"No, that doesn't work for them..."

"I hardly think a full ballgown will suit Jesse, Isa."

The half-demons were watching the three lords bicker (well, Harper kept offering clothes and putting them away silently) over what to have Jesse wear to the party. Jesse was absently watching back and forth.

"That shade of blue looks awful on Jesse, Mev."

Mevia looked at the suit- which to be fair, was a very bright blue that made Jesse look like a fluorescent lightbulb. "I don't see a problem with it."

"We cannot bring Jesse to the party looking like a neon blueberry, Mevia, it'll look dreadful."

They'd arrived back in Hizelk the day prior.

Hadrian had promptly passed out (and landed on top of Jesse by accident, which had resulted in Harper fussing over Jesse for about ten minutes to make sure he hadn't hurt them).

After a brief rest, they'd started going through clothes- the date of the party had snuck up on them during the whole negative energy crisis, but now that it was drawing near the three lords (well, Isa at least) insisted they have proper clothes for the occasion.

It was, at the very least, respectful to Xara even if she never had much patience for much hullabaloo (which was why they were wearing only semiformal clothing and not anything ornate- none of the current lords cared much for traditions like that unless it was a very specific occasion, like the selection of a new lord).

The October Children, Jack, and Petra were exempt from the choosing- they had outfits that they'd received upon first becoming half-demons.

(Aiden grumbled about how long he'd had to stand for a fitting. Lukas pointed out that he'd kept squirming around while getting it done, thus dislodging pins willy nilly; Aiden had promptly told Lukas to shut up while blushing.)

Nurm and Radar, of course, were actual denizens of Cosmos, so it was absolutely not an issue for them.

But Jesse didn't actually have a proper outfit, which was why they were now at Sky City's clothing store, bickering about clothes.

Reuben had curled up in a pile of fabric for a nap, which left Jesse quietly listen to the lords bicker about Jesse's outfit.

"A suit hardly suits them either, though, and we can hardly get them a full on tuxedo for the occasion," Mevia mumbled, holding it up to Jesse. "And yet a dress just looks weird on them."

Harper was thinking silently as Isa mumbled, "Maybe we should get them a suit anyway- or at least a nice shirt and pants? Would that work?"

"Too informal. Xara's not much for occasion but it would still scream rudeness to the Yurin folk if we just came in something that's not that formal," Mevia grunted.

As much as the three of them hated fancy occasions due to how fancily they were, she hated upsetting people in Yurin even more- a good majority of the 'nobility' up there (with the exception of the barons) were really snooty, and Mevia had once gotten so much flak for wearing a simple but nice dress to dinner with Xara.

Xara had found it bullshit as well, but she could only control the Yurin nobles to a certain extent, and Mevia had had to deal with the backlash for "daring to wear such an informal outfit!?" to dinner for about a month.

She was not about to put the small human through that, even if they were gone by then.

"Hm... a suit? But that doesn't work entirely either... it suits them but there's still something off about it," Isa murmured to herself, holding up a very nice navy blue suit up to Jesse's body, trying to measure it.

"You mean besides the fact that they're tiny and don't fit in it?" Aiden asked, Lukas making a soft humming sound as Aiden took one of his pieces.

The two were playing chess in the corner of the shop with the complimentary chess set; Lukas stared at the board before moving one piece.

Isa shook her head with a dry smile. "Smart-mouth... but we need something that'll suit Jesse, and a dress doesn't suit them much either- I mean, it's very nice," she remarked absently, holding up a velvety blue dress with little gems dotted in it like stars, "but it still doesn't feel quite right..."

"Is Hadrian doing okay?" Jesse asked, to fill the lull of silence.

"Why do you care about him?" Mevia asked, scowling a little at them and making them shrink a bit for asking.

She sighed a moment later, scratching her cheek. "He's fine, though. Still sleeping off the mass-teleportation."

Isa hummed. "He's been rather polite lately."

"Usually is." Harper was trying to hold an-emerald green suit up to Jesse and shaking her head with distaste.

(Jesse privately agreed with the shake of her head; that suit would've probably made them look like they were attempting to cosplay as the Onceler from the Lorax's remake.)

"Wrong foot."

Radar glanced between Harper and Jesse, brow furrowing. "Do you mean he got off on the wrong foot with you all?" he interpreted.

"Yes, actually," and here was Milo.

Jesse had only heard of him before, but upon meeting the blonde demon he'd practically shaken their arm off their torso with effusive greetings, red eyes glinting with interest, and bombarded them with about twenty questions about the human world before Mevia had gently shoved him off to take Jesse to the fitting.

"The first time Ivor introduced 'his new assistant' Hadrian basically called Himira a slut by accident."

Maya and Gill both choked and spluttered mid-argument upon overhearing this and clonked their foreheads together.

"I kind of doubt it was an accident," Mevia said, scowling as Maya and Gill sniped at each other quietly.

"I highly doubt it was on purpose, considering your reputations," came Milo's reply.

Isa shook her head. "I'm inclined to believe he wasn't watching his words and did just accidentally imply it, especially since he never said that word out loud to us."

Mevia rolled her eyes. "He's an asshole," she muttered.

Jesse had gasped whenever any of their classmates cursed in class. They now hardly blinked unless it was a really bad swear.

"To be fair, you do tend to antagonize him," Lukas remarked, moving his pawn and taking a knight of Aiden's (Aiden swore at that).

Mevia shot Lukas a withering look that Lukas managed to escape unwithered by.

Isa laughed as Harper bit her thumbnail, considering a very dark green suit jacket and the dark blue dress in Isa's hands. "Well, he's not wrong, Mev."

"It's remarkably like how you and I argued when I first got hired," Milo said mildly, taking discarded outfits and folding them neatly. "Though to be fair, that was because the first time I saw you I got so flustered that nothing but rudeness came out."

"Mm. True, you didn't come off on the right foot either," Isa said, absently kissing his cheek and returning to trying to pair an outfit with Jesse.

Aiden dropped his chess piece.

"Oh. Perhaps I should've mentioned, Isa and Milo are courting now," Reginald said, belatedly.

Isa rolled her eyes to heaven. "Yes, and I'm glad no one except the other lords have caught on, or else it'd be the only thing anyone would talk about in Cosmos for months, so if you don't mind, let's keep it this way," she said.

Harper took the velvety dress from Isa's hands and grabbed a light teal shirt from Mevia's collection of ugly- er, very pretty outfits. She thrust the small collection out to Jesse. "Try."

"Ah- okay..." Jesse was evidently so surprised by the sudden remark that they just took the stuff and went into the changing room.

Isa blinked. "A suit and a dress?"

Harper shrugged. "Nonbinary. Thought they'd like it."

Aiden made a satisfied sound as he took Lukas's castle, only for it to turn into a groan as Lukas used his bishop to claim Aiden's other knight. "Oh, you've gotta be fucking kidding me..."

"Nope. Your move."

Jesse came out in the ensemble Harper had given them- they had to hoist the dress up a stupid amount to avoid stepping on the hem and breaking their nose on the floor. It actually looked pretty nice, ignoring the fact that, well, most of it didn't fit.

Mevia gave a hum, cocking her head to one side. "Oh... that's actually pretty good."

A measuring tape came over and began to measure Jesse furiously; the tailor was coming over. "Hold your arms up, sweet," the tailor said, already brandishing enough pins to make a porcupine jealous.

They reluctantly held their arms up. Jack and Nurm were signing at each other in fluent conversation, though Jack's signs were a bit clumsier and less fluid than Nurm's, while Radar and Milo were talking to each other quietly and scribbling stuff down in a notebook.

Jesse looked over at Mevia. "Hadrian's... mostly okay... I don't think he likes kids."

"He doesn't. He hates them," Isa responded before Mevia could say anything.

"Ah..."

The tailor was currently muttering under their breath, having pinned the outfit so that it hung a little loose on them, but not enough to lose its shape and turn into a baggy ugly shape. "Is Hadrian... like, mean to people?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Depends."

Mevia, Isa, and Harper all stared at each other for a moment, before Jack looked over.

"It mostly depends. He's rude to people who are, perhaps, considered more as thugs than citizens, but he's at least respectful to people who live in the cities and treat him politely. If you're rude to him, he's usually more than happy to return the favor."

When the three lords turned to stare at Jack, he shrugged. "Ivor sent him at one point to help settle Jupin right when Fred had just died."

"Yes, and?"

Jesse twisted enough to see Hadrian slouching through the door, covering his mouth to muffle a tremendous yawn. He looked rather groggy and grouchy- probably still half-asleep from the mass teleportation- but he was awake.

"Hi, Hadrian," they said, meekly.

"Hi, slugger," he grumbled, rubbing his eyes hard. "You getting fitted for whatever?"

"Yeah..." Jesse mumbled, trying not to accidentally shift too much and end up getting jabbed with one of the hundred pins the tailor was using.

"Having fun?"

"Not really..."

Hadrian snorted at that and sat down heavily, rubbing his eyes. "Fuck. Remind me to not do this again anytime soon. I feel like I have a hangover."

"You're infinitely more pleasant when you are intoxicated, since you don't say anything," Mevia shot at him.

He gave a frustrated sigh, but didn't deign to reply.

The tailor marked out the new folds and seams on the dress-suit thing and snapped their fingers; a needle and thread lifted out of the shelf and slipped off of Jesse. "There we go, darling, that'll be done in five minutes. Shoes now?"

"Five minutes?" Jesse blinked.

"Isa paid them extra and also magic," Milo said, as way of explanation.

"Oh," was all Jesse managed before the tailor was dragging them off to the side to see if they could find Jesse an "absolutely dashing companion to your outfit- perhaps slightly heeled boots, to boost your height?"

Lukas hummed as he slid a piece over on the chess board. "Checkmate."

Aiden stared at the board, then buried his head in his hands. "Lukas, please, for the love of Cosmos, could you just let me win once?"

"But that wouldn't teach you how to get better."

"Neither does you creaming me in less than 7 minutes for the fifteenth time in a row," Aiden said, voice muffled.

"You're learning that I'm better than you at chess," Lukas replied, lips twitching up into a victorious smile.

Hadrian snorted at that.


A/N: Imagine being able to get any clothes fixes done in 5 minutes.

Also look! Hadrian's not being a jerk! Completely xD xD

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