After Ariak Invader Len and IntenseInsanity

[Invader Len]

Kachin laughed, jogging after her, hopping into shady spots to keep cool, avoiding sunny spots like that plague. They soon stopped in front of one of the department stores, Aliens of all sorts enjoying themselves and hiding from the heat. Kachin breathed a sigh of relief as they entered the air conditioned building, his burning skin cooling in the artificial breeze.
"Haaah, sweet relief. So, where do you wanna stop first?" he asked Alice, looking at her with excited orange cat eyes. He'd very rarely visited malls before, even when on the run. Mostly he just ate what he could and deprived himself of fun, putting his duty to the resistance in front of slacking off. Raven had spoken about them extensibly when they were in the academy.

He looked up at the directory, his tail twitching in excitement, occasionally whacking Alice, although he didn't notice.
"Oh, cool! They have an artificial waterfall here! I only hope there aren't any fish. You don't think they put fish in it, right?" he asked, somewhat nervously.

[IntenseInsanity]

Alice glanced around the mall, a small smile parting her lips,

"I want to see the bontiques first, and then maybe the..." she was cut off as Kachin began to enthuse about the waterfall. She gave him a sideways glance before approaching it, "I think it's actually a wishing fountain, they wouldn't be able to keep fish in something like that. It's pretty dapper looking, hmm..." Alice dug into the pocket of her dress, the jingle of coins called out faintly from the fabric. She soon pulled two ten-cent coins, handing one to Kachin. She took the one she had kept and turned around, throwing the coin over her head and into the fountain. She then closed her eyes for a moment and turned back around,

"You try." she urged.

[Invader Len]

He looked at the coin in his hand, confused.
"Why do you throw in money? I see mostly human nation coins. Is it somehow symbolical to humans?" he asked, tossing in the coin. He leaned over to get a better look at the coins inside.
"Um, let's see, German, British, International, Abrahamian, Siber-Nippon, Sudanese, wow, so many human coins. It really must be symbolic to Earthlings, isn't it? Is it some sort of offering to the god of the fountain? We have something like that on Cattar, where you make candies made with poison and then set them on fire to purge evil spirits." he explained.
He put his hands in his pockets, looking up at the top of the water fountain, where there was a bronze statue of Earth, Venus, and the moon. Most of the people around them were humanoids and mutants.

[IntenseInsanity]

Alice shrugged, "I remember it being called a wishing fountain or something. You throw in a coin and make a wish to some imaginary god or something." She answered before dragging him off towards the shops. A smile returned to her face at the sight of a frilly-looking dress store. She stared through the glass, admiring a rather short, puffy-skirted dress, adored with stripes and lines,

" How pretty~" she murmured before entering the shop. It took her a few moments until she found the exact dress in the window, a few more seconds to find her size, and then a few more walking back over to Kachin,

"I'm going to try it on, hang out outside the dressing room, will you?" she ordered before dragging him towards the back of the shop. A curtain hung over a circled room and inside sat one cushioned stool and a mirror. She gave Kachin a warning glare before vanishing behind the curtain,

"I'll be a moment!"

[Invader Len]

Kachin flinched as she gave him her glare, recalling when he'd walked in on her. She must still be angry about that.
"It's not like I want to peek." he muttered under his breath, sighing. He stood up, looking about. There were lots of different kinds of clothes here, from many different cultures. This shop was primarily for classified "Noids", which would be those with two arms, two legs, and one head, plus appendages. Noids were common among alien bodies, and so several stores were devoted solely to them. It was nothing against the millions of other species that weren't Noids, just that it was profitable in Noid majority solar systems.

Despite Alice's order, he wandered off, still in sight of the dressing room. He looked around at some of the men's clothes, wondering what kind Alice liked. She seemed to like frilly and cute things. Did that mean that he had to wear a dress? Not that he minded, he'd worn dresses until he turned Ten, but he wasn't a fan of wearing the kind they sold here.
He crouched down to look at the prices on some of them, his tail flat on the ground, a tempting target for a passing Lupin child, though he decided against it. Best to not pick fights with someone bigger than you.

[IntenseInsanity]

Alice stood in blatant silence, staring at herself in the mirror with wide eyes. It was... Bad visions. She bit her lip to keep from yelping, clenching her fists tightly until her nails drew blood from her palms. Breath, in and out, it's not real, it's not real. They aren't real.

They. In the mirror, three shapes, all piled into one spot. A familiar sight, one that medication almost helped to forget. Medication that she forgot. She felt her breathing hitch, her chest tightening in fear. Alice crumpled onto her knees, clutching the dress to her chest tightly. Breath, breath. Soon the dullness of her eyes cleared and her hitched breathing returned to normal. She gave a small gasp before standing up again. In a half a second she was out of the dressing room, having not tried on the dress which she threw aside with no second thought. She didn't want to see any more mirrors today, so stay away from dressing rooms. Alice glanced up from her thinking, noticing Kachin's disappearance,

"Dumb cat..." she muttered, glancing around the store until she spotted the familiar hunched over shape of her friend. She half heartily wiped the sweat from her forehead, patting her already red cheeks before walking over to his side,

"... What are you looking at?" she asked

[Invader Len]

Kachin let out a yelp and lost his balance, falling face forward into the shelves with a crash, causing several coats to fall on top of him. He rubbed his head, groaning.
"Don't mind me, just expanding my concussion collection." he said, standing up. As he shook the coats off of him, worker bots quickly coming to clean up the mess, he noticed Alice hadn't changed, and looked panicked.
"Alice? Is something wrong? You don't look well." he observed, putting his wrist to her forehead to check for a fever.

[IntenseInsanity]

Alice recoiled when she saw Kachin lift up his wrist, her breathing becoming quicker again. She began to mutter a few things before calming down,

"I'm fine, really. Just feeling a bit.... Achey?" she said with a shrug at the made up word. It was a true statement though, her wounds did ache quite a bit. Maybe all the running and cleaning she did from the night before caused that. She shot him a fake smile before walking towards the store exit,

"I guess we can window shop for awhile... Tell me if you see anything you like." she called back to him with a whispy, weak voice.

[Invader Len]

Kachin frowned, sensing that she wasn't being entirely truthful.
"Don't force yourself, I can tell you're feeling weak. If you'd like, I can carry you?" he offered innocently, concerned that she would injur herself. He didn't understand the significance of being carried in human culture, to him it was just an offer of assistance, nothing romantic. He smelled the scent of blood, taking her wrist, frowning at the nail-inflicted cuts.
"This is fine? That's it. You're being carried until you're feeling better." he said, picking her up bridal style as they walked.
"At least you're pretty light. Not like Raven. She was pretty heavy and her gigantous breasts kept getting in my face, making me want to vomit." he said, trying to make conversation.

[IntenseInsanity]

Alice obeyed with silence, blushing a bright red,

"How pitiful... And Raven was so thin too, I thought she would be as light as me." she muttered, turning to look at her hands. She gave the cuts a few thoughtful licks before pushing them down against her legs. She stared up at Kachin, eyes narrowed. He looks worried...

"I feel fine, you know." she inquired, poking his cheek, a smug grin on her face.