[Aug 14] As pretty as you are, you know you could've been a flower | for Rosie

[shadows_have_offended]

Waking up was a strange experience. There's something, upon waking, that isn't quite right, and Neil's not sure how to put it. Like the bed has gotten larger, or he's gotten smaller. He's alone--and it strikes him that he knew that. Since Nick's disappearance, Neil's been doing his best to not have Caleb over, not wanting to upset the quiet sanctity of his and Rosie's apartment. When she's ready for friends over, they'll come. But it will be up to her, and not him.

He stretches a little, and it's that that really starts to clue him in. How his shirt and shorts move against his body. Weird. But he's still mostly asleep, and it doesn't really mean anything except that he's tangled up in clothes and sheets.

So, blinking sleep out of his eyes, he clambers out of bed and to the bathroom, intent on going through the regular sleepy motions of waking up. Toilet, shower, brushing his teeth, all of those sorts of things. Except--

He doesn't scream, exactly, when he reaches down and doesn't find his dick. He does make a noise. He definitely falls on his ass, scrambling to both look at what's going on and urgently pull his shorts back up so that he doesn't have to. Now that he's startled awake, he's aware of being, well, small. Small shoulders and small waist and small hands. Of breasts under his t-shirt. He doesn't want to look in the mirror, like seeing his reflection makes it more real.

Maybe he can just go back to bed?

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[forthsofar]

Rosie shrugs off the demurral, mollified even as she's still convinced it's not quite true. She gives him a little more space as he changes, picking out her own clothes for the day, but she has to laugh when he asks about the pockets.

"Why do you think girls are always carrying around one kind of handbag or another?" she says, turning to look at him as he runs his hands along his waist. The confusion on his face shouldn't be so satisfying. "No one makes anything with pockets big enough. Or, hardly anyone, and when you find something with good pockets, you hope it lasts forever."

[shadows_have_offended]

"Is that why girls are always shoving everything off on the boys, too? So we have some idea of your pain and suffering? Is it jealousy about us having pockets?" At least he's smiling, at least a little bit. Shakily, but obviously present. "We didn't take them from you."

He puts it in mind that he's going to find something with pockets, because he is not buying a purse.

[forthsofar]

"Jealousy and revenge," Rosie says, trying for a pointed, stern look, anything to alleviate that last bit of hesitancy in Neil's smile. "And even if you didn't take them, somebody did. Whoever designed things that way in the first place."

She lets out a breath, heavy enough that it's almost a sigh. "Now go, and let me get dressed, and then I'll make us some breakfast before we go shopping?"

[shadows_have_offended]

Neil starts for the door, then circles back. He pauses to press a kiss to Rosie's cheek, a little mumble of thanks pressed into the gesture before he scurries out.

"I can get breakfast started," he promises. He's not a very good cook, but he's gotten a bit better about things, and he can at least scramble some eggs and make toast. And Rosie is putting herself out to take care of him, so he should take care of her as much as he can.

In any case, he leaves her to it, heading to the kitchen.

[forthsofar]

Rosie smiles at the kiss, the affection and gratitude contained in it and the accompanying half-mumbled bit of thanks. "Alright," she says when he offers to start on breakfast. She would have understood if he'd left it all to her, if even the simple work of starting toast or putting the kettle on was beyond him after waking up in a body not his own--but he offers, and that's one bit of normalcy she isn't about to take away.

It doesn't take her long to change, picking out a light, summery dress--with pockets, thank you very much--and setting aside a pair of sandals for when they actually leave the house. Going down the hall and into the kitchen, there's still a quick, internal moment where she expects to see Neil as Neil when she gets there. This bit of Darrow trickery is never that fast, though, not for anyone she's known.

Giving him a smile, she goes to the cabinet, getting down two plates for the eggs and toast.