Vixen was being surprisingly well-behaved. It was a bit jarring and just the teensiest bit disconcerting. Lowks had gotten used to her mischief.
Oh, he was happy that she was not behaving in that way that had unsettled the party. But he found himself strangely worried for her because of it. If she had slowly stopped, he would have been ecstatic.
But she had stopped cold turkey and that made him worried that something was wrong with her. Or that she was up to something and was biding her time.
He glanced sideways at where she was eating her breakfast right next to him. She looked the very picture of a well-behaved young woman.
"Is something wrong?" Her clear eyes looked up at him. She did not look like anything was the matter. In fact, she looked down right happy, more so than she had since she had turned seventeen.
But, still, Lowks could not shake the feeling of uneasiness, "Alright. What exactly are you planning?"
A look of bewilderment came onto her face, "What do you mean? Planning? I'm not planning anything."
"You're acting suspicious."
"What do you mean? I've been behaving, haven't I?" She looked even more bewildered now.
"Exactly. It's strange. All of a sudden you just start behaving? It's odd, ain't it?"
Her mouth dropped open and she stared at him blankly, "…Are you never satisfied? I take your advice and you actually got unnerved by it? Lowks, how exactly do you want me to act?"
"I want you to behave, just it's unnerving that you just suddenly started to without any warning."
"If it makes you feel better I was terrified by those men." She scowled and looked away, her eyes suddenly looking a little bit like a little girl's. "And so, I'm listening to you for a bit. Don't get used to it."
Lowks suddenly felt bad for pressuring her. He took a deep breath, "If you want to talk about it, I'll listen. Don't bottle it in. You were frightened, it's okay. You're not like Tira. Don't force yourself into trying to be."
"I don't want to be like Tira." She leaned against his shoulder, "I admire her and all, but I'm happy being me."
"Good." Lowks rubbed her head. "You might not be a kid, but you are still a young, extremely clumsy, human girl. So, don't always do stuff that you can't deal with the consequences of."
"You take risks all the time."
"Calculated ones. And that's different."
"How so?" She made a face at him.
He stared at her blankly, then smirked, "I don't have a history of tripping over my own feet."
Seeing the frustrated look on her face he continued, "I don't mean to make you feel like I'm treating you like a kid. I know you're all grown up. I'm just treating you like the accident-prone little lady you are."
"One of these days I'm going to smack you so hard…" She looked downright vexed with him and shot off his shoulder. Lowks decided to quit making fun of her.
Instead he just said simply, "It's good that you are behaving now. Maybe you'll actually someday be able to get a man."
"Probably quicker than you could find a wife." She muttered under her breath.
"I don't plan on getting married until you do anyway, so it's not really a competition."
"What is wrong with you? Don't you want to get married?" She frowned at him.
He shrugged looking away, "To a girl I loved I would, but I'm not in any hurry to just pick some random girl up and take her home with me. And I spend too much time looking after you to really start getting to know a girl enough to fall in love."
"You're blaming me for you being single?" She sounded incredulous.
"Oh, yes, yes I am." He grinned, "It's totally your fault. Completely and utterly. But I have plenty of time. So, I'm only a little annoyed."
"Well, you don't have to look after me, you know!" She crossed her arms and glared at him. He was not sure why she was taking this so badly. "You can always just leave me be."
"Can't do that, Vixen." He patted her head, "I'm way too used to looking after you. Like, it would feel odd not to at this point."
She sighed and leaned against him once again. "Whatever. It's your choice. Not like I can stop you. But honestly, Lowks, you needn't wait on me to get married… you can always keep an eye out for a good girl. Maybe Miria? You seem to admire her."
"She's a good woman and probably would make someone a good wife someday," Lowks kept his voice calm. "And I do admire her, but she isn't really my type."
"You have a type?" Vixen giggled, "I would not have expected that, after all you've never really looked at girls so where would you discover your type?"
"Just because I've never chased doesn't mean I've never looked or at least thought about it." He yawned, "My type is fairly specific actually."
"Oh, what is it?"
"Why would I tell you?"
As she pouted at his answer, Lowks hid his smile. It had always been fun to mess with Vixen even when she had been a kid. And he felt a lot better about her sudden streak of well-behavedness. But he was sure this was not going to be the last he heard of this. Vixen, after all, was a busybody.