She still wasn't sure how she felt about Ringabel.
He was… weird. Weird was the nicest way to put it, though he protested the description, calling himself 'perfectly normal in every way'. He was wrong, of course. There was nothing normal about him.
He had amnesia, for one, which was admittedly concerning on top of also being weird. Whoever heard of someone losing all their memories so completely! She and Tiz and Agnès had all tested him multiple times, but he was like a child, albeit one who had the skills to pilot an airship. He knew left and right, up and down. He knew the names of flowers, various creatures, and what the months were. But he didn't know what continent Eisenberg was on, or that Eternia had only two seasons. Sometimes, she wondered if he was from a different planet altogether, except for the fact that he knew nothing about his past, not even something as simple as his real name.
Then, he had that ridiculous prophetic journal that he claimed had led him to them all, and would help them on their journey to awaken the crystals. The journal that also contained some very ridiculous and almost embarrassingly intimate thoughts toward her. Edea had read through it, multiple times, and she still didn't know where this all was coming from. She had her suspicions, but it made little sense, especially because there were dates in the journal that had yet to pass, and also because the only person she could have linked the journal to was also the type of person who did not have tender feelings, and also would likely not commit said tender feelings to paper.
Finally, his looks. Edea sometimes hated how Ringabel looked. He was too attractive, with those high cheekbones that brought attention to his bright hazel eyes that looked like they shifted color depending on what he wore. His easy, warm smiles also brought attention to the sparkling of his eyes and also to his bright white teeth. He was tall and slender, but when one day the four of them had decided to cool off by swimming in a small river, she had been terribly distracted by how muscular he actually was under all his clothes, with thick thighs and biceps that had bulged slightly when he'd picked her up and thrown her into the water. Only the fact that he insisted on styling his hair in the most ridiculous pompadour that she, or anyone else, had ever laid eyes upon kept him from being overwhelmingly good looking. No, the hair just added to his weirdness.
Perhaps, though, the weirdest thing about him was how he watched her. Edea had long grown used to feeling eyes on her, thanks to her father and the people who wanted to scrutinize her because of him, but the way Ringabel watched her was different. It was always at times when apparently he thought perhaps that she wouldn't catch him. When they were eating, and she was across the room sitting with Agnès, or late at night when they had camped outside and it was his turn on watch. More than one she had turned him and there he was, gazing at her, almost lost in thought. When she asked him to stop staring, he had moved onto other methods of keeping his eyes on her.
"I can see you watching me in the window, you creep," she said to him without turning in Eisenberg one day.
The colors in the reflection were muted, but she could see him turn red all the same. He got flustered every time she caught him looking. "I… er…"
"Ugh!" she said, turning to him and tapping him strongly on the chest with her fist. He took a step back but did not defend himself; his arms were full of the many packages and bags that contained the supplies they'd purchased. "What is with you?" she demanded.
"I beg your pardon?" he winced, looking uncomfortable. People were starting to stare at the both of them.
"Well? Out with it!"
Ringabel fidgeted under her gaze, the red in his cheeks spreading to his ears. "I don't mean to," he replied, his voice quiet. "I just… enjoy watching you, Edea." When he saw the way her lip curled in disgust, he hastened to clarify. "Not - not watching you, Edea. Looking at you! Gazing upon you!"
She cracked her knuckles. "Keep digging that grave, buddy." She wasn't actually going to kill him, oh no, not when she needed him to carry everything, but she did want him to sweat a little, and maybe then he would stop being so creepy, especially in public!
"Seeing you, so warm and happy and full of life-" he babbled, hazel eyes darting down to her clenched hands and back up, "-it makes me happy in turn. I feel peaceful when I see your smile."
Edea had been ready to grab his ear and drag him that way all the way back to the inn, but she halted in her tracks, hand already raised to his face. "What?"
He gave her a smile - not one of the practiced, smooth ones, but one that was full of nervousness and tinged with healthy fear, a real smile that made her heart do a tumble and her hand lower, where her knuckles brushed the fur of his jacket. "You're lovely, Edea. That loveliness shines from both within and without, and I can't keep my eyes off it. I know you don't like me to watch you, but I can't help myself. Seeing you calms my heart."
One of their bystanders tittered, and it was now Edea's turn to flush red.
She grabbed Ringabel's arm. "Keep your eyes to yourself for now," she muttered as she yanked him away from the window and its reflections.
"Ah, but when you touch me so, my heart pounds in my chest!" he replied as he first stumbled, then kept pace with her. "Are you saying I may watch you later, perhaps when we're alone?"
"How can you watch me if I blacken your eyes?" she threatened, elbowing him viciously in the side.
"You wound me, my angel."
She wouldn't blacken his eyes this time, she decided as their pace slowed, her arms threaded through his. But next time he decided to be weird, she would seriously consider it.