Don't Stand So Close To Me

Dress You Up

Eddie has a few steps between leaving Lyra by the wall and the sewing room. He stops midway and thinks about turning back. He should tell her the real reason why Tabatha laid into her yesterday. Fuck Tabatha, man. Lyra didn't deserve this shit. She was just trying to start over.

"Eddie, could you er hurry along, please? Your crew are waiting. We can't let our seamstress in until you're all decently dressed in costume," Alan attempts to hurry him along.

"Ah, Alan, we meet again. How flammable will I be this year, I wonder?" Eddie teases him as he walks in and follows the direction of Alan's pointed finger to his costume.

"You've got a fighting chance this year, Munson. We...um...got a bigger budget." Alan says carefully before rolling his eyes and hurrying to the other pirates, "For god's sake, they get tucked into the boots. Into them!"

Eddie quickly dumps his outer layers and unzips the suit bag with the Captain Hook label. He peels back the covering and marvels at the outfit before him. It's as close to animated as it would get outside Disneyland.

Even the shirt was correct, all baby pink apart from the ruffles at the neck and cuffs.

"Alan, you have outdone yourself. This is fucking fantastic!" Eddie says excitedly, almost falling over himself, getting undressed to put on his costume.

He dons the basics first the shirt, the stockings, the britches with a wrap around the waist and shoes. Then, he makes a few turns in front of the mirror for himself and rubs his hands together.

Eddie grabs a coat hanger off the rack and points it at one of the pirates waiting in line to be checked over, who immediately picks up their own and engages him in a sword fight around the room, jumping onto ledges, chairs and over one another. Eddie lets the pirate best him in battle and falls over backwards, feigning death.

As he gets up from the floor, he brushes his outfit down and looks proudly in the mirror again, admiring how it looks on him. "It's perfect!".

He goes back to the suit bag and pulls out the overcoat. At first, he's a little disappointed, the details are all there, but it's a structured felt material, but then Eddie runs his hands along the inside and finds it to be lined with something that feels satin to the touch, slipping over the cotton shirt onto his lithe frame with ease.

He fastens up the coat, pulls the shirt ruffs out on display, puts on the yellow leather baldrick that holds his scabbard and sword, and finally dons the hat.

Eddie doesn't think he's ever looked at himself in the mirror for so long before. He makes little adjustments until he's happy and steps into the middle of the room, "Well?" He's met with a smile from each of them, apart from Alan, who has his hands to his mouth and tears in his eyes.

"Lyra...LYRA, GET IN HERE NOW!!" Alan yells out.

Lyra runs at his voice immediately, "Shit, is everything ok? Alan? Speak to me!" She says, shaking him.

Alan points over at Eddie, who gives her a bashful smirk and a flourishing bow when Lyra finally turns to look at him. As he stands back up. Lyra is standing completely still, but her eyes are all over him, and Eddie bites his lips together to hide the grin that would advertise how much he's enjoying it.

Eddie knew it was a failing to like attention so much, but that feeling he got when people looked at him that awe-struck way. Whether it was some drunk at a show, a conquest he'd just blown the mind of, a jock he'd just dumbfounded, someone in the crowd applauding at the end of the play, or right now they were marvelling at him, and he just absorbed it like it was feeding his own power source Eddie wasn't too fussy where it was coming from as long as he was getting it.