undergrounds | Shop till you Drop. (Closed to Joss)

Shop till you Drop. (Closed to Joss)

When Joss eventually opened his front door to Eponine, she had pushed impatiently past him to look for the t-shirts he had promised her.

"Where are they? You promised." She barks at him. Her own, tattier than ever thanks to Joss trying to murder her, needs replacing. She lets herself into his living room, and makes a beeline for the shopping bags by the sofa. She pulls out a few tops, but her jubilant smile quite quickly becomes a frown.

Eponine looks from one pink, frilly shirt to an overly baggy mustard number to a flowery, frilled t-shirt with little cap sleeves. The frown on her face turns into a scowl and she rounds on Joss, angry all of a sudden.

"You buy for a grandma? I am not wearing this rubbish. They're disgusting. For old women."
They do not go, at all, with Eponine's grunge look. "I am not wearing these. And you owe me a shirt for nearly killing me. You lose me a whole night of coin, a whole night of food, and for this? No, M'sieur. I do not accept. I shall have a proper shirt I might wear, if you please."

She's getting a decent outfit out of Joss even if it means dragging him to the shops herself.

"You owe me. You owe me proper clothes," she whines.

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"I'm ready."

She opens the door and squeezes out. Joss doesn't need to see her room and the mess it's in.

"Where are we going?" She's already walking. The sooner this is done, the sooner she can get her fix sorted.

"Anywhere you'd like that's less than fifteen minutes away," Joscelin sighs, looking at his watch. They're against the clock here, and it hasn't escaped his notice that Eponine looks even worse than she had yesterday. The sooner they get this over with, the better.

"Fifteen minutes?" Eponine thinks, even as she takes the stairs a couple at a time. She breaks into another grin though as she remembers the place close by. She's stood a couple of nights with her hands pressed against the windows, just drooling over the clothes at the window.

She recites the address quickly to Joss, and, as soon as she's out of the hotel, sets off at a run. Eponine runs a lot, dodging through the crowds jostling on their evening commute, until she arrives at the top of the street where the boutique is.

She hopes Joss has kept up.

"Come on, come on!" she calls. "It's over here!" She points at a shabby looking boutique, badly in need of a touch up on it's teal paint, just down the street. "Come on!" She sounds like a child.

"Here?"

Joscelin can run too, but his legs are much shorter than Eponine's. It takes him longer to get places. He's glad that she told him the address ahead of time because he lost her in the crowd a few times as she darted between people.

He looks unconvinced as they enter the store. It's as shabby and unkempt as Eponine herself is, so it's probably not a surprise that she'd be drawn to it. There's some designer resale here, but it's all decidedly too punk rock for his tastes.

Eponine doesn't need telling twice. She pushes the shop door almost cautiously and heads in. Once inside though, she just stands and looks, taking it all in.

It is obviously not Eponine's first time in a shop, but it is her first time in a shop spending someone else's money, and she doesn't know where to look first. Finally, she settles on a rack full of different t-shirts, and she begins to shuffle through them, looking for one small enough to accommodate her skeletal frame without drowning her.
Finally, she finds a design she likes. It's an interesting design, but Eponine likes it.

"Joscelin?" she calls. "You like? Do you think it'd fit?"

Joscelin shrugs. "It's ugly," he says, not sparing Eponine's feelings any. "What about something like this?" He holds up a simple black dress off the sale rack. It's as inoffensive to his particular tastes as he can find in a store like this.

"Oh." She bites her lip. She likes it, but Joss is paying. Reluctantly, she puts the top down.

"It's..." The dress is fine, but... "It is not something to wear on the street, is it? I will be so cold." Has he forgotten what she does half the time to get a bit of extra cash? There's no denying that dress would help her chances, but Eponine has also felt the stinging winter before now, and she has no intention of doing that again. "And I cannot run in such a long one

"This?" She holds up a corset dress. "I want this one. Always have I wanted a corset." She thinks it'll make her look so ladylike.

"I'll buy you a coat too," he points out. Of course he knows that it's getting colder. He's not stupid.

When Eponine holds up another dress he looks visibly confused. "How will that keep you any warmer than the other one? And why on earth would you want to wear your...undergarments on the outside?" Corsets are underwear, not outerwear. They belong to that shadowy realm of womenly items that make him uncomfortable.

"It is fashion now. You wear a bra. See?"
She's already pulled the dress on over her ripped jeans, and starts to pull her t-shirt off whilst clutching the top of the dress to her chest. Tatty bra straps are quite visible on her shoulders though.

"See?" She asks Joss. "Doesn't it look well? It is as strapless as the other, but it is short enough to run in as well?"

What a bonus. She had been looking for just one t-shirt, but if Joss felt like being generous, who would she be to stop him?"

"What the hell are you doing?" Joscelin grabs her and drags her behind a rack, where she won't attract so much attention. If he were capable of it he might be blushing, but instead all he feels is annoyance.

"Put your clothes back on. If you embarrass me again we will leave and you won't get anything. Understood?"

"I'm trying it on!" If Eponine were capable, her cheeks would be burning. But all she feels is sheer embarrassment. "I thought in a shop? I've tried clothes on before, you know?"

But she still pulls her t-shirt on, and sheepishly steps back out of the dress.

"I just wanted to see if it would fit me. But no... a top is fine."

She pulls a plain black t-shirt from the rack where they stand and holds it out to Joss. "This is enough. It don't matter if it's too big."

"Have you never heard of a fitting room?" Joscelin points to the sign over the curtained cubicle that says "fitting room."

"Just...pick two shirts and a jacket and we will leave."

No. No, she hadn't noticed a fitting room. Market stalls and charity shops generally didn't come with changing rooms.

It doesn't take long for Eponine to find a couple of tops, doubtlessly earning Joss's scorn, but she's pleased with her choice. She also finds the thickest coat she can, which she puts on as soon as the tag comes off. The total for the few garments rings to over two hundred pounds, and Eponine glances sideways at Joss. If the cashier thinks it's weird that a little kid is paying for a young woman's clothes, he doesn't say anything. Outside the shop, Eponine clutches the bag tightly, and almost hugs herself in the coat that she's still wearing.

"I swear, it is the nicest thing I have ever owned. But... in return... to spy? You really are crazy, aren't you?"

It's all too much. She needs fae blood, just so her brain can stop going into overdrive, trying to work out things she can't possibly know the answer to about Joss and his motives. About what Montparnasse would think of her clothes, or make her do with them.

She digs deep into her old jumper's pockets and pulls out a battered box of cigarettes and a lighter. "You want one?" She holds the box out to Joss. "It ain't fae, but it is summat to suck on."

Joscelin pays cssh for everything, casually doling out fifty pound notes like they're nothing. He doesn't comment on the cost or what she's picked out; he's too exasperated with her at this point not to say anything imprudent.

When she offers him the cigarettes, he just pushes them away. "I quit sixty years ago, so no." Not like either of them has to worry about cancer.

Eponine shrugs and lights up herself.

"Fine. You are straight laced, Joscelin. Not an inch of fun." She shakes her head and takes a deep drag. "Boring, boring."

She blows the smoke in his face.

"Thank you, though, for the clothes. Never have I spent so much on clothes in one go."

“Don’t mention it,” Joscelin replies crisply, wrinkling his nose in distaste as she blows smoke at him. Her breath stinks too. “Now, about the rest of our deal.”

Eponine sighs deeply. She had been hoping that Joss would forget about the deal - not that it seemed at all like him to forget about anything.

She takes a deep drag on her cigarette, and holds the smoke in her mouth for a moment.
"What about it?" She asks.

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Shop till you Drop. (Closed to Joss)

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