” Niles manages to gasp out after a few seconds. “You just want to solve every situation with violence, don’t you? Well, fine, if that’s the way you want to play it…” With startling suddenness, a wave of water is heading straight for Takumi’s face. The world seems to slow down such that he has just enough time to register how pretty it is, a shower of crystalline beads sparkling in the air; then it hits him, and it’s his own turn to gasp and splutter.
It takes him a few shell-shocked seconds to get himself together enough to respond, frantically swiping at the water in his eyes and pushing his newly-sodden hair out of his face. When he does, he feels a feral grin spread across his face. “Oh, it’s on.” Niles has no idea what he’s just unleashed. From a long acquaintance with Hinata (and Hinoka, before they reached the age where gender-segregated baths were appropriate, and Oboro, whenever they make time for a day at the beach), he feels confident in claiming that he’s the splash-fight champion of Hoshido, and probably of the whole continent. Who cares about princely dignity? He’s already threatened Niles’s life, told him about his nightmares, and blushed an unbecoming number of times in front of him, so it’s a little too late for any of that, anyway. Right now, all he wants to do is win.
In short order, there’s practically more water outside the pool than in it. Water’s arcing through the air, sparkling like diamonds in the dim light before it lands with a splash and a shower of droplets. Laughter, taunts, and outraged yelps fill the air. If Takumi were thinking about things like this right now, he’d find himself surprised at just how much fun he’s having. When was the last time he enjoyed himself this much, or felt this free? It’s war time, every second of their time is important, and Prince Takumi can’t afford to do things like this too often. But… maybe Takumi, the regular person, needs to. And Niles has so much to hold against him already that Takumi doesn’t even need to care about adding another item to the list. For once, he can just relax.
“...Am I interrupting something?”
The atmosphere stops dead about as suddenly as if Niles and Takumi had both just walked face-first into metal bars. The new voice in the room is one so clearly stern and used to commanding that Takumi finds himself automatically straightening to attention even before he turns to see who it belongs to.
As it turns out, he recognizes the face immediately.
It’s Prince Xander.
Crown Prince Xander of Nohr.
Crown Prince Xander of Nohr, Commander of the Nohrian contingent of the army.
Crown Prince Xander of Nohr, Commander of the Nohrian contingent of the army, who has just walked in on him, Prince Takumi of Hoshido, having a splash fight with one of Prince Xander’s indirect subordinates.
Great.
(Gods, Takumi hopes Prince Xander doesn’t slip on the floor, considering how slick it is.)
(Could anyone worse have possibly walked in on them?)
(...Well, at least it’s not Ryoma. He doesn’t want to have that conversation.)
“You’re not interrupting anything,” Takumi says hurriedly, fighting an absurd and inappropriate urge to giggle and hoping his face doesn’t reflect his current mental state.
“We were just getting to know each other better,” volunteers Niles. Takumi briefly shoots a shuriken-like glare at him- gods, how many wrong ways are there to take that, when they were clearly doing something very athletic in the water?- but at least he sounds vaguely chastened. Maybe even he is scared of Prince Xander. Takumi suspects everyone is.
“Yes, and we were just leaving, actually,” says Takumi, pulling himself out of the water with his back to both Xander and Niles and wrapping a towel around himself with snake-like reflexes he seems to have developed from sheer panic. “At least, I was. Have a good night, Prince Xander.” He turns around to give Xander a bow of farewell, partially wobbly from all the water on the floor. Gods, he hopes Ryoma never hears about this.
Xander’s brow is furrowed, although Takumi can’t tell if it’s from confusion or rage. Or maybe that’s a permanent furrow? Takumi tries to remember if he’s ever seen Xander smile. He’ll have to ask Leo if something like that is even possible. “I’m pleased to hear that, Prince Takumi. Building bonds between our armies might be the most important outcome of this war, even if we build them in, ah-” he looks down at the water on the floor, and Takumi can actually feel a part of himself shrivel and die from sheer embarrassment- “unconventional ways. Have a good night.”
“You too,” Takumi says, before remembering that he's already wished Xander goodnight, but deciding to cut his losses and make his escape as quickly as possible before he piles mistake on top of mistake and ends up committing some kind of Nohrian high etiquette treason. (Leo insists there’s no such thing as etiquette treason, but Takumi wouldn’t put it past the Nohrian court, from everything he’s heard of it.)
He hurries out of the bath chamber, hearing splashing sounds behind him that might be Niles making a similar exit. He quickly collects the rest of his things, throws on a robe, and exits the hot springs, his face still on fire as the cool night air hits it. He’s getting uncomfortably used to running away from situations lately.
Well, there’s a bright spot, at least, he ponders (as soon as he’s safely back in his tent, with strict instructions to his retainers to please, please, not let anyone in, especially not any eldest princes of Nohr or anyone who’s had any conversations with said eldest princes). He’s doing a lot of running away, recently, but at least this time he wasn’t running away from Niles. Well, not directly, anyway. Niles is… well, he’s still not sure what to call Niles, even with the endless talking and thinking and subconscious processing it feels like he’s been doing about the other man. Can Takumi trust him at all? What will he do now that he knows even more of Takumi’s weaknesses? Is he a friend, truly? Takumi still can’t tell, not really, no matter how much time he seems to spend banging his head against a metaphorical wall trying to figure it out. But maybe it doesn't matter right now. All he knows is that Niles seems more like a friend today than he did yesterday. For today, that’s enough. And next time Takumi sees him, he doesn’t think he’ll be running away.