The blonde slipped his arm around his fledgling’s waist as she huddled close to him, guiding him towards a shop he saw a few young women walking out of clutching a pile of bags. It had a few promising looking mannequins in the window as well, tall, a bit too skinny, but the clothes weren’t all incredibly fancy.
“You’d think. Not in a place like this though. Too many people and not enough places to sneak off to with your sheep,” he said with a grin across at Anna. “The city as a whole though, it is all incredibly easy. No need to go hungry,” he said, remembering a few times they had struggled just after she had been sired. A few nights he’d let her drink from him, just to keep her from going crazy whilst they tried to find people, when all the animals seemed to have disappeared for the cold seasons. Yes, it had made her stronger, but what she had needed then was quantity, not quality. They had survived though, they were both here now.
“In here,” he said, guiding the fledgling into the shop, which seemed even more packed than the walkways outside. Here the people were squeezing past each other, past rails crammed with clothing. William glanced at Anna again, eyeing her up and realised he had no idea what size clothes she would need. As a worker wandered past straightening the racks Will’s hand shot out and he grasped her upper arm gently.
“We need a personal shopper. One who can follow an instruction, who won’t offer more opinions than they’re asked,” he said in a firm voice. He girt stared at him for a moment, he could see she was going to tell him they didn‘t have personal shoppers here (which they didn‘t), then she nodded and scurried off to find the manager who she was sure would find someone to do the job well. Someone asking for a personal shopper would probably be spending quite a bit.
This wasn’t the kind of shop William was used to - he liked designer clothes, or outfits made just for him. But Anna wouldn’t care about a label - if they had trouble finding things to fit he could take her somewhere more expensive where they would tailor things for her, but they could try here first.
“He’s here to help, be nice,” he murmured to Anna as a young man with a broad smile appeared beside them.
“I understand you need a bit of help, Sir?” he said cheerily, probably just relieved to be off the tills for a little while. William sized him up for a moment, human, not too bright, but very enthusiastic. And judging by the shoes which were the only item not regulation uniform, he had good enough taste.
“My friend here needs some clothes, whole outfits, nothing dressy, every day where, but we’re both a little clueless when it comes to dressing women, or what sizes she will need,” William said, using the arm around Anna’s waist to guide her forwards, giving her a little squeeze before releasing her so the young man could see what he was dealing with. William knew Anna might not like being gawked at like a piece of meat, but they both wanted to get out of here quickly/ The human’s mouth dropped open slightly upon noticing her height, but the look of surprise was quickly replaced by the grin again.
“We’ll see what we can do,” he said, heading for the racks and gesturing for the two vampires to follow him as he began picking seemingly random items and draping them across his arm. William followed at a more sedate pace, content to let him get ahead.
“Do you see anything you especially like?” he asked his fledgling, wondering if she’d even bothered to glance around at the clothes.
