Christmas was over. After Christmas sales were beginning, and all the world was a buzz. Meanwhile, GWANAN sat snug in their airship, flying above everyone. It was while they drank hot chocolate that Ven said, “Hey! Ally, don’t you still need a coat?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah! I do. I was hoping one of you would get it for me for Christmas, but I guess not. I’ll go today. They may have a sale going,” Ally replied.
“I’ll go with you. Maybe I’ll use my date certificate tonight,” Konrad thought out loud.
“No! Not a chance!”
“Why not? It’s your Christmas present to me, right?”
“No! Well, I mean, yeah, but I didn’t want it to be so soon, during the busy season. I was thinking it would be best to go when things are less crowded.” Ally explained. Though to me, it seemed like a complete lie.
“But it’ll be cheaper and you can get it out of the way and not worry about it anymore, right? Lets go tonight!” Konrad tried to convince her.
“No, well, we can go tonight, just don’t go shopping with me.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m afraid you’ll see something you like and buy it and waste your money.” This too, appeared to be a lie.
“I promise I wont spend any extra money. Cross my heart.”
“No, I can’t trust you. Besides, I have to borrow your coat in order to buy one, I don’t want you to go cold.”
“You can borrow Ven’s instead.”
So, after much more arguing, the reluctant Ally Kat finally had no more reasons he couldn’t go with her and they ended up going together. This was when all was revealed....
~*F*~
“Ally, are you okay?” Kon
asked.
“Huh? I’m fine. Just fine,”
Ally replied, wringing her hands nervously.
“Are you sure? You seem nervous.”
“Well, I’ve never gone shopping
with anyone before,” Ally replied.
“Not even Blake?”
“No, I- Hang on. How do you know
about Blake?” Ally asked, suddenly stopping and looking at Kon.
“Ven told me about him. He said he
was in love with you and then you turned him down, faked your death
and left. I’ve never heard of anyone who wanted to avoid a
relationship so much that they faked their own death.”
“I never faked my death! I was shot
and fell down in the sewer. I wasn’t faking anything! I just never
showed up again. You should know that better than anyone. They
probably figured out by now that I’m not dead.”
“Hmmm.... Hey. This is your home
town right? Isn’t it really close to In-between town?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Maybe you should go visit him and
let him know you’re alright.”
“Huh? No! No, no, no, no, no, no,
no! It’s too soon. He’s probably just finally getting over his
feelings for me. It would be cruel to show up now and renew them just
to leave again.”
“I doubt it. What if he has a
girlfriend now?”
“Then good for him. Now, are we
going to get that coat or not?”
“Sure. I’m just glad you’re
back to yourself and not wringing your hands and shaking all the
time.”
Ally gave him a glare at first, then
it gradually turned to a smile. She found she couldn’t get mad at
him now that her nervousness was gone.
“That’s really weird though, that
you’ve never been shopping with anyone before. Why don’t you ever
go with anyone?”
“I guess I just never get the
opportunity.” Ally said simply.
Konrad gave her a suspicious side
glance. They arrived at a coat store and stepped inside. Everywhere
they looked, coats hung in row after row after row. Ally began
backing away, but Konrad grabbed her arm and walked her over to the
ladies section.
“Alright, what color, do you like?
Ally?”
Ally stood, far back, away from the
coats, her face flushed. “Ah, I’ll be right back,” she said. “I
need to go to the restroom.” She quickly dashed away from Konrad
until she was out of sight. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ally found a
water fountain and took a drink to calm herself down.
Konrad waited for a while for her to
come back, browsing through the coats and thinking of how most of
them had fake pockets. If they’re going to put fake pockets, why
not just make real ones? It makes no sense, he
thought. “What’s taking that girl so long?” Kon said to
himself. “Maybe I should go look for her.” Kon put back the coat
and walked towards the girl’s bathroom. Out of the corner of his
eye, Kon glimpsed Alameda looking at some gloves and was about to
call out to her, when he noticed something. Ally was looking at them
with such a dreamy look on her face. Boy, she must really
like those gloves. I’ve never seen her look so dreamy about
something before, Kon thought.
Ally then sighed and put the gloves back on the wrack and was about
to turn around, then stopped and saw another pair. She quickly ran
and grabbed them and tried them on. Doing the same thing for several
more gloves, scarves and hats, Ally finally tried on one of each at
once and stood in front of the mirror with them. She gazed at herself
with much excitement and jumped up and down, spun around, and made
many poses. Just as she was flipping her hair back in an exaggerated
manner, she noticed the Kon in the mirror standing behind her and
stopped, her face turning bright red with embarrassment. Trying hard
not to laugh, Kon approached her and pretending not to have noticed,
he asked, “Oh, so this is where you were Ally? What were you doing?
Don’t you already have a hat and gloves and scarf?”
Ally, taking the
bait and thinking he must not have seen her, calmly took them off,
putting them back on the rack. “I was just trying them on to figure
out if Carumati might like them. She said hers were getting kind of
worn out.”
“Didn’t she
just get some for Christmas?”
“Oh, yeah. I- I
guess I forgot.”
“Silly, hurry
up and lets find you a coat.” Kon turned away from her and revealed
his smile, trying so very hard not to laugh out loud.
They returned to
the coats and Kon handed her one to try on. She stood as stiff as a
board with it on, but as soon as Kon turned around, he sneaked a
glance back at her and found her quickly spin and flap her arms
about. He turned back around and Ally immediately resumed her stiff
position. “What do you think?” he asked her.
“Oh, it’s
okay I guess,” she said, putting it back on the rack.
“Then why are
you putting it back?”
“Because I want
to try on oth- uh, because I think the sleeves were a bit too short
on me.
“Oh, okay. Then
how about this? Doesn’t it look nice?” Kon pulled out a bright,
yellow coat that he knew she would hate and turned around and snuck a
glance again. She took one look and immediately put it back again.
“It’s too big,” she stated. Kon continued this many more times
with her, and then said he was thirsty and would go get a drink, but
really hid behind the mirror and watched from there. Ally quickly
began trying on tons of coats and twirling and strutting down the
aisles. Kon returned and Ally assumed a casual look about her. “Here,
I want this one, lets go.” Kon grinned as she walked away and then
they checked out and left the store.
“So
where do you want to go for our date?” Kon asked. But Ally didn’t
answer. Noticing she was no longer beside him, he turned to find her
looking in the store window. He walked back to her and saw she was
looking at some really adorable cat earmuffs.
“Kon. Stop me.
Now.”
“Huh?”
Ally turned and
looked up at him with puppy dog eyes. “I really really want them!”
Kon smiled.
“Ally, are you by any chance the kind of person who can’t resist
anything when they go shopping?” Ally’s face turned red again as
she whimpered and nodded her head in a frustrated way. “Ha! Who
would have known that Ally Kat would have this side to her? And she’s
always so tight with money too. Alright, alright, stop looking at me
like that. You know, I didn’t really intend for that mistletoe to
be your Christmas present. Come on, I’ll go buy you the earmuffs,
your red hat would really clash with your new coat anyway.”
Kon lead her
inside and bought her the earmuffs. When they went out of the store,
Ally was too embarrassed to wear them.
“I didn’t
want anyone to find out my weakness like that.”
“Don’t be so
embarrassed. You looked really cute when you were twirling about
earlier in the store and flapping your arms like a duck.” Next
second, Konrad found himself lying on the ground, his whole face
stinging, and Ally stomping away. “Ah, well. It was worth it.”
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