Z.R. Stein

Ask Not the Sparrow How the Eagle Soars - A Worm/Kill la Kill Crossover AU

I do not own the characters of the respective properties in any way, shape, or form.

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Stitch 1.04 (Or, My Superhero Costume is Actually Fetish Wear!?)

The house was empty when Taylor walked inside, bag slung over her shoulder. Knowing her father, he'd be at the Dockworkers Union again, his desk phone in hand as he tried to get his fellow dockworkers any work he could scrounge up. Odds were that he wouldn't find anything for them, and he would come home frustrated, reticent, and tired.

She didn't judge him for his dedication to the failing DWU. She could understand clinging desperately to something despite knowing that that something was only slipping further out of hand. But between Danny's increasingly lengthy absences and her experiences with bullying, the two of them had barely spoken to each other in months. She acknowledged her part in that rift, but she also knew that he hadn't been there for her either. Though...she supposed she hadn't exactly made it easy for him to help. He'd have to know about the bullying in the first place, and she had adamantly not told him anything.

She supposed that that meant more of the blame was on her shoulders than his.

You're thinking deep, depressing thoughts again, eh. You spend most of your time brooding, partner?

Taylor sighed.

"My life isn't exactly a cakewalk, y'know. Am I not allowed to dwell on how shit it is?"

Well, you can if you want to. I won't stop you. But if you're going to be brooding, I think an ironing is in order. It helps me relax.

Taylor blinked, and looked down at Senketsu.

"An ironing? Like...with a clothes iron?"

It is very therapeutic. Like a massage would be to humans, I imagine. Just, don't wash me first. I hate being wet and soapy and cold. And I hate being dirty as well...if I do get dirty, I would prefer to be steam washed with as little soap as possible, then ironed to dry out. Also no machine washing. I get dizzy.

Taylor pinched the bridge of her nose, and sadly waved goodbye to what was left of her sense of normalcy. Admittedly, after the past few days there wasn't much remaining, but her clothing lecturing her on the exact procedure to clean him had tipped the scales just enough that she knew in her heart that her life was, and forevermore would be, very very strange.

"Putting all that aside, what does me brooding have to do with you wanting to be ironed? Does it help you concentrate better or something so that you can dispense more wise advice?"

...Well...No. I just like being ironed. After floating through the cold, dark vacuum of space for a considerable amount of time and crash landing on Earth, I think it would do me good. I need to work out some kinks in my body.

"You don't have a body. You are a sweatshirt."

Senketsu snorted.

I do so have a body. Besides, as my partner it is your duty to ensure that I am well cared for. Step one of that obligation is to give me plenty of ironings. Well technically step one is to give me blood when I'm hungry, but ironings are still very high on the priority list. As is steam washing. Oh, and maybe a spritz of fabric softener? Not too much though. That would be priority number four. Anyways, you got an iron lying around this place, partner?

Taylor slumped and groaned, moving further into the house.

"...yes...fine. I'll find the fucking clothes iron."

Hooray!

Taylor's eye twitched at Senketsu's peppy tone. She could sense the feelings of smug satisfaction and excitement radiating through his mind. Bloody vampiric alien bastard.

. . .

OooOoooahahaoooo, that hits the spot. Yes, right there, harder! MmmmmMMmmmm...

Taylor tried not to cringe as Senketsu moaned especially loudly when she moved the clothes iron over the lower back portion of his prone 'body'. He'd reverted to what he called his basic form to be ironed, and Taylor had been somewhat surprised to learn that he was a sailor uniform when he wasn't actively using his shapeshifting. A rather skimpy sailor uniform as well; she didn't know what that Isshin Matoi had been thinking, but that skirt was waaay too short for her comfort, and Senketsu showed a considerable amount of belly as well when he was like this. She didn't think she'd ever be comfortable wearing him out in public like this.

OOoooo Yeeahh.

Also this was making her very uncomfortable. But...she supposed that she owed it to him. He had saved her life after all. But it was still really weird. Did he have to make such...suggestive noises?

OOoooOOooo Taayloooor!

Taylor decided then and there that that was quite enough for one day...week...maybe month...and shut off the iron, placing it to the side.

"Nope. Just...nope."

You stopped, why'd you stop? I was just getting the kinks out!

"It's weird and it makes me uncomfortable!"

Hmph. Fine. I suppose that will do for your first attempt. Right. Now that we are back at your residence, and I am relaxed, did you want to talk about anything else?

Taylor sat down on the edge of her bed and gently kneaded her forehead, trying to think. After a few moments of collecting her thoughts, she spoke up.

"Well...I want to become a hero."

She'd been thinking about this for awhile now, ever since Senketsu had revealed that he could confer abilities to her. Enhanced regeneration, strength, and toughness would make her a Brute, a fairly powerful Brute if what Senketsu said was true. Not to mention, Senketsu's shapeshifting meant that she didn't even need to make her costume, he could simply change into one. Not anything like his base form though. That was waaay outside of her comfort area.

A hero eh? Sounds fun. So we'll be fighting these gangs that you spoke of?

Taylor nodded at Senketsu, absent mindedly twisting her hair in her hands.

"Yeah. The ABB, Empire 88, and the Marche. Between the three of them, they control most of the city. Then there's the minor villains, like Coil, Uber and Leet, Trainwreck, Mush, and Skidmark."

There's a villain named Mush?

Taylor laughed.

"Yeah. He controls garbage. He and Skidmark supposedly tried to start a gang with a few other capes about a year ago, but they were shut down by the ABB. I remember seeing it on the news; Oni Lee and Kuchisake smacked them down pretty hard. They were lucky that they both survived."

Hmmm...it sounds like this city is quite active. There will be many battles to be found here. I look forwards to it, partner.

Smiling, Taylor Hebert reached out and picked Senketsu up.

"Before that though, we need to decide on our costume."

Costume? Is this form not sufficient?

Taylor's smile morphed into a heated glare, her face red in embarrassment.

"There's no way in hell I'm wearing you out in public like this. People will see my bellybutton! Now, what about this True Life Fiber Synchronization form?"

You're not ready mentally to use that form yet.

Taylor frowned.

"Well...alright. But can you show me what it looks like without actually synchronizing? Can your shapeshifting do that?"

Errrr...

. . .

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THE GUY WHO MADE YOU!?"

Taylor's eyes were locked onto her bedroom mirror in horror, looking at the form that Senketsu had taken. She had thought that his base form was bad, with the skirt that wasn't even knee length and the way that it showed off her stomach. But this?!

If she went out in public like this, she had no doubt that she would be arrested for indecent exposure. It barely even covered her nipples, for fucks sake! She wasn't even legal! She looked like a pornstar! There was no way in hell that she could be a superhero while looking like this! What the actual fuck!

Kamui were originally created to cover as little skin as possible. Due to the nature of Life Fibers, if too much contact was made between a human's skin and a Kamui, the Kamui would attempt to dominate the human's mind, and would often succeed. Thus-

"ARE YOU GOING TO TRY TO DOMINATE MY MIND!?"

Well...no...

"THEN COVER UP MORE OF MY BODY, YOU INSIPID, PERVERTED ALIEN!"

Senketsu complied with remarkable speed, and a film of black life fibers flowed over her unclothed midsection. Taylor mentally willed herself to calm down, though she was still more than a little bit twitchy.

"Can you make that something other than skin tight spandex?"

I uh...I suppose. Ah...do you have anything specific in mind?

Taylor took a deep breath and walked over to one of her shelves, surreptitiously checking, for the twelfth time, that her shades were tightly drawn and that no one could see her. She would die of embarrassment if someone had caught her looking like that. Screw Senketsu's talk about being comfortable with her own body; there was a difference between good self image and wearing an outfit that made most bikinis look conservative. Also, it was very illegal. She could not be a hero looking like that.

Reaching her shelf, she pulled off a thick tome entitled Armour Styles Throughout History, Third Edition.

"Here...look at this with me and see if anything catches your eye. I want you to cover my entire body with armour. Actual armour. Not this...cosplay fetish gear that Isshin made you into."

If you insist. I still don't see what the problem is. Ryuko got used to my form very quickly.

"I'm not Ryuko though, and there are different rules on this Earth! If even half of what you've told me about your Earth is true, then people there didn't seem to take the words 'nudity taboo' nearly as seriously."

Ah...Nudist Beach...yeah...yeah, that's a fair point.

"Also I'm not as...ugh, nevermind...anyways...Roman armour. Let's start there."

. . .

Nearly half an hour later, Taylor had managed to hash out a much more socially acceptable outfit with Senketsu's help. Above her neck, the design remained much the same; she wore a pair of swooping, winglike pauldrons that extended out nearly a foot in either direction, Senketu's eyes staring out from each shoulder. Below the neck though, things had changed drastically. A breastplate of scalloped, black Life Fibers covered her torso, the two red straps that ran down her body providing a nice accent, rather than actually holding the outfit together. The skirt was longer, and tipped with small spikes, while her legs and arms were completely coated by Life Fibers. The only part of her that was uncovered was her head.

Speaking of...

"Hey Senketsu?"

Mmmm?

"I need a mask. To protect my identity."

Huh? Is that a common practice here?

"Well...yeah. I mean, New Wave doesn't, but they're the exception to the rule. It's generally accepted that if a hero wants to have a normal life, they need to have secret identity. PHO was very adamant about that, and about unmasking a cape without permission; they have strict rules about it and will ban anyone who talks about what a cape's identity could be."

Hmmm...I suppose that makes sense. A mask, eh? I'll see what I can do. I assume you want lenses of some kind?

"That'd be cool. I don't really want anything to gouge my eyes out."

You do know that'd you heal from something like that within seconds, right?

Taylor glared at Senketsu in the mirror.

"It would still hurt! Just give me a mask so that I don't have to find out what losing an eyeball feels like!"

Alright partner.

Taylor felt the now familiar crawling sensation of Life Fibers shifting shape as Senketsu created a mask to conceal her face, her vision becoming slightly tinted as lens formed to protect her eyes. It reminded her of the face of a jack'o lantern; the lenses were yellow, red, and orange, imitating Senketsu's own eyes, and where her mouth would be was now a large red smile.

Did you want me to retract the Life Fibers from your hair as well?

Taylor considered that. If she allowed her new hair to be seen in her hero costume, and had Senketsu conceal it when she was out of costume...that would add another layer to her secret identity. Which was a good thing.

"Yeah, sure, let's see it."

The fibers that had been making her hair appear normal retracted, and Taylor studied her completed hero costume in the mirror.

Honestly, she didn't think she looked much like a hero. Well, not like a 'hero' hero. Instead of being a tall, gangly teenage girl, the image in the mirror presented a deadly warrior with a ghoulish smile on it's face. Her unnatural hair fell down her back, shimmering and shifting in unsettling patterns, while her lenses and smile made her look almost demonic, and the armour, with all of it's spines and ridges, only reinforced that. On first glance, she'd probably be mistaken for a villain.

Then again, she knew that there were heroes who worked the intimidating angle very well. Shadow Stalker and Eidolon came to mind. They weren't as camera friendly as, say, Legend or Glory Girl, but they weren't meant to be. They struck fear into the hearts of villains and criminals.

And in a city like Brockton Bay, Taylor imagined that she would need a psychological tool like that. And once people knew that she was a hero, it wouldn't really matter anymore, right? Then only the criminals would be afraid of her.

"It's perfect, Senketsu."

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