Locks of short red hair, eyes of slight-emerald green, and a soft smile brighter than even her own personality. She was certainly beautiful, and the mixture of her feautures were a rare combination indeed. Those were only the facts, and yet what was this feeling in Elias' chest that he couldn't shake off every time he saw her?
He couldn't decide whether it was good or bad. He wanted to ask her what it could mean. He wanted to say that it felt as if his heart and being were pulled toward her each time she turned back to him from ahead, and that each word she spoke he heard but did not listen to, but he found he could not for some reason. If she said to look at this pretty fairy while they walked through the forest, he would not know, and would only be able to look in the right direction because she pointed it out to him.
She seemed to be doing that quite often though, didn't she? Pointing him in directions. Certainly without her guidance of the human things and traditions as well as the cities and towns of which he only knew certain paths, he slowly began to learn more as she brought him to places he never would have gone had they never met.
He remembered the last time they went on another trip to somewhere she called "fun". At first she wouldn't tell him where it was she was leading him, unusually excited but obviously trying to appear calm as she grabbed hold of his wrist and brought him through the streets of the town. They had been strolling along the sidewalk beside a park, the metal fence separating them from children he saw playing and rolling around on the grass. At a corner she turned left and he followed willingly, and on they went with the girl leading him to some unknown destination. It made his heart beat a little faster, he assumed because they were rushing a little.
But when they arrived home, Chise smiling warmly and happily with her half-eaten cotton-candy and a large teddy bear she had won for herself (he tried to win it for her as was one was supposed to for his lover, but ultimately failed), he had a conversation with her about heart rates and what it had to do with feelings. It made him feel... confused, she said the word was, for when he claimed he didn't understand.
Elias sighed, looking out the window from his chair, and watched his apprentice mage stare at the sky above, occasionally pointing a finger at a cloud and saying something to Ruth, who laid curled up on the grass beside her form.
He wanted to tell her about it. He wanted to, and yet he did not. He does not, no matter how much he tries to say that yesterday's misunderstanding was for a different reason; that it was because he did not understand whether his heart had been beating fast because of an emotion or because of that day's earlier physical activities. No matter how much he tries, every time she looks up at him with those green eyes of hers he would find that the words were no longer there, and be forced to close his mouth.
Even this morning, when Silver was cooking and preparing the table for breakfast she gave him a stare that said that he needed to ask her already if he wanted to; to gather up his courage because she wouldn't judge him for that. Though he didn't know why he needed to "gather up his courage", as he wasn't the shy sort of fellow. Other than that, he understood completely what she meant without a single word.
A few minutes later she woke up, groggily stepping down the steps with Ruth close by, observing carefully in case she mistepped. She yawned, greeting a good morning, and he greeted her back. Then they ate, they practiced magic, and then she took a break and was off to the front yard with the Church Grim tailing her closely, where she was now.
And during all that time he hadn't told her.
It's not that he did not have any chances. Of course he did, but the words somehow kept staying at the back of his throat. Was this what they called being shy? Or maybe even nervous? He did not sense any change in his heart rate, nor did he have any reason for which to hold back. And yet, he still kept quiet about it. Why was that so?
Maybe this is something human. Maybe he could ask Chise about it, then afterwards be able to approach her about his heart rate when they were at the park. But when he watched her stand up, Ruth getting up along with her, and return to the house to greet Elias with a gentle smile, some unknown feeling stirred within his chest, and once again he found himself speechless.
Was it a good thing, or a bad thing? Was it some sort of magic that she somehow unknowingly released? He didn't know.
