Note: Once again, Trixie and her mom are owned by Liana (info on first chapter)
It hasn't been too long since Adwin found himself with two unexpected visitors. The summer-long stay for the two caught him a little off guard, but he promised that he'll try to manage… even if he's not exactly outgoing. A couple of days after their arrival, Adwin hasn't made much on his promise yet, still in his room painting. He's doing a portrait of a star atop a skyscraper amidst the night sky, something he has only gotten about halfway done with as he reached for his tubes of paint.
"Bummer," he says as he feels the now empty tubes of paint. He must have really been putting all of his efforts into this one. "Looks like I'm all out. Note to self: buy more paint." He sets a reminder on his phone, seeing that it's only 11:00 AM. As well as his slightly splattered clothes when he looks in his mirror. "Two whole hours of painting… man, I need a break. And a bath."
And so he takes his clothes off and finds his robe, walking to the lone bathroom where he can hear someone showering in there. He knocks on the door.
"Almost finished," exclaims Trixie in a singsong tone. Adwin sighs feeling he may have to wait a while. Nevertheless, he goes back into his room and plays with a Rubik's Cube, his attention shifting into solving it. With every turn of the cube, he becomes more hyperfocused on solving it, his hands moving quickly as time seems to pass by rather quickly. So fast that Trixie finished her shower before Adwin even finished his cube, knocking on his door.
"Adwin? You needed the shower?" This knocked him out of his focus. He ALMOST solved it! But he's not mad over it; plenty of people can't solve it in time.
"Oh! Uh yeah. Thanks." He gets up and opens the door to see Trixie standing and wearing a towel.
"Sorry that took a while. I wind up enjoying the hot water but it's all yours!" She holds the part of the towel covering her top as she gestures happily to the door. How splattered Adwin looks are then given some attention.
"Oooof. You must love painting. Bad news for your clothes though, huh?" She chuckles like she told a joke… though Adwin did stifle one himself he didn't laugh.
"I… actually don't have, well, "good" clothes, so to speak. Almost all of the clothes I wear when I paint." He sheepishly looks to the side. He is good with colors and fashion but ironically doesn't have good clothes to wear, since he's always in his room. Trixie looks as though an idea alarm went off in her head.
"OMG! We should, like, totally get you some new clothes! My treat! Like, what mall do you know?" She leans forward slightly at Adwin, looking excited. Adwin feels a little side-eyed when he does but answers normally.
"Oh, I mean, there's a mall called Octave Creek… that I go to… sometimes." He twiddles with his fingers as he mentions the mall that he rarely explores by switching from his normal path. Trixie's eyes sparkle.
"Perfect! We should totally go! Just the two of us! Plus I wanna know ya more. Like who IS Adwin Dubois, know what I mean?" She leans straight up again to let him shower.
"I mean, I suppose…" He shrugs as he makes his way inside.
"Ooooh, this is gonna be so much fun! I'm gonna tell our mamas… oh, right as soon as I change of course." Her face gains a light blush as she remembers what she's wearing and walks to her room to change. Adwin can't help but give a slight chuckle as he walks into the restroom. She may be a little hyper but she seems like such a nice girl…
After a shower, hair washing, and a fresh change of clothes, Adwin feels much better. What he's wearing today is a short-sleeved maroon shirt and khaki pants with black sneakers. Hey, he does need new paint, might as well get take advantage of Trixie's offer. Once changing he walks out of the room to see Trixie, dressed the same as she was yesterday, standing at the door with the two moms, dressed in casual attire for this nice day. Emma flips some shades down on her face as she addresses Adwin.
"Well, what are you waiting for? The mall isn't gonna visit itself!" She laughs as Adwin stifles a smile, joining the group and grabbing his keys. He can only wonder how she's gonna react to Octave Creek…
The small but nice white sedan pulls up in front of the mall entrance. This mall has a heavy amount of rocks, water, and trees around the area, which made this a nice place to go to shop or look around. For Adwin, he's gonna have to do both today.
"Now," says Jolene to her son, "don't forget, you still have money from when you do commissions. But if you ever need more money, you know you can text me, okay?" He nods as Emma talks to her daughter.
"Same with you, money from your job, but if you need more, dial me up."
"Kay, mama! Thank you!" She hugs her real quick before getting out of the car. Adwin breathes slowly before he does the same. He waves back to the two before the car pulls off, leading the two teenagers to look at the entrance.
"Ooooh, I'm so excited! You ready to go in?" Trixie excitedly hops and claps alongside her more stoic friend.
"Yeah. Sure." He smiles a little small, leading Trixie to slightly frown before she gets an idea.
"Ooooh, do you have stores here that you love going to? Maybe you could show them to me!"
"Really? You'd really be interested. Cause, well, they are all art-themed and I wouldn't wanna… you know."
"Oh come on! I did drag you out here. It's the least I could do!" She grabs his hands and drags him toward the entrance. Adwin feels a little shy but manages to hold it in as they walk in.
First stop: The Galleria at Octave Creek.
This is Adwin's main stop for seeing the latest in art paintings, all varying in quality and price, as well as some coming from the city of Nashville itself! Adwin dilates at the sign of all these paints, rambling on about the artistic vision and value of most of them, much to his embarrassment when he realizes he has a company with him.
"Oh," he says sheepishly. "Sorry, I do like rambling on about most of these…" He winces for her reaction.
"No, no, don't be sorry. You love this stuff. You're totally free to ramble as long as you want!" She gestures him to continue before spotting a specific painting, drawing her closer.
"Ooooooh, what about this one? Like, what's the deets?"
Adwin comes close to the painting and feels a little bit embarrassed by it, scratching his head as he explains.
"Oh, this? Just something created by a mysterious anonymous painter. No one knows who they are but many say they bring paintings here to show them off to the mallgoers. Pretty mysterious…" His tone feels more relaxed as he explains, catching Trixie's interest.
"Oooooh, like, an anonymous tipper! But this looks great! Why would anyone wanna hide their skills like that? Should really be shown to the world!" Her hands go across the sky as Adwin blushes and he looks to the side, something she doesn't seem to notice.
"Hehe, yeah… wonder why… uh, come on! There's another art place that I actually need to go to." She leads her out of the gallery to visit his other place.
"Oh! Okay!" She walks out of the gallery behind him before Adwin takes one final glance at the paintings…
Second stop: Splatter's
"The store where I get my stuff from…"
Adwin leads Trixie into this decently-sized store of art supplies and paints. This store takes up a good amount of space, meaning there is a lot of lanes to explore… but he only needed the essentials.
"I really come here when I need new paints or easels. I… I work through them like hotcakes."
"I can tell! You do seem to have a knack for it." She smiles as Adwin picks the paint he needs. Luckily, this is an in-and-out type of thing. He reaches the cashier who has the nametag "Sheryll" on it.
"Oh, Adwin! Haven't seen you in a while." She chats with him as she takes his things.
"Yeah, just getting some essentials… again." Trixie comes up, curious. Adwin does know her at least. That's a good sign… right?
"Oh-ho," exclaims Sheryll. "See you got yourself a friend…" She waggles her eyebrows slightly, making Adwin blush hard.
"Oh, yeah, she's staying with me and my mom… for the summer."
"Name's Trixie! It's, like, great to meet you!" Trixie shakes her hand and finds herself distracted by her phone. "Sweet! Got an update on somethin'! I'll be by the entrance, okay?" She walks toward the entrance as Adwin nods. Sheryll can't help but note Adwin being with an attractive girl his age even as she finishes scanning the items.
"So… your friend… she's kinda cute, huh?" She raises her eyebrows as Adwin gains a red blush on his face, now fumbling with his phone briefly.
"What?! Oh, no, no, she's not… you see, we're… it-it's a summer living situation." He internally prays for the scanner to finish. He enjoys Sheryll but sometimes she can be a bit… gossipy when it comes to stuff like this.
"Don't worry, I got yo secret. Well here's your stuff. Enjoy your day, lover boy…" She teases him and leaves him an even more flustered mess. He walks to Trixie who didn't notice his red face.
"So," says Adwin, the blush disappearing slowly, "w-what stores did you say you wanted to go to?" Trixie gets a grin wider than ever as she grabs Adwin by the hand.
"Oooooh, lemme show you! We're gonna have so much fun!"
Third stop: PINK
Trixie is an employee at this store where she's from, so this is obviously gonna be her first stop. Adwin has never been in here before, but really because he's never had a reason to, but he's well aware of the type of stuff they sell here. He keeps these thoughts in his mind as Trixie picks out what she wants to try on and has him sit near the fitting rooms.
"Oh okay, we're stopping here…"
"Yeah, guys don't really come in here that much… but you look like someone who can eye what matches and what doesn't. I'm making you my celebrity judge!" She rushes into the nearest room and closes the door, locking it so she can try stuff on.
First outfit: some new underwear she found. Trixie steps out and models a strapless light pink bra and panties with little hearts on them.
"So got input?" Trixie's question was asked as innocently as possible in front of the very flustered Adwin.
"Oh a pink ensemble… p-pretty cool, l-love the hearts." His voice had a slight octave to it considering he's a teenage guy who's being allowed to comment on the appearance of an admittedly pretty teenage girl.
"Awwww see? Told ya!"
She goes back into the changing room and tries on some more underwear for him to comment upon, each of different colors and styles. The advice he gives is genuinely helpful for her even if he shifted in his seat slightly, feeling more and more flustered.
Second outfit: some new bikinis she found cute. She tries on a strapless light blue bikini and steps out to model it, even doing a little twirl. She smiles at Adwin again for more input, which he does right after he subtly eyes her down and up.
"Oh uh… maybe try a darker blue! It could mesh well with your skin tone." Trixie nods and tries on some more bikinis, Adwin critiquing each of them. Things went very smoothly for the most part, aside from Adwin's slight stuttering, so she changed back into her normal clothes and paid for everything herself. Employee discount!
Fourth stop: SunStop
The store for clothes that thrive in the summer, SunStop is one of Trixie's favorite stores ever. She drags him in excitedly.
"Eeee, I love this store! Like, all my favorite clothes are here! And I can bet we'll definitely find something for you too!"
"Oh, yeah. Sure…"
He's not sure what to expect as Trixie drags him in, but he can tell he's really gonna have to pick what he likes this time. And they gotta be fashionable, but comfortable, something he keeps in mind as he starts eyeing possible clothes and, his artistic passion taking over, grabs some of them. Trixie also picks out some fashionable clothes of her own to try on, the two going into the changing rooms once they did.
Third outfits: Adwin picked out a dark red athletic shirt with black shorts that have red stripes on them. He steps out feeling comfortable.
"You know, this actually feels pretty good! Like no stress, no hassle, just something to throw on."
He looks in a mirror to admire himself, actually feeling good about himself, as Trixie steps out. She's wearing a tie-front pink crop top that shows her midriff off and a light blue skirt, still wearing her normal heels. She leans on one hip as she notes Adwin's appearance.
"Wow, someone's looking great!" Her compliment flusters him since he's not used to people actually praising him.
"T-thanks. Um, you look pretty… great, pretty great!" Adwin quickly added on, having been distracted by her briefly.
"Awww that's so sweet! I knew you'd know what to say!" She lightly claps knowing Adwin likes what she's wearing before walking back into the booth to change again. "Let's try the other stuff we picked, kay?"
"Y-yeah, right." He briefly bumps into a wall before walking back into his booth, feeling distracted.
Fourth outfit: Adwin is now wearing an outfit that's mostly blue in different shades. He's wearing short jeans and a black stylized shirt that, of course, was painting-related.
"I normally feel kinda shy about this but the shirt… it speaks to me. Like… the aesthetics got to me."
He turns himself around as he waits for Trixie to come out. Seconds later, she does, this time dressed in a two-piece pink set with a button-down top that shows her midriff like the last one and a form-fitting skirt.
"I think this one speaks to me too! Of course, it's pink and that's, like, my favorite color." Still smiling, she twirls in front of a mirror as Adwin watches.
"I think… that might be my favorite out of everything you picked."
"Awwww," said Trixie, gushing as she walked over to Adwin to hug him, slightly lifting him. "How do you always have a sense for this sort of thing?"
Adwin couldn't answer for a minute because he's stunned from his first real hug from someone outside of his family… and because his face was squished near her chest.
"I… uh…" Luckily, the hug parted before he could get more flustered. He clears his throat to dissuade his feelings of awkwardness. "So you think this would be good?"
"Yeah! I brought plenty of clothes with me."
"Wait really? If you bought clothes with you, why shop here?" He's not mad at her but he's genuinely surprised that she wanted him to bring her here.
"Cause I wanted to hang out with you, silly! This is what friends do!" She giggles cutely to the surprised painter as a red tint slightly appears on his cheeks. He didn't have a whole lot of friends in real life, much less those outside his artistic interest. "Now come on! Let's change and go pay for our stuff!" She goes back into the booth to change back into her normal clothes so they can pay for their stuff. Adwin does the same after standing there briefly.
"Dang it Sheryll," he thinks as he goes to change.
And the rest of the day? Just walking around the mall and seeing what's around, with the two deciding to talk as they walk. It's funny, he feels more comfortable talking to her than a couple of days ago. These thoughts remain in their mind as they spent the next hour in the food court, eating some donuts and drinking frappuccinos. Today was a great day to get out for Adwin. The weather was nice, the shops were vibrant, he had someone to be there with… and she modeled some clothes for him. Hey, even he's got that trait somewhere right?
Notes: So I've gotten some good reviews and views on the first chapter so I decided to write another one. And if I could describe this in three words, they'd be "fluff", "friendship", and "fanservice". In the end, it's worth it… cause I'm growing fond of writing more low-key types of stories (especially considering what I normally write)! So I'm already cycling through ideas for the next chapter but I can say that it's gonna be more Adwin-centric than the others since it's gonna reveal a talent of his that's more hidden than his painting!
Well, as always, leave a review! Never hurts to help!