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It was Marcille who first noticed it but Laios who first pointed it out.
Izutsumi was acting strangely. In particular, the way she was looking at the others in the party was strange.
She was “slow blinking”.
It was only when they would wind down to camp for the day, all circled around a warm flame with food in hand that she did it to Laios. At first he assumed she was just dozing off after a good meal. Even as such a picky eater, she ate a lot and always seemed a bit drowzy when her belly was full. Reminded of the cats back home, he tried slowly blinking back.
She was repulsed and asked him what was wrong with him.
She did that with Chilchuck even less often, though she often rolled over on him while sleeping. While Marcille thought it was a bit sweet that such a light sleeper felt safe enough to sleep on him, Chil often complained about the amount of cat hair covering his blanket. She often slowly blinked at him while getting up in the morning.
She slow blinked at Senshi much more often, maybe once every few days. Perhaps it was because he was their main cook and the one who often made sure she was well fed, but even when he made her eat things she didn't like, she still gave him an impossible to miss slow blink.
But while the men in the party only got one of her blinks every few days or even weeks, Marcille got one almost every other day. Sure, maybe Izu wasn't always crazy about having her fur brushed, but the half-elf was the only person she would trust to do it. Even though she often rolled over onto Chilchuck’s bedding, Marcille was the only one she slept deeply around.
For someone who always looked out for herself first to trust someone else so much was amazing. But what was more amazing to the group was that Izu didn't seem to be aware of her new habit at all until Laios pointed it out. With the beastkin denying all allegations of her new cat-like behavior and the party members not knowing what brought it on, it got dismissed as a strange little Izu quirk.
That is, until Falin explained it much later down the line.
“The cats at home did it too. It means they trust and care about you!” She cheerfully explained, oblivious to how upset this would make Izu who later got an intense hair ruffling from all of her former companions.
Though she bared her teeth at them for the first time in a long while for treating her like a cat and touching her all of a sudden, none of them took it to heart.
Because they knew that regardless of how indifferent she acted, she really did care for them.