Nina was caring.

Few had the privilege of seeing such a side of her, but it was there nonetheless. It didn't matter how odd, borderline questionable, her hobbies may have been; her heart was solid gold... But solid gold had the tendency to get heavy.

A heavy heart...

She had one, no matter how hard she tried to flee from it. As quick on her feet as she was, it was the single thing she could not escape; if she did somehow, she wouldn't have long to rest before it caught up again, and the cycle would just start all over. She was tender, so she could not sustain much damage before she'd collapse.

She almost collapsed.

This instance occurred when she woke up from what seemed like a long era of slumber; her bed was much more comfy than she recalled, so it made her sleep even longer... But it wouldn't last too long. Being the hypersensitive, she awoke shortly after noticing this change, unsettled, almost panicked. When she lifted her head, she would not find the plain sheets that covered her pallet; no, what she saw was an unfamiliar comforter, crimson as blood. She blinked a time or two, patting it awkwardly. It didn't take long before she felt a pounding headache barge in, completely unwelcome; with a hiss, she clutched her skull, releasing a moan.

"Still out of it?" asked a voice; that voice, of course, would be Corrrin's, mellow and calm. For a moment, her heart caught fire, and she whipped around. She found him there, sitting at his table, drinking from a quaint cup of tea as he observed her. Almost immediately then, she looked down; yup, she was in his room, sitting on his bed.

"Gah!" she hollered. "Wh-What am I doing here?" her eyes widened, and she distanced herself from him further. "And what did you do to me?"

Corrin set down his cup, very collective in fashion.

"It's good to see you're back to normal. You fell down, so I took you to the best place I could think of."

"I fell down?" she echoed, mortified.

"Yes. You fell down."

"What do you mean I fell down? I've been asleep in my tent. You know? Since I'm sick."

Corrin eyed her strangely, eventually sighing and shaking his head; the motion, in itself, was particularly mysterious.

"I guess you don't remember; it seems that Mirdori's medicine had a few more side effects than what we would have wanted. You were wandering around camp completely out of your mind."

She gasped then, terrified, and her sore muscles tensed; the hairs on the back of her neck began to stand, tingling at their ends.

"Oh no..." she whispered, stunned. "Oh no oh no oh no oh no! Please don't tell me I did anything I'm going to regret! Wha-What happened? I didn't go around stealing anything, did I? Please don't tell me I-" she gasped, cupping her hands over her mouth. "Pl-Please don't tell I read passages out of my stories to everyone..."

"Nothing quite like that..." Corrin felt a blush begin to creep across his face, but was able to push it away in time. "You did get almost half the army out for your head, though."

She buried her face in her palms then, huffing and puffing until she grew dizzy; she furiously shook her head in the meantime.

"For what?" she was almost too afraid to ask.

"You went on a stealing spree." he leaned back in his chair. "At an impressive speed, I've been told. When I found you here in my room, you told me you needed money for someone... A boy named Finn, I believe?"

He noticed a change in her body language; even though she was never relaxed in the first place, it was certain that she wasn't now. She became visibly tight, her huffing drawing to a pause. As she relieved her hands from her face, keeping her head hung, though, she slung her feet over the side of the bed. After a while of hesitation she slid off, her bare toes gracefully touching the floor without so much as a sound.

"Oh... Finn..." she echoed as she approached him. Before his sitting form, she knelt, clenching her fists at her sides. "C-Corrin, I'm sorry for the trouble. I'm... I'm a real handful, aren't? And I'm probably not worth all of it. I'd be better off going back to my Deeprealms; there I can cause as much trouble as I want and you won't have to worry about getting involved..."

Corrin's silence was her answer, for the most part at least. His face remained unfriendly, serious even, and his gaze was solemn. Slowly, he shook his head.

"We all have our problems, and we just have to deal with them." he replied softly.

"Thanks... For the reassurance, but I..." she backed away, hoping to make it to the door. "I should leave."

"Why so?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"I'm in no condition to talk right now." when she arrived at the door, however, she didn't place her hand on the knob; instead, to her audience's surprise, she set her searing forehead against it, leaning miserably.

"Your mood has certainly dropped, hasn't it? Does it have something to do with this Finn character?" she didn't have the strength in herself to open her lips, so she nodded subtly, grinding her bangs against the wooden door. "Why don't you come talk to me about it?"

"I can't." her voice cracked. "I'm not very keen when it comes to talking about him."

"If you do, I'll consider pardoning you from punishment for all the trouble you've caused lately." Corrin crossed a leg over the other; deep down, confidence hid itself in his gaze. "You have my word."

A breeze picked up outside.

"He was a boy." she said simply.

"From a poor village in the Deeprealms, you told me."

She nodded softly.

"Y-Yeah. Not much older than six or seven, he didn't know what to tell me... His family died from an epidemic that broke out in his village. A mother, a father, two older brothers... He didn't have anyone to go to except me. I'll never forget it, the way he approached me one day when I was delivering some money to another family. We weren't super close but... I felt a connection to him. No mother or father or brothers or sisters... We were a lot more alike than I first realized, so I couldn't help myself from feeling responsible for him. I told him never to worry, because I was going to make sure he had what he needed to survive. He put all his trust in me."

Corrin's gaze sunk.

"And then winter came." he injected.

Another nod.

"He didn't quite make it." she fought to maintain the lump in her throat. "The local duke noticed that his stuff was disappearing, so he hired a bunch of guards to patrol his mansion. There was no way I could have made it inside without the help of a team, which I didn't have. There was nothing I could do for Finn besides hold him as he slipped away."

Silence followed.

It was a deadly sort of silence. A lonely silence, even though they were just steps away from one another. A painful silence, icy cold, pricking at the surface of their skin and slowly sinking into their meat. It made Corrin wish to squirm, but had no inspiration to comply. All he did was stare at her, watching as she kept her back to him, smothering her face on the door.

He decided to stand, making his way quietly to her side. Even once he arrived, she didn't turn to receive him; no, she remained frozen as she was, quivering slightly.

"Nina." he murmured. "Can you look at me please?"

Force was required; she lifted her head slowly, sliding her heavy gaze over to him. What she would find, however, was a hand; his hand, stretched out and offered, asking for hers.

"What?" she murmured.

"I'd like to shake your hand." he said simply; it caused her to frown, brows sinking.

"What for?"

"I think that you have a very noble heart, Nina, so I would be honored to shake your hand."

Her eyes wandered away, heading for the floor; it was the floor she gazed at for a while, breathing softly.

"Not this heart." she grumbled. "I'm a horrible person, always going around causing problems."

"Whatever you think, I stand by my beliefs nonetheless; I've watched and listened to you long enough, and I've reached that decision on my own with nobody affecting it." his gaze, hard, pulled her own up to him, and for a while, they did nothing but stare. "Even though stealing is wrong, there isn't a lick of selfishness in you. It's an honor to have you in my army, and I couldn't replace you with anyone. How can I prove that to you?"

The solemn mood dropped.

Nina's eyes narrowed; it wasn't exactly in an angry sense... It was more devious than anything else, frighteningly. A sly grin spread slowly across her lips as she stared at him; a blush spread across her lips.

"Well, I do have some means of being convinced..." she trailed off.

Unsure, Corrin's eyes also narrowed, but for completely different reasons than hers.

"Okay... What's one of them?"

"I would like to see you and your friend Silas..."

"Doing what."

"...Sharing an cream cone."

When silence settled between them once more, she was pretty sure her wish wasn't coming true; with a tear of sweat slipping down her temple, Nina gave him a toothy grin, her brows raised nervously. She fought the urge to release a weak laugh. Corrin, on the other hand, maintained a hard gaze. Slightly rough, he set a hand on her shoulder, then released a sigh; he reached over, set his hand on the knob, then eased the door open.

"Alright, Nina..." he murmured. "It's time for you to get back to your tent. Watch your step on the way."

Awkwardly, Nina slowly made her way out, occasionally peeking over her shoulder.

"So are we down for the deal?" she asked hopefully, only to have her aspirations crash and burst into flames. Corrin simply shook his head.

"No." and he shut the door.