"Hey there, Kotori!" Yuma shouted as he ran to their meeting spot, mouth split into a wide grin as his spiked red hair swayed in the day's light wind.
"Yuma!" Kotori stood stiff as a board, a pout gracing her lips. "You're late."
"Sorry, Kotori, Astral was being really annoying today," he cast a sidelong glance into empty air. Kotori imagined a spirit looking quite perturbed, arms folded and face stoic as always, that he was the one being held responsible for their tardiness. A few chuckles escaped from her quickly fading look of anger. "It so was your fault, you wanted to watch that thing about Robin on the net!" Kotori rolled her eyes, but couldn't hide her smile. "Whadda you mean I lost track of time, maybe you should try to look at it sometimes."
"Hey Yuma," Kotori interrupted the one-sided conversation. "Do you want to go shopping now?"
Yuma shivered and shook his head as he turned to stare at Kotori, as if noticing her for the first time. "Oh, yeah, sure," he had a dazed look and unfocused red eyes.
"Come on, then," Kotori ignored the bizarre behavior and grabbed Yuma's elbow, pulling to toward the Heartland Mall. "I am going to get you at least something new and good-looking to wear today."
Yuma dragged his feet along the tile floor as he was pulled from store to store, Kotori occasionally stopping in her mad dash through as many stores as possible to admire a particularly beautiful skirt or cute top, chattering away in Yuma's general direction about that shirt being the wrong color, this dress not draping right on her, that jacket's style being tacky.
"Kotori," Yuma huffed out, legs refusing to move forward. "We haven't even bought anything and it's been like three hours." His voice pitched into a whine as he frowned.
Kotori turned around and rested her chin on her hand as she laughed, "Shopping isn't about buying thing, silly! Come on, the next store has some really cute shoes," she squeezed Yuma's hand and began walking again, at a much slower pace this time. A blush dusted her cheeks as Yuma walked with her.
Yuma stared off into space, oblivious. What the heck is shopping about it it's not about actually getting things? He sighed inwardly, completely ignoring the girl by his side.
