Notes: For Flufftober - Poetry, Art, Music, Craft
I focused just on the poetry part here.
Romantic Gestures
Rita has never exactly been the most... artistically inclined. Unless one counted the crafting of magic artes, but that was science and math. It wasn't frilly emotional stuff.
But Estelle? Estelle made Rita feel all that frilly stuff.
From the moment they'd first met, Estelle made Rita want more than Aspio could offer her. A recklessness that she'd attributed to interest in Estelle's unusual abilities - and certainly concerned Yuri, who'd taken the position of Estelle's honorary older brother (and Karol's and eventually Rita's too) - but it later settled into a devoted friendship. And, a few years later when Rita was a little older and wiser, it became love of a different sort.
One that made Rita feel all fluttery the first time she kissed Estelle. And every time after. Even just thinking about the pink haired vice empress was enough to give Rita the happy little flutters, really.
And she'd thought that writing down her feelings as poetry might make a nice gift for Estelle.
Instead she's got an office full of crumpled up papers overflowing from the waste bin and an absolute certainty that she doesn't know how to make 'in love with Estelle feelings' sound like the lovely emotion it is because, well... it sounded a lot like gas pains when she tried to use words. Obviously she was using all the wrong words, but... Rita was a genius. She was the top authority on how mana worked and how magic that utilized mana instead of aer worked and... how could she write hundreds of pages on the interactions between spirits, mana, aer, and blastia but she couldn't manage to write ten words about how Estelle made her so happy just by smiling at her?
"Ugh," Rita groaned and let her forehead smack onto the desk. She should just gift Estelle flowers when she arrived at Halure.
"Rita are you here?"
Speak of the adorable, cute, adventurous devil...
Rita sat up, wild eyed as the door creaked open. "Estelle? Are you early?" Or had she gotten so caught up in writing bad poetry that she'd lost count of the days. Not exactly impossible for Rita.
"Yes. I was able to cut off a day of travel by taking the Quoi Woods. It's not like it's really haunted, after all," Estelle teased with a laugh. "And I know that place forwards and backwards after how many times we traveled through it all those years ago." The she frowned, taking in Rita's appearance... and the mess in her office. Then, before Rita could stop her, Estelle picked up a wadded up piece of paper and began to read. Thankfully not out loud.
Rita wasn't sure she could bear to hear whichever terrible bit of writing that was out loud.
"Rita... what is this?"
"I... was trying to write you love poetry," Rita admitted, blushing in embarrassment. "It's awful. I know. I'm going to get you flowers. That's an acceptable romantic gesture to make up for not being able to write anything good, right?" She stood up and snatched the paper from Estelle's hand.
Or tried to, anyway.
Estelle managed to play keep away, tucking the paper into a pocket on her dress. (It was amazing how many pockets that girl kept hidden in her dresses these days after Yuri, apparently, taught her how to sew them into the seams.) "I think this poem is lovely. Really. I bet I'd love them all because you wrote them."
"But not because they're good," Rita surmised.
"Oh shush," Estelle said and then kissed her. "I love knowing how much effort you've put into them. And I bet you're improving the more you write. Even if it doesn't feel like it yet."
"Well, I suppose any skill takes effort to cultivate," Rita allowed, letting herself lean into Estelle's embrace... and resisting the urge to use the pick-pocketing skills Raven had taught her to retrieve the awful poem. If Estelle wanted to keep it then Rita would cringe over it, but let her. "I'm still getting you flowers."
"I love flowers too," Estelle agreed. "But I hope you'll keep practicing that poetry. I'd love to read a poem you're proud of one day."