PHOENIX. [sequel to 067]

16. prince treatment.

after the stop at the little bakery, with the treats you thought were delicious, dottore decided to take you around the main city; sight seeing. he wants to show you every piece of the area he calls his home. he wants you to see all the pretty buildings, all the stores- hell, he'll buy you anything you want. not like he's going to be paying for it, he'll just throw it on tartaglia or pantalone's tab. what're they going to do? fight someone with the strength of a god because of money? yeah, no, dottore would be perfectly fine with using their seemingly endless funds on you.

he holds you close to his side, arm wrapped around your waist, as the two of you walk. you couldn't help but awe at all of the pretty lights and how the snowflakes look falling from the sky. absentmindedly, you stick your tongue out and allow some of the snowflakes to fall onto your tongue. they're cold at the touch, obviously, but they don't taste all that bad.

  "do you enjoy the snow that much, mi amor?" dottore questions as he stops his walking to look down at you. he's a rather tall man, you got used to him having to tilt his head down at you.

  "i just wanted to know what it tasted like," you answer after playfully elbowing him in his side. you feel a bit like a child in this moment, with how you were acting, but it's nice. it's refreshing to feel, oddly, safe enough with someone to be able to act this way.

you don't know why you feel safe with dottore so suddenly. maybe it's something with how he's been acting so suddenly with you that made you realize .. he's not that bad of a man, ignoring certain things about him, of course. the past you must have been happy with him, you thought.

if you feel this safe with him currently, it's only a mystery as to how safe you did back then. though, remembering the "murderer" part does seem to ... stir the safe feeling.

   "cute, where do you want to go? they have everything here," dottore asks as the two of you begin to walk once more. his fingers would rub small shapes into your clothed shoulder as the two of you went about.

   "do you think i could get ... new clothes? rather than this, dotty?" you ask him with an attempt to appear as polite as possible; you didn't want him thinking you were ungrateful.

he hums at your sudden use of a nickname, "of course we can, mi alma."

  "mi alma?" you question him, again, your pronunciation is ... so off.

  "my soul," is all he says to you, leaving you to blush about it while he lead you towards a clothing store. or several, there's about a whole chain of them in this one little area; maybe it's the shopping district.

he leads you into one of the stores, which is full of clothing that properly suits your tastes. the store has several racks of accessories and shoes, along with long clothing lines of tops and bottoms. from the looks of it, you would easily make dottore go broke here, but you don't know if you should.

   "get whatever you like, mi alma, i can afford it," dottore speaks as he squeezes you towards his side once.

  "i can?" you ask him as your eyes never once leave the rack of clothes before you gesture towards them; which, in turn, dottore helps you walk over to them.

the clothes feel nice to the touch, all comfortable, most likely. it only takes you a few seconds for dottore's right arm to be completely full of an array of clothes. you could hear a small sigh escaping his lips as his arm became completely covered, all while you got to be comfortable underneath his warm, soft, coat.

   "my darling, this is not what i meant when i said whatever you wanted," dottore grumbles as he clutches all of the items you chose to his chest.

   "sure it is! you said whatever i like."

   "not that i would hold it."

   "i can barely walk on my own, dotty."

   "you can't play that card for everything," he huffs once before grumbling as you begin to stack several pairs of shoes and accessories onto his little clothing pile.

  "this is my first time using it!" you pout, crossing your arms over your chest as you do so.

   "do that more, it's pretty," he compliments. a grin appears on his face as he sees the forming blush on your face, which you're quick to say it's because you're cold.

after a few more items, you decide that everything you just shoved onto dottore is enough for you. he helps you to the cashier, whose quick to scan everything into the system. the poor man's eyes were widened at the sight of everything, but it only ended up being about three large bags.

dottore's eyes landed on you, after he told the cashier to throw it on pantalone's dime, as if he wanted you to carry the bags, instead of him.

but of course, he's going to carry them all. what, sort of lover, would he be without carrying every little thing for you?