Metamorphosis

Chapter 9

By the time Friday came around, I was so unprepared for karaoke night that I considered telling Armin that I'd rather dress up as one of the Teletubbies than to wear anything that even resembled leather. Of course that idea lasted up until I saw him when I got to work that evening. He approached me with such enthusiasm that I couldn't bear to tell him no. So, ten minutes after I arrived at Club Rose, I was in Armin's dressing room. He had sat me down in a red accent chair as he gathered up supplies, which sounded ominous and made me nervous. I couldn't even imagine what he was going to put me in. It would no doubt reveal a lot of skin, but that wasn't a problem. I'd made up my mind on how to deal with this: I would hide in Mikasa's office for the rest of my shift, because no amount of begging was going to get me in that cage tonight.

While I waited for Armin as he went through clothes that hung on a rolling rack, I glanced around his room. He kept it tidy and neat, and it resembled something that you would see in a music video. There was a rather large lighted vanity table pushed up against the east wall, and to the right of that, a red leather couch. Everything looked expensive. For a moment, as my eyes wandered over a set of round stools, I pictured my own dressing room. Doing that was useless, though. I'd given up the position for the next male cage dancer and that was that.

"This is perfect," Armin exclaimed as he whirled around to show me a seemingly harmless white button down. Then he added a dark-brown leather vest and jean shorts that would provide little coverage to my behind. "What do you think? Just envision yourself in this outfit while wearing a cowboy hat and leather chaps."

"Leather chaps?"

"Oh, yes, leather chaps that are skin tight. Now get undressed."

I stared at him. He stared back. "In front of you?"

"Yes. We're both men. You have a dick, and so do I. I want Jean's package. You want Eren's. So we have nothing to worry about here, now do we?" He winked.

As I lifted my shirt over my head, I grumbled something about him being too blunt about me wanting Eren's package. He waved me off and told me that everyone knew I was barking up that tree. I chose to ignore him after that, focusing on wiggling into the jean shorts that hugged my upper thighs like a vice. My butt cheeks were hanging out the back and I knew that the leather chaps would do nothing to cover up that part of me. They would remain exposed for the rest of the night. I turned my head to look at Armin over my shoulder, ready to argue with him about this ridiculous outfit, but just as I went to speak, Eren came waltzing into the room...and stopped.

His mouth dropped open, a series of unintelligible sounds leaving his mouth as his eyes took in every inch of me. I would've been flattered by his reaction if I weren't downright mortified. I had no shirt on. In fact, the only article of clothing I was wearing were these comical jean shorts that didn't leave anything to the imagination. Though, judging by Eren's expression, he had imagined plenty. That made me want to lunge out of the room, or at him, but I couldn't budge a muscle. I remained immobile. The one thing I managed to do was clap my hands over my ass in a weak attempt to shield myself.

"Excuse you!" Armin snapped, blocking me from view by coming to stand behind me. I used this opportunity to turn around. "Do you not know how to knock? You just ruined the great reveal I had planned."

Eren cleared his throat. It seemed to take a lot for him to speak. "There's no way in hell I could ruin that."

Blushing to the tips of my ears, I gazed at him over Armin's shoulder. Now that I was hidden from view, and I wasn't about to die from the sheer embarrassment of being seen half naked, I noticed that he was wearing a cowboy hat and ripped jeans. That's all he wore, aside from his brown Western boots. Suddenly my attire for the night made perfect sense. Armin was putting us in matching outfits.