Hold on to this lullaby; even when the music's gone

She isn't quite sure where her elation comes from. The fact that she would have privacy for the first time since she could remember or that it was freedom as she has never known it before. She had spent the majority of her teenage years wondering what was on the outside, gleaning snippets from her siblings and always wondering why she would never be able to see the outside. There is a part of herâ€"her animal sideâ€"that reacts to him as if it is aware of his wants but the human side of her is too naïve to understand it.

It is with these feelings that she follows him readily into the building. It is overwhelming and almost alive with the intensity of the press of the bodies. It almost felt like she was in an ocean and all she can sense is the smell of their skin, the stickiness of their sweat but still she had pressed on letting the scent of metal wash over her and once on the escalator she was sure it was ease up. But it did no such thing, instead it seemed to press in further, the vibrations of the metal beneath her feet causing her to realize that this wasn't natural. And that her kind shouldn't be subjected to these unnatural contraptions. This is what causes her to turn, the unknown destination and the fact that what lay beneath her feet had the power to crush her in moments.

This thought is what rotates through her mind as she's continuing her fruitful trek down the escalator with the press of people on the other side. At first they just chuckle to themselves, they've probably seen children do this all the time, but she was no small child even though she was small in stature. There was a woman who put her hand on Claire's arm as she came within reach; her worried tone was lost on her. Her name them, but it is not enough to break her from this fear. But then he was there, she could feel his warmth next to her but his words fall on deaf ears.

It is his rather long speech that snaps her attention from the stairs beneath her to him; it causes her to be off balance for a fraction of a second, his impatience in this matter actually to her benefit. She is pulled into his arms and an almost inaudible squeak leaves her lips, but once free of the metal her trembling stops and her heart rate decreases and scent of fear that she could sense was disappearing even as her feet touched the ground. She ducks her head then as he moves off and she is close enough to him that her fingers had woven themselves into the hem of his shirt as if not wanting to be separated.

She thinks that they would go to the store showcasing the t-shirts with the pictures and logos and sayings across the front. Instead, they'd veered towards one that was further down and she found herself studying the clothing. The woman's glare is enough to make her take a half step back but she stops herself, instead she follows the woman looking back as he settles into a chair. "Anything?" She asks with that wide-eyed innocence. She seems to be asking that a lot lately and she finds that she likes the way this plays out, this freedom.

At first the woman is pulling out extravagant pieces, expecting her to fawn over it, but at Claire's blank look she could only dig deeper into the more somber of pieces, "Pink and blue...and red!" Claire exclaims, pulling out shirts the color of blood in various cuts, these the woman brought towards the changing rooms. "Look at that figure on you, come, try these on, see what you think," The saleswoman is much more amicable and she all but pushes Claire into the changing room, the door closing shut behind her. She has been rather quiet the entire time, pulling on the articles of clothing andâ€"if she dislikes them tossing them over the door to the waiting woman. When she finds something she particularly like she'd open the door only a fraction, suddenly shy before opening it fully and admiring herself in the large mirrors, it is only then that she notices that the ones she'd tried on were all low-cut and the jeans that framed her sat low on her hips, all clothing she had never worn before but found she liked. It is this current outfit that she turns to regard Frost, "What do you think?" She asks, glancing up to meet his eyes through the mirror in front of which she stood.