New-Age Blues [Ana]

Ana had arrived at the cafe a little early, to catch up on a bit of work...it never seemed to end, she was remembering that now. And she never thought she'd say it...but she found herself starting to grow tired of it. She wondered if someone of the had had the right idea, retiring to someplace out of the way and quiet, enjoying days on the beach or other convenient and comfortable days.

But...these things would not do themselves, and there were not many left to do them so...here she was.

She was glad for the time spent with her children again though, that was one of the things she'd missed most of all in her time away, and she'd been overjoyed to have both of them back in her life again, even if the relationship between the two seemed a bit rocky...but it always had been. One would say something, the other would misunderstand. One would try to help, the other wasn't really looking for help...they didn't dislike each other...they were just such...wildly different people, she felt that maybe sometimes they just had trouble relating to each other. She wished she better knew how to help that, but every time she tried she came up empty.

The door opened and she glanced over as a tall woman in a sundress entered, before glancing down at her work again. But the figure came closer, as they approached her table she looked up again, prepared to say something about how she was waiting for someone, and no, they couldn't use that chair, or something of the sort...only to do a double-take on seeing who it was in a floral sundress standing in front of the table.

She looked him up and down once...twice...before settling on his face, obviously not sure what to say at first. She...had never seen him in a dress before...and she wasn't sure what to do with this.

"Mido...what...is going on here?" She asked carefully with another glance up and down. There were other things she nearly said, but he'd always been a sensitive sort, and she did not want to say too much until she better udnerstood *why* he'd decided to show up here like this...although she couldn't think of a reason, beyond maybe that he lost a bet of some sort?

There was genuine confusion on his face as his mother responded with a question instead of a greeting, he couldn't place the emotion behind the expression on her face, she just looked bewildered, maybe bothered? He couldn't tell, he was worried though, what had he done? When he caught her looking him over it hit him and a sudden wave of terror came over him, "u-uh..I...Uh..." He suddenly lost every word in the English language all at once as he stammered and looked at her like a dear caught in the headlights. Should he lie? Say he lost a bet? The last thing he wanted was for his mother to frown on him for this, He swallowed hard and started trying to let his brain catch up enough to form a sensible word.

He wanted to lie, in fact, he'd opened his mouth to lie, but instead a petrified smile broke his face and he tugged at the material, nervously, "I-I uh...It's nice right?" He wasn't looking her in the eyes, and his heart was hammering so hard that he felt like he might pass out, he just wanted to run, "I h-had t-to tailor it...D-don't make dresses my size..." He let out an awkward laugh, and it was clear by his body language and voice that he was one the verge of panicking and running out of the cafe.

Her surprise in turn seemed to catch him by surprise, and all she could do was wait while he sorted out the thoughts in his head. She knew him, she knew that could sometimes take a few minutes until it all made enough sense to him to put it out in words that in turn made sense to other people.

Instead though he started saying things about tailoring clothes...so this was not a one-time experience for him, she gathered?

"It's nice..." She agreed slowly, watching his reactions, his face, the blossoming panic that she did not fully understand spreading across his face, he'd come here like this, but now just looked like he wanted to bolt out of there.

"It's nice...but...why...are you wearing it?" She asked carefully, not sounding angry or judgmental. Mostly still just...confused.

This was a conversation he'd never had the foresight to prepare for with his mother, it had been something that he'd stuffed away and stopped when he was a teenager, and it had become such a normal thing for him now that he didn't even stop to question or think of how odd this might look to her. After a moment of standing there looking petrified, he finally slid into the seat across from her, adjusting his dress self consciously and doing everything in his power not to meet her eyes, "b-because..." How could he explain this? Even he couldn't really explain this.

"I...Like it..." He began, pausing and looking down, looking suddenly ashamed, "because I feel...Nice...Like this sometimes..." He was trying his best to force his tears to stay buried, it had been a long time since he'd felt this way about this, "i-it just feel right sometimes..." He looked up at her with a sudden and frightened look, "please don't tell Fareeha. Please." He could remember the encounter they'd had when they were teenagers, she already thought he was a basket case, he didn't need her thinking poorly of him for this too, "I'm sorry...That I'm...Like this..." He glanced down to the side, shoulder sagging visibly.

It was starting to make a little more sense, maybe. At least she was getting the sense that this had become a part of who he was, and maybe had been going on for some time? But it still felt a little odd to her, it would take some getting used to.

The sudden panic in his voice and eyes at the mention of his sister brought him up short again though, and she frowned, concerned.

"Why not tell Fareeha?" She paused. "Is...there something going on between you two, that...maybe I'm not aware of?"

She'd been gone so long, missed so many things, it felt like she would be playing catchup on their lives and the world around her and them for a long time yet to come.

Mido's expression turned from panicked to unsure when she questioned him about Fareeha, it was so long ago, talking about it now would do little damage he figured, "Fareeha has always kind of know about this..." He began, chewing on his lip, "I used to wear her clothes a lot when we were little, and sometimes we'd swipe your makeup, I'd let her put it on me..." He smiled fondly, things had been so much less complicated back then, and so much less exhausting to deal with, "because it felt good...But..." He sighed and rested his cheek in his hand, "when we were teenagers...After that incident with the four bullies...She made me stop." He looked down, "I hated it...It felt like a part of me was just...Gone..." He remembered the identity crisis he'd gone through.

He brightened a little, "then Jess convinced me that I wasn't a freak." He ran a hand through his hair and looked down, "so I guess I just got accustomed to dressing like this regularly..." He shrugged and looked down, "you probably think I look awful...b-but...I don't feel like I look awful." He looked up at her with a sheepish smile, "I feel like I really do look nice...This is just...Another part of me...That's all."