[B]Gratia Mindaro - An Old Friend[/B]

"[color=66cd00]At least my fucking coat doesn't have that shitty sandpaper consistency your skin has going on.[/color]"

Gratia continued driving, gaze staring out at the dark roads. It was a quiet city so late at night. Most places were likely to be closed, with their owners and workers returning to their homes for the night. That left few options open. She did not particularly mind. She had no intention of bringing Nuit along to some upscale department store with their pricey bullshit excuses for "fashionable clothing". Nor did said stores sell actual food. What mattered was getting some fucking normalcy in her Faunus teammate's life.

She silently turned the SUV onto a side-street, pulling the vehicle into an empty convenience store parking lot. The outlet's neon yellow lights were garish against the black of the night, the large "[b]QUIK-E-MART[/b]" an irritating eyesore and stain upon the city. How the citizens tolerated it she had no fucking clue, but they were all likely as vision-impaired as Venetia after a night of inebriation. There was no other possible explanation for their ability to handle the diseased abortion of a neon sign made by some druggie fucktard who has overdosed while working in the franchise's marketing department.

"[color=66cd00]I'll return in several minutes,[/color]" said the Mistralese huntress, her voice cold and impassive, as if she was simply commenting upon the weather. "[color=66cd00]Don't kill the retards.[/color]"

She immediately unbuckled her seatbelt with a click and opened the door, exiting into the parking lot.

The cold night air was immediately noticeable, especially without her coat, but Gratia ignored the chill it sent through her. She strode purposefully across the carpark and into the bright, cheery [i]whiteness[/i] of the store. A half-hearted greeting was sent her way by the drowsy part-timer at the counter, and irritatingly [i]sappy[/i] tunes played over the intercom, but the huntress ignored them. Onyx eyes scanned her surroundings. The store sold clothes. Good. They were of cheap Atlesian-make, but she wasn't going to leave Nuit in an oversized suit stolen from a criminal thug.

A woolen jumper. Blue. Navy jeans. The Mistralese teenager grabbed them without second thought. Given her teammate's looks, they wouldn't be too particularly clashing. She passed by the section on magazines, eyes glancing across the row for a second before she picked up the week's copy of [i]LEI[/i]. There was a huntress posing on the cover ([i]Gratia vaguely knew the woman from a previous Vytal Festival ... one Kawaguchi Umeko?[/i]), with the byline boasting an interview with said huntress on how fashion could be tied into fighting Grimm. Nuit was probably going to be interested.

Her journey through the store continued. A bottle of water. Three sandwiches. A strawberry-flavoured lollipop for herself. Gratia handed over several lien chips to the girl manning the counter, taking the change and immediately walking out without a single word, her arms filled with everything she had just bought.

The door to the SUV opened once again. Gratia slipped back in, handing Nuit the sandwiches, bottle of water and the fashion magazine.

"[color=66cd00]Thought you'd like to catch up on all the bullshit they've been peddling while those assholes were trying to prep you up as some fucktoy.[/color]"