Chapter Thirty-Seven - Bonding

“So, so you two can pick out whatever you want as long as it’s not too much, okay?” the Boss said.

Teddy nodded. She was real good at following orders, but she had to show that she was the best, not only to cement the chain of command, but also to show her new sister how things were done. “You got it, Boss,” she said.

The boss had brought them all to the same thrift store where Teddy had gotten her awesome hoodie and the dress that became part of her costume. In fact, most of her clothes except for her underthings were bought here.

The Boss said that second hand panties were evil though, so they didn’t get any of those. Teddy figured that they should have bought a few. There had to be a way to weaponize some of the granny panties she’d seen, but if the Boss said no then it was no.

The Boss had a few things to look at though, so with a little wave to the pair of them, she moved off and left them in the shop all on their own.

Teddy spun around and took in the sea of racks and clothing, no two garments alike. “There’s a lot of stuff to look through,” she said.

“I suppose,” Tina replied. “So do we just go around and pick out any outfit that we happen to like the appearance of?”

Tina always had to use big words where small words would do, Teddy noticed, but it wasn’t that big a deal. She mostly knew what the bigger words meant, and if she didn’t then she could guess. Bears were great at guessing. “Yeah, pretty much,” she confirmed. “I found this by looking really hard.” She tugged at the front of her hoodie, the one with a big bear on it.

“Then perhaps I won’t look that hard,” Tina said.

Teddy blinked. What was that supposed to mean? “Look, skirts and stuff,” she said as a sort of distraction. There were, indeed, skirts and stuff hanging off of a rack. Tina moved over to them and brushed her hand past a few as if feeling the fabric.

“I don’t know if I like skirts,” she said at last.

“Yeah. I’m more of a shorts person, but I’m a bear, so I don’t get cold.”

Tina nodded. “Snowy owls also don’t get cold much because of our superior downy feathers.”

“Meh, feathers are like lamer fur,” Teddy said.

Tina gave her a flat look. “Can your fur make you fly?”

“Can you fly?” Teddy asked.

Tina huffed and moved on past the first row of skirts, then stopped at the second. These were a lot more serious, done up in browns and pale pastel colours. “What about these?”

“You’ll look like a librarian,” Teddy said.

Tina nodded. “Good. I bet I can find some nice blouses to go with some of these. It’ll make for an exceptionally smart outfit.”

Teddy shrugged. She didn’t care how smart her outfits look, only that they were comfy.

Tina ended up being really hard to shop with. She’d poke and prod at everything, and hum and hoot over every choice before picking something. Teddy’s method of just grabbing everything that looked cool was way more effective.

“So, Teddy, since you’ve been around for longer, can you tell me about big sister Emily?” Tina asked after a while. She was busy trying on some jackets, but they were all made for women that were a lot bigger than Tina and she ended up looking very silly in them.

“Yeah, I guess,” Teddy said. “The Boss is pretty cool. She gets real excited a lot, and her words get all mumbly. I think she’s a bit shy though.”

Tina let out a low ‘hoo’ of exasperation. “We’ll need to fix that.”

“Fix? The Boss isn’t broken,” Teddy said.

“I’m aware that she isn’t broken, but she does seem to lack some self-confidence. We can make her even better.”

Teddy gave her a look. “I’m not sure what you mean. The Boss is fine the way she is.”

Tina shook her head. “Haven’t you seen how the Boss doesn’t want to do evil things?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s because she lacks the confidence to do them,” Tina said.

She might have sounded entirely sure of herself, but Teddy wasn’t sure she bought it. “I don’t know. The Boss might not want to do evil things because she just doesn’t feel like it.”

“She’s a Villain,” Tina said. “Doing evil things is in her nature. Of course she wants to do them. I bet that the only reason she doesn’t is because she’s shy. Can you imagine her giving an evil monologue?”

Teddy really couldn’t. “I guess not. So if we’re gonna help the Boss be more confident... wait, how are we going to do that?”

Tina hummed. “I don’t know.”

Teddy felt her shoulders slumping. “But you just said you wanted to.”

“I didn’t say that I was aware of all the answers. I’m not knowledgeable about everything,” Tina said. “I suppose we could just be very supportive of her?”

“Like, tell her she did good when she does something evil? Not good in like, the opposite of evil way, but good in the... uh, did right way.”

Tina nodded. “That could work. It sounds a bit slow though.”

“That’s alright, the Boss’s plans aren’t meant to be real fast. I think she’s playing the long games.”

Tina slid one thing onto the rack, and pulled off another. “She has a long term plan?”

“Yup,” Teddy said.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know.”

Tina’s eyes narrowed, and since they were really big, that was a lot of narrowing. “Then it’s a secret long term plan.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Teddy agreed.

“That’s really cool,” Tina said.

Teddy nodded. It really was cool. She pointed to a blouse. “You should get this one.”

Her new sister looked at it for a moment. “It’s very red. I don’t know if I like red.”

“You should like red. Capitalists don’t like that colour. They have this whole thing called a red scare. It spooks them.”

“Are capitalists dangerous?” Tina asked.

Teddy nodded. “Oh yeah. Very. Even the Boss said that capitalism can be bad.”

“Well, if big sister Emily said so.” Tina picked the blouse off the rack. “But I’m going to look into these capitalists myself. You sound like you’re real nervous about them.”

“A bit? They steal your food and they have these invisible hands,” Teddy explained. “It’s real creepy.”

“I think that’s enough stuff,” Tina said as she tossed the blouse atop her pile of clothes. She didn’t have all that much as far as Teddy could tell. A few skirts, some blouses, and a few other things, like PJs that were all flannel and fluffy and a poofy white scarf made of some sort of fur.

Teddy helped her carry some of the stuff, because she was a bear and bears were stronger than owls. Not that Tina could even turn into an owl. Her power was all mind-gamey and kind of boring.

They had to wait by the entrance for a while, the woman behind the counter eyeing them the entire time, but then the Boss showed up and everything was okay again. She paid for the clothes, because they lived in a failed system where taxation and disproportionate monetary compensation were still a thing, and then the Boss reached down and grabbed each of them by the hand.

“Where are we going now, Boss?” Teddy asked.

“I think we should bring all of this back home. If you feel like changing, that’ll be the best time,” Emily said. “And then we have someone to meet later. She’s paying the tab, so eat as much as you want.”

“Really?” Teddy asked.

“Oh yes,” Emily said. “She sprung this on me, the least she can do is cover some of the food bill.” The Boss didn’t look too pleased, but Teddy didn’t mind.

“Then let’s go home,” Teddy said. “I need to make a big poop to make room for all that food.”

For some reason, the Boss sighed real hard.