"A… shopping mall?"
Nya smiled over at the confused android, who stepped off the back of the SX2 Motorbike with fervent glances back and forth.
"The best thing to do when you're feeling like this is to distract yourself. So, yea, we're going shopping! Besides, we can also buy some stuff that might help reduce your pain, so we're multitasking."
"Yes," PIXAL muttered, looking at the giant advertisements outside for various makeup brands and swimwear, "Very productive."
The inside of the mall was air conditioned from the heat outside, which was a welcome relief for Nya. It had been a long time since she'd been out shopping with someone else— it was kind of nice.
"Okay," she said, looking around at the different shops, "where to first?"
PIXAL cocked her head. "I thought you knew where we were going."
"I do," Nya replied. "We're going shopping. So where do you want to start? Surely you've been to a mall before."
"I have been in many malls," PIXAL huffed somewhat defensively, "for the release of new Borg products. I simply have never wandered about aimlessly… or gone with the intent of purchasing something for myself." Her tone was somewhat ambivalent.
"Well, there's a first for everything, then," Nya said, still having to remind herself not to get annoyed at the android for being so irritable. "Come on, if you can't decide, clothes are always a good place to start." She took PIXAL by the hand (thankfully, she didn't fight the motion this time) and started heading towards her favorite clothing shop.
"Not-Yet-Departed Fashions?" PIXAL asked with a frown, reading the sign as they walked inside. "What kind of a name is that?"
"They've got all the newest trends," Nya said excitedly, ignoring the comment, "and everything is organized by color, so it's really easy to find what you want!"
Sure enough, the store was divided up like a rainbow, with entire displays of dresses, tops, hats, and accessories categorized by color. There was also an entire section of just nail polish in the back near the counter.
"Okay," Nya said, sizing up PIXAL like she would an enemy before battle, "obviously you're a winter, and we already know you look good in purple, so let's start looking through the purples to see if there's anything that suits you."
PIXAL looked like she wanted to say something, but remained silent and followed Nya to the racks of purple clothing. She tried on a few pieces of jewelry and a hat, but ended up putting them all back and refused to try any of the dresses. Nya wasn't sure if it was because she didn't care or because she cared too much, but decided not to comment.
"Um…" the android started to speak, then hesitated.
Nya turned. "What is it? If you see something you like, just say so! That's the point of shopping!"
"No, I just…" PIXAL started. "I was wondering if it would be all right to look at a different section… perhaps something closer to my armor?" She looked up hopefully.
"Oh, sure!" Nya said, a bit surprised. "We can try to find something with a similar color palette. Or make a similar palette out of different items, anyway." She almost started asking about how PIXAL made and/or altered the Samurai X armor in the first place, but forced herself to save those questions for later. She knew she'd probably end up lecturing PIXAL for stealing her stuff, and this was probably not the best time to do that.
Several minutes of searching later, the silver-haired girl tentatively held out a white tank top with a small gold heart on the chest. Nya smiled.
"That looks good. Want to find some bottoms to go with that?"
PIXAL paused, then nodded and pointed to the blue section.
"Okay, blue will work. Let's try to find a dark blue, so you aren't too top-heavy." Nya led the other girl around for a while in that manner, asking her questions (the android had seemed to randomly switched to a rather shy mood, and wouldn't talk without prompting) and giving her advice on what would look best. Eventually, the items added up to a dark blue high-waisted skirt, some gold-adorned wedges, a bottle of gold nail polish, and the tank top. It was an unusually eclectic assortment of items, Nya thought, but then again, PIXAL herself was somewhat eclectic.
"You should probably try everything on," she said, handing the clothes to the android, "just to make sure it all fits." PIXAL nodded and walked into the dressing room to change. Nya browsed the nail polish racks for herself while she waited— hey, might as well make the most of the time. Although, as she remembered disdainfully, it was awfully hard to keep nail polish from chipping when fighting in a ninja gi and not a suit of protective metal armor.
"Um…" PIXAL said shyly as she came out of the dressing room and tapped Nya on the shoulder. The water ninja turned around and gasped in pleasant surprise.
"You've got wiring on your arm!" she noted, pulling the android's right arm up to examine it. A plethora of purple markings matching those on her face ran down it gracefully, like vines coiled around a tree. "This is so pretty! Why haven't we seen this before?"
"I-I always thought it looked too robotic," PIXAL admitted, a light purple blush adorning her cheeks briefly. "I knew Father designed me to look as humanoid as he could, so I never liked showing too much of my wiring."
"But your chest wiring showed with your old outfit," Nya pointed out. "Not that it wasn't pretty!" she added quickly.
"I had to leave my vital areas easily accessible in case of a malfunction," PIXAL explained, nodding. Then she suddenly bit her lip, her face contorting into nervousness again. This time, Nya noticed why— a few others in the store were stealing not-so-subtle glances at the silver-haired girl. One glare from the water ninja, however, made them look away.
"Well, I think you look super pretty, so go change back and I'll start wracking things up," Nya said with a reassuring smile. "I can help you put the nail polish on later." PIXAL nodded affirmatively and did as she was told, while Nya hesitated and then snagged two more bottles of nail polish to add to the purchase, blue and red. She'd find a way to manage.
(A/N: Fun fact, this chapter was also already written yesterday. I just held off on posting it. So, to that one anon who requested them going shopping: congrats, you lucked out! XD Thank you all so much for your reviews, btw, I honestly wasn't expecting this story to get so much positive attention right off the bat. ^_^ ...also, "Not-Yet-Departed Fashions" is quite possibly the worst joke I've ever made, and points to anyone who got the reference X'D)