Hello everyone! This took longer than I expected. I couldn't get things to how I actually wanted. I'm sorry if the explanations are kind of...bad? I hope you guys still like this though. Thanks for reading!
It was early Saturday morning and Mai was sitting in front of Lin once again. Instead of the ribbons though there were different color flowers. She stared completely curious about what they were doing now. "So…?"
"You're going to have your eyes closed and you're going to pick the color I say." Lin was getting his recorder out once again.
"Um…I don't mean to point this out or anything, but I can't really distinguish the colors from the feelings. I know the basic knowledge with the colors, but personally I have no idea."
Lin raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean you know the basic knowledge with the colors? From yesterday you can obviously feel them."
"Yes…well that was kind of the first time I felt that kind of pull from them. I know how to see the colors, obviously, so I looked up the information in books. I never tried to really read the auras though. Which…gets complicated honestly. Each aura is different and there are several different colors at play too. These are just the basic, but there are so many different shades of these. Plus…other colors mingling with others. It's all complicated."
"It's not complicated. That's why we're training you more with your aura sensing. It just sounds like you're opening up enough to see the basic colors and not anything else. I'm sure with time you'll understand everything a lot better." He smiled as he pointed to the flowers. "Now let's get started."
She got every single color wrong. She was pretty devastated. She stared down at the different colors just trying to figure out what had happened. She did so well yesterday, so what had happened.
"Mai, you need to relax. You basically said you couldn't pinpoint the colors and the feelings together. It's just something you need to work on. You can't get everything in one go."
She knew he was right, but it just felt like one huge lost. She sighed deeply and leaned against the couch. "I know…but I was hoping. Besides…they all felt very different than the ribbon."
"Yes…Unlike the ribbons these hold different feelings than the ribbons."
"Yeah…I got that much." She sighed and got up to get some water. "Sorry. I guess I just realized how much I really don't know about auras. My other powers I trained really hard, but this one always seemed out of reach."
"Speaking about your other powers…when we were in Japan you really didn't acknowledge them. What happened? I know you said they grew, but something else happened, right?" It was something Lin wanted to ask for a while. If they went to see the monks they could have done something to help her live a normal life. Or something.
Mai glanced at the other for a moment before smiling. She was about to speak before a loud knock came from the front door.
"Mai! We're going out!"
Trista. Mai blinked completely confused as she opened her door. "I'm in the middle of training. Besides, why are we going out?" She was even more shocked when she saw Madoka with Trista. "What is going on…?"
"Are you forgetting the fundraiser tonight? We're going out! Get our nails done, hair, and we're going to buy dresses!" Trista walked into the apartment and started dragging Mai with her.
"What? We already went shopping the other weekend! There is no need to do it again!"
"Just think of it as a girl's day out? It'll be a lot of fun." Madoka walked in to go see what they were actually working on. Different color flowers. She didn't get it at all. "Koujo, we're taking your student for the day. Sorry."
He raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend and shook his head. "Just make sure you don't go overboard. I should head to the office anyways." He moved to get things packed up and leave.
So, a couple hours later Mai found herself standing in a shop surrounded by different kinds of dresses. At least she managed to get them to let her eat. This was an interesting development and it was barely ten in the morning.
She highly doubt they will let her out of the mall without buying a new dress. Which, was a little bit of a hassle. She already had a couple at the apartment.
"What do you think of this one?" Trista came out of the dressing room with a dress that went down to her feet and was a light blue. It hugged her body and the color was really good, but it was just…overly sparkly and very frilly. By very frilly it's like layers upon layers across the whole dress. Where was the actual main dress part?
"Pass." Mai and Madoka said at the same time looking at the other.
Trista looked completely dejected though, so Mai had to add at least something. "The color is good though. You should stick with that at least."
That must have been the right thing to say because Trista was looking at her with a spark in her eyes. "We need to find something for you too!"
Mai rolled her eyes, but laughed. "I know. Don't worry. I'm gonna start looking." Trista seemed happy enough with this and went to go change. "Madoka are you getting a dress, too?"
"That's a good question. I was thinking dark purple? What do you think?" Madoka followed after Mai wanting to look for herself.
"You'll probably look good in whatever you get." Mai started at a random rack and slowly started to go through the dresses.
"Aw! You're so sweet to me. It's been a long time since I've done something like this. I'm usually stuck at the school or helping out the office."
"I'm not used to doing this. This seems kind of out my element…especially after I started doing cases more. This seemed like another world. I had the opportunity to dress up and go shopping with my friends from high school, they both ended up getting married. I was supposed to be part of the weddings though, but I always ended up doing cases at the last minute though and had to cancel." Mai glanced at one of the dresses before deciding to move on. "Ah. I didn't mean to make things weird."
"You didn't make anything weird." Madoka smiled as she pulled one of the dresses out to look at it. "I completely understand. It's hard to live a normal life with what we do, right? Days like these don't happen often and it's probably because you're still getting used to England. What do you think of this dress?" The dress she had picked out was dark purple and around the waist was a lighter shade of purple silk belt. It was floor length and had a layer of lace on the top half.
"You should try it on." Mai smiled as she looked at the dress. It was pretty and she was sure it would look good on her.
"Alright. I'll be right back!" Madoka ran off to try on the dress.
Mai smiled as she went back to looking for the moment. Trista came up beside her with her arms full of different dresses. All of them were very…over the top. "Um…Maybe you should try something simple?"
"What, but I'm into these." She looked down at all her dresses. She was pretty excited about trying them all on.
"We're not going to a ball though. It's just a fundraiser and you don't want to come off to strong…?" She trailed off seeing Trista's face turn sour. "Wait! That's not what I mean." She was struggling for a moment. Usually she is really good with people, but she really couldn't understand with stuff like this. She was okay with simple things when it came to shopping. Anything cheap would be just fine.
"Simple is better for the fundraiser. You draw to much attention with something like a ball dress. No one will know how to approach you." Madoka showed up in the dress she picked out and smiled at the two. "Plus, Liam probably might to awestruck from seeing you to function."
Mai raised an eyebrow looking at the older woman. Very curious how she realized about Trista's crush on the man.
Trista's face went red at the mention of Liam and nodded. "Well…I don't want Liam to look stupid in front of everyone. I'll be back!" She turned around and hurried off to put the dresses away and to look for something else.
"She really likes him." Mai blinked at the reaction before laughing. "I should get more information from her. I wonder if I can get them to dance with each other!" She turned to face the other and looked admired the dress. It was off the shoulder and it hugged her body in a good way. "Woah. That dress is very beautiful on you! Lin is gonna be speechless."
Madoka smiled widely and nodded. "Thank you. I really like it and it's super comfortable. I'm gonna get this one for tonight." She then turned around and planned on changing back into her clothes. "Don't worry. We'll find something for you here in a minute."
Mai just laughed and turned to keep looking around. Of course nothing really caught her eye though. She wasn't really sure what she was looking for though.
"Mai!" Trista called out while running towards her. Which got a glare from one of the workers. "Look at me!" She twirled around showing off the dress she was wearing.
The dress was regular blue, not the lighter one. Up above the waste was plain blue and a ribbon wrapped around her neck working to hold everything together. Below her waist though was a layer of lace that went a bit lower than the actual dress. It was knee length and it was dancing perfectly around her as she twirled.
"Woah. You look really beautiful too!" Mai grinned looking at her friend. "You're absolutely getting the dress for tonight. There is no way you can pass it up."
Trista just smiled more and hugged Mai. "Thank you! You were right! I'm gonna get changed and I'll help you find your dress too!" She pulled away and ran off.
Mai just laughed before turning to look around more. Madoka and Trista both had started to help and every dress they got Mai had shot down.
It was close to noon now and they weren't getting anywhere. "Maybe we should change stores, again?" They had moved around quite a bit since the first store. Hoping they would find something that Mai would like. Madoka was looking at the map in the mall they were at. There were a couple more stores on the higher level.
"The fundraiser starts around five, right? We should be able to look at the other stores and get our nails and hair done." Trista was also looking at the map.
Mai was exhausted. Honestly, she could go without looking at another dress right now. This was a lot more work than she thought it would be. She glanced around her surroundings. They mostly stuck with just stores that sold mostly dresses, because of the whole formal setting.
Her eyes caught one of the regular clothing stores though and she felt that familiar tug in the back of her mind. Her intuition. Which, was probably the most annoying thing of today. It kept telling her everything wasn't right and she has learned to listen to it. Even with everyday things too. Not just case work. She couldn't help but sigh and pointed to the store. "How about we take our chances and go there?"
Both girls turned and to look at where Mai pointed. Trista blinked tilting her head. "Looks like a regular store?"
"You can continue on if you want, but I'm gonna check it out." Mai was already on her way into the store. Nothing caught her eye though, but she was following that tug. The others were following her, so that's probably good.
It took longer than she thought it was going to, to find what was pulling her. She blinked several times as she held up the dress. "Um…"
"It's so cute. You should try it on. Where are the changing rooms?" Madoka was already dragging her towards where said area was and basically threw her in. "Try it on! You're not moving until you do."
Mai frowned though as she looked at the dress. She didn't want to look at the price. Not yet anyways.
She slowly went through the motions of getting the said dress on. It was strapless and the dress was red with a black lacing on the edge of the bottom of the dress. The bottom of the dress came down to just above her knees and was very frilly on the end. Looking at herself in the mirror though she really liked the dress. It was actually pretty comfortable though, too.
She didn't want to look at the price though.
"Mai? Are you good? We want to see!" Trista was obviously very excited to see the dress on her.
With a deep breath she finally opened the door and stepped out. "What do you think?"
Both girls blinked looking at her. Madoka was the first to break the silence and went to hug Mai. "You look so beautiful. Who would have thought we would hit the jackpot in a regular clothing store?"
Eventually Mai found out the price and did her best to try and refuse the dress. Which just caused Madoka to take it and pay for it, which made Mai panic even more. Things somehow worked out eventually.
After that they went to get lunch and went to get their nails done. They made sure to get colors that would match their dresses and then went to a salon to get their hair done. Trista went for a high updo, because she never tried this hair style. She usually just kept her hair down or in a ponytail. Never anything really fancy. She wanted to see if she liked it and she did. A lot. Madoka actually got hers in more of a ponytail, but there were so many curls and lose hair. It looked really good though, in Mai's opinion. She didn't do much with her hair though. She just asked for them to curl it and it turned out a lot better than she thought it would. Her hair was only to her shoulders, so she was nervous about how it looked.
-EEEEEE-
"Woah. You girls are all fancy." Yasu was waiting with Liam by the one of the many conference rooms that Cambridge had. This room was on the third floor though. There were several conference rooms, because how many events the college did. Both boys were dressed in suits and one wore a dark blue tie (Liam) and the other white (Yasu). Madoka had went back home, since she was going to be going to the event with Lin.
Trista twirled around and laughed. "Don't we look amazing? Mai looks really beautiful though." She giggled and hugged the said girl.
"What are you talking about? You're also beautiful. You need to give yourself more credit." Mai smiled at the other girl while hugging her back.
Liam was standing there awkwardly not really sure what to say or do at the moment. Yasu elbowed him and smirked. "Well, we don't want to be late, right?" He held his arm out for Mai to take. "Shall we?"
Mai rolled her eyes playfully, but took his arm and followed him in the room. Liam took a moment to react and wordlessly offered his arm to Trista too.
The conference room was a sight. Everything was nicely decorated and was very simple. Also very sparkly. It kind of reminded Mai of something from a black and white party. Just the contrast from the dark to white was insane. The sides had tables and tables set up with food and the other side had tables and chairs. More than likely for people to relax.
"I already feel like I shouldn't be here…" Mai muttered to Yasu. "This is way too fancy for us."
Yasu just laughed and leaned over to whisper back to Mai. "Big boss might be disappointed hearing you say that."
She blinked and glared at the male. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Are you guys first years?" A voice suddenly came from beside them. There stood a small group of people. "We're second years. Don't think we've had the pleasure to meet." A girl with bright red hair that was extremely curly smiled at them. She had bright green eyes and her faced was covered in freckles. "I'm Libby Welch. It's nice to meet you."
"I'm Ember Haynes!" Another girl shot forward smiling at them. She had curly auburn hair with dark blue eyes. Her smile basically took up all of her face.
Yasu smiled and held out his hand for Ember, since she was closest. "I'm Osamu Yasuhara, but everyone just calls me Yasu."
There were two guys waiting behind the two girls who just introduced themselves. Neither seemed to be moving or willing to talk right away. Mai couldn't help but keep her eyes trained on them for a moment while Yasu talked. Once she decided it was her turn she just smiled at the newcomers. "I'm Mai Taniyama. It's nice to meet you."
"I'm Trista Baxter and the idiot beside me is Liam Floyd." She came up from behind Mai and waved at them.
Liam turned to Trista and gave her a look. "Who are you calling an idiot?"
Libby turned to the two guys and smiled. It was fake though, because she was very annoyed at the two standing there. "Introduce yourselves."
The guy with dark blue hair and lighter blue eyes twitched and looked away. "Trayvon Woods." He managed to mumble out.
The guy with the white hair and black highlights just smiled as he elbowed the other. He had very dark brown eyes. They almost looked black. "I'm Hyrum Hawkins. It's so nice to meet you. Ignore this guy. He's just very shy with meeting new people."
Libby seemed to be happy enough with their introduction as she turned back to them. "Are you guys the only ones coming from the first years?"
"Yup. Everyone else has homework they wanted to do for the weekend." At least that was what everyone told them, but they probably had other things to do for a Saturday night.
They eventually moved away from the entryway and managed to talk for a little. It was mostly about classes and how they were liking them.
Eventually, Yasu got hungry and managed to drag Mai towards the tables of food. "There's so much fruit…" Mai was getting a small plate and getting some strawberries first. They were all cut up in nice little strips.
Yasu was grabbing a couple of cheeseball bites that were rolled in a variety of different food. "I probably should have kept you away from the fruit at least. I wouldn't be surprised if you're the one who eats it all."
"I couldn't eat it all if I tried." She managed to eat a couple cuts of strawberries before putting a little bit of watermelon on her plate. "Anyways, I think I recognize some of these people from books and shows."
"I was thinking the same thing, but I'm pretty sure we know him." He pointed towards an older looking gentleman. She couldn't see the face, but he was talking to a group of people. He had a huge smile and very long gray hair. Just another sign of old age.
Mai smiled though. "We have to surprise him." They were about to go bug the man, but someone yelling their names stopped them.
"Mai! Yasu!" Martin was basically sprinting towards them.
