A heavy thunk sounded out as the arrow landed squarely in the middle of the target; the punctuation to the thin whistle that followed after the feathers of the shaft.
Crossing his arms, the prince gave a begrudging nod. He wasn't one to give out praise lightly. But seeing as Niles had taken him up on his offhand challenge to hit a target 100 times without missing, Takumi had to give praise where it was due. "Impressive." Though, he hadn't doubted the Nohrian retainer's skills, as he'd seen it firsthand in battle.
Niles smiled, all too smug, and bowed. "I can assure you Milord," he almost purred, "This is the least impressive thing that I can do."
Takumi narrowed his eyes slightly, trying not to dwell on things he'd heard about Leo's retainer, but finding it hard to keep himself from it completely. "Oh, I'm sure you'd know more about that than me."
"Hm.. Would you like to find out yourself? I'm sure you've heard plenty about me, but I always find that it's always advisable to get some first hand experience for the full effect." Now outright smirking, Niles brushed aside a shock of white hair from his eye, fixing it on the prince.
Takumi felt his tongue brace against his front teeth, keeping himself in check before the word scum flew from his mouth. It was more reflex than anything, but he'd really have to get more creative with the insults if he was going to even try to keep up and exchange of sharp words with Niles. That and the fact that Hoshido and Nohr were now fighting together as allies. It really would help if he could stop belittling his new comrades.
"I bet you were thinking about calling me Nohrian scum?" Idly examining the nails on one hand, Niles clicked his tongue. "How many times have I heard the sharp end of that tongue aimed at a poor little Nohrian?" But rolling his gaze back at the prince, he winked. "Not that I'd really mind being at the receiving end."
Was he a mind reader too? A bit startled, first for being called out, Takumi opened his mouth to snap out that "No, I was not about to call you Nohrian scum,"but was caught sputtering at Niles' overtly suggestive comment.
"Cat got your tongue Milord?" The edges of his mouth curled up, and Niles was sure that the expression he was wearing was that of the kitty face that Odin liked to bring up ever so often.
Takumi had yet to devise a biting reply, and with each painful moment he could feel his face slowly redden as he gave a second of thought towards the rumors of Niles he'd heard around camp. He was just imagining things, and this retainer of Leo's was playing mind games with him! Nothing to get to fussy about, but he couldn't just let it go, could he? But just as he'd decided to tell Niles to have some shame, he found that the other had turned tail, a bow too deep and flourished to be sincere being shot his way as well.
"Too easy." There were far more productive things Niles could have done than shoot arrows as an unmoving target for the past few hours. But if it meant keeping two young princes from parallel kingdoms (who happened to have matching inflated egos) from butting heads in the meantime, it was time well spent. And Lord Leo would definitely get a kick out of just how red he'd managed to get the pineapple prince to turn.