I cranked the shower off, squeegeed the water off myself with my index finger and thumb, then hopped out of the shower to towel dry and run a brush through my hair.

When I was dry enough, I pulled on a pair of stretch shorts and then started to pull my costume on.

At least this is actually presented as Taylor rushing through all of this, instead of just magically being able to take a full shower, relaxedly change her clothes and play a haunting violin refrain in five minutes.

Given that it was all one piece, barring the mask, belt and armor panels, I couldn’t quite wear it under clothing without having to wear gloves and long sleeves.  That kind of clothing wasn’t an option as the weather got warmer.

Ah, right, that’s a bit of a drawback.

One option I did have, what I’d been ruminating on, after having my bugs crawl all over me to keep my identity concealed, was only putting it on partway. When the lower half of the costume was on, I folded the top half around at the waist, tying the arms together around me, like a belt.

Oh, yeah, that might work out. Could cause a bit of a bulge, but with loose enough clothing around, it might not be noticeable.

I put on jeans and a black and red spaghetti strap top that left some of my midriff exposed.  To finish, I tied a sweatshirt around my waist, positioning it over where I’d tied the upper half of my costume.

So from the outside it’ll just look like she’s tied a big/thick sweatshirt around her waist because it got too warm to wear it. That’s especially fitting in the spring and autumn, since the temperature could go either way and it’s easy to overestimate or underestimate how much clothing you need, or for that value to change while you’re out.

I sized myself up in the mirror.  The material was fairly thin and it stretched, so it didn’t make me look bulkier.  I’d have to see how comfortable the soles I’d built into the foot portion of the costume were inside shoes, but that was something I could adjust.

Huh, that’s cool.

Having the main part of the body pulled around behind my back meant I could hide the bulkier portion under the sweatshirt.  So long as I didn’t untie the sweatshirt where anyone could see, I was golden.

Nice work.

“How was she?  Any fights?”

“Nothing serious.  No, it was actually kind of nice.  I might even do it again, if she let me.”

“Really,” he replied, skepticism clear in his tone.

Hehe. Wasn’t expecting that, were you.

“Really.”

“What changed?”

“I’m figuring her out, I think.  How she operates, how she thinks.”

It’s worth noting that Taylor has a head start that Brian doesn’t, even if he’s been Rachel’s teammate for significantly longer. Lisa never told him about what Rachel’s power did to her brain, so Brian had to learn from scratch.

“I’ve spent ten months on the same team with her, and I haven’t even come close to getting how she thinks.  I can usually keep her from going too far or hurting someone, keep her mostly in line and get her to follow directions, but I haven’t had a conversation with her yet that didn’t make me want to bang my head against a wall.”

And this is why I didn’t use the word “friend” in my last paragraph.

Heh, and here I used to think that Brian was the one with the strongest connection with Rachel. To such an extent that I suggested alien emotional romance was afoot!