Hi. –Ducks flying fruit- I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I know I promised this chapter all the way back in August last year. It's just that school and other things has been so hard lately.

Luna- Yah. They get the message. Just get on with the story. These people have waited long enough for it.

True. I'll continue rambling later.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Animorphs.

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to Mersang to whom I promised this chapter so long ago. And whose encouragement got this chapter finished. Enven though ti's extremely late.

The Vacation


Ax

After we left Eerk's house Rachel brought us to the bank. A bank is where humans put their money because they have too much of it to keep with them. This human custom still confuses me a bit though Elfangor seemed to understand it well enough. He went inside while I waited with Tobias and Rachel across the street.

From where we were standing the most delicious scents were reaching my nose. Looking around I pinpointed where the smell was coming from.

It was a small place where humans sell food items two buildings down.

"Mmmm. That pizza sure smells good." Rachel remarked after a minute of waiting.

"Yah, it does." Tobias remarked "It's been a while since I had pizza."

At that moment Elfangor walked out of the bank with a rectangular piece of plastic like Rachel has.

"I still have all my money from before the Ellimist took me from Earth." He remarked smiling.

"That's great. At least the Ellimist did something good." Rachel said with what I seem to recognize as anger in her voice. I also notice her briefly brush Tobias's hand in what seemed to be a comforting manner though it could as well have been an accident.

"So to the mall next?" Elfangor asked but before anyone could answer him a funny rumbling noise could be heard from Rachel. We all looked at her as her cheeks turned a light shade of red.

"Well it's been a while since we've eaten and it's almost six." Rachel replied looking at her watch. "I suppose we have time to stop for dinner before we hit the stores. The mall doesn't close 'till 10:30."

"That's fine with me. It has been so long since I've had the pleasure of eating Earth food." Elfangor remarked.

"Ok. How are you three doing on morph time?"

"We have approximately 73 of your minutes left." I replied promptly as we headed down the street towards the appetizing smell.

" 'Your minutes?'" Elfangor asked.

"Don't ask." Rachel promptly replied as we all entered the restaurant. "You guys grab a table and I'll order. Anything anyone wants in particular."

"Pepperoni." Elfangor replied promptly.

"Umm… Anything just as long as there's some meat on it." Tobias spoke up.

"Ok and Ax…How about I just get you something with everything on it."

"Yes I think that would be for the best." Tobias said smiling slightly. "Com'on I see a free table." With that the three of us left Rachel standing on line for the food.

We sat down at the round table. Tobias sat on one side of me and Elfangor on the other. There was an empty space between my brother and my shrom obviously for Rachel. On the side of the table there were three little cases. I picked on up to look at it. I realized that the one with the pure white substance was salt while the other one was pepper. I was proud of myself for figuring this out. The third container confused me though. I just could not decipher what it was. I was about to empty some of it out onto the table to get a closer look at it before Tobias reached over the table and took it out of my hands.

"Ax-man, don't play with the cheese."

"But I thought cheese was a yellow square food item that goes on sandwiches and burgers. Urger. Ur."

"Ax. Stop playing with sounds." Elfangor looked at us with a small smile and a low chuckle could be heard from him. At the noise Tobias looked up instantly alert, but when he caught my bother's eye he looked down to the cheese holder he had taken from me. We all sat in awkward silence until Rachel came to take her seat at the table.

"The food'll be here soon." She was right as a lady carrying four slices of pizza approached the table and set the slices down in front of us.

I watched as Elfangor picked up his slice and took a bit out of it. I knew how completely overpowering the taste of grease could be to someone who had never known the pleasure of taste before. I watched to see how my older brother would handle it. I noticed Rachel watch him as well, ready to jump up if he started to act up.

We all sat there watching my brother, but he just took his bit and closed his eyes tilting his head back slightly.

"Mmm… I forgot how good having a sense of taste was." Opening his eyes he look back at us. "Sorry. It's just been so long."

"I know what you mean." Tobias spoke up finally. Rachel turned to him shocked and I watched Elfangor's face light up. "Hawks can't taste much either. It's rather shocking at first." And with that he took a bite out of his slice of pizza.

Rachel caught my eye and smiled as she took a bit out of her slice. We finished the pizza in silence and we were just getting up to leave when Rachel turned to my brother.

"So, just how much do you have to spend. I have to know my budget."

"I believe I have several hundred thousands in my back account." Rachel's eyes widened and one look at Tobias's face led me to believe this was a large amount for one human to have.

"Well what are we waiting for? The mall is calling."

"Oh no." Tobias whispered to me while Elfangor looked at us confusion evident on his face.


We morphed into our individual bird morphs behind the restaurant and flew over to the mall. We landed one by one on the roof and demorphed/ remorphed into human. Rachel and Tobias were the first one's done morphing since they only had to go through one transformation, so they went to get the clothing we had placed there before for times like this.

Each of us had a separate set of clothes that Rachel declared 'Fit us perfectly'. I have not always been sure of this declaration because I had always thought of human clothing as tight and restricting. But then again Andalites are normally rather claustrophobic creatures.

Rachel held Prince Jake's set of jeans and T-shirt and gave them to Elfangor.

"You and Jake are just about the same size." He just nodded and put the clothing on. I was still amazed that Elfangor knew exactly where each article of clothing went. But then again, he had spent a significant amount of time with the humans.

I turned to look for Tobias and I spotted him near the stairs down to the rest of the mall.

"The coast is clear. Let's go before someone comes."

"We're coming. We only have two hours and I'm not planning on wasting any of it."


One hour latter the three of us were sitting exhausted outside yet another store as Rachel searched though the racks for yet another item of clothing she deemed necessary.

"How much longer do we have in morph?" Tobias asked me looking tiered.

"We have 49 minutes left." I told him. He just rolled his eyes upward.

"I never knew someone could shop for that much this fast." Elfangor whispered over to us. "Even Loren never went this crazy." He stopped suddenly and looked over at Tobias who had tilted his head at the floor at Elfangor's words.

"What is wrong now?" I asked to both of them hoping for an answer. I was still rather confused at Tobias's reluctance to speak with my brother. Elfangor was his father; I would assume that he would want to get to know him well.

"Loren was my mother." Tobias whispered so softly that I barely caught it.

"Tobias, come here." I looked over at Tobias's face as he struggled to his feet and around the piles of bags we had acquired.

"What Rachel?"

"Try this on."

"Me?"

"Yes, you." She shoved several cloths at him. He grabbed them shocked. "But…"

"No but. I don't know if you've noticed but the cloths we managed to get from your uncle's house no longer fit you properly. And you can't keep wearing Jake's things."

"But…" he looked over at us. "I don't have any more money."

"Tobias, you don't have to worry about money." Elfangor said getting up. "Use mine. Ellimist knows I have plenty of it and it's not doing anyone good sitting in the bank."

"But…"

"Tobias, no. You're my son and I have to insist. I might have not been able to be there for you before but I want to be now." I looked at both my brother and Tobias before he turned away taking the clothes Rachel had given him to the dressing room. Just before he looked away I thought I saw his eyes glimmer in the light. I believe thy were tears but he had his back to me before I could be sure.

Elfangor sat back down as Rachel went to follow Tobias.

"Why won't he talk to me, Aximili?" I looked at my bother with my eyes opened in shock. Normally it was the younger brother going to the older one for advice. Yet I knew that Elfangor needed help. I call Tobias my shrom. In human terms this is a best friend. Elfangor had to understand Tobias before he could approach him and I was the best person to tell him. I knew Elfangor and I knew Tobias.


Elfangor and I talked about Tobias for a good 20 minutes. There was so much to tell but so little time to tell it. I had just finished telling my brother about how Tobias got trapped in his hawk morph when Tobias and Rachel made their way back to us. Tobias had two more bags to add to our growing collection.

"Ok, break time's over. Get up. We still have two more hours and so many stores to cover."

"But we need to demorph." Tobias whispered urgently.

"I know." Rachel whispered back. "That is why I suggest we take a restroom stop before we continue."

Tobias, Elfangor, and I looked at each other and took a large sigh. We were all exhausted, but Rachel hadn't even started yet.


After two more hours of torture the mall finally closed and the four of us were left standing outside the mall with about 15 bags from various stores. I caught Tobias glance wistfully at the sky before looking back down at all the bags we had.

"So how are we getting all these things to Erek's house?" Tobias looked to Rachel who had taken out her mobile communicator. I believe humans call them cell phones. Though cells are infinitely smaller than what she had.

"I'm calling Erek right now." She talked for a bit on the phone before turning it off and turning to us. "He should be here in ten minutes."

"A car? What kind of car?" Elfangor looked interested. Rachel just shrugged.

"Who knows what a bunch of androids drive."

"I think we're running short on morph time." Tobias said as he glanced once more at the sky.

"We have 38 of your minutes left in our present morphs." I told him.

"Tobias you'll be fine."

"Well yah, but this body is so restricting." He glanced at Rachel and added. "I know I was born with this body but these eyes and I fell so weighted down."

"I think the weight might be all these bags." Elfangor spoke up smilling at him. Tobias returned smile and Rachel rolled her eyes. I knew that this was not the first time they had had this discussion. I knew how much Rachel wanted Tobias to remain human. Yet Tobias was truly my brother's son. If in no other way he had Elfangor's spirit. As long as he had something to fight for he would continue fighting.


Done. Finally.

Luna- Yay.

Ok. School will be over soon, but then I shall be going of to governors school for four weeks. I'm not sure if I'll be able gat access to a computer there for my own uses so I'm going to put up a sort of contest. Which ever of my fics gets the most reviews by Tuseday 14, 2005 I will update before I leave for governors school. –hinthint- the rest of my fics I will be working on at gov school. If I can't get to a computer I'll be working on written copies.

Luna- Anythingelse.

Oh yah. I have finally decided to get myself a Beta for all my fics. I'm accepting Betas for a single fic or for whole categories. If you are interested just leave a review and what you want to Beta. I'll be willing to return the favor by being a plot Beta. Grammer and English have never been my strong points but I can usually spot any plot holes.

Thanks for your patients with my lack of updating.

Moonwolf (I want my star back)