"I don't know if any magical girls can teleport so I never really thought about it! I haven't traveled a lot besides the going to America that one time..."

"Do you think you might like to? Escorting ships will certainly take you to interesting places, but not to all the interesting places." 

"Well, where else is there to go - I guess the middles of continents but I don't know much about where would be worth flying to there -"

"If my own world is anything to go by, you may find a great many wonders which do not border the sea!" With only a slight trace of wistfulness, he tells her of the immense and unassailable spires of Jotenaugr, of its towering adamantine gates and the Moat at God's Eye; of the ancient empire of Halflingdom, twice ravaged, long hidden, and now reborn anew; of the deep, wild jungles of Sulpinia and the grand Temple-House of Ploth Koon Eidrex, destroyed and rebuilt countless times; of the walled gardens of the Fortlands where myriad communities thrive under the protection of the copper-flight, guarded against conquest from within and without...

Whoa, he tells good stories. And he is really hot and she should nooooot be doing things about thaaaaaat but he iiiiiiis.

He is withholding more blatant romantic overtures until he's a bit better oriented and no longer needs to reserve all of his mortal-form-time for sleeping, but he is thoroughly enjoying her presence and will not be running out of fascinating stories anytime soon. He has enough to last the whole voyage, and many more besides. 

(He will sprinkle in a few more...suggestive stories. This is how he learned about the mortal preoccupation with wearing clothes all the time, he'd previously thought they shed the uncomfortable things as soon as they were indoors away from the cold, the royal delegation from Halflingdom was telling the story of that reception for months after...)

Oh noooooo that's hilarious.

...and just when he'd dared to hope the last of the teasing had died out, a merchant-prince of Kaoirth shows up to trade with the giants — mind you, the Shining Cities he hailed from are on an entirely different continent — and spends half a day making inquiries about the legendary nude tavern dragons of the Northlands. Halflings are such incorrigible gossips...

Eventually it will start to get dark.

"I should land before it gets too dark," she says apologetically. "I hope you will be comfy out here... in all the nothing you are wearing."

"Ye as well? Truly have I sown the seeds of mine own downfall," he laments. "Now there will be a bawdy sea shanty about naked dragons on all nine seas before the year is out.

"A fair eve and a bright dawn, Rebecca." 

"Good night, Ipaxalon." And down she swoops.

He glides through the night, occasionally flying ahead and resting on tufts of cloud while the ship catches up. He admires the novel constellations when the sky is clear, and wonders whether the ancient light of the star that once lit his homeworld now glimmers faintly among them.

Occasionally, he chats with the night watch. 

And he thinks about what he has learned, what he still needs to know, and what he might be failing to consider entirely.

Rebecca clearly likes chatting with him up to and including the flirting but keeps flinching back from realizing any insinuations.

Over the next few days, he notes this but isn't sure what to make of it. Cultures vary widely, and it could be practically anything, up to and including lingering trauma. If only there were a way to — ah. He feels rather silly. 

During their next conversation, he finds an opportunity to segue into "Another thing I've been wondering about, how does your culture handle romance?" 

"- oh, well, I don't really know how to summarize that. People... get married, of course... usually..."

"That also often happens where I'm from! Though not everywhere, and customs do vary."

In the process of attempting to formulate his next question via translation magic, Ipaxalon notes quite a few interesting details about the connotations of words in this language that discuss sex, including "courtship" and "seduction" which may shed some light on the current situation. He scraps the original question and asks a more pointed one. 

"For instance, a few cultures frown upon romantic engagements outside marriage. Is that the case here?" 

"Yeah. And before you ask no I didn't marry Catherine's father, I was just stupid."

"I apologize, I did not mean to offend." He is not at all qualified to comment on the wisdom of not-marrying in this culture, so leaves it at that.

"You didn't offend me, I'm just - kind of used to the usual - reception."