Chapter Twenty-Two:

I didn't know what my place was in this, but I knew how much I cared about Leona and I wasn’t going to let Betsy hurt her. "Do you wanna look at some cute clothes?" I'd asked, but Betsy crowed in with a much louder tone of voice, obviously to draw attention.

"Oh look at all these cute clothes, little Baby Luvs, I wonder if they have anything in your taste and style? I should try and find a worker, bring someone over to meet you, shouldn't I?"

"No!" I hissed, trying to sit forward in the stroller, but Betsy was already pushing me toward the counter in the center of the store.

I wasn't familiar with this mall. I wasn't even familiar with this store! But they didn't sell fetish gear or adult diapers. It was normal stuff - blouses, jeans, cardigans. Somewhere adults were not pushed around in strollers. Somewhere I stood out. And when the woman at the counter noticed me, it was all too obvious that this was not planned in advance.

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"Can I help you find anything?" the woman asked, clearly not in on this at all, and Betsy took over like a villain out of a fetish story.

"I do hope so. I've noticed a lot of what you have here is rather mature," she said without a sense of irony, given we were at a Tween fashion store, "I was wondering if you had anything more juvenile, something lacy, frilly, that sort of thing?"

The woman, to her credit, took it in stride and forced a breath to focus, then a smile. "We do have a Victorian Misses section from last season that might fit your needs?"

I couldn't believe this. If this store happened to have something Betsy was looking for, there was no chance at all she didn't scout this place first.

"Right this way."

Betsy pushed the stroller toward the back of the store - a blessing! - and I caught the saleswoman glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. Uncertain, maybe? Or curious. She didn't laugh. She didn't make fun of me. But I couldn't help but blush, sulking into the back of the stroller. My chest ached with anxiety. My eyes hurt, holding back tears. I wrapped my arms around myself and tried to cover my face.

"It's going to be okay," I said, kneeling down next to the stroller to take a picture of the clothes on the rear racks - true to the clerks word, they were very ornate and childish, very classic Lolita-esque Victorian. Click. Click. I stood up and flashed her a smile as Betsy moved in predatorily to unbuckle her. Here we go.

Betsy used a magnet key on her bracelet to undo the buckle, but I didn't get out of the seat. I wasn't doing this! I wasn't playing dress up in a shopping mall! I'd stay in this damn stroller all damn day! But Betsy had other plans. She picked me up under the arms and set me down on my feet. The shopkeeper was a few inches taller than me and did her best not to stare.

"Uhhh well... those ones are the most... erm..."

Childish was the word she was looking for. I tugged my dress down as far as I could and avoided speaking at all costs.

Two other workers from across the store were staring, probably because the dress that Leona had been put in wasn't long enough to cover her diaper in front and back at the same time, and she was flashing everybody. The cameraman made sure to capture them, discretely, while I got a good shot of her exposed rear padding. It was my job, after all.

"Baby Luvs, what do you like the look of? I know you love the frills and pastel colors, and you prefer your dresses short, don't you now?"

The saleswoman looked so fucking uncomfortable. Even more than I was! I looked up at her with a blush and tried to stammer out an answer, an apology, anything! But words wouldn't come out. My chest rose and fell and I realized my breathing was a little shallow. What was I supposed to say? What was I supposed to do? I looked back at the cameras and felt tears in my eyes. I wanted to go home...

I couldn't understand what I did next, but I did it anyway.

"She likes frills and pastels, but maybe something more mature? She's not a baby, after all, she's very mature for her age." I turned my head and winked at her. And then I said something I knew would drive Betsy crazy.

"Do you have anything like that? She's my girlfriend and she's important to me, and she's not so good at walking around, but she just wants to look cute, you know?"

Fuck Betsy. Fuck Abe. Fuck it all. I wasn't going to let them torture Leona like this. And honestly, they'd probably strip a lot of the audio from this outing anyway and just use the video in a montage; Abe wasn't dumb.

The saleswoman looked visibly relieved, smiled happily, and reached for another rack of clothes. "These ones were a top seller. I think teens are really getting into the "Lolita" thing, you know? And you should check out Hot Topic for some dresses. It's not all skulls and chains anymore."

"Th-thanks," I managed, grabbing Jackie's hand in mine. "Um, I sort of like that one, actually..." The pink one with the apron was actually kind of cute.

If Betsy wanted this to ruin Leona, to break her down, then she was going to fail. Her camera crony could shoot up her skirt all they wanted, but I was going to keep this girl safe.

"What do you think, doll?" I elected not to use her name in case they did keep some of the audio, "I think you'd look so cute in that, do you want me to help you try it on?"

"That's an excellent idea, Baby Luvs, how about you and your little playmate take a few dresses to try on?" I did not like the way she referred to me.... but Leona had to come first.

"Wanna do that, doll?" In for a penny, in for a pound.

The clerk was excited to leave us alone, I could tell. And the cameraman couldn't join us in the changing room. Even though he passed Jackie the little GoPro camera off his belt buckle, things were starting to look up. Jackie clipped the camera to the top of her shirt and led me into the changing room.

"I'm glad you're doing this and not Betsy," I muttered, but Jackie hushed me. "Stay in character," she mouthed, tapping the GoPro.

"That's what I'm here for, cutie." I spoke, not in any character, but enough to placate any audience. "This is something you should share with me, not with your Mommy, right?"

I closed the door behind us and hung up the four different dresses on the hook, turning to face with the mirror... which showed me and Leona right there on camera, and the off-set mirror showed her diaper. Gosh what a couple we made. I was at a loss for words.

Jackie pulled my overall dress over my head with the t-shirt and left me in nothing but the thick pink diaper, breasts round and exposed. Embarrassingly enough, this was more my element. A diaper and topless. I wished I was back at the studio... deep breath. Play the part, Leona.

"Am I still dry?" I asked in baby talk. "I dunno when I have at-cidents..."

Now it was my turn to blush. I set my DSLR down and put one hand right on her cheek and the other I ran up her thigh.

"Let's see what we have here..."

I didn't know much about diaper intimacy, but - and I made sure the camera saw all of this in the mirror - this had to count for some of it. My fingertips crept into the leg gather of her diaper and my face got closer to hers, forehead eventually touching forehead, lips close to each other.

I could smell her perfume. Her lip gloss shined under the overhead lights. I forgot about the mirror. I forgot about the diaper. She took her finger out of the leg band and stepped back. It was like snapping awake, coming back to the real world.

"Nope, still dry! I'm so proud of you."

Proud of... me? I looked up at her with bewilderment.

"Let's get you dressed."

"Uh huh."

"I think you're going to like this one the most." I knew her by now. I knew that the subtle frills would be something she fidgeted with, I knew the shorter skirt area would show off her diaper from the right angles. Deep down she liked that - but she liked to have control over it. I knew she'd like the gingham. I knew she'd like the design on the front, and the puffy shoulders that all came together to both disguise and accentuate her flat chest. I knew Leona Whittaker. And I knew my heart was fucking racing, too.

Half an hour later, we were walking out of the store with the gingham dress in a shopping bag and I was in a much better mood. Sure, I was wearing a stupid kid's dress and I had to walk perfectly straight to hide the diaper, but whatever!

"Luvs," Betsy said strictly, and I turned around to look at her. "You should be in your stroller."

"Nuh uh. I can walk."

"I bet we have a bunch more places to go, doll, how about you relax and take a load off, and maybe after lunch when you wanna burn some energy you can walk some?" Honestly, Betsy had no idea how to handle Leona, she thought it was all about barking orders. It wasn't. Leona was a complicated, prideful girl, and to get what you wanted you had to make it seem like it was the best choice for her to make. I smiled, hopefully, squeezing her hand.

"That sounds like a good idea, right?"

I looked at Jackie with a pout and then down at the stroller. At least when I was sitting in the stroller, you couldn't see my diaper... I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.

"I guess that makes sense." I climbed into the stroller and Betsy looked a little annoyed. Why? She got her way, didn't she?