Nimble fingers flicked through the fabrics as Lizzy searched for something, then, satisfied, pulled free a burgundy, long sleeved, and comfy looking cardigan. V had been drawn to it for its colour and the pretty pattern of the stitches; somehow the raised ridges resembled the flowers she had yearned to touch and smell in the manor gardens so long ago… oh, if only she had been allowed outside.
She had asked the gardener drones once what it was like out there. In her life before, she had only ever known the long, stark corridors and cubicle filled rooms of an office in the city. There had been no plants, and the surrounding high-rises outside the windows had blotted out the sky. So, the only time she had spent outside had been that brief interlude when Tessa had carried her from the dump to the front door, and… well, V had been so terrified and confused she hadn’t taken the time to appreciate the roses as they passed them by. She wouldn’t feel the breeze on her casing or the grass under her feet again until…
Until…
“You okay?” Lizzy asked. “You look a bit spaced out.”
“O-Oh… yeah. I was just thinking. Uh… it’s nice, right?” She asked, almost a little too eager for Lizzy’s approval. Lizzy nodded, brushing her finger-pads gently over the stitches and V felt herself fall back into a state of ease. Things were different now. She could be different.
Extending a hand out to V, Lizzy flicked her fingers in a silent beckon - a signal for V to hand her something. Confused, V tilted her head and Lizzy sighed, rolling her eyes.
“The jacket,” she said, matter-of-factly. “Hand it over.”
V hesitated only for a moment, eyes flicking to the flimsy curtain separating them from the prying eyes of the outside world. Then, she relented, unzipping her jacket and dropping it into Lizzy’s waiting palm. It… still felt so strange, to stand stark and bare without it shielding the tender scars surrounding the glass panel of her chest.
“I so can’t wait to throw this dirty, old rag in the trash when we get home,” Lizzy’s voice rattled V from her thoughts, her attention now squarely back on the Worker. Her nose-bump had wrinkled with disgust as she held it at arm’s length as though it might leap out and bite her.
“You’d better not.”
Lizzy huffed and tossed it into the corner of the bench beside them. “Aw come on, you’re not actually sentimental about that thing are you?”
V’s mane twitched uncomfortably. “I-It’s… complicated,” she forced the words out through her teeth. “It’s-”
“All you’ve ever known. I know.” Lizzy let her voice soften, a hand smoothing up V’s glass panel to rest against the crook of her neck. “Will you at least let me wash it when we get home? You keep staining the new pillows I got for the sofa.”
“…Fine.” V mumbled, curling her tail around Lizzy’s waist. It seemed like a fair enough compromise… and besides, she couldn’t deny that the fabric conditioner Lizzy used for her own clothes always smelled pretty good. Definitely a step up from the scent of decay she was used to.
Lizzy helped V into a cream, pinstripe shirt, slowly fastening the buttons with a dexterity V couldn’t hope to manage with her clumsy fingers built for destruction. The top-most were left undone, and Lizzy fidgeted with the collar, digits lingering near V’s neck. When she was finally satisfied, she whirled around to grab the cardigan, slowly guiding V’s chunky wrists through the fabric, and draping it loosely around her shoulders.
The weight of it felt… comforting. Like V was enclosed in a blanket, and yet not entrapped in the slightest. To be able to move around like this while feeling so… oddly safe. It was almost alien.
“Comfy?” Lizzy asked as she rolled up the sleeves to V’s elbows. V hummed in affirmation, and Lizzy smiled, pausing to meet her eye. “You know, you’re starting to look like a normal person. Like, the kind who doesn’t go around biting people’s arms off if they look at you wrong.”
You guys can have a double page update for #WIPWednesday today... as a treat...
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