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Vertiq Alley was just as confusing to walk through the second time that they visited it.
Streets upon streets of shops, most of which with alliterative names, packed with dozens of wizards each. Mothers with their children, preteens getting measured for their school robes, and frantic wizards on brooms flying just a bit too close to the ground for comfort flooded the streets.
It was a bit overwhelming to say the least, and Sam is almost relieved that she was the most comfortable of the four of them in a public setting. She took to the crowd like a duck to water, flaunting her stand out-ish outfit for the wizards around them to see. A bit more effort than she usually put into her outfits admittedly; but when they all finally agreed on a day to head out on the town she couldn’t resist putting on a more worthy outfit for the occasion.
K stands at her side, looking as bubbly pink as usual after the fiasco that was the tournament. They’ve toned down the saturation a bit thankfully, choosing to go for more of a petal pink accented with dark grays instead of the neon light effect they had before. Not that it doesn’t stop the multitude of eyes on them at any given moment; but after a quick reach to grab their hand in hers, Sam knew that K was comfortable with the attention. Their enthusiasm to be here again led K to all but jumping from storefront to storefront, educating them with the various Harry Potter themed facts they knew about the magical items inside.
Jammer also didn’t seem phased by the attention they all got while walking through the cobblestone streets. He was wearing not his usual basketball jersey, but a scuppers one he convinced the ‘Oggles were a good idea to make. His smile never wavered as he not so subtly greeted those who got too close to them. He didn’t need to be asked to watch their backs as they went, guiding both K and Evan away from the sides that people glared at them from. It was tough to be out in public where everybody knew who they were. Sam was more used to it than the rest of them, so she led the front of the pack gracefully; weaving between groups of wizards with ease.
But speaking of Evan...he almost looked more lost to be here than the first time around. His hands were loosely held in front of his chest, like he was defending himself from some unseen threat. Occasionally, his hand would rise up to the crux of his shoulder, where he had chosen to put his wand holster, before slowly easing back down in front of his stomach.
It was progress. By this point the last time they were here, he had pulled wandless magic on Digsby and thrown him in the middle of the ocean. They were working on it.
But this time whenever he felt threatened, he got a tug from K to look at a new interesting magical item they saw in the window of some store, or Jammer’s steadying hand on his shoulder, and even Sam reached back a few times to squeeze his hands as well. She saw how much the tension in between his eyes eased as they initiated the contact. Even after all these months, it was still a new feeling for him.
Part of this trip was to get Evan more used to public settings in the first place. Not that he knew it of course, but she and the other two misfits had talked about it in their group chat for a while now (which might have been called ‘The Evan Protection Squad’ courtesy of K, not that he needed to know that either). They all thought going to a place at least the slightest bit familiar would be good for him, if they had to go someplace off of the Gowpenny campus.
Clothes shopping provided the perfect excuse to do just that! Dr. Boodle, now Headmaster Boodle, thankfully told them about the upcoming annual ball that the school was hosting for the end of the year. And before he had even finished the sentence K had run back to the dorms to plan everything out for them to the finest detail. He also told the four of them that there was a renowned store just in Vertiq Alley that catered to more younger wizards’ fashion tastes. Sam hopped that meant modern clothes and not...some wizard nonsense instead.
After they followed the directions that Boodle wrote down on a piece of parchment for them, they were left in front of an unassuming store called Togs for Tart. Through the window Sam saw a variety of humanoid mannequins (and some non-humanoid ones) all wearing colorful outfits all fitting in to the very wizard aesthetic they had seen on the street. Lots of long brightly colored robes, tall pointed hats, and variously extravagant wand holsters could be spotted through the window already; and she knew that there’d be much more of a variety inside the store itself. K was practically bubbling with the way they skipped to the window, pressing their face into the glass like a little kid.
“The fuck is a tog?” Jammer muttered as they walked into the store, dragging K in behind them.
“Must be something, for them to use it in the name.” Sam said.
“I believe it’s another word for—” Evan started to speak, but suddenly stopped as presumably an employee walked out from behind the counter to intercept their approach. Really, did they look that clueless as they walked into the store?
The older looking woman gleefully approached them, her curly red hair bouncing with every step. K could barely whisper out a ‘looks like a Weasley’ before she was on them like a mountain lion.
“Welcome, welcome children to Togs for Tart! My name is Tiffany Tottle, and I’d be glad to show you folks around, if you’d like?”
“We’re here to pick out some fancy wizard outfits!” Sam blurted out. “Uh, I think Dr. Boodle might have warned you about us?”
Ms. Tottle nodded. “Yes, yes. He may have mentioned the pioneers of his new program wanting to come visit my humble store! Oh, to have the Americans here will be such a treat, follow me!”
With that, the woman walked towards the back of the shop without so much as a glance in their direction. She looked at the three of her friends for confirmation, before shrugging her shoulders and leading the way once again.
—
Jammer didn’t know all that much about fashion, and he was proud to admit it. But even he knew that whatever it was that this woman brought out to them did not look at all appealing to wear.
Ms. Tottle shoehorned all four of them into one of the side showrooms, that looked like it belonged on a wedding gown show or something, and left to gather up a wide variety of outfits for them all to try on. It left the four of them staring at themselves in the uncountable number of mirrors that lined the walls of the circular room.
“Now, I know that none of you are experienced in wizarding eh, ‘culture’ so should we say.” She ducked out for a moment, and all but ran back into the room with a clothing rack of outfits. “So I took the liberties of choosing outfits that I thought would best fit all of you! As well as a few backups.”
Now that he was looking closer, Jammer could see that the rack was divided into four sections by little paper looking dividers. But before he could get a good look at the outfits themselves, Ms. Tottle swung the rack around and started pulling on its sides. Right before their eyes, the rack grew to quadruple its original size. It was just outrageous how many outfits she expected them to try on in just this afternoon. But she wasn’t done yet. After the rack had been stabilized from its spontaneous growth spurt, she weaved her way to another side door and opened what appeared to be a never ending closet of hats, scarves, and other accessories.
Ms. Tottle started plucking various hats off of the shelves they were resting on almost at random, never quite leaving the sight of the door frame despite clearly walking down a dozen different ailes, most of which were dedicated to just a single color. It made his head hurt thinking about it for too long. So just like a vast majority of the things he saw over here; he just said screw it and let it be.
Evan was clearly having a much harder time rationalizing the behavior of the weird closet-door-pocket dimension-thing. It made Jammer proud that he was able to get over his initial fear of the building at least to question whether or not the effects of the magical closet were replicable or not. It had taken hours for it to finally happen at Gowpenny.
After a few moments where the four of them waited with baited breath, the shop-owner walked back out with a bulging bag of accessories. Her lublient smile almost caught Jammer off guard, since most of the looks they’d gotten on the way here were entirely negative. It was refreshing to see an adult excited to work with them outside of the purely academic setting that they had with Dr. B.
“Alright, I’ve got just a pinch of outfits here for you all—” she dropped the bag on a nearby counter and took out her wand. It was a ruby red, and etched in small glowing yellow runes. “Now I don’t have a dressing room large enough for all four of you to go at the same time, so how about you decide who will go first.”
“I want to go first!” There was little contest for the decision, and K raised their hand immediately.
Ms. Tottle’s smile somehow grew. “Then come over here sweetie and I’ll just sort your clothes out from the rest. I’m sure a young girl like you will take her time, hmm?”
Wincing a bit at the remark, K covered it up with a quick nod. Earlier this morning K said it was more of a ‘them’ day. Ms. Tottle tapped her wand to both the bag and the clothing rack which both shuffled around until they all saw little name tags that wrote “Tanaka, Karen” on them.
K must have barely glanced at the nametag before rummaging around in the two piles before them, occasionally letting Ms. Tottle point them in the right direction. From what he heard it was mostly comments like, ‘this color would work well together with your hair’ or ‘those two colors clash too much’, and ‘no for a formal event we would never wear clashing colors’.
“You good over there, K?” Sam yelled out. By this point, the three rest of the pilots had sat down on a nearby bench as they waited for the discussion to end.
K turned around with a flourish, holding what must have been at least 5 outfits in their arms. “I’ll go try them on now!”
They skipped over to the changing room, Theo barely clinging onto their dress. Ms. Tottle chuckled before addressing the rest of them. “I’ll be up front if you kids need anything else. Just ring the bell if you have any questions!”
Left in the room to themselves, Jammer couldn’t help but snicker to himself.
“K seems excited, huh?” He settled down onto the bench with a huff.
“You know I would’ve stepped in if I thought their argument was getting serious, but it seems like they had fun debating the fabric colors of their Yule Ball outfit.” Sam softly smiled, not one of her showbiz smiles that Jammer so often saw on stream, but a smaller more comforting one.
“Wait, they were arguing?” Evan asked in alarm, eyes darting from the curtain that separated them from K and then to the door that Ms. Tottle had left through.
Jammer saw the angle he had taken from that. “Nah man, not really. It’s more like...pre-game squabbling. Sometimes the tension’s too much so you gotta let out some steam you know?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Evan still seemed worried about it, but all of them were quickly distracted by K’s yell past the curtain.
“Alright I think this is how it’s supposed to go on! I hope…”
When the curtain opened, he saw K standing there in a traditional wizard’s robes and hat. They were both a pale pink color, like an inbetween from their vibrant red and monotone black hair. The robe was covered in tiny golden stitches that all formed barely visible patterns of flowers growing along the edge of the bottom. The sleeves were covered in a similar design, and K appraised them in the brighter light of the showroom with a judgmental glare. The hat was covered in a similar gold fabric, but most of it was pink like the robes. Its long trail almost reached past K’s hair, and twirled around as they turned back and forth. It wasn’t lost on him that it bore some resemblance to Ms. Tottle’s own wand in some ways. It did look like a handmade outfit after all.
Jammer thought that they looked stunning in it. Their hair twirled out as they walked out to the dais in the middle of the room (what was it with these wizards and daises?...dai-i...he wasn’t going to try and pronounce the plural word out loud). K’s harsh glare only added to the look, much like their goth appearance was enhanced by their smokey makeup, the wizarding outfit somehow fit their piercing eyes. But, it was hard to appreciate the sight of them in front of him as they shuffled around in discomfort. No matter how good they looked, it didn’t matter if they weren’t confident in it themself.
“Not feeling it?” Sam spoke out.
“It’s too...itchy.”
That definitely was not what any of them were expecting. K pouted as the three of them held back their laughs. “It’s not that funny! It’s just too long to be comfortable like a dress would be, and it’s got no pockets! Anywhere!”
Sam suddenly looked stricken. “...no pockets anywhere?”
“I checked the entire outfit! Actually, none of them had any pockets. No wonder wizards all wear belt pouches underneath their robes, you need it for the extra storage space.”
Evan solemnly nodded his head. “Pockets are essential to any outfit.”
“Exactly, Evan!”
Jammer reluctantly cut in. “So, no bust?”
K sighed, “Well, it was the best one out of the pile. So I guess I’ll take it.”
As it turns out, K had shown them the least feminine set of robes that they had been given, which was what they were going for at the ball itself. Not that Jammer thought any of the robes they dragged out of the dressing room looked particularly ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’. It’s good that Sam had some idea about what K was talking about, because it flew over his and Evan’s heads.
“And why would they change the stitch pattern on men’s robes to a simpler design? It leads to a lot of cinched fabric in the women’s robes and too many ruffles.”
“I know right? Plus, the shade of the hat that she gave you totally washes out your eyeshadow. It’s like she didn’t even factor the makeup into the outfit!”
“Exactly!”
Jammer watched as the two went back and forth, venting out their grudges about fashion and especially about wizarding fashion. He didn’t know anything about how the Gowpenny robes were a disgrace to mankind like they did, but only Evan could hear him quietly chanting to egg them on anyway.
“That’s not even mentioning the—Oh, shouldn’t we be looking at the rest of the outfits too?” K was broken out of their passionate monologue as they glanced at the clock on their phone. “We’ve been here for an hour already.”
“Shit, have we?” Jammer grabbed his own phone out of his pocket (luckily, fixed since the last time it was broken). They were a hundred percent right, it had already been an hour since they arrived at Togs for Tart. “I’ll just get mine over with, then.”
He honestly didn’t expect the fitting to take very long, but the combined force of Ms. Tottle and K served to prove him wrong.
—
K jittered around in anticipation as Jammer walked away with his collection of dress robes, holding significantly less accessories in his arms than they had to carry over there.
“What do you think the formal rules are for male versus female wizarding dress?” they wondered.
Sam hummed. “There’s gotta be something. I bet it’s the access to belts.”
“Oh you’re so right.”
Evan, at this point trapped between the two of them as they conversed, was the first one to notice when Jammer stepped out of the curtains. His eyes had been trailing the room since they got in, and he did a double take when their resident jock walked out in his dress robes.
Jammer was covered head to toe in a slate gray fabric, with little accents of blue stars decorating the bottom of the robes. The matching hat was shorter than the previous one, but no less clunky to look around in. He kept having to tilt the base of the hat back in order to look at them all. K grumbled just a bit at the fact that the embellishments on Jammer’s robes were significantly less cumbersome than theirs. But it didn’t detract from the blush that found its way onto their cheeks at the way the robe was bulging around Jammer’s shoulders and chest.
“Damn skinny wizards…” he shifted around the cloth restraining his arms, barely able to reach his hands up above his head before the robes stopped him.
“Welcome to the world of formal outfits, Jammer.” Sam stood up to help him adjust it until it was back in some sort of intended direction. “Be prepared to sacrifice your range of movement for a few hours.”
“This is so much worse than a suit.”
“I gotta say though, better than a dress.” K had changed out of the robe pretty quick after their turn, but their usual assortment of dresses really were more uncomfortable than the robes. It did hurt a bit of the magical feeling to remember that yeah, long robes are just a bunch of fabric sewn together in a particular shape. But it was the thought that counted.
“Alright, I’m getting out of this literally as soon as possible. Who’s next?”
Sam left the dias and walked back towards Evan and K. She gave a meaningful glance at him, and Evan looked like he had been transported right in front of the nurse’s office. Well, that analogy doesn’t work as well because Evan has a really good relationship with Nurse Stitchnit but whatever.
“Evan, how’re you doing?” Sam gently asked.
His eyes narrowed a bit at the concerned tone of her voice. “I’m doing just fine! But...you can go first, if that’s cool?”
“Of course that’s cool Evan!” Sam tapped Jammer on the shoulder as they switched positions, her arms reaching for her stack of outfits to try on.
K glanced over at Jammer’s pile, which he had thrown to the side in the corner where they had also thrown the remainder of the rejected outfits. “Aww, I would’ve loved to see you in yellow.”
“Chimeron yellow baby!” He raised his hand in the signature goat pose, and both of them reflexively copied him. Evan’s goat was a bit more distracted though. “But uh, wasn’t feeling the robe.”
“Why?” Evan’s eyes trailed over the outfits with an unreadable expression on his face.
“Well, you see…” Jammer was avoiding the question, summoning his basketball and spinning it on his finger. K wanted to harp on him for the obvious nervous habit, but instead they reached over towards the outfits and grabbed the robe in question.
The robes were a muted yellow color, which K initially thought would be flattering for Jammer. But as they turned the offending outfit around there was a complex collection of interlocking ribbons lining the entire backside of it. They were a shimmery black, and hung loose at the ends trailing past the bottom of the robes. Parts of it also wrapped around the front, and completely circled the sleeves.
“It looks a bit like…” they trailed off.
“Creepy bondage shit.” Jammer finished. “Not that it’s wrong to do bondage shit! But like, not what I’m thinkin’ for a school dance.”
“So it’s definitely not ribbons that separate fashion.”
“Ya gotta ask if this is normal for them or not, right? I don’t wanna wear ribbons all the time, they get in the way of literally everything. No offense, K.”
“None taken. They’re a hassle to not tangle together.”
It was with that statement that Sam peeked out through the curtain and interrupted them. “Everything good out there?”
“Yup!” Jammer responded a bit too fast.
Taking it as the initiative she needed, Sam pushed the curtain back and waved her arms around with grace.
The robes she was wearing bore a much brighter design than either K or Jammer had before. Various multicolored clouds circled around the bottom of an almost white sky, slowly transitioning out of a pastel blue to vibrant red. When they looked closer, K could see small mountaintops breaching the cloud cover. This sort of artistry couldn’t be done with simple stitches, but they also knew that the wizard world was a mysterious place that none of them would ever understand. Instead of a traditional wizard hat on her head, Sam was wearing a jeweled headband that would have looked like a crown if not for the majority of the jewels being placed by her ears instead of the top of her forehead. Growing out of one of the larger stones was a small tree branch, which also curled up and around Sam’s head to frame her face.
“Not going to lie, I’m digging the gems.”
K groaned. “Ugh, why did you get the cloud design while I got the flowers?”
“Hey, flowers are a perfectly fine form of expression! What do we say about expressing yourself through femininity?”
“No this isn’t a femme masc issue!” They yanked over their pink robes, which did give off sort of the same vibes as the dress they were wearing right now once she saw the two side by side. “Yours has a transition of colors while mine just has linework! Plus, I swear I see those clouds moving when you walk around. That’s super cool!”
“Well yours is simplistic! I honestly like your shade of pink more than the red-orange I’m getting right about here,” Sam points to the specific spot on her robes that she was talking about. “Now that it’s in your hands I can sorta see the appeal of it. It kinda looks…um.”
“Say it Sam.”
She brought her hands up to cover her face, still mindful of her makeup. “Doesn’t it look a bit...asian?”
Jammer and Evan start staring more intently at the designs on K’s robes. Jammer gritted his teeth and let out a hiss of breath, while Evan’s curious look turned sour once he realized the connection.
“That’s...not okay to do.” Jammer muttered, moreso looking for K’s reaction than anything else.
Even meanwhile, his expression darkened. Literally.
“How dare she do that to you. We’re just here to look for new clothes and she h̶a̶d̴ ̷t̴h̵e̷ ̴g̶a̸l̴l̶ to stereotype you just based on a name that ȳ̸̝o̵͕̅u̵͍̽ ̸͉̏h̴̦͊a̷̬͐d̷͍̕ ̴̙̾ǹ̶͕o̷̕͜ ̵̘̕c̴͖͋o̵̭̕n̶͍̅t̴̢͝r̴͓͗o̶̖͌l̸̪̆ ̶̼̆ǫ̶̀v̶̖̈e̶̡͝r̵̪͝!̵̤̚”
“Evan…” He lasted so long, K thought.
“T̴͔͂h̴͗ͅá̷̢t̴̳̓'̵̡̅s̴̜̎ ̸̝́b̴̰u̶͎͒l̵̥̑l̸̤͝s̶̢̏h̵̼͌i̸̗͒t̶͎̄! You don’t deserve to be treated like some, part of a monolithic culture and not as an individual!”
“I know Evan, you’re so right dude but—”
“H̵̘̚e̴̯͝ȑ̸̤ ̷̨͛ạ̴̈s̷̲̀h̵͙̉e̸̲̍ș̶͊ w̷̢͋o̶̦͑n̶͙̱͊̌’̶̤̟̲̽̕ţ̸̡̦͂ ̴̠̺͕̑h̷̼̞̾͑ä̷̢̹̣̆̆v̸̰̥e̶͕͍̩̓̅ ̸̭̿̅t̸̫͔͎̃̆͑ḧ̸̟́̃̇ë̸̳͖́͗͘͜ ̷̩̎r̶̻̘͔̐̏ê̶̲̾w̵̛̮̭͎͋ã̵̟͉͊͆r̶̜̯͂d̶̻͙͎̄͘͝ ̸͚̾̅̏ȏ̴̯̎͋f̴̦̝͂̎̾ ̶̜̥̈́͘r̸̤̠̳͆e̵̳̐s̵̱̥̆̓t̵̠͇̎̆͜ḯ̸̡̻͉̏̕n̸̹̦̗͑g̸̡̳͈̎ o̷̲̹͗̀̚n̸̝͚̮̹̿͛̇̅ ̴̻̄̈́͑t̸̳̜̫̣̔͆͑̋ḩ̵̻͓͕̅̌͗͝ę̵̰̣͐ ̷͈̽e̷͎̻̞̳̘̕a̵̼͘r̸͈̗̫͆̈̚̚͝t̶͔̋͐h̸̡̗͎͔̐̑̓̉̕ͅ ̵̨̞̊͘͘͝a̷̛̛̗̲͘͝f̸͇͉̅t̷̯̗̂̐̆͠e̷͙̗̣̼̼͊r̵͕͇͕͛̃̈́͝ w̷̢̧̗͖̥̮͖̮̖̰͙͔̤̦̞̺̣̪̤͚̫͍̙̒̽̃̂̓̒̽̍̄͛̃̕͜ê̵̢̡̹̩̩̖̗͖͎͔̽̅̇͒̈́̀̂͆̈́͐͒̀͋͊̾̿̒͘̚͠'̶̛̘͈̰͇͈̙̬͙͚̘͇̟͓̎̆̈́̎͗̍͝r̶̨̨̞͎͇̯̱̟̪̦̞̝͇̙̰̣̳̰̘͕̦͍̞̤̓̆͌͑͂͌͛̀͗̈́̽͊ë̴̢̡̥̫͍̞͓̲̝͍͚͚̞̫̟̥̬͎́̽͆͌̋͐͂̎̍͋͠ͅ d̵̡̯̤͙̝̮̟͉͓̘̩̈́̾̾̍̊͑̇̑ǫ̶̛͇͊͑̀̌̚̕n̵̗̲̘͎̐e̴̱̥̮͂͒̆̒̈́̈́̒͠ ̸̨̨̩̺͇͚̙͚̎̋̓̎̆̋͊̿͜͠ẅ̷̝̩̰͉̱̳́̇̊̆͘͘ͅͅį̵̱̙̝̥̪̓͜t̸͉̮̗̜̔̏̿͒ḧ̴̢̞̻̹̺̥͓̣̓̅̅̓̆̉̕ ̸͍͉̖̕h̴̛̤̲͚͙̘̱͍͆ẽ̷̢̻͙͚͙̗͇̦͑̅̉̕r̶̞̱̩͈͉̲̖̻̭̤̾̆̂̎͆͊͑ͅ—̷̦̒͗̊̆͋̍͑͊̕ͅ”
“EVAN!”
The darkness retreats. Shadows that had been converging on Evan’s curled form scattered to their usual places. K wasn’t sure which one of them was the one to yell, maybe all of them had. But it worked, and Evan’s eyes returned to normal as he gasped out.
The voices had left as he curled up even tighter into himself. “...’m sorry.”
“It’s no big, Evan.” All of them had reached out at some point to touch him; Jammer’s hand on his shoulder, Sam’s on his knee, and K’s hands catching Evan’s before he could pull them out of reach.
“It’s not all that bad, Evan. Yeah sure, It’s pretty narrow-minded of her,” they scoffed. “But it’s not like I’ve dealt with worse.”
“...I kn—know.”
“Still have the energy to try on an outfit?” Sam stood back up and brushed some sparkling dust off of her robes.
Evan’s labored breathing slowed down until he was calm in K’s grasp. “Y-yeah. Yes, I want to try something on. It’s what we all came here for.”
“You got this man!” Jammer pulled Evan up by his sleeves and guided him over to the last remaining section of the clothing rack. It wasn’t long before he retreated back to the changing area with the robes and hats in his arms.
“Must’ve been the crowd.” Sam murmured. “You all saw the way he got jittery on the way here, right?”
K sighed, “I mean how could we not?”
“We’ve talked about this. We’re getting him out in public on his own terms, but reminding him to push his own limits just enough to challenge him. You never leave a teammate hanging like that.”
“God, it’s always about sports with you, huh.” K really didn’t put any malice behind their words.
“You're damn right!”
“Right about what?” Evan’s voice cut off their conversation.
He stood ducking just his head out of the curtain, wizarding hat clenched in his hand instead of on his head where it was supposed to be.
“Come on Evan, let us see!” Sam waved her hands over, both K and Jammer echoing her sentiment.
A rare blush found its way on Evan’s cheeks. “I-I don’t know if it’s…”
Jammer crossed his arms over his chest, making the Chimeron symbol on his jersey even more prominent. “You trust us, yeah?”
“Of course.” He responded so fast he must have not even given it a second of thought.
“Then you know we’ll tell you if you look dumb in the funky wizard outfit, yeah?”
Evan snorted, ducking his head down so that none of them could see the smirk on his lips (even though he didn’t do a very good job of hiding it). “Yeah.”
With the reassurances, Evan fully stepped past the curtain and fumbled for just a moment as he threw the wizard hat on his head.
All of them stared as the flowing robe came to a stop on the dias. Evan wore a dark royal purple robe, not quite covered in stars as Jammer’s had been, but sparkles themselves glittering in the stage lights. His were the longest set of robes by far, trailing down to cover the entirety of his feet once he stopped walking. He had to shuffle the sleeves up to readjust his hat, of which the underside was a vibrant version of the purple that covered the robes. Light might have been quite literally glowing out from the inside of the hat. His curly hair, pushed out by the closeness of the hat’s frame, fluffed out around his face and highlighted his cheeks.
It wasn’t that the robes themselves were any more well-made than theirs had been, but K saw the way that their two other best friends reacted (and how K knew that they were reacting as well) to the sheer wonder on Evan’s face as he looked at himself in the mirror. Gone was the look of nervousness that he had before and replacing it was just unbridled joy. It wasn’t a look that they thought they’d ever seen on his face before, and it made him even more beautiful than he already was.
Evan’s eyes darted back and forth from his chest, down to his legs, and back up to his head. The dumbfounded smile never left his face.
“I-I don’t—”
“You liking it, Evan?” Jammer teased, being the first of the three of them to drag their jaws off of the floor.
Tilting his head slightly, he watched as the rim of the hat moved with him. “It's just, it doesn't look like me at all and I…It’s wonderful.”
K noticed that even as Evan twirled around the robes, they never revealed more of the outfit underneath than just a slip of his dirtied brown shoes here and there. All that was visible was the royal purple hues, shifted in the folds of the fabric. They thought they knew what Evan meant by that, now.
“Well I’m glad that you like your outfit, Evan!” Sam clapped her hands together, eyes sparkling almost as much as the robes in question.
“Mhm.” Evan whispered, his hands never leaving the glowing fabric wrapped around his body and his eyes still locked on the image of himself in the mirror. Then he whispered something that K was just too far out of reach to hear properly.
“What was that, Evan?”
“I don’t look evil.”
Sam gasped. “Evan we’ve talked about this you’re not inherently evil—”
“I’m not evil!” Evan spoke in just barely over an inside-voice. For him, it was as though he was yelling it out.
K was about to respond as well, and to their right they saw Jammer about to attempt the same thing, but both of them froze when Evan started to laugh out loud.
It started as a small chuckle, his hand brought up to the bottom of his face in order to hide it from them, but after a moment or two that security fell away and they basked in the glow that Evan’s smile provided.
—
Jim Jam:
fuck
T2’s Owner:
That enough of a gay awakening for one day?
Xx_BrokenDreams_xX:
its alright big boy, everyone’s a little gay for evan
T2’s Owner:
I'm a little straight for evan, ngl
Xx_BrokenDreams_xX:
this just in. i am now evansexual
T2’s Owner:
We know.
Jim Jam:
we know