/\/\/\
"Hey guys." Four heads turned slowly in her direction. "Does anyone have any changes of clothing with them? No? Then we'd better..."
Four screams brought the boys running, only to discover everyone as whole as they had been previously, but crowded into one corner of the room, as far away from Dana as was humanly possible.
"What's the matter?" Quatre demanded.
Rain extended a shaky hand and pointed at Dana. "Sh-sh-she wants us to go... to go... to go..."
"Shopping!" Charamei cried. "WITH HER!"
"That's all?" Wufei demanded.
"Sure we can go shopping!" Quatre proclaimed. Four glares turned on him.
"Whose side are you on?" Elenbay demanded.
"Oh, come on, it's just shopping," Duo said. "Aren't you exaggerating just a teensy little bit?"
"We told you," Rain muttered sulkily. "You should never let Dana Minutia anywhere near a clothes shop, not if you want her to come out alive."
"She usually comes out alive," Elenbay corrected.
"Not this time."
"Ah... uh-oh."
"Uh-oh what?... Uh-oh." Rain, unfortunately, hadn't noticed Dana looking for a new victim, and as such was pounced on even as the others were backing away and Crystal was systematically replacing every item of clothing Dana had picked out for her on the racks. "You cowards," she hissed as she was dragged over to a rack of skirts.
"Yep," Charamei said cheerfully. "But we're safe cowards." To the others she added, "Right people, here's what we do..."
"I think this would really go with your hair, you know," Dana sang out as she held up a dress.
A pink dress.
"Dana," Rain said in a voice that was far too nice and calm and polite, "do you by any chance have a DEATH WISH?" She grabbed the dress and shoved it back onto the rack. "It's pink, and it's a dress."
"Exactly," the other girl said, nodding cheerily. "It's about time you started wearing girl's clothes, Rain. And pink's the in thing right now."
"You sound like the mother I never had," Rain retorted, heading for sportswear.
At least, that was the plan. Unfortunately, what actually happened was that she walked about two feet before being grabbed by the arm and yanked back to where she had originally been standing; Dana had just found a pink T-shirt in her size.
"Hey, Dana," Charamei called suddenly from somewhere behind Dana, "we just found something that would look fantastic with your hair! Come here, I bet you'll love it!"
"In a moment," Dana called.
"There's only one left!"
"I'm on my way!" Dana turned to Rain and dumped the T-shirt on her. "Stay." She ran off, and as she did so Elenbay tapped Rain on the shoulder.
"Run," she said quietly. "Meet us in sportswear." And with that, she disappeared.
Rain didn't need to be told twice. She hastily hung the T-shirt back on the rack and took off as quickly and quietly as possible, becoming even quicker and quieter as she passed the sound of Dana and Charamei having their old argument about whether Dana should tie her hair back or not; apparently, the `thing that would look good with Dana's hair` had been a hair tie and the part about there being only one left had been a blatant lie.
I underestimate these guys, she thought as she entered the safety of the sportswear department, where Elenbay and Crystal were already picking clothes they liked. Aloud she said, "Where're the boys?"
Crystal wrinkled her nose in thought. "Wufei said it wouldn't work because it's a girls' plan and he's safer where he is, Duo was enjoying watching Charamei berate Dana about her hair, Heero wanted to stay with Duo, and Quatre and Trowa... uh... pass."
"Right. And where's Charamei?"
"What's the time?" Elenbay asked, even as she checked her watch. "Oh, right. In that case... probably getting a complete wardrobe in pink. Unless the argument lasted for longer than usual, or she got away. Somehow."
"I got away," Charamei said from behind them. "I told her that if she tried to do my clothes I'd try to do her hair ties and make sure she used them, and she gave up." She paused. "I think she's starting on Heero now."
"Heero doesn't need new clothes," Crystal said. "I mean, he hasn't crashed into any buildings in another time zone recently, has he?"
"No, but Dana said... what was it now? Oh yeah. `Anyone who dresses like that is seriously in need of a new wardrobe, and Rain's living proof of it`, or something like that... Rain, you're not considering going back down there, are you?"
"For that, she dies," Rain said calmly, heading for the stairs.
"Rain, it's dangerous down there! It's a clothes shop with Dana in it! And she hasn't finished your shopping yet!"
"She won't have time," Rain called over her shoulder.
But the sound of the lesser spotted Dana was coming from the men's shirts, and Rain needed one for her collection. She snuck closer, and nearly blew her cover laughing the second she was close enough to make out her friend's words. She parted the clothes of one final rack and there was Dana, completely oblivious to the danger she was in. She seemed to have given up on the pink, but fluorescent orange seemed to be about as persuasive, despite the suggestion that it would both `put some colour into Heero's cheeks` and `go with his eyes`.
Heero didn't seem to believe what he was hearing, an affliction quite common with first-time shopping partners of Dana; but he had obviously been standing there for a while, and as Rain watched he calmly snatched the clothes from Dana, looked at them for a second as if contemplating ripping them in two, then put them back on the rack and walked off, presumeably to find Quatre and Trowa. Dana shrugged and turned on Duo, who up until this point had found the whole proceedings extremely funny.
Rain sat and watched for a while, occasionally being forced to retreat so she could laugh her head off as Dana tried to convince Duo that the best thing he could do with his hair would be to put it in a high bun, pin small pink butterflies all over it then tie a huge pink bow around the front. They say a face is worth a thousand words, but Duo's was worth a book. A very long book, with very tiny print.
Rain went to get the others when her friend started trying to actually perform this hairdressing miracle, to see how it would look. It would be too good a chance to miss... surely somebody had a camera?
"The second time," Crystal corrected. "She did manage to get Charamei once."
"Only because I didn't understand what she was saying," the latter grumbled. "I thought she wanted to borrow my hairbrush."
"Oh, was that what happened? All we saw was you walking straight into the lion's den, and giving the lion a knife and fork and napkin, so to speak."
"Yeah, well, I never let her do it again, did I?"
"We're there," Rain said, stopping the impending argument as they began to edge closer, attracting the attention of one Chang Wufei as they did so; he was apparently beginning to give in to his curiosity, as every time Rain went past he seemed to be a little closer to the danger zone.
Crystal, unfortunately, had left her camera at the base, which was mildly
inaccessible from a shopping mall five hundred years into the future. A/n;
WWIII, when the girls come from, happened/will happen in about 3510-3515>
Since none of the others had anything even resembling a camera, it was
reluctantly decided that they would simply have to memorise as much as
possible then get Elenbay to draw some pictures when they got back. They
hurriedly set to work and were just preparing to commit Dana's version
of a prom night hairdo to memory when Wufei fell through the racks of clothing,
having evidently got a little too close. Several garments fell on top of
him, and it was perhaps this that led Dana to allow Duo to escape as she
shrieked:
"Oh, Wufei, that's really you! Hold on a
minute, I bet this'd go perfectly with it... yes!"
"Bring out his inner emotional clashes," Dana supplied.
"`Clashes` sounds about right," Charamei muttered. "Dana, where do you get this stuff from? You haven't even known him a week!"
The girls were still arguing as they spilled into the house, though it had now degenerated to old vengeances and good-natured sniping, neither of which were particularly uncommon. In fact, they were so wound up in their argument that they barely noticed when they were asked - politely - if they would be so good as to make dinner, a request which would normally have put them on their guard immediately when coming from a member of the opposite sex.
The next morning when the same thing happened, they started to notice something. But when, straight after breakfast, one boy after to other walked up to the girls and dumped a pile of dirty linen on them, they were unanimous; chauvinists at sixteen needed to be taught a lesson, and to be taught it quickly.
