"What the hell is going on in there…?" Soren muttered under his breath as he leaned against the wall opposite the fitting rooms, arms crossed loosely over his chest.
Louise and Olivia had disappeared behind the curtain a long time ago.
Too long, really.
At first, he hadn't paid much attention to it.
Trying on clothes took time, especially when multiple outfits were involved, and with Louise in the process, it almost certainly meant opinions, arguments, second opinions, and even more on top of those.
But as the minutes dragged by, ten, then fifteen, then well beyond twenty, boredom had begun to settle over him like a slow fog.
He glanced at the curtain again, half-expecting it to twitch.
It did not.
The clothing store itself was calm in the way those nicer shops always seemed to be, full of soft lighting, neat racks, muted colours, and the faint rustle of fabric every time another customer passed by.
Somewhere deeper in the store, a clerk was speaking in a low, measured voice; Soren could hear it, but not clearly enough to make out the words.
He sighed.
Then, more out of habit than necessity, he lifted one hand.
A tiny flame bloomed to life above his palm.
It was no larger than a candle flame, steady and warm, swaying faintly as he fed it the barest thread of mana.
Not enough to draw attention or enough to impress anyone, just enough to do something with his hands while he waited.
He rolled it from one finger to the next, narrowing it, widening it, making it lean sideways and then pull upright again.
The heat was mild, carefully contained, and the exercise was less about the spell itself than the control behind it.
Boredom, at least, became easier to endure when he could turn it into practice.
A few more minutes passed.
Then the curtain was suddenly yanked aside with enough force to make him snuff the flame out on instinct.
Soren straightened at once.
Louise stepped out first.
"Is she done?" he asked, already trying to peer past her.
Louise nodded, though the look on her face was strangely difficult to read.
There was something there, some small, knowing satisfaction, but it sat underneath a flatter sort of expression that made him suspicious.
"She's finished changing," she said.
Soren blinked.
A second passed.
Then another.
He looked past Louise again, then at Louise, then back toward the fitting room curtain.
"…And?"
Louise's mouth twitched.
"And what?"
"And why are you still standing there?"
Before Louise could answer, the curtain moved again, this time more slowly, the fabric parting just enough for Olivia to step out.
Soren stopped breathing for a second without meaning to.
"H-How is it?" Olivia asked, voice small with nerves, fingers clutching lightly at the edge of her skirt.
She had gone with the cream blouse.
The fabric was tucked neatly into the warm brown skirt they had picked earlier, the hem falling just below her knee, while the muted olive cardigan softened the whole thing without dulling it.
It was exactly what he had wanted from the outfit: gentle, flattering, feminine without trying too hard, and warm enough in tone to bring out the softness in her features instead of washing her out.
The blouse skimmed her shape just right, not too loose, not too fitted, while the cardigan kept the whole thing from feeling too sharp or self-conscious.
It suited her so well that for one embarrassing moment his brain simply failed to continue.
"Wow…" he said before he could stop himself.
Olivia froze.
Louise, standing beside him, smirked with immediate satisfaction.
"I know, right?" she said, all but radiating vindication. "Our Olivia is beautiful, isn't she?"
Soren nodded at once, without even thinking about it.
"Yeah."
The answer came too quickly, too honestly, and Olivia's face turned bright red almost on contact.
Her eyes darted away, shoulders drawing in for a moment even as she stood there in the outfit, clearly caught between wanting approval and wanting the floor to swallow her whole.
Soren only realised a beat later that he should probably say something less blunt.
His gaze flicked over her again, this time more carefully, not because he was changing his mind, but because he wanted to explain it properly.
"It really does suit you," he said, voice steadier now. "The colours are good on you, and the shape's right. It looks…" He paused, then chose the least disastrous word he could find. "Natural."
Louise gave him a look that said natural was not nearly enthusiastic enough, but Olivia's expression softened anyway.
Then, because his mouth had apparently decided to continue operating without supervision, Soren added something extra.
"Alex will love it."
The effect was immediate.
The embarrassment on Olivia's face did not vanish, but it transformed.
The panic in it gave way to something brighter, warmer, and so openly hopeful that it caught him off guard.
"You think so?" she asked, looking at him properly now.
That smile, small at first and then blooming wider, hit him much harder than he expected.
Something in his chest tightened, not painfully, but enough for him to feel it.
"Yeah," he said, and this time there was no awkwardness in it at all. "No doubt."
Olivia lit up.
There was no other way to put it.
Her whole expression changed with it, the tension easing out of her shoulders, her mouth curving into that soft, earnest smile she wore whenever she forgot to be self-conscious.
For a moment she looked less like someone trying on clothes and more like a girl already half-stepping into the version of herself she wanted Alex to see.
Then, as if suddenly remembering that both he and Louise were still standing there watching her, she squeaked a little under her breath, clutched lightly at the skirt again, and hurried back behind the curtain to change.
Louise folded her arms.
"Well?" she asked, smug in a way that made it clear she already knew the answer.
Soren exhaled through his nose.
"Well what?"
"Was I right?"
"Shut up."
Louise clicked her tongue.
"Coward."
He ignored that and leaned back against the wall again, though he was no longer bored now.
Mostly, he was trying not to think too hard about how genuinely pleased Olivia had looked over one simple sentence.
It should not have affected him that much, but it had.
A few minutes later Olivia emerged in her uniform again, her purchased clothes neatly folded and carried in a store bag, and after paying, the three of them drifted back toward the entrance together.
For a brief moment they simply stood there, the late afternoon light spilling in through the windows, the noise of the shopping district rising and falling beyond the door.
Then Olivia looked between them.
"So… what should we do now?"
Soren tipped his head slightly.
"Want to get food?"
"Okay!" she replied so quickly that he almost laughed.
Louise laughed first.
"Straight to the point, aren't you?"
Olivia flushed, though not enough to take it back, and in the end the three of them went together.
Dinner turned out easy in the way the best unplanned meals sometimes did.
They found a place without much waiting, ordered simple food, and settled into the kind of light conversation that didn't need much effort to keep moving.
Louise teased Olivia about tomorrow while pretending not to.
Olivia denied, repeatedly and unconvincingly, that it was a date.
Soren contributed just enough to make things worse for her, then had to pretend innocence when Louise accused him of piling on.
After that they wandered through a few more stores at an unhurried pace, not really shopping for anything in particular so much as enjoying the last of the evening.
Louise paused to inspect accessories she absolutely did not need.
Olivia stopped twice to look at little display items and then apologised for stopping, which only made Louise drag her closer to look properly.
Soren mostly followed, making the occasional comment when asked and the occasional unasked comment when something offended his eyes enough to deserve it.
By the time the sky had shifted into that softer evening colour that made the lanterns stand out more brightly, it was finally time to part ways.
Olivia stood with her bag held in both hands, cheeks faintly pink, looking happy in that quiet, almost disbelieving way she had when something good had happened and she had not quite caught up to it yet.
Louise gave her a sharp grin and a firm nod.
"Don't embarrass yourself too much tomorrow."
"M-Miss Louise!"
Soren smiled, softer than Louise, but no less sincere.
"You'll be fine," he said. "Have fun."
Olivia looked at him, then at Louise, then back again.
"Thank you," she said, and she meant it enough that the words came out a little smaller than usual.
Then she waved and disappeared back into the evening crowd.
Soren watched her go for a moment longer than he needed to.
At the very least, today had been worth it.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
Sunday morning arrived bright and mild.
Olivia stood in front of the fountain in the shopping district plaza with her hands clasped tightly together, staring down at her reflection in the rippling water.
Sunlight scattered across the surface, breaking into shifting fragments that trembled over the pale stone and danced across the tips of her shoes, but she barely noticed any of it.
All of her attention was locked on the girl in the water below, the one wearing clothes that still did not feel entirely like hers.
Today was the day.
The day she was going on her totally-not-a-date with Alex.
She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and immediately became aware of herself all over again.
The clothes were not uncomfortable, not exactly, but they were different enough from what she normally wore that every movement reminded her of them.
The blouse fit her more neatly than her usual tops.
The skirt sat properly instead of hanging loose.
Even the cardigan, soft as it was, made her feel arranged rather than simply dressed.
Olivia usually chose clothes for one reason above all others: comfort.
Loose things, inexpensive things, practical things, things that did not cling and did not draw the eye and did not make her think too much about what shape she took up in the world.
It was easier that way.
Safer, too.
Today's outfit was none of those things.
It was one of the outfits Soren and Louise had helped her choose, and even now, standing in the plaza with the fountain murmuring beside her, she could still remember the strange feeling of seeing herself in the fitting room mirror and not quite recognising the girl looking back.
Even her hair was different.
Normally she just brushed it and left it alone, but this morning she had taken extra time with it, carefully braiding it until her fingers had finally stopped shaking enough for it to look right.
Every time she caught her reflection in a polished window, a glass storefront, or even a spoon at breakfast, she had felt the same thing.
'I look strange…'
Not bad, exactly.
Just… different.
Enough to make her self-conscious of her own body in a way she usually avoided thinking about.
Her fingers tightened together.
"I hope Alex likes it…" she murmured.
"What did you say, Liv?"
"Ah!"
Olivia jumped so hard she nearly lost her balance.
She spun around, eyes wide.
"Alex?! When did you get here?"
Alex stood just behind her, leaning forward a little, wearing that familiar easy expression that always seemed to sit somewhere between warm and amused.
"Just now," he said. "I saw you standing here and thought I'd surprise you."
Only then did Olivia realise how close he was.
Very close.
Their faces were barely a hand's width apart.
Her heart slammed against her ribs.
Her face heated so quickly it felt almost painful, and for one awful, suspended second all she could do was stare at him from far too near, taking in features she had known for years and somehow noticing all of them at once as if she had never seen them properly before.
Then the rest of her thoughts caught up.
He had dressed up.
The realisation hit so hard that it shoved everything else aside.
It was subtle, but unmistakable.
His hair had actually been styled, not elaborately, but with obvious effort, and instead of his usual training clothes or some version of practical academy wear, he had chosen casual clothes that fit him properly and looked like they had been picked on purpose.
For as long as she had known Alex, that alone was almost alarming.
He was not careless, exactly, but he was comfortable by nature.
The sort of person who reached for what was easy to move in, what made sense, what he didn't have to think about.
Seeing him like this, put together in a way that was just restrained enough to feel real, made something bright and reckless flare to life in her chest.
'Does that mean…?'
A goofy little smile started creeping onto her face before she could stop it.
'Does that mean it really was a date?'
The thought ran wild at once.
It was immediate, shameless, and impossible to stop.
Holding hands.
Walking too close together.
Laughing over lunch.
Maybe him calling her pretty.
Maybe…
"Liv?"
"Huh?!" Olivia snapped back to herself so sharply she almost heard it. "Yep! I'm great!"
Alex blinked, clearly confused by both the volume and the answer, but he looked relieved anyway.
"That's good. So… what's the plan?"
Olivia took a breath.
Then another.
She thought of the list she had made, and remade, and then checked again before leaving this morning.
She thought of the routes she had gone over in her head, the times she had accounted for, the way she had barely slept because every time she closed her eyes she imagined something going wrong and had to open them again to make sure it would not.
"Uhm, well," she began, and to her own amazement the nerves thinned the moment she started speaking. "Since it's almost noon, I thought we could get lunch first, and then walk through the shopping district for a while after, and then this afternoon there's supposed to be a musical performance in the workshop district, so if we leave here on time we should make it easily, and after that—"
She kept going.
Smoothly.
Without stuttering even once.
Alex listened with full attention, nodding here and there, not interrupting, not rushing her, just letting her speak until she had laid out the whole day.
Olivia only realised how unusual that was when she reached the end and found him still watching her with that same attentive ease.
She had spent half the night worrying over this.
Every route.
Every timing.
Every detail.
Anything to make sure today would be perfect.
"That sounds good to me," Alex said once she finished. "Shall we go then?"
The relief that went through her was so intense it almost made her dizzy.
"Mhm," she said quickly, then with more energy, "Let's go!"
And before she quite realised what she was doing, Olivia reached out, grabbed his hand, and tugged him forward toward the restaurant she had picked.
Two steps later, awareness crashed into her.
She looked down.
Their hands were joined.
Her fingers tightened instinctively.
She did not let go.
————「❤︎」————