Monday Pt 4 Errand

"Let's see... we need brown sugar. Ah, those ones-"

He pauses as Rachel floats a bag over and into the cart. "One enough, Walt?"

Walt chuckles. "That's handy! Thanks! Actually I know Fridays making a stock pile delivery order but let's get a couple just to be one safe side, Rae."

Rachel nods and floats two more bags over to the cart. "Good?"

Walt grins. "Perfect. Telekinesis sure is handy for running errands! I'm going to have to remember that!"

She smiles. "And don't you forget it!"

Walt smiled too. It looked like she was having fun! *Come to think of it, I am too!* he thought *Which is strange. It's usually a chore I hate but with the ladies It's kind of fun. How peculiar.*

Walt looks at the list. "Let's see... flo-" Rachel is floating two bag bags of flour to the cart. The right kind too! Oh, she had put her new glasses on so she could access the list herself and Friday would automatically point the items out. *Rachel looks good in those!* he thought.

Rachel notices him staring. She was getting looks before. Curse of having her body like this. But Walt hadn't stared before, despite the fact he had found her attractive before. It was annoying but charming at the same time. Others leared. Not Walt. Infact the way he'd looked at few of the gawkers had been enough to send them away.

But now he kept openly looking at her. "What's his deal?" She muttered she turned to ask and found him looking down right into her face as she was looking at him.

(("Walter has increased pupil dilation as well as heart rate, breathing, capillary function as well as many other more "obvious" factors that all indicate his attraction and arousal to you, Raven."))

Friday was literally connected with Walter through implants and with the glasses Friday showed her every single one of his indicators. Physical and chemical as he said, "Wow! You look really good in those glasses, Rae."

Walt watched her blush. She was really cute when... wait why was she that deeply red? Oh, dammit Friday! She was showing Rachel everything!

Rachel watched him get even more attracted to her and then he suddenly turned beet red and looked away!

"S-sorry Rae!" He said looking at almost anything but her.

She could almost laugh. His reactions were so sweet if not entirely innocent as Friday revealedhis secrets. *Has a bit of a thing for girls in glasses, shorter girls, "dark" girls as well as sweet ones, animal girls and he finds me very attractive!* she thought *I tick a lot of boxes! Oh, this one is interesting.* "Walt... look at me," she said. He reluctantly turned to her and they made eye contact. She looked up onto his blue eyes and held them as she took his hand. *Yep. He's an "eye guy" alright.* She smiled. "It's alright. Thank you for the compliment."

"You're very welcome, Rae," he said, swallowing and then smiled. *His eyes are nice too!* she thought. *Especially when he smiles like that. Very expressive the way his smile lights them up and his hand...* She looks down. *Why did I take his hand?! I mean it is nice... I don't dislike it...*

Walt smiled looking down at their hands too. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and he felt her squeeze his back. They continued shopping as he looked around and spotted a section pushing the cart that way.

Rachel looks confused. There wasn't anything on their list down here as Walt lead them down the hot beverages aisle. *Oh, yeah,* she thought. *Coffee. It's not on the list but Walt is a big coffee drinker.* She didn't much like coffee, she preferred-

Walt lead them right past the coffee towards the tea. "You like Tea, right? Herbal tea, yeah? I noticed. We have some but not much of a variety. I was thinking about that the last few days but I wasn't sure about your preferences. So when this impromptu shopping trip came up and I spotted you it seemed like the perfect opportunity to fix that... and you looked like you needed a break from Ilulu."

She's surprised. "You noticed that? Since when?"

Walt looked up with a thoughtful expression searching his memory. "First morning? Yeah. You made a slight face at morning breakfast. Most of us are coffee drinkers, but there are quite a few of you that also enjoy tea as well. Blake, Kali, Willow, Manami, Pirotess, Haruhime, Haruna and Sayoko... You seem to prefer it. We should stock up and pick out some favorites of yours."

Rachel smiles. He really did notice her! "Thank you, Walt. I like several kinds but I'm fond of chamomile tea."

Walt nods as they start looking through teas. "Well pick a couple out for yourself, Rae. And get some other herbal teas too. Rose hips are good. Sweet grass too." He starts looking at the black teas. "Friday, which tea was it from her series that Manami liked?" He picked up a tin. " the "Golden tips imperial", "Phantom Black" ,"Royal Flush" or was it something else? I tend to like the occasional cup of Earl Grey myself... we should probably pick up some green and barley teas as well for our Japanese friends... could you message Sayoko and ask for recommendations? Roberta too. Thank you."

Rachel smiled as she watched him. He was a very thoughtful person who thought about others too! She started happily going through, picking out teas.

"Charlie one to base. Over."

"Base to Charlie One. Go ahead Charlie One."

"Bear is hibernating. Repeat Bear is hibernating."

Footage of Charlie team dragging away a knocked out Fozzie Bear.

"Base to Charlie One. Good work Charlie Team. Status?"

"Boss" and "Black Rabbit" making progress on tea time. Over."

Displayed surveillance footage of the two of them chatting openly with each other and smiling.

"Base to Charlie One. We confirm that. Over"

"Green tea would be lovely! Don't you think Sayoko?"

Sayoko nodded. "I do, Senko. I also enjoy black teas."

"Barley tea would be good. Ribbit," said Tsuyu.

"Friday tell Walter I love all of those! I love all kinds of teas and would very much like to enjoy a pot with him sometime soon!" Manami sighed happily.

"That's very thoughtful. Blake and I do enjoy tea, right dear?" Kali said looking at Blake who nodded. "He's correct and so are you mom. My friends also! When Weiss learned that I like tea she used to talk about how we should have a tea party sometime and..."

Willow nods smiling. "That sounds delightful! Klein used to have a wonderful way of brewing tea..."

"Sí," said Roberta. "He should look at good brands from fine tea makers like..."

"I'm quite proficient with performing the tea ceremonies!" Haruna stated and Haruhime nodded. "Yes. I remember you saying that. I'm certain Walter does too. Perhaps sometime..."

"Tea does sound good," Lita said and the Ahnassi, Aela and Lydia nodded.

Glynda looked up from her book at her phone. "That does sound good. Serana do you enjoy tea?"

Serana nodded. "I do. I think I daw a book in here about rare teas..."

Pirotess stares at her phone. "I enjoy herbal tea. How do I? Ilulu can you show me how..."

Walt shakes his head, chuckling.

Rachel looks up amussed. "Another message?"

Walt nods. "The tea revolution has begun apparently!" He smiles. "Well I guess we'll be here awhile..."

Rachel gave him a slight smirk. "Yeah... we don't want to mess this up. You're already in hot water as it is..."

Walt grinned as he clutched his chest exaggeratedly. "Oh! An unexpecred pun! Et tu, Rae?"

Seeing her smile he does too. "I like seeing this side of you, Rae." He casually brushes her hair back from her face and she blushes. "It really suits you to a T," he said grinning holding up a box of tea.

She groaned. "Oh no... you're one of those. You actually like puns, don't you?"

Walt nodded but looked serious. "I do, but many folks don't. And so being quick with a quip or a pun is serious business and not for kidding around." He says reaching into their cart of items and holding up goat cheese and putting ot back when she groaned. "I'm serious here, Rae," he said adjusting his cowboy hat. "No foaling around. Thats why I rein it in." She groaned some more. "Anyway we better "hop to it" and get this chore over with quickly."

Rachel groaned again and grabbed his arm. "Alright. You win this time and I see your point, Walt."

Walt nodded. "But the important question is do you actually dislike puns and jokes, Rae? Or do you secretly like them, especially "good ones", but in moderation? Because I'm betting it's the later." He starts adding more teas to their cart.

She blinked. "How did you know that? Most people don't think I like any jokes."

Walt shook his head. "You don't like obvious jokes. You are often a "Deadpan Snarker" look it up sometime. It's actually quite charming. You could even fit "tall, dark and snarky" if you weren't..."

She rolls her eyes at him. "Short?"

Walt blinked. "I was going to say full of sunshine and rainbows, but now that you mention it you are slightly vertically challenged..." he winked.

She rolled her eyes again but slightly smiled. "Yeah, even more so now. I'm tiny... but everything is tiny in comparison to you, eh big guy?"

Walt nodded. "True enough. If the weather starts to change, I'll be among the first to know it." He gave her a wink. "I know your new size was bothering you before, but now it seems like it's bothering you a little less and to me you were always tiny and cute-"

Walt blushes as she gives him a look. "I see. "Tiny and cute", eh?" Seeing him blushing she smiles and nods. "Alright. I'll choose to take that as a compliment. Thanks, Walt."

Walt clears his throat. "You're very welcome, Rae."

She nods. "And you're right. The otherday... when we were getting new clothes, I said something awful. Hurtful. About myself but without thinking about how it might affect others around me. I don't usually make mistakes like that and I definitely don't want to repeat that one. I hurt Manami accidentally and what I said was inconsiderate of Ilulu and Edna and even half of the others in general." She sighed.

Walt nodded. "I see. I'm certain that must have been hard for you. You're a very caring and kind person, Rae. Everyone makes a few mistakes." He patted her head.

She nodded and sighed. His head pats always felt so good and reassuring. "I apologized... but they all worked hard to make me feel even better about myself. I realize that this body isn't terrible, it's just different. Even if I can chage back to the way I was, I don't want to forget those lessons."

Walt smiled and put some more tea in the cart nodding. "Which lessons were those, if you don't mind sharing, Rachel?"

She nodded. "I don't mind at all. I realized that being insecure is not a good reason to be insensitive of others and the others showed me that it's important to accept yourself as you are, even if it's different or "temporary" this is still my body. Being critical of it and only seeing its downside and drawbacks isn't fair to the others or myself."

Walt nodded. "Those are good points. Especially here on Prime where so many different types of people and characters have gathered. It's not the only reason "Prime Purist" groups like Prime First and I don't get along but look around." There were a lot of folks Primes and Characters alike. "There's bunches of characters sure but look at the Primes... I guarantee half have had mods of some kind. Or the younger ones were born from a Prime/character union. There may even be rare ones like myself that have spent so much time away from Prime it's hard not to see themselves as characters too. Hell I'm practically changed on the base genetic level. I don't think it's possible to go back. Prime as a people may not have figured it out yet exactly but we're becoming more and more like Characters ourselves everyday... and mostly it's voluntary, Rae."

She did look around and with Friday's help she saw clearly what Walt meant. A Cat Boi and his female owner walked by but she had gotten modded to have kitty ears herself.

An elderly couple who'd both had life extensions and rejuvenations as well as strength enhancements for their aged bodies. Despite a triple digit age, neither need a wheelchair or a walker to get around.

A sales manager was helping a customer. He scanned the product code with his cybernetic eye and told her exactly the information that she was looking for.

Rachel smiles. "I see what you mean... the inhabitants of Prime are becoming more and more like the characters themselves and voluntarily."

Walt nodded. "In another hundred years or so it's going to be really interesting to see how it all shakes out... if no-one does something stupid first, that is." He looks. "What do you think? Is that enough tea, Rae?"

She looks as she thinks... Walt has given her lots of things to think about in so short a time. She smiles and nods. "I think that's likely enough tea for now. Otherwise..."

Walt chuckled. "Otherwise I'll need to get a second cart! Hmm..." he stroked his short beard. "Actually... let's do that. Let's fill up this one, check out, load it all up and come back for the perishables like milk and eggs. As much as I usually hate shopping I find I actually like and enjoy doing it with you and the others... doesn't mean I want to do it every other day."

He starts tossing more things in as Rachel processed that little fact. Walt normally hates this particular chore but he's having a good time. He's enjoying himself... because he's with them. Because he's with her!

She nods and starts grabbing a few more items she'd been considering or extras of the ones she'd akready picked. "Question, if you hate shopping, why do you do it? You're incredibly wealthy and powerful. You could just have things shipped to you or a legion of your cohorts gather and procure them for you."

Walt smiled. "My grandfather. He always seemed to sense what tasks and chores I hated doing the most. Then he'd give them to me again and again. It annoyed me as a child at first, until I watched him doing his own work. He did the same thing. The jobs and tasks he didn't like, he went out if his way to do them himself. Not pass them off to someone else. Naturally experts should handle the tough jobs, but not liking something is no reason not to do it."

Rachel smiled. So that's a part of who he was. She should have guessed. "If something is too easy it has no value."

Walt nodded. "Exactly. It's fine if it comes easy as long as you put the work and effort in. But anything that comes without that? Without trying? Does it actually have "value"? If I had a team of guys or a truck load of stuff drop these things off at the house just because "I don't like shopping" I'd have missed out on the experience of doing it and the pleasure of doing it with you."

She smiled thinking about how he liked to cook for them. Or Penny working hard to make ridiculously huge shipments of cookies for people she hadn't even met yet just because they were important to Walt, so they were important to her. 3S was many things but ultimately it was Walt helping characters and in the process, helping others better themselves.

She looked. "Cart's full." She took his hand again.

Walt nodded. "Seems like it. Let's go check out and then come back." He squeezed her hand and they went to the registers together.

[Walter Stark Penny Polendina F.R.I.D.A.Y Neopolitan Pyrrha Nikos Blake Belladonna Kali Belladonna Sienna Khan Willow Schnee Glynda Goodwitch Ahnassi Lifts-Her-Tail Senko Sayoko Shinozaki Roberta Cisneros Haruna Sasha Blouse Ilulu Raven Manami Aiba also with Tsuyu Asui Haruhime Sanjouno The Baroness Demona Mystique Pirotess Lydia Aela the Huntress and Serana

Will Return In

Monday Pt 5

Coming Soon]