Bernadetta knew the moment she began watching Felix.
One afternoon, on her way back from choir practice, she had happened to see him idly standing on the bridge. In the afternoon sun, he seemed far livelier than he usually did. Not to mention, he had a particularly warm smile on his face. In his hand was a parchment of some sort, but the wind picked up and it blew out of his hand.
He didn't chase after it as it fluttered away, but wistfully watched it fly away.
That genuine smile was something that Bernadetta didn't know Felix was capable of. One thing she did know, however, was that she wanted to see it again. Finding that paper would be impossible, so that just meant she would have to keep watching him to see what triggers this response of his.
Day in and out, whenever she had an off moment, she utilized the sneaking skills she acquired by dashing from her room to the mess hall to watch him. Some might say she was spying on him, but she was confident in her skills that no one would even know she was doing this.
Then again, Felix is a well trained soldier. In his mind, you had to be attuned to your surroundings in case someone was watching you. So, Bernadetta boring holes into his face for as long as she had been wasn't going to be hidden from him for long.
After their initial encounter, Felix didn't try confronting her yet. In fact, he made it more training. She was very good at hiding, so when he did spot her, he felt as though he'd have an upper-hand against any stealthy enemy on the battlefield.
Besides, the way she peeked around corners was… cute.
When that thought bubbled up, Felix paused mid-swing. Bernadetta was cute? Well, sure, she had adorable looks when she wanted, and when she could hold a conversation that she was interested in, her excitement was enthralling. Yeah, that definitely meant she was cute.
He glanced over to where he knew she was hiding today. Their eyes met, and Felix smiled.
To Bernadetta, locking eyes with Felix was supposed to be taboo since, well, she was sneaking around to do this. But when their gazes met and he smiled, she froze in place. It almost seemed like his face was starting to fill up her entire vision, too. Every piece of scenery was fading away, replaced by that rare, gentle smile of his.
"Bernadetta, are you alright? You fell there."
Ah, now she understood. It wasn't that Felix was filling up her vision on a whim.
He had closed the distance between the two of them and had his hand on her shoulder. At some point when seeing him lock eyes with her, she must have fallen to her knees, so he was checking on her. Geez, he really closed that distance in an instant…
"Bernadetta?" Felix crinkled his brow when she didn't answer. Since her face was so red and she was breathing somewhat poorly, he thought that she might have a fever. He wasn't exactly experienced in first aid, but he put his forehead against hers. Lots of people did that to check if the other person had a fever, right? That's all that was, surely.
The moment his forehead touched her's, Bernadetta's mind went into overdrive. She couldn't keep her words from spilling out, trying to say she was okay, but it all came out like water bursting out of a dam.
In fact, it was too much for her. She fainted, but had a slight grin to her face. Not only did she see him smile like that again, he did it for her. Surely Felix would be carrying her to the infirmary on the count of fainting, and in her subconscious she tried willing herself to wake up to at least experience that firsthand!
Oh well. She'll have to strengthen her resolve to not faint like that again.