Bleeding Heart - 108 Silly Fool
Moving quietly, so as not to disturb Miria or Dawn, Tira gently shook Vixen’s shoulder. The human girl seemed not to want to get up and tried to wave her away.
Tira whispered quietly, just loud enough for the half asleep girl to hear her, “Come’on child, we don’t want to leave Lowks all alone to keep watch.”
That got Vixen up. Though she still looked sleepy, and more than a little out of it. As they walked out of the tent, though she seemed to wake up a bit more and her lips turned down into a pout, “I’m not a child.”
Tira didn’t bother looking at her as she spoke flatly, “And you trying to prove it always ends up making you look childish.”
“Hey!” She sounded upset.
Tira turned to look at this silly fool of a girl who despite all her faults she still cared about deeply. She patted her head, “It’s okay. You just need to mature a little bit more. Time will do it.”
Vixen did not look all that happy and Tira just sighed inwardly. Vixen was convinced that she needed to prove that she had grown up and it led her to do silly things. If she wanted to prove herself grownup she should just not let it bother her, really. What she was doing seemed far more childish.
At least she had grown up a little. It was rather a relief that she had dropped the flirtatious behavior. Especially with how it had so backfired on the girl.
She took a deep breath and then gave Vixen the barest hint of a smile, “I’m going to go take a look around. Make sure everything is as it should be. Go, and take a seat. Wake up a bit.”
She left before the girl could even protest. She was not too worried about Vixen and Lowks misbehaving if she left them alone together. At least Lowks was trustworthy when it came to that. She hoped they would talk though if she was not around. They had a lot they needed to clear up between them.
Most of the misunderstanding between them was Vixen’s fault. She had given her brother the idea that she was completely disinterested, making him swallow his own feelings and resign himself to just nursing his broken heart. Even as he could not leave her alone or move on.
What had the girl been expecting? An outward show of jealousy? When the guy was in a position where it was easy to just think that the girl saw him only as a big brother figure? And with Lowks’s personality he would never do something he was sure would make someone feel uncomfortable – especially if he cared about the person.
Vixen was silly if she had thought that could ever conceivably have worked.
Tira picked her way carefully around the vegetation, keeping her eyes peeled for anything unusual. Even as her thoughts on her brother’s almost failed love interest went through her mind. It was not so distracting that she could not do her job.
She sighed to herself. Even as much as she liked Vixen and honestly did want her as her sister-in-law, she was still more than a little vexed at the girl for what she had done to her brother. Especially as she was pretty sure that it had been utterly pointless.
Lowks, she was sure, would have asked her to marry him years ago if the silly girl had not just up and started flirting with just about every male that was not him. She had no concrete evidence to prove this. But she knew her brother and she was not ignorant of how he felt. He was upset and shocked by Vixen’s behavior, even if he tried not to let it show to what extent it actually was eating at him.
He was good at it. But those who knew him so well and lived with him had picked up on just how shattered he had been. And it had been easy to figure out why. Especially as, sometimes, they could hear him in his room as he poured out the anguish that he felt inside.
Tira hated seeing, or hearing, that side of her brother. And so, for a while, she had been utterly annoyed at Vixen for causing it. She did her best to still treat the girl right even as she wondered at why the girl couldn’t wake up and see just how good a man she could have if she only wished it.
Then she had realized that Vixen actually did like Lowks. And she had been annoyed with her for a whole different reason. But she had felt sorry for her at the same time. She was sure that Vixen had just panicked about how much she thought that Lowks saw her as a child.
Thankfully the girl had dropped that behavior. Tira was not sure if it was just a temporary thing or not, and whether Vixen would have gone back to flirting with everyone else besides the guy she actually liked. So, Tira had token the first chance she had to try to get them talking about their feelings.
She would never forgive Vixen if she messed this up. Bad enough that Lowks would have to live some of his lifespan without her, she should at least let him have as long as possible. Especially since she already wanted to be his wife!
And then, once they got themselves together, Tira could finally actually pay attention to her own heart’s desires. It was hard when her brother was having such a hard time with his. She would have felt somewhat guilty if she didn’t help out her brother before seeing about getting a certain young man to finally ask her out. She was pretty sure that shy man liked her as well anyway at least. But right now was not the best time for him to be getting in a relationship, not with him being unable to really get out and about.