Eris was in high spirits. Now that I think of it, she's been on the up and up over the past week. She's even put on a neon pink shirt under her black hoodie. It made for an interesting contrast with my zip-up light gray jacket.

"I am so done with this running around!" she exclaimed with relief while leading me through the city.

"So this is what you've been up to, in between all the games and social media stuff?" I asked and smirked.

"Don't you make that face!" she pouted at me. "If it weren't for me speeding around town with greasy food and making a nice face for tips, we wouldn't be able to hit the stores we're about to hit today!"

She walked proudly ahead of me, turning to look at me while walking backwards.

"Can you make a nice face at me?" I asked.

"Will you give me a tip?"

"Just the tip?"

She momentarily looked vexed, then smirked, winked her left eye and stuck out her tongue. I assumed in her head, she saw little stars sparkle from behind her.

She turned around and, when we neared a large shopping center, walked briskly ahead, almost hopping towards the entrance, while gesturing at me. We had to get ready for the big occasion.

I didn't know the place at all. I never had a reason to come here. Passing through the air-conditioned entry corridor and down a wide alley of book stores, drug stores, and various brand retailers, I would every now and then glance into the display windows. In the neatly cleaned display windows, I saw the reflections of Eris and myself. Even though I was obviously walking a fair distance from anyone, I felt something touching and lightly grasping at my shoulders. My demonic minder tagging along. We took a sharp turn right at the end of the hall, walking into what seemed like a clothing and accessories store, large enough to house a mini-market near my apartment, with plenty more space to spare. It even had an internal escalator leading to yet another storey of fabric-related goods.

"Woaaahhh!" Eris said with glee, walking quickly towards a section labeled "costumes". As soon as she found herself in an aisle which tickled her fancy, she started rummaging through the selection of parts of superhero and supervillain attire, iconic T-shirts worn by anime and movie characters, and spandex over-alls. Her eyes grew wide as she saw a frilly black dress with a wide hem, covered with multiple layers of lace.

"Look, it's just like in Vampiric Shoujo Princess School 2 EX!" she gushed, touching the clothing all over.

"Do you think it will do?" I asked.

"No, no, it won't," she said, "but it's so cool and maybe... maybe I can..."

She put her left hand up to her face and touched her index finger under her lower lip, deep in concentration. I looked to the side and saw male costumes and costume parts—I could be a master spy, an ancient lancer, or even a dragon knight, complete with a sword. I wandered down the aisle for a while, which ended with baggy wizard robes, then turned around to see if Eris had made any progress. Not only did she still seem fascinated with everything lacy and frilly, comparing details with something she had on her phone, she had already found a pair of black cat ears and started wearing them on her head. Approaching her, I felt overwhelmed with charm.

"Myaoww," she mimicked a cat raising its paw while taking a selfie. She turned to me when I stood about five paces away. "Bet not even your succubus looks this good!" she struck a pose, complete with a peace sign.

That's when I realized—Ra'zizi had wandered off somewhere.

Finally, we advanced to another section of the store. It seemed like Eris was going for a more classy look, a light brown button-up jacket with a high collar and belt, a turtleneck white sweater and classy, straight cut dark grey pants. I watched in confusion as she wandered from row to row, also picking up a white, buttonless jacket, a bodycon, dark red evening dress, two button-up shirts, a slate blouse and, finally a pair of silk stockings.

"Alright, I'm gonna need your advice," she said.

"Advice?"

"Which clothes to pick, dummy!" she pouted, then tilted her head and fluttered her eyelashes, looking up at me. "I'm no good at making choices like these..."

"Uh, sure, no problem," I replied.

"Great!" she said, then started walking away from me.

"Wait, where are we going?" I asked, taking a step behind her.

"Sheesh, where could we be going?" she turned around and rolled her eyes. I realized there was a changing room right behind her. She walked backwards, held onto the curtain with her left hand, then tilted her head again and and gestured at me to come to her with her right hand. "Come on, you didn't think I'd be changing in here?"

Sheepishly, I followed.

"Don't get any weird ideas," she said, looking aside and pulling the curtain while I sat on a little chair, next to the mirror. "This is just to help me decide."

She proceeded to undress and, even though I thought I was by then numbed to seeing naked women in real life, both from the experience with Suzanne and Ra'zizi, I somehow ended up feeling shy. As I looked at her pulling her hoodie then shirt off, I felt my cool exterior, shaped by the trauma and instanity around me and within me, melt away, exposing what I wasn't sure should be the case - I cared about Eris. Beyond sexual attraction, beyond the fact that I realized the size of her breasts was bigger than her attire let show, there was a bit within me that wanted her to succeed, in life and in this little plan. I had no idea what was going on with this woman, what more layers of curiosity lie within, and it made me excited. She laid her perversions out in the open whenever we talked, and it made me feel connected. I wanted to help. I wanted Eris to be happy.

"Stop staring like that!" she chided me and threw her shirt on my face, laughing.

By the time I was pulling it off, she was already putting on the buttoned one. The white of the fabric complemented her light peach skin color. She proceeded to pull her jeans down and I remembered to turn my head avert my eyes. There was a sound of a delicate material rubbing softly against something.

"Come on, what are you doing?" she asked. "You can look!"

I moved my head back and saw her pulling on the stockings. They were thin enough to seem almost immaterial, but also tight - perhaps a bit too tight, but the way the welts squeezed on her legs did make gorgeous indentations in the flesh of her thigh.

"Those look good," she said, looking at herself in the mirror. "What do you think?"

"A-aren't they a bit too tight?"

"Hmm, I think that's the charm though? Plus, they look good in a combination with this shirt... right?"

I glanced at the mirror and then back at Eris, striking what seemed like a pose for a photoshoot, hand on her hip, head tilted back. The cat ears were still on her head. She mused for a moment more, then finally gave her verdict.

"Yes, these will be good together. Now," she looked directly at me. "I need you to close your eyes."

"Wha... Why?"

"I need them to be... What do you call it? Fresh! Yes, fresh!" she waved her hand around. "Anyways, close them and no peeking until I say!"

"Okay..."

I held my hand in front of my face and turned away with eyes closed. A few more moments of shuffling, then a slightly strained huff reached my ears, and I started seriously wondering what was going on.

"Hnngh... Alright! You can look now!" she said.

I opened my eyes, moved my head away and turned. Eris was standing right next to me, in the neatly-fitting bodycon dress that underlined her frankly impressive curves, usually hidden under baggy clothes. The seam pulled my eyes along the outline, up the torso and then across and down to her cleavage. She was looking down at me, leaning over.

"So, what do you say?" she let her voice hang at the end, with that tone of uncertainty which made it impossible to tell her seriousness from her jest.

"It's..." I paused, a bit shocked at how fast her image change was, and how striking she looked now. Seeing a frown start forming on her face, I finished, "It looks good. Amazing!"

"Hmph... good enough. By the way, you haven't answered the question," she said, and I felt confused.

"Your question?" I asked, confused.

Eris examined herself in the mirror for a while, then turned away from me, and started taking the dress off while shaking her head.

"The one I asked you way before... You haven't told me..." she paused to pull the cloth down. Standing only in underwear, she turned around and leaned in, giving me a good look at the top sides of her breasts held up by her white bra. "... are we dating?"

"We..." I noticed her looking seriously at me, with a slight worry. Our gazes were locked together and Eris started slowly leaning forward, closer and closer.

"These few weeks..." she said, getting close enough for me to see a single off-color brown hair in her eyebrows. Having put her hands on her knees, she kept on leaning closer, and her voice quieted down to a murmur. "That has been the most exciting my life has been... in a while."

Her hair was slightly messy, and the expression on her face still had a trace of the look of disinterested mockery, but her turquoise-green eyes were in sharp focus, looking directly into mine. They and the slightly parted little lips told all. I felt my own lips begin to open up as we were just about a dozen centimeters apart. Eris moved a bang of her hair aside and we started tilting our heads in opposite directions, and started slowly closing our eyes.

A loud, shrill alarm came blaring from multiple directions - a squeal changing in pitch between two dissonant notes. Eris straightened her back up, clutching her head. I had to plug my own ears for a moment. The sound volume lowered for a moment.

"Attention, customers. This is a fire alarm. Please evacuate the mall in an orderly fashion," a monotone pre-recorded voice came over speakers installed somewhere overhead. Eris began putting on her clothes quickly, and we made our way out of the store and down the crowded interior walkway.

God damn it.