Lily had convinced Nickel to go to the toy store. She wanted something she could sink hours into without causing her caretaker-friend any stress, and this seemed like the easiest place to find it.

Like a little girl normally might, she wanted something along the "dollhouse" line, but unfortunately they'd sold out of all the "good ones". She was so looking forward to a tea party with Nickel - his fancy British would have been perfect.

She still wanted a doll though. Or a plushie. That would be nice.

She saw a couple that piqued her interests, including one that looked so much like Nickel that she thought it might have been modeled after him. She kinda wanted it, but she had the real life-size version anyway, so there was really no point.

"Ooh," Nickel said, and Lily turned to find him looking at a set of tiny bouncy balls. "Haven't seen these things in years." He picked one up, tossed it, and watched as it bounced back and forth, nearly defying physics in the process. "Still as 'gypsy' as I remember."

"You haven't seen a bouncy ball in years, mister Nickel?" Lily asked as he put the ball back.

"They're not that easy to find nowadays where I used to live," he answered, before a short pause. "I always liked how they could basically bounce in any direction. Made catching them a nightmare, for sure, but they were so much fun."

Lily looked back to the colourful set of bouncy balls. Some looked like they had been made of glass, others like someone splotched paint on them, still others a portmanteau of both. There were so many varieties. That was what was so good about the toy store.

Further looking revealed a strange-looking cube with a different colour on each side: white and red and blue and orange and green and yellow. She picked it up to look at it more closely, and as she was turning it over in her hands, one of the sides twisted out of shape.

Fearing the worst, Lily ran up to Nickel and showed him the thing she'd found. "Can you fix it?"

Nickel smiled at her. "Don't worry, Lily. It's made to do that. See?" He twisted the askew side back to its original position. Lily stared in fascination.

"It's called a Rubik's cube," Nickel continued. "You mix up the sides, and then you try to get them all back to normal." He then casually proceeded to demonstrate the scrambling.

Presently, a store attendant came over and told Nickel off for tinkering with the cube. "Those are very hard to get back to normal, you know," the young lady wolf said.

"I do know, actually. I was just showing my little friend something," Nickel said conversationally, a far cry from his usual self. "Tell you what. If I can get this back to normal in a minute, we can forget this ever happened. Sound good?"

"If you can get it back to normal in a minute, I'd give it to you for free," the wolf laughed.

"Ooh. Fantastic." He took a little look at the very mixed up cube, before saying, "Whenever you're ready."

The young lady used for the stopwatch a watch she was wearing, saying "Go" as she started the timer.

Immediately Nickel's hands sprung into life, and far sooner than Lily had expected, he was done.

"How'd I do?" Nickel asked.

The wolf seemed to hesitate. "Thirty-four point six seconds."

"That's actually better than I was expecting," Nickel admitted as he set the cube down on a nearby counter. Lily reached for it, wanting to see if that had really just happened. She made a mental note to beg Nickel to teach her how to do that.

"I'll still pay ya for it, though. I'd feel weird if I didn't," Nickel continued. "How much is it?"

"11 credits 99," was the reply.

Nickel produced the necessary amount and paid up. "Here ya go."

"Thanks. Have a good day."

The attendant left them, seemingly still disbelieving, and as soon as she was gone Lily began. "That was so cool, mister Nickel! Can you teach me how to do that? Please please please please please?"

Nickel chuckled. "Not right now, Lily."

"Please?" she asked again, making her best pleading face and hoping it worked - it usually did.

Evidently, though, not on this occasion. "No, not yet."

"But why?"

"It's pretty complicated to explain how to do it. Other people that I tried to explain it to were super confused, so I don't wanna hurt that little head of yours."

He patted her head, and she accepted that answer. If Nickel said it was complicated, he was probably right in saying she wouldn't understand it yet. She was still pretty disappointed, though.

"C'mon, let's see what else we can find," Nickel said, and they proceeded together to another part of the store.

Not long later, Lily spotted another collection of plushies, this time resembling chao and not Mobians. She was intrigued by these ones as well, and evidently Nickel noticed. "Do you want one of those?" he queried.

For some reason, something in his tone made her embarrassed to say yes. "N-No."

"You sure?"

That time, she could hear the teasing in his voice. She nodded with a bit more conviction.

"Alright, 'f you say so. I guess I'll just buy this for myself, shall I?" He walked up to the collection and took the one Hero Chao left, somehow knowing exactly which one she wanted the most, before making his way toward another sector of the store.

She followed him, trying not to cave to his ribbing, but she wasn't able to do so. "Can I have it, please, mister Nickel?"

"Thought you didn't want one," he replied playfully, though he handed it to her anyway. She took it with an embarrassed huff and a pout, which he probably thought was adorable in spite of how she actually felt.

"Thanks," she grumbled, making him laugh again.

Lily clutched the soft stuffed chao all the way through the rest of their search for playthings, only letting it go once they reached the register so it could be cashed. They had picked up some more stuff on the way, including the red cat plushie Lily had seen earlier just because Nickel thought it was funny.

The kitten wasn't complaining. Now she could enact scenes with her caretaker-friend without him needing to be there, and without him knowing.

As soon as they were paid for, she snatched up both the chao and cat plushies and left Nickel to carry the bag with the rest of the things. She heard him laugh at her actions, but she didn't care - she was due some fun with her new stuff. And a lot of fun she would have.