Nina, as hinted before, was a lonely girl, whether she liked to admit it or not. Sometimes, she would trick herself into believing she wasn't all by herself, often by means of daydreaming or putting on those strange puppet plays when nobody was watching... In her tiny cell, there really wasn't much to use to put on a show, neither were there any other prisoners near by to chat with. In the end, perhaps even if there was company there with her, they wouldn't have been interested in talking, seeing that they were too angry at being captured and forced out of their homeland.
So, Nina spent her days in the darkness of the prison, whistling to herself and allowing her mind to wander places; her daydreams weren't as juicy when they had no inspiration material from the outside, and older scenarios of hers no longer got her heart racing as much as they had when they were fresh. So, this meant Nina had no choice but to use her imagination.
Oh no.
'Once, long ago, in a kingdom whose name was forgotten... Um... No. It was a kingdom called Flareshire. Yeah. Okay, so once, long ago, in a kingdom whose name was Flareshire, there lived a... Uh... A mercenary. Yeah, a mercenary. Mr. Mercenary was so poorly treated in his hometown, so much so that everyone wanted him thrown into prison! Mr. Mercenary was so lonely, his heart nearly torn apart by the tidal waves of a negligent father and mother... When suddenly, a handsome... Um... Axeman strode into his life when he was lost in the forest one day.
'Why hello there, Mr. Mercenary, you seem lost today.
'Oh yes! Humble axeman, I've found myself lost here in this wretched forest where none can find me!
'Fret not, smooth-skinned Mr. Mercenary, I have a log cabin not too far from here; grab my hand, for I shall take you there and allow you to stay the night.
'Oh! Mr. Axeman, your hands are so strong from all the year's worth of work! Please, don't ever let go and leave me to die in this inescapable forest!
'I won't let go, Mr. Mercenary, so long as you hang on.'
Before long, Nina realized she took very well to using her imagination to its full potential. She spent hours upon hours, a grin cracked on her face, drool threatening to stream out of her mouth. As a matter of fact, she was so engrossed in her daydream she almost didn't catch the figure that watched towards her cell. It was a boy, she came to discover, a boy missing half his face to a lock of smooth hair. He set down what he brought with him: an easel, a canvas, a box of paints and brushes, and a jar of water.
Immediately, her eyes brightened as she abandoned the daydream; she pounced from the darkness, pressing against the bars which confined her. She grinned widely.
"Shigure!"
Shigure it was indeed; he gave her a polite smile as he approached her, reaching through a gap to pat her head.
"Hello, my captured Nina." he chuckled. "At last, I give you my first visit."
"Try the first visit." Nina sighed. "I haven't seen anybody for days! Thank God you remembered me!"
Shigure, gentle, closed his eyes, smiling sweetly; had he been a cat, he would have purred.
"Now, now; what sort of boyfriend would I be if I never payed you audience at all?" it was with that, he strode back over to his canvas, preparing his paints. "I hope you do not mind, but I had to bring my things along with me; my Nina, the thief, captured! She sits in her cell of despair, her eyes full of defeat... Yes! I love it! The emotion, the drama, the atmosphere- it's all nothing short of perfection! I simply must paint it onto a canvas."
Yes, it was true; Shigure was the fabled boyfriend of Nina. Now, many thought her to be bluffing when she said she had a boyfriend (take Shura for instance), but that was simply not the case. What especially didn't help was the fact that she always neglected to tell exactly who her boyfriend was when people asked. Shigure was rather puzzled himself when Nina requested that their relationship be private; she said something about it being... Clandestine... Or whatever. With no argument to pay in response, he went ahead and complied, laughing with a shrug.
The only thing was... Shigure and Nina never really acted like lovers; they hadn't hugged, nor held hands, nor kissed, nor... Not anything really. Maybe once or twice he gave her a quick peck on the cheek, but that was only as a thank-you for being a model for his most recent painting.
In short, Shigure seemed to only be a boy friend than an actual boyfriend. Was Nina disappointed? Slightly. But she knew there was some sort of reason why their relationship was like this... Something was hindering any progression.
Until she found out what it was, she would have to keep sitting still, listening to brush strokes fill the echoes of silence. Once again, he was deeply engrossed in his work, his careful eye darting up to her every now and then before quickly returning to the piece. The quiet was boring,mNina came to think, so it wasn't long before she began to wonder why nothing has happened.
But, as soon as she began to question, Shigure cleared his throat, and his voice, smooth as honey, sounded.
"Nina." he said. "Allow me to straighten things... You were put in here for stealing, am I correct?" she sucked her lips into her mouth before offering a reluctant nod. "Hear now, if you give in to such fiendish habits, it would do me well to stop calling you dear; our secrecy can already put us in disputable places, but having secrecy with a woman that is a criminal? I'm sorry, but mother has taught me better, and I would hate to disappoint her."
Immediately, doom spread across Nina's face.
"W-Wait... You're not saying we should break up... A-Are you?"
"If you continue with your ugly habits, I fear so." he brought the end of his paint brush to his lips, nibbling softly on its wood. "Surely you understand why."
The next thing he knew, she had broken her pose to wham herself against the bars of her cell, clinging to them as though they were the only things keeping her alive. When he spied upon her face, he would see a pair of very wide eyes.
"Y-You can't leave me! N-Not now you can't! What about my modeling? Who else will model for you?"
"Nature holds quite a bundle of beauty, I should say; since I decided that I would paint no other besides you, I will move on to landscapes and animals." he cocked his head to the side. "You speak with such passion; if you don't want us to split so badly, all you have to do is quit with your stealing and... Eh... Poking people with knives."
"Oh, but Shigure, you don't understand! I must steal! I must steal for the sake of the needy! Those rich royals shouldn't just sit and watch as their lower subjects starve; someone has to do something about them and give them a taste of poverty!"
A pause broke between the two of them; it was a cold pause, Shigure's expression hardening.
"Don't forget that my mother happens to be of the Royal Nohrian Family, Nina. When you speak of nobles, you speak of she and I."
She felt her heart stop for three solid seconds, turning her face blue with worry; she started to laugh before fanning her hand out towards him as she shook her head furiously.
"Ha! Haven't you forgotten about how much of a joker I am? Go ask Corrin, he'll tell you all about my tendency to say things I don't mean... Heh. Of course I didn't mean that; of course not all royals are selfish little pricks that pinch every last dime from the pockets of the poor... Imagine how ridiculous that'd be if I actually meant that! Totally didn't mean that! Ha!"
The more she went on, the more she saw his eyebrows sink, his frown becoming sterner. Soon, he began to make motions which threatened to begin packing up his things, including a canvas with an unfinished painting. As his movements became more less and less bluff-like, her fake laughter died down, her face dropping into a face of horror; she couldn't hold back a gasp.
"I never bothered to have our relationship progress any further because I knew something about you was off." he murmured, uncollapsing his easel. "Until you have learned to control both your tongue and your fingers, I shall leave you alone."
Again, she whammed against bars.
"H-Hang on! Wait a second! You can't leave me here a-all by myself!" she tried to shove her head between a pair of the bars, succeeding when she turned it just a little ways to the side; there, at a better angle, she watched as the loaded Shigure slowly made his way down the hall, carrying his things along with him. "P-Please don't leave; it gets lonely in here! I-I don't like being lonely, you know? Nobody else visits m-me- not even my own father or my mother! C-Come on!"
But just like that, he was gone, leaving the silence in his wake. Defeated, Nina sighed, then started to draw her head back into her cell... Except when she pulled back, her head wouldn't go any further than the bars behind her would let her. She gasped, heat traveling up her body as she began to struggle, tugging with all her might to free herself. She turned, she pulled, she held her breath...
Well, she was just plain stuck.
