Chapter Eight
Discard Regret
Ryou signed as he waited outside the changing rooms where Malik was inside trying on various different outfits. Overall, it was faring to be a rather difficult job. 'Who would have thought that shopping for girls clothing would be so hard?' he wondered. 'It's too bad Téa isn't here…' It wasn't the clothes themselves, it was trying to find a size that would fit Malik perfectly. So far she had taken several pairs of jeans and a few tops in the changing room and Ryou was just waiting on her now.
He turned his head when one of the doors opened and out walked Malik. 'What is it with Malik and tight clothing?' he said to himself, seeing the clothes that Malik now wore. Nothing extravagant: a pair of stonewashed blue jeans and a sleeveless black polo neck jumper. He smiled softly and nodded his head as a sign of approval.
"Is that a yes then?" Malik asked, uncertain.
Ryou blinked as he looked at her properly and noticed that she was looking rather uncomfortable. That struck him as odd, as Malik had never been conscious of appearances before. He thought that she looked fine in what she was wearing and would advise her to buy them. 'Does she not like them?'
Malik waited and then later used her hand to gain Ryou's full attention. "Either a yes or no would be fine. Don't just stare at me!"
It was then that the penny finally dropped and Ryou now understood that Malik was looking for verbal approval. 'Of course Malik would be uncomfortable!'
"Oh sorry, Malik," he told her cheerfully. "They look good on you. How do you feel though?"
Malik pulled at the neck as she looked in the mirror, turning around to have a look at the back. "I mean, it just feels strange altogether, but the clothes seem okay to me – they fit perfectly. I'm not sure about how they look on me, though, but that might be due to this distorted image I have of myself at the moment. But if you say they look good, then I trust your judgement – better than Bakura's even…"
Ryou found himself smiling widely at the compliment. It wasn't often that he received compliments from anyone and the only thing he received from Bakura was threats and insults.
"Thanks, Malik. You honestly look all right in those clothes. Now that we know your size it'll make it much easier to buy you clothes."
Malik cheered up drastically with that and dashed back into the changing room to put her original clothes back on, which consisted, still, of Bakura's t-shirt and her navy pants. 'It's a start,' she thought. 'Who would have thought there would be so many different types of clothes to choose from?' She placed the clothes back on their correct hangers and proceeded out of the changing room.
"So basically it's just a case of finding the clothes that you like," Ryou said, silently amazed that he had lasted so long shopping for girls' clothes.
Malik thoroughly agreed and made her way back into the store, with Ryou not too far behind. Malik was pleasantly surprised that Ryou could pick out nice clothes, not that she thought that there was anything wrong with the way Ryou dressed, but it was still a thought that shocked her. Then again there were some items of clothing that she refused to even try on. Currently Ryou was trying to convince her to buy a skirt, saying that it would look good with that polo neck top she first tried on. She immediately declined the offer, saying there was no chance she would wear a skirt, or dress. So how Ryou actually managed to convince her was beyond her.
"Malik, it can't be that bad," Ryou said, sitting straight in the plastic chair, arms crossed. He had been trying to get Malik to try on this skirt for the past fifteen minutes and there was no chance that he was going to give up now.
"Why don't you try it on and judge whether it's all right or not!" she shot back, her voice bitter and cold.
"Malik, I will tell you whether it looks bad or anything. I wouldn't lie to you, I swear," he told her, picking up one of the various magazines and flicking through the articles. They were all relatively boring to him. Who wanted to know whether they have a shopping problem or not? He continued to flick until something caught his eye. It was one of the problem pages and it was about this one man who had written about how his girlfriend had a problem with her appearance and how she thought she was ugly when she was in fact very beautiful. It continued about how she would get paranoid about her looks and refused to wear anything clothing that revealed her arms or legs.
Ryou smiled as he read it and told Malik, "You don't have to buy it, Malik, if you really don't want to but you'll never know if you don't see for yourself."
He waited for a reply, wondering whether the reply in the magazine was accurate and might help with Malik. "I can see and I don't think it looks right. Can't I just forget this? Isn't this a sign from the gods telling me not to wear this thing?"
Ryou was unsure about whether he should continue by how the reply read because of how Malik would react. 'There really is only one way to find out…'
"Malik, you have nothing to worry about because so far you've looked really pretty in all the clothes you've tried on. You said you trusted my judgement and I'll give you an honest answer if you only let me see what you look like now," he spoke truthfully. All off the outfits that both he and Malik had chosen had suited her well.
There was a minute of pure silence before the girl decided to answer. "I'm not too sure whether I should take it as a compliment that you called me pretty."
"I meant it as a compliment," Ryou smiled.
Malik sighed. "Promise you won't laugh at me?"
The platinum-haired male placed the magazine down and tilted his head in curiosity. "I wouldn't laugh at you, Malik."
"If you laugh can I have your permission to hit you across the face?" the Egyptian asked, her voice stronger than it was a few moments ago.
Ryou laughed and nodded his head. "You have my fullest permission," he told her, genuinely glad that she was growing more confident with being inside a female body.
"And if anyone asks, you have to say you were hit by a girl, okay? It's that or no deal!"
Ryou stood up and walked closed to where Malik's cubicle was. "Deal," he replied in a soft voice.
Malik sighed as she slowly pulled the lock across and opened the door, still as slow as she possibly go. She just knew that Ryou would laugh. 'It was a stupid idea to try on this skirt!' she argued. Maybe Ryou has some sick, weird fetish. She took a deep breath to brace herself as she walked out of the cubicle. Ryou looked at her and Malik gave in to the urge to pull at the skirt. It was too short as well.
Ryou stared at Malik, his mouth open ajar. She wore the black polo neck top again, but this time it was paired with a black checked skirt. He could see Malik pull at the length, which fell perfectly, halfway down her thighs. He now came to the conclusion that dark colours complimented her almost as well as light colours. With her hair falling over her shoulders, earrings adoring her ears, the redness flitting over her cheeks and the coy twinkle in her eyes, Malik looked radiant to Ryou.
"Malik, you look really beautiful and I am telling you the truth," he found himself saying.
"I don't know, Ryou," she said shyly.
"Even Bakura would find it hard not to compliment you," Ryou smirked, arms crossed as he kept his eyes on her face when he spoke.
"Ha! That's rich! Getting a compliment out of Bakura is like getting liquidised gold from out of a stone," she joked. "But seriously…"
Ryou shook his head, the small smile still painted on his lips. "It looks good, I swear. The colours really compliment you and skirt doesn't look too short. Overall, Malik, it really suits you. What do you think?" he asked her, wanting to find out her reaction to his compliments. That article said that the girl shouldn't be rushed into doing anything she didn't wish to be and she needed to be fully aware that any compliments made were the truth. Ryou took this as a guideline and stuck to it – complimenting Malik as he could and making it her decision. But he hoped that she would agree - it did look right on her.
"Maybe," she began slowly, "I can grow to get used to it…"
"I'm sure you can," he reassured.
Malik wasn't as convinced though. She looked at the skirt and sighed. "I can't afford this and that coat I wanted – that faux leather one that I saw a while back."
Ryou's smiled remained as strong as ever. "If you want, I'll buy you that coat. I mean, I have plenty of money because I don't really tend to buy things for myself – mainly for the house really. I don't have to pay anything, Dad still pays the bills while he's away, the money I do have has just continues to gain interest over the years. It really is a good thing Bakura doesn't know this," he laughed. "But I don't mind buying you that coat, if you really want it."
Malik was gob-smacked, her head moved almost automatically from side to side in a frenzied manner. "I can't ask that of you, Ryou!"
"No, I don't mind spending money on my friends. Actually, I'm going to buy you that coat whether you like it or not," he told her in a chirpy voice.
Before Malik had a chance to voice her case furthermore, Ryou placed a finger to her lips and reprimanded her with a smile and a silent nod of his head. The girl looked at him, her amethyst eyes filled with a gratifying emotion and her face falling into a contented set, delivering her own final smile of thanks. Ryou just nodded once more before allowing Malik the chance to change into her clothes.
To be continued…
Notes:
Ooo, I decided to add a bit of a romantic twist in this chapter and give Ryou more to do. And do he did. I love writing Ryou because he's such a gentleman and I just wanna hug him so much for being so utterly sweet. Deep down he's a flirt ... more of a natural one, me thinks. This is also the last ... for a while, that you'll see Malik being shy. She's going back to being overly confident and rather demanding :D
I just realised that I wrote a whole chap without Bakura.
Finally, thank yous go out to: Yami No Mariku Ishtar, Crystal of Moonlight, Mittzy, Minako, Lauren, lindaili123, garen569, Halloween 2003, hyeart4ss and jigglyjoo. Plus, all those who added the story to a fave/alert. I love you guys. I'm just so happy that this little poorly written fic is making people smile :D
