Sometimes Edea wondered if emotions were a form of magic — mainly because she didn't understand them at all.

Her reconnaissance mission to Ancheim — her first recon mission! — had ended up as something of a …recruitment.

She really had no business inviting Jackal along with her back to Eternia, and yet she had insisted he come along so that she could "properly educate" him.

That wasn't entirely the truth, though. To be honest, she felt bad for him — living out there in the desert like that, completely ignorant of the world around him — not even aware of who he was really working for, and just sort of doomed to always be thirsty in that gods forsaken wasteland.

That, plus the fact that Edea was actually feeling unbelievably lonely since she departed home.

She had thought that the possession of her one-woman airship and permission to fly wherever she wanted (so long as she completed her assigned tasks) would make her feel freer than ever before, but it didn't. Instead she was sailing the skies as she had dreamed — but with no one to share those dreams with.

Perhaps it was a little more than selfish of her to insist he come along, but he did so regardless. And as stubborn, loud-mouthed, and obtuse as he was…

Well, all those things made him different. In a good way.

He didn't treat her like the Templar's Daughter. He had no interest in her social standing. So what if she had been brought up in the lap of luxury, while he had not? So what if she had parents and he, technically, did not?

He was blunt and honest to a fault, but honest all the same. He (eventually) acknowledged her strength on the battlefield and respected her for it (usually). When they sparred, he didn't hold back his punches because she was a girl — he'd hit her full force, and expect her to do the same. When they argued, both of them let their emotions fly off the handle — and at the end of the day, they'd still share a meal together and laugh it off.

It was so…so comfortable. Edea had no idea how to react to it. She was used to there always being a certain amount of respectful distance between herself and others, but that wasn't the case with him.

The very thought made her nervous. Scared, even, on occasion. So she tried to put that comfortable distance into place between them — but that only made things worse. Suddenly Jackal was using her lap for a pillow and randomly bringing her sweets (that he stole) or giving her a look that just made her heart flutter in a thousand different directions.

She had no idea what to expect when he was around and that's what made her anxious. He wasn't a complete idiot, no matter how she teased him — sure, he still had trouble reading books, but he could read people pretty damn well. He had to, just to survive as long as he did. So was he able to read her, too?

Sometimes it seemed like he did. Sometimes he was completely oblivious. She couldn't get a handle on what was going on in his head and it made her want to run away and embrace him all at once. Did he even understand feelings like this? Surely, he did — he must have.

Yet neither of them were initiating anything.

Maybe that's for the best, though. She reasoned. He can't be my…travel buddy forever. She refused to call him 'bodyguard' — she didn't need a bodyguard. He'll have to go back when Khamer needs him again...

And he'd go, of course. This was never meant to be a permanent thing.

Edea sighed and drew up her knees to her chest, letting her eyes slide shut.

"It'd be nice, though," she muttered quietly, in the dark of her tiny cabin upon the airship. "It'd be…really nice."