Alluka &amp; Nanika Zoldyck

So that was settled! Happy water kittens for all! Or, well, for Mabel at least.

... If the store had them.

"Do you think they'll have them?" she asks, peering around the section. "Maybe they're special and hard to get?"

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Well, Ringo couldn't argue with any of that. "Mabel seems pretty crafty. I bet that if they don't have a suit with a bathing suit cat on it, we can find a suit to put a cat on..."

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"Maybe a plainer one, then?" Alluka asked, though she wasn't super excited by that idea. "But Mabel deserves a super cute one!"

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"I don't see why she can't find a cute one and still have room for a cat." Ringo squinted thoughtfully. "I bet if we look, we can find something!"

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"I'm pretty crafty," Mabel bragged. "And besides, I already have a bathing suit. The important thing is that we get one for Alluka. After all, she's had to miss out on some pretty great classes already!"

See Mabel. See Mabel size Alluka up for a moment, and then go bounding to rifle through the swimsuit selection.

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Ringo laughed and followed. "So what are we going to pick out for her?" Because that was how it worked.

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"Something cute," Mabel replied, because really, there was no other choice, was there? "Maybe in pink, or purple, with pretty flowers or polka dots or..."

She was grabbing suits off the racks by the armload, for the record.

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Ringo glanced back at Alluka with a grin. "Something with some cute ruffles, do you think?"

Sorry, Alluka, Ringo really did think of you as kind of younger than you were. Also, she happened to think that ruffles were cute!

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What could possibly make Ringo think that? Her stuffed toys? Her lack of understanding of the world? Her general manner?

In any case, Alluka made a happy noise and left off staring at Mabel's growing collection of options in fascination to look at Ringo instead. "All the ruffles!" she said, delighted. "They're so fun and fluffy!"

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"Fluffy ruffles, we can do," Mabel decreed, putting... half of the swimsuits back for not being ruffly enough. And then shoving the survivors Alluka's way. "Do you like any of these? Fluffy! Fun! Probably even in your size!"

She was generally good at guesstimating. They'd fit.

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Ringo grinned over at Alluka. "You don't have to rush to a decision. You can try them on before you decide!" Because that was at least half the fun!

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Alluka's eyes went big at... at all the options being offered to her.

"How am I supposed to choose?!"

It really wasn't like she had a lot of experience with picking from a bunch of options. Yes, she'd did it with Kathy. Once.

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With a laugh, Ringo settle one hand on Alluka's shoulder, lightly steering her toward the changing rooms. "Well, you obviously can't decide until you've tried them on and know how they look." Duh. "So the first thing you do is do that!"

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"I'm going to be in there for hours!" she protested, laughing and trying not to drop her armful of options as Ringo steered her in the right direction.

"What if you guys get bored?"

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"We'll entertain ourselves," Mabel decreed. "Picking out swimsuits for ourselves and everything!"

And if that failed, Mabel brought stickers. Because... stickers. They were always entertaining.

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"Are, are you going to have an armful to try on too?" she asked.

That was only fair!

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"Sure thing," Mabel decided. "After we find you one, since you need one the most, you can help us pick out an armful!"

Because it was only fair, and Mabel loved trying on new clothes.

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"Okaaaaay!" Alluka said, as they reached the change rooms. "So I just go in and try them on and, and see what you two think?"

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"Exactly! You try one on, and if you like it, but want our opinion, you come out and show us!" And they would totally oooh and aaah over it. "Then once you decide what you want, we go next!" Awesome, right?

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"Okaaaay!" she said happily, picking one of the change rooms and wandering in with her armful of options. She stuck her head back out though, just long enough to ask: "You'll both stay around?"

It was just that she was used to being alone but it was kinda nice to not be, so if they wanted to stay around, she'd like that.

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"We're not going anywhere," Mabel promised, drawing an X over her heart and giving her feet a little shuffle to show that they were firmly planted to the floor. "I'll be right here when you come out again!"

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She beamed at both Mabel and Ringo and then disappeared into the changing room, taking their word for it.

Once she actually got a chance to look at the outfits, narrowing down the process turned out to be a bit easier than she'd thought it would be. She tried on one of the two pieces, but didn't like the way the top scrunched up when she moved, so all the ones with two pieces got... well, okay, they got tossed in a corner. Some of the ones Mabel had picked out just plain didn't fit, so those also got tossed in the corner. (The store person was possibly going to cry.)

But she did find one she liked. It had a cute ruffle, and a funny wave design at the top, and it was an eye-searing shade of pink. Perfect.

She did a spin in the mirror to see what it looked like and nodded seriously. It was perfect, but she'd bet Mabel would help make it more perfect, if she asked if they could add sparklies to it somehow. She remembered about that time that Mabel and Ringo were waiting for her and bounced out of the change room to pose.

"What do you think?"

Thanks to the way Alluka had grown up, she'd never been taught that there were such a thing as usually-girl-bodies and usually-boy-bodies and that while she was a girl that she had what most people would say was a boy-body, which meant that in a bathing suit, which hugged her body, it was really obvious that she didn't have a typical girl-body. The lack of breasts and curve to her hips could still be explained away by her age--fourteen, after all, was still quite young and not all girls developed early--but there was no denying that there was something between her legs that most girls didn't have, and Alluka had no idea that that was something that made her different from most girls.

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Well, that was a surprise for Ringo. Of course, as soon as she realized she was surprised she kicked herself mentally because she'd seen enough of the way Alluka moved that it should have been obvious how the other girl's hips were structured. That was the kind of thing she was supposed to be good at.

So there was only a moment's pause before Ringo cooed. "Oooooh, that's super-cute! The ruffles are almost like a skirt!"

If her tone was just a bit stilted, that was because some part of her brain was trying to figure out if, or when, she should bring up some personal topics with Alluka.

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Mabel, meanwhile, managed to hide her momentary bluescreen rather well behind a big blink and a headtilt that looked mostly like she was contemplating the skirt. She had no idea what Alluka was built like under those dresses, but she was pretty good at rolling with the unexpected.

Which was good. It meant that she was going to enact A Plan almost immediately. There was barely a missed beat before she was making a reach for another item from one of the racks.

"A skirt!" She grabbed a cute one that looked like it would fit, and held it out to Alluka. "That's just what that whole outfit needs! That cute ruffle is great, but a proper skirt to go with it would finish off the whole look and make you even cuter!"

And less conspicuous. But one selling point at a time, here.

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