At first, he did not try to see her.

He swears it. That would be disgusting, after all. She is his sister, foster as it may be, and he understand the perilousness of his situation. Their mother may prefer his company over her blood daughter and his father may admire his industrial spirit, but if they knew… If they knew he violated their daughter in such consistent, deliberate manner, surely, they would come to the conclusion that the duchy can stand to have another heir.

She is certainly blameless, as well. His sister is too naïve, too dense, too transparent, too stupid to plot such a circumstance without him noticing. Even if he supposes that she would have a motive to screw with him, being so he would be excluded from succession, she is a girl and would not have any rights to it anyways.

Besides, her fiancé would be only too glad to secure the estate for her, even if the title's fall would be inevitable on those circumstances. She needs only to ask; she does not need to connive. One would be excused to trust her good intentions on these circumstances.

It is all been an accident, certainly. Some serendipitous accident that allowed him to see what had been his desire for so long, but one that should have remained as just that for even longer still, until the time was just right.

She is just that girl who never closed her blinds, that wanted to be in close proximity to her only sibling, should need arise. As population and student numbers increase, available beds must be had, and the architects of the academy had not taken into account how their shoddy annex, running through the old courtyard, would be positioned relative to the western wing of the dorms. With their windows so tightly packed together, it would have been a miracle if he never noticed her.

Unfortunately, she always did have the worst luck.

Every student in the annex faces another of the same gender on the other side of the narrow courtyard, as the divide between dorms ran exactly on the far wall of her chambers. Her fiancé, however, insisted that she would be close to him, monitored, so he arranged a room next to his on the annex, and the school placed himself, the brother, opposite to it, for propriety. She loved it, when she was made aware of their housing arrangements, since he could easily hear her if she shouted through the window.

Over the first few months, the novelty began to wear off and she elected for traditional means of communication more and more. All the arrangement really brought was some awkward late-night eye contact and a few waves exchanged between the two. This would not have been much, if he had not gotten bored enough to try and imitate this small interaction.

It would have been odd for him to magic a pebble to hit against the panes of her window, so he settled down at a desk facing her chambers, waiting for his sister to notice him. When she did not see him immediately, he continued to stare. She was not doing anything particularly interesting, but she still managed to hold his attention. It was like a spell, like the magic powers that never really blossomed on her found another sort of manifestation.

He had always loved her, but now… It is different.

Keith just could not take his eyes off of her, even if she was only completing the most mundane of tasks. He had always enjoyed watching Catarina work her fields or fishing or any rambunctious exploit of hers that are driving their mother into an early grave, but he had never had the opportunity to admire her studying, folding laundry or reading alone, and he found that it is just as amusing.

It turned into a hobby for him. Whenever both of them were off the clock, he would be seated at that same desk, staring at the opposite room as subtly as he could manage. Even when the two were apart, day-dreams of what she could be doing fill his mind. These fantasies occupied dozens of journals, zealously illustrated with candid sketches of her features and the sights that she has shown him.

He waits eagerly for the day that she finally realizes how much he is in love with her, and what is the nature of this love. She will love him back in time, as well, as she certainly has no love lost for her princely fiancé. If he is proper and courteous about the whole situation, he is sure that he can manage to change the nature of his adoption. He can work his mother, and he can convince his father.

If he is careful and smart about it, his coveted happiness would come eventually. He was sure of it. In the meantime, he was satisfied with watching from a distance.

This eventuality would become much more urgent quite soon. He intended to just go through his normal routine, but her window was covered with a red curtain.

Panic flooded into his system. She never covered her window, what if something happened? What if Geordo came into her room? What if she is being attacked by some miscreant? Acting on instinct, he hid a dagger on his coat and summoned a rock to serve as a platform. With his magic, he easily crossed the space between their dorm rooms and, crouching by her window, he could peer in through a crack the blinds.

He almost left when he realized that Catarina was changing, out of embarrassment. However, the sight of her newly-revealed form made him stay.

She was still partially dressed, in the middle of changing into one of many already-prepared outfits, probably the options previously approved by Anne. Although her actions were not inherently sexual, something about her exposed skin, the way her hips moved as she tried to see how different dresses would look, that angelic voice filling the air with amused giggles about nothing of substance… It all held his gaze more intensely he thought possible.

Suddenly, he did not just want to see his sister. He needed to see her. Keith did not care about how he looked to others, all he wanted to do was press himself against the glass, seeing as much of her as possible. Even when she had left for whatever she was preparing for, he remained there, praying for her to return.

That night, his journals were filled with an entirely new kind of fantasy.