Aelia enjoyed shopping, though she hardly ever was allowed to shop. Normally, the tailor would come around, take her measurements, and return with a whole new wardrobe. Any clothes that she no longer wanted to truly keep, would be recycled and donated to the orphanages and homeless around town. Despite her greedy, awful step-mother, her father was quite the nice man, and made a pretty decent king compared to his ancestors.

Lia happily hummed softly as she looked for clothes, she had to remind herself that these would not be nearly as rich as her clothes at home. Despite that, most of the clothes were rather pretty, but none were truly catching her eye. That was until Ava showed her an absolutely beautiful dress. It was so simple, yet so elegant that Aelia loved it. She never liked catching other's attention, and this dress would be so simple that nobody would even look twice at her.

Though her proper speech might.

"I like it!" Aelia smiled and skipped over, her large eyes skimming over the dress with an almost hunger like stare. "It's perfect, you're absolutely amazing at this Ava." Aelia beamed up at Ava with a perfect little smile.

Ava chuckled shyly, rubbing a hand against her neck, which was flushed under the attention of Lia, "Well... then that is good," Ava finally said, shooting Lia a soft smile, "You should try it on - to be sure it fits. There is a room to do that in the back right," Ava pointed to the changing stations. She noticed the tailor giving her a thumbs up from behind Lia, and fought to not let her embarrassment show, "So... you do that." Ava steered Lia towards the changing area, shooting the tailor a glare that held no real heat over her shoulder. "Are you looking for two outfits or just one?" Ava questioned, skimming the store to see if anything caught her eye.

Aelia hardly noticed Ava's reaction, though she did smile back. This was due to her being completely entranced by the dress' soft fabric, she assumed that the tailor had to be blessed in the art of clothing in order to make such soft fabrics into beautiful dresses. Regardless, she had been about to give the tailor a small wave when Ava steered her into the changing room. Lia couldn't understand why Ava was being so pushy, but she didn't really mind. Not after she'd found her dress and all.

Aelia slipped into the changing room, concerned as to how she would put this on. The itchy wool clothes she wore at the moment were simple, and supposedly easy to put on, but she'd struggled a lot with them. Granted, she'd never had to put on clothes by herself before, as least, she'd never really been allowed to dress herself, her handmaidens always did it for her.

Aelia was slipping off the itchy wool when Ava asked if she'd like more than one. For a moment, Lia debated on whether or not to get another outfit, but Ava's wonderful sense of style was a once in a life time opportunity and Aelia couldn't waste it. "Hm, well if you don't mind, then yes please, I trust you to find something else. You should get something too! I'll pay for it." Aelia was softly humming to herself as she worked with the clothing, though concern slowly made its way into her face. She wasn't sure what she was doing, and she felt stupid asking for help.

Ava was silent for a moment, "You... you don't have to get anything for me. Don't... don't worry about that, alright? But... I will go find another outfit." She hesitated by the dressing room for a few heartbeats more, then left, pursuing through the different dresses for Lia. It was a white-ish dress, with blue flowers pictures on the neckline. There were dark blue ribbons along the inside of the sleeves.

While looking for clothes for Lia, Ava stumbler upon another outfit that attracted her interest. It was in Ava's size - a light grey, long sleeved cotton underdress, with the over part being a pleasant blue. It was closed around the waist, and was open, showing the under part of the dress around her legs, and tied up on her torso. It also came with a belt, a metal circle resting in the front.

Ava hung the dress for Lia over the divider, "Hopefully this one is also okay."

Aelia released a loud huff at Ava's reaction to the offer, but said nothing. It took her a bit to really get the clothes on, she hadn't realized that it would be so hard for her inexperienced fingers to tie the corset tight enough, but she eventually got it down. By the time she was done, she was much more comfortable, and felt pretty enough. It wasn't anything compared to her gowns at home, but those weren't very comfortable, even if they were quite beautiful. It was hard to fathom that some of her people had to wear the itchy wool she'd worn before because it was the only thing they could afford. Lia decided then and there, that no matter how much she hated the idea of being the Queen, she'd do her best to help everyone, and extend her reach to even the outer reaches of her kingdom, so she could be of some use, even if she didn't want to sit upon the throne.

Once she tried that dress on, deciding for sure that she'd buy it, Ava hung the next dress over the divider, pulling a soft gasp of pleasant surprise from Lia's lips. Delicately pulling the dress into her hands, her face lit up with a bright smile. Despite its simplicity, she absolutely adored the dress, and the blue flowers along the neckline were so intricate, Lia was sure that the tailor was the most amazing designer she'd ever met, well, for lower class clothes. Regardless, she'd definitely be sending the woman some gifts of fine cloths and silks so she'd have more to work with. Lia was sure that she would put the fabrics to good use.

"Ava this is absolutely gorgeous, you are literally wonderful at this! Also, I was not kidding about my earlier offer," Aelia pause as she removed the other dress for this new one, "I'll buy you whatever. You've already helped me so, so much, it would be the least I could do." Aelia hummed softly, the tune springing into her mind without a second thought. It was something her nurse used to sing to her when Lia was having a particularly bad night, it was about her actually. The not-really-princess, who held beauty that was practically indescribable, but the people did not like her anyways, for magick flowed through her veins.

The song had been written by a bard, who'd been hired by her father to tell his daughter's tale in a lighter light, he'd been hoping that the people would like her better that way. But, instead the song had turned into a teasing, mean thing, and although many sang it to criticize Aelia, she sang it because of the fact that her father cared enough about her to pay a bard to try to change the people's perception of her. Alas, despite his efforts, the people were unmovable on this matter, and Lia sang the song happily, ignoring it's dark history and focusing on the good part of it.

Ava twisted up her nose when she recognized the tune Lia was humming. She hated that song - there had been too many times she'd heard it being sang in mockery of the Princess, who had yet to do anything wrong. The Princess was scorned simply for her heritage, and Ava would be treated similarly, if not worse, if her status as a witch was known. Her white hair already attracted suspicious glances, but the fact that she never stayed long in the village and brought fine items to the market excused it enough for her to be able to go into some of the stores and venture to most market stalls.

Ava did not like the idea that Lia would hum such a tune, and plainly stated that, "The song you are singing - it 'tis about the Princess, correct? It is hardly ever sung with a positive way, and it concerns me that you are humming it now. Do you mean it in that awful way, or something different?" However much Ava liked being around Lia, if the woman was against non-humans and would mock the Princess for something she had no control over... well then the door was only a few paces away.

Aelia had just slipped on the dress Ava had given her and was tightening the lace on the sleeves when the other woman spoke. The question pulled a gasp from Lia's lips and made her face flush red with anger. Within a second, Lia was staring up at Ava, a fierce look on her face as she shook her head. "No! Of course not! Singing a song that is supposed to celebrate someone and hold them up for the world to see because you're proud of them shouldn't be used against that person. It's absolutely disgusting what people have done to a song that's supposed to celebrate differences and make people embrace them instead of bullying and ridiculing them." The anger had begun to fade, and instead was replaced by a deep rooted sadness, the look on her face was quite unlike always happy Lia. "So no, I don't sing it to be mean or disgusting, I sing it as it was intended for, to celebrate others no matter our differences."

In her anger Aelia had forgotten about her ears, something she hardly ever had to worry about in the safety of her own home where no one dared to say anything because she was the Crown Princess. By the time she had finished speaking, her hair had tucked behind her left ear, and the point was on display for Ava to see, but Lia, in her passionate anger and sadness, hadn't noticed.

Ava couldn't stop the raised eyebrow and the smile that played at her lips. Although Lia was probably furious at her, it was a relief to know that Lia was not discriminatory and awful against non-humans.

While Lia was ranting, Ava mentally applauded her as she held her hands up by her face, a universal sign of piece. She mapped out the other woman's face, pausing on her ears for the briefest moment before bringing her gaze back to Lia's. Seeing the sadness there pained Ava, "I see," the witch spoke in a soft voice, and moved her hand to brush Lia's hair forward to hide her ears, letting her hand rest at the pointed tip for a second longer, "I apologize if I offended or hurt you - that was not my intention. Not at all. After hearing it so many times with the singers intent being crude and ugly, I jumped to conclusions. That was wrong of me."

Ava's eyes, which were normally half lidded and hidden behind her eyelashes, opened wide, flashing their vibrant and bold color that signified a witch, "I promise, I celebrate our differences as well, and find the lyrics of that song to be beautiful," Ava dropped her gaze as she glanced at the tailor, who was looking anywhere but them.

Aelia calmed quickly once Ava put up her hands in a gesture of peace. Her chest heaved as her breaths came in and out far too quickly. It was not often that she allowed herself to become so angry, but being accused of being like those other, disgusting people was something she could not stand. Tears had begun to well up in her eyes as her anger fizzled down to that sadness, but she quickly blinked them away. Lia didn't like it when other people thought she was weak, because she wasn't. Even if Ava didn't actually know who she was, it still didn't matter. She just didn't want to cry in front of Ava.

It took Lia a moment to understand what Ava was doing, and immediately her body stiffened and her eyes went wide. Ava truly had seen, seen Lia's unnatural-ness, and Aelia was terrified that this would mean an end to just a barely beginning friendship. Relief spread through her body once she realized that Ava meant her no harm, and felt no hatred towards Lia's kind. Lia let the other woman speak, and her eyes widened in shock at Ava's stunning eyes. For a moment, Aelia just stared at Ava, Ava who was like her. Ava, who was some sort of person that wasn't entirely human, someone who held an unnatural beauty to her, who didn't seem quite of this world.

It was then that Lia noticed the little things; the purple in Ava's beautiful blue eyes that she'd never been given the chance to see before, the golden septum ring that had been practically invisible when they hadn't been standing this close, or how her eyebrows seemed to be perfectly arched, or how her cheekbones were so very prominent on her sharp, but somehow soft, face, and the bits of hair that framed her face. All of that somehow made her even more beautiful than Lia had originally realized, so graceful, in a way that ditzy Aelia never could be.

Blood rushed to Lia's face, turning her cheeks and nose a flaming pink. Within a moment, Aelia had stepped back, staring at the floor as she tried desperately to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. She'd met many a sutor, had been given explanations as to what she should feel like when she saw someone that caught her eye, and she'd never felt it, but at that moment, Aelia felt it indeed. "O-oh, well that's good then," Lia tripped over her words, her face felt as if it were on fire. "Thank you f-for understanding, and for, you know.." Lia paused, finally looking up at Ava under long eyelashes. She gestured to her own ears, then quickly looked back down. Lia truly couldn't understand why she felt so nervous, and why she couldn't stop thinking about Ava's piercing eyes.

Ava shrugged in a purposefully casual way, reaching behind Lia to pull down the first dress and the outfit Lia had been wearing, "Don't mention it. I... am familiar with your struggles. There is no need to thank me. Now," Ava gestured towards the outfits neatly draped over her arm, "Do you want to get changed, or stay in that outfit? The tailor knows the costs of the outfits, so it isn't necessary to change." Ava shifted the outfit she had chosen to let it rest on her shoulder. It was not nearly as neat and tidy as the way Ava held Lia's clothes.

Lia's face was a bright red, and she looked nervous as hell, so Ava did not mention it. Ava got the feeling Lia wouldn't appreciate being called out on it.