Mall-hopping

[Desperado]

Jacob's face was grim, his body tense, and his thoughts focused.

They had to be. He was carrying what had to be his weight in clothes, accessories, shoes, and other stuff in bags belonging to various stores here in the most expensive mall in the world. None of it was his, of course, where would he have gotten the money? No, it all belonged to Princess Katharine, who had just learned of the shopkeeps' "generosity" towards the Royal Family.

That feeling that he was missing something grew stronger in him, but he pushed it aside. Normally, he could keep that feeling at bay for a few weeks, until it grew so intense that he had to go see Ms. Frost again, even though he never really wanted to. He just had to.

But today, it was just really strong. It always seemed really strong when he got taken out of the Castle for these shopping runs. Maybe it was the annoyance he felt at being carted through all these stores. He couldn't help that. He hated the smell of most perfumes.

The Princess was asking him something. Shoot. What had she said? He hadn't been paying attention. Luckily for him, it was Princess Katharine. If it had been Princess Wanda, he would have gotten a severe chewing out for not paying attention to her.

"Pardon, milady? I couldn't quite hear you?"

[Kitty Pryde]

In many ways Katherine felt that she didn’t measure up to her sisters; in fact, she felt like she didn’t measure up in almost every way. They were everything princesses should be: beautiful, imposing, powerful… everything she wasn’t. Wanda was exotically beautiful and could practically bend reality on a whim. How could walking through walls compare to that? And Lorna was so distinctive with her green hair and her powers were so similar to their father’s that it only served to remind Katherine that would she lacked more than anything was the right blood.

The only thing she might have up on either of them was intelligence, but what was intelligence to a princess? Image was everything, nobody wanted to hear them discuss anything intellectual.

But if there was one thing she could match them on it was her ability to shop. Sure, she couldn’t fill out the clothing as well as them but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have just as extensive a wardrobe. She just preferred going on her shopping trips alone so she didn’t have to feel inferior in what she chose right away. They could pick it to shreds later.

Alone, but not alone. A few paces back all the way was “protection”, a guard trained to never take his eyes off of her. Except in the changing room, because that would be just plain wrong. Alone except that two legged guard dog and one lowly servant to carry all of her purchases. But apparently not listen to her. No big deal, not like anyone else bothered to listen to her.

“Hats. What do you think of hats? Too Audrey Hepburn?” she asked, holding up a large black hat. Her sisters would hate it. It would only mess up or hide their perfect hair.

[Desperado]

If Jacob could have one wish, it would be to know the answer to one question: why did these Princesses always ask him about fashion? Did he look gay? If he did, he needed to find the closest tall building and jump off of it. And who was Audrey Hepburn? If she was some famous music star or something there was no way Jacob would know anything about her.

Meanwhile, it looked like Princess Katharine wasn't in the best of moods today. Maybe he still would get that chewing out later. It would probably be followed by a beating and then a trip to Ms. Frost. And it had been such a good week...

"I think it looks fine, milady." Jacob was very good at lying. He gave her every impression that he believed that it looked good. The truth was that he didn't know one way or the other. All he knew was that he was hungry. But then, he was always hungry.

[Kitty Pryde]

Studying Jacob for a moment, Katherine placed the hat on her head and turned toward the mirror. Turning her head one way then the other, she made several faces as she contemplated the look. It concluded with her sticking her tongue out and shaking her head as she removed the hat and placed it back on the rack.

“Nah, I don’t think I’m a hat person,” she stated, before something caught her eye. “But I bet you are!” she suddenly exclaimed, a wicked glint in her eye as she snatched a black cowboy hat from another rack and plopped it on his head.

[Desperado]

He stood there, hungry, watching her try the hat on. Seeing it on her, he thought it looked good, but what did he know? When she decided that she didn't like how it looked on her (women were strange like that), he responded with, "Very well, milady."

He felt that there were a lot of things he could be doing right now. He could be watering the plants in the garden, or bringing Magneto his lunch, or something. Something other than-

“But I bet you are!”

"What?" Plop. There was a hat on his head. It felt weird. Really, really weird. Jacob wasn't used to having a hat placed on his head. He couldn't exactly tell how he looked from where he stood. The mirror was too far away. He really needed glasses, but he wasn't about to admit it to anyone. Not like they would get him glasses anyway. He could still see close-up, what else did he need to see for?

"Um, milady, I don't think that this works."

[Kitty Pryde]

Grinning brightly at Jacob for a minute, she quickly forced a mock pout to her lips.

“Aw, why not? It looks good on you,” Katherine replied. And it did. Really good, but where was someone like him going to wear a hat like that? Only big, important people like Victor Creed could pull off a look like that. Servants? Not so much. Besides, it wouldn’t match the uniform.

“Fine,” she relinquished, taking the hat and replacing it on the rack. Now where? Stepping back out into the wide hall, her eyes travelled one way, then the other. Ah ha! Perfect. No good to give the term “shop ‘til you drop” a literal meaning today.

“I’m parched! You want a slushie or something?” she asked, not even thinking about it as she started toward the stand.

[Desperado]

Her mock pout had no effect on Jacob, who merely cocked an eyebrow in response. Even if it did look good on him, what was he supposed to do with it? He couldn't very well wear it around the castle. Well, not unless he was ordered to.

"Fine." Jacob breathed a sigh of relief as the hat came off of his head and back onto the rack that it came from. Then he had to struggle with the bags as she darted past him to the main hallway. As soon as he had caught up to her, though, she darted off in another direction, saying something about slushies, and he had to spin around to try and-

And the bags went along ahead of him while he still clutched them, and the floor was coming at him very quickly. This was going to hurt. Bam! came the sound of face hitting floor. As he got up, he mumbled his apologies and "excuse mes," to the people passing by, making sure to keep his head bowed so that he didn't make eye contact, and continued to follow the princess to the slushie stand.

[Kitty Pryde]

Approaching the slushie stand, Katherine barely batted an eye at the appearance of the man running it. He was all tusks and arms. Literally, there were four of them. Arms, not tusks. Only two tusks, although they did look in danger of poking out those beady eyes of his.

Glancing back over her shoulder, she could see her ‘chaperone’ begrudgingly following behind, but she was surprised to see no sign of Jacob. Now where did he… oh, there he is! He had just suddenly popped into view, almost like he had been hiding behind the people that trudged down the hall.

He didn’t look so good, though.

“Are you alright?” she asked with a concerned expression. Maybe she’d gone a little overboard with her purchases this time.

[Desperado]

That was the odd thing about Princess Katherine: she seemed to actually care. It always threw him for a loop, even though he knew it was coming. For some odd reason, it made him fluster a little. He cast his eyes down and to the right in a show of humility and respect. With this many people watching, it was what was expected of a lowly servant.

"Of course I am, milady." His nose only hurt a little. He had felt worse. Like the day after he had loaded boxes for Creed. Actually, any day after he loaded boxes for Creed. They had a little ritual together. Jacob would do everything in his power to push Creed's buttons, and Creed would make Jacob's life Hell.

It just seemed to work. Otherwise, Jacob deluded, the two might become friends, and that was the last thing Jacob wanted.

[Kitty Pryde]

Katherine wasn’t sure she believed him, and her sceptical look would have made that obvious had his eyes not been downcast. But what could she do? It wasn’t like he would tell her anyway, probably. She would just have to believe him and move on.

“Well, that’s good,” she said, a little unsure. What could she expect, though, really? It’s not like he had any reason to be chipper or happy or enthusiastic or full of energy. It was unfortunate that he hadn’t been blessed as she had but there was nothing she could do about it. They all had their places and they had to learn to live with them.

“So… slushie?”

[Desperado]

Ok, now this was a true dilemma. He really wanted a slushie. He couldn't remember the last time he had ever had a slushie (probably because he had never had one), but they looked so good and...slushie. There wasn't really any other way to describe a slushie, except by use of its name.

But, he couldn't have a slushie. He was fairly certain that they wouldn't kill him just for having a slushie, but they would probably say all kinds of nasty things about Princess Katharine if she bought him one, so...yeah, no slushie.

But he really wanted one.

"Um...no, milady. Thank you, though."

[Kitty Pryde]

“Oh, okay. But are you sure?” she asked, trying to ignore the beady stare of the dude behind the counter. Princess or no, he was obviously annoyed that she was taking so long to place her order. Pfft, whatever, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do.

“Because I can’t have you getting all dehydrated and passing out on me. Then, like, Boris or whatever his name is back there would have to carry all the bags and you. I don’t think that would go over well,” she said, nodding her head in the direction of the large, bouncer looking guy who was following them around, all stone faced.

[Desperado]

Jacob's eyes finally looked up, but he didn't look at the Princess. His head immobile and still bent towards the ground, his eyes scanned the food court area, looking for something in particular. Bingo. Two reporter types, obvious from the way they were staring at the Princess and had cameras ready to photo her, sat at ten o'clock about ten meters from his position.

"I am certain, milady." He made it pretty obvious that he was staring in a certain direction and at a certain person, though the reporters were too far away to see it. Hopefully.

[Kitty Pryde]

Furrowing her brow at Jacob’s obvious distraction, Katherine tried to discretely follow his gaze. She should have known she couldn’t go anywhere public without being noticed… not that she was trying all that hard to keep herself hidden.

It became quickly and painfully obvious that he was doing this for her benefit. She wanted to thank him, but that would be as inappropriate as buying him anything.

“Alright, if you say so,” she said instead, a look of sadness on her face for only a second before she plastered a huge smile over it and turned toward the stand. “One large cherry slushie, please!” she said in her brightest tone. The spectacle that followed was really quite impressive as the dude used his four arms to make the slushie, work the cash register, take her money and give back the change in about ten seconds flat.

[Desperado]

((Ok, now that you don't have four threads to worry about...))

She really was a nice girl. Too nice to stand a chance against Wanda and Lorna as far as Princesses went. He wasn't looking at her directly, so he missed the sad look, luckily for him. Outdated chivalric code would have started qualifying her as "damsel in distress," and that just would never fly with anybody. Including himself.

So, instead, after she turned, he finally straightened up his gaze and watched the guy make a slushie. Wow. He wished he could do that. Maybe without the tusks, though. Or the extra arms. Now that he thought about it, he didn't want to be able to do that.

Then again, maybe the arms could come in handy. Like in bed with a gorgeous woman. Mmm...gorgeous women. Blonde hair, blue eyes, athletic body...mmm...

Somehow, he kept the perverted look off his face. But his eyes were still a little glossy. His daydreams always made him a little sad, though, because he knew they would never really happen.

Coming out of his happy place, he turned to the Princess. "Where to now, milady?"