Camilla had decided that she needed to get better acquainted with Sakura, become her friend, if possible – they had started off on the wrong foot, after all, and, in the event that she should become her law-sister, Camilla felt that she should make an effort. If Sakura agreed. If Hinoka agreed. All of the siblings were of the opinion that this wasn't going to be easy – which was another reason Camilla was trying to befriend Sakura – she was hopeful that this would enable her to help things along a bit.

Unfortunately, Camilla hadn't been able to set her plan into motion yet – for, whenever Sakura wasn't busy with meetings and audiences, she would either study in the library with Leo (who strangely enough didn't seem to mind her company), or she would spend her time with Elise practising music or gossiping, or with Xander, speaking about things of a more serious nature.

And sometimes, she would practise archery, too, or meditate. Or she spent some time locked away in her chambers doing gods know what.

Hefting her axe, Camilla decided to call it a day – the weather was continually getting warmer, and it was getting to her – she was used to the cooler climate of Nohr, after all.

Though Camilla absolutely loved the hot springs. A tub was nothing compared to these.

Camilla stopped by her room to drop off her axe and pick up a clean set of clothes before heading towards the hot springs.

Upon entering, she spotted a woman waiting near the entrance – a wooden screen was blocking the actual spring from view and separated the grotto into the actual bathing area and an area used for cleansing and dressing or undressing. Grilles had been set into the ground to drain the water.

Camilla recognised the woman as Sakura's attendant. The woman bowed to her wordlessly – another thing that was strange about these Hoshidans. Camilla acknowledged her with a nod before depositing her things on a shelf. She then approached the spring and spotted Sakura on the other side, her back leaned against the rocks and her eyes closed.

"Princess Sakura?"

Camilla was glad she hadn't startled the Hoshidan princess this time – she seemed to have been aware that someone else was in the room and merely opened her eyes to look at her.

"I was wondering if you'd mind if I joined you."

"By all means."

"Thank you."

Camilla returned to her things, undressed and pinned up her hair before picking up one of the buckets and emptying it over herself.

"Do you require assistance, Camilla-hime?", the servant asked.

"Ah, no, I'll be fine. Thank you."

By now, Camilla had gotten used to sharing a bath with other women – something that would be unthinkable in Nohr – but allowing someone to help her wash was completely out of the question.

"As you wish."

Once Camilla was done scrubbing herself clean, she approached the hot spring again and picked a spot not too far away from Sakura to have conversation, but also not too close – she didn't want to make the other princess uncomfortable.

Camilla hadn't been sure her intrusion would be tolerated.

Leaning back against the rocks, Camilla submerged herself up to her neck. Hot water could do wonders for sore muscles, and she was going to take full advantage of the fact that she didn't have to save it here.

After a while, a nagging feeling told her she was being watched, something her warrior senses warned her strongly about. Opening her eyes, she caught Sakura staring at her quite intensely.

Sakura instantly blushed and averted her gaze, mumbling an apology full of stutters for having been so rude.

Camilla chuckled and waved a hand.

"Oh, think nothing of it. I'm used to people gawking at me, you know. Might I ask what in particular caught your fancy?"

"Oh, uh – your h-hair."

"My hair? Well, I do admit it's gorgeous."

This actually made Sakura chuckle.

"I r-really like the curls", she said after a while. "We don't see them v-very often in Hoshido."

"Oh, I see", Camilla replied, wrapping a strand that had come loose around her index finger. "I can see how you would find that fascinating."

"It's curious that both you and P-prince Xander have curls, and the other two don't."

"True – but with four different mothers, you shouldn't expect the resemblance between siblings to be too great – it's an interesting coincidence that all of my siblings have blond hair."

"I hadn't thought of that", Sakura replied thoughtfully. "Were your other siblings more d-diverse?"

"Some were, yes. Some took after their respective mothers or members of their mother's families, though there were also some that took after some of father's relatives rather than him."

"I see."

Sakura had begun edging closer during their exchange, and Camilla was delighted to see that she apparently wasn't frightened, if still a bit nervous.

"Would you like a closer look?", Camilla asked, fingering her up-do.

"Um – if you d-don't mind?"

Camilla chuckled again and carefully loosened a longer strand from the bun so it wouldn't all come apart – the biggest drawback about having hair as long as hers was that it took forever to dry.

Sakura shifted on the bench and curiously inspected the strand of curly hair. Camilla was quite willing to indulge her – she had already decided she would do next to anything to get on Sakura's good side, and letting her play with her hair was a small sacrifice on her part, really.

"F-fascinating", Sakura murmured. "Though your curls seem different from your brother's."

Camilla's curiosity was instantly piqued.

"Did Xander let you take a look up close, too?", she asked, eager to find out if, maybe, there was more to the whole story than Xander had let on.

Sakura froze, and when she looked at Camilla, the older princess realised she'd let something slip without meaning to. Without warning, Sakura's face turned a bright scarlet.

"Oh, n-no, nothing like that - "

"Don't try to weasel your way out of this – tell me everything! I am used to indulge my younger siblings with silly things like that, but Xander – how on earth did you manage to do that? I honestly cannot imagine Xander agreeing to something like that."

"He – um, you see, he d-doesn't know", Sakura admitted sheepishly.

"He doesn't know? What do you mean by that?"

"I c-can't say – it's way too embarrassing!", Sakura replied, agitated.

"This is getting more interesting by the minute! You must tell me. No, I insist – the suspense is killing me!"

"I – please, if I do, you m-must promise not to tell anyone! We promised to k-keep this between us – well, not the part about his hair, as he doesn't know about that, you s-see – I really don't want to break my w-word like that..."

"I'm his sister", Camilla scoffed. "I am entitled to know these things. But I promise I won't tell Xander, or anyone else."

Sakura still looked uncertain about this. Camilla reached for her hand and took hold of it, giving the princess her most sincere look.

"Please, tell me. You can't be so cruel as to leave me in the dark after letting something as interesting as this slip. Please."

Sakura bit her lip before nodding reluctantly.

"V-very well. You mentioned that he practises meditation n-now when we last spoke – that's how it started."

"Xander was meditating, and you sneaked up on him?", Camilla asked, delighted.

"Not quite. He was asleep when I found him, and – I feared that something m-might be wrong with him, so I went to check."

Camilla's face fell.

"You thought he was injured?"

"Or w-worse. He was all by himself, after all, which I thought strange. So I rushed over – and f-found that he was merely sleeping. That was a relief."

"You were worried for him?"

"Yes, b-but – mainly because of the p-possible consequences if someone had killed him. I – I was terrified of the thought."

"Understandable – how long ago was that?"

"Hm, let me think – oh, it was the day of – of the funeral", Sakura replied, her brow furrowed. "In the morning."

"I see. That was a while ago – I take it you've grown closer since?"

"Yes. Back then, I w-was still pretty scared of him."

"Then what happened? You seized the opportunity to inspect his ringlets?", Camilla guessed, her good mood returning.

"Well, yes. I know I sh-shouldn't have, and I did try to stop myself – but I was just so curious. Did you know he even f-frowns when he's asleep?"

"I did not", Camilla replied, astounded. "Then again, we barely notice his frown at all because it is a constant feature, so this probably shouldn't surprise me."

"Hm. A-anyway, I was just reaching out to touch his curls – gods, this is so embarrassing – when he suddenly woke up."

"Oh dear."

"Yes. Before I had time to react or c-come up with a good excuse, he pounced on me and threw me on my back. He w-was so angry, and I h-had no idea why, and I w-was terrified of him..."

Sakura's stammering worsened as she started talking faster and faster, curling in on herself as she relived the memory, her brown eyes wide. Without thinking, Camilla reached out to comfort her. The Hoshidan princess snapped out of her trance, and gave Camilla a weak smile.

"He thought I'd been trying to k-kill him, and the fact that I refused to tell him what I h-had been doing didn't help – I then pointed out that I was unarmed, and asked how I was supposed to kill him."

"The notion is quite absurd, to be perfectly honest", Camilla agreed. "Besides, I couldn't imagine you killing anyone."

"But I have killed", Sakura said quietly. "During the battle at Fort Jinya."

"I never noticed", Camilla replied. "Did you use your bow?"

"Un. Takumi-onii taught me. The bow is the favoured weapon of the miko."

"Oh, I see. I must say I am surprised, though – I wouldn't have thought you capable of actually killing someone."

"It wasn't easy", Sakura admitted. "I'd rather not done it – but the a-alternative was to watch as my soldiers fought for me – and I h-hate feeling useless."

"You are much like Elise in that regard", Camilla replied. "She, too, detests violence and would rather settle every conflict peacefully."

"That's – a nice idea."

"Hm. Now, I do believe we got side-tracked again."

"Oh, you're right – um – where was I?"

"Xander thought you were going to murder him without the use of weapons", Camilla replied with a chuckle.

"Right. So I managed to convince him that I hadn't been trying to kill him, but I still refused to tell him what I had been doing – which frustrated him. He let me off the hook, though, when he saw how d-distraught I was over the whole thing, apologised for having jumped to conclusions and even got w-worried I might have injured my head when he toppled me."

"Aw, that's cute."

"It is? A-anyway, I then wanted to know what he had been doing, and he admitted that he had been trying to meditate, but fell asleep in the process."

"Ah, I see. I know that part."

"Hm. When you brought it up the other day, I was afraid for a moment that he'd told you the whole story..."

"Xander wouldn't do that, not if he had given you his word."

"Well, he didn't exactly make a promise – we just agreed to keep this between us. And then I offered to find him a teacher."

"Interesting. He failed to mention that part, too", Camilla replied, shaking her head in mock disbelief. "No-one tells me anything these days! I'm shocked."

Sakura chuckled.

"Anyway, I assume this happened before you approached him about wanting to practise talking to strangers?"

"Un. I did that a couple of days after the funeral, I believe. As s-soon as I felt well enough to leave my quarters again."

"My, you certainly didn't waste any time. But to think that your desire to study Xander's hair led to so much trouble... There seem to be a lot of misunderstandings happening between you and us."

"T-true, but in that case, I can't very well attribute it to c-cultural differences – I was the only one at fault. I r-really shouldn't have done that."

"Well, no harm was done in the end – tough I imagine Xander gave you quite the scare."

"He did."

"Hm. Oh, while we're on the subject of hair – have you ever considered growing yours longer?"

"I haven't – um – do you think I should?"

"I believe it would make you look more mature."

"Does that mean I look – immature?", Sakura asked, sounding worried.

"Not as such. But I believe longer hair would make you appear more grown-up, if you get what I mean. You look very young the way you are now – you're about Elise's age, I think, yet she seems much older – until she speaks, that is. I've seen many women here who do amazing things with their hair – you're the crown princess now, and I think you should up the ante. You're not a little child any more."

"Hm... you might be right. I'll consider it."

"Splendid. Now, as fascinating as our conversation was, I fear I must take my leave – while I absolutely adore these baths, they are a bit too hot for my taste."

"Don't overdo it", Sakura advised. "Not sure I could p-pull you out of the water if you passed out. It was nice t-talking to you, though."

"Same. Perhaps we can speak again another time?"

"I'd like that."

A/N:

This chapter was inspired by another faithful reviewer, Draen, though I changed the topic of the conversation as opposed to the original suggestion.

So Camilla just went from "I hate Sakura" to "Sakura and I must become friends", all for the sake of family, of course – or in this particular case, for Xander's. Sakura, on the other hand, is just glad Camilla no longer sees her as an enemy, as she hates conflict. Additionally, Xander's words concerning his siblings convinced her that Camilla is actually a good person deep down inside.

You might wonder why she was willing to tell Camilla about her fascination with Xander's hair when she refused to tell him – this has two reasons. One, telling Xander would have been much more embarrassing. Two, Camilla was much more relentless than her brother – when Xander realised he made Sakura uncomfortable, he dropped the matter. Camilla didn't.