Evaline followed his lead and took a sip of her tea too. She briefly wondered if he was feeling any of the effects yet, but he didn't seem tired. Although, that seemed to be hard to gauge.
"And has it been useful?" she asked. "Besides being introduced to stickers bars?"
“Yeah,” James said, deciding to agree. He could sense that she wasn’t pleased with his not-answer. He wondered if she remembered he could be like this, or if she only remembered the random, neutral things that didn’t really carry much weight.
“Stickers bars are more filling than they sound. So they’ve been useful.”
Evaline didn't really feel like prodding any more than she did, but she did note all of this. She probably came across as being nosy, but she was mostly concerned for James. She had a feeling that he'd shut down her concern, so she didn't mind if he thought she was being annoying.
"I'm glad you found your new favorite food, then," she settled on instead as she took a sip to buy time on what to say next. He unloaded a lot of details she didn't expect on to her, and she wanted a bit of time to fully process it before moving on.
James didn’t know what to say to that, and he was reaching a point where he didn’t really care. At least, with Evaline, he didn’t have to be entirely fake.
Sure, it wasn’t like she even remembered him in his entirety. He could be whatever he wanted, and she would still think he’d changed probably just because of the memory loss. But he liked to at least pretend that maybe she understood him a little, even though she didn’t.
Did she remember that he didn’t mind silence?
He looked down into his mug. He could feel his senses calming a little. It seemed to have happened gradually, instead of quickly, like he’d anticipated. His usual anxieties didn’t feel as prominent.
Of course, the moment he realized he wasn’t worried, he was worried that he wasn’t worried. He didn’t know if he had the strength to fight it, but the natural herb seemed to be fighting with his mind, which was now trying to overcompensate.
He didn’t need to be calm. He needed to be alert. He needed to keep his eyes open for danger.
James downed the rest of the tea, and then set the mug down in front of him.
It was strange. He felt like his body was relaxing but his mind was racing. The contrasting duality was like a storm.
As Evaline slowly took a sip of the tea, she noticed that James quickly finished his drink and almost looked conflicted. She wondered what he could be thinking.
"Are you feeling the effects of the tea yet?" she asked, breaking the brief silence.
James’s heart was starting to race against his will, but he nodded. Outwardly, he could look calm and collected. It was easy. Like putting on a show he’d performed a million times.
“Yeah,” he said. “A little. I’m feeling a little drowsy, I think. Not sleepy yet, though.”
Evaline nodded, finishing the last bit of the tea and then closing the lid on the canteen. She didn't have as much as James, but she was familiar with the root enough to feel a little less on edge. That was all she wanted out of it, really. She was glad that the full effects appear to be working on him at least.
"That's normal," she said. "It doesn't put you to sleep, but it does relax you enough to want to sleep." She wondered if he was actively fighting the urge to sleep, or if he really did want to have a good night's rest.
She looked up at the sky, trying to not think about what she would do once James went to sleep. It was hard not to since she was essentially breaking the routine she had drilled into her own head. But despite their history, she still did appreciate James's company and wanted to make these moments last.
"When I was in Nye," she began slowly, still staring up the galaxy above them, "I sometimes wondered if I was able to see Earth in the sky as a distant planet." She paused. "It was strange coming back and seeing all the stars get shuffled again."
James followed her gaze to the sky. His heart was still racing actively, but he tried to take a few deep breaths as he tilted his head back, staring up at the stars. All of the foreign constellations and patterns. So many stars, just hung in a different place.
“Maybe...” he said softly. “Nye’s out there somewhere.”
Evaline had to lean in a little closer to James to angle herself and see what star he could be referencing, but after some searching in the sky, she thought she could see which one he was referring to. It was one of the dim stars next to the brightest star in the sky.
"Why not the big one?" she asked. "Maybe that's why I even went to Nye. Because it was the biggest and closest star."
