[Gift] Model Monday Baybee

Normal finds himself pushed onto the stage, lights blinding him. There is a small stumble, high heels clacking on the wooden runway. When his vision came back, he found himself looking over the crowd with a curling twist of apprehension in his gut.

But that was skipping ahead a few scenes in this story.

Normal's day had started Innocent enough. He'd been meaning to meet up with Hela for little over a week now; one of the gambling debtors had failed to pay up. Then had supposedly 'vanished'. Normal knew better than that, had sniffed out where the fucker was hiding, so he was going to send in some muscle to beat the money out of him. Hela was the perfect candidate. Then, if the fucker still tried to run, Normal would pay a visit himself. Which the rat did not want to happen.

They were going to meet up at the ice cream shop in the mall. It was crowded with people and inconspicuous enough. Today the place was a slog to crawl through especially. Buns of all shapes and sizes made it hard to pick through the walkways even in his doll form. It became evident why soon enough.

Set up by the fountain in the central crossways was a large makeshift runway. Buns behind the velvet ropes were running around harried, some with clipboards and other half dressed. Thumping music was playing from speakers set up by the stage. A sign that was up showed it was some pop-up show by none other than Velveteen. Normal gave it a look over before mentally shrugging it off.

Fashion was cool but it was never really his scene. Plus, he had shit to do. Which right now involved getting to the ice cream shop on the other side of the plaza. Normal could already see Hela waiting at one of the tables for him. He shot her a quick text that he was almost there before he started to pick his way through the crowd of excited buns.

A hand on his wrist stopped him.

Normal flinched away and jerked his hand free out of habit, tensing up. Behind him was... Velveteen?

Confusion puckered his face as he flicked his eyes between them, in the flesh, and the sign that was plastered with a more edited version of their face.

"Sorry." They said, not seeming sorry at all. "I thought you were someone else."

"It's fine." Normal was ready to step back and continue on his way, but...

"Do you want to be in my show?" Velveteen stepped forward to match him, reaching out again. Their hand hovered out as if to reach for him again, but instead they opened it- an assistant placing a tape measure in the palm.

"Huh?"

Velveteen had already stepped forward, measuring the width of his chest, his arms, his legs, his waist...

"One of my models got sick. Do you want to fill in for him?" They reached up, grabbing Normal by the chin and tilting his face side to side. There was a small 'tut' and muttering which the assistant scribbled down before they handed the tape measure back. A thumb was shoved in his mouth; it wasn't sexual. Velveteen had titled his head back and pulled his lip up to inspect his teeth.

"Awh nosh-"

"Wonderful. Sadie, please see to him."

"Uh-"

Velveteen pulled away and turned, mind already made up, leaving the assistants to descend on him like a swarm of locusts.

Much too soon Normal found himself behind the velvet ropes, shoved up steps of the stage, and hidden behind curtains.

If it looked like chaos out front, it was a disaster area back here. Buns sat in chairs getting attacked by stylists and makeup artists. They were being crammed into glittering clothing that hid basically nothing. Some people were being sewn into the clothes and adjustments were being made. The assistants were darting around with whatever weird little thing that was needed.

Normal was shoved into a chair in front of a mirror.

"You're my partner?"

Glancing over, Normal saw a bun with long blond hair and massive horns. His teeth and claws were also impressive. His ears were pinned above his head while a woman teased his hair. Normal vaguely recognized him from somewhere but he couldn't think where.

A hand was offered. Normal stared at it before taking it to shake.

"Tulip. I didn't expect to be paired with a new model." There was a hint of something hidden in those words that Normal couldn't place; probably because....

"I'm not a model. Normal. I was bullied back here against my will."

"Ah." The man paused. In that time, someone had started to spray some sweet smelling water in his hair to beat down the curls he had worked so hard on that morning. Tulip was silent, staring ahead into the mirror for a few moment. Then he sighed, giving the very slightest shake of his head; he was instantly scolded by the woman fixing his hair. "Just follow my lead and you'll be fine."

Normal would have liked to asked more, but the man's ears were released and styled, then he was stood up and moved to another area.

It left Normal by himself. Soon enough, his hair was pinned and pieced into place. Makeup was smeared on his face, making him wrinkle his nose at the feel and smell of it. Clothes were wrapped around him and his feet crammed into heels much too tall.

When Normal was spun around to face a mirror, he barely recognized himself.

He was handsome! But Normal was sure of his looks anyway, so he knew that. Something about the outfit had really brought out the more masculine parts of his body he normally tried to hide for his business. Instead of the soft curses he forced with his clothes and styling, he was all hard lines.

But he didn't have time to admire that for long. He was shoved next to Tulip and from the looks of it, they were going to be walking very soon.

"Remember. Follow my lead."

And so Normal found himself shoved onto the stage.

He froze. Normal had never been shy but... well, his whole job was all about sticking to the more shadowy parts of Burrowgatory. All the eyes on him, the cameras flashing, it made him stand stock still as he looked out over the crowd.

But he couldn't be still. An arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him forward. He felt like a newborn deer as he forced his legs to move. Tulip's strong grip kept him upright as they moved down the stage. Tulip with much more poise and grace between the two of them.

It was an eternity before they reached the end. Turning around to walk back was a little less stressful, but Normal's heart was in his throat until the curtains closed around them and the piercing gaze of the public was gone.

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"I hated it."

"Hm."

Tulip was quick to part, not even saying a cursory 'bye'. Normal's clothes were returned and he balked at the messages on his phone.

Hela would never believe him.