Chapter 4: Journey Through the Mall PART I

K' was more than aggravated. Not only was he out on a family shopping field trip but he was also noticing a LOT of stares, coming from his gender, directed at a certain ice princess. Knowing her as well as he did, K' knew that this said person was probably oblivious to these looks and if she DID notice, she would think that the stares were about her attire, not of the person in them. Though it was hard to admit, he knew why she was the object of attention. The clothes Whip chose included: A pair of tight, black, low-rider skinny jeans that ended at her hips and outlined her curves. A white, form fitting, sleeveless tank top that had 2 cherries imprinted at the bottom right corner and seemed to push her breasts upwards just enough to show the cleavage that she possessed. A pair of ruby red high tops with a Chinese-type pattern sewn into it and laces that matched ((The pants coming down to her ankles, covering the tops of the shoes, defeating the purpose of high tops, ha)). Though usually a boyish look, Kula pulled it off so well she looked…Good. And the tightness of the clothes left little to the imagination as to what her measurements were.

K' shook his head to rid himself of such thoughts and tried to pay attention to what they had gone out for. So far they had been to 4 different stores and they hadn't found a single thing. It baffled K' as to why girls were so damn picky about what they wore. Given he didn't actually WANT Kula to be wearing most of the revealing clothes that were in almost every display window, but Kami, was it that hard to find a couple of shirts and a pair of pants? While in the midst of his thoughts, K' bumped into Maxima and glared at the oaf of a man. "Is there a reason why you suddenly stopped walking..?"

"Well I could have kept walking but I didn't think you would appreciate it if I let you miss out on the fun the girls were having," Maxima smiled as he pointed to the blue haired vixen and K's sister.

K' raised his eye brow and turned uninterestedly to face Kula and Whip. His eyes became darker and he was growing angrier by the second. While he was once again lost in his thoughts, Kula, along with Whip, were currently being hit on by some arrogant looking punks who probably had it somewhere in their minds that the girls were either 'easy' or dumb enough to fall for their cheesy lines. K' was now VERY glad that Kula didn't care for showing off lots of skin because if she did, there would be even MORE men trying to get her to go out with them, or at least get her number. It didn't help that, while she did gain maturity on some levels, one of the things Kula had yet to improve on was her naivety. K' began to stalk closer as if it were his mission to kill the leeches that had found their way to the ice princess and his sister.

"…I'm sorry, but we already have friends accompanying us." Kula gave a small apologetic smile and bowed to the kind looking man and his friend. This kind man was a bit taller than Kula and had slightly tanned skin, brown eyes, and short black hair. His clothes looked like that of any normal youth, however the accessories that he was sporting looked quite expensive. She wondered if he might be of a wealthy family. His friend was around the same height but a bit more pale and had longer hair, kind of shaggy looking. Again, the clothes were normal, but the watch and wallet screamed RICH.

"Oh! That's fine! They could come along with us if you'd like. You looked a little lost so I thought I would show you where the best shops are." The man gave a smile like that of a serpent that found its prey.

"Oh! In that case sur—" Kula was about to say yes, when Whip decided to pinch her arm with an unnecessary force. "ouch…" Kula looked over at Whip wondering why she pinched her when Whip smiled courteously and pulled Kula's ear close to her mouth.

"Kula, you seriously need to learn the language of men. They don't really want to help us, they just want to 'hook up' with us do you get it?" Whip whispered in her ear. When Kula gave a questioning look, Whip sighed and tried to re-explain the situation. "They basically want to sleep with you or get you to buy them things. These are the types of guys that will get you to fall for them then take what they can get from you. Trust me, those watches are real gold and I know they didn't buy it." Whip looked at Kula's concentrated face and then noticed the VERY aggravated K' listening to the conversation, waiting for an opportunity to come in and deck the two 'lovely gentlemen'. Kula began to connect the dots in her head then she became a bit pissed, she was about to say something when Whip spoke up. "Sure! We'd love to since our friends can come." She smiled wickedly. The men both smiled to each other. Kula tilted her head wondering why Whip would contradict what she just told her when K' suddenly appeared and put his arms around both girls, making Kula blush a deep crimson.

"So, where exactly are we going then?" K' smiled with eyes that read: 'If you don't walk away right now, you won't be walking at all in the near future.' Both men looked at each other and smiled quite awkwardly, looking a bit scared.

"You know what? I would love to show you guys around but I just remembered somewhere I had to be." They both left it at that and ran off.

K' dropped the smile and looked at both Whip and Kula. "I turn my attention from you guys for a minute and you get yourselves stuck in a situation like that…" He looked down at Kula then spoke again. "You seriously choose the worst times to be stupid." K' let go of both of them and began walking away towards Maxima who was simply laughing at the situation. K' was not pleased. Neither was Whip. Kula just stood there, a bit shocked and hurt but not too surprised.

"K'!!" Whip chased after him and pulled him to the side, leaving Kula by herself to think. "Was that really necessary? She doesn't know how people are and she means well, you know that…She—," Whip was cut off.

"It's about time she learned. I swear sometimes I wonder how a person can be so ignorant about these types of things. I'm sure she's been hit on before, but seeing as how she didn't know what their intentions were just now…Forget it." K' walked away before Whip would say anything more and while she tried to stop him she looked behind her to see if Kula was okay.

"…Where's Kula?" Whip turned to K' worried and K' became even more angry as her looked over and saw she wasn't where he left her. "Maxima did you see—" Whip turned to see that Maxima wasn't there either. "Where are they?!"

"…" K' felt his stomach turn in knots as he began to worry, and regret the statement he could have kept to himself. He knew WHY he said it, but he also should have taken into consideration how Kula reacts towards that kind of criticism. She was the type that was heavily guarded but easily hurt. Even though, to him, such a statement shouldn't have been that upsetting, for Kula it probably hurt more seeing as how they were going to be living together.

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Maxima began to wonder just how fast that girl was at running away. When he saw Kula dash from the corner of his eye, he chased after her at top speed. It didn't seem to help though seeing as how he was now lost. Maxima understood why she would be upset but at the same time kind of found it a bit over dramatic to run the way she did. He started to look into some stores when he saw her, to the left, with a lollipop in her mouth. Maxima laughed his hardy laugh and ran up to her.

"Ah! Maxima ji-san!" Kula smiled brightly and began to walk with him. "Why did you follow me?" She tilted her head.

Maxima smiled. "I thought that you might be in need of some company by a handsome looking man like myself." He posed and was looking quite smug, then gave her a pat on her head. "What are you doing all the way down here by yourself? Everyone is going to get worried."

Everyone but K'…Kula said to herself as she smiled faintly. "Well the atmosphere was a bit too heavy for me, so I left. Besides, I smelled this wonderful candy and had to buy it!" Kula's look was very convincing.

"Kula. You know you can't trick me. I'm wise beyond your years, so try me! What's wrong?" Maxima began to lead her back to where the group was as they walked.

Kula gave a pout. "Darn, you caught me…" She smiled and continued. "You know…" Kula licked her lollipop, "I'm not as stupid as everyone thinks. I may be naïve at times, but I can put the pieces together. It just takes me a bit longer than normal people. But I guess…" she looked down then back up at Maxima and smiled, "I don't expect anyone to understand what that means."

Maxima smiled a bit content and gave her another pat on the head. "Just try your best to make them understand. That's about all you CAN do. Hope for the best, and the rest will happen naturally."

Kula blushed a bit, "What do you mean it will happen naturally…What are you implying..?"

Maxima simply smiled as Whip ran over to Kula and K' walked nonchalantly. Whip gave her a big hug. "WHERE WERE YOU?!"

Kula raised an eyebrow, "I was only gone for ten minutes. I didn't think it would be a big deal. Besides, Maxima was with me!" She smiled. "I'm sorry nee-chan. I won't do it again.."

Whip smiled with satisfaction. "Good. Let's continue shopping!!"

Kula began to tug on Whip's sleeve. "I saw a really cute store for…" she whispered in Whip's ear, "panties," her normal voice came back, "over that way!!"

Whip laughed. "Okay, we'll go right now. We'll catch up with you guys later!" Whip waved at the guys behind them.

K' raised an eyebrow. "Just where do you think you are going?"

Whip smiled as she turned back around, "It's girl stuff." She gave a wink at K' and for some reason he knew what it meant, as his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. Whip chuckled a bit to herself and continued being pulled along by Kula.

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Authors Note: Sorry for taking so long to write a new chapter. I had a big case of writers block and was trying to finish up my finals. Unfortunately, I sent the wrong final to one of my teachers and ended up failing because of it. SUCKED. Well anyway, I finally had some kind of idea on where to go with this part and I hope you all approve. If not let me know and I'll change it…Maybe. Ha, but seriously. Tell me how I'm doing so far. I'm trying to keep them in character as best I can, except Kula. I wanted to make her a bit more mature and less of a crybaby. She tends to come off that way sometimes but I friggin' love her to death so I don't care.

N O T E!!! SHE STILL HAS NO JOB!!! I need to think of what K' does for a living; maybe a mechanic, or a waiter…ha!! I would love to see that…Well no, just cause he would have too much of a fan club…Poor Kula…ANYWAY!! Let me know what you think please! I'll try to keep updating quickly but not to where the chapters suck.