“Are you sure, Brian? I mean you won’t think less of me if we do this, right?” Cinnamon glances at me with undisguised nervousness.

“If anything I’ll respect you more, Cinni-baby.” With a gentle but firm hand, I take her fingers in mine and pull her into the bedroom. Guiding the beautiful bunny-girl over to the bed I smile and maneuver her to sit. With an adorable lowering of her ears, she follows my motions. Leaning back into the plush sheets she lets out a breathy coo of delight.

Stepping around to the foot of the bed I place our backpacks and weapons onto the top of the chest.

“It is just, well I think Kryst is gonna be really upset. She did call dibs on this room after all.”

“Don’t worry about it. If she really wants to contest us taking this room I’ll hit her with either a ‘finders keeper, losers weepers’ or the ‘you snooze you lose’ clause.” With my hands on my belt, I go stiff and playfully fall over onto the bed making Cinnamon squeak in glee and scoot out of the way before I land on her. Caught in the indent impact of my body in the sheets she rolls over to lay next to me. All smiles at the antics. Both of us let out a few chuckles and sighs at the cloud-like hug of the puffy sheets as we take a moment to revel in a brief moment of euphoric relaxation.

We lay quietly for a minute or two before Cinnamon breaks the silence.

“Kryst will be alright flying out to see Crod right?” Cinnamon asks sitting up onto a hip.

“She will be fine. She is fast and as long as she stays in the air I don’t think she will run into any trouble. And I doubt there is much chance of her getting gobbled up by a Drayger between here and the bridge.”

Cinnamon nods her agreement then bites her lip.

“Do you really think something nefarious is going on Brian?”

“I dunno.” I let out a breath, “But if there is I’d rather not have us all get caught with our pants down.”

Cinnamon smiles and a pink blush tints the inside of her ears.

“Speaking of. How about we see what kind of clothes they packed in here for us?” I nudge Cinnamons leg with a knee.

“Oh, good idea!” Cinnamon nods her head briskly in delight. She rolls over me like an athlete, off of the bed and practically skips over to wardrobe. With a grin at her excitement I follow and peer over her shoulder as she pokes through the articles of clothing.

“This closet must be yours Cinni-buns.” I say looking over the ruffled silk, tassel adorned, and in some cases, feather decorating clothing.

“Don't be silly, these are for men." She giggles pulling out a mustard yellow shirt with poofy sleeves and embroidery so fine it actually hurts my eyes when I stare at it.

“You are kidding right?” I give Cinnamon a look over the top of my shades. Even with my extremely limited real world wardrobe and style skill I knew that most of this stuff would look better on a clown. If we were going to meet a bunch of important people, an an even more intimidating thought, Cinnamons ‘Pop-pop’ tonight, I certainly didn’t want to walk into the party looking like Goo-Goo the mutant jester.

“What? Much of this would be considered high fashion in Papanta. Here take a look. I think you would look good in this.” Cinnamon turns around and holds a shirt thats so sheer its nearly transparent against my chest, “Well… Maybe not this one.’ She switches to another that looks to be made of turquoise lace and leans back to get a better look. Cinnamon pouts and her ears dip. “Or this one either.”

“Thanks. Glad we agree on that at least.” Laughing I take the hangers from her hand and unceremonious shove the shirts back amongst their ugly brethren. There seems to be a distinct lack of dresses.“Well these do look to be more my size at least. I don't see anything in here that would fit you. Maybe they put your stuff in the other room?”

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"I think you're right.” One of Cinnamon’s ears dip as she continues to poke through the garments. She stops suddenly and her head bobbles.“I'll take a look in there." With a quick spin on her heel she hop skips out the door and into the second bedroom. Judging by the gasps and cooing noises that follow it seems that I was correct.

“Yup. These must be for me!” She calls out with a smile I can hear.

While Cinnamon busies herself ooh-ing and aha-ing over her clothing I take a more hands on look through my standing wardrobe. Flipping through the shirts, tunics and coats hanging neatly on wooden hangers. Many with all sorts of buttons, frills and danglie bits that I can’t make heads or tails out of. The drawers are just as equally organized. Filled to near bursting with more pressed and folded pants and various other articles of clothing.

Like most geeks I suppose, fashion had never been my strong suit. In no small part due to personal insecurities regarding my body. So, slipping into the comfort over style mindset had been easy.

It was rather sad. Except for my regulation work clothes which consisted of collared single color shirts and pants; to match with the rest of my fellow work drones, my wardrobe back home had mostly consisted of jeans, sneakers and pop culture reference t-shirts.

I did own two somewhat drab but passable dress outfits, and a pair of black dress shoes that only ever came out of the box for special occasions. They had been purchased for the rare wedding, funeral and of course the dreaded work function party must-attends.

I am relieved to see that not everything looks like rejected costumes from a Broadway rendition of Kinky Boots meets the Pirates of Penzance when I come across a rather nice looking Victorian styled long black coat. Although, in all honesty it does resemble something more like a thematically designed, hollywood or even anime version of a pirate trench-coat than what would be expected of a more traditional era garb.

I pull it out and place the cool coat onto the bed to keep it separate from the rest of the hideous attire. Just in case the garishness is contagious. Almost immediately another find jumps out as a possibility to go with the coat amongst the collection; a deep red shirt with polished onyx buttons. I reach for it but the sight of the blood spattered leather armor on my forearms gives me pause.

"Hey Cinni-buns, you don't mind if I go ahead and call dibs on the bathroom do you? I'd like to go in and get a good wash. I’m feeling a little grimy." Carefully I pull out the shirt and lay it on top of the coat then start releasing the straps and buckles on my armor feeling the relief in the removal of the weight and the new range of motion.

"Oh no, I don't mind." She sounds a bit distracted most likely still enamored by the variety of clothing in the other bedroom.

“Thanks, sweetness. I’ll try not to be too long. No promises, though.” Along with my smelly tunic I toss the various pieces of the studded leather into the corner near the full length mirror then grab my knapsack and gun belt from off of the top of the chest.

Stepping into the hallway I glance back to the sitting room and the table with the fruit bowl. Curiosity getting the better of me I make a quick detour and pluck one of the weird beans Kryst had been munching on from a the long stem. A sweet bubblegum like flavor bursts from the skin and gooey interior as I crush it between my teeth. Pleased, I grabbed a couple more stems from the assortment along with one of the red pears ignoring more mundane apples and oranges.

Cinnamon pops her head out of the doorway of the other bedroom as I reach the door to the bathroom, holding a bundle of dresses in her arms. She takes a long look over my naked torso and I see her bunny tail do its cute double twitch.

"Brian?” She pauses licking her lips. “I was thinking. Would you mind if I...?" Her ears pinken a bit and she glances at me and then into the room at the bathtub. By the nervousness in her posture I try and give a guess to what she is thinking.

Insight vs Cinnamon: Critical Fail!

I smile. She’s obviously still feeling apprehensive about us claiming the bedroom from under Kryst nose and, seeing as the other room didn’t have a full length mirror, wants to ask if it will be okay for her move her clothes in there and try them on while I’m getting a bath. I decide to put her fears to rest.

“Tell you what, while I’m getting cleaned up. Why don’t you go ahead and take some of the clothes into our room and try them on. We have the mirror in there after all. That way you can really see how they look on you. While you’re doing that I have a few things that I want to try and work on anyway.” I reach down into my knapsack and pull out my new Magitech kit and wave it in the air before replacing it in my bag.

Cinnamon stares at me with a strange look that if I didn't know better, borders on incredulity. Finally she gives a little sigh.

“Okay, sure. That sounds like fun.” For a moment I swear her voice has that same tinge of eye roll attitude to it as when she talks to Raven. Before I can get any more of a read though she’s already disappeared back through the doorway and out of sight. A series of loud thumping follows as she opens and closes drawers and even what sounds like an annoyed slam of the wardrobe doors.

I give a slight chuckle. Man. The clothes they gave her must be even more ugly than mine if she is getting that frustrated.

Deduction: Fail!

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