Like always, thank you, thank you, thank you Max and GGL for all the help! Discussing writing with you is quickly proving to be one of my favorite parts about writing this fic.
Chapter 4
He had gone to face neither of them.
Pyrrha told him to be honest; to speak proudly and candidly and be true to his heart. Cinder advised him the opposite; to tell people what they want to hear to take advantage of them. Neither recommended him to be such an idiot as he was, unable to see past his own nose. Before Cinder quite literally spelled it all out for him, he was utterly blind to the way Pyrrha felt. Hopelessly blind. It mortified him.
How much more could he have missed?
He'd kicked off the day well enough. The dance itself had been uneventful before he followed Pyrrha onto the balcony. He felt good confronting Neptune, but even better that his assumptions about the boy turned out wrong. Turns out he was a pretty stand-up guy, only a bit too fixated on his own appearance.
The conversation with Pyrrha. How he wished to go back and redo it with what he knew now.
His partner gazed at the night sky in self-imposed isolation. When they spoke she explained to him it was because of the walls her status kept around her. It dissuaded any hunter or huntress less accomplished from connecting with her, let alone asking the champion out. Which, at their age, meant all of them. Except him, if only because of his ignorance. It just drove a wedge between them in a different way. It always came back to that.
At least his surprise wardrobe change and their ensuing dance together helped improve Pyrrha's spirits. The promised group dance and debuting white dress Jaune wore were a rousing success. Not a single attendee flung rotten vegetables at him! People took his gesture in stride and joined Team JNPR on the dance floor.
If anything, he'd left a positive impression with his surprising skill in dancing.
Finally, Cinder made her grand entrance. After a quick costume change he joined her for their promised waltz. It had also gone well. The mere act of dancing with a beauty like Cinder would count as a crowning achievement for the blond any other time, but there was something more. Be it her snark or her disarming outspokenness that forced him to try arguing with her. Maybe it was simply her mean smile. Whatever the specifics, there was something bewitching about them pushing him into deep contemplation.
Maybe what entranced him was knowing there was meanness but no malice. Seeing that this is who Cinder was; sharp tongued but earnest. But it also made him profoundly nervous. It was an engrossing cocktail of emotions. He had intense feelings warning him against earning the ire of the woman. They urged him to navigate the minefield he put himself in with absolute precision. He had no idea how. He had no idea how to process everything, especially after it happened.
The kiss.
She had kissed him. Cinder Fall had kissed him. A peck on the lips. It was right as midnight's echoes filled Beacon Hall. The timing couldn't have been worse. Another astonishing revelation and another woman slipping away right before Jaune could know what to think or say. In honesty he still didn't.
Call it cowardice, but he didn't dare think about it. Maybe it was guilt. He knew he could never escape it all the same.
She'd swiftly retired for the night with her team. They would have much to prepare for come morning, Jaune realized. The first year's mission assignments began in two days. Real Hunter missions Team JNPR will also have to brave through…
These real combat tours could not have come at a poorer time for his team. Right after he subverted his partner's trust in him and imperiled team cohesion. Right when he should be looking for Pyrrha and Cinder.
Browbeaten, he exhaled something fierce. The ball had defeated him. Now he was expected to trail a professional on the field and leave everything going on in Beacon behind. The field trip was an already daunting prospect for any first year team. And Team JNPR may have to defer to him for leadership on it. As far behind them - and indeed most of his peers - as Jaune was academically and in mock combat, he knew it would be a million times worse in genuine field conditions. A million more ways in which he'd be a burden.
He refused to have a repeat of Cardin before Emerald Forest, he could never live with it. He would never withhold things from his team again, not even things that challenged his pride. Back then, petty machismo held him back from doing the right thing, now matters felt impossibly more complicated. What he feared was that he'd already let his team down. He hurt Pyrrha.
With Cardin and his groupies, Jaune's mistake was obvious. He didn't speak up when he needed to. He dreaded the chance to speak had come and gone this time around. But how could he talk to Pyrrha now? He didn't even know what to think, much less what he wanted.
Should he be happy? Two stunning beauties, astronomically out of his league suddenly having expressed interest in him.
No.
After his tragicomical failure in reading women tonight, he wouldn't allow himself to indulge in such thoughts. He was as inexperienced with the opposite sex as he was being a Huntsman. And his gaps in knowledge were coming back to bite him.
All he could do is dread. Dread facing his team in their dorms. Dread not knowing what to say to Cinder. All his deliberation and delay only for the teen to box himself in his own uncertainty. He really was bad at following advice. He was ignoring both Pyrrha's and Cinder's.
He lethargically climbed the stairs to the hallway leading to their dorm. The corridor seemed endless. It wasn't long enough. Dragging his feet through it would not allow him to procrastinate forever, as much as he'd wished to. He knew it would be awkward, if not downright cruel, but he needed to join his team in their dorm. Making himself absent for the night would only invite more and worse speculation out of them.
He groggily lifted his shoulders. Ready or not, he wanted to face Pyrrha. Before he'd made it far, a voice called to him in an aloof calm.
"Weird night," Ren intoned. He must have been patiently expecting him, Jaune surmised, as he spotted the jet-haired hunter posed lazily against the wall. Not too far from their room to miss Jaune's approach, but not so close as to risk being heard by its residents.
"Yeah…" Jaune reluctantly whimpered.
"Why don't you join us ?" offered Ren, "Nora is just about ready to call dibs on your belongings if you don't."
"I have a feeling you know why, Ren," defeat creeped deeper into Jaune's tone, his mask of calm a doomed endeavor from the start.
Never one to dance around a topic, Ren knew exactly what to say. "She's stronger than you think, you know - Pyrrha that is," his wan smile expressing more solidarity to the blond than words ever could.
"I know you worry because you care," he continued, "why don't you let her know too?"
The seemingly obvious suggestion knocked Jaune wide awake. The plainness of it reminded him of something he never really had forgotten; his brotherhood with Ren. The bonds with his team. He knew just how right Ren was and yet he had allowed himself to get lost inside his own doubts and lose sight of the present. It was a habit Jaune always had; losing himself in the horizon. The horizon made for fierce motivation when working to realize his dream of being a hunter, but could just as well crash him under suffocating pressure when storm clouds blot it out.
It must all seem silly to a stoic like Ren. Jaune finally returned his friend's smile.
"Nora put you up to this, didn't she?" he asked with slowly renewing cadence.
"Actually I volunteered," the student explained, "Nora's suggestion was to break your legs and drag you into our room."
"Thanks, Ren. I needed to hear that," Jaune rested a hand on his teammate's shoulder. Light but steadfast. They made their way to the dormroom.
"Oh, and thanks for saving my legs," the teen added.
He gingerly grasped the pommel of their door.
Cinder woke up in a cold sweat, the unwelcome imagery still playing inside her mind.
That was a first.
She had come across a variety of obstacles in the past, of course. The path she carved out was riddled with challenges. Admittedly, the way she overcame the challenge of Nora Valkyrie was hardly her proudest moment. But tonight was no more volatile or adverse than she could handle regardless; she'd won.
Her infiltration mission was a success. Her dramatics bookending Beacon's big ball could only affect her in the form of petty gossip. The academy's grapevine would surely be abuzz with rumor by morning. She didn't care; swatting Nora away was her sole concern during the excruciating minutes spent around that buzzard. Only at the instant her lips met his did she consider all the clean-up and excuses necessary to prevent a potential snafu in the aftermath. It was a begrudging epiphany; part of her wanted to enjoy indulging in the suave role of seductress. Part of her was completely embarrassed.
It didn't matter. Retaliation against Nora Valkyrie and Pyrrha Nikos was the only goal behind her actions at that moment. Rebuffing Jaune's advances, should they ever come, would not be a complicated affair.
Though Cinder vehemently doubted Jaune would be coming back anyway. She never did figure out why he returned to the dance to begin with; she had practically served him to Pyrrha on a silver platter. And he practically slept next to her in their dorm room.
She checked on the two other beds of her team's room. Emerald and Mercury were dormant, lost in their own respective dreamlands. At least they wouldn't be disturbing her, questioning her about any meaningless nonsense. Emerald would jump at the chance. Cinder only liked her dreams of ambition. But she was no stranger to nightmares.
She wrestled with them often. Recollections of regret and suffering. The long years she was tortured and the many ways the world left her betrayed. The rut of her subconscious did show her mercy sometimes. Sometimes, it would break its monotony and dream of everything she was born to never have. Everything she grew up to miss out on. Maybe tonight was such an instance.
But it didn't feel like that.
It didn't feel like the aching of an old wound, but the opening of a new one. It did not track in the half Maiden's mind. Her vicarious competition with Pyrrha did not even begin to compare with the do-or-die world she was forged in. And it wasn't set in a battlefield she was keen to dominate at any event. Perhaps humbling the invincible girl in true combat could be enjoyable but Cinder had not dreamt about that. She had specifically stolen him from her.
She would rather dream of her fruitful espionage in Vale and all the weaknesses it would soon expose. She would much rather dream of finally finding the magic left unclaimed. The hunger for the tempestuous power never subdued from the moment she earned her rank among the Maidens. It was profoundly aggrieved by the unnatural division of the Fall Maiden. It scratched and gnawed at her to make things right. It was her sole craving. She couldn't possibly have urges of any other variety.
Especially not for that dense dork.
Cinder decided to go back to sleep. She prayed his gentle sapphire orbs wouldn't stare back at her when she did.
"Sorry, I'm late you guys…" Jaune spoke shakily as he opened the door to his team's room.
He wouldn't cross it. He was not emotionally ready to enter and invade a space he might've lost the right to be in.
"Hey Nora….", he anxiously greeted.
"Hey Jaune," Nora offered coolly.
She was resting prone on her bed, lazily flipping through the pages of a magazine resting over her pillow. Her tone of voice informed Jaune she was privy to what had transpired. Her nonchalant greeting was either to ease his worries, or to just play ignorant for her own sake, the blond speculated. Either those, or he had messed up so cataclysmically that Nora had reached 'everything is fine' levels of denial.
Whichever the case, he knew he couldn't afford to focus on Nora. He found the courage to show himself for one specific reason. He'd never forgive himself if he lost his nerve now.
"So uh," he stiffly began, "have you seen Pyrrha?"
"She's here, silly. She's taking a shower," Nora explained.
"Oh, that reminds me I forgot to take mine," Jaune commented as an aside.
"Yea, well, these things tend to happen when you roam around so late," the huntress jabbed, her vision unbroken from the flipping pages in front of her.
"I understand if you're mad too, Nora," Jaune sighed.
"Mad?!" she rapidly fought the blanket she was wrapped in to switch positions and face the blond, "Jauney, I'm not mad!"
As he inspected her features, Jaune verified just how sincere Nora's reassurance was. Her expression was pensive but profoundly caring. All his teammates were caring. As much for him as they were for Pyrrha. How could he have thought otherwise?
"You're the one who's mad at himself, Jaune," Nora correctly deduced, "That's why you feared we'd be mad."
"It's a habit of yours," Ren concurred, his tone attesting he felt much the same way as Nora. "You're always hard on yourself," he elaborated.
"You know I have a good reason for it, Ren," the taller boy countered, his gaze planted on the floor.
It wasn't just his streak of being ignorant; Jaune had the most to prove from the beginning. He was the weakest link on his team and, by all accounts, unworthy of Beacon Academy.
"Do you have a good reason, Jauney?" Nora wondered out loud, "Let me guess, you blame yourself for the kiss after you came back to the ball."
"Pfff", she exclaimed, "As if you could've known. I assure you, no one present couldn't have known!"
"Well I-" he began.
"And you blame yourself for not noticing Pyrrha earlier." Nora powered through him, hitting the nail on the head once again.
"You guys don't get it," Jaune whined, "it isn't about putting the blame on anyone; it's about doing right by the team."
"You must still think you're not right for the team, then. You're wrong," Pyrrha interjected, breaking up their argument and calling out Jaune.
Jaune suddenly grew aware of the fact he never heard the drizzle of a shower from the moment he'd opened the door to the room. His partner joined them from the dorm's bathroom dry and in her pajamas, having finished bathing a while ago. Her voice was mellow, but oozing determination.
He was petrified. He knew his encounter with Pyrrha was unavoidable and yet nothing could prepare him for it. Her catching him putting down his own worth was the worst feeling. He knew she never doubted his potential or commitment to becoming a Hunter. The one who doubted him was himself and that only made her job harder. He tried making these thoughts known to her but his voice failed him.
"We aren't putting blame on anyone," Ren stated.
"Except Cinder!" Nora made a snappy addendum.
"No, not even Cinder," Pyrrha differed, shooting her ginger teammate a gentle but somber look.
"Eh Rennie, why don't we go buy ingredients for pancakes? You can make breakfast tomorrow!" Nora instantly suggested before springing up from bed.
"But it's two in the morning," argued Ren.
"Too late, I've made up my mind!" The bubbly girl declared.
"Fine," he relented, "can I just get something from my nightsta-oof" the boy was forced to pause as his partner glomped him back into the hallway, his attempt to reach his nightstand destined to fail.
"See you two later!" Nora bid as she slammed the door shut behind her and Ren.
Jaune didn't turn to face his new interlocutor, his focus still downcast. Instead, he resolved to rip off the band-aid immediately and say everything in a single breath; Say his apologies all at once.
"Pyrrha, I-"
"The only one putting the blame on anyone is you," Pyrrha interrupted him as if she knew what he planned. She gazed at the night sky, like she had on the balcony, as she deliberately ambled closer to him. It stopped him dead in his tracks.
"You didn't do anything, Jaune," she continued.
"But not doing anything is the problem," Jaune's watery eyes finally met hers as he snapped.
"Well… you're not the only one with that problem," she timidly admitted, bringing one hand around her side in a mock hug for comfort.
"No, you tried, Pyrrha. I was just blind," Jaune darkly countered, still very eager to blame himself.
"You tried more. You got yourself a date…"
"I….", he lost his words again.
"I know how frustrating it can be, Jaune. When things are so difficult, it is easy to blame yourself and think you're the problem. But you need to toughen up," she proclaimed.
"Pardon me?", he blurted out, her words not being remotely close to what he was expecting Pyrrha to have to say.
"Things don't always turn out as we planned. And it's enticing to blame yourself, when the only alternative you see is someone else being at fault. I know it's in your nature Jaune; you are kind. And a bit reckless," she remarked.
"Pyrrha…" he said in a stage whisper. Desperate to be heard but not knowing what to say.
"You are just desperate to put the blame on someone because the world being randomly unfair is too painful. Sometimes plans just fail and there's nobody objectively at fault. Sometimes the world is just random, Jaune," her words echoed in his mind as she spoke.
"I know you're right, Pyrrha, but…this isn't just some plan! This is you, this is our team, this is…"
"Cinder?" she guessed for him.
"I don't know Pyrrha. Really, I don't. I looked for you everywhere to tell you…"
"Yeah…Nora told me," she dolefully reassured the boy.
"I'm sorry," he said. His tongue had finally loosened but his only thought was to apologize. She extended her arm to caress his wet cheek as she spoke. It hovered for a moment before shakily making contact.
"I am too, but not for myself. Do you feel sorry for yourself, Jaune?" she asked him stolidly.
"I…n-no," he admitted, more to himself than to Pyrrha. All night he'd worried how the events that unfurled might've hurt his team and Pyrrha especially.
"We can only do what we think is best, Jaune," she counseled, so much the boy in front of her as herself. His arm rose to weakly protest as he gently held hers at the wrist.
"It doesn't matter if nobody's at fault, I still want to make things right," he declared with newfound resolve.
'I know," she gave him a strained half smile, "I love that about you," she admitted.
They paused for a moment, both surveying each other's reaction.
His cheeks flushed crimson, but he still returned her smile. He beamed a comforting hope. He hoped it was as contagious as Pyrrha's unmovable resolve. She was strong. Not only physically, but emotionally. Jaune was blessed to have her as his partner.
Could he be blessed to have her as something more?
Did he even deserve to? Where did Cinder fall into all this and what did he actually want, really? Merely humoring the first question brought so many others to the surface. He was foolish enough to only consider his perspective on events tonight. He wouldn't make the same mistake again.
"Thank you, Pyrrha," he said as she began retracting her hand from his. As if instinctively, he grasped it tightly lest he lost it forever. It stopped Pyrrha in her tracks and, for a quick second, their touch felt electrifying before it was finally cut.
"I guess I'm not completely irredeemable when we ignore combat," he half joked.
"Ha ha." she laughed heartily, "You're not irredeemable in combat either! And you're a great strategist."
"If you really think so, you wouldn't mind I was strategic about my next move?" Jaune requested, the gears of his mind already at work.
"What do you mean exactly?" Pyrrha questioned.
"Tonight I was caught with my pants down. I'd like to think things through - carefully - to avoid making the same mistake again," he explained.
She swelled with pride at Jaune's maturity. His spirits lifted witnessing the improvement in hers. He was moved to discover more about himself through her eyes. He knew she'd never viewed him as selfish, but up until that point his opinion was the exact opposite. All night he had selfishly listened to his insecurities when all the advice and support he needed was right in front of him.
"And to think of a way to let Cinder down easy," he added. He was on a roll and saw no reason to stop now.
"Jaune, you don't have to-" the contrite champion started, still too kind for her own good.
"Yes, I do," Jaune abruptly cut her off, his tone dead serious.
"Let Cinder down," he repeated, "heh, never thought I'd say that," he quipped, his mood undeterred by the task ahead.
"Tonight had a lot of firsts, didn't it?" Pyrrha joined in reminiscing about the night. Jaune already had all he needed.
"Life can be surprising like that," he agreed pithily, "But we must still plan ahead."
"Life is what happens when we are busy making plans. Or so I hear," the redhead warned him.
"Pyrrha please, that was enough words of wisdom for one night," the teen grumbled.
"Haha, Sorry. So what's the plan, team Leader?" she teased, the tightness in her tone already a mere memory.
"I'm…still working on it," he quietly confessed, scratching his head in a mix of embarrassment and contemplation.
"I understand. Take your time, Jaune."
"I swear, you're way too understanding sometimes!" the blond whined sarcastically.
"Haha, well… in that case…don't take too long!" her voice mimicked a mix of aggrieved and blunt. Badly.
"I don't plan to," he confirmed.
A beat. Jaune heaved a sigh in relief.
Nothing more needed to be said as they nodded contentedly at each other.
"Ren, they stopped talking, should we come in?" asked a feminine whisper bleeding in from the door.
"Shhh, I can't hear what they're saying," complained a lower voice.
Emerald and Mercury had excused themselves from the room by the time Cinder woke up, likely realizing what would be in store for the first person her waking eyes landed on. She was a morning person in normal circumstances and loathed getting up late. Unfortunately, after last night's enervating developments she'd required more rest than usual. As if getting heckled by Pyrrha's henchwoman wasn't exhausting enough, she couldn't even find refuge in her subconscious, as it chose to drag her back to Jaune and Pyrrha. That pesky dream and all the contemplation it put her through has stolen so much of her well earned rest. Worst of all, the point of it continued to elude her.
She massaged her temples to halt the onset of headache. Tragically she could do nothing for her morning having been wasted. Even when winning, the half-Maiden wasn't allowed to enjoy things.
She decided she needed something to take her mind off last night. She elected to reach for her sewing kit under the bed. The dance gave her an idea for an adjustment to her admittedly breathtaking black dress.
Pockets. Or at least just the one.
The dress's lack of storage space had proven to be a catastrophic design oversight during the ball, when Nora Valkyrie prowled on her and she had no means of sending a distress signal to her subordinates. Merely pretending to talk on her Scroll would have also sufficed. It'd be obvious to anyone paying attention and patently rude, but if anything, those were perks to Cinder.
As she spread the fabric on the mattress she lamented how scarcely she actually got the chance to show off like yesterday. It was downright blasphemous she wouldn't get the opportunity to wear her creation in the near future, but she really was not in the best business for high fashion.
Integrating a pocket on an already finalized design came with a whole host of issues. The dress's complex distribution of textures and patterns was already calibrated to perfection and any attempt to retroactively change it could irrevocably destroy its delicate balance. But at least it gave her something to focus on. The fiery woman never cared for idle hands and Beacon's lazy Sundays were proving themselves particularly tedious.
Two knocks on the dorm room's door suddenly broke the tedium. She was not in the mood to humor guests, though in all likelihood it was simply Emerald, too afraid to enter unannounced. Cinder grudgingly got up to open the door.
Interrupted right as she had managed to concentrate on tailoring, she lamented.
Waiting on the other side of the door was not Emerald, though the boy before Cinder shared her typical apologetic expression.
He swallowed air nervously before offering his hello.
"Good morning!"
She did not have the time of day for this, but knew it was her mess to clean. Comeuppance for her stunt last night. She was hardly in the best mood to deal with the blond at the moment. Not cleanly, at any case. But it was best to broom the boy sooner rather than later; she'd come up with a diplomatic, if sappy, rejection on the spot and send him on his merry way to Pyrrha. If insisted on lingering after that, she'd make sure he'd rue the day their paths crossed. Granted she felt there was nothing to fear from the blond; there was a reason she picked him for dance partner and unknowing accomplice.
"Morning." she languorously returned his hello.
"So, I need to talk to you about something," Jaune diffidently announced. It was too cliché for Cinder.
You don't have to," she tried to skip his speech.
"No, I do," he insisted, "It's not what you think…I think…"
"Just say your piece, then," she drawled, already prepared to thoroughly explain to him why they could never work together.
"I had a great time last night," he started with the exact type of empty platitude Cinder was expecting. She could feel her headache creep back.
"So did I," she snappily cut him off, "But it could never work out between us," she repaid his canned phrase with her own, not having the patience to go through all the motions of this song and dance.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, caught off guard but relieved. She expected the shock in his reaction, but what she got was surprisingly tame. He looked almost thankful.
If he expected a likely rejection, why did he show up to begin with?
"Yeah, I don't think it would work between us either," he agreed.
With his tone took a downright jubilant hue. It was an affront to Cinder. A rejection at the hands of a lethal woman like herself should be nothing short of world-shattering for a bundle of nerves like him.
"And what do you mean by that?" The half-Maiden huffed, a single questioning eyebrow raised. She wouldn't allow Jaune to come out on top in any way.
"Nothing," he said, putting his hands up in submission to de-escalate any tensions.
"I just realized I still have a lot of growing to do. A lot of things I need to figure out before anything more, you know?" he explained in a friendly, soft tone, more pensive than anything else. Not the slightest bit mad sounding.
Whatever his reasons were, their outcome perfectly suited Cinder. Albeit she didn't believe for a second that Pyrrha was uninvolved. Not unless Jaune was into men.
"No hard feelings, then," she intoned, "You are excused," she dismissed the teen before returning to her work inside. In her complete apathy toward their exchange, she left the door ajar; her aloof gesture on her way back barely failing to close it.
He caught a glimpse of her work as his vision followed her. He aloofly shuffled in only for Cinder to notice when it was too late. He had already seen her craft.
"It's the dress you wore," he reflexively stated.
The teen's complete inability to take a clue put her at a loss for words. Her boorish dismissal should have been more than sufficient to make him turn away and never look back. But he somehow remained stupidly blissful.
"So it is," she confirmed in a deeply patronizing monotone, "Now do you mind closing the door?"
His obliviousness shocked her once more as Jaune closed the door with him inside the room before taking a chair and sitting in front of her to better observe her handiwork. Before she could correct him, the sparkle in his adulating eyes gave her pause. The same eyes that besieged her dreamscape.
"I didn't realize you had made this! This is seriously amazing!" he gushed.
She prided herself on her tailoring skill and her eye for fine style, but getting recognition for them by a man as daft as Jaune was the last thing she'd expected.
"Thanks…" she tentatively said, her eyes quickly returning to the fabric on her lap.
"You will need it taut if you are going to add pockets," he advised.
"What?"
"The lines you drew near the waist; it's to add a pocket, right? It'd be much easier if you could see how the dress fell on you when you thread the needle," the boy elaborated.
"How do you know this?" wondered a quizzical Cinder. His advice wasn't exactly a revelation to her, but she never had an extra pair of hands to operate to that capacity while tailoring.
"Well, you tend to pick up such things when three of your sisters take up sewing as a hobby," he awkwardly admitted.
"Three, huh," she commented aloofly.
"Out of seven," Jaune elaborated.
"That explains your dance moves, at least," she huffed.
"What's that mean?" the offended knight protested.
"It means I appreciate your feedback, but I prefer to work alone," the ravenette blankly stated.
"At least let me help you with this," he offered, as he took the dress from the bed and let it hang in front of him, offering her a good look of how it fell.
Suddenly she could better inspect the horizontal line she drew on the garment. It actually did help. Not one to let an opportunity pass her by, she decided to go with it. She threaded a needle with a thin black string and leaned closer to Jaune and the dress to finalize the pocket's outline.
"Unless you'd rather work alone, I mean," the assisting boy added bashfully, realizing the crudeness of his gesture.
"No. Stay still," she ordered him.
Having help was nice. Too bad she couldn't try the dress on with him present.