Shopping Time

It was so fucking cold outside that he had to stop and wonder how she'd forgotten, but he decided to hold his tongue all the same, watching as she quickly grabbed a thick jacket and pants and disappeared into the dressing room again, and again he found himself messing around on his phone - scrolling through Esper to try and pass the time. Most of it was Maria's updates, not-so-surprisingly enough. Once Anima had made his appearance, his green-blue eyes flickered over, a smile quickly appearing on his face. "That looks much better," He mused.

Anima nodded. Already she was feeling a lot warmer, and it would probably be for the best if she kept the parka off until they were ready to leave. Otherwise heat might be what gets her, rather than cold. Out of the corner of her eye Anima noticed something sitting on a clothing rack, and when it clicked in her mind what she was looking at, a blush came to her face. On the rack was a very... revealing bikini that was very, very out of place among all the cold weather clothing. Guess this place just had all the clothing they had out for sale at all times. Surely they didn't expect someone to run around in the snow wearing that.

After a moment Anima realized how long she'd been staring down the bikini, quickly pulling her gaze away for a moment. Hopefully Preston hadn't noticed, but if he did Anima would be ready to play things off... hopefully.

He hadn't noticed at first what she was looking that, only that the young woman happened to be staring straight past him at some other part of the clothes racket. With little thought, he trailed after her gaze, and it didn't take long at all to see what she was so fixated with. Preston couldn't help it, laughing a little under his breath and thinking quickly back to that Halloween night. "You're supposed to put on more during the winter, girl. Not less." Even after he said that, the young man reached over and pulled it off the rack, tossing it towards her. Well, whatever floated her boat. "Don't think it's too small?"

Anima caught it, if only to prevent it falling to the floor. She put it in her basket so that she could grab her notebook. I don't know... I don't have anything for when it warms back up again though, and there's the school's pool too. Should I try it on? Anima tried to hide the fact she was somewhat embarassed by the prospect of putting it on. Still, she wasn't lying about needing something along the lines of swimwear. She truly didn't bring any clothing to Beata except the outfit she wore all the time. Plus, this could go well, even if Anima would almost certainly end up regretting things.

Preston shrugged, "You might as well." Although he thought it was too early to go shopping for swim suits, and there was most likely a reason that thing was still on sale in the dead middle of winter, he supposed he couldn't complain. Hopefully, she had right mind enough to know better than to try to walk home in that thing.

Anima nodded, returning to the changing room for the final time during this shopping trip. Admittedly, if she left after this she still wouldn't have a ton of clothing, but Preston was probably gonna drop dead from boredom any second now. Anima felt somewhat bad because of this, and as such wanted to finish this visit up. There was also the fact that the weather could get worse anytime now...

Anima removed the large, baby blue parka, enjoying the sudden feeling of cool from being freed from the parka's heat. It'd sure as hell keep her warm outside, which was nothing to complain about. Anima's shirt, pants, and underwear followed the parka as she removed them and placed them neatly in the basket. Then she picked up the bikini bottom, putting it where it needed to be. However, any attempts at tying the sides resulted in it shifting around or outright falling to the floor. After several attempts at this, Anima put the bikini bottom back where it was. She glanced to the door, blushing as she went over to it and opened it slightly, just enough to poke out of it a bit. With one arm over her chest, she used to other to try and wave Preston over.

He shouod have suspected something the moment she refused to step outside or show any bit of herself other than her fae and a glimpse of her hand once she decided to wave him closer. Curiously, he set his basket down and slid into the dressing room with a quick glance around, to make sure nobody was watching.

Immediately he was offput. Even before the string was tied, it was as if the girl was wearing nothing at all. It left little to the imagination and he wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that. "I'm not sure you could legally wear this thing in public," He mused with a small, forced laughter, tying the string behind her back and taking a few steps away. She was so tiny...

Anima blushed out of embarassment both from seeing Preston helping her put the bikini on in the mirror and what he said. Surely it wasn't that bad if they had been selling it here. Right? Right? After Preston had helped her put everything on, she posed a little bit, looking at the mirror. It was rather showy, but it kept everything especially important covered up. I don't think that it's that bad. This is probably the only swimsuit that's here anyways. It is the middle of winter after all. Are you ready to leave, Preston? I guess I have enough for the time being.

He felt rather paranoid the entire time that the think strip of fabric would slip at any moment and show a few revealing feathres, not that he hadn't seen any if it befor, but this was an entirely different scenario. "You don't feel shy in that at all?" The brunette mused, stepping in front of her and glancing her up and down before stepping back outside, keeping gmhis opinions reserved. "I'm gonna go buy my shit. I'll meet you up front." He waved behind him, leaving the room again and doing as he said.

Even though Anima allowed Preston to leave without answering his question, she did feel shy in it. However, she had her reasons for wanting to wear it despite how she felt while wearing it. After Preston left the changing room, she changing out of the small swimsuit and changed back into the jeans and parka, putting everything else into her basket. Afterwards she, like Preston, left to finish getting stuff. After all, he'd shown up before Anima had gotten any food or anything, which she also needed somewhat desperately at this point.

Anima went back to walking through the aisles of the store, collecting enough food to last her awhile before going to buy everything. After all was done, she stood waiting at the front door for Preston.

He glanced outside, thumbing around his pocket for his keys, amongst other things, and let his mind wander. Snow blanketed the forest completely, leaving it all a dreamy white. Swimming seemed like a nice idea, but the lake was completely frozen over the last time he'd checked, and the gym pool was too much trouble. He missed the ocean.

The young man tied up his plastic bag of groceries, glancing behind him once Anima approached with her things. Reluctantly flinching from the cold, he swung the front door open. "After you,"

Anima nodded, putting up the hood of her parka before walking out into the snow. Immediately she took notice of how much the weather had picked up; a goddamn snowstorm had picked up during the time they were shopping. It wasn't exactly easy to see where very much was at this point, but despite this Anima started walking. Rosebury was a small town; they would probably be fine.

After several minutes of trying to navigate through the snowstorm, Anima came to an alley between to buildings. She went into this alley a bit for cover from the snow, and taking a break here would make it easy to tell if she and Pres had gotten separated.

God dammit, he shouldn't have let himself linger for so long, Preston thought, or maybe he should have rushed Anima through her clothes shopping faster. It was fucking freezing outside and this sudden shitty weather had only made it all the worse to try and travel through. His kept his coat tightened, doing his best to stay near the girl. It probably wouldn't have been good if he lost her out in the cold.

Whilst he would've kept on walking and trudging through to home, before things got worse, she seemed as if she needed a break, turning a corner into some alley. He let out a warm, heavy sigh. "What are you doing?" He called after her once they were shielded from the wind and snow.

"Yes, what are you doing?"

A tall figure in black stood at the end the alley near the back door of one of the buildings that formed the alley. It looked as if he had exited that building only a few seconds before Preston and Anima sheltered in the alley. On his back was a Zweihänder, which would be just as tall as him if it weren't worn at an angle. He examined the two. Were they students from the Academy? If they were... he may have found an excuse to bloody his blade.

Anima jumped at hearing the man's voice, looking over in his direction. Immediately she took notice of the weapon on his back. That probably wasn't a good sign. Anima looked over at Preston, not entirely sure what to do. At the moment he didn't look especially friendly or hostile. Then again, what normal person walked around with a huge sword on their back?

It had been so dark in the back of the alley, he hadn't seen the figure hiding back there until he'd spoke up. A little surprising. Now that Preston had gotten a good look at him, he stuck out like a sore thumb amongst all the pure white snow. Pure black attire and a dark blade hanging on his back, this guy looked like a cheap indie villain.

He sniffed, holding back a little laughter. "Nice toothpick you have there." Pres called, glancing aside at Anima and back to the stranger. "What the fuck do you want?" Did this asshole have a problem with having to share dirty, public alleyways?