The first time Elizabeth takes William and Ban to go grocery shopping.
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The drive to Walmart was ridiculously long, well at least it was for Elizabeth. The two officers that she was responsible for were seated in the backseat, and all three grew quite impatient at the packed traffic. The commercial break over the radio ended and a the guitar into from 'When Doves Cry' cut through the car speakers. Tavington curled his lip upwards in a sneer at the vocal sound affects before the rhythm from the drums and synthesizer were established.
"It still astounds me what is considered music these days. Just listen to that rhythm! It's incredibly primal and animalistic! And far too chaotic as well, what even are some of those instruments?" He begrudgingly whispered to his comrade, too quiet for for Elizabeth to hear.
"I find this song entertaining!" Banastre argued indignatly, only to be rebuffed with a scoff.
"You would. Several of these lyrics are questionable as well." Tavington inclined his head at the radio. Tarleton smirked after he continued to listen after the first verse.
"--Animals strike curious poses! They feel the heat, the heat between me and you--"
He disagreed with Tavington however. The lyrics were not questionable, they were absolutely scandalous! That is why he was shocked when he heard Elizabeth absentmindedly singing along as she drove the metal carriage. Shocked, then amused. Could it be that this seemingly shy and reserved girl had a dirty side hidden beneath? He hoped so.
Finally, Elizabeth stopped her car along a row of others. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she climbed out and headed for a huge tan structure with the words 'Wal-Mart' mounted. Tarleton and Tavington followed her, staring at the building with equal amounts of apprehension.
"This is a market?" Tavington asked the girl.
"Yeah. It sells pretty much anything that we might need."
Elizabeth continued to walk through the automatic doors after she pulled a cart out of its resting place. She almost reached the end of the scanners, but she felt that the men were not behind her.
With a turn of her head, she found both colonels inspecting the automatic door in awe and fear.
"Do you think it's magic?" She faintly heard Banastre whisper to Tavington.
"I don't know..." William met the patient yet expectant gaze of their companion a mere few yards away and both reluctantly decided to ignore their curiosity and rejoin her. William scanned the area that he was confronted with. He straightened himself up and adopted a nonchalant mask of sorts, attempting to cover up the overwhelming sensation that was caused by both the size and the abundance of things inside the store.
"Alright, where was I?" Tavington just faintly heard the woman near him muse. He was otherwise occupied by attempting to guess at the purpose of the curious row of stalls near the exits. Then he turned his head back and begrudgingly caught up to Elizabeth and Tarleton in an area that displayed piles of various fruits and vegetables.
Tavington was a very introspective man, and he liked to pride himself on his ability to hide any nagging thoughts or emotions within. Tarleton however, tended to wear his heart on his sleeve. Such was the case now. As Tavington calmly and elegantly paced himself to follow Elizabeth through the produce, Banastre somehow seemed to trail behind and ahead at once. He was like a hummingbird, or rather a child with a short attention span. He hyperactively flitted about, trying to take in everything that he could.
"My god... Are those pineapples?" Banastre exclaimed and strided towards the prickly golden pyramid stacked in the black carton. Taking a closer look, he grinned and let out a scoff. His rather loud and odd behavior attracted the attention of one nearby shopper, silently questioning the blonde trailing behind him with one pointed gaze.
"He's ah... not from here. This is his first time visiting an American grocery store." Elizabeth explained and awkwardly nodded until the stranger shrugged and sidled away. Then she caught up to Banastre, who has proceeded to pick up one of the tropical delicacies to study it.
"I have never had the pleasure to see a pineapple in person before! They were so rare-- and here lays an entire pile of them? And for five uh... dollars. Is that a large amount of currency?" Tarleton's sparkling brown eyes raised to meet Elizabeth, who had deftly shook her head.
"Yet another modern miracle!" He exclaimed, only to have Elizabeth grin wider than before.
"Do you want one?" Banastre eagerly nodded and Elizabeth took the fruit from him and tossed it in the basket of her cart. The trio finally moved on after grabbing bananas, apples, mangoes, celery, avocados, and other assorted fruits and vegetables. Of course, primarily imported produce that grabbed the soldier's attention just because of the novelty.
Then the soldiers led the way down the food aisles, studying the containers slowly and inquiring as to their uses. William found the packaged meat section particularly interesting for example, and he refused to proceed forward until Elizabeth agreed to buy him a package of hot dogs. She was sure that if he knew exactly how they were made he wouldn't have been so adamant but hey, whatever the boys wanted, the boys got. Unfortunately, these requests from both men also consisted of instant Mac 'n Cheese, microwave popcorn, chicken noodle soup, pop tarts, chips, even more soup, and that's where Elizabeth lost track. Eventually the shopping cart was mostly filled with assorted boxed and canned foods.
On her way to the dairy section, she glanced at the groceries and mentally calculated the total. She came up with... well, a lot. William trailed obediently behind her, appearing to amuse himself by inspecting all of the different brands and flavors of pop.
"Alright, I'll be right back to get the last things we need. Just please don't put anything else in the cart, alright? Alright..."
Elizabeth quickly strided over to one very refrigerated corner of the store and grabbed a gallon on milk and a carton of eggs (two of the very few things she actually came in there for!), and returned to the cart. She spotted William right where she left him at the beverage aisle. Banastre however, was missing.
"Oh, Jesu--uh..." She scanned the whole area around her, seeing the flash of his auburn hair nowhere.
"Dammit!"
With William begrudgingly trailing behind, Elizabeth searched the store to hunt Banastre down.
"Hmm... Am I the only one who believes it would be less trouble to simply leave him here?" William rolled his eyes, but the side of his mouth quirked up when Elizabeth scoffed at him.
"Uh... yeah it might be, to be honest. But I'm not going to do that."
It took them a good fifteen minutes but he was finally found. In the women's clothing department, of all places. Banastre spotted them coming from the corner of his eye and in a panic hid his hands behind his back and did his best to look innocent.
"Good, there you are! What were you doing just--" Elizabeth attempted to question Banastre, but unfortunately William's attentions have shifted to something else entirely.
"What is the meaning of this?" Tavington gestured to what Tarleton had apparently spent so much time browsing: the racks of various bras and panties.
"Are the people in this age really so shameless that they would display lady's undergarments in such a blatant manner? It's simply so--" Tavington's words got caught in his tangent and he ended up making strangled noises in his throat before cutting himself off entirely. At this, Banastre found the opportunity to tease him.
"Well, I don't see why you're so embarrassed. After all, you have seen your fair share of them before!" The shorter man chuckled and glanced at Elizabeth, who turned red and directed her gaze to the floor. Banastre's mirth only grew. Tavington seemed to recover and sent a hard glare his way.
"Of course, you do not seem at all uncomfortable at the impropriety! How long have you been here oogling delicates?"
Banastre's gaze shifted from Tavington to Elizabeth, who had managed to get over her own shyness enough to meet his eyes expectantly. Then he sighed.
"Long enough to have the ability to move on now from it now. I'm certain that we have finished collecting what we need?"
"Yeah, we have more than enough actually. Let's go." Elizabeth grabbed the cart and slowly strolled away. At this point she didn't really care if the pair followed or not.
And neither did, they lagged behind for a few moments while Banastre cautiously revealed what he was holding and took another moment to gaze upon it. William glanced down at it and his face began to heat up. It was a corset, a tiny one that was clearly only intented to cover breasts. The garment was quite pretty as well, turquoise in color and decorated with tiny pink hearts in the pattern and purple lace. William snatched it from Tarleton's hands, both to return it and to quickly sate his own curiosity. Although Tavington's fascination was hidden well enough, Tarleton knew him long enough to spot it and gloated up at him with a sneer.
"Soft, isn't it? I believe Elizabeth has that one." Tavington's head briefly snapped to the inattentive woman before glaring back at his comrade. He was well prepared to scold him. Tavington was comfortable with betting over taking a lady's virtue, but snooping through her personal items was where he drew the line.
"She left it in the washroom. It certainly did not appear to be a scandal for her!" Tarleton snatched the garment back and returned it to the shelf, chuckling. "Perhaps it will take both of us time to learn to get used to the impropriety."
The irony was not lost on Tavington, as irritated as he was. A retort about Tarleton likely already becoming quite used to it crossed William's mind, but remained stuck in his throat. With that, the shorter officer carelessly strutted towards the checkout with Elizabeth.
'What a damned debauncher!' William fumed and furiously marched to catch up with his companions.
The interactions between the two officers remained tense, as they silently waited in the checkout line, as they both took over loading the food onto the conveyer belt, and as they established an unspoken competition as to who can load the most bags into the car. This passive aggressive change was in fact noticed by Elizabeth, but she simply shrugged it off. This rivalry between them was commonplace by her experience, it was similar to a brotherhood rivalry she supposed. Even if she was wrong... well at least she doesn't have to worry about carrying all her groceries up to the apartment anymore!