"Well, demons do have his amazing ability to be complete sleazeballs." Yoake said, not insulted in the least. "Well, I think we can safely assume that they haven't succeeded in driving me insane. College work's done that." And the moment she said that, her face froze in an awkward sort of smile, before she burst out.

"AW SHIT!!!! I NEED TO GET THAT ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED!!!!!!"

Lixi had been silent the whole time Martin worked. When he mentioned sewing the wound, the absinthe kicked her words into motion without the whole presence of her mind. She laughed, and leaned back against him, feeling much bolder now.

"It won't need it, I don't think. As long as that toxic bit bone is gone, it should heal on it's own rather quickly. It's only muscle and skin, so a day or so tops. It may leave a mark for a while." Turning her head to the side she saw his tattoo, and touched it gently. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she knew he still was uncomfortable with her, but the alcohol had blurred her reason enough that it didn't matter to her. She acted on pure impulse. "That's lovely. Did it hurt?"

She traced the lines and shape of the ink, not noticing if he flinched from her touch. To her they didn't look so much like vultures as they did longer necked hawks. Somehow they didn't care the hideous feeling vultures did. She closed her eyes as she traced the swirling clouds, and her mind wandered to rain.

"Egypt is so lovely." She began to mumble. "It's part of why I've come back to visit Crowley and his psychotic, fanatic followers so often. If we're still here at sunset, you'll see why I love this room so much." In her mind, she toyed with day dreams of lounging about lazily in here for the rest of the afternoon, with a Martin who was no longer afraid of her. she imagined watching the colors of the room come to life in the brilliant light of the late evening sun while they draped lazily across the grandiose bed, or lounged in the huge tile tub. "Oh wait.. I almost forgot... I'd drawn a bath." She sat forward and tried to stand, nearly falling instead.

The outburst caught her off-guard, but once she caught on it just seemed silly. "Is now really the time to be worrying about school," Adja said, rolling her eyes. "I think the University won't mind if one of their students has a late assignment due to apocalypse." But she could see that she was genuinely worried about it. Had she been this frantic about assignments when she was still in school? Well, perhaps, but medical school was known for making boys into men, and women into nurses. "What subject are you studying?"


It was only after his bandaging was done that he realized that the alcohol was working on him, too. At her touch he was reminded of the thing that she was, but was slow to react and by the time he had gotten the urge to move away he realized that it wasn't as bad as he'd imagined it was. She'd asked him if it hurt... the tattoo. Truthfully, it had felt like a really bad sunburn, but it was something that he was proud of. It was the first sign that he'd ever belonged anywhere: all of Jordan's underlings had some kind of mark. All except... well, that was a short-lived endeavor anyhow and didn't matter. If you were in it long enough, you were a part of them, and they looked out for you like family. So in a way, it didn't hurt.

But with the alcohol in his blood and his brain buzzing, his mind wasn't on how things were run in Iron City. His mind was on the lovely lady before him, whom he was unsure of why he was angry or afraid or whatever it was that made it so hard for him to talk to her. So, in response to her question:

"Prolly not as much as did when you fell from Heaven," he said with a lazy grin. It took him a long moment, a very long moment, to realize how appropriate that pickup line was. His thought process was interrupted when she almost fell. He put up his hands in case she fell forward to catch her. "Don't... don't get up if you're dizzy. You can take a bath later..." He hadn't even had a full shot of the absynthe and it was affecting him as if it had been a half bottle of whiskey. He made a mental note to seek this out later in better times.

Lixi felt his hands stopping her from moving off the bench, and took them in hers instead. Her nose crinkled as she processed what he'd said about heaven. "Psssht, what are you talking about. It didn't hurt at.... ohhh.... I get it now." She giggled as she realized he'd been hitting on her in a cheesy fashion, and she blushed a little. "Why Mr..." she fumbled for a moment, realizing she didn't really know his last name. She was sure she'd heard Adja say it... but she could quite bring it to her mind. "Mr... oh now this is embaressing. I feel so silly. Here I am falling in love with you and I don't even know your last name." The words came out, and the alcohol kept her from thinking to retract what she'd said, so she continued on. "Either way, Are you hitting on me Martin?" Her tone was an attempt at a sly, sexy question, though it mostly came out as 'drunk'. "Cause I'd rather like it if you were. I was really worried you hated me now. It scared me, you know. Made me sick to think you didn't want to be near me anymore. Is that terribly foolish of me?"

She thought about his demands against standing up, and finally retorted them as well. "And, if you really insist, I won't get a bath, but the rooms spinning a bit, and I think this bench is probably the only uncomfortable bit of furniture in the whole damn room. Can we sit somewhere else or lay down or something?" She leaned forward and turned to look at him, her blue eyes studying his facial features more closely now.

It came back to him now, why he was so afraid of her. But he'd mulled it over so many times now that he'd become desensitized to it: it was just a picture now even if he knew that was what lie beyond her skin. If he thought about it enough, maybe he could come to find it beautiful in an odd way. There were worse things that she could have been: like a bear with spider legs and bats for arms. Now that would have haunted him for much longer.

But even thinking about that now, there wasn't much he could think about other than the lovely lady in front of him. It didn't do him any good to dwell on things when right now was where he was. And in the white-hot light of the noon sun, she looked like one of Michaelangelo's angels more than anything.

"Of course I'm hitting on you," he said, laughing. "S'kinda hard not to. You're like... made of all the pretty things in the world. If someone were to take all the jewels and all the flowers and... I dunno... paintings or something... and mashed 'em together, they'd get you. 'R... I dunno... prolly a ruined painting that smells like roses." Now should be a good time to mention that he wasn't very good at creativity when it came to pickup lines. The point is that he thought it was a sweet sentiment.

Feeling like he were made of liquid, he slid off the bench with grace that he didn't know he was capable of while drunk and offered her his hand to her.

"M'name is Martin Achilles Mayhir," he said, feeling like this was the way it should have been when they'd first met, except with far less alcohol. "Shall I... escort you to the bed?" He tried his best to imitate someone more gentlemanly than he, which was hard to do when he was missing the lower half of his sleeves. He still had a goofy grin on his face, which even more pointedly ruined the illusion, but he honestly didn't care.

Lixi was so wrapped up in the flourish of compliments, awkward though they were, that she couldn't help but giggle and launch herself at him clumsily. She clung to his arm and half drug him to the large, extravagant bed, practically pulling down the transparent mosquito netting that hung around it as she flopped down onto it sideways. She pulled one of the far to numerous pillows to her rather than adjusting herself to where they were on the bed, and lay back smiling.

Her head was spinning, and though she knew she should be more concerned with the horrible things happening elsewhere, in this moment, she felt like everything was perfect. She lay trying to replay all of what he'd said in a way that made more sense to her twirling brain, but gave up and summed it up in her mind as being ridiculously sweet. As she pondered what he said, she remembered how he'd paused at first when she'd mentioned him being afraid of her, and her smile relaxed. She felt very compelled to broach the subject.

"You know... just because that's what I used to be, doesn't mean that's what I still am." She stared into his eyes, knowing she was pressing her limits with the topic already. Drink or no, she felt it needed talked about. "It's like... if you were to look at a picture of yourself 10 years ago, would you still think that's who you are now? Honestly, I've taken that form only one other time since I left heaven, and if it weren't for him forcing me into it, I don't even know if I could still do it, and I certainly wouldn't want to. It's just not who I am now. It causes me more pain than I can describe to change my features that way, because I've gotten so acclimated to the way I am now. This..." she took his hand and lay it on her chest above her heart, as she'd done during her panic spell back in the office, "...this is who I am now. What I am. That's just a bad memory of a past long gone. And I mean, really, if you think about it, shouldn't the me that I am in my head be the me that I really am? And you've been in my head, you've seen me there, so therefor, really, haven't you already seen the real me?"

She realized she was rambling, and stopped. Her mind returned to the present situation, and she realized how warm it still was in the room. "Hey. They gave me different clothes. I forgot. I can put on something other than this if you'd prefer, or... wait, aren't you roasting? How can you be wearing a heavy dark shirt like that, in Egypt." she smiled and gave an almost giddy squeal as she reached up to touch his face. "My god... Martin, We're in Egypt! I have so much to show you later."

She sat back up midst her drunken onslaught of words, and Kissed him hard on the lips, then flopped back down. "I love this place, oh do I love this place. I'm so happy you're here with me."

Martin got partially tangled in the netting before he found a way into it, which was largely helped because Lixi was holding onto his wrist. The force of her guiding him pulled him onto the bed even after she had let go and he let himself lay there on his face for a minute before rolling over to her. "Au mon deiu... If you saw a picture uh me ten years ago, you'd see a miserable fucking kid who got kicked out of his aunt's house for dropping out of school because he didn't give two shits about the table of elements." His hand traveled from her chest to caress her neck, running his fingers through her hair just behind her ear. He smiled. "I don't change much, but when I do its kind of a big deal." He pulled her closer. "I just wasn't ready for it is all," he said, getting back to the issue. "I mean... hell... it scared the crap out of me mostly because it'd been one helluva day and that was the last thing I was expecting to see." He thought about that for a moment. "No wait. I'm a liar: last thing I was expecting to see was Joel taking the shape of a unicorn. Now that would have been different."

He looked her up and down, trying to get a good look at what she was wearing at this moment: fine silk fabric all torn and covered in blood. It seemed like a metaphor, honestly. Something so finely crafted that's been through hell and back. "I think it suits you," he said, "but if you don't wanna be walkin' 'round in somethin' ripped half to shreds I ain't one to object." It did occur to him that it was ungodly hot: his forearms were sweating and they weren't even covered. He thought maybe he was just warm from the booze, but it seemed more likely that he was overheating from the hot, dry air. It occurred to him that he could take off his shirt, but with Lixi in the room he felt so self-conscious.

He felt even warmer when she'd kissed him. The blush that he felt from the absynthe increased to the point where he felt like he might have a fever as well. He pulled her face closer to his so that their eyes were parallel to each other. "Later, though," he said, smiling. "Right now, this is good."

Lixi smiled and swooned completely, letting herself get lost in his eyes, his touch, his everything. She reached up twirled the a lock of his hair that had been hanging loose from the rest around her fingers. She couldn't remember any man having been this tender with her, and hence was quite certain she had very literally never felt this way before. Her mind raced in a most amazing way, darting from thought to thought, almost all of them sensual enough to make her blush. Her hand trembled a little as her mind settled into a place she was quite certain she wanted things to go, so she brought it away from his hair, and rested it quietly on his chest.

"You're much to overdressed you know." she whispered to him, carefully drawing a trembling hand down to slide it under the bottom edge of his shirt. She was so out of practice at the idea of sexual happenings that she wasn't sure entire what she was doing, but she knew clothing coming off was a logical next step. She guided the fabric up over his chest, letting her finger tips run across his skin as she went. He seemed a little resistant when she'd gotten to where she needed his help to finish peeling it off, but he still seemed to comply. Her heart was thundering in her chest so loud she could barely hear herself think when he settled back in, so rather than try to say anything else, she pressed her body tightly in against him, and kissed him as passionately as she could. The awareness of how drunk she really was settled in over her, and she pulled away.

"There are so many things that I want nothing more than to see come true right now, so many images in my head, so many actions I'm compelled to fallow through with... but..." she shimmied down some, and tucked her head under his chin, as she'd done the night before. "...but... I'm still quite drunk... and... well... I love you Martin, I'm quite sure of it, as early and silly as that may seem, and somehow, it just doesn't seem right to be drunk for the first time two people who care about each other do certain things." She began to trace shapes on his skin with her fingertips, her eyelids growing heavy from the sleep the drink was beginning to draw over her. "I hope you understand. Its not that I don't want to..." her words faded out as the sleep took her over.

He'd squirmed in playful protest, though still self-conscious about what she expected to see of him versus the reality. When she pulled his shirt over his head he almost insisted that it stay down, but he was so caught up in the action that there was little time to say otherwise. He pulled the turtleneck off like an old skin and let it fall in a heap on the floor.

'Thin' was not a proper adjective for what he looked like. He looked as though someone had taken an average-sized man and stretched him from the shoulders. He wasn't muscular; if anything he was gaunt. You couldn't see his ribcage, but if he'd forgotten to eat for a day or so it would not have been a far push in that direction. A scar ran across his left bicep: healed over but deep, and whiter than the rest of his light, but quickly becoming pink, skin. He was thin, pale, awkward-looking... and she wanted him.

He held her closely, kissed her not only because she had kissed him first, but because he wanted to. He ruffled her hair in his long fingers and felt the warmth begin to fade as whatever fever she had began to go down. It didn't feel like they'd only known each other for a day. After all that had happened in one day, he felt like he'd known her for much longer. "Girl like you ain't the kind a guy like me gets just a crush on," he said, smiling. And for the first time in quite a long time, he said three little words that he knew had ended relationships before, but this one was well worth the risk: "I love you." He whispered it in his ear like a secret, but he wanted to yell it, to scream it from the window of the highest tower in Cairo while the sun set and no one was too busy to listen.

He kissed her on the forehead as her eyes closed, and, quite reluctantly, closed his eyes as well and drifted off to sleep.

Lixi awoke with a slight start as the door to her room flew open and the familiar voice of Crowley came through it. It was just before sunset, and the room was alive with all the colors she'd been missing so much. Every shadow seemed to dance, beckoning her to enjoy the energy of the dusk lit world as it transitioned into the night.

"Lixiani darling I know you said you didn't want to be disturbed, but the evening meal is almost ready, and, well, you seemed so glum when you came in earlier that I just wanted to know that you were.... Oh! Oh dear, I am sorry for intruding!" Alister stared for a moment then turned and headed back out with a huge smile once he noticed the shirtless Martin who's arms Lixi was laying in.

Lixi smiled as she lay her head back down on Martin's pale, scrawny chest. "We'll be down shortly Alister, thank you for the concern." She waited till he'd left, then kissed Martin's neck up his earlobe, which she nibbled at gently before whispering in it. "Good morning love, or evening rather. Are you awake yet?"

The image flashed in his mind at her voice: a featureless face, wings made of fire, a red sky full of turmoil rolling in the background. His heart started for a brief moment, but it was just pictures. It was just pictures in his mind now. That's all it was: just pictures. He shook lightly upon waking, but only that. It was the equivalent of waking up to a loud noise. When he opened his eyes he didn't see anything more than the woman he'd held while she slept.

The light had changed since he'd closed his eyes and the room had filled with a warm orange light. He could see why Lixi liked this tower: everything seemed illuminated in an ethereal light by the evening sun. A smile grew on his face while she kissed him back to consciousness: not the goofy grin that he'd had plastered on his face while he was drunk, but a subtle smile from genuinely waking up in a good mood. His hand traveled from her back down to the curve of her waist, and he looked into her blue eyes.

"I could pretend to be asleep if you're gonna keep kissin' me," he said slyly.

"I'm taking my courses online." Yoake said. "I'm about halfway through my undergrad program. Graphic Design major," she was happy to see that by some insane miracle she'd managed to keep from dropping her Laughing Man bookbag. She pulled out a sketch pad and flipped to a drawing of some kind of anime mashup. She showed it to Adja. "Needless to say, I've needed a life from the beginning."

Adja's mouth twisted into an incomprehensible expression. She wasn't much of an art critic and didn't know the first thing about what made a good piece, but she could already tell by the style that it wasn't much her taste. When it came to illustrations, she was much more reactive to things in the vein of intaglio prints as seen in her father's books. This was... well, sufficed to say that this was too new for her.

"I think your professor will understand," she said. Granted, she had never taken courses online so she didn't know exactly how the professor/student relationship was outside of a traditional classroom. But she was fairly certain that the classes weren't taught solely by computers. There had to be a human on the other side at some point. "Can't you tell him that you had to be called away and will have to take a raincheck? Just... lie and tell him that you have family business in Egypt. I'm sure it happens all the time."

Lixi giggled and kissed his cheek before sitting up beside him. She ran her fingers lightly over his chest one last time, first tracing the scar on his bicep, then eventually ended with hooking two fingers into one of his belt loops. "You'll have to tell me the story of how you got that sometime," she leaned over him and kissed the scar "I have somewhat of a peculliar fascination with scars. We rarely get them, which has it's benefits I suppose, but it also means less to remember where we've been by. I only have 3, well, possibly 4 now." She reached up with her other hand to check her shoulder, but couldn't feel anything through the dressing on the wound. "You'll also probably have to give me a hand with taking this off."

"Might be a good idea, unless i can find a net cafe or something." Yoake said. "I've got a bunch of stuff on my laptop from classes, but I don't feel like kicking it on right now. And I'm afraid it'll overheat here."

"Maybe some other time," he said in regards to his scar. He didn't want to ruin his good mood with a bad memory. He ran a finger along the bandaged part of her shoulder, feeling for any fresh blood. There was no wetness on his fingers, and come to think of it there were no blood spots on the sheets of the bed. The bleeding must have stopped once the bandage was on, or at least bleeding so profusely. He sat up, kissed her on the forehead. "Turn around. I'll check it for you." With her back turned to him, he found the loose end where he had tucked the strips of fabric to secure it and began unwinding it. This time he was less careful about getting close and pulled her into an embrace, kissing her neck as he rolled the odd combination of cotton and silk into a ball.

With the bandage off, the only evidence that she'd been injured at all was a scar and the remaining residue of dried blood. "You weren't kidding when you said you heal fast," he said, running one of his long fingers along it; like a grain of impurity in a marble statue.



"Is it really that important that you get this assignment in?" This was not the conversation Adja was intending to have today, particularly not with a half demon, and particularly not with all the other, more important things going on today that had gained her attention just a wee bit more than one kid's school assignment. "It seems a bit early for it to be a final." Granted, it was probably nearing finals week, even if it was about a month away.

"Not really," Yoake said. "But to be honest, I bombed my last assigment. That drawing I showed you was it; the person grading it was an asshole and apparently didn't post in his syllabus that he doesn't consider anime artwork." She looked down. "I'm guessing this sounds really ridiculous to you, doesn't it?"

Fire sparked in her mind as he kissed her neck. Lixi shivered in delight, and leaned back against him, a soft sigh escaping her lips. "Unless you'd prefer we skip dinner, and spend the rest of the evening locked in my room, I should get cleaned up and dressed a little more appropriately" the more she thought about it, the more she prefered the locked in the room option, and she felt sure he wouldn't deny her it if she insisted. Pushing the thought aside with the memory of the mission they were on, and curiousity as to the nature of their latest companion. Turning to Martin, she kissed him one more time before reluctantly pulling herself away from his arms.

"We'll have time for that later though... I wish we didn't have so much to do now, so much to pull us from this room, from this bed. I'd much prefer to stay lost here with you." She stood and walked toward the shower area, pausing to let the now cold, fragrant water drain from the tub. Slowly she shrugged the robe off, aware of his eyes on her back, and stepped into the shower area, not bothering to draw the thin muslin curtain this time.

The warm water felt wonderful as it ran down her back, washing away the last traces of the blood from the night before. The perfumed soap and oil provided her relaxed her senses, and felt all to appropriate with the vivid colors of the evening drawing dim. Finally rinsing her hair and body free of them, she wrapped herself in a soft terry cloth towel, and dried her hair with another before wandering back to the table to find the clothes she'd been brought.

While still silken and extravogant, the black dress with it's long flowing loose sleeves and off the shoulder neck line was at least a little more to her taste. Like the blue one, it sinched in at the waist with a broad leather belt, but hung only to just above the knee this time in the front, and slightly longer in the back. She tied her hair up with a piece of matching ribbon, a few pieces of it falling across her face as they escaped the loose pony tail she created.

She returned to Martin and extended her hand to grasp his gently. "Shall we to dinner then love? There's much to do yet tonight, and we should check on the rest of our friends first. We'll be back to this bed before day break, I promise. And so long as we accomplish what is needed tonight, I'll see to it we have inturuptions, and no cause to leave it tomorrow." She tugged gently at him, pulling him from the bed, and leading him toward the door. The last rays of sun casting their dim orangish red light, almost purple through the bright blue of the curtain.

"Yaoke," she said matronly. "There are multiple things out there in the world that are trying to kill me, my brother, whatever Lixi is, and probably you as well... while at the same time probably trying to open a portal to another world to bring in what I'm pretty sure is something called the 'Devourer of Worlds."" She laughed at the absurdity of it, sighing rather contentedly at the brief reprieve that she was in from it all. "There are things more important than a bad grade, I'm sure you're well aware."

((will reply to Lixi when I get back from work/wake up.))

"Fair enough," Yoake said, putting her sketch pad away and zipping her bag shut. "Geez I feel dumb right now....."

A small framed women. Carying fresh linens and a basket with a variety of toiletries entered the room. Also in the basket were a variety of loose fitting, light weight, brightly colored clothing items. "Excuse me, honored ladies, but my master has sent me to bring these, and let you know that the evening meal will be served at sunset in the great hall. Do you require anything else or need any assistance? she sat the basket down and bowed reverently.

"Uh, no thanks." Yoake said. The girl bowed again and left. Yoake turned to the garments and picked one up. It was crimson and gold (immedeatly making Yoake think of Harry Potter), loose-fitting, and had open shoulders. And it was a dress. "Er......"

In any normal (for a certain value of the word) situation, Martin would have had to fight the urge to sneak a peek at her naked form while she bathed and ultimately failed. But today he didn't feel it. He was content to have held her and to love her. Granted, that didn't stop his eyes from wandering towards the tub simply out of habit. He smiled complacently as he caught glimpses of her out of the corner of his eye. When she rose from the tub, he decided it was probably time to join the world of the slightly-less-naked and searched around for his shirt, which he found exactly where he had left it: a heap on the floor. He pulled it on over his head, feeling a little odd with the sleeves half-missing.

When Lixi had dressed herself in the modest, though still extravagant, dress that Allister's servants had provided for her, he felt as though he looked like a hobo by comparison with his clothes torn to shreds and probably still smelling like blood. But that was the sort of thing he was used to: feeling like a peon in the presence of someone so in command. But that was completely okay: he found a sort of comfort in a low place.

He hooked his arm out for her to take, doing his best to imitate someone more gentlemanly than he. "S'go," he said, ever the man of few words. He opened the door and nearly tripped over a folded bundle of cloth, leaf-green in color embellished with gold and a truer green. He held it up: a long tunic. They may have slightly overestimated how tall he was. "He's prolly gonna want me to wear this, huh?" He made a face, not sure how to feel about it: for all intents and purposes, it looked like a dress. He shook his head and laughed, bemused by it. "Whatever," he said. "When in Cairo, I guess."

Taking the tunic back into the room but not closing the door entirely, he pulled his shirt back off over his head. In a few swift steps he had the tunic on, pants off. He shook out the creases in the fabric and took a look at himself, still not sure how to feel about it. He re-emerged from the room and took Lixi by the arm. "Well, I feel like a fruit. Let's go."

As they walked down the hall together, it sank in: "What is it that we need to get done tonight?"


Adja took the royal blue and silver dress and thanked the servant. "That will be all," she said at the servant's inquiry. She couldn't think of anything that she might need and quite frankly was quite uncomfortable with the idea of being treated so well. "I suppose I should go put this on, then," she said to Yaoke. "Try not to have a meltdown over your schoolwork, okay," she said before leaving the half-demon's room.

Back in her own room, she stared at the dress. She was skeptical of it: this place was simply vibrating with magic, a magic that was foreign to her. She didn't doubt the kind intentions of Crowley's folk, but she didn't want to get too comfortable here. Comfort seemed to be a trap. She mumbled a few words in pigeon-French, putting her guards back up, before putting the dress on. She had to admit that it looked good on her: blue was always a good color for her. And the mid-length, but light, sleeves were at least modest and to her taste.

A memory of her childhood in Beruit flashed through her mind, of women walking up and down the marketplace street, wearing something similar to this but less gaudy. But just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone.

The sun was setting. She stepped out into the hallway and waited for the others to show.

Lixi couldn't help but laugh heartily at the sight of Martin in the long green smock of a tunic. Seeing him in anything but black shocked her. "Dear lord, what is Alister trying to do here. He must like you, to have put you in that. I honestly think he assumes that if he dresses people in these gaudy things they'll be more willing to take them off when it comes time for their nightly rituals. Which, before you ask, I had nothing to do with when I helped him get this started."

She took his arm and walked him down the hallway, pausing as she saw Adja come out of her room. It occured to her how bizar they must seem right now. Him brightly dressed in the strang tunic, and her smiling more genuinely than she had in years. But, upon seeing Adja in her blue dress, she simply smiled more and held out her hand in greeting.

"Well hello Adja! I trust the group is being quite hospitable?" She said with a warm perk to her voice. "Come! Let's gather our new friend and head to dinner while they're still mostly clothed in the great hall." She pulled gently at Martin's arm and headed toward Yoake's door, rapping gently on it when she arived.

"Coming!" Yoake called, still unsure about what to do about the dress. She opened the door and showed them the dress on her arm. "Do I have to wear this?" She asked pleadingly. When it came to formality, Yoake preferred either a suit or a kimono to a dress. To be honest, she'd feel much less awkward in trousers than the extravagant, silken garment.