A date. 

That’s what Skye called it. A single word that instantly changed so much. A word that brought about feelings I didn’t know I had, mostly about how I felt about her. I wasn’t sure what to do with those, so I did what I always did with confusing thoughts.

I bottled it up and buried it.

Maybe I’ll dig it back up later, but right now I can’t even imagine dating someone. I’ll wait till I finally feel comfortable as me, which surely should happen any day now right? Then once that happens I’ll finally be able to date as I please. Just need to wait a little more…

Well, not that it matters anyway. I realized on the way there that she meant ‘a date’ in a non-romantic kind of way. I think that’s a thing? I wasn’t sure honestly.

Either way, we all piled into Eve’s car and she drove us down to one of the malls in the city. Whitewillow mall. The place had dozens of different stores to choose from, but there wasn’t really anything that interested me.

The two girls had plans though, so I was getting dragged along either way. Eve wanted to check out a clothing store, and Skye wanted to check out some weird tech store to buy new parts for her lab.

They wouldn’t let me just stay as a tag along though, they demanded I pick a place to go as well. I ended up deciding on a pizza place for lunch since I was kinda hungry, and it seems that was enough for them as they agreed to it.

Which brings us to where we are now, me and Eve standing outside the tech store as Skye did her shopping. We were like two birds of a feather, I think that’s the term? We both agreed that tech stuff was far too complicated for our brains to handle, so Skye let us stand outside.

“Hey Eve?” I asked her as we waited.

“Hmm? What’s up?”

“Why are you going to a clothing store? With your powers can’t you just wear whatever you want?”

She shrugged her shoulders as she answered. “I guess I could do that, it’d definitely be cheaper. But it wouldn’t be as fun.”

“Fun?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “I’m not sure I’ve ever had fun going shopping for clothes. Is that even possible?”

“Maybe you just haven’t found a style that fits you. Since we’re headed there next, maybe it's a good time for you to find a new look.” 

“I’m happy with my current style, so no thanks,” I say with a frown.

“Hoodies don’t count as a style.” She said as she looked me up and down.

“Now that is definitely not true," Skye commented as she left the store with a bag in hand. 

"Oh, hey Skye. That was quick." Eve said as she turned towards the girl. "You got everything you needed?" 

She nodded and held her bag up. "Yeah, got the parts I've been needing for a while. I should be able to make progress on fixing Tami."

"Wait, what happened to her?" I asked with a frown. I was a little worried for our mechanical friend. "Last I saw she was perfectly fine."

"Oh right, you've never seen her combat body have you?" Skye asked. "She got injured awhile back and I've been a bit slow at repairing her. You need to visit the lab one of these days, it's my pride and joy after all."

"Sure, I'll visit if you want me to," I replied with a nod. Main reason I hadn't gone down there yet was because I didn't want to intrude. Plus, I don't trust myself around electronics or shiny things. If I see something that catches my eye, it'll be hard to keep myself from touching it. I wouldn't want to accidentally break anything.

"Great!" She responded with the cutest of smiles. "Now let's get the rest of our shopping trip underway. I'm sure we don’t want to be standing around all day."

I nodded and then we followed behind Eve as she made her way towards the store she picked out. It was a unisex store, so they had just about everything available clothing wise.

I tried to convince them that I'll just wait outside until they were done, but they weren't having it. Eve almost dragged me in there and told me to at least go browse the aisles. She said that if I didn't at least go look, then I would never find something I'd like.

So we split up, I went towards the men's section while the other two went to the women's section. 

Which went about as expected.

I looked over the shirts but couldn't find anything I liked. Went to the pants, but couldn't find anything. Went to look at jackets, but- well, you get the idea.

I think I spent less than ten minutes total before I gave up. Might as well go tell them I failed and maybe then they'll let me go wait outside.

Which, again, went about as expected.

Eve decided that I could still spend time with them by following them around and giving my opinion on their outfits. Which I guess is more entertaining than waiting outside.

"So, what do you think about this one?" Eve asked as she held up a pink blouse in her left hand.

"I dunno…" I said as I looked over it with a hand on my chin. "It's not really your style. Ah, sorry, that was probably rude."

"Don't be, you're right. It completely doesn't match me at all. I'm just glad you have some fashion sense, even if you don't show it." She said as she put it away, and pulled out a similar blouse but in grey. "And this one?"

I nodded. "Definitely suits you."

"Good, give me a minute to go make sure it fits." 

I stood around awkwardly as I waited. Skye was picking through the clothes, but wasn't asking me anything about how they looked on her like Eve did. 

I turned towards the clothes rack and started glancing through them. Maybe if I help them pick stuff out it will go faster.

I picked up a forest green shirt, and I couldn't help but rub my thumb across the fabric. It was so much softer and nicer than the stuff they have in the mens section. It was kinda unfair really.

Using my imagination, I tried to think up what the outfit would look like on either of them. I imagine a black skirt would probably pair well with the shirt, and the dark green color would probably match well with her brown hair.

Wait, brown hair? But neither of them has brown hair…

Sigh.

Great, I was thinking of her and the dream again. Even when I'm awake I can't seem to escape from her. I used to be able to bury that desire, but now it keeps coming back.

Just why won't it stay away…

I put back the shirt and step away from the rack of clothes. I need to clear my head and staring at those clothes isn't helping.

I noticed Skye giving me a weird look. Which I guess to be fair is to be expected. I probably looked like a creep going through those clothes.

Surprisingly though, that weird look wasn't her being creeped out. Nor did she look disgusted or offended by what I was doing.

Instead, she seemed to be giving me a look of...is that sympathy? With a slight mix of curiosity there as well. I don't really know, but I'm glad that I didn't creep her out. 

Still though, I think I'm just about done with all this. Looking at all the feminine clothes around me is causing thoughts to resurface that I really don't want to have right now. Plus, I have this weird feeling of my stomach twisting itself the longer I stay here. 

Am I getting sick? I hope not, I need to be ready for our next mission. Whenever that is.

"Hey Ja-," Skye started with a concerned tone, but weirdly stopped mid sentence. "We're almost done if you want to go wait outside."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna go get Eve and we'll go once we pay for everything."

"Well...okay," I said as I turned around and headed for the store exit.

Once I'm out of there, I suddenly felt like it was much easier to breathe again. And my stomach wasn't twisting as much anymore.

I let out a sigh of relief and waited for my friends to finish shopping.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Eve Pov

The pizzeria was, thankfully, not very busy so we managed to find a table quite easily. The table was in the corner of the building, and it was away from the few other patrons inside so that was a plus.

I sat down on one side of the booth with Skye sitting next to me, Jason sat on the other side of the booth facing towards us.

After we ordered, Jason excused himself to the bathroom so it was just me and Skye. 

Finally.

I reached down between us and grabbed her hand, and she grabbed mine. Our fingers intertwined while my thumb rubs the back of her hand.

She leans against my shoulder and lets out a cute little sigh. I was in heaven right now.

"I missed this," I whisper as we lean against each other.

"You know, we could always go back to doing this at home." She said quietly. "But I do miss this too."

I sighed. "You know why I'm uncomfortable with that right now."

"I get it, but you really don't need to worry about what everyone thinks about us. We'll be fine, trust me."

"I just don’t want to chase Jason off with our lifestyle. We finally got enough people to start focusing on our goal, but I'm afraid he'll leave our group if he doesn't approve of us. Then we'll be right back to where we started."

"Even if that happened, then we would be better off without such a teammate," Skye said as she broke away to look at me. "But you don't need to worry about that. There's no way they would ever leave us because of our relationship."

"Why do you say that?" I asked. She seems really confident about that and it made me curious.

"Just a hunch on something, but it isn't my place to mention it. I really shouldn't be assuming it either." She said before she let out a sigh. "I understand why you wanted to hide us being together for now, but a relationship requires two, sometimes three or more people. And those people can get lonely too."

I leaned down and we shared a short but sweet kiss.

"Well then, I better make sure you're not feeling lonely." I kissed the top of her head before continuing. "But you're right, I need to stop caring what people think of us but it may take me some time to change that part of me. I don't know if we can stop hiding today, or even tomorrow, but I promise it won't take much longer. Will that be okay with you?"

"Hmmm, I dunno~. Maybe I need an extra kiss or three to make sure." She said as she leaned up and planted her lips upon my own. "But yes, that's fine by me. Take as long as you need."

"Skye, I-"

"Sorry that took a while, but I'm back," Jason said as he slid into the booth before looking between the two of us with a confused look. "Did...something happen while I was gone?"

Skye glanced at me for a second, before turning towards Jason and replying with a smile.

"Nope."