"It's nice out here, isn't it?" Nya asked, smiling as the sunshine hit her skin. It was already roughly 4:30, but it was still hot outside; after spending some time in the air conditioned mall, the heat was once again welcome. It'd probably be another pleasantly warm night, too.
PIXAL shrugged. "My sensors read that this is a higher than normal temperature for this time of day. And drier. In other words, not ideal."
"Yea, but what do you think?" Nya asked. The android paused, then smiled a little.
"…Yes, it's nice."
Per Nya's curiosity about a new self-care store opening up (she was allergic to perfume, but loved a good body wash or bath bomb when she could sneak them into the bathroom without the boys noticing), the girls had departed from the main building of the mall and were browsing the windows of the shops that surrounded it, which were plentiful in number and variety.
"Ooh, look at those little hair barrettes," Nya said, peering through a semi-smudged glass window into a hair salon. "You'd look good in one of the side bows, I'd bet."
PIXAL smiled a little, clutching her stuffed owl closer to her chest. Nya had put hers in her backpack earlier, along with their other purchases (she always came to the mall prepared), but PIXAL had kept hers close the whole time, sometimes stroking its soft head gently when she looked to be feeling nervous. "You think so?" she asked.
"Yea!" Nya encouraged, but her attention was quickly caught by something else down the street. "Oh, hey, I think that's the shop I was looking for!"
"Then let us not delay," PIXAL said with a smile, and walked with the black-haired girl to the green-and-tan building, lagging a bit behind due to her shorter height.
"Aw, what?" Nya said as they approached the front doors. A sign hanging from inside said doors read Sea-lax Soaps and Scrubs: Coming Soon!
"I thought you said the store had already opened," PIXAL said, tilting her head to the side. Her hair fell slightly as she did so, giving her the vibe of a confused small child.
"I was sure it had," Nya said, frowning. PIXAL closed her eyes and performed a quick search on the matter.
"It was supposed to open a week ago," she confirmed, "but due to an incident interrupting the closing of their other location, the company has decided to push the opening date back."
"Well, that's no fun," Nya pouted. "What should we do now?"
PIXAL looked down the street. "Perhaps we could investigate the cause of that music."
Nya raised an eyebrow. "What music?"
"Hm? Oh, perhaps my audio sensors are sharper than that of a human," PIXAL commented. "I hear faint music coming from… somewhere in that direction. I'd estimate about three blocks away."
"Well, I'm always up for a good mystery," Nya laughed. "Let's go!" She started walking, then turned and paused when she noticed PIXAL wasn't following her. "You okay?"
The android was clutching her side, breathing slowly. "I'll be okay," she said with a weak smile. "Just give me a moment."
Nya hesitated, then sat down on the sidewalk and motioned for PIXAL to join her. She complied, her green eyes darting around in a likely effort to distract herself from the pain. Nya then wrapped an arm around the girl, who looked startled by the motion at first but slowly relaxed and let herself be held while she wait out the pain.
"Is this… a music festival?"
The girls had finally found the source of the faint music PIXAL had heard— although it wasn't faint anymore. A dozen or so food trucks with growing lines of people formed a semicircle around an outdoor dance floor, which was backed by a small stage with a number of musicians standing on top. Nya's eyes widened as she figured out what was happening.
"Ohhh! This is local talent night," she explained to the android. "I've heard about this event. Aspiring musicians and singers perform for free, and the community comes to dance and get dinner and sometimes go shopping."
"…and to get intoxicated," PIXAL noted as a band of laughing young men staggered by. Nya rolled her eyes.
"Yea, that too."
"Ladies and gentlemen, that was the Red Batons!" a slightly over-enthusiastic voice announced over a speaker. "Let's give them a hand!"
The crowd clapped politely, and several couples stepped off the dance floor, while a few more stepped on. Others sat at the few tables that were scattered around the various food trucks, eating their pre-prepared dinners, and those who were neither eating nor dancing were busy trying to convince their friends to do one or the other.
"It certainly is lively," PIXAL remarked. Nya nodded.
"For our next band of the night," the same voice from before said, "please give it up for… Fandooooom Liiiiiights!"
The general population seemed a bit more excited about this band than the previous one, although the announcer was still pushing his luck with the amount of enthusiasm in his voice.
As the Red Batons finished clearing their own members from the stage, the new band did a quick instrument check, flashing hand signals to each other that probably looked cooler than whatever they meant.
"Hey, PIXAL, you ever heard of this band?" Nya asked. PIXAL closed her eyes for a moment.
"Fandom Lights is a cover band," she stated as if she were reading something out loud, "with a growing following and a few cover albums already released. Rumor has it that they started playing in the same avenue as the current #1 band in Ninjago, The Fold."
"Oh, I love those guys!" Nya exclaimed, then blushed a little to having just admitted to being a fan of a boy band. PIXAL didn't seem to notice, however: she was busy observing a certain couple on the dance floor.
"What are you looking at?" Nya asked, tilting her head to see.
"They… appear to be dancing," PIXAL said in a confused tone, "but there is no music playing. The band has not started yet."
"Well, good for them!" Nya laughed. PIXAL raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, come on," the black haired girl persuaded, "sometimes you have to dance even when there's no music playing! They're probably just really happy to be here!"
"I… suppose so," PIXAL said with uncertainty. She paused, then suddenly admitted, "I have only been out dancing once, so it is possible my knowledge of the subject is under-developed."
"Oh? When was that?" Nya asked. PIXAL smiled slightly.
"I was with Zane," she started, and probably would have gone on were she not interrupted by a sudden burst of feedback coming from the speakers. Both girls grimaced and covered their ears.
"Sorry!" one of the band members said into the mic once the screeching had stopped, and a few people in the crowd laughed. He nodded and raised a thumbs-up to the other members of the band and they began to play. Within the first two measures, Nya jerked her head up and gasped.
"No way! This is one of my favorite songs!" she exclaimed. She spun around to face PIXAL and grinned. "Come on, we gotta dance."
"What?!" PIXAL yelped as Nya grabbed her hand and started dragging her towards the dance floor.
"You said you've danced before, this isn't that different!" Nya replied.
"That was a formal dance!" the android exclaimed, trying (and succeeding more than Nya would have expected) to break free of the water ninja's grip. "This type of dancing is casual; there are no rules to follow!"
"Exactly!" Nya replied loudly over the growing volume of the band, forcefully heaving PIXAL onto the edge of the dance floor and narrowly avoiding crashing into a pink-haired girl who was too caught up in rocking out to notice. "There are no rules, so there's no way to mess up!"
PIXAL opened her mouth to respond, but Nya was already jumping up and down like most of the crowd and mouthing the words while the lead singer rocked out.
"The other shoe dropped
When I drew the last straw
Then the camels back broke
And I'm done pretending
Nothing can get me down!"
PIXAL hesitated, looking back and forth. Everyone around her was dancing, but thankfully nobody seemed to be looking at each other— or her. Still, she'd never been in such an oddly casual dance setting before, and she couldn't look up instructions on what to do because there were none. It frustrated her greatly.
"I'm a little unwell
Like I'm not myself
And I need another joke
Like I need a heat stroke"
The android perked up a little in amusement at the lyrics of the song. At least they were relatable. She suddenly noticed that Nya wasn't right in front of her anymore and realized she'd wormed her way into the middle of the dance floor. Taking a deep breath, she started to wade through the crowd awkwardly, deciding that if she couldn't come up with what to do on her own, at least she could imitate Nya. When the water ninja saw her, she grinned and waved, motioning her to come over.
"Gotta get out somehow!"
PIXAL yelped in surprise as Nya momentarily stopped her jumping and grabbed PIXAL by the hands, pulling her in to dance. Additionally, the ninja was no longer mouthing, but singing, the words to the song, as were several others nearby.
"We can run away
We can take flight
We don't need a reason
We can ride all night!"
Now firmly resolved to mimic the human girl's behavior, PIXAL did a quick search online for the lyrics of the song and joined the others in singing along, as well.
"Don't worry, the world won't break
Don't worry, just make your escape!"
Nya seemed surprised when PIXAL started singing, but then quickly looked all the happier because of it. She started varying her movements a little bit, spinning the shorter girl around by the hand (a move PIXAL recognized from various types of formal dancing, only it was performed more loosely and with much less warning) and pumping her fist in the air while flashing the 'hang ten' sign. One or two nearby dancers glanced over at the odd duo, whether because of Nya's dancing or PIXAL's complexion, neither girl could tell.
"We can disappear
Fade into the starlight,
Never looking back
Somehow its all right!"
Nya turned and noticed PIXAL as she noticed the heads starting to turn towards them. She put a hand on the android's shoulder and smiled at her reassuringly, emphasizing the words of the song louder.
"Don't worry, I don't care what they say!"
A few things happened simultaneously. A dark shadow suddenly seemed to wash over the sky, thrusting the atmosphere into nighttime although the sun was still visible. The music was pumped up louder by the DJ, and the lead singer grew all the more excited because of it. Multiple people started whispering to each other and motioning towards the strange silver-haired girl. And finally, and most unexpectedly, a smile started forming across said girl's face.
"We can run,
We can run,
We can run away!"
"Nya," PIXAL suddenly asked, looking up the taller girl, "can we take the SX2 Motorbike somewhere?"
"Sure," Nya replied in surprise, "Where do you wanna go?"
PIXAL grinned. "Anywhere," she replied, the music still playing on in the background. "I just want to go for a ride."
Nya's face contorted into a suspicious, but not altogether untrusting, smile. "…okay," she said, "but I'm not letting you drive."
"What? Why?" the android asked in surprise.
"I know that look," she started to laugh, looking suspiciously into PIXAL's green eyes, which glowed in the darkness. "Whenever Kai gets that look it means he's about to do something stupid."
"Awww," PIXAL pouted, but she grinned as they started making their way back through the dance floor to the surrounding area. A couple people stopped dancing to stare at the odd pair, but PIXAL's mood was currently set to some kind of confidence that allowed her not only to ignore, but seemingly welcome the looks.
The girls lingered about the edge of the dance floor until the end of the song, then made off running toward the area they'd parked. PIXAL, for once, was in the lead, giggling like crazy. Nya had never seen her so happy before.
"You drink anything back there while I wasn't watching?" she asked teasingly, lengthening her stride to keep up with the eager android. PIXAL smiled.
"Nope," she replied. In addition to the brilliant beaming green light from her eyes, her purple wiring now also seemed to give off a faint glow.
"I'm just following the music."
(A/N: A longer chapter, for once! I also realize that I broke one of my own pet peeve rules with this chapter, which was briefly going into PIXAL's thoughts when the rest of this fic has been in 3rd person limited perspective, but I honestly couldn't find a way to fix that section and still make it feel satisfying, so... eh... I'll leave it for now, maybe if anyone has a good solution they can leave it in the review section. X( )
(A/N UPDATE: Oh crud btw, I forgot to state the obvious, which is that Fandom Lights is a pun on Anthem Lights [one of my favorite bands] and the song in this chapter is a real song by them called Run Away. Obviously I don't own it. But you should look it up, it's really good. :P)