Disoriented Cosmos {A Torchwood Story} [COMPLETED]

9. Supermarket

My stomach grumbles as I cover my charity shop shirt with sailor stripes with a long velvety coat I also found in a charity shop - I don't know why I was drawn to this particular coat, I just love long coats that swish for some reason - and I grumble at it. I still don't know where in Cardiff to get all the food I need to build myself up with after surviving skinny as a rake for years on end. Most I've found is a row of low-cost low-end shops that house only the very basics of necessities. I don't want to venture into the city centre alone; it feels too daunting.

"Do you want to come get something to eat with me?" Tosh asks from the desk across as she powers down her computers; "I would've heard that stomach from Splott."
"No, it's fine," I insist, "I just haven't found any shops that sell loads of stuff yet."
"What about the supermarkets in the city centre?"

I pause in the middle of stuffing random items from my new flat in your pockets, and look up at her with confusion. "What's a supermarket?"

Tosh stares me back with an even more perplexed expression. "You've never been to a supermarket?" she asks, and I shake my head, "Okay, we need to take you to a supermarket now."

"Uh, what?" I begin to ask before she takes my hand and whisks me out of the Hub, calling a fleeting goodbye to Jack and Suzie.
When we get outside to the car park she pushes me into her passenger seat, a gleeful smile on her face, and starts to drive into the city centre.

I ask tentatively, "Uhh, Tosh? Why do you want to take me to a supermarket?" and she waves her hand dismissively and says, "Well, you've been here a few months, and it sounds like you're still totally sheltered. I'm just excited at the prospect of introducing you to something new."
"O-kay," you reply softly, a little confused as to why a supermarket is such a big thing, and turn my head to look out the window at the city centre.

Wow, that's a lot of shops. And a lot of cars. And are those... Jesus, why are there ads for underwear on the sides of buses?

~∆~

I laugh at an empty aisle in the brightly lit almost dead supermarket she dragged me to, and start to spin like a girl in a brand new dress under the fluorescent lights. Somewhere behind me at the start of the aisle Toshiko laughs in her adorable hearty twinkly way, and when I catch glimpses of her through my held out arms I see she's smiling at the sight of me.

"Why are you spinning around?" she calls to me as she goes to a shelf for a bag of pasta, and I laugh giddily and reply, "Because it's fun! I never got to do fun stuff before!" I keep spinning til she reaches me, nudging me with the shopping trolley and suddenly turning serious for a moment.

"Hey. I know it's fun and all, but you might wanna not do that around people who don't know you. It looks kinda weird to them, and seeing as you don't really wear bras and you're wearing something kinda low cut, they might get the wrong idea, if you know what I mean."

I freeze in my spinning, stumbling a little but steadying myself, knowing exactly what she means and being shocked by it.
"Really? Normal people do that sort of thing? I thought it would only be criminals."
She shakes her head remorsefully. "Sadly, people can think just the same way as criminals. But hey, nobody's here now, so spin as much as you like."
She pats my shoulder and moves on down the aisle, but I don't feel like spinning anymore.

It's all sex, sex, sex, wherever I go. I wish there were people on this planet who actually thought of anything else. I'm done with sex for a pretty long time.

We finish the aisles and Tosh leads with the half-filled trolley to a slew of machines that bizarrely talk in robotic voices to thin air. I hang back, a little bewildered, as she parks the trolley next to the nearest machine and begins to pass each item beneath it. Weirdly, the machine beeps each time something passes under it, and the odd robotic voice has halted.

I point to the machine. "What is that?"
"Self service checkout."
"Oh," I say uncertainly, "right."
I walk to the other side and watch her pack the stuff that's already passed through into bags, and after a while do the same when the items pile up. This is what normal people do, yeah? Hey, this isn't bad.

During the packing up, the guy at the next machine looks up at me and smiles, in a way I've seen on men before. "Hey."
I glance his way, then carry on civilly. "Hello."
He pauses in his item passing, and leans on the machine watching me. I can feel my past rising up in my throat.
He smiles again in a freaky way, and says in a cocksure sleazy voice, "You don't look like you have a bra on, yanno."

Both Tosh and I freeze in what we're doing, and I'm transported back to three months ago.
I look to the guy and he winks, and I don't actually know what to do because this environment isn't ideal to pitch a fight and that's the only way I know how to deal with people, until I feel an arm from behind slung round my shoulder. I look across to see Tosh pulling me into her arms protectively, and she frowns at the guy.

"Actually, my girlfriend is wearing a bra," she lies for me in a steely tone. The guy backs off a bit, waits a while to see if we budge, which we don't, then continues silently checking his items.
Tosh moves me to her other side so I'm the furthest away from him, and hands me an item that hasn't gone through the machine yet. "You check out the stuff now, and I'll pack up." she whispers to me, and I breathe out and smile at her in relief.

"Thanks," I say gratefully, and she starts to pack the items.
"I don't want anything to happen to you, Evelina. You're my friend, maybe even my best friend here."
I smile at her proclamation again, and tell her, "You're my best friend too, Tosh. And, by the way, I would totally be your girlfriend if we liked each other like that. You're cute."

She pauses in packing and looks to me with an expression reading such gratitude. "Oh my God, Lina, that is so cute, thanks! That really makes me feel better, you know."
"About what?" I ask as we continue with the scanning machine thing again, and she says, "Well, Torchwood is kind of a hard job to mention on dates," before my heart almost explodes from how adorable she is.

"Oh, Tosh, you sweetheart. Some day I know you'll find someone who doesn't give a shit about our job, I promise."
I hug her and she hugs me back, the two of us giggling in solidarity.

My friend is an absolute goddess who just doesn't know it yet, I'm sure of it.