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The sensation of stepping into the lingerie store reminded Neil of the familiar atmosphere of an Exy stadium – it was all blinding lights, noise, and the sight of what felt like a million strangers at once.
She definitely preferred the Exy court, though.
Andrew, who had stepped into the store in front of her, could feel her hesitation. She turned back to Neil with an impatient look on her face. “Are you coming in or what?”
Neil gave herself a mental push and went further into the store, looking for a sign that said ‘sports bras’ or ‘athleisure’, but there wasn’t one in sight. Instead, she found herself in a hell of underwear that was either lacy, flimsy, see-through, or all three at once. When she spotted a very well-endowed mannequin wearing a bright pink set that left absolutely nothing to the imagination – was that an open crotch? – she averted her eyes and looked at the ground, not sure why she suddenly felt so ashamed.
Next to her, she could hear Andrew chuckling. “Is this your first time seeing plastic mannequin tits? Stop being such a little bitch and let’s go. I don’t have all day to be your shopping assistant, I have to get to practice later.”
Neil bit back a comment about the fact that they were, in fact, on the same team and thus both had to get to practice later. If they started bickering now, this trip would take even longer and she wanted this to be as brief as possible. Sure, some inexplicable part of her was happy about spending some time alone with Andrew that wasn’t just filled with them hooking up on a cold roof without exchanging a single word. But the lingerie store and Andrew’s whole mission made her deeply uncomfortable.
-
This nightmare had started the day before, when they had actually had a bedroom to themselves for once. Their roommate Renee was out of town for the weekend to visit her foster mother, and approximately two seconds after she had said goodbye, Andrew had locked the door, climbed on Neil’s lap (she did that now sometimes, but always still kept some distance between their bodies), impatiently pulled Neil’s shirt off, and frowned. “What the hell? Maybe it’s better that we usually do this in the dark. This ugly rag you’re wearing looks like a dead rat, and smells like it too. Way to kill the mood.”
Neil had looked down at her small breasts. When she had been twelve years old and on the run with her mother, her mother once stopped at a mall, left Neil in the car, and came back 15 minutes later with a sports bra and a grey little bustier. Since Neil’s boobs hadn’t actually grown much since then, she had just kept them and never bought a different bra. Why would she? Nobody saw her in her underwear anyways – well, that had changed in the past few months, but up until this point, Andrew never seemed to care and was mostly interested in taking it off as quickly as possible. And the sports bra was just thrown in the wash with her other gear every week. Sure, the smell could get a little interesting, but it wasn’t like anyone ever smelled of roses on the court.
Now, she suddenly felt self-conscious about it. Andrew sensed that, and doubled down. “Neil, this is the ugliest excuse for a bra I’ve ever seen. If I see you in this one more time, I’m never going down on you ever again. Get a new one. That is not a question, it’s an order.”
Neil had shifted slightly underneath the weight of Andrew’s thighs. She felt so many emotions run through her at once, every single one requiring her attention – anger at this insult, confusion about her apparently subpar hookup attire (why were there so many rules about this stuff?), and underneath it all, still that sweet and strange new sensation of arousal caused by a warm body on top of her. She wanted to let herself get kissed stupid by Andrew, and she wanted to keep doing it for the foreseeable future. That only left her one option. “Okay. But I don’t know what to get. I don’t know my bra size.”
Andrew punched her arm. “What sort of a strange girl are you? How do you not know your bra size?”
“Well… no need. Too small to ever need new underwear.” It made sense that Andrew would know more about bra sizing than her, since even though Andrew always wore huge baggy shirts and never took them off for Neil, she had seen glimpses of Andrew in the changing room and knew that Andrew’s chest had definitely gotten bigger since age twelve. By a lot.
Andrew sighed. “I guess I’m taking you shopping tomorrow.”
And then, despite all of her warnings, she had pulled Neil in, kissed her hard, and immediately slipped her hand underneath the oh-so-disgusting bra.
-
Now, Neil regretted the promise she had made in a horny haze. Her and Andrew stood in front of a rack – ha ha, rack, Nicky would definitely make a joke about that if she was here with them – and eyed up some bras. A woman with a high ponytail and a fake smile rounded the corner of the aisle. “Hey, girls! I’m Kayleigh! What can I help you with today?”
Andrew turned to the side to talk to her. “We need to buy a bra for my- for her. In case that’s not obvious. What else would we be looking for in a bra shop?” Her voice was monotone, but for some reason, Neil’s heart skipped a beat hearing the word “my” from Andrew’s mouth, even if she’d corrected herself a second later.
Kayleigh’s smile grew a little irritated at Andrew’s unfriendly tone, but she caught herself and replied “Of course! What sort of thing are you looking for? What’s your size?”
She looked Neil up and down for a second. “34AA, I’d guess?”
Before Neil could comprehend what was happening before her eyes, Andrew had backed Kayleigh up against the wall next to the bra rack. She pulled a knife out of her shirt – she always kept several blades in her bra, and Neil had no idea how that was possible – and put it to Kayleigh’s throat. “Don’t be ridiculous. She’s obviously a 32AA. Any idiot with eyes can spot that in a second. If the sorry excuse for a salesgirl that you are ever insinuates that my teammate has a different size than what she actually has, I will skin you alive and roast your flesh as a punishment for doing your job wrong. Understood?”
Kayleigh whimpered.
“I said, understood?!”
Kayleigh nodded slowly and Andrew took the knife away from her skin, casually putting it back to where it came from in one swift, practiced movement. Her voice was calm again when she said “Then show us the 32AA bras.”
For some reason, the salesgirl disappeared very quickly after showing them to the aisle with Neil’s size. Even though Neil didn’t want to trigger Andrew’s temper again, she simply had to know. “How’d you guess my bra size so quickly?”
Andrew made a sound that almost sounded like a laugh. “First of all, I’ve had my hands and mouth on your pathetic little mosquito bites quite a few times, so I know how small they are. Plus when you’re my size, you involuntarily become a bit of an expert at these things.”
This was the first time Andrew talked about anything that was even just remotely about her own body, which shocked Neil for a second. Obviously Andrew was uncomfortable with it as well, because she immediately changed the topic. “Why are you so immature and can’t handle looking at boobs, Neil?”
Neil thought about it for a second and decided to settle on the truth, considering that Andrew knew about her past already. “I never felt like I actually belonged in girls’ spaces, you know? I was always on the run, always hiding something. When the other girls in one of my school started talking about cute underwear, I was only thinking about survival and where me and my mother would move to next. I always felt like an intruder on their locker room conversations. And I guess bras are just a classic teenage girls’ locker room topic, so the discomfort kind of… stuck.”
Andrew sighed. “Damn, you couldn’t even give me the standard ‘I was a baby lesbian and was terrified to be found out as a boob enthusiast’ answer. It’s always something special and sad with you.”
Neil gave her a sideways smirk. “Looks like we have something in common.”
Andrew said nothing, and Neil got busy looking through the bra options. She finally settled on a few items she wanted to try on: A simple grey one, a similar one in green, a blue one with a ridiculous little bow in the middle, and, after a little hesitation, a black one that was sure to leave little to the imagination. It was slightly see-through and had lace on the edges, and Neil could have sworn he saw Andrew’s eyes slightly widen before she cleared her throat and said “Come on, let’s get you to the changing rooms.”
Trying the bras on was every bit as embarrassing as Neil had feared it would be. Andrew insisted on coming into the cramped stall with her to assess the fit of the clothing. Getting undressed could be hot – Neil had learned that recently – but this was just horrible: being squeezed together in a little cubicle, elbows and clothes everywhere. Like if an Exy locker room was only two square feet big. Oh, how she wished she could be at Exy practice right now instead of this.
With every bra she wrestled into, Andrew looked her up and down, critiquing and assessing whether the fit was right. This was something Neil was actually thankful for, because how would she know if something fit right? Her only bra so far was practically a dishrag and had no shape to speak of. With Andrew’s help, she decided to buy every single one except for the blue one, since it pinched at the back.
When she put on the lacey black underwear, she saw her suspicions confirmed: This one didn’t leave Andrew unaffected. She looked at the fit very thoroughly and didn’t seem to be able to tear her eyes away for a few seconds. She just stood there, close to Neil, definitely didn’t look her in the eyes, and mumbled in a hoarse voice “yeah, I think that one’s a good fit”.
“Oh, do my ‘mosquito bites’ look good after all, Miss Objective Bra Scientist?” Neil couldn’t help but tease.
“Shut up. I hate you.” Andrew poked her hard in the stomach with her finger before suddenly closing what little distance was left between them and pulling Neil into a hot, open-mouthed kiss. Neil chuckled into her mouth before she was shocked into silence by the feeling of Andrew’s hand suddenly sneaking up to the edge of her soon-to-be-new-bra. For a moment, she wanted to give herself over to this feeling and repeat the actions of last night, but then she pulled away. “Nope. I haven’t paid this yet, and I really don’t want Kayleigh to come and check on us.”
Before any of them could change their mind again, Neil turned to pull the bra off – angled away from Andrew’s hungry eyes – and changed back into her bulky Foxes sweatshirt. “Let’s go. Practice starts in an hour.”
At the register, Andrew smiled sweetly and said “By any chance, do you sell bras with sheathes for knives sewn into them?”
She got no response from the cashier.
As they left, they heard Kayleigh come up to the register and loudly whisper to her coworker: “Jesus Christ, I knew lesbians were dramatic, but I’ve never met a pair this horrible.”
When they were back in the car, Andrew threatened Neil with a second shopping trip. “Don’t think you’re off the hook just because you bought some bras, Josten. I’ve seen your underwear, and I swear to God, you need to switch to cotton pants. You’re a walking yeast infection risk with those synthetic fabrics, and I want none of that. Especially not near my mouth.”
Neil sighed and bit back a smile.