After finishing their ice cream, the girls walked around on the lower level of the mall window-shopping. PIXAL seemed re-energized by the sugar in her system and was asking Nya various questions about her inventions, which Nya was more than happy to brag abou— answer.
"So on the new turbo engines you developed for the Bounty, the proximity sensors—"
"Pure titanium," Nya said, smiling. "Since they kept blowing up, I took a hint from Zane."
PIXAL covered her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter. "Oh my— that was terrible," she laughed, hitting Nya gently in a mock-punch. Nya wondered where she learned to do that.
"Now it's my turn to ask you a question," Nya said, stopping for a minute to admire an outfit that Kai would definitely never let her outside in.
"Okay," PIXAL said, intrigued.
"What's your facial recognition system? I was thinking about putting one in the bigger weapons I make for the boys— you know, tanks and stuff— so we don't have any trouble with crossfire."
"I rely primarily on an A12 Bionicle Chip," PIXAL responded, "but I also have an advanced audio recognition system that allows me to register voices as well as faces, so in case my visuals go down I am still functional."
"Oh, neat! I bet that'd come in handy if we ever ran into shapeshifters, too," Nya said with a grin.
"If a shapeshifter can accurately reproduce the visual and behavioral patterns of a person, they would most likely be able to mimic their vocal pattern as well," PIXAL pointed out. "But, yes, it is useful for other things." Suddenly, she paused, her attention focused on something in a window display.
"What is it?" Nya asked, trying to match her line of sight up with PIXAL's. "Something catch your eye?"
"Oh— no, not really," PIXAL replied, suddenly embarrassed. Nya walked over to the window.
"Awwwww, look at these little stuffed animals!" she squealed, looking at some of the plushes that dotted the display. PIXAL shifted her feet.
"Wait, don't tell me these were what you were looking at?" Nya asked, smiling. "Come on, let's go inside and see how soft they are! They are adorable."
"I do not really see the use of such an item," PIXAL said hesitantly.
"Pff. The point isn't to be useful. Just to make you happy!" Nya insisted, grabbing the other girl's wrist. "Come on." She led her inside, with some resistance.
"Welcome to the Ground Floor Toy Store," a woman with a blue name tag welcomed cheerfully.
"Bit of an on-the-nose name, isn't it?" Nya asked as she walked over to the plushes, still holding PIXAL by the wrist.
"Well, the managers thought it was fitting. You here for the stuffed animals too?" the woman chuckled. "We just got another shipment of those. Aren't they adorable?"
"Oh, they're even cuter up close!" Nya exclaimed, picking up a baby seal with big blue eyes. "And soft, too." She was grateful that none of the boys were around— she usually felt like she couldn't enjoy girly things without getting teased or not being taken seriously.
"Who's your friend there?" the woman asked politely. PIXAL was looking hesitantly at the plushes like a kid who was contemplating stealing a cookie.
"This is PIXAL," Nya said, turning the android to face the woman. "PIXAL, say hi."
"H-hello," she managed to stammer, brushing back a strand of her silver hair nervously. "It is nice to meet you."
"You're an android, aren't you? It's nice to meet you too!" the woman said cheerfully. She seemed much less put-off by this fact than all the people they'd met before.
"Um…" PIXAL said hesitantly. "May I ask if you have met other androids before? Most people here seem more… alarmed at my presence." She dropped her gaze to the floor.
"Oh, no" the woman replied, starting to study some kind of inventory sheet, "but my son is autistic and is obsessed with robots. He tells me everything I ever needed to know about them, and a lot more." She chuckled fondly. "Oh, but his biggest obsession is with that white ninja, Zane. He wants to be just like him when he grows up."
Nya whipped around and grinned as she saw PIXAL smile and blush a little at just the mention of the nindroid's name. Her nindroid's name.
"Go on, tell her!" she giggled, punching PIXAL in the shoulder (which hurt a lot more than she expected). PIXAL tried to shush her, but the lady was already leaning forward in curiosity.
"Tell me what?" she asked. "Oh, are you a fan of his, too?"
Nya's grin got wider as PIXAL's blush became more apparent. "You could say that," she said, looking at PIXAL expectantly. When the android didn't respond, she turned to the lady with a smirk and made the announcement herself.
"They're dating."
The woman first blinked in confusion, then almost jumped in surprise. "You're— you're kidding me!"
"Nope," Nya chuckled, nudging PIXAL again, who wasn't taking her gaze off the floor. "And I'm Nya, the water ninja! Although I guess that's not really something you'd hear about from your son if robots are his thing…"
The woman was shocked silent for a solid few minutes. Finally, she managed to say to herself, "Well… I don't believe my luck." Then she looked up at the girls. "Um… It's probably not a fair price to ask for, but if you could get an autograph for me, I'll buy you each one of those stuffed animals you're admiring so much."
"Sure thing!" Nya said, before PIXAL could respond. "Only, we'll have to bring it by tomorrow, since we probably won't see the boys until tonight. Is that okay?"
The woman squealed and nodded. "Oh, thank you so much! I promise you, this will mean so much to my son."
"I know Zane would be more than happy to encourage a fan," PIXAL put in, finally having found her voice again.
"Yeah, but we're not refusing those plushes," Nya interjected eagerly. "Come on, now you have to choose one."
PIXAL sighed but smiled nervously as she studied the various stuffed creatures staring up at her. Nya had already chosen the baby seal and was handing it to the woman to ring up at the register.
"I like this one," PIXAL finally stated firmly, holding out a snowy owl with big blue eyes like Nya's seal had.
"Okay," the woman at the register said (Lissa, apparently, or at least according to her name tag), and rung up the purchases. "My shift tomorrow is from nine to five, but if I'm not here you can drop off the autograph with one of the other workers." She seemed trying hard to contain her excitement.
"Got it," Nya said. "Thank you again!" She then took PIXAL's free hand (the other was holding tightly to the stuffed owl) and led her gently out of the store.
(A/N: The shopping shenanigans continue. As always, reviews are food for my muse. :3)