Dazzled by a Superhero Girl (Chase)

Rebecca's long day was wearing down her mind, leaving her zoned out staring forward. In her head, she was already back at the mansion, possibly treading water in the pool with the girls. Trading in her jumpsuit for a swimsuit offered less coverage, but infinitely more comfortable and out of the eyeshot of strangers.

Unfortunately, when one of the other girls rang up an order on the register next to her, Rebecca's dream world crashed into her reality. "Wake up, hun," she heard from Lexi beside her, giggling. "You aren't out of the woods yet. It's customer time."

Indeed, more customers had walked through the door Rebecca was absently staring at for the past two minutes. The group of boys was familiar for the most part, or at least the older boys. The younger boy was not familiar to her, and was especially out of place with his own crowd.

Rebecca could hear selected words from the mumbled conversation between the gaggle of guys, including the words "chick" and "hot." She could feel her cheeks pinkening and the hushed compliments, but thankfully, much of her blushing was concealed by her blue makeup.

>> “I think her zipper’s broken!”

No amount of make-up was going to cover up the blush resulting from the youngest boy's louder comment. Why could Showstopper just have a zipper that went all the way up her chest?

Rebecca had to provide some customer service if she expected to get paid. The youngest boy's comment was... unexpected, but he was obviously too naive to have meant it as anything other than an innocent observation. He would probably be easier to deal with than the boys who were old enough not to mind their eyes and comments.

Carefully Rebecca slid off the counter and her skates clattered on the floor. She pushed off the counter so she could glide in a straight line toward the group. She rested a hand on the youngest boy's shoulder as a covert means of stopping herself. "Hey honey, can Ah help you at all?" American accents were hard.

It could have been Rebecca's imagination, but when her hand made contact with the young boy, she could have sworn his body became immediately tense. She wondered what might have caused the reaction, since she found it impossible to see herself as intimidating. At first, she wondered if he was bracing for impact, but even after she had stopped, he was still rigid as rock, quietly declining her offer of assistance.

>> “My friend was wondering if you’re single, and if he could have your number.”

It took a hefty sum of willpower to refrain from rolling her eyes. When she began her employment at The One Comic Shop, she was surprised any time someone asked for her number, because she had no experience being hit on, but as the months passed, the novelty wore off quickly.

It was still Rebecca's job to remain polite and to some extent in character, so she replied, "Ah'm sorry sweetie, bit Ah dornt think my girlfriend'll like me passing out my number." That reply had over a sixty-percent success rate in ending these awkward interactions, so she waited to see how well it would work in this instance.

Rebecca listened on to the barely whispered conversation the boys had when her identity dawned on them. After some straining of her memory, the boys seemed vaguely familiar; possibly younger students from the Mansion. When one of them mentioned Agnes and her bugs, that drove the point home. Only fellow students and mutants would know about her girlfriend's insect collection.

>> “Agnes? I know Agnes! She’s nice.”

Rebecca was glad to see all hope was not lost for the youngest boy, who was probably another younger student. He was innocent of the older boys' crimes, and if he like Agnes, he was probably an alright kid. "She sure is, sweethert."

Rebecca looked at the two books in the boy's hands. "Is this what you want tae buy? There's a buy-two-get-one free deal if you want me to help you pick one out!" There was no such deal, but Rebecca thought the kid was cute and sweet enough that she would buy him a gift for not being like his buddies.

She patted his shoulder, "C'mon, let's take a look."

Before going off with Chase, (assuming he would come along with her,) she looked over her shoulder to his friends, losing her sweet smile. "An' if you know who Ah am, Ah hope you realize Agnes isnae the only one you can worry about if you run those stupid mouths of yours." Rebecca did not threaten people often, but she thought she handled it pretty well with Agnes's good name as motivation.

>> “Showstopper, are you coming?”

Rebecca grinned, pleased for some reason that Chase was referring to her in character. "Yup, coming!" There was something mysterious and intriguing about taking on the role of an "actress," and masking her identity. Maybe some of that thrill helped motivate her to join the X-Men in the first place, though she hoped the decision mostly arose from the desire to better the world.

After three very careful gliding strides, Rebecca caught up with Chase. She kept her hand on his shoulder, (once again, half-nurturing and half-balancing) as they came to the wall of books. "Sae what kind of books are you interested in?" The girl had not gotten a good enough look at Chase's selections, so she would let him give her an idea of what to possibly suggest.

Chase's answer was... unhelpful at best. At the very least, it was obvious by his tone that he was answering honestly, with every belief that his answer was valid and what Rebecca was looking for with her question. Chase was not a brat; he was just... young. Rebecca would not fault him for that. Not many people could get away with being adorable and unhelpful, but it could be given to Chase.

Rebecca bent down, trying to get closer to eye-level with Chase. As with every other time she had moved her body too noticeably, the zipper slid from her the middle of her chest to an inch below it without Rebecca picking up on it right away.

"Well yeah, comic books makes sense," she assured, wanting Chase to feel like his answer was not wrong. "Well then, do you have a specific superhero you like? Or maybe hero teams? Or even certain types of stories?" She stopped her list of suggestions there; she had no desire to overload Chase with options.

Rebecca scanned the two covers, recognizing both series; as Chase pointed out, Akshay liked suggesting Slagathor, and she had even flipped through it before. As for Powers, anyone in the shop could tell you it was one of the staples in the mainstream market.

It took a moment for Rebecca to process what Chase was say regarding her zipper. She finally look down to see about half of her chest's surface area on display. Flustered, Rebecca stood upright, fumbling around with her zipper. "Oh nae, it's fine. It's jist--"

Rebecca's attempt to pull the zipper caused it to snap, the slider off and between her fingers, useless. Great, my boobs broke th' zipper. The one saving grace was that Rebecca's shift was nearing its end. "Well, now it's broken, bit Ah'm fine," Rebecca assured the boy, folding an arm over her chest. "Sae you have friends with superhero costumes?" she asked, changing the subject.