Taking it slow

“…Well, I should finish up and hurry back to them,” Ruby says to the cool night air, “but they made me come alone, and now I’m all wet, so they can wait.” How she saw it, if they wanted it done fast, they should have been fair and sent another person with her. Besides, who wants to trudge through the woods with soaking wet clothes? Certainly not Ruby. Her team couldn’t fault her for that, right? After all, her white sleeves had practically become see-through, her already form-fitting top and cloak clung to her like a second skin, her socks and boots kept squishing with every little movement her toes or foot made, and worst of all (despite her not noticing it) her skirt was slowly trying to slide its way down her legs. She had no desire to return to her friends like that. So, with no other options, she resolves herself to wait for her clothes to dry off some. But just because she had to wait did not mean she could not have some fun in the mean-time.

Before she did that, though, she just had to be sure of one thing real quick. “Hey!” Ruby says, raising her voice some, “there aren’t any weirdoes out there, are there?” She waits a few moments, and the only response she gets is silence. She decides to try again just in case. “I’m serious. If there are any weirdoes out there, show yourselves now!” Still nothing but silences responds. “If I find out there is a weirdo out there, and you didn’t respond, I’m not going to hold back!” And just like before, she hears nothing. “Well… guess I’m alone then,” she says, a happy smile on her face and an ever-increasing excitement coursing through her veins. She found her second wind for this little side trip.

The first thing she does is fight her way out of her cloak. It doesn’t make it easy. Every time she gets one part of the cloak off of her, another hugs her. She finally wins when she grabs the top of her hood and yanks it up, freeing her lovely locks and securing her escape route from the cloak. Once out, she takes a couple minutes to wring it out as much as she could before she spreads it out on one of the bolders around the lake, the one right next to the shallow end, where she has Crescent Rose laying. The cloak covers up the entire top of the boulder, and she decides the fastest way to get her clothes to dry is to spread them out and let them each have as much space as they need. Next, she pops her shoes off, first the right and then the left, and she couldn’t be happier. The cool air feels nice on her sock-clad foot, and now she doesn’t have to feel the squishing inside her shoes. She opts to set her boots in front of the boulder with her cloak. Then her hands find their way to the lace of her black pinafore. She goes down the line, tugging each piece of lace until it loosens up enough for her pry the garment off with ease. It joins her boots. Her next target is the white shirt she wears that has, much like its sleeves, gone mostly see-through. She is easily able to make out the appearance of her black and red balconette bra and its straps through her shirt. Her hands float to the hem of her shirt, worming their way underneath, getting ready to pull at a moment’s notice.

But she doesn’t pull, not yet. Her heart rate speeds up, and she can feel it pounding faster and faster in her chest. Her fingers let go as her right hand floats to her chest, resting right above her heart, and she can feel it. Thump, thump-thump, thump, thump-thump, thump. She pulls her hand away. “Come on, Rubes, it’s just showing your bra to the world… It’s just like a bikini top, like Yang wears! It’s no big deaaal.” She whispers to herself. Despite her words, though, it is a big deal to her. The most revealing swimsuit top he has ever worn was a red tankini that covered all the way down to her swimsuit bottoms. “Besides, it’s already visible…” Her hands found their way back to the hem of her shirt and gripped it tight. Her pulse shoots up again, and she can swear she feels her heart’s rhythmic beat at the bottom of her throat now. “All right, on the count of three. One… two… three!” And her hands whip up, tugging the shirt along as it makes its wet sounds of protest until it’s up and over her head. And she suddenly needs to rest. She drops to her knees and takes a few rushed breaths before slowing them down to level her breathing and hopefully her heart rate. Her white shirt sits in front of her knees, a reminder of what she just did. It almost seems to taunt her despite its uselessness. It takes a few minutes of telling herself that being in her bra outside is not a big deal, especially because there was no one around, to calm her down some more. She wrings out her shirt, returns to her feet, and debates with herself about spreading the shirt out on the other boulder near the shallow end. The boulder in question sits across from the one with her cloak, working with each other to be a sort of gateway to the lake. It was the last boulder on this side, and she doesn’t really want to put any of her clothes on the ground to get covered in dirt or mud, but unless she wants to separate her clothes and spread them around the lake that was what she would have to do.

(Getting dressed would be quicker if she kept her clothes together, but it would also make it easier for something to happen to all of her clothes and some would get dirty. If she spreads them out around to some of the boulders on the other parts of the lake, they get to stay cleaner but getting redressed would take longer. At the same time, the chances of something happening to all of her clothes goes down tremendously. So, what is Ruby going to do?)