REDG: Just another fun chapter! X and Aiko go on a D-A-T-E and Tori meets up with someone. My question is, how come Tori is such a ditz in this chapter?


Chapter 15

Date!

X and Aiko walked out of the castle with everyone else after lunch.

Zidane winked at Vivi, and Tori saying, "Well, I gotta go run a few errands, so I'll be off!"

Vivi watched him run off and stuttered, "Y-yeah! M-me to!" and wandered off in a different direction.

"Well, I'M gonna get my hair done!" Tori announced proudly and ran off, "See you two later!"

X and Aiko just stood there for a second, wondering what to do next. Finally, X mumbled, "Ummm...so you wanna walk around for a while?"

"S-sure!" she said nervously and pointed, "Uhhh...so how about we go that way?"

He nodded and they started walking down the street, every once in a while trying to make conversation that always ended in an awkward silence.

"Oh look!" Aiko said pointing at a shop window and ran up to it to look at all the clothes inside. X followed her to look as well, but not at anything in the shop. Aiko turned and looked up at him, "...Is there something on my face?"

"N-n-no!" X exclaimed, quickly looking away.

She went back to looking at a blue shirt that caught her eye, blushing a little. X looked away, embarrassed.

"Did you want to look at something else?" Aiko asked.

"No! I'm fine!"

"Really?"

"Really"

Awkward silence.

"So...ummm..." X said, trying to figure out what to say and then noticed Aiko was staring at something behind him. He turned and saw a guy selling brightly-coloured balloons, "Oh, did you want one?"

"Hm? Oh, no! That's alright!" she said quickly and looked back into the shop window.

"aww...c'mon. Which colour?" he asked.

She giggled, "green I guess"

"Green it is then!" he said, and ran to catch up with the balloon-guy. He ran back a minute later with a bright green balloon, and handed it to Aiko. She smiled cheerfully and then frowned.

"I don't have anything to give you" she said.

X shrugged, "Its just a balloon, so I don't mind"

She smiled again and said excitedly, "Hey! I know!" and reach back to pull the dark red ribbon out of her hair and gave it to X, "Its for good luck!"

"Wow, thanks" he said, grinning and tried to put his hair in a ponytail with the ribbon.

Aiko laughed, "Here, you want some help?". He nodded and she reached up to take it out of his hair.

He smiled at her and said quietly, "Hey Aiko?"

"Yeah?"

"You know...you're smile is bea-"

And got cut off by Vivi, who seemed to run up to them out of nowhere, "Guess what! I got a free kupo nut from this lady at a store!"

Tori stopped running and slowed down to a walk once Aiko and X were out of her sight and started looking for a hair salon. She walked into a random store and yelled, "Do you cut hair here?!"

Everyone inside stopped whatever it was they were doing and stared at her. After a while, a guy at the counter said slowly, "No...we sell food here. It says so on the sign outside"

"Really?" Tori asked and ran outside to check the sign. She ran back in and said happily, "It DOES! That's neat!"

A kid that was standing in the check-out line with his mum, asked quietly, "Mum, is she retarded?"

"Shhh, honey! The term is 'Mentally Challenged'" the lady said to him quietly, and looked at Tori with a forced smile.

Tori pretended she didn't hear that and skipped outside, reading off the signs that she passed, "Clothes, food, more food, music, hair salon, some more clothes...hey wait! ...H-A-I-R S-A-L-O-N! That's gotta be it!"

She walked right in and went to a counter at the front of the shop. A girl looked up at her, "Yes? Can I help you?"

"Do you cut hair here?" Tori asked excitedly.

The girl rolled her eyes and pointed at another girl who was cutting some other person's hair, "Yeah" and then she looked up at the horn on Tori's head, "You know that hair ornaments like that are SO outta fashion, right?"

"ITS NOT A HAIR ORNAMENT!" Tori yelled. She was about to say more, but cut off when she heard someone laughing. She spun around furiously to find a certain silver-haired guy getting a manicure, nail polish and all.

He grinned, "Oh, its you again! Didn't think I'd actually run into you"

"KUJAKU!" Tori fumed, "I'm still mad at you!"

"Because I supposedly forgot you? I remember your name at least," he said, still grinning, "Tori Kiiroi, right?"

"You DID forget me, dumbass! Not this 'supposedly' crap! You only remember my name cos I had to remind you a few days ago! How could you forget me? We bloody well grew up together!"

The lady at the counter walked up to Tori and said, "Could you two please go outside and deal with this? Your scaring the costumers"

"Yeah" Tori said "Why don't we go outside, huh?"

"Aw, but my nails aren't don yet" Kuja said with a fake pout.

Tori leaned in until her nose was an inch away from his and repeated through gritted teeth, "Why don't we go outside?"

"Whatever you wish!" he said pleasantly and got up to walk outside, "Lovely day, isn't it?"

"Don't you go changing the subject!" Tori snarled, "And anyways, your telling me that you just flat out can't remember your childhood?"

He shrugged, "I guess so. I can't remember any of it. Not just you, but all of it. There's just a blank"

Tori stared dumbly.

Grrrrrowwwl...

She looked down at her stomach angrily and said, "Hey! Can't ya see I'm having a sad moment here! Food later!"

Kuja was trying hard to not laugh and Tori gave him a look that said, 'your NOT helping'.

"Do you want to get something to eat?" he asked.

She thought for a minute and said, "Sure. How about ice cream?"

"Alright" he said, relieved she wasn't mad at him anymore.

"Oh, and by the way, bribery won't get you anywhere" Tori said slyly, "I'm still mad at you"

REDG: man, poor guys. They can't catch a break. lol! Anywho, thanks for the reviews people! keep em comming! love!