Role Models

Ninette popped her gum loudly, with dissatisfaction as she lounged across the bed in her room. Her feet hung in the air as the think aroma of nail polish filled the room. She frowned at the colour in the artificial light, huffing and wondering if it was close enough to the real thing. She had some very important... business to attend to and she wanted to look her best. And that meant getting everything right down to the very last detail.

Clad in a silk night dress that hung rather suggestively around her well formed body, she glanced at the outfits charmed to bob around her in the room, green gaze bouncing from each of them trying to decide which was best. None of them were screaming out to her at the moment and that was frustrating her all the more. She didn't have time to get anything else.

A tiny giggle interrupted her thoughts and Ninette finally couldn't ignore the other being any longer, "If you're going to ignore any manors your indulgent parents have neglected to teach you anyway, the least you could do is be helpful." She propped herself on her elbows to raise an eyebrow at the little girl who had found her way into her bedroom. "Which one do you like?"

Pepper giggled again as her hippogriff fell into her lap, having traveled far into the sky as she threw it and it came back down. She cooed a string of words to Andy, unintelligible by even the most advanced translator's standards.

"Innie!" The girl looked up at her older cousin - who was really her niece, but don't try to explain that - with a grin that showed all the teeth she didn't exactly have yet. Turning her curious expression to the outfits, her eyes followed their movements carefully. "Ellow un." She decided, carefully raising to her feet. "Ellow Ellow." She stumbled after a floating dress, fingers finally curling into the fabric of a scarlet colored one. "Purr inks Innie ooks ood en da ellow un."

"Yellow?" Ninette frowned at the child's advice, looking up at her clothes wondering if she even owned anything that was yellow. Yellow simply did not look good with her light complexion, light hair and dark personality. "What are you talking about you little imp?"

Watching the girl get up, not really moving to catch her if she fell - children would fall, it wasn't going to help if she was there to catch her all the time - she followed closely understanding dawning as she grabbed a scarlet dress.

"You're going colour blind, doof," she laughed, leaning off the bed to pick up the girl and tug the dress with her. "This red. Red, not yellow."

Holding onto the dress tightly as she was lifted, the small girl smiled at her cousin, holding it out. "Ellow?" She asked, frowning. Holding the dress up, Pepper showed it, as if it would help Ninette see it. "No!" She said, quite certain. "Ellow. Innie eeds gwasses. Ellow." She nodded.

Holding up the 'yellow' dress, Pepper grinned. "Purr finks it wooks pweety ahn Innie." She nodded, and held it up, giving a happy giggle. "On!" She demanded. "On on on on!"

Ninette snorted, shaking her head and taking the dress from the girl's hands, "What is needed in this room is not glasses, but a dictionary." She rolled her eyes, shifted Peppers weight so she was sitting on her hip - like any proper woman knew how to use - and held it in the air, looking it over. The fit was good, clung just where you wanted, while hiding those few imperfections you didn't want to advertise (Not that Nine had many of those) and the girl was right the "Yellow" would look excellent on her, though there was still nothing that quite seemed to pop out at her. She was looking for something, though she did not know what, or how she knew this dress didn't have it.

Maybe if she did something with her hair.

"Okay! Okay, okay, okay, okay," Ninette responded in her dull sarcasm with roll of her eyes. Setting her 'Cousin' on her bed, with a firm warning "You break it you buy it" she took the dress and disappeared behind a folding changing "wall". Once the dress was on, she spun back out, raising an eyebrow at Pepper.

"Pretty enough for you, Doof?"

Pepper smiled as she was placed on the bed, smiling and sticking her hippogriff back in her mouth. Crawling over the warm sheets of her cousin's bed, burrowing under the quilts and taking her Andy with her. Tunneling under the covers, she gave a small laugh, wandering through the endless almost darkness until she found herself suddenly tumbling downward.

Landing on the floor in what was, once more, her cousin's bedroom, she looked up at her cousin with a big eyed look that threatened tears, screwed up her face, and gave a faint huff. How dare the bed end her exploring?

Blinking, the small girl rubbed her head with a pout, before placing both hands on the ground and standing. She took a few wobbly steps toward Ninette, then disappeared, reappearing hanging onto Ninny's head before she disappeared back on the bed, leaving a smattering of glitter on her hair.

"Pwetty!" the child exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "Pweetty!!"

The thump was concerning to say the least. Ninette did have feeling as much as the next person. Remembering where she had left her cousin and what a thump could mean, part of her spiked with concern.

The rest of her was confident the child was strong enough to take it. Raising her eyebrow as she looked at her, both waiting for a reaction to either the fall or the dress she did nothing but grin a little at her.

"Pepper," she warned a little finding the child on her head, and then on the bed before she could even finish the name. Shaking her head she could see her hair sparkle in the mirror. Flopping besides the girl on her bed she tried her best to shake the glitter back onto her. "Leave your glitter shedding to yourself, Doof. I don't think I can pull the glitter off like you."

Pulling softly on a lock of hair she raised an eyebrow, "Really pretty? You aren't just lying to get on my good side are you? You know, flattery, if done right, will get you everywhere."

Giggling in the glitter her cousin rained on her - but there was no way Ninette would ever get all of it out without a shower - Pepper clapped her hands, raising her arms to catch it. "Guh-witter!" She said happily, stretching upward until she fell back with a laugh, rolling in it. "Gwitter Gwitter!"

Grabbing fist fulls of the stuff, she threw it into the air around her cousin, stumbling into the girl as she did and smiling at her. "Innie wooks pwetty wit gwitter." She announced. Pausing, she screwed up her face, evidently thinking hard. "Pwetty... Pwetty-rer." Nodding, the small girl smiled again. "Pwetty-rer!" She smiled a wider smile, bouncing happily. "Innie ooks wike uh fwairie Pwincess!"

Her small hands had fisted into the fabric of the dress to keep her balance standing, lacy socks sinking ever so slightly into the softness of the bed. "Pwincess Innie an pwincess Purr." She declared. "Pwetty!" She paused again, frowning. "Fwa-" She screwed up her face. "Fwatturry?" She asked curiously. "Was fwatturry Innie?"

"Yeah, glitter," Ninette repeated, tone less than amused though there was still a soft smile on her face. "You practically exhale the stuff. I'm going to have to bring you along, just to prove it. You and your sparkles are going to ruin my reputation, you little doof." She didn't care one bit, and that truth was caught in the undertone of her voice.

Shaking her head, her eyes were slightly said, though nothing else on her expression slipped. Ninette was no fairy princess. Not in the least. Still, it was not a point she felt like pushing and it was easier to go with whatever the child said at this point. "Princess Nine and Princess Pepper."

Frowning Ninette had to struggle to find out the best way to describe flattery. She was for a long moment concerned she was going to come up with nothing, but then her eyes lit up and a smirk grew on her face.

"Well... Flattery is what your father tries to use to get out of trouble with your mother."

Falling onto her cousin's lap, the small blond giggled, reaching up to play with the long blond hair of her cousin. "Pwetty pwetty Pwincess." squirming in her cousin's lap, she grinned.

"Go?" Pepper perked up, eyes wide with excitement. "I go? I go?" She clapped, smiling. "Go! go! go!"

"Fwattery go?" She asked, cocking her head to the side. "Pwetty Inny bwing Purr!"

Ninette played with the girl's slight curls as she found her in her lap. She gave a slight smile in response to the girl's continued calls of pretty. Ninette knew that she was good looking but somehow there was something more flattering having it come from the baby who probably barely understood the word.

How did that make sense?

"You want to go?" Ninette raised an eyebrow surprised at the insistence. She cocked her head to the side as she thought about it, surprised by the request though she didn't know why. "Hmm. You don't even know where I'm going. How do know it would be any fun?"