Cinderella's Terr-y Godmother

Trip and Yani stood back as Terra haggled with the clerk at a secondhand electronics store. His bushy black and gray beard twitched as she spoke.

“A hundred.”

“Two hundred fifty.”

“One twenty-five.”

“Two twenty-five, and I can’t go any lower, Terra.”

“One fifty, and I’ll tell everyone in my Structure of Neural Systems class to come here for our model making project.”

“Fine, but you better follow through.” He finally raised his eyebrows enough to see his eyes, and he looked at her pointedly.

“Of course I will! I gotta take care of you, Lou.” Terra hit him with a dazzling smile, tilting her head. She held out a grabby hand behind her, and Yani realized it was her turn.

“Oh, right.” Yani stepped forward, passing her hand over the glowing spot on the counter. It shimmered with a soft rainbow as her transaction registered.

Terra pulled the motor off the counter. She had to wrap both arms around it, and once it slid off, her posture sagged under its weight. She made a face, which wasn’t helped when a smear of oil wiped from the motor onto her jacket.

“Ugh, nooooo. I just got this!” She whined. Yani, slightly unsure of how to respond, looked to Trip. Unfortunately, both of them already had their hands full of supplies from other places they had already hit during this shopping spree. Trip rolled their eyes before setting their bags down. “Here. I’ll carry the motor, you get these, and we can go straight home so you can wash it.”

Terra sighed, resigned. “No, it’s too late already. There’s no way that’s not going to stain. But…” Her face turned devious as she turned to look at Yani. “Yani, do you have any outfits you really, really love? Something that makes you feel beautiful?”

“I guess I would say my Godsinger uniform. Why?”

“Okay, that doesn’t count. Something you picked out for yourself.”

“Then… I guess not really. Not right now, anyways.”

“Well, there you go.” Terra smiled, and Trip groaned.

Yani looked between them. “Am I missing something?”

Trip picked their bags back up, a resigned expression on their face. “Yani, you said you didn’t have anything else to do today, right?”

“Right. But I thought we were done with shopping anyways. I can help you carry everything back, though.”

Trip looked her dead in the eyes. “Oh, Yani. The shopping is just beginning.”

Terra leaned between them. “We will have to stop back home first, though. You’re going to need free hands, and I need to ditch this jacket.”

*

Somewhere between leaving the electronics district, dropping all of the supplies at the Cygnus siblings’ household, and arriving at the fashion district, Yani finally picked up on the fact that they were going clothes shopping. Not only had Terra ditched her jacket, she also changed the rest of her outfit. She was wearing a loose POPSTAR tee that went down to mid-thigh, and a pair of fitted pink biker shorts underneath that stopped just above her knees.

When Yani asked about the reason behind the change, Terra explained that it was easier for trying on clothes. She was more likely to try on a crop top or something that she would need to take off her shirt for anyways, thus the loose tee. But unless she was trying on super skinny jeans, she could try on skirts and things like that without having to take her shorts off. She sighed over the fact that her and Yani weren’t the same size, and so she couldn’t lend her a similar outfit, but Yani reassured her it was fine. She probably wouldn’t try anything on, anyways, and she definitely wasn’t planning on buying anything.

Now that they were in the store, Yani realized that Terra had definitely taken her remarks as a challenge. She had picked this store just for Yani, based on the few preferences she was able to say with confidence. It was a lovely little vintage shop, tucked away on the second floor of an outdoor mall. There was no door- it looked like it had been damaged a while back, and the owner had never bothered to replace it. Instead, there was just a bead curtain, with strings of rainbow glass beads and little bells.

Terra was zipping around the store, piling options into Yani’s arms. Yani stood by, frozen in place and helpless to stop her as she was buried under an endless pile of fabric. Trip was leaned against a fabric rack nearby, watching with vague amusement. They snickered once the pile reached Yani’s face.

“This is funny to you?” Yani asked, trying to be playful.

“Well, yeah.” Trip responded. “For once, it’s happening to you instead of me.”

“I don’t mean this in a rude way, but don’t you like… I don’t know, plain stuff?” Yani gestured to Trip’s outfit with her chin. They were in a hoodie with some hacker collective logo on it, and navy blue cargo shorts. “It doesn’t really seem like Terra helped you with any of that.”

“You’d think so, huh?” Trip laughed at Yani’s bluntness. “But even these, she picked out. She cares about the quality of clothing too, not just the style. She respects that I don’t care about dressing up, but she knows I’m really picky about fabric textures, so she helps me find things that don’t make my skin crawl to wear.”

“I see…” Yani didn’t realize how much thought Terra put into clothing. She assumed that Terra would pick out things Terra liked, but as Yani looked at the pile she was holding, she noticed that wasn’t the case at all. There weren’t so many flashy colors and popular styles like Terra liked. It was all things that Yani, with a little bit of effort, could imagine herself wearing.

As she contemplated that, Terra returned with a smile, holding a pearl-covered headband and a pair of silver Mary Janes. “Okay, this is the last of it! Now it’s time to play dress up!”

She led Yani to the fitting rooms in the back of the store. Yani dumped her pile on a chair, and Terra sat in the mismatched one next to it. She rifled through the pile before pulling out a few combinations and handing them to Yani.

“Go try these on.” Terra hesitated a moment, before pulling one last option out. “This too.”

The first outfit consisted of a flouncy flower-print sundress, but the skirt ended at kind of a weird spot, and Terra vetoed it. “Pass, unless you’re willing to get it hemmed.”

The second was a deep blue and green sequin-covered dress that looked lovely, but the material was scratchy, and Yani couldn’t stop trying to adjust so that less of it was touching her skin. “Pass! Comfort is key in personal style.”

The third, though, Yani really liked. Even before she stepped out of the dressing room, she was admiring herself in the mirror. The top consisted of two pieces- a tight-fitting sleeveless white turtleneck underneath, and a loose kimono-style navy blue blouse that tied in the front. The boxy sleeves of it stopped halfway down her forearms, and Terra had given her a pearl bracelet to match the headband. Her skirt looked like it was made of pure silver, and felt like it too. As she stared at herself in the mirror, she realized that this was it. She felt beautiful.

She stepped out of the fitting room, a little nervous. She didn’t want Terra to veto this one.

She didn’t have to worry. Terra squealed over it immediately. “I knew it! This is perfect!”

“I really, really like it.” Yani smiled softly. “How did you pick something out so perfectly?”

“Oh, that was easy! You said you love your Godsinger outfit, so I based this silhouette off of that!”

Yani blinked in surprise. She hadn’t consciously realized it, but it really was similar. Terra had remembered that Yani said she felt nice in it, and remembered what it looked like enough to find day clothes to match. That took a lot of care.

“”Nothing but the best for this.” Terra continued. “After all, this is the outfit you’ll be meeting Imon in, right?”

“Huh?”

“Trip is humble, but they’ll have her body done in a week, tops. Next time you see us, she’ll be inhabiting it.” Terra stood up, taking Yani’s shoulders and spinning her to look into the mirror together. “And you’ll look beautiful for her!”

A blush flared to life on Yani’s cheeks.

Huh? Huh? Huuuuhh?!