Pure Imperfection

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POV: Princess Alexandrea

Ready and strangely excited for the day, I leave my room, meeting Nick in the hallway - already dressed and ready in jeans and a hoodie.

"Ready for breakfast?" I ask, pausing as we turn to the staircase and tred down.

"What are we eating?" He asks, letting me lead the way to the kitchen.

"French toast and coffee." I reply, this being my usual breakfast.

He grins widely. "I love french toast." He comments as we walk into the kitchen and sit at the bar, Tony already frying the french toast, pausing to hand us both a mug of coffee.

"Thanks, Tony." I call happily from my place, taking the small pitcher of chocolate milk - in place of cream - and pouring it into my coffee.

"Thanks." Nick echoes, watching me curiously as I set the pitcher down. "Is that seriously chocolate milk?" He asks.

I pause and look at him. "Yeah..." I admit curiously.

He smiles a funny amused smile. "Interesting."

"Actually," I reply, "it's really good." I inform him, taking a sip and nodding my thanks to Tony as he sets a plate of french toast with syrup in front of each of us. Tony smiles and turns, preparing to make breakfast for the others.

"Let me try..." he replies, and I pass him my cup. He takes a hesitant sip and then grins, pouring some of the chocolate milk into his own mug. "You're right." He agrees, handing me my mug back.

We finish breakfast and go to the drive, where Charlie's waiting with a car to take us. We scoot into the back seat and the ride is mainly silent - not an awkward silence, a comfortable, don't-feel-the-need-to-fill-every-moment-with-speech silence. It's nice.

Charlie drops us off at the mall and looks at me grinning as I get out with Nick, I smile back and wave happily.

"So, where to?" I ask Nick, ready for our shopping trip for a closet's worth of clothes.

He thinks for a little then smiles mischievously. "How 'bout something kinda crazy for royals?" He suggests.

I grin, catching onto the mood almost immediately. "Like what?"

"Department store, come on, let's go find one." He tells me, excitedly taking my hand and pulling me into the store.

I trail behind, intrigued, amused, happy, and excited all at once. I feel like I've known him for a lifetime, not just a day and a morning. It's so strange and lifting. I feel crazy, but I don't care, I'm laughing with Nick all the way down to the first department store we find.

Nick pulls me past a number of stores and finds the nearest escalator, going as far down as possible and then pulling me to the far back of the mall.

I laugh. "What's the plan?"

He looks at me as we walk into a store, "well, we got a lot to do, I say we work methodically. And it's cool to see all the stores." He smiles and we look around at the options.

"Ok, we should have a mental list of things to look for. What kinda stuff do you want?" I ask, looking around curiously.

"Jeans...t shirts...hoodies...maybe some button up shirts..." He replies, picking up a shirt and looking at it carefully, holding it up to his chest and turning to me for my advice.

I shake my head and turn to the shelf behind me, looking carefully at the styles of jeans on the pictures above the stacks. I find one I like and I hand it to him. He unfolds it and inspects it, smiling and nodding his head.

"I like them." He tells me, holding them to his waist.

"Looks good." I tell him, draping them over my arm and moving on to a stack of t shirts by my shoulder. I find a plain black one and Nick snatches it from my hand, grinning and draping it over his arm approvingly.

He walks around the corner of the shelves and comes to a rack, me close behind. I look over his shoulder and see a rack of button down shirts - flannel, plain white, colored, casual, and semi-formal. I reach over and pull out a shirt I particularly would like on Nick. I hold it up for him and he smiles.

"You, missy," he taps me affectionately on the nose, "have good taste."

"Thanks." I grin, looking on in the rack. "I love this style of shirts, you can do so much with them. And they're good work shirts." I tell him, though more to myself as I thumb through the shirts, pulling out a few more that he happily takes from me and adds to our growing stack.

Nick looks up and eyes the far back corner of the store. "Well, you're in luck, look, there's some in the girl's section, let's go see." He tells me, dragging me there without waiting for my opinion. He looks intently at the shelves and pulls out a shirt, holding it up to me, mentally picturing it. He grins.

I take the shirt he's picked out for me and inspect it, loving it quickly. In the first try, he's chosen a style, colour, and size that are perfect for me. This is so amazing. "You're not bad yourself, mister." I grin up at him. "Show me what else you can do."

He raises his eyebrows in excitement - thumbing through another rack of girls clothes - and verifies, "you mean, I get to pick out a complete outfit for you? Any limitations?" He challenges.

"Uh...at least one piece of jewelry, and you have 15 minutes." I tell him, taking the stack of clothes to the register.

"20." He counters, following behind, handing me a pair of ripped up for me, that I - also - love.

"17." I allow, taking the shopping bags and following him.

"Fine, but note, that this is with the handicap of not knowing the layout of this mall. Now, let's go shopping!" He informs me, looking like an excited little kid as he pulls me out of the store and down a ways to another store with some dresses we saw when we passed earlier.

"Ok, good knight, whatever can we be getting here? Can I add a casual limitation?" I ask, slightly worried but Nick only grins widely at me.

"Nope! Too late, you already stated limitations, but don't worry, I'm not going to turn you into some freaky, princess-looking thing..." he laughs at his joke and pulls me in, going straight to a less formal rack and taking a dress off the rack after a minute of looking. He then proceeds to the register then pulls me out of the store, not bothering to let me see the dress up close. We hit a shoe store next and he chooses a pair of cute gray boots that I adore - I was peeking over his shoulder - before moving on again. This time, we're in a normal mall outlet with plenty of jewelry. Nick finds a necklace and what looks like bracelets. I look down at my phone's stopwatch. 12.5 minutes.

We leave the store and find a bench, Nick looking pretty pleased with himself. I laugh gently.

"You didn't even need the extra 2 minutes you bargained for, handicap or not." I tell him, still laughing, but leaning forward in anticipation.

He's put everything into one bag with the dress, to condense it.

"Well? Show me!" I exclaim.

He shakes his head. "Your turn, missy." He sings sillily, "I'll wait here, you have 15 minutes, dressy casual, like not lounging around the house, but no formal parties. Now go, I'm timing you." He grins annoyingly but I laugh and jump up, heading to the store we went to first.

I pick a plain gray t shirt and then go to find a pair of faded jeans. Finding those, I pick out a creamy white zip up hoodie, then add a pair of black sneakers - nice but not fancy. Happy with my choice, I make my way excitedly back to Nick, where he sits, dramatically frozen, looking at his phone's stopwatch, the bag with my outfit next to him.

He grins at me as I get closer. "13 minutes. Trade you." He hands me the bag with my outfit and I hand him the bag with his, walking to the bathroom to change. I'm nervous and über curious to see what he's chosen. I look back at him - heading to the guys bathroom to change - and he winks and grins.

In the bathroom, I choose a stall then open the back, amazed at the beautiful outfit chosen for me. It's like he's known me for ages, most of my sisters wouldn't be able to choose an outfit I would love as much as this. Pulling it on, I go out to look in the mirror. Nick is a genius.

I rush out of the bathroom to see Nick, sitting at the bench waiting for me, and grinning widely at me. He gets up to meet me and I hug him.

"You're a genius!" I exclaim, laughing but pulling back when he hugs me back awkwardly - obviously taken by surprise - but when I look up, an apologetic smile on my face, he's grinning down at me, tugging gently at my gray beanie.

"I thought so too," he teases then gestures down to his own outfit. "I love what you chose though, how do you know so well what I like?"

I shrug. "The same way you knew I would love this, I suppose." I smile and take his hand friendlily. "You know what I feel like doing now?" I ask teasingly.

"Ice cream?" He guesses hopefully, licking his lips happily.

I drop his hand and step back, stamping me foot. "No way!" I exclaim, surprised.

He frowns. "How can you not want ice cream? It's so amazing!"

I shake my head, "of course I do, I mean, that was exactly what I was thinking! This is freaky, shiny stuff." As in, 'knight in shining armor'.

He nods. "Can we still get ice cream though, rapunzel?"

I frown.

His eyes widen. "Bad reference, sorry."

I smile. "Let's just go get ice cream, I'm soo hungry!"

He grins and we head up.

~ * ~

We roam around with our ice cream, hand in hand as we look at everything.

Deciding to go back, we call Charlie and wait for him to pick us up. When he drives up, he's smiling and he helps us load