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“What do you think about this?” Warriors held up a cropped sweater, knitted in an off white soft warm fabric. Four considered it for a second, perhaps he could get it in a bigger size, so that it hung a bit lower. But Warriors had clearly chosen this style in particular, so it wouldn't make the most sense to do such a thing, opposed to instead buying a normal-length sweater.
Time had ultimately decided that Four needed to go clothes shopping, even if Four had insisted that they were completely comfortable with accepting lent over clothes and hand-me-downs from their older brothers.
Warriors had pronounced his last-minute accompaniment by slipping on his shoes, and quickly fixing his hair before hopping in the car with Four and Time. He had just claimed that he was bored, and that he needed some fresh air. Four had no problems with having some company, and they weren’t about to turn down their own brother from joining them on this little trip.
Though speaking, Four didn’t actually foresee the exact reason as to why Warriors’ was so passionately quick and unhesitant to join this trip in particular- Opposed to quite literally any other outing.
It was no secret to anyone that Warriors’ main hobby was fashion. He had an extensive knowledge as well as an extensive closet- Clothes ranging from every fabric to every shade of a color. Warriors’ seldomly crossdressed, though he did own a few-
“Uhh - I mean it’s… Alright.” Four, or more so Red politely shared his thoughts, not liking how short it was, but not wanting to hurt Warriors’ feeling either.
Forget hurting his feelings- The thing looks horrendous, no way are we wearing this! Blue scoffed.
“Are you sure? Warriors insisted, motioning the article of clothing closer to Four. The boy only smiled awkwardly as he slowly backed away from it. “It really compliments your-”
“Wars.” Time coughed an interruption, frankly saving Four’s remaining sanity. “If Four doesn’t like it, then he doesn’t need to try it on, let alone purchase it. There’s no need to push him.”
Warriors face twisted in disinterest and contempt, humming in contemplative thought as he put it away, and to Four’s relief, backed away from adding any such comments for a small while.
Hopefully we didn’t make him feel too bad. Red worried while looking at their brother.
He noticed that Warriors was playing with his fingers, and had remained mostly stationary and silent, unless prompted to speak or lend something to Time.
Nonsense. Time was simply aiding us and stopping Wars from overstepping a line of some sort. Vio countered.
The three remained pilfering through clothing racks and shelves, trying to find at least a starting point for Four. They had been at the store for nearly 30 minutes, yet their bag had remained devastatingly empty. But Time persevered, he figured that if they were to find Four at least one thing, they could use it as a reference for the rest, which could result in the later half of the trip being much shorter than it needed to be.
“What about this?” Time offered a white long sleeve with black sleeves.
Not bad. Green mused.
It looks too thin- We’re going to freeze. Blue shut it down.
“Perhaps something a bit more thick? I don’t want to get too cold in it easily.” Four replied to Time.
Time hummed in agreement and put the item back in the rack.
Four trailed behind the man for the entirety of the trip, whenever Time turned a corner, Four followed. It had even got to a point that Four was grasping onto Time’s sleeve.
The racks had been made into makeshift walls, creating a labyrinth around the store. Four would hate to get lost in all of that.
Warriors had been nowhere to be found- Four realized. He wondered if the other had gone to look for clothes for himself, or to find the nearest bench and catch his breath.
Though, Four didn’t expect him to return with an armful of different clothes and piles of fabrics.
“Here. You should try these on.” He gestured them to Four. Warriors noticed the confused expression on Four’s face. “Don’t worry- I chose these knowing you. I’m sure there’s a few things in there that you would like.”
“Ah, thank you.” Four nodded. “By any chance… Could you help me carry the clothes though. The pile seems a bit… big.” He shyly asked, leaning to the side to see Warriors from behind the mountain of material.
“Oh yeah- Sure. Just follow me, I know this place front and back.”
And so, Four was doomed to follow somebody yet again. This time, at least he knew where the destination was.
Time and Warriors both sat on the two outside chairs in front of the closed door while waiting for Four in the room.
Time sat completely stiff on the chair. Both his legs were planted on the ground and his hands were resting on his lap. He was the living example of patience. Warriors on the other hand, was the near opposite of that. He was lounging on the chair, leaning to the side and resting his back on the armrests. One of his legs was crossed over the other, and he was either twirling his hair or checking out his fingernails.
Four had undergone a cycle of slipping into something, bracing themself before leaving the room, and having to accept Warriors’ feedback, whether it was positive or not.
Four had no problem with the feedback itself- They honestly didn’t even care much for Wars’ opinion. It was rather just the fact that they had to constantly change and adjust to the different fabrics and materials. And to be frank, it was really starting to get at them and their nerves.
I really hate this. Red whined as Four had to toss the sweater into either the “yes” or “tragically no” pile, landing on the latter as they felt that the sleeves were too tight and itchy for their liking.
Word. Blue sighed. Warriors is really pushing his luck. And he knows that damn well.
With an annoyed sigh, Four bit his tongue and tried on the rest of the clothes from the painstakingly large pile, contrary to what Red and Blue had felt.
“Hey Four?” They heard Warriors rapping at the door. They recognized that it was him and not Time as Warriors knocks were impatient and barely spaced, even staccato.
Four opened the door, deadpanning at his brother.
“I’ve found a whole other section- Here, try these on.”
“I really appreciate your effort, but-”
“Great, thanks!” Warriors forcefully smiled, cutting Four off with a sharp shut of the door, leaving four staring at the blank white surface with disbelief in their eyes.
This is extremely frustrating. Vio said.
I know, but let’s just get these over with, come on. Green countered, even if he wasn’t feeling so grand about this whole thing either.
A few moments later. Four was honestly done with it all. His head was too loud, and suddenly, everything was just too overwhelming. Red was spiraling, Blue had hated the whole unorganized premise of the piles of clothes, Vio was silent yet bothered, and Green was trying to keep everything under control. But of course, their combined efforts weren’t necessarily the most helpful in the end.
To sum it up, Four had shut down.
Their legs gave out, and they were now on the ground, sitting on their knees. Four wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. They were spacing out- That’s for sure. But it was also as if none of the colors had stepped up to the front. Almost leaving Four bare of their personality.
“Four?” Time called out, somewhat suspicious and concerned from the silence from behind the door.
No response.
“Four? Are you okay?”
Red was the first to realize that they were being spoken to.
“Y-Yeah, we’re just a little… Off.” He replied on their behalf. You’re welcome, he huffed while crossing his arms.
Four tried their hardest to recalibrate. They focused on their breathing, and leaned back against the cool surface of the wall, running their hands through his hair and fidgeting with their fingers as they calmed down.
They were just overwhelmed from all of this. It was a rather annoying process to have to try all these clothes on, and the fact that Warriors had added another pile had almost made the situation seem dire and even worse than it actually was. Some fabrics were bearable, others were itchy and felt weird and they hated it against their own skin, even making them want to physically recoil after feeling them.
“Off? ” Time repeated to himself, thinking. He was not exactly sure what Four had meant with that. The last time Four had mentioned that was when he-
Time knew exactly what Four was trying to say.
He couldn’t recall exactly when it had happened, but it had been the aftermath of a rather long car ride- In which Time and everyone else, Four included, was relaxing back at home to calm down after the eventful day.
Four was rather spacy, and was generally not himself. So when Time had prompted anything to the boy, all he replied with was a half-hearted “ whuh? ” and a look of confusion mixed in with some other things in his gaze. Though, it was also when Four had described themselves as being off, and that they needed some extent of alone time.
And lo and behold, when Four had excused himself to his room, it was almost as if he was much less irritated the following morning.
When Time had passed by to check on Four, he noted that the room was in complete silence, and that there wasn’t any light coming out from the bottom of the door. Perhaps Four just needed to self regulate, and whatever it was that he was feeling now, was most likely to follow the same outcome.
“Four, we don’t have to be here much longer. We can always come back another day,” Time prompted, holding a hand up to silence Warriors, who was about to jump out with a contradiction.
“I know. It's just that we find it preferable to finish it by today, as we really don’t want to come back for another near eternity .” Vio said casually, doing an absolute spectacular job at hiding his disdain.
“Are you sure? We can-”
“Yes.” Four interrupted, pushing the door open while carrying a small pile of clothes. “I’ve made my final choice. Now can we leave?” They urged.
Time nodded, gathering the clothes in his hands as it was clear that Four really didn’t want to spend another second here.
The cashier was too loud, the constant clicking and beeping of the register was pushing them well past their limit. And don’t even get started with how Warriors had kept on asking them if they had any second opinions, and that he saw the best jacket over at the side, and that Four could use another sweep through the store before they were so sure.
But Four didn’t budge. They wanted out. And at the same time, they stopped caring about anyone else's opinions. If they cared enough, they could go and apologize for his cold demeanor, or at least explain themselves later.
But now, all they wanted was just a blissed moment of pure solace- Was it really too much to ask? They'd just have to wait for a bit longer, they could handle it.
Luckily, Four thinks that Time had gotten the memo, as the ride home was relatively silent. The radio wasn’t on, and he wasn’t playfully bickering with Warriors. Also, by the time that they had left, the Sun had set, and so the sky was relatively dark. Small mercies.
Four had to close their eyes and rest them on their palms during the entire ride home, as looking outside the window did not contribute positively to his budding vertigo.
As soon as they parked, Four threw himself out the car and stumbled back home, flinging the main door open and dragging himself up the stairs and to his room, slumping on the bed with a relieved sigh.
He brought the covers over himself and tried to regulate his breathing, the familiar feeling of his bed and his room brough solace to the little peace and sanity he had left.
Time knocked at his door.
Now what. Blue growled, the others agreed to some varying extent.
“May I come in?” Four heard before replying with a rasped noise of agreement.
“Hello. I just wanted to check up on you.” Time said. “You weren’t exactly feeling the best at the store.”
“Warriors is very impulsive.” Four, Vio said with no sugar coating to it whatsoever.
“Perhaps more than you are, did it bother you?”
“Rather so. It wasn’t that he annoyed us or anything, though we would have preferred to take things much slower. Also, trying on nearly everything from the store was definitely exhausting in its own right.”
Time slowly nodded in thought.
“I see. Are you at least happy with what you’ve chosen? The tags are still on everything, so I could always go back.”
“It’s not about us not liking them. While we didn’t enjoy the whole process of it very much, it was quite nice to get it over with. Also, we don’t really mind about Warriors either. He’s passionate about this kind of stuff, and we’d hate to shut him down like that.” Four explained, wanting this conversation to end already so they could sleep, but also that they preferred to explain everything to Time.
“Perhaps. But don’t let that be the reason for anyone to overstep anything yeah? You have the right to opt out whenever, okay?” Time made sure Four listened as he reassured them.
“Now I’ll let you rest. We could talk about this tomorrow or we could leave it at just this. Whatever you want.” Time said as he got back up from Four’s bed and shut the door behind him, blocking out all the sound and light from the safe haven that was deemed as Four’s room.