He Comes in Peace

"First, let's find you some clothes to begin with."

Skye shooed away Kartayon's protests and rifled through her wardrobe, looking for something slightly larger that could fit him.

Occasionally holding up a T-shirt or sweater, Skye felt her stomach squirming and bouncing about; not from nerves, but because Kartayon had said, in the sternest of voices,

"You are only going 'shopping' if I am to come with you."

He was hardly going for entertainment purposes; he felt that Skye would most certainly be captured and bound and taken away by the ECI, and he would have to rescue her from the clutches of evil. Of course, Skye added the 'clutches of evil' line to herself, inside her head, where Kartayon had a harder access to.

"How about this one?" she asked brightly, holding up a dark blue polo. Before Kartayon could say something along the lines of 'I could care less', Skye shook her head and mumbled to herself.

"I beg your pardon?" Kartayon asked tiredly.

"Oh, nothing. Blue just doesn't suit you much. How about white?" she asked, holding up another polo.

"Whatever you like. But please, Skye, we must get going if we are to arrive back here in time for supper."

"All right, all right."

After a few minutes of leafing through the clothes hangers, she sighed.

"There's hardly anything here that really fits you!" she cried.

"I would do just fine with the first two that you suggested and un-suggested," he replied quietly, and dryly.

"No, no...I'll find something, don't worry. I will find the perfect shirt." As an after-thought, she added quietly, "Is un-suggested even a word?"

If Kartayon heard her, he gave no reaction.

"You forget about pants," he said instead, with sarcasm.

Unfortunately, Skye did not take it as sarcasm. On the contrary, her eyes widened and she nodded her head quickly.

"I forgot about pants!"

Groaning, Tay sat himself down on the ground, racking his fingers against the floor of her bedroom. "Please, Skye. Anything will do."

Skye did not reply. She hummed to herself and smiled and she flipped through her clothes, saying as she opened drawers, "It's a good thing that I keep clothes here, right? I don't wear them much and my dresser back in Burnaby was getting too full. So my mom said to move some of the stuff here. I don't really know where the polo's came from, though."

Just as Kartayon was about to shout in impatience, Skye held up a red Nike shirt in her hand, brandishing it triumphantly. "I got it! Even though I still don't know who it belongs to or how it got here."

Kartayon started to clap his hands slowly, but stopped when Skye threw the shirt at his face. He stopped and scowled at her. "You seem to have forgotten about pants yet again."

"Ah, you want to go shopping, don't you?" Skye said gleefully.

"No, not exactly. Your safety is a good enough excuse to accompany you."

"Suuure." Skye raised her eyebrows and smiled cheerfully.

"Just for your happiness, I will not make any rude remarks," Kartayon said ruefully, tugging what was left of his previous shirt up and over his head.

Skye turned around out of manners and continued looking for bottoms. "We need something that sort of matches, if I can find something of that sort. How about basketball shorts? You're pretty slim."

Kartayon tugged at the sleeves of the shirt. It fit him all right. "Where?" he asked tiredly.

Skye tossed it to him and he examined it for two seconds before nodding.

"Um..." Skye felt herself blush. "Do you...?"

Kartayon stopped moving. His ears flicked slightly and he turned to look at Skye. His expression was wry and scrunched up.

"What is it, Skye?" he asked slowly.

"Uh, never mind. It was rude to even think about it. You go ahead and change." She turned back around to face her wardrobe, and pretended to fumble about, shuffling her hangers around, sliding them back and forth.

"Skye..."

"Just change! I want to go shopping too."

Kartayon sighed. "All right, Skye. I will let this go just for now."

Skye breathed a sigh of relief when Tay accepted her excuse. Of course, she didn't want him to think it was just an excuse.

"So, Skye...How are you going to pay for the clothes?"

"Me and my mom always keep a bit of money over here. It's fine."

"Really..."

"Mmhmm!"

The next thing Skye knew, Kartayon had swept her off her feet. Literally. He had tilted her in a position you would see on television, the theatrical sweeping done by dramatic actors and dancers. The only odd thing about this was that Kartayon had his forehead rested against Skye's, and was clearly reading her thoughts.

A moment later, Skye was standing again, back on her two feet.

"Hey!"

Kartayon looked embarrassed. His lightly bronze skin was now flushed, and his cheeks were tinged with pink.

"You honestly think I am unsanitary enough to go without undergarments? Please, Skye."

Skye immediately felt bad. "Tay, I'm sorry."

He gazed at her, the blush receding quickly until it faded altogether and he was back to how he normally looked, though his eyes were brighter and more cat-like than before.

He nodded slowly. "That is fine."

Skye shuffled her feet and looked down at the ground, like a guilty child. "We could forget about this," she mumbled to her socks.

"It does not matter much; I shall not be staying here forever."

"What?"

"You can hardly expect me to stay," he said gently, reaching out to touch Skye's shoulder. "Please do not frown like that."

Skye blinked. "I guess so."

"Forget about it; just like you said. We are going...We are going shopping. You had been so incredibly happy, Skye, please do not be unhappy." He reached out, and with his fingers, pulled the corners of Skye's mouth up. He smiled at her.

"Smile for me."

The cliche phrase took Skye by surprise. Kartayon, someone who seemed so old-fashioned and eighteenth century polite to Skye, had said 'Smile for me'.

Now Skye really had to smile. The twinkle jumped back into her eyes, and she was smiling like before. She turned around.

"Hurry up and change, all right? We've got some shopping to do."