They'd been in town for what felt like hours now, and as much as Mizuki loved talking Sei shopping and spoiling him rotten, it was beginning to wear thin and he was feeling the need to recover with a cigarette and maybe a coffee. He was just about to suggest they go to a nearby cafe for a drink and cake when he realised he'd lost sight of his boyfriend in the large store, clapping a hand to his forehead and groaning. Brilliant, now he'd have to manoeuvre this horrifically densely packed landscape by himself in search of his boyfriend who was probably just trying on the millionth t-shirt that day. But luckily for Mizuki, the store had a half-floor above it dedicated to homeware, and a quick dash up to the stairs and a precarious lean over the balcony led him to the conclusion that Sei was not in the menswear section after all.


"Sei?" His boyfriend audibly jumped as he spoke from behind him, fingers falling from the dress he'd been touching and an almost guilty look on his face as he took in the pinks and purples of the clothes around him. "What you looking at?"

Sei's face almost screamed panic as he retreated from the rack of dresses and skirts he'd been near, clutching at his elbow nervously with one hand crossed over his body protectively. "Oh, nothing, just…"

The bartender's eyebrow raised suspiciously, not missing the dark flicker of eyes to a particular dress on the rack and immediately back again, cheeks pink with embarrassment.

"This one?" He asked, ignoring Sei's small noise of disagreement as he pulled the dress off the rail to examine it closer. It was fairly simple, probably mid-thigh length, unsurprisingly black, cinched in at the middle and with a row of white buttons down the front. The hem was circled with a strip of lace, and when he turned it round he saw that the back was lace too, with a flower pattern. It was nice, so he said so. "It's pretty."

"I guess.." Sei replied, though it was obvious he agreed too as he looked at the dress in his boyfriends hand, biting his lip nervously.

"You wanna try it on?" Mizuki asked, turning to face his boyfriend only to be met with a look of disbelief and no small amount of concern.

"It's a dress." Sei pointed out, wondering if the bartender had suffered some sort of fall and hit his head, he couldn't try on a dress.

"So?" Mizuki argued back, figuring that if Sei had been looking at it, he must have liked it, plus it was totally to his taste.

"I'm a boy."

"And that means you can't try on a dress?" Now was Mizuki's turn to look almost irritated, he didn't care if Sei wanted to wear a dress, or a skirt, or even a fucking bra. If he liked it, and felt comfortable in it, then he should wear it, and fuck society's views on the matter.

Sei didn't answer, but he squirmed and looked away, pouting moodily until Mizuki sighed, hooking a finger under his chin and forcing him to meet his eyes.

"Do you like it?" A slightly reluctant nod followed his stern tone. "Do you want to try it on?"

"But Mizuki, it's… I can't.." His voice trailed off, eyes running over the dress, he really wanted to try it on, more than he had anything all day, staring at the ground in embarrassment as he answered. "Yeah, I do."

"Then try it on, nobody's going to care, Sei. We saw a girl with ears and a tail earlier and nobody said anything." The girl in question had looked utterly ridiculous, but Japan was known for its bizarre fashion trends, so a man in a dress wouldn't bother anyone. He wrapped an arm round his boyfriend's shoulders and gave them a reassuring squeeze. "Okay?"

Sei cracked a small smile and nodded, "okay," squeaking as Mizuki planted a kiss on his forehead.

"Anything else you liked?" The tattooist asked, pulling away to look at the clothes around them uncertainly, fully aware he knew nothing about women's clothing other than the very basics. "What about the galaxy stuff?"

Mizuki pointed to a display of space patterned clothes, from knee length socks, to suspenders and sweatshirts. They were in all different colours, reds, purples, greens, every shade imaginable showing constellations and red giants and supernovas.

"It's pretty cool."

Mizuki rolled his eyes, clearly Sei wasn't as cool with this as he was, remembering to remain patient as he essentially steered his significant other across the shop floor to look at the display. It took a lot of poking and prodding to get Sei actually actively looking at the clothes themselves, brushing through them in search of a particular colour or style only to twist his face up and return to the one item he'd been fingering in bursts for a while.

"I like this one." He murmured, so quiet Mizuki barely even heard, having to ask for clarification. "Um, this one, it's nice."

"That's one of the ones where it's longer at the back, right?"

"Asymmetrical, yeah." Sei nodded, fingers stroking the flowing material of the skirt, which seemed to be a blue galaxy themed tube skirt with sheer material of the same pattern over the top.

The skirt went into the basket along with the dress and a couple of boys t-shirts that had been in there previously, and were soon joined by a red and orange galaxy sweatshirt that Mizuki had actually suggested. Sei finally admitted he was getting tired, and Mizuki agreed, deciding to head to the changing rooms then pay for whatever Sei wanted and head home.


Luckily for Sei, who was white as a sheet with nervousness by now, the shop was not one with a changing room attendant, so there was nobody to see him taking in the dress and skirt to try on.

"Want me to come in with you?" Mizuki asked, he normally sat on one of the stools and Sei came out after each outfit change to ask him, but today was slightly different, so he asked permission first, figuring Sei might not be too keen to let him see his new fashion choices.

"It's okay, you want a cigarette right?" He replied, though his smile was too tight and Mizuki could tell he was nervous, adjusting his grip on the basket nervously and twisting the spiked ring on his finger so it dug into his flesh.

"Mm, meet you by the checkout?" Mizuki waited for Sei to nod his agreement, almost letting him walk away before catching him by his elbow. "You know.. I don't care what you wear, I love you whatever."

Sei's eyes widened in surprise for a second, then some of the tension left his shoulders and he smiled, grip on the basket loosening as he stood on tiptoes to kiss his boyfriends cheek. "I know."

"So relax," Mizuki urged, giving Sei's cheek a quick caress before waving his goodbye and heading out of the shopping mall to have a much needed cigarette, hoping Sei wouldn't get too worked up over this.


When they arrived home nearly an hour later after a quick dinner at a ramen stand, it was with two bags, one containing the dress and skirt, and the other with the sweatshirt and a plain black t-shirt inside. Sei, as always implored Mizuki not to spend so much money on him, but his boyfriend just brushed him off as usual, reminding him he could easily afford it and liked to spoil him. Usually when they got in, Sei would be in a hurry to unpack his new things and look at them again, before putting them away in his sleeve-length organized wardrobe, but he just placed the bags on their bed and went to check his coil, which as usual, he'd forgotten to bring.

"Oh, I've got a message from Aoba."

"What's it say?" Mizuki asked, removing his own purchase, a plain black hoodie from its bag and cutting out the tags with a pair of kitchen scissors.

Sei opened the message, reading it aloud, "hey Sei! You're not answering your coil but then you never do. Me and Noiz are really bored so we're going to head round later. Let us know when you're back." He frowned, "I answer my coil sometimes."

"Barely," Mizuki replied, though he shot Sei an apologetic look a moment later as he frowned at him. "You wanna tell them we're back then? We don't have anything planned, do we?"

Sei shook his head, "I might just take a shower first."

"Okay, I'll message them to set off in twenty."

Sei nodded his agreement before heading to their bathroom to take a shower. The most awesome thing about Mizuki's apartment was that it had a stupidly modern bathroom, there were built in speakers and the songs could be changed with a waterproof remote that sat on a shelf in the huge circular shower enclosure. He turned on his favourite CD, a blend of anime soundtracks and dance tracks, and stripped naked, turning on the shower and watching as warm water rained down from the ceiling onto him.


He could hear voices when he finally stopped the water and stepped out nearly half an hour later, getting dressed into plain jeans and a black sweatshirt that had the words 'feed me pizza', emblazoned across it before walking into the living room to claim his usual spot on the sofa across from the one Noiz and Aoba occupied"

"Good choice of sweatshirt," was Noiz's opening remark. "Mizuki just went to order some."

"Good, I'm starving." His twin remarked, grin fading into a frown a second later as he regarded Sei's slightly damp hair. "Your hair's longer."

"Oh, is it? I hadn't noticed.." He replied, twisting one lock round his finger absently, wondering if it would be long enough to tie up yet, it would be helpful for summer. "Anyway, what did you guys do today?"

"Nothing, it was SO boring." Aoba complained, acting as childishly as always as he sprawled across his mildly disgruntled looking boyfriends lap. "We went for a walk and Noiz almost got beaten up by Koujaku."

"Hey, we both know I would have won against that old man." Noiz argued, flexing his knuckles intimidatingly. His and Koujaku's dislike of each other was no secret, and every time they saw each other insults, and sometimes fists, were thrown around.

"If you say so," Aoba replied noncommittally, turning back to Sei and ignoring Noiz's annoyed expression. "What did you two do? Or do I not want to know." His smile turned wicked, and Noiz's matching smirk was not helpful.

Mizuki and Sei had been together over a year, and it was known to all the people in the room that they did have sex, but Sei's cheeks still turned red with embarrassment. "We went shopping."

Aoba's eyes immediately lit up like a child's at Christmas, the way they always did when Sei said he'd been shopping, seeming to think of himself as some kind of fashion guru despite the horrendous outfits he sometimes wore, not to mention those yellow socks. "What did you get?"

"Just some clothes, Mizuki got a hoodie."

"Talking about me? Only nice things I hope." Mizuki smiled, entering the room and shutting his coil, pizza having presumably been ordered, he took his place next to Sei as always, letting him practically stick his feet under his butt as he curled up.

"Sei was telling us about the clothes you guys got." Noiz remarked, green eyes barely looking away from his coil, where he was typing rapidly.

"Can we see?" Aoba asked, persistent as always, not noticing as Sei froze up for a second, looking to Mizuki for encouragement.

"Um, sure." Sei nodded, accepting Mizuki's hand squeeze before he stood and left the room, gentle murmur of conversation following him into their room where the still full bags regarded him accusatorially.


He tried to calm himself down as he pulled the skirt over his slim hips, finding a top that went with it and twisting it so it stayed straight, trying not to pull at it uncomfortably. It was nice, the material underneath was tight and firm around his ass and thighs, and the flowing material of the skirt hung perfectly around his slim legs. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that everyone in the other room loved him, Aoba was his brother, Mizuki his adoring boyfriend, and Noiz his best friend, they wouldn't say anything cruel. They loved him. He took one last look at himself, thinking he looked a lot nicer than he'd felt in a while, taking a deep breath and walking into the living room, enjoying the way the skirt billowed out behind him.


The room fell silent when he walked in, amber and olive eyes landing on him immediately, Mizuki's mouth hung open slightly and Aoba's eyes were a shade wider than normal as he regarded his brother. It was Noiz who broke the uncomfortable atmosphere and unclogged the lump in Sei's throat. The lull in conversation brought him out of his technological world and he looked up from his coil, expression neutral as he took in the image of his best friend in a skirt.

"You look hot." Inappropriate as always, Noiz earned himself a glare from Mizuki and a harsh nudge in the ribs from Aoba, pouting as if he'd been punished for no reason. "What? He does, it's a nice skirt."

"It.." Aoba's voice trailed off, head tilted to the side as he regarded his brother with narrowed eyes. "It really suits you."

Sei could feel a small smile growing on his face, nobody was laughing, or calling him mean names or looking disgusted, they were being nice, really nice.

"You think so?" He asked shyly, looking down at the princess-y fabric that flowed around his legs.

"Mm, you've got the legs for it." Aoba replied, and Mizuki nodded dumbly in agreement, still seemingly unable to string a sentence together, so surprised at how good it really did look.

"You sound jealous." Noiz grinned.

"I am not! My legs are just as good as his." Aoba sulked, crossing his arms childishly and ignoring his boyfriend, "so what else did you get?"

"Um, a dress and a sweatshirt."

"Ooh let's see the dress!" Aoba urged, "can I try on the skirt?"

Noiz raised an eyebrow but said nothing, smirking quietly to himself in a way that Sei was sure spelled trouble. "Mm, sure."


When they emerged a second later, Noiz promptly burst out laughing, though not at Sei, who stood there calmly in his black dress and watched as Aoba tried to throttle his boyfriend while not damaging Sei's skirt.

"What's so funny?" He demanded, face red with embarrassment as he tugged at the skirt weakly.

"It looks weird on you." Noiz remarked bluntly.

"You do have hairy legs," Mizuki added, shooting Sei a wink that made him turn as scarlet as his twin and wish he had longer sleeves to hide his hands in.

"Of course I do! I'm a man aren't I?

"That's debatable…"

"What did you say, brat?!"


If Mizuki noticed when he peeled Sei out of his dress later that night that he had shaved his legs, he said nothing of it, just smiled and ran his hands over the soft skin, thinking it didn't make him any less of a man in his eyes.