trans_9 | I Said, Hey, I Put Some New Shoes On And Everybody's Smiling, It's So Inviting [Open!]

Something about this whole experience feels familiar to the short, pink-haired woman padding down a side-street, arms dangling limply at her sides as she peers into shop windows, into the faces of passersby, into vehicles and restaurants, and it takes her almost four hours to figure out that it reminds her of movies from the twentieth century, of TV shows depicting happy (or miserable) men and women going about their daily, robot-free business, walking to work, eating with friends, buying a new pair of pants. She almost cries when she realizes that she, for once, is actually living that moment of normal humanity, and she takes this as a cue to sidle into the next clothing boutique she runs across and buy herself a few articles of dearly yearned for clothing: jeans, a T-shirt, a sweater (not that she needs it in this climate), and shoes.

Thus adorned, she continues her wandering, hands now hidden in her pockets, and only now does it occur to her that she has greatly missed pockets--they really do aid in her natural slump, as having her arms positioned thusly helps her spine to bend just so...

Somehow, she manages to wish Dustin--or, better yet, Chief, because cats can't hurt your feelings while they're having emotional crises--was here very rarely. The few times he flickers across her mind, she blinks and winces and sighs, and pretty soon, she finds herself sitting on a bench, a carry-out plate of Zokez II's interpretation of sushi on her lap.

How she has managed to be on-ship for... well, who knows how long (long) and not have gone on a single shore leave escapes her.

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Yes, Dustin caught all of that, the grin pulling at the side of his mouth growing by several times at her blush, risking to move the hand on her knee to her chin, giving her several casual caresses as he basked in her smile. Unlike Yoshimi, who wanted to curse her ‘cuttlefish reflexes’, Dustin could happily say that he was quite enjoying them.

For the most part he ignored the bit about dying her hair, his only recognition that of helping to move the rebellious strands from her face to behind her ear, as if to say, ”It doesn’t really matter in the end, I’m not focusing on that regardless,”; the gentle brush that followed seemed to add, ”…Although the pink’s nice.” Fascination with her hair soon subsided in favor of more direct, spoken methods of compliments. Dustin was in one of those moods now. Yoshimi should know that look.

“I never said that being around the insane was a bad thing,” he chided with a gruff, Dustin-esque chuckle, “It’s like having music playing in the background…makes one confident in one’s own mind, increases clarity and calms the senses when everything goes to hell and you’re the only one left…”

…Perhaps that wasn’t the best analogy, but there were far worse ones that he managed to avoid. Besides, Dustin was about to change the subject anyways. There was something he’d encountered earlier that he wanted to bring up, given the circumstances.

“…Say. There’s a nice lodge on the far side of the island, they, ah, have some open rooms, soft beds…”

She keeps smiling pretty solidly after that, distracted from whatever it was they'd been talking about--had they been talking about anything?--by the feel of his hand in her hair. She's almost disappointed when he starts talking again, because she so would have preferred that he keep up with the petting. Then again, the odd note of teasing in his tone has her rolling her eyes and shaking her head slightly. She hears the drop at the end of his words, and steps around that quite gracefully as she pulls his hand from her hair and twines their fingers.

"You're a jackass," she says, shaking her head once again. Still, she grins.

At the topic change, she snorts into a fit of light laughter, peering at him with a highly amused lift of eyebrows.

"You're just in this for the sex, aren't you?"

The ‘I know’ response was on the tip of Dustin’s tongue, but he let it pass as understood. Besides, his mouth could be doing much more productive things right now instead of unnecessary replies—like, you know, kissing. He bent in to give her one on the cheek and stayed for a nuzzle and a whisper:

“…I like to think of it as a bonus.”

Very smooth, Dustin. Very smooth.

I Said, Hey, I Put Some New Shoes On And Everybody's Smiling, It's So Inviting [Open!]

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