𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐌𝐏𝐇 || ʜᴀᴡᴋꜱ

29 ➟ In which I go clothes shopping.

"What about... this?" Lelija pulled out a dress from the rack, immediately grimacing as she saw what she had grabbed, "Actually, no. Let me pick out something else."

I gave up searching as soon as we entered the first store, it was massive, but Lelija obviously knew where we were going. She grabbed my hand and pulled me down different aisles of browns, pinks and offensively bright neon yellows until we got to what I assumed to be her usual area of the shop.

"Do you like this one or this one?" She looked at me, raising an eyebrow as she held out two separate outfits.

"Uh, neither one really, that's not what I'd usually wear."

"Okay, I get that," she looked me up and down before turning around to get a quick view of the different items of clothing on the shelves and racks, "Why don't you pick out some things and I'll pick out some and we'll meet outside the changing rooms?" She proposed and I nodded, not being able to think of any better option.

"Sure."

She placed an arm around my shoulder, "don't overthink it too much, just pick out things you like and I'll tell you whether you can wear them at a formal dinner or not, okay?"

I nodded, deadset on completing the task she'd set out for me, "Okay."

"Great!" She beamed and quite literally skipped off, leaving me alone in surrounded by clothes. But if I was being completely honest, it was actually pretty fun, browsing through these fancy pieces of clothing actually in-store rather than online on my computer. It was the same premise, of course, scroll, or in this case walk, until something caught your eye and you put it in your basket- or arms.

The problem with that though, was that pretty much everything caught my eye and I ended up picking up pretty everything. The whole thing was to fun, I loved picking out different pieces, the sound of the metal hook of the hanger moving along the pole was so pleasant and a lot of the clothes I picked out were so very soft.

It wasn't long before I was holding a pile of clothes that nearly blocked my view. I had to keep on grabbing stray arms and legs of clothing so that it wouldn't drag along the floor behind me and trip me up.

Lelija looked as if she'd been more controlled when picking out clothes, holding three different outfits in her hands and looking pretty proud of herself when I finally found her.

"Y/n!" She smiled, waving me over to the changing rooms, "We have just over an hour, so we're going to be in and out with the outfits." Lelija grabbed my arm pulling me into the changing rooms and pushing me into a cubicle, shoving the items on top of my already large pile of clothes and pulling the curtain shut. "If you like it, hang it on the rail, if you don't, give it to me. We need to be efficient."

I pulled open the curtain to look at her, tilting my head to the side, "I get the feeling you do this often."

She practically glared at me in response, her hand pointing to the cubicle.

Holding my hands up in surrender, I closed the curtain behind me, "Sorry, sorry, getting changed."

"You better be!"

And I was, trust me, Lelija was terrifying with her strict 3 minutes in 30 seconds out time schedule.

"What about this?" I asked, stepping out in the worlds brightest pink pants suit I'd ever seen.

She frowned, "it's... something."

"Please," I chuckled, "I look like the Pink Panther if he decided to start a business venture alongside... whatever it is he does."

Leila nodded, "it's not really your shade."

"You think?"

She giggled, standing up from her seat and grabbing my by the shoulders, pushing me back into the changing room, "thirty seconds is up."

I must have heard the word 'no' at least 20 times before she finally said yes to something, the word felt like a blessing at that point.

What she had said yes to was an outfit I was pretty happy with too, standing in front of the mirror I couldn't help but exceed the 30 seconds looking period by just a few seconds.

"I really like it."

Lelija smiled behind me, "I'm glad you do, but your 30 seconds are up so you need to get back in there and get changed."

"You do know there are no more outfits, right?" I turned to look at her.

"But you were holding so many."

I shrugged, "I guess your time limits really did work."

"They always do," she placed her hands on my shoulder and our eyes met in the mirror. Something about her eyes seemed more vibrant than usual, like a field of lavender.

Eyes.

There are the eyes again, always with the eyes y/n.

"Now, go get changed and we'll buy the outfit."

I nodded, quickly hopping back into the changing rooms and putting back on my work outfit for the day. Much more drab than the outfit we'd- well Lelija had- picked out for dinner tonight.

It wasn't long before we were out of the store and walking back to the house with-

"48 minutes to spare," Lelija showed me her phone screen proudly."

I shook my head, smiling, "Don't tell me that's how you try on clothes normally."

She looked at me, completely serious, "Of course it is."

I must have pulled a face, because Lelija burst into laughter, "Efficiency means I put on an outfit and if I don't like it, then I just don't."

"Well, good for you for not overthinking it, I guess."

She nodded proudly, "Well, where would you be without me?"

"Probably wearing some dull work clothes out for a meal with my extravagant boss."

"What's it like going undercover?" She asked excitedly.

"Scary," I answered honestly, "But, there are perks, I mean, did you see that apartment?"

Lelija nodded, "I did and, I love what Rin did with the place, he's a natural-born interior designer."

"Oh, for sure, that kid could become the third property brother."

"It helps that your boss is pretty good-looking too," Lelija nudged my side.

I gasped over-dramatically, "No way! He's my boss... who does have some really nice abs."

"You've already seen his abs!" She squealed, "Six-pack or eight-pack?"

"I don't know! I got scared!"

"You got scared of abs? What, does his toned bod scare you?" She teased.

"No, I walked in on him changing by accident."

"Sure."

"What? No, not 'sure' that makes me sound like a creep, spying on my boss just to see his abs."

Lelija laughed, hooking her arm into mine, "Come on, let's get you ready for your dinner date with Mr... Eight-pack?" She questioned and I rolled my eyes, shaking my head, "No way, does he have a ten-pack?"

"For the last time, I don't know!"