After a few minutes of walking for Elesis and hovering with his dynamos for Add, they had found the nearest clothing store in Elder. It wasn't that far from where they left off, but after a day of fighting monsters, their stamina sure dropped a bit.
"How about here?" Elesis asked Add, trying to make sure.
"My dynamos are telling me that they have good clothing material." He informed. "Anyways, let's check it out." And with that, Add went inside, ringing the bell hanging by the door to alert the someone in the shop. Elesis followed, making the bell ring again.
As she entered, she saw different clothes hanging from the racks. Robes, hoods and cloaks mostly covered the whole place, but there were also tops, bottoms and shoes.
"This place is kinda shabby..." Elesis murmured.
Unknowingly, the two got separated, looking for the clothes for themselves. As they found clothes suited for them, they'd hang it on their arms to try on later.
Although, Elesis had trouble choosing some clothes to go with her style. Then a moment later, she was greeted by Luichel.
"Elesis? Hey there!" Luichel waved.
"Luichel? What are you doing here?" Elesis went to the counter.
"My uncle thought it'd be nice if I run his shop for awhile and he had some important business to attend to so I had no choice but be a temporary staff here." Luichel shrugged.
"I see..." Elesis murmured.
"Seems like you've done your job change..." Luichel observed the redhead. "Looking for new clothes after 2 years passed, huh?"
Elesis nodded.
"Don't worry I'll help." The orange-haired lady grinned. "By the way, did you come here with a friend? I heard the bell ring twice..."
"Kind of... but I'm pretty sure he doesn't need help in looking for clothes." Elesis scratched the back of her head.
"Hm. Okay, let's get you some clothes." Luichel states.
"Um... I have some here but I can't seem to choose which one." Elesis pointed out the clothes stacked in her arm.
Luichel grinned. "Don't worry! We'll find the one that's fit for you."
With Luichel's help, it made the choosing of clothes easier but it took time to mix and match. But after a bit of this and that, Elesis had a new favorite outfit. And it also goes together with the gloves Echo gave her.
The red head went out of the fitting room, grinning sheepishly.
"How is it?" She asked.
"It looks amazing! I'm glad it matched the gloves." Luichel smiled, doing a thumbs up.
Elesis chuckled and noticed Add going in a fitting room next to where she went out. Standing by Luichel, she waited for Add to come out.
"I wonder what his outfit is..." Elesis mumbled.
"So that must be the person you went with..." Luichel crossed her arms. "You guys on a date?"
Elesis tensed up, red tint appearing on her cheeks. "Of course not!" She stammered.
Of course, Add heard what they were talking about, smirking inside the fitting room.
A moment later, Add came out, dressed in white. White jacket and white pants. But, there are hints of purple and his shirt is black. Still, mostly white.
He looked at Elesis, observing her head to toe. And she noticed it.
"How is it?" She smirked.
He stood there, silent, still observing her.
After a moment, he spoke. "It fits your image, since flames are your prowess being a pyro knight. It also matches your outgoing attitude."
"Heh~" Elesis started walking around him. "Yours is kinda cute. All white and I'm digging the cat ears too." She pointed out the details of his jacket.
What she earned was a slight blush from Add and a small 'hmp' from him.
"Ah, give me your old clothes, by the way. I'm gonna pack them in a bag so you guys won't carry it around." Luichel noted.
The two gave them their clothes to her, and then she left off to the counter.
"Anyways," his dynamos spun around him, then on Elesis. "The clothes will cost 500, 900 ED."
Elesis surely stiffened alright. She took out her wallet from her free knight outfit and check what's inside. All she had was 500, 600 ED, four hundred short.
The redhead stiffened, causing Add to sigh since he knew what she meant.
"What now?" Elesis asked, shifting her eyes left to right.
Add opened his mouth to say something, but got interjected by Luichel with two bags.
"Back! And here are your clothes, by the way." She handed the bags to the two.
"Um, Luichel, we kinda have a problem..." Elesis looked down, Add crossed his arms.
Luichel knew what shd meant, but grinned. "Since you guys were the first customers since forever, I'll give you guys a discount."
"Really?" Elesis relaxed. "How much?"
"500, 300 ED."
The two went out, Add dragging Elesis from the back of her collar. His dynamos were also bringing their base clothes in a bag.
Elesis checked her wallet, which she will soon regret doing it. Since a strong breeze blew what's left of her wallet blew away.
"No...!" She reached out, releasing herself from Add's grip and running after the money. But another strong breeze blew it away farther and higher from her.
She fell on her knees, tears comically streaming from her eyes.
"I'm broke. Huhu..." she sulked. "I won't be able to eat anymore, I can't buy any cute accesories, I won't be able to- to- to-"
"Okay, that's enough. This time I'll pay if you're going to buy anything." Add sighed, to make Elesis's wailing stop.
"Really?" Elesis smiled widely. "Thanks!" And stood up to hug Add in relief.
Add softly pushed her away after a few seconds of being tense and having human interaction.
"But only for today." He crossed his arms.
"Yes!" Elesis fist pumped the air.
"What do you want?" The white-haired teen asked.
Elesis cupped her chin, thinking of what she can do with Add treating her for today. She could buy more cute accessories, buy more food or clothes. But they were the things she had daily, so she crossed those things out and thought of more ideas.
"You done thinking?" Add asked.
Elesis snapped out of her thoughts and faced the tracer. "Well-"
Another breeze blew her in the face, blowing her hair and her long bangs were basically all over her face.
"... We could go to a barber shop, I guess..." she stated, blowing away the bangs in front of her.
"I'm pretty sure we can cut our hair ourselves." Add crossed his arms.
Elesis's raised her brows. "That can work. But you have to help me with it."
"Fine."
The two went to an inn, staying there temporarily until they were prepared to go to Bethma. They argued if they should share a room or not, despite being the opposite genders, but Elesis insisted it was fine since Add wasn't the type to be a pervert and Elesis doesn't care anyways. But Add was a bit of a gentleman, saying both of them should have a bit of privacy.
In the end, Elesis still told the innkeeper to stay in a room with two beds.
"Geez, I keep telling you, we should have privacy to ourselves." Add grunted.
"But if I have to visit you every time, wouldn't it be tiring to come in and out everytime?" Elesis sat on a bed.
"What makes you think you can visit me?" Add sat on the other bed.
"Well, we can do some stuff or talk about some stuff, y'know?"
Add scowled, recieving a frown from Elesis.
"Anyways, you still have to help me cut my hair."
"Can't you do it by yourself?" "The hair on my back. I can't cut it, so you do it."
Knowing that she will have more reasons (and if she runs out, she'll just annoy him till he gives in), he sighed. "Ugh. Fine." And so, Add opened a drawer and saw a set of things like tissues, some papers and other stuff inside. He rummaged through it and almost stabbed his hand when he touched the tip of the scissors' blade.
He sighed in relief, grabbing them and faced Elesis whose hair was down and was combing it with her fingers.
To be honest, he found it charming and elegant for Elesis to be grooming her hair. She was concentrated with it that she almost ignored her surroundings. But he had to cut it after all.
"Oi, time to cut 'em." Add reminded, using the scissors to snap Elesis out of her thoughts.
"Oh yeah, right." She smiled, brushing her her hair off her shoulders, making it bounce on her back. She also combed a lock of her bangs on the right of her head backwards, and clipping it in a hairpin.
"Can you cut the bangs? I want them on the same level as my eyebrows." She pointed at her bangs that was left after clipping the lock of her hair.
Add kept silent, walking towards her. His dynamos also brought a chair and placed it in front of Elesis and he sat on it. After combing her overgrown bangs, Add started cutting off the excess length while leaning forward.
With the two of them this close, Elesis felt his cool breath on her lips. She shuddered at this feeling, causing Add to frown.
"Don't move, dammit." He mumbled.
Elesis tensed up, blushing. "Sorry..." she murmured.
After a few minutes, they had finish cutting her bangs. They could've finished in less than a minute, but with Add being a perfectionist (almost), it took him time like two to five minutes to trim the bangs till equal length.
"Alright, what else should I cut?" He asked, using the scissors to make the sounds 'snip snip'.
"Ah, I wanna make my hair shorter, Elesis said, shifting her eyes, left to right and vice versa.
Silently, Add climed up the bed and moved behind the tense girl to sit down. Noticing, that she was stiff, he smirked.
"Relax. It's not like I'm gonna do anything bad."
Hearing this, she took a deep breath and made herself comfortable enough and relax. To her, it was like she was being operated, experimented on. But she was probably thinking like that because Add was with her. Knowing that he was a young scientist, who wouldn't be afraid of his experiments?
And with all of those thoughts racing in her head, she never noticed that Add was finished cutting a few inches of her hair.
"Is this okay?" Add asked, bringing a lock of her hair in front of her.
Elesis stood up and approached the mirror to see how long it was cut. Her hair before reached her thighs, but now, it reached her lower back.
She grinned, facing Add. "Thanks for the haircut. Now, lemme also do something for you In return." She said, hopping on the bed, making Add bounce.
"No need to. I was bored so I took up the opportunity to do something, so I cut your hair." He shrugged.
"Eh? But I kinda feel bad when I don't do something in return..." she murmured.
"Just as I said, no need to."
"But- Ah! I know, maybe I'll try to trim or comb your hair!" She insisted, grabbing the bag of her old clothes, rummaging to find a comb inside. She went behind Add, surprising him and began to brush his hair.
"Hey- Wait- Stop-!" He mumbled, trying to get away from Elesis, but she keeps pulling him back.
"No! Let me do something in return!" She whined.
"I said stop!" He called out his dynamos, making a wall-like structure between them to separate the two.
Elesis gulped. "Sorry." She said, raising two hands, surrendering.
"You should be." He scowled, walking off to the other bed.
After that moment, hours passed and night came. Add just worked on his dynamos, on the other hand, Elesis just played (and practiced) some of her flames and fire techniques. It has been quiet between them, not to mention, awkward. No one approached each other to at least, try to be okay with each other. Add kind of regretted scolding Elesis and it was the same for her when she kept on forcing and insisting.
Elesis glanced at Add, who was busy configuring his dynamos after him getting mad.
"Hey..." she called out, approaching the tracer on his bed. "About awhile ago..."
"Forget it." He said, not looking up at Elesis.
She sat beside him, making him startled. "What're you working on?"
"Surely not my dynamos."
Elesis scowled, pinching his cheek.
"Hey!" Add pulled away. "Why did you do that?!" He softly touched his cheek, which throbbing in pain.
"Why do you have to be that sarcastic?!"
Silence came.
Suddenly, Elesis patted his back, sighing. "You're right, just like what you said earlier, we should just forget what happened earlier and be normal again." She smiled.
Add twitched a smile. "S-sure..." Then, he turned the other way, muttering "How tiring..."
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"I don't like people talking behind my back."
Add lied down on the bed. "I just feel tired..."
Elesis did the same, grinning. But she supported her weight on her elbow and her cheek on the palm. "That's because you've been working on your weapons nonstop."
"Shut up." He frowned, looking at Elesis. "I just need to fix a few things on them by tomorrow and I'm done." He sighed, closing his eyes.
But he opened them, he found Elesis staring intensely at him. He stiffened as her face got closer to his.
She smirked. "Are those eyebags I see?"
"Wha-?"
"Looks like you need some sleep!" She states grabbing the pillows they have and throwing it at the bed where Add stayed.
"Why are you going here? You have your bed over there." He asked, sitting up, frowning.
"I felt like sleeping here. And besides, you can be my partner when we go on an adventure or a journey!" She smiled, her eyes shining of excitement.
"Your partner?" He raised a brow. "I'd rather be alone."
This time, it's Elesis's turn to frown. "Hah? Don't you ever get lonely?"
"Lonely? Hmp. Working with others is such a hassle. It's troublesome."
"Tch. Pessimistic much?"
"Let's just go to sleep, shall we?"
"Fine. G'night." Elesis turned the other way, facing the wall, while Add turned the other way, making their backs face each other.
And so, they silently drifted off to sleep, not saying anything, except Add murmuring:
"Good night."
