Mitsuhide remembers his younger years, when it was all Cub Scouts, and going hiking and camping and on adventures with the other boys in his troop, who became his best friends, who he came to talk to about anything and everything, sharing secrets and having sleepovers all throughout his early childhood years and even now. Well, not nearly as many sleepovers, but still.
He's older now, working up to one day becoming an Eagle Scout, and now the Adventure Scouts join them every so often. A group of girls that are definitely not Girl Scouts, and are more here for the exciting badges like hiking and shooting and camping and all of that fun stuff.
They are as adventurous and as tough as the boys, and Mitsuhide admires them for their bravery in wanting to be Adventure Scouts rather than the presumably easier stuff that Girl Scouts do, though those stuff are probably equally as hard, and just not always as outdoorsy. Mitsuhide doesn't know how to sew for instance, because no one's taught him how, but it looks difficult and looks useful.
But he's not really around Girl Scouts to find out what kind of stuff that they do, but he's often around the Adventure Scouts, who seem exceptionally tough. Sometimes Mitsuhide's pretty convinced that these girls would beat him in a fight, and he's not particularly weak.
Still yet, one of them catches his eye most often in a way that he didn't intend for any of them to, and maybe that's because she's a little quieter and hasn't really said even a word to Mitsuhide, or maybe it's the stolen glimpses of her smiles or her laughter as she talks with the girls of her troop.
She seems as comfortable with them as she would probably be with her family, open and honest, and just happy to be around them. It reminds Mitsuhide of the guys of his troop, and yet Mitsuhide talks sometimes almost endlessly with other people, not of the troop, and yet, how many of those people has he had real in depth conversations with or plotted ways to take down a bear with?
He's pretty sure that's rare for him still. And just the girls being there and ridiculously tough surprises him with how both different that is and how it adds a completely different element to things. When they camp, the girls are at a different part of the campgrounds and have their own tents.
They only meet sometimes for activities, and Mitsuhide's eyes are still drawn to the blonde that seems somewhat distant with others, but close with her troop.
Mitsuhide's sure that they've been through a lot together, and this lump of nervousness in his throat isn't normal either. Just what would it be like to get to know her even half as well? To see her smile and to hear her laugh much closer than by the distance often between them?
Or to talk to her about her own strategies in handling a bear or something? Mitsuhide knows that it's pretty much impossible, and yet he hopes despite himself.
"Woah!" Mitsuhide nearly trips over something or rather runs into someone, nearly sending both of them to the ground. It's hard to see tonight with the moon only casting a very dim glow, and the trees mostly taking the brunt of that glow.
So, he hadn't really seen her.
"Are you hurt?" Her voice is steady and cool, and it occurs to Mitsuhide that he should have asked that same question and should have realized he ran into a person much sooner than now.
"No, just surprised." And Mitsuhide chuckles to try to ward off any last vestiges of his nerves or his awkwardness.
"That's good." And he's vaguely sure she might be smiling, but he still hasn't caught a glimpse of the women that he ran into, though she doesn't sound like the Adventure Scout's Troop Leader, so he's vaguely sure she might be an Adventure Scout.
"Are you hurt?" He finally asks, like his tongue is stuck in a tornado; it seems so tongue tied at the moment, like the words are slow to come. He didn't accidentally get a concussion somehow and not feel it, right?
"No, I'm good." She answers steadily, and then she steps a little out of the dark shade of the trees and just enough moonlight falls upon her to reveal the exact Adventure Scout he wanted to talk to, and Mitsuhide's mind goes completely blank.
There's a pause where Mitsuhide doesn't answer, because he's still surprised and suddenly unsure of himself, and she waits for some kind of reply.
"Are you sure you're okay?" She asks finally when it seems like Mitsuhide won't manage to get his act together in time to form words.
"Y-Yeah." Mitsuhide mumbles, stumbling over even just that much, "I'm Mitsuhide."
Her smile goes a little wider, an amused edge to it, pulling it up just a bit more, "I'm Kiki."
"Oh, hi!" He answers, feeling suddenly very stupid; they've been talking for a couple minutes already now, he shouldn't just now be greeting her.
And her amusement makes him almost want to hide, despite how pretty it is, just on the edge between laughing, "Hello."
"What brings you here?" Mitsuhide asks, realizing he's much closer to his campsite than she is to hers, a slow realization.
"Our bathroom's down." She sighs, "I figured I'd try yours? No one's in it, right?"
"Oh, yeah, it's free. I'll go double check! It's right this way." And Mitsuhide feels a bit like a tour guide bringing Kiki back to his campsite and doublechecking that none of the Boy Scouts are inside, ready to be frightened by the appearance of an Adventure Scout.
"It's clear." He tells Kiki, and somehow, he feels that just maybe they might become friends. But right now, he's the bodyguard of the doorway to keep all potential visitors out of the bathroom while she goes potty.
It's the job, he's tasked himself with, and he won't fail at it.