3 A Blue Dress

How long has it been? An hour or two? I honestly can't tell you, but what I can is that the warmth coming from within Haru's chest bleeding into mine and the tingling of his fingers raking through my hair, it makes me never want to leave his side.

But one thing about all of this keeps bothering me...where's Hama?

So, after a long and needed silence I 'wake up' and turn up to see Haru smiling down at me. "Well hello, there sleeping beauty, nice of you to join us." He looked down at me with his goofy smile and I looked back a little worried...

And I'm guessing he noticed, "what's wrong Zami? Cat got your tongue?"

You can have my ton—

*would you like to undo this message?*

And at that moment I wondered 'why was I even holding back at this point?' It seems like I like him and he likes me...so why?

In that whole time that I was just staring at him, I didn't realize him inching closer to my nose.

My nose? What would he want with my nose?!

Thinking he was going for my nose, I reached up and grabbed him before he could get mine and squeaked, "Honk!" Haru looked back in utter shock but then melted into a heartwarming laugh that made my face heat up as I started to laugh with him.

We both got up, well he did. I began to slip around from being in the wet clothing for an hour straight. I looked down and saw there was still water dripping from my overalls and my t-shirt was clinging to my skin.

Haru looked me up and down while leaning against a machine then said in a sly tone, "that color suits ya." He laughed and motioned for me to follow him.

We stopped in front of a dry folded pile of clothes that were all blue and white. When I realized what pile this was I fwipped my head up at him, "these aren't my clothes! I still have a week and you know that!" I pushed him into the wall and stuck my forefinger in his face, "you said you'd stop making jokes about my age!" I held his gaze as he looked back at me in surprise.

After a few seconds of this, he lightly pushed me back and said, "relax little bean...I was going to give you a dress so you don't get in trouble when you walk out of here. Isn't that better than being punished for breaking a law?" He started to chuckle a little then pushed past me to the clothes making me stumble a little bit.

I turned to scowl at him but instead saw him holding up a new blue dress and smiling at it. He turned to me with his gleaming smile and said, "Brand new from the capital, not even serialized yet!" He beamed with joy as he started to unbutton it for me. He walked over to me and grabbed some thread and needle as he went, "I'd have to see it to fit you so it doesn't look awkward but it should be fine."

He was still smiling.

I sat down on the dryer again, "why are you enjoying this so much?" He stopped when I said that, his grin faltering, "I-I mean...it's weird that you enjoy breaking the rules so much?" I tried covering my curiosity with some good old sarcasm.

And hot damn it worked!

He chuckled lightly, "ya got me Zami, I just love being your bad boy." He winked at me, then began looking for supplies again.

'Your bad boy.'

I daydreamed about him and I escaping the country together until he popped in front of me. He looked me up and down, "well?"

"Well, what?"

He stared at me until I answered.

Sometimes this kid annoyed me. Especially when he stares at me with his hair a mess like he just got home from work...or like he's too tired to do it anymore.

He began tapping his foot, "Well?"

I looked back up at him a little more annoyed, "well. What?" Jeez, do I need to spell it out for this kid!

He took a step closer, his cheek against my cheek. Lips just barely touching my ear, "strip little girl." I pushed him back and saw a tiny smirk across his face.

"What do you mean 'strip?' Hell no I'm a girl a-and I'm not even of age yet! I can't just...with you especially being here!" H-he can't be serious!

I jumped off of the dryer and walked into one of the back rooms. I could hear him slowly trailing behind me.

"Listen I don't wanna do this either Azami...but it'd be weird if someone walked in and saw you changing in the back..." The windows...I completely forgot about the whole back being open. "And I can't go back there because I'm not an elder."

Everything he was saying made perfect sense, but I... "N-no, I can't..."

He came up behind me and jokingly said, "oh come on...when we were both in overalls we changed together all the time! I feel like it's no different now..." that last part took me back to the days when we did see each other every day.

We'd used to live down the street from one another, my dad used to always watch us at night while Hama would watch us while her husband was working.

I looked up at him and I guess he saw something in my eyes that showed I was giving up my fight because he began to unbutton my overalls. "Just...just don't look down..." I could feel his fingers traveling from a button to button unclipping them slowly.

He turned me around for the last two buttons and said softly, "of course, I may be a bad boy but I'm always a gentleman when needed." And with that, he continued with the last two buttons in solemn silence

'Click'

One and done...

We stared into each other's eyes as he worked his way to the other side of my chest. Making sure his eyes never went farther than that, he unbuttoned the last one.

'Click'

We stood there for a moment after hearing the sound of wet cloth hitting the wood flooring. Neither of us moved, we never lost eye contact.

Haru shuffled forward a little and mumbled behind a tinted red mask, "I-I have to take your shirt off now Azami..." Turning around, I nodded slightly giving him the 'okay' and so he proceeded.

You may be wondering why I'm not taking my clothes off myself, well that's simple to answer. When our dictator first took power he made a lot of rules that didn't make a lot of sense. One of them was that a second stage man in the presence of a second stage woman that is younger than him is allowed to strip her with her consent, the woman, however, may not do it herself. The one after that was something about how someone in their first stage cannot be in the presence of a second stage without their elder present.

Which is the exact rule we're trying to avoid right now...