oh, the weather outside is frightful

[lucked]

After the first few days in the new city make it abundantly clear that the new terrain isn't a mere weekend fixture, Claire finally decides that it's high time she sets out to explore whatever the place has to offer. Although she's opted, for the most part, to dress herself in clothes apparently meant for chimney sweeps, today she finally manages

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[lucked]

"Not all of us have been trained all our lives to sense these things, okay?" Claire replies in turn, pouting lightly at the smile on his face, although she can't help but offer her own in return. It's good to seem him smile, even if it's at her own expense; there are times when Zuko seems so wound up and tense that all Claire wants to do is to tell him to live a little. To be young and carefree. Lips parted with the effort to remind him yet again that he didn't need to be on edge all hours of the day, Claire's words suddenly fall into silence as she trips on his question at last, cheeks flushing pink.

"And, uh," she stammers, patting the side of her ribcage and trying to find a proper spot to feel out the whalebone. "A corset's kind of something that girls are made to wear to help... I don't know. Keep everything contained? Look nice and thin? Here, if you put your hand on my back, you'll be able to see what it does. There are these lengths of bone, basically, that they slip into the clothing to help keep women the right shape. I tried just sticking to guy clothing for a few days, but that got uncomfortable for other reasons."

[irisewiththesun]

"That sounds...impractical," Zuko says dubiously, putting out a gentle hand as instructed, his palm splayed across her back then sliding over to feel what she's talking about. It's not like he's unfamiliar with the lengths women will go to for fashion and beauty, but this seems pretty extreme, wearing actual bones in your clothes to keep a certain shape. "All girls have to wear these things? You don't even need it, Claire, you're already skinny."

[lucked]

"It is. It totally is," Claire agrees with a vehement nod and a wrinkle of her brow. "And I mean, these totally went out of fashion later on in the future, which I'm glad for, because they're a pain. This whole place looks like it could have been modeled after a time about a hundred and fifty to two hundred years before mine, so the fashion... dies out. Also, while I'm definitely not skinny compared to, like, well more than half of the women on the island?"

She shrugs. She's had more than her share of insecurities, but when it comes down to it, she knows that she's healthy. Active. And if she starts trying to hold herself up to all of the Hollywood actresses on the island, she'll probably just go mad- it's just not worth it.

"I'm not wearing this because I want to match them," she finishes with a soft exhale and a smile. "I'm wearing this because I got really tired of wearing men's clothing, and it's hard to fit in dresses my size without a little tuck." Her hands pat down her sides for emphasis.

[irisewiththesun]

"Well, you look really pretty," Zuko hastens to say, because he doesn't want Claire to get the wrong idea or to think he's knocking what she's got on. He wants her to be comfortable, though, too. "But you look pretty in your normal clothes, too." Zuko thinks of how some of the girls back home used to make themselves up, with layers of garish makeup. He's always preferred a more natural look.

[lucked]

There's a part of Claire more than tempted to tell Zuko that she doesn't mind, and that compliments are the furthest from what she needs right now, but even that isn't entirely true. A part of her feels a bit of a flutter at the compliment, knowing that Zuko isn't the type of person to bend himself backwards looking for beauty in something. At least, not on a superficial level. In that same vein, maybe Claire shouldn't be as happy as she is to hear that her dress is nice, and that she's managed to stay somewhat to theme since getting to the island.

But she is.

"I'll keep that in mind for when everything goes back to normal," she reassures. "Because jeans and cardigans are definitely many, many times more comfortable than this."

[irisewiththesun]

Zuko definitely agrees with that sentiment. He, too, will be pretty relieved when his normal clothes are available to him once again. At least his swords haven't changed; he doesn't know what he would have done if they'd somehow gotten messed up or just flat out disappeared. Gotten angry, probably.

"So," he says, offering her his arm. "Where do you want to go? Just walking around, or do you have a specific place in mind?"

[lucked]

There's something natural about slipping her arm around his, to the point where Claire doesn't even have to give it a second thought, instead completely preoccupied with trying to think of a decent place for them to go, somewhere that might keep the both of them occupied enough. Victorian London has never really been a heavy unit in any of her history classes, but she knows just enough from movies over the years, and perhaps a little too much following of British royalty, to know some decent places within their reach.

"Buckingham Palace?" she suggests with a pleased grin, tilting her head towards the west. "Not sure if I can get us inside, but I've always been a little curious about British royalty and how they live."