Ch 2.64: Remembrance

Tira was nervous. It was the only feeling she had as she slipped on the leather pants, struggling to pull them up. The damn things had practically never fit, even the knee high boots Tira put on after were easier to get on, but they did make her ass look good, so in the wardrobe they stayed. The nicest shirt she owned came next, sliding over her shoulders, buttons closing up over her stomach, over the black bra.

She looked at herself in the mirror to try and distract from the nervousness, and was pleased with what she saw. The vibrant red of the shirt contrasted well with the black pants, matched well with the shade of pink she’d chosen for her eyeshadow tonight. Her hair was still wet, but it would dry quickly, and she never really cared for that part of making herself up. That was the reason she kept it so short anyway, after all.

“Deep breaths, Strask,” she told herself. Not a lot of good it did for her. She was good at keeping people in order, better at fighting. But here she was about to go off into an actual criminal den, intending to play by their rules, literally, in order to obtain stolen goods. “Gods, dad would be so pissed…”

A knock on her door snapped her back into the present. “Come in,” she said.

The door opened a crack, and Carline’s head poked through before she pushed all the way in. She really was a cute girl, in the nobility sort of way, the type of person you could tell didn’t really fit in with the other nobles. She we wearing a long velvet dress, one that clung to her curves just enough to show her form up top, billowing out just a bit at the bottom.

And then came the next one, that one. The exhibitionist that Tira had busted so many times for sneaking out past curfew before, who’d irritated her for months, and who was becoming annoyingly attractive in the last few weeks. She was wearing a surprisingly conservative dress though, one that didn’t quite match the picture Tira had in head of the dress she’d heard Elaina describe making. Maybe the girl finally got some sense in her head.

And then came Elaina. All of Tira’s new friends were pretty, Carline especially tonight, but lord was Elaina the winner in Tira’s eyes on this occasion. She had makeup on for the first time, surely applied with her roommate’s help, but only a light amount, a little bit of eyeliner, some blush Tira thought, but it was hard to tell with how flushed Elaina got regularly.

The star of the show was the dress though. It was a deep green, silky, and not quite as modest as the one Elaina had described intending to make. Had she swapped with Flora or something? Thoughts like that didn’t linger long, not with the distraction the outfit was providing.

The “dress” was really more of an ensemble, a pair of lace shorts with straps attached that went to about mid thigh, a lace “top” if you could call it that, though it looked more like a bra, with similar straps crisscrossing across her chest, all wrapped up in an actual dress, two thick straps that fell down her shoulders, going around her breasts instead of over them, coming together into one piece around the waist and tied with a black sash before splitting again, into two flowing sections, a large panel in the back that would cover a good bit of modesty, but a thin strip of cloth in the front, barely wide enough to cover the gap between Elaina’s legs as she hurried in and closed the door.

“Gods”, the girl said, “I’m not sure I can actually go out in this.”

“You’re telling me,” Flora said with a laugh. “At least you can walk through the school.”

Tira was a little confused at that remark, but she was more focused on trying to make sure Elaina felt comfortable. “You look great, though!” she said. “I can, uhm, tell you spent a lot of time on the inner pieces; that must’ve been hard to do so fast.” That was the most impressive part, to Tira at least. She wasn’t really too into wearing lace herself, but she knew it was very labor intensive to make, obviously what Elaina would’ve spent the most of her week on.

Elaina only blushed even redder at the complement though. “It’s… I didn’t make them this week. I’ve had these for a while. They’re my underwear.”

“Oh,” Tira said. Elaina, in her underwear, going out into the town at night. Gods, if she’s doing this of her own accord, I can’t imagine what she’d do if I ordered her. Well, Tira could imagine, but she needed to control herself. She had a mission, after all.

“I wanted to make more, but I don’t really know how to use the sewing machine yet, and I kept getting distracted by stuff, so I could only had time to prepare so much fabric, and—”

“You look, great,” Flora said, reaching out to grab one of Elaina’s hands. As irritating as she was to Tira herself, Tira couldn’t help but admire Flora somewhat. The instant she took the hand, Elaina seemed to still a bit, calm overtaking her. Rule-breaking aside, the exhibitionist had a way of warding off distress for others, and for that Tira was thankful. It was a quality Tira couldn’t help but be attracted to.

“Tira, you thought the lace was part of the outfit, right?” Flora asked.

“Huh? Oh,” Tira said, trying to reframe her thoughts. The outfit, right. How did that streaker even get my attention off of Elaina in a dress like that? “Yeah, no, I really thought it was all just part of the outfit. The colors just match so well, so I didn’t think otherwise.”

“Okay,” Elaina said, nodding and looking a little relieved. “We should probably get going. I don’t want to be late cause you girls are busy trying to make me feel better.”

“Wait!” Carline said, an unexpectedly loud outburst, reaching into a shoulder bag she was carrying. “Uhm, before we go, well, I kind of wanted to do this but couldn’t think of a way to do it earlier, but then I saw the mirror in here, and, well…” She continued digging through her bag for a few seconds, pursing her lips, then finally finding what she was looking for and pulling out a small rectangle, a crystal portrait. “I wanted a picture, to remember, tonight…”

“That’s a great idea!” Flora said, reaching for the hem of her dress. “Let me get into my actual outfit really quickly.”

Stunned was all that could describe Tira as Flora pulled the dress up, revealing the little more than flaps of cloth that she was wearing underneath. Ah, there it is, Tira thought.

“Everyone get together,” Flora said as she grabbed Elaina and Tira, pulling them next to Carline at the mirror. “And smile, Elaina!”

Tira was caught off guard by the whole thing, but she didn’t really mind. Elaina looked the most shocked, had probably never posed for a picture of her own volition, was a ball of blush both from her makeup and natural skin, but still very cute.

They all looked good, Tira realized. Carline had that nervous smile you’d put on when you wanted to take a picture but still didn’t quite know how to smile for it, Flora had that natural smile that you didn’t know how people put on for portraits, and even Elaina seemed to be adjusting to the idea, a genuine, non-posed smile growing across her face.

All that was left was Tira herself. She didn’t mind taking pictures, and she certainly wasn’t going to spoil the fun of the other girls, so she put on her own trademark picture smile, the slight smirk, no too large, not too fake.

“How long do we have to do this?” Elaina asked through her teeth.

At that, Tira couldn’t help but open her own smile up more, struggling not to laugh as the click of the crystal portrait went off, then finally giving up once she knew it had been taken, falling back onto her bed and covering her own face as the other two girls started laughing at Elaina’s innocence as well.

“What’d I do?” Elaina asked.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make fun of you,” Tira said. “It was just funny.”

Elaina blushed even more as the other girls regained control of themselves, Flora and Carline apologizing too, profusely in the latter’s case.

“Okay, let’s get going,” Tira said after they all had a chance to look at the portrait. “Elaina was right, we don’t want to be late.”

It seemed okay now, somehow. The plan was still against the rules, dangerous, and a situation that Tira wasn’t really in her element for, but with her friends, she felt like it was going to work out okay.

It really was a good picture.