Rope Around Me, Like a Collar, Takes Me Everywhere

[rope-victim.livejournal.com]

Two more days of feeling like Miku had the Black Death, and suddenly the little photographer felt right as rain. There were probably many reasons for it: she felt happier, her white blood cells might have finally rallied and fought back the cold, getting a heavy weight off her chest with Steve at long last. Anything, anything at all could have made her feel better.

So, taking a little time to herself, Miku snuck away to the Sensoriums. The department store she imagined was one she'd visited several times in Tokyo, Mitsukoshi.

It was a little strange to imagine it empty, perhaps, so Miku filled it with the store employees. Perhaps a little spoiled of her, too, to imagine it all to herself. But, just once, she'd wanted to be called Hinasaki-sama. The lights were warm and welcoming, the glass cases held sparkling jewelry, the clothing in uniform lines on the racks and not tossed about wildly. It seemed, however, that the clothing was a little bit... retro. As for the young woman, she stood in the young women's clothing department in a very short skirt and white blouse, quietly judging how she looked.

"I don't... hmm... well, maybe he'd like it," she told her reflection as she turned around to look at herself from the back. "Hmm." It was so hard to make a judgment call by herself, why hadn't she invited Tess along?

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[superminiskirt.livejournal.com]

Kara Zor-El sometimes liked to poke her head into the Sensoriums to see what was going on - and to see if there was actually anything interesting happening in any of them.

That was how she'd met Julian so long ago.

So, when she'd stuck her head in one and seen a nearly empty department store, well, it had just appealed to the teenage sensibilities of Kara.

It didn't hurt that were were a vast array of miniskirts to be had.

Kara loved her some miniskirts.

She walked up to the dressing room, her arms laden with a ton of them, and stopped at a pretty young girl modeling a denim skirt with a black lace trim.

"That skirt's really great on you," Kara said, not sure if the girl was real or a hologram.

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

Miku had been so caught up with her assessment of herself in the skirt that she didn't hear someone walking up and nearly launched herself into dressing mirror with a little scream.

"Iiiya!" She held her hand to her heart, which hammered against her chest enough to burst out and go dancing across the clean white floor of the department. "I-I-I-mean-I..." Breathe, breathe. "Tha-thank you."

[girl-of-steel.livejournal.com]

Kara chuckled at that. "I'm sorry. I wasn't sure if you were a hologram or not..." she apologized. She could hear Miku's heart beating and bit her lip. "I'm sorry. I really scared you there, didn't I? I didn't mean to. Are you alright?"

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

Miku kept her face turned towards the floor as she got her heart and breathing under control. To make Kara feel more comfortable, however, she laughed a little softly, "It's fine, I'll... I'll be alright." Miku looked up and smiled, a bit frazzled at the edges. "I just wasn't expecting anyone, to ah, catch me at this."

Considering her general demeanor was as un-materialistic (frugal, even!) as possible, this was somewhat embarrassing.

[girl-of-steel.livejournal.com]

Kara hung hung miniskirts up on the hook of a stall nearby and and tilted her head, studying the pretty girl. "I really shouldn't float into places," she said off-handedly. "I always take the wrong people by surprise. Wait, I'm sorry. You're not embarrassed to be pretend shopping, are you?"

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

Miku laughed again, quietly, and replied, "Just... just a little bit." Heaven forbid she act like a normal teenage girl for once, right? But shopping, or having time to herself was a luxury that Miku didn't often have, and so rarely did she go shopping.

Miku bowed deeply and smiled, "My name is Miku Hinasaki, it's ah, nice to meet you." She looked up and smiled again, just this side of shyly, "It really looks nice? The skirt?"

[girl-of-steel.livejournal.com]

Kara chuckled. "It's okay. I once got caught doing this roller disco thing in here. This little pink-haired thing named Pixie told me I should try it. It was...well, embarassing when someone walked in to me doing that to some horrible 70's song." Kara grinned brightly. "Doesn't seem so bad now, does it?" She held out a hand to Miku. "Kara. Zor-El. Kara Zor-El. It's nice to meet you too. And yes. It really definitely does. It kind of elongates your leg a little, which is not a bad thing."

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

"Ah, I guess not," Miku conceded and took Kara's hand in a handshake. Right! Western! They liked touching things! You would think that having an American boyfriend would help her with these things, but... the old habits remained the same.

She looked down at her legs and raised her eyebrows, considering Kara's assessment of her, "It's because I'm so short, I need help anywhere I can get it." Because if she had to compare herself to someone glamorous like Kara or Tess, well, Miku fell a little behind.

[girl-of-steel.livejournal.com]

Not so much with the Western with Kara except the...okay, everything she knew, she'd learned from Kal, Bruce, or Diana.

"I didn't mean to put down your height," Kara explained apologetically. At five feet eight, she wasn't exactly tall herself.

Kara didn't particularly think of herself as glamourous either. Sure, she was pretty, but having lived on an island with Amazons as beautiful as Diana, Artemis, and Phillipus and changed her opinion on beauty.

"I just meant that the skirt does really great things for you."

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you didn't at all!" Miku waved her hands frantically, as though to soothe Kara. It wasn't as though Miku could change the fact that she was short, after all, no more than Kara could change the fact she was tall and blond! Even if she as still 5'8", Miku was just hardly over the 5' mark.

"Thank you for the compliment. I thought it was cute... and I have a kind of weakness for cute things," she laughed at herself.

[girl-of-steel.livejournal.com]

This was true. Kara had tried dying her hair once. Kryptonian hair didn't take to Earth color at all. The dye had managed not to penetrate her hair shaft at all.

"I do too," Kara smiled. She indicated the miniskirts from the hook. "Miniskirts especially. The mini-er the better."

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

"They're the best for summer," But not for winter. It was hard to be happy under a kotatsu when your legs were trying to defrost rapidly because of the winter air under the heat. "And you get to wear all kinds of cute things with them! It's really great," Miku cheered. "My friend was able to bring me back some things, but... I like picking out my own things best."

Especially if they were pink. Miku had a love for pink that was deeper than any she'd ever known. It was criminal, really.

[girl-of-steel.livejournal.com]

Kara flashed back to one of the worse outfits (http://starsmedia.ign.com/stars/image/article/855/855124/darkseid-20080226020407422.jpg) that she'd worn over time and shuddered. It so hadn't been of her choosing and...ew. Just ew.

"I'm kind of impervious to heat and cold, so really, I could walk around, flaunting a bare midriff and bare legs all season 'round," Kara grinned. "But I agree. Friends don't always have the best taste."

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

Miku straightened and gave Kara a curious glance, and agreed, "No, not always." She remembered a particularly awkward moment when her brother had bought her a shirt in paisley.

Paisley.

"What do you do, Zor-el-san? At home, I was a learning to be a photographer, but there isn't much need for one of those here." She felt like she was slacking with no one to take orders from. Did Kawalsky-san count? He was her team leader, after all, maybe she would ask.

[girl-of-steel.livejournal.com]

"Oh. You know. Sent from a doomed world to protect another world from being...doomed." Kara blinked. "I'm a superhero back home. Umm. Called Supergirl." She smiled at Miku and added, "I don't know. We're doing a lot of a lot here. It might need to recorded for posterity. And please, call me Kara. You don't have to be formal with me."

[rope-victim.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like a manga," Miku smiled. She wondered if that made Kara someone like Cutey Honey.

Miku supposed that someday, she would get used to people correcting her and telling her to be familiar with them, but it was still a long way before she'd be comfortable with it. "Well, alright, Kara-san, I will. Anyway, I... was actually trying things on for a date." Miku rubbed at her cheeks self-consciously. It was okay to tell someone this sort of stuff, wasn't it? And Kara seemed so nice..!

[superminiskirt.livejournal.com]

Kara didn't know how Cutey Honey was, but maybe?

She'd been compared to Sailor Moon once, and she'd always thought that was kinda weird. Stargirl had fit that mold marginally better than Kara did, though not by much.

"Nothing wrong with that," Kara replied, her thoughts flashing to Julian. "Wait, you can wear these clothes out of here?"

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

Miku shook her head, "No, but we'll probably come here for our date, since the City is half-ruined and something about the ship isn't exactly... nice for having a date with." She turned back to the mirror and looked at herself again, with a sigh.

"Not that I know what I'm supposed to be doing on something like that, anyway," she muttered. "Do you have someone you like, Kara-san?" Miku asked, and looked over her shoulder at the tall blond. "I'd feel awkward talking about the person I liked, if you didn't." It was kind of rude, like rubbing it in.

[superminiskirt.livejournal.com]

"There is someone," Kara said. Someone who, in her mind, just for a moment, had Julian's face but Brainiac 5's skintone.

The hell?

She floated into the air and sat lotus-style and smiled. "His name's Julian," she said after a moment. "And there's no need to feel awkward...umm...Miku...san? I don't know how respect where you come from works. Sorry," she added sheepishly. "We've been out a few times. He's very handsome," she added, smiling. "Tell me about your guy, though."

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

"Miku-san, that's right," Miku smiled back and smoothed out the lace at the bottom of her short skirt with one hand. A little nervous tingle spread out across her back as she thought of how to explain Steve.

"Ah, well... he's sort of my first. But he's nice, even if he can be a bit stubborn." Well, a bit didn't really describe how stubborn Steve could be, but it covered the issue enough. She flapped her hands and laughed at herself. "I really like him."

[girl-of-steel.livejournal.com]

"Well, liking him is definitely a good start," Kara replied. "Though the stubborn part - there's supposedly ways around that, except I don't really have enough guy experience to know what that is." Because, really, the only experiences she'd had were Brainiac 5 and Julian, and...it wasn't much to go on yet.

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

Someone needed to write a manual on Ridiculous Stubborn Men and How to Train Them. Not Miku, though, it was an interesting side to Steve, if a little dangerous.

"Ah, he's never stubborn to me... at least, he tries very hard to eat slowly with me," she'd noticed that when she'd made him the okayu, actually. "And is very kind to me." Miku rubbed her cheeks, feeling them heat up the more she thought about it.