[It's just fabric.]

"Yes, I know! But like, it's…" I stared at the offending article of clothing in question. How do you even begin to tell someone how you get this irrational fear of being caught with clothes you aren't supposed to have.

[You don't need to tell me. You are literally flooding me with anxiety and fear right now.] Ashley sighed, and I could feel the concern and worry coming off her. Something I have been slowly learning to do outside her weird shadowy realm.

[You don't have to wear this you know.]

"But I need to. It's a date." 

[It's not even your first date. Skye will be happy even if you showed up naked.] An image of Ashley grinning flashed in my mind. [Probably really happy actually.]

I blushed knowing that she was a hundred percent correct. "Can we skip the teasing? Not today please."

[Sorry, no more teasing. For today at least.]

"Thank you," I sighed in relief, before glancing back down at the cloth laying flat on my bed. Light blue with a flowery design. Despite my hesitation and fears,

It was a pretty dress.

[But my point still stands. You don't need to dress up to make her happy, she'll be glad to see you even if you show up in pajamas.]

"She told me it was a special date, she reserved seats at a fancy restaurant and everything. Even told me to keep an open mind. I need to look good."

[Then put it on.]

I sputtered. "B-but…I can't just…"

[Oh? Is the famed Mimica afraid of a dress? What will all five of your fans think?]

Me? Afraid of a dress?

I'll show them.

Without even responding to Ashley's taunts I slid the dress over my head. Adjusting it until it fit just right as the image of her with a satisfied smirk appeared. I turned to see myself in the mirror, and it was almost like seeing myself for the first time all over again. Pretty dress, light makeup, hair styled.

If this didn't impress Skye then I don't know what will.

[You're too easy.]

I groaned as my shoulders slumped. "I know…"

~~~~~~~~~~~

While the taxi was slowly driving me to my date, because Skye wanted to meet me there for whatever reason, I decided to distract myself before I got sick from anxiety.

And what better way to distract myself than reminiscing?

After the fight against Nova, we all agreed that nobody was going home without seeing Selene. She was pretty upset that all seven of us managed to get ourselves hurt, but she eventually managed to heal everyone. 

Even including Nova.

Nova and Shade were brought into custody relatively quickly that day, and their trials are going to happen soon. It's unlikely that Shade will ever see the light of day, Rachel assures me that he's getting life in prison.

Meanwhile, I was unsure of how I felt about Nova. She was hurt by the tragedies that life gave her, and she didn't deserve to lose someone important like that, but she still consciously chose to be a villain. To hurt others.

The Spirits she helped create still haven't been wiped clean from the city, even after six weeks of the Phantoms being destroyed. There are a lot of small-time villains and gangs out there with their own handful of bought Spirits.

It will take a long time before they are permanently gone.

Outside of that though, life has been relatively peaceful. I still help out with Rachel whenever she needs a vigilante hand, and I go out on patrol now that I know I won't be arrested on sight. The heroes, most of them begrudgingly, agreed to just let me be after all the help I did with the villain group.

And a lot of convincing from Rachel and Volti helped too. They brought up the argument that I wasn’t really a "villain" in the same way as most villains were, and that I only really stole to survive. Between that and my acts as a vigilante, it seemed to be enough to clear my name in the heroes eyes.

I've also been helping Selene out when I have the time to volunteer. She needed more healers in her clinic so she could actually take breaks for once, and she practically begged me to stay once she realized I could copy her powers. 

So yeah, busy schedule lately for the vigilante known as Mimica. Not that I hate it, in fact, I actually kinda like it. Definitely beats sitting around bored in the park waiting for my next big heist. 

When I'm not helping the city as Mimica I have been doing other things, like going on dates with Skye, kissing Skye, cuddling with Skye, and-

[Ahem.]

Ah, right. Sorry.

[No, it's my bad. I'll step away for a bit so you can enjoy your date, I'd rather not think about what you two will get up to after it ends.]

Hey!

[Have fun~]

And that's another thing I've been doing, is finding out how Ashley came to be and what I can do for her.

Neither of us knows when exactly she showed up, but she believes that she came into existence sometime when I was a child. We've been trying to figure out the cause, but nothing conclusive has come to mind. Our biggest clue at the moment was that it had something to do with that first memory she had shown me when she came back, the memory back when I was in the old house with my Mom.

Also, I've been trying to keep it a secret but I think she knows anyway, but I'm trying to find a way to get her out of that dark dimension thing, to let her be able to control our body for once instead of just being a permanent passenger. I'm not sure how to get her out, or if I even can, but I won't know until I try.

I'd feel terrible if she was locked in there for our entire life.

"We're here." I heard the taxi driver say.

I glanced out the window only to see the dreaded restaurant in all its shining glory. 

Oh. Okay, it'll be fine. Try not to think about how fancy and expensive this place looks, it's just a normal restaurant. Just a normal…

"Are you gonna get out?"

I jumped. "Yes, sorry!"

After paying the taxi driver and apologizing again, I started walking towards the entrance.

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I saw her standing near the doorway.

Skye was dressed in a feminine cut fancy suit, bowtie and all. I couldn’t help but stare at the way the suit hugged her curves, the way it made her look so dashing, how I wanted her to just pick me up and take me home already and-

Oh god she spotted me.

Oh god now she's walking towards me.

"Hey." She smiled.

"H-hi!" I said a bit too loudly. 

"You look absolutely stunning tonight Sarah, I love that dress," She said as she then looked down at her body. "Do you like the suit? I know I don't normally-"

"Yes!" I replied perfectly normally with my normal voice. What high pitch squeak? I wasn't nervous, you're nervous.

She glanced back up and smiled, before offering her hand. I grabbed it while secretly hoping that it wasn’t as sweaty as I thought it was.

"I'm glad you like it," Skye said as she led me inside. "Normally I don't wear this kinda stuff, but I figured we can't all be wearing dresses. Two is plenty."

"Yeah." I nodded dumbly, until what she said kicked in. "Wait, two?"

She giggled but didn't say anything, only leading me to a table in the back.

One that already has someone seated at it.

One with a girl who was absolutely gorgeous tonight, it made my pathetic attempts at dressing up look like child's play. Her black dress hugged her curves and boldly showed off her body in a way I never could, and the way she had all that dark makeup and lipstick and…..

I blushed when I noticed her checking me out, reflexively biting her lip as she did so.

I tried to ignore the butterflies in my stomach as I turned to Skye.

"Skye?"

"Hmm?" She grinned like she was enjoying the show the two of us just put on.

"Why is Eve at our table?"

Eve turned to look at Skye as well after she got her eyeful of my dress. "I was wondering the same thing, weren't we going to have a date tonight? Just the two of us?"

Skye's smile turned mischievous as she pushed me gently into the chair next to Eve, before she sat down herself.

"It's because I'm playing matchmaker tonight! You two are clearly crushing on each other, and I'm tired of watching you deny it."

Eve stared at me, and I stared at her. Blushes growing on both our cheeks as we turned back to Skye and confidently explained ourselves.

"We…I, I'm not…you know…I wouldn't say no…but we're not…"

"Yeah…I wouldn't say no either…but like, we just aren't…right…?"

Skye giggled and rolled her eyes at how confidently we shut her down. "Seriously, you two literally just undressed each other with your eyes. How dense can you be?"

I glanced at Eve to see if she would disagree, but instead of preparing to explain herself to Skye, she was instead looking at me, her face entirely red.

My face was flushed as well, my eyes couldn't stop wandering, her eyes couldn't stop wandering, they landed on my lips and suddenly they felt uncomfortably dry, my breath hitched as she bit her lip, I wanted to reach over and-

Oh god, Skye was right.

I had a crush on her.

I licked my lips nervously and spoke up, just as she spoke.

"I-" "Do you-"

"Sorry, you-" "You go-"

I closed my eyes with a sigh, I couldn’t help but smile at what just happened. I took a deep breath, and faced towards Eve with a look of determination.

"Eve?"

"Yes Sarah?" She smiled.

"Do you…would you like to-"

She giggled and leaned over.

"Of course I do."

I couldn’t help how hot my face was as I leaned over too, and we shared our first kiss. It was nothing like the ones we regularly give Skye. This kiss was new, tentative, and hopeful. A kiss that reflected our feelings on the evolution of our friendship, of how we were tentative at the new scary change that just happened, but hopeful for the future.

Hopeful for more kisses to come.

And through it all, Skye only had one thing to say.

"Cute."