Sighing, I looked down at the third….no, it was the fourth….suit of clothing Puck had pulled from one of the in-wall storage units and forced me to try on. The problem was that, reasonably, the clothing all belonged to Kiasis. As a result, everything was, to be generous, not suited to me.
“Com on, just roll the legs up one more time,” Puck cajoled. “It’ll work. They aren’t that long.”
“Puck,” I stared at him, making no move to comply with his request. “They’re still past my feet.” I did, however, tug the shirt back up onto my shoulder from where it had fallen, threatening to expose the exact reason why none of Kiasis’ shirts had fit me. I wasn’t too self conscious about my lack of development; after all, I was only fifteen, not quite sixteen yet....but trying on all these outfits was threatening to be a blow to my self esteem. “They just aren’t going to fit. What’s wrong with my—“
“It makes you look like a down-on-her-luck prostitute.” He interrupted before I could even finish the sentence. “The skirt’s at least two sizes too short for you, there are threads hanging off of the hem and a hole in the waistband, and two of the buttons are missing on the shirt…don’t think I didn’t notice those safety pins. The shirt is all torn from where you fell, and, if nothing else, it reminds me of the fact that I almost screwed one of your classmates thinking that she was a hooker.”
“If it helps, she was…sort of. You’re awfully blunt; I thought you said you were some kind of ambassador or diplomat or something back in fairytale land.”
“There are some things there’s just no point in beating around the bush about, princess. And the fact that that uniform needs to hit the trash heap is one of them.” Rummaging through the clothing once again, he pulled out what appeared to be a set of coveralls, meant for working on ships, or machinery, or something of the sort. They were, if you asked me, twice as ugly as my school uniform. “Maybe if we cut the legs off a few inches—“
“No.” I was surprised to hear my refusal come out in stereo as Kiasis voiced her own disapproval from the cockpit. Apparently having her wardrobe mutilated was the breaking point of her silence.
“Okay, okay. Shit, Ki, don’t you have anything with short sleeves? …Ooh, hey, robes…!”
“I might have something.” The soft, totally unexpected voice was close enough to make me jump. And by jump, I mean leap a good few inches straight into the air, half turn on my way back down to see who had snuck up behind me, and stumble with an embarrassing but unfortunately perfectly characteristic lack of grace right into Puck, knocking the poor guy….sprite….whatever he was…..into the wall.
“Shit..!” Puck peeled himself off the wall and straightened his shirt….probably pretty difficult since I seemed to have my hand fisted in a good portion of it. Sheepishly, I withdrew it. “Biv! I didn’t know you even came along.”
The girl in front of me blushed faintly. “I’m sorry. I was…right up front. I guess I dozed off.” It was easy to see why we hadn’t noticed anyone else sitting up there, behind the high back of the co-pilot’s seat. She was small, even smaller than me, in both height and frame; her dark violet hair and blue eyes were the biggest thing about her. Dressed all in black as she was, with long sleeves almost covering her small, pale hands, her fingertips and her face were the only things about her that didn’t blend into the dim lighting on board the ship.
Puck turned a disapproving frown towards the cockpit. “Jesus, Ki. Do you really think it was smart, bringing Biv along when you knew Tengu was probably going to be gunning for us?”
“Humans coddle their young. At Biv’s age, most children on my world would have already been enrolled in active military duty for at least one term.”
“Besides,” Biv interjected weakly, “It’s the weekend. I really didn’t want to stay behind at the inn and deal with all the drunks.”
Puck sighed. “Alright. Where do you have your stuff hiding, Bivvy? Do you think you have anything that’ll fit?”
Biv nodded. I was a little doubtful; she was a good two inches shorter than me—which, by the way, made her really short, especially for sixteen—but judging from her current state of dress, she liked her clothing long and baggy and covering every possible bit of bare skin that she could manage, so there was at least hope. Besides, I thought as Biv moved past Puck to search through a second storage unit, her clothes certainly couldn’t be any worse.
Biv eventually came out of the storage unit with a pair of wide legged black pants and a long sleeved shirt that were, at first glance, nearly identical to what she was wearing. Only the slightest glimmer of silver on the pants pocket clued me in that they were at least slightly different. A silver button. Woo. Those must have been her clubbing clothes. “Here. These are a little long on me, they’ll probably fit you the best.” She smiled shyly at me as I took the proffered clothing, and I felt an immediate stab of guilt for my snide comment, even if it had only been in my head. She seemed so nice.
“Thanks.” I couldn’t help but smile back when someone was that nice to me, taking the small stack of clothing and retreating to the bathroom once again to change, hopefully for the last time.
Which was easier said than done. If there was anything on that ship that was allotted extra space, it sure as hell wasn’t the bathroom. I winced as I cracked my knee on the toilet….again. I’d done it every time I’d been in there to change so far; I guess fate figured there was no sense breaking the tradition.
The experiment, however, was a success; the pants fit my waist surprisingly well, although they were cut a little funny, and the legs only brushed the floor a little bit. Biv must really swim in these, I thought as I stood back to try and get a look at myself. All black wasn’t really my style…but considering my other choices, I was quite happy just to have something that wasn’t falling off me, so I deemed myself presentable and limped my way back out of the bathroom.
My reappearance was met with a loud cheer from Puck and a quiet smile from Biv. “Finally! Take that uniform to the incinerator and burn it..!”
Biv just smiled a bit wider at Puck’s enthusiastic reaction. “They look nice on you.”
“Thanks,” I felt a little silly wearing someone else’s clothing. I knew it was just a loan, until I could somehow manage to get something of my own, but for some reason it made me uncomfortable nonetheless. Biv seemed nice enough, and it was very kind of her to volunteer her wardrobe…but anything that smacked even remotely of charity just left a bad taste in my mouth. “I’ll take good care of them….better than I took of my own stuff, I promise.” I smiled a bit sheepishly. I’d been a little shocked once I took my uniform off and saw all the little rips and tears and stains I’d managed to accrue in it, mostly over the last twenty-four hours.
“Oh, it’s okay.” Biv pushed herself up to her feet from where she’d been sitting, leaning against the wall. “I have plenty more.”
“Soon as we land and get settled in, we’ll take you out and do some clothes shopping.” Puck looked decidedly more excited about the prospect than I was. The idea of spending hours playing the mannequin to Puck’s sense of fashion held no appeal for me at all…but I looked down at the last remnants of my old clothing, a pair of worn black shoes with a hole developing on one side and the shine long since worn off of them, and I reflected that it would be nice to have something new for a change. Something I wouldn’t be slightly embarrassed to be seen wearing in public.
Even if it was kind of hard to believe someone was just going to give it to me.
“First stop: the shoe store.” Puck’s nose wrinkled in what I was pretty sure was an involuntary gesture as his eyes followed my gaze downward. I felt my cheeks heat up, but I didn’t comment. I’d have to find a job, or something, and relatively soon; the feeling of being beholden to someone else, whether it was out of the kindness of their hearts or what, was setting off a sort of burning feeling in my stomach already.
After the general celebration at having found something to fit me besides my uniform had faded, everything settled into silence again. Biv had pulled a book out of her storage unit, stretched out on the mat to read, and promptly dozed off. Puck pulled down the bunk, advised me to lie down and get some rest, and retreated to the co-pilot’s seat himself. I could hear occasional bits of low conversation between him and Kiasis…or rather, I could hear Puck’s low nattering, and Kiasis’ occasional short, one word replies. For my part, I stretched out on the bunk and stared at the ceiling, despite the fact that I wasn’t the least bit sleepy, and let my mind wander.
I found myself with stupid, pointless questions spinning through my head. Why did Kiasis not seem to like me very well? How did she know I looked like my mother? Had they met? How did she know Puck? Did she know what he was? What was a human girl doing traveling with a Sch’silian? What was the inn that Biv had mentioned? Why was she so shy? Did she know what Puck was? Did she believe him? Did she think he was as insane as I did? Did I still think he was insane?
Fuck me. Was I really starting to believe all this shit?
Well, no way I was just going to swallow it all without at least getting some corroboration for Puck’s outlandish story. At the earliest opportunity, when everyone else on the ship didn’t seem to be sleeping or wish I was dead. Closing my eyes, I did my very best to stop thinking altogether for a little while.
