The Perfection Trials

"You're not the ones calling the shots here," the man snarled, bending down to stick his finger in Sadie's face.

She set her jaw, willing herself not to back down even though her stomach was tieing itself up in knots. It's not like she hadn't gotten her teeth kicked in for pettier reasons than this in the past.

"I want clean underwear," Sadie said firmly.

"Go to your room."

"There isn't clean underwear in my room."

The man sighed heavily. "This really the hill you wanna die on?"

"It's a good day to die." Sadie laid the rest of the way back on the floor, staring straight up at the man from flat on her back. "Call Meyer. Tell him I want clean underwear."

Alex took a deep breath and attempted to straighten their posture. “If you all are really about perfection, wouldn’t you want to create perfect circumstances? Seems very hypocritical to me, which, last time I checked, is a flaw.”

It was a miracle xe hadn’t crumbled in front of the two men, but something about having Sadie there acted as score multiplier for their confidence.

(that's really wholesome haha)

"For one -- I'm a body guard, not an engineer. I'm paid to make sure you stay put. I don't care about anything else." The man rolled his eyes at Sadie but looked at Alex. "And for two -- no. Isn't their step three something to do with integration or whatnot? They're trying to make you perfect, not the world." He sent an annoyed glare at Sadie. "... although from the looks of it, maybe those are equally difficult tasks."

(Alex: The wholesome anxiety child.)

“Oh right, forgive us for wanting basic necessities,” Alex mumbled slightly louder than they intended.

"If they were necessities, wouldn't you already have them yourself?" the man grumbled.

"I do have them. In my car," Sadie complained, still laying flat on the floor. "Which is where we're going."

"You're not."

"Call Meyer."

"I already texted him," the bodyguard huffed. "And thank god you're his problem not mine."

“We don’t have them because Emily and Meyer did not give us a heads up.” A part of Alex hoped Emily’s name would freak the guards out enough to leave them alone. Maybe her oddness would have an affect on everyone who knew her.

The guard looked at them and grunted, sinking down in the chair with a sigh. “Well. Whatever. Guess we’re all gonna get chummy here until Meyer shows up.”

“Or Emily. Since they’ve been traveling as a pair because of us.” Alex hesitated to sit down, trying to determine what Sadie would do.

The guard shuddered a bit at that, but didn’t respond.

Sadie was starting to feel very, very stupid for laying in the middle of the floor on her back. But she didn’t know what to do about it.

Alex decided to sit on the floor beside her, giving the guard a timid glare in solidarity.

A solid five minutes passed in awkward silence. Then the elevator dinged.

Sadie still didn't move from where she was sprawled on the floor.

Meyer stepped into her line of sight a moment later. "Being mature, I see."

As Alex had guessed, Emily walked in behind Meyer. Her white clothes stood out against the various colors of the hotel, her ginger bob smooth and sleek as ever. She approached with the same half-smile as always. “What seems to be the issue?”

"She wants these, right?" Meyer pitched a pair of underwear at Sadie's face.

She caught them and sprang up to a sitting position, glaring at him, face flushing. They were clean, but it still embarrassed her.

"If you'd have just been patient, you'd have seen that we're working on prepping you a fresh change of clothes to be brought to your room."

"You could have said that." Sadie pushed herself up to her feet, glaring, still awkwardly clutching the underwear awkwardly in her right hand.

"You could have asked, rather than being a jerk about it," Meyer countered.

“She did ask! Several times!” Alex scooted closer to Sadie, eyes filling with venom and scorn. “You could’ve just answered instead of being vague little pricks about it.”

Meyer smirked at them. "Would ya look at that, Ems, our kiddos already made friends. Proud!"