Quick Author's Note - My profile contains a link to the blog where you can read these before I post them here.

A Shopkeeper's Lament
Cast: (Anna & Mitama)
Prompt: This one was not a request, I just wrote it myself. Anna and Mitama interact with each other.

My peace has ended
Forced to run this lousy store
With Ms. Know-It-All

"What are you writing?" Anna asked.

Mitama was standing behind the shop desk, writing a haiku. She was dangerously close to snapping her brush in half.

"… Haiku. Why have you come to torture me again?"

Jakob was assigning tasks for everyone that day. It was usual for them to rotate tasks, to keep work fair and avoid complacency.

Mitama stood with everyone else, still rubbing sleep from her eyes. Jakob stopped before her. "You are to run the Staff Store today. Report there after breakfast and see that you avoid falling asleep on the job."

"Butler makes his noise/Loud like all the little boys/My sighs are his joy." Mitama pouted in verse.

"Think of me as you will. I will not let one slugabed hold back our entire operation."

"Whoa, what's all this?" the impish merchant Anna waltzed into the Staff Store like she owned the place. "I thought I told Jakob that I was doing all the shop work from now on!" She frowned. "Hmmph. You'd think as his boss's wife, he'd listen to me more."

The tired shopkeeper sighed, but did not bother to look up from a haiku she was trying to write. "Are you here to buy something?"

"Ha! No, no. There's nothing this store has that I don't have at least three of!" She closed her eyes, smiling. "Though you really should work on your greeting. You won't get any business if you're grumpy all the time. Just ask my sister, Anna!"

"I don't even care about selling anything, I'm just here because I must. Buy something or leave/Pick an item or get out/Or may lightning strike!"

The secret seller narrowed her eyes. "That attitude will get you nowhere, missy."

Mitama closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. "This lowly Staff Store/My responsibility/Anna won't shut up!"

The lecture went on until that afternoon, when Anna left to visit baby Kana with her husband. Mitama tried to forget about that day. And yet, here they were again. This time at the Rod Store.

"Oh don't be so dramatic, I'm actually here for a good reason this time!" Anna chirped. She set down a large bag on the desk. "I was given some Partner Seals, but I already have a surplus. How much could I get for these?"

Anna noticed how wide Mitama's starry eyes had opened and commented. "Hm. Well I suppose it is somewhat impressive to see so many at once. So, how-"

"My poem- ruined/Anna and her garbage pile/The ink had not dried!"

Anna noticed that her bag was indeed now resting on Mitama's poem. She winced. "Oh dear. Sorry about that. Though in my defense, you really shouldn't have been writing on the job."

Snap. There went Mitama's brush.

"It kept me awake/My poems were all I had/All that's left is rage!" Mitama recited. Anna began to wonder if the girl even needed parchment and ink at this point. "Get out of my store this very instant!"

The redhead winced. She was not intimidated by Mitama (okay, maybe a little). But the woman knew when to fall back. She would just sell these Partner Seals at the Staff Store across the way.

Mitama stood in a forest with a tiny Azama, a tiny Avel, and a rock wearing Rinkah's helmet. The tiny Avel spoke. "Congratulations, Mitama. You are the new Duchess of Izumo."

"Such news! I decree that everyone must sleep for ten hours minimum!"

Mitama and her tiny friends leaned back and forth for a few seconds.

"Mitama, wake up!"

"Aaah!"

Mitama found herself under a tree in Corrin's castle. She frowned. "Oh, simply a dream." Then she noticed who had woken her and frowned deeper. "My dream has ended/The devil woman returns/Prepare for my wrath."

Anna stood in the tree's shade with Mitama, hands behind her back. She cringed. "H-hey you don't have to call me something like that! Anyway, I felt bad about what I did the other day. So I kind of dipped into my savings a bit and got you… this. Voila!"

Anna handed the girl a stack of small sheets, as well as an ink brush. The brush had a little ribbon tied to it.

Mitama was shocked. "Th-th-this is a new brush and parchment? For me?"

Anna nodded. "And that's not all. I sort of broke it in for you. I took a crack at writing one of your haikus. It's actually pretty easy, I can see why you like to write them!"

Anna pulled out another sheet and gave it to Mitama to read. The sleepy girl lowered her eyebrows. "I'm very sorry/I'm very very sorry/I'm very sorry."

"Not too shabby, eh? I even got the right amount of syllables on the first try!"

Mitama blinked once. "Such simplicity/No nuance or subtlety/But I see she cares."

The merchant smiled. "So that means…?"

"I accept your apology. I shouldn't have been so uninviting. It is not your fault that I disliked keeping shop at such hours." the poet conceded.

Anna sat down with the girl. "Yeah, but as a saleswoman, I should've reworked my approach. Telling someone what they don't want to hear is a big no-no in my work." She sighed. "It's just kind of hard. I've never stayed in one place for so long since I left home. I never bothered to learn how to deal with people for more than a few minutes. I've even upset Corrin, once or twice."

Mitama closed her eyes. "The lessons were learned/The bridge is no longer burned/Thus peace has returned."

Anna smirked. "Well now you're just showing off!" She chuckled. "Say… could you teach me a little more about haiku? Corrin's birthday is coming up, and I need something mushy. He's such a sap, I love it."

This time it was Mitama's turn to smile. "Very well. But you'll take my next shift at the shop." She stuck her hand out. Anna took it.

"Sold!"

A/N:

The blog regularly takes requests. Well I actually had a request of my own. I felt a little awkward asking for something. So when my request was taken by another mod, I wrote this for them as thanks. A drabble about two of their favorite characters.

These two are surprisingly fun to write, and it makes me think that they really could've given Anna more people to talk to in the game if they tried.

I also noticed that this plays out very much like a support conversation. Rearrange a few spots and remove Mitama's dream, and you have a beginning-middle-end of the conflict, just like a real support conversation.

By the way, my profile contains a link to the blog. My drabbles appear there first, then are reposted here.