2.25 – New Duds, New Plan

Chloe’s PoV

The first thing we all did, as always, was visit the local market for local-styled dress.


There were stores. Actual stores! With windows and doors and brand new merchandise! Not that we bought new clothing. I may have stolen over 40 trillion simoleons, but we didn’t have that in cash. We had a few hundred on us. It was all that was left of the 20 grand we’d started out with two…three years ago?

We visited an older looking shop, a second-hand store, and spent a few simoleons on cleaner, less tattered clothing.


Shaye finally let go of the dress she’s been hanging onto all these years…the one she’d gotten too tall for back when she was twelve. She found a pair of old bell-bottoms and a tie-dye t-shirt. Lucy immediately zeroed on a rack and vanished, dragging Medea with her. And I let myself browse. There were options! Of all the countries we’d been through, not many (at all) carried my…erhm, size. I found a nice top that fell over my hips and Lucy talked me into a pair of leggings. Not very practical for the lack of pockets, but they were comfortable. Definitely a new but welcome experience.


Thomas seemed to be looking for something in particular. In my opinion, he looked ridiculous, but the shop was out of anything else that fit his shoulders.

“How’s it feel?” I grinned at him.

“Alright, alright! I’m sorry for teasing.” He tried to adjust the shirt and we both heard the riiiiiip. “Damnit!”

“I can fix it!” Lucy volunteered brightly. Medea just looked bored with the whole situation.



“Yeah, sure.” Thomas ran a hand over his face.

I frowned. He looked tired. And troubled. More so than usual, at least. And I didn’t know why.

“Thomas?”

“Hmmm?”

“Are you alright?”

For a second, I thought I saw…but then he flashed a smile and shrugged. “I’m fine! Just not used to these European sizes.”

I watched my younger siblings run past the shop into the center park. Thomas sat down with me on a bench and we watched Shaye and Donovan attempt to scale one of the old trees while Medea yelled at them. Lucy ignored them and snapped a few photos of the architecture.

“We’ll be thrown out of France for disturbing the peace at this rate,” Thomas joked.


“Are you really okay?” I asked bluntly. I’d never seen dark rings under Thomas’s usually happy eyes. And it disturbed me.

He shrugged, but leaned towards me, whispering, “I’m gonna try to end this mess.”

“What?” Does he mean—?

“I’ve got a plan, well kinda. If it works,” he paused, taking a breath. “We might not have to worry about the Labs ever again.”

I stared at him. “Seriously?!” Could he really fix this whole mess?!


“I need you to trust me on this.” He was so serious, I could just nod. “I’ll tell you more later.” And he sat up as Medea stamped over.

I took a deep breath and tried to look nonchalant while Medea ranted about “stupid, hippy wild-child!”

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Sorry this took so long to get up. Thanks for reading! ^_^