Though never one to dress up, Pip found herself staring at her closet, wondering what to wear. After forgetting about the tea ceremony and skipping out on her grandparents two weeks ago, she really had to make it up to them. Which meant taking it seriously and dressing up in more than her athletic wear.

  The last time she’d worn a dress was… She couldn’t remember. And she didn’t have any in her closet, which likely meant Amalia had stolen them. She couldn’t steal clothes from either of mothers; Athena was a titan, and Mai was far less muscular than Pip was, and most of her clothes wouldn’t fit. Which meant stealing back from her sister. They were close enough in size, it should work.

  Except Amalia wore nothing but black, and Pip couldn’t remember the last time she wore something that wasn’t multiple colors.

  Well, there was nothing else to do. She had to go shopping.

  She grabbed her bag and a pair of slip-on shoes, then ran out the door and across to Amalia’s room. Where Pip’s room was full of color and light, Amalia’s was dark, like she was allergic to anything fun. Considering the way she acted, that did sound about right.

  “Don’t open the door without knocking!” Amalia screeched only seconds after Pip opened the door, her voice as piercing as a banshee’s. She was doing nothing but sitting on the bed, reading a book so thick Pip could have used it as a weapon. Pip would rather die than read something that large.

  “Come with me to the store,” Pip said, leaning through the doorway, though she didn’t step foot in her sister’s room. She didn’t want to die.

  “No.”

  “I need clothes for tonight!”

  “I said no! Get out.”

  “Oh, come on,” Pip whined. “You don’t have anything better to do. Come to the store with me. I’ll drive and everything.”

  “Oh, you’ll drive? I feel so much better about going,” Amalia said, rolling her eyes. “No.”

  “You’re boring,” Pip said, sticking out her tongue at her younger sister before shutting the door behind her. Time to find another victim to drag along.

  Who was there that she could bring? Her brothers were terrible company for shopping, and they were out training right now. She didn’t have all that many friends at school, considering she barely spent any time there before trying to take it seriously. There was Izzy, but he was a bad influence, and she didn’t need to get dragged into another Summoner’s Ring tonight.

  Pip whipped out her phone, pulling up a number she’d texted once and gotten no response from. Instead of texting and waiting to see if she’d respond, she placed a call and put the phone to her ear, waiting to see if she'd pick up.

  “What?” Khione’s voice barked into her ear. A wide smile broke out across her face. I do have the right number.

  “Do you want to go shopping with me?” Pip asked, shifting up and down on her toes as she waited for the response. “I need to get an outfit for tonight and I want someone to come with me.”

  “Why? Don’t have any other friends?” Khione asked. Pip could clearly imagine the sarcastic look on the other end of the phone.

  “Not really,” Pip admitted, letting out an awkward laugh. She had never really had that many friends. With a family this big, it wasn’t something she’d craved, and so much of the time she’d spent training and working to become a super. She’d never had time for friends. Now that she couldn’t train, she realized just how few friends she actually had. But it was a good thing that was a problem easily remedied. She just needed to make more friends. “Will you come with me? It’ll be fun. I can pick you up and everything.”

  Silence crackled loudly from the other end of the phone before Khione answered. “Fine. I’ll text you my address. And you’d better come with some fucking coffee, loser.”

  A smile broke out across Pip’s face. “Deal. See you in a few!”

  “Where are you going?” The voice broke into Pip’s reverie even as she pumped a fist in the air, thrilled at her success. Dyiona poked her head out of her own bedroom, black hair falling down in ribbons around her face and making her look a bit like a child from a horror movie for a minute before she stepped into the light.

  “To the store,” Pip said.

  “Can I come?” She looked up at Pip, a hopeful look in her eyes as she did. She’d gotten so big, no longer the tumbling little toddler Pip still sometimes imagined her as.

  “Let’s go ask Mum,” Pip said, holding a hand out to Dyiona. She took it, standing all the way up to Pip’s shoulder; God, she’d be tall too, wouldn’t she? All her siblings and their stupid Carter height, the one thing Pip wanted but hadn’t inherited. The hero gods hated her.

  As it turned out, it was a good thing Dyiona wanted to go along, because Mai seemed to think Pip was trying to skip out on meeting with her grandparents a second time. She hadn’t intended to do it the first time, but she tried not to resent her mother’s suspicion. She had missed the dinner, which is why they were trying to make up for it now.

  Dyiona was, in a way, collateral. A way for Mai to be sure Pip would make it back in time. And she absolutely would. Mai would probably skin her alive if she managed to miss the dinner again, and her grandparents would feel the same.

  “I won’t miss it, I promise,” Pip said, holding onto Dyiona’s shoulders. “We’re going to pick up an outfit for later.”

  With a skeptical look, Mai handed over the keys to the family van and Pip loaded up, arguing with Dyiona to get in the back seat since they were going to pick Khione up. Luckily, Khione was on the way, and Pip was able to stop and grab a few drinks before picking her up, lemonade for herself, a frozen drink for Dyiona, and an iced coffee for Khione.

  They pulled up to the school parking lot, Khione standing out on the sidewalk, tapping her foot impatiently against it. Before Pip could even roll down the window to let her know they were here, Khione was moving toward her. She threw the door open and slammed it closed, looking over at Pip with an expression that screamed pissed. But she looked like that all the time.

  “Took you long enough,” Khione said.

  “Had to convince Mum to let me come,” Pip explained as they pulled out of the parking lot.

  Khione raised an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”

  “She’s grounded!” Dyiona piped up from the back seat.

  Khione whipped around, staring at Dyiona in the back seat and then at Pip, like she was harboring a space alien from another dimension. “Who’s this?” she demanded.

  “My sister,” Pip said with a shrug. “She wanted to come.”

  The expression Khione gave was one Pip couldn’t entirely make sense of, though she was only seeing it out of the corner of her eye as she drove. “Should’ve told me it wasn’t just gonna be us,” Khione grumbled, pushing herself back down into the passenger seat.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Where is my coffee?” Khione demanded instead of answering.

  Pip picked it up and handed it to her. “I hope you like it. I tried to get something you might like.”

  “And how’d you know I’d like it?” Khione asked, taking a tentative sip. Judging by her expression, she didn’t totally hate it.

  “I took a guess,” Pip said, a smirk breaking across her lips as Khione took another step. “Looks like I guessed good.”

  “It was a lucky guess,” Khione said, dismissing her entirely.

  “Maybe I just know you.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Not even close,” Khione said.

  “And what if I want to get to know you?”

  “Is this what flirting is?” Dyiona piped up from the backseat.

  Pip let out a strangled noise, cheeks going piping hot as she tore her eyes away from the ice princess in the passenger seat. “Dyiona!”

  “It’s not flirting yet,” Khione said, shooting a look back at Dyiona. “But we’re getting there.”

  Pip’s heart jumped as the words warmed the inside of her ear, worming their way inside until they lit a match fire in her stomach. Funny, how the ice princess could make her feel so warm.

  She slid a look over at Khione, catching her silver blue eyes for a split second before turning back to the road. Pip wasn’t much of a reader, but it felt a bit like a romance. Even to the extent of their names. Pip’s family with their tradition of naming their children after Greek gods, only broken when it reached Pip and her siblings. And Khione, named after the ice goddess. Fate, in so many ways.

  Pip was a fan of fate. And she was a fan of Khione’s blue eyes and pink lips.

  Maybe she was flirting.

  They reached the mall in the middle of the city, a massive construction full of shops of all kinds, split between indoor and outdoor levels. As soon as they were inside, Dyiona took off, with a promise to keep her phone on if Pip needed to find her. She trusted Dyiona to be able to take care of herself, plus her power was pretty lethal in and of itself, so she felt alright letting her wander off alone. Plus, it gave her a chance to talk with Khione.

  “You’re letting her go?” Khione asked, eyes trailing after Dyiona as the girl darted off into the crowd, nearly tripping someone as she darted toward the food court.

  “She’ll be okay,” Pip said. She shifted her cup from hand to hand, too much energy pent up in her body. Maybe she should have kept Dyiona here, to shield her from Khione.

  “You sure?”

  “Dyiona has enough training to kill a grown man if she needed to,” Pip said. “She’ll be fine.”

  “Just how much training does your family have?” Khione shook her head in disbelief.

  “Enough to become heroes,” Pip said honestly. It wasn’t exactly a secret. Athena didn’t cover her face when she worked, and the Carter family had been known for years in the super community. Khione was a part of that community, even if she wasn’t familiar with it.

  “That’s insane,” Khione said. “You realize that’s insane, right?”

  “Not insane,” Pip said, smiling. “It’s our duty.”

  “That’s even more crazy,” Khione said with a snort. “You really believe that too, don’t you?”

  Pip shrugged as they started walking. “It’s my legacy,” she said. How could she make Khione understand? It wasn’t like everyone understood what it was like for the fate and security of the hero world to rest on their family’s shoulders. “And I’ll uphold it to the absolute best of my ability.”

  “I don't get it,” Khione admitted. “What good do you think you're gonna do? You can make glass. And you expect to save the world?”

  “Maybe not the world. Maybe just one person,” Pip said, hands tightening around the plastic cup in her hands and threatening the structural integrity of the lid. She wanted to be able to save the world, like Athena had. But she wasn't that strong. Not yet. And she would probably never be. Some supers could bridge the gap between abilities, learn to do more than what their base ability said they could. Pip, as much as she'd tried, didn't have that talent. But that didn't make her useless. “But if I can stop a villain, save a civilian, stop one life from being ended... Isn't that a good thing?”

  “And put your life on the line for it? Risk yourself, your future, for someone else, when there's another super out there who can do it better?”

  “There's never a guarantee someone else will take that step,” Pip said. “But I can. And I will.”

  “I think it's stupid,” Khione said. “You'll only cause more problems for everyone else.”

  The flash of anger that roared through Pip was quickly squashed as she flashed Khione a smile, choosing to be the bigger person. “I'll just have to prove you wrong, then.”

  That was another responsibility of being a hero. You couldn’t get angry with people for not believing. You had to act, and make them believe. Khione had never been given a reason to believe in heroes. Maybe Pip would be able to do that for her.

  “Aren’t we here for clothes?” Khione asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “We are,” Pip said. “I’m having dinner with my grandparents and I need to not look like this.” She motioned down at herself, wearing leggings and a sports bra and a see-through jacket that did absolutely nothing except look cool. Not grandparent appropriate clothes, at least on Mai’s side.

  “Right,” Khione said. “And you didn’t have anything to wear.”

  “Nope,” Pip said.

  “You dress like a gym rat,” Khione said.

  “Well, I am one.” Pip shrugged. “But I already missed out on meeting with my grandparents once, and I figure I ought to look good since I’m trying to make it up to them.”

  “Why are you meeting with your grandparents?”

  Pip shrugged again. They walked into the boutique, the place Pip got most of her clothes. The clothes here were colorful and bright, just like she wanted, and hopefully they had something that would work for this. She’d never tried to buy anything other than workout clothes here. “Because I’m a senior, and I guess they want to know what I’m doing? It’ll be fun though, since Grandma Thalia is awesome.”

  “Well that’s good, I guess,” Khione said. “My grandparents are just annoying.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s fine. People are annoying in general.”

  “I’m worried my grandparents are gonna have issues with the fact that I’m not going to college, at least on Mum’s side,” Pip said. “Mum and Mom both went to college, but I don’t even think I could if I wanted to. Not that I wanted to.”

  “Yeah, it’s kinda the opposite for me,” Khione said. She trailed her hands along a dark leather coat until she reached the price tag, and her eyes went wide. “How the fuck are you paying for this?”

  “Allowance?” Pip answered. Ignoring the darker clothes, she searched through a set of dresses trying to find something suitable. Unfortunately, many of the clothes here were cut in a way that she could absolutely not wear them around her old Asian grandparents.

  “What kind of insane allowance do you get?” Khione demanded. She stepped back from the clothes as if afraid to touch them, eyes wide as Pip answered with another shrug.

  “The same as my other siblings,” Pip said. “What do you think of this?”

  She pulled out a pleated lilac dress, the interior of the pleats colored a dark shade of blue to contrast with the light color of the rest of the dress.

  “It’s alright.”

  Frowning, Pip put the dress back on the rack. She wanted more than alright. And purple and blue weren’t exactly her colors. She liked the cut though, simple, with a square neckline and a flaring skirt at the bottom.

  “What about this?” Khione asked. She’d pulled out a longer dress, one that looked like it’d been made almost entirely out of scraps. Different colors and patterns of fabric formed a layered, fairy like skirt, connected to a denim top by a belt.

  “Oooh,” Pip cooed, reaching out for the dress. Corset-like stitching made the denim into something form fitting, while the skirt flared out to Pip’s knees in ribbons of fabric. “I’m going to try this on. You should try on that jacket.”

  Khione let out a short, bitter laugh. “There’s no point. I could never afford it.”

  Pip waved a hand. “I can get it. Try it on. I think it’d look hot.”

  Before Khione could protest again, opening her mouth to refuse, Pip grabbed her hand and the jacket, and dragged them to the nearest changing room. Despite her protests, she was able to push Khione inside, dragged the curtain shut after her as she wedged herself into the small space. Only after shutting them in did Pip realize just how small the space was.

  They locked eyes there, mirrors all around them, echoes of their closeness all around. “So, you gonna change now?” Khione rasped, her knees pressing against Pip’s.

  A noise escaped Pip’s lips, strangled at the back of her throat. She clutched the dress to her chest, only now realizing what changing would mean, wearing what she was.

  “You first,” Pip said, wishing there was a place to hide. She could open the curtains, step right back outside, but she didn’t touch them. She didn’t move from her place.

  Like they were a challenge, the words brought a spark to Khione’s eyes. She took half a step back, all she could manage, and shrugged off the jacket she already wore. The shirt underneath, hot pink and skin tight, popped for a moment, feeling more revealing than if she’d just stripped naked. Pip drank it in, her eyes desperate for every piece of Khione she could see, seeing beyond the usual facade the girl wore.

  She shrugged on the leather jacket, transforming again. She stared past Pip for a moment, taking in the new look, before turning back to Pip with smoldering eyes.

  “You’re right,” she said, licking her lips before glancing at herself in the floor to ceiling mirror. “I do look hot in this. Your turn.”

  Pip squirmed under the sudden attention. She’s never gotten naked in front of a girl before, or anyone, for that matter. Not that she’d get naked in front of a boy.

  “Turn around?”

  “Nope.” Khione popped the word on her tongue before letting it loose, leaning back against the wall to give Pip room to strip.

  She could either back out of the room, or do what Khione said. With Khione’s eyes locked on her, Pip shrugged out of her jacket, then hooked a thumb underneath the band of her sports bra. With a deep breath, she pushed past the raging embarrassment in her face and pulled the thing off. She continued straight to the leggings, stripping out of them without so much as looking at Khione.

  She pulled on the dress, slipping into the denim corset which did very little for her chest, but otherwise looked perfect. Dress on, she straightened once more, only making eye contact with Khione for a split second before her lips were against her own.

  A strangled gasp tore itself free as Pip dug her hands into Khione’s jacket to leverage herself against her, a fleeting thought in the back of her mind that she definitely had to buy both pieces of clothing now.

  Khione pulled back first, her hands bunched up in the ribbons of Pip’s skirt, her chest heaving as she fought for air. “Turn around.”

  Pip was a good girl. She did what she was told. She spun around, putting her hands up against the wall as a finger trailed the small of her back. Khione found the zipper and pulled it up, all the way to her shoulder blades. Then she reached around Pip, fingers sliding down to the edge of her skirt.

  Her hand sat on her thigh, hesitating. “Hold on,” Pip gasped, a shiver racing up her spine. This was so much more than she’d intended when she invited Khione to go shopping with her.

  “Pip?” The voice jerked Pip out of the moment, Dyiona’s voice making her freeze as she realized just how bad of an idea it was.

  “Fuck.”

  Khione stumbled back, putting distance between them immediately. “Is that your sister?”

  Pip nodded, frantic as she tried to put herself back together even as the mirrors told just how turned over she’d been. Her lips were smeared with Khione’s lip gloss, cheeks flushed and hair askew, her bra abandoned on the floor nearby.

  “Fuck you, Carter,” Khione hissed. She threw the curtains open, stepping out and nearly bowling right over Dyiona.

  “Were you both in there?” Dyiona asked, cocking her head to the side as Pip froze, certain her mothers would be hearing all about this later. “It looks a bit small.”