Page 25 of Under Control

Would have been nice to be able to afford some of the shit here without Tracht holding all the strings. Like if he and Nadia could watch a movie here, in the theater with the multi-level holographic projections.

“You looking for something in particular?” Alex asked after they’d walked for a bit. It was weird that Tracht didn’t immediately beeline to a store with an objective already in mind. Tracht was not the kind of shopper to take his time; he knew what he wanted and got it in the shortest amount of time possible. It was making Alex a bit antsy, and he swiveled his head around, sure that somebody was staring at them. Judging Alex for being out of place.

“I am undecided, in fact.” Tracht stopped in front of a men’s clothing store. “I wanted to dress you up nicely, but I don’t know in which style. I’m afraid you wouldn’t look particularly good in most of what’s on offer here.”

Yeah, no kidding. Alex tried to imagine himself in the beige trousers and colorful polo shirts the mannequins were wearing, and started scowling. He’d much rather not. “You don’t wear this kind of stuff either.”

“You’re right, I absolutely do not. My usual store is around the corner; perhaps they’ll have something to suit you.”

They kept walking, and instinctively Alex kept close to Tracht and watched everybody approaching. He spotted a few others wearing bondcollars. Some people stared at them, but for the most part nobody looked like they were a threat. Not that Tracht had enemies, but Alex had gotten a bit jumpier since the whole kidnapping incident, and anyway, given his own past, it was better to be alert.

It was because of his eyes tracking all over that he happened to see the store display. The mannequin was posed on top of a show motorbike, which was silly since nobody on station had one. It was a planets-only kind of vehicle. But the machine gleamed, and the mannequin sitting on top of it, wearing dark jeans and a thick leather jacket, looked very imposing.

Alex veered towards the display before catching himself. Unfortunately, Tracht noticed.

“What is it?”

“Nah, just... that jacket’s pretty cool.” Alex gestured over to the display. “Maybe I’ll find one like it when I go out with Nadia tomorrow.”

“Interesting.” Tracht walked towards the store and stopped in front of the window. “Yes. It does have a certain flair to it. Come on, let’s take a look.”

It was probably a bad idea to get his hopes up, but Alex did prefer when Tracht bought him men’s clothes rather than women’s clothes. They went into the store, and Alex sighed in relief when he saw that only men’s clothes were on display. Nothing to give Tracht any weird ideas.

They found the rack of jackets, and one breath filled Alex’s lungs with a strange scent. “What’s that? The smell.”

Tracht sniffed the air. “Ah. I believe that’s actual, genuine leather.” He looked at the tag inside the jacket. “Yes, real cow leather, not that synthetic stuff you usually see on stations. I suppose the price tag will reflect it.” Tracht picked out one of the larger-sized jackets and handed it to Alex. “Try it on.”

“Sure.” Alex liked how supple the leather was, and it settled nicely onto his shoulders. Heavy, but sturdy. It warmed him immediately too. “This is great. Fits well. Bet it would cushion some blows too.”

“I can’t imagine where you’d wear it, although you do look stunning in it.” Tracht ran his hands over Alex’s shoulders, straightening out the jacket. “Straight out of one of those old Pylos movies. Well, as long as nobody looks at your face.”

Alex rubbed his nose self-consciously. “Whatever. I don’t want to be in a movie anyway.”

“I think I’d like to see you in a movie someday. One where you’re bound, a whip slashing across your back, sweat and blood glistening on your skin…” Tracht wrapped his arms around Alex’s neck and drew him closer. “You’d start in that jacket. Fighting. Maybe there are twenty attackers. You put up a good show, but you’re only one man. And then they strip you out of the jacket…”

How the hell did Tracht manage to make even a horrible fantasy like that hot? Alex put his hands on Tracht’s hips and leaned in for a kiss, stopping just short in case Tracht didn’t allow it, but come on, he had to want this, and—

“Excuse me!”

Alex startled and pulled back, but Tracht kept his hands firm on the back of Alex’s neck. They both looked at the store clerk, who was glaring at them. The guy wasn’t very imposing, a good five centimeters shorter and half as skinny as Alex, but he exuded authority.

“We are a respectable establishment. I would ask you to either pay for the goods or leave. This is not the place for your PDAs.”

Alex caught the annoyance in Tracht’s eyes and snorted. Totally not his fault this time.

“Yes, yes. We’ll take the jacket he’s wearing. My apologies for disrupting your place of business.” Tracht handed over his card and the clerk went to make the payment go through.

“Perhaps we should go shopping in one of the seedier shopping centers,” Tracht said. “I could fuck you in one of the changing rooms.”

“Oh man, no way. Those places have cameras everywhere,” Alex protested. “There’s even a camera inside every changing room. Only one person inside at any time, and the camera will alert somebody if it catches you trying to steal.”

“Should I ask how you know this?”

The clerk returned with Tracht’s card, and they left the store. Alex felt pretty good about himself, so he risked putting an arm around Tracht’s shoulders. Tracht gave him a look but didn’t push him off, so that chance had paid off.

“Right, so. Nick and I once tried to pull the old switcheroo. Nick goes in as himself. I wore a disguise—a wig or something, and bulky clothes. He grabbed some stuff, stuck it in his pockets. Pretty sure the clerks spotted him; neither of us were great at shoplifting. Kind of the point to get noticed, anyway. Meanwhile, I went into the changing rooms. Nick joins me in there, he hands over all the stuff. Nick walks out, ready to charm the clerks and shit while I head out unnoticed.

“And that worked back on Gatineau, but this was on, uh. Huh, I don’t even remember. But anyway, this new station didn’t just take Nick in for questioning. They knew I was in there with him, and they pulled us both out. We thought the changing rooms weren’t allowed to have cameras! But then they showed us the recordings. It was just those heat signature things? No faces and you wouldn’t be able to see us getting changed or anything, but you could clearly see two people. And every item of clothing was id-tagged, and the camera kept track of all of that too.”

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