If Siegbert had to describe the girl he recently met it would be the following sentence: The curiosity of a baby. Everything she saw seemed so new to her. Anything, even the stuff she should know by now. She even used a pencil wrong by throwing it around. Or the time she bit on a piece of paper.
"Why are you doing all of that?" he once asked her.
"Why? It's obvious!" she answered. "I just have to know what all of these things are and do! It's just so much fun to see all of this!"
"So you really never saw anything here before?"
She shook her head. "No. But now I am and it is so much fun to see and learn about all of this!"
She smiled happily at him, the exact opposite of the first day he encountered her. There she was sobbing, not knowing what to do, always repeating the word 'lonely' in various sentences. But this girl faded away.
Now he is seeing an upbeat, young, cheerful girl who wants to get to know as much as possible about the unknown.
"Chop sticks?" Siegbert asked confused as Shiro held two pair of sticks in front of his face. This one nodded.
"They're common in Hoshido if you want to eat stuff!" he replied. "Now we have forges and spoons too but if you want to go full Hoshidan you need to learn the art of chopsticking!"
"The what?"
"Don't take what this doofus says to heart" the raven haired next to Shiro sighed slightly annoyed. "There is no so called art of … 'copsticking' and it's not hard either."
"Aww, now you are just ruining the fun Rhajat!" Shiro frowned a bit disappointed.
"Oh just look how sorry I am that I ruined your little joke."
"Apology accepted!" the Hoshidan male countered with a grin.
"That was not an-" but she didn't finish. She instead started a new sentence:"Oh just forget it!"
Sieg had no other choice but to laugh slightly at this sight. It put him at ease, yet he was also surprised how Shiro won such a… 'special' nature like Rhajat over. And it is even more surprising that the diviner even bothered with the buddy-type prince in the first place. But they seem to be happy with one another and that was good enough.
"Anyway, back to the chop sticks. What do you think?" the Hoshidan prince asked the Nohrian prince.
"It is certainly something new to find out, I'll give it that much" the blond haired had to admit that much.
"Are you seriously excited about some stupid pair of chop sticks!?" the raven haired asked in a sure more annoyed voice.
"I would not say excited. I just did not see that coming in Hoshidan costumes."
"No, not really. Shall I show you so you can try it out yourself?"
Sieg was close to shutter. Rhajat offered him to teach him something? That was odd. Apparently she seemed to have realized and sighed:"No, you have nothing to worry about. I will not harm you."
"You act like Sieg is afraid of you" Shiro threw in.
She started to grin a bit darkly. "I don't blame him for that."
"Wait what!?"
"Calm down Shiro. I know Rhajat means no ill" the Norhian wanted to put his friend at ease. "And honestly I'd like to know how you do it."
At these times he seemed to understand her, understanding why new things are so exciting to find out about. Hoshido was very different from Nohr and full of new traditions and costumes for Siegbert. It was not uninteresting to hear about, and not just because it supports the relationship between the nations.
Such so called 'trivial' things can bond people after all.
"Did you know they use 'chopsticks' in Hoshido to eat their food?" Siegbert suddenly threw in before Emi could even make an attempt to ask:"Do you need something?" once more.
The female looked confused at him. "What does that have to do with anything?" she asked just as confused as her face.
"I thought you might want to hear about it" he explained.
"About chop sticks? I'd rather hear how-" "Say, did you find something new out today?" Sieg interrupted her.
"Me? Let's see…" She thought for a bit. But then from one second to the other her eyes seemed to sparkle when she thought about something.
"Yes! Did you know that Hoshidans eat so much uncommon food? And they call it strangely too! Like they call fried noodles 'yakisoba'! Or how many noodle soups they have! And they call them some different kinds of 'ramen'! Did you even know you can make triangle shaped 'balls' out of rice!? Out of rice! There are even ones with fillings and-" But the blond female stopped in time.
"And you all ate that in one day?" Siegbert jested. She turned around though. "Of course not" she mumbled, sounding slightly embarrassed, like she said something wrong to him at the moment.
"I ate that on different days."
"You seem to be excited about it. That means you probably ate some of these with chop sticks, right?"
"No, with sticks."
"That is basically the-" but then he sighed. "If you say so."
A moment of silence. Emi was looking away from the Nohrian prince. Did he go too far with that question? Maybe the idea of approaching his friend slowly again with such little questions was not a very good one after all.
But he couldn't keep quiet anymore. A lot has changed but maybe he could get them closer again like this. I mean, if he and Rhajat managed to get along just because of some pair of chop sticks a conversation like this might work too. He knew how unaware Emi has been of her surroundings. Sometimes it was very strange to look at, especially in the beginning. It was very odd, almost weird. But once you got used to it you were able to manage. … Mostly, sometimes it can get annoying but it was a refreshing side overall. Seeing someone appreciating the little things was rare nowadays.
"Anything else you want to talk about?" she slowly asked. "Depends if you have something else to add to your discoveries" he countered.
"N… no. Not really. Besides, it's late anyway so I might take my leave now."
And right after that sentence the blond haired cavalier ran towards the door but stopped when Sieg asked:"Could I request something from you?"
She did not turn around again, but he was able to see her nodding.
"I do not want to force you to these conversations but maybe… if you didn't mind… I'd like to have such a conversation with you a bit more often."
"A conversation about something time wasting?" Emi almost scoffed. "Lord Siegbert, you have better things to do then talking about chop sticks you know."
He shuttered slightly. He couldn't deny that it'd take some time but… "Isn't it important to bond with people close to you as well? I mean, it'd contribute to the army and-"
"I got it, I got it! Geesh!" she interrupted him in an annoyed tone. "I will, I will! Promise! Can I leave now!?"
"Y… Yeah."
The door was slammed closed. This reaction of Emi was unexpected. He never saw her acting like that.
"Did I make a mistake?"