Cassandra sighed, once again opening a drawer at random and frantically digging through it. But all she could find were dresses, blouses, and skirts. No shirts. No pants. Just... This.

There wasn't even a sweatshirt to be seen. Instead, there were simple sweaters, like what you would find someone wearing on a Sunday at church, or for a stroll in the garden or the park, or... Or on Easter.

She sighed, speed-dialing Varian. Maybe he would be able to help... Somehow.

"Varian, I need your help," she stated as soon as he picked up.

"G'morning, Cassie," he grumbled sleepily into the phone, "you... You need my help?"

Cass nodded before remembering that she was talking to him on the phone. "Yeah. Yeah, I need your help. They're gone."

"Forgive me for having just woken up," he said, "but... What's gone?"

She explained her dilemma to him. But, very much to her chagrin, he offered no help or words of advice. He just sighed deeply.

"I should've listened to them... It's always clothes."

"Listened to who?"

"Craig and Jonah."

"Oh, sure," she roles her eyes, "because they're one hundred percent qualified to teach Girlfriend 101."

"Hey, Craig's got his sister."

Cass sighed. "When are you coming over?"

"I was gonna come in, like, two hours," he grumbled, "but... Since I'm up now... Ten minutes?"

"Okay."

"And... Just wear a blouse and skirt or dress or something. We'll figure out the mystery of the missing clothes later, okay?"

Cass huffed. "Fine."

{Earlier That Month}

"There's no way you're ever gonna see me wearing something like that," Cassandra commented to Varian, gesturing with her spoonful of fro-yo at a woman wearing a dress, "not even for a nicer occasion."

"What, are you gonna wear wedding pants?" Varian asked her, eyes twinkling with humor.

The look she gave him, though, told him that he was absolutely correct. And she was absolutely serious. Varian didn't know whether to laugh or be infuriated. She was so determined... That was only part of why he loved her so much. But... Wedding pants?! He knew that Cass didn't like dressing up, but this was going a little too far for his taste.

But he chose to say nothing.

"I'll even wear pants and a T-shirt on Easter," she added suddenly, "I swear, you'd have to steal all of my normal clothes in order to catch me in anything else. Even then, I would much rather go parading around without anything on than wear a dress... Or, well, anything too terribly nice."

Varian knew that only part of what she had said was true. Though she wasn't the most... Image-obsessed, Cass still had dignity, an image to uphold- one that most certainly didn't include marching about in her altogether.

He wanted to get her out of her comfort zone, though. And he knew just the way to do that...

{Present Day}

"You really do look amazing today, Cassandra," Varian commented, smiling, "it's kind of a pity that you hardly ever dress up like this."

She hadn't exactly worn a dress, but she was pretty close to it. She wore a long skirt that was striped in black and white, and a simple white blouse. A gold-colored headband held back her hair, and simple brown sandals protected her feet.

She really did look beautiful, and it kind of made Varian feel sad. Such beauty... Even if she just wore an occasional blouse with her jeans, well, it would be pretty nice. But Cass wasn't that type of girl. He had learned that long ago.

Cass just grunted a little bit, not wanting to say anything. She hated looking nice, though Varian made it seem worth it. It didn't matter, though. Whatever. Their Easter Day was done, and Cass was desperate to get back into casual clothes- after finding them, of course.

"Oh, yeah, Cassie," Varian said suddenly, "I need your help carrying something back into your apartment. It should be in here..."

He opened the car's Sto-N-Go, hoisting out some pretty heavy-looking bags. Cassandra managed to grab two of them and hold them for less than a minute before putting them back down.

"Let's get a luggage cart," she decided, "if we work together, we should be able to get these back to my apartment."

Of course, her mind was elsewhere. What's in these bags? Why do they need to go to my apartment? among many other questions swirled through her brain.

Finally, with a ton of effort from both of them, Varian and Cassandra managed to get all of the bags on the cart and into her apartment. Once she had returned the luggage cart, Cass turned to Varian.

"Okay, what's in the bags? And be quick in explaining. We've got to find my clothes."

Varian gave a nervous chuckle, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. "Yeah... About that..."

"What?" she scowled at him, "what is it? What did you do?"

"P- please don't murder me," he squeaked, face bright red, "I- I don't even know why I did it-"

"Did what?"

Again, he gave a nervous chuckle before opening one of the bags, revealing to Cassandra... Her missing clothes.

"Wh- what? How did you- why?"

"You were getting on my case about being too nice... And I was about to get on your case for never dressing nice. So... The opportunity showed itself. I took it."

Cass was aghast. Granted, he had left the more... Personal clothing alone, but still...

"How?"

Now he grinned. "I had an accomplice."

He clicked his tongue and Ruddiger came running out of the bedroom, Cass's pajamas draped over his back. Varian leaned down, giving his friend an affectionate little noogie before telling him to return the clothes to where they belonged.

"So... That was all just a big prank?" Cassandra asked in disbelief, "you... You pranked me?"

Varian nodded proudly before flushing red again. "I- I'm sorry."

She laughed, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "I- it's okay. I'm surprised, though, that you put together a prank like that... And went through with it..."

"And it worked!" he added, grinning, "I pranked you, and you ended up dressing nice."

It was true... Both of them had broken their comfort zones, if only for a day.

"Well, let's get to work. These clothes aren't gonna organize themselves."

{Disclaimer: ever since then, Ruddiger developed a habit of grabbing Cass's clothes at extremely random- and inconvenient- times. Varian later taught Ruddiger to search for only dirty clothes and take them to the laundry room, though the raccoon sometimes forgot.}