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The older Athy gets, the more tactile Lucas becomes.
It's not as if he wasn't before, and it's not as if his touches had become intrusive or annoying. It's just that these last couple of years Athy finds herself noticing the small gestures Lucas makes in rising frequency. A hand out of nowhere suddenly tucking a stray lock behind her ear, or fixing the mess that is her fringe whenever she runs away from palace staff ambushing her for opinions on state affairs (those are supposed to go through the weekly meetings; there's a process, Athy keeps insisting). Other times, his fingers hover near the corner of her eye and gently wipe away residues of sleep. Her pointed stares at Lucas whenever he does these just bounce off him like harmless, weightless balls.
It's become all the more glaring after her return four months ago from a diplomatic visit outside the continent, where she stayed in different countries and kingdoms for ten months. Lucas had been unable to accompany her during the trip; fortunately, Felix served as her bodyguard knight and Claude had approved of Lily coming with her as Athy's chief of staff. It was the longest period that she was away from the empire, come to think of it. And Athy was sure that she would have stayed longer had it not been for her approaching birthday, which is now an annual special holiday, to her mortification. Claude would have gone ballistic if Obelian Empire celebrated her birthday without the actual birthday girl present.
The moment she reunited with Lucas, he grabbed her wrist and teleported to the gardens. Surrounded by blooming flowers, Lucas turned over the hand he's holding, his fingers lightly pressing on her pulse point.
Baffled, Athy had said, “I'm not dead.”
“I know you're not,” Lucas had answered testily.
Then, as if it was on a whim, Lucas trailed his free hand down the cascade of Athy's hair.
It had been a curious exchange, but from then on, without an apparent pattern to figure out his motivations, every now and then Lucas would pull Athy aside, place his fingers on either her neck or her wrist, and feel her pulse beating for a few seconds, after which he would release her and move on as if it was normal for him to perform a random check on her for signs of life.
Athy tried to confront him, but Lucas stubbornly denied it or pretended not to know what she was talking about. So she let the matter go.
But now, though, squeezed inside a nook at the palace library, Athy surrenders to the urge to confront him again.
“Why are you doing that?”
“What are you talking about?”
“That,” and she angles her chin to point at his hand, currently enclosed around her wrist, index and middle fingers positioned over her pulse. “You've been doing that so frequently the others have begun to notice. Lily's started to worry about my health, and Felix thinks you're studying to become a part-time nurse. Be thankful that it hasn't reached Dad yet; who knows what he might do.”
The disbelief rocks Lucas's bearings, and he drops her hand and steps away from the tight corner he sequestered themselves off to. Dragging a hand through his hair, he scowls into the aether as Athy emerges from the shadows and stretches her limbs out.
“It's just—” He grits his teeth and snaps his mouth shut. Athy zeroes in on him; it's rare to see Lucas this flustered. If only she had a camera to capture this moment ...
“It's just what?”
“It's just that—” A frustrated sound cracks out of him. Then he whirls back to her, irritated. “Ten months was a long time. Anything could have happened. I just had to make sure you're not undead or a marionette puppeteered by some evil guy out there.”
Athy blinks. And stares at Lucas. And blinks some more.
Then she bursts out laughing.
Lucas clicks his tongue, somehow expecting that reaction.
She wipes the tears off her eyes. “You could've just told me you missed me.”
“That's not what I was saying.”
“Sure, sure.” She waves her hand to show that she understands, and that incensed Lucas further. “Don't worry; in those ten months I was missing you too. I was wishing that you could have been with me. Felix was great, sure, but I was hoping for your expertise in getting on people's nerves because so many of them had been annoy—”
“Then should I put a ring on your finger?”
Athy stops laughing.
“What?”
“What?”
She points an accusatory finger at him.
“What did you just say?! Did you just—”
“Ah, I think my mana's acting up. I'll go somewhere else and fix this.”
“Hey! That's an obvious lie! Lucas, don't run away!”
But he's already gone, leaving Athy alone and red in the library, the books her only witness.