A Princess, a Knight, and an Assassin Walk Into a Tavern...

Clarity

When handed the spyglass Clarity quickly diverted her attention elsewhere, because it was obvious that Tollie and the Captain were...well, distracted, and she was frantically trying to look anywhere but at them. Hawke, however, was of the opposite mind. He seemed to openly admire the Captain's suave technique, and seemed to think it was an excellent idea. He was looking just that way when Clarity went to pass the glass on to him, and seemed to want to give it their own go. Clarity scowled at him, and searched for the islands on her own, which only made him chuckle softly and move to stand close behind her. Close enough that she knew he was there, but just out of the range that made her flinch. If she had thought about it, she would have noted that Hawke had been testing these limits very carefully since the night before, and knew how far away he could stand without setting her off.
In fact, she had gotten slightly used to his presence, so much so that he could stand almost touching her, and she wouldn't flinch away. But of course, she thought of none of this as she found the islands through the looking glass, and moved to pass it on.
Hawke didn't take it right away, though. And when she looked up to question him, he held her eye contact for a long moment before slowly reaching out a hand to take the glass away. He moved slowly and deliberately, like a person would when taming a wild animal, maintaining eye contact. Just one of his fingers made the barest, butterfly light brush against her skin. This made her hand contract, and she took a swift and shallow breath in. His hand tried to pull the spyglass away, but she had latched onto it. After a second tug, she mentally kicked herself, and, with a whole lot of will power relinquished her hold one finger at a time. Just like that his finger left hers, and he moved on to look through the glass as if nothing had happened.
The whole encounter had taken only a second, and no one around them seemed to be any the wiser. It was just Clarity who felt tense and in a flutter. "I need to...go prepare." And with one final look around the group, at everyone but Hawke, she left hurriedly.
The whole walk, if one could call what she was doing walking, lightly storming might have been better, she was mentally berating herself for the blush that had creeped up her neck. As if bad words and thoughts were enough to shame the blush into receding. She was not a school girl. In fact, she had never been, and prolonged eye contact shouldn't do that to a person. Even if the eyes were deep deep blue and crinkled at the edges when he...
STOP. She told herself. She had gone below decks now, where she had stored her pack. There was work to be done. If they were going creeping around an island none of them knew at night, her Raven training said she should be prepared. She pulled out her whet stone, sat on a stray barrell, pulled off her prosthetic, and began sharpening the edges with the stone. Shoosh. Shoosh. Went the stone on metal. A sound and practice that was calming.
As the action relaxed her, her mind began to wander again. Each time she would pull it back with sharp reprimands. Until eventually, she thought she might as well get done thinking it. The touch had not been unpleasant. It had been too light to be anything, really. The action could have been an accident, if he hadn't all but asked her permission. In fact, to a free person, the act was far from inappropriate, it could have been an accident. Or if she had seen it happen to someone else, a sign of weakness and flirtation to another person. But it had happened to her.