"Shitshitshitshit...." Kitty, aka Grey no Miko, gripped the steering wheel of her almost 30 year old blue metal beast of a car and prayed it would stop in time. It did. Barely.

From the back seat there came a muted whimper before Figment's normally-cheerful voice called, "Not QUITE so close next time?"

She grimaced. "It wasn't MY fault! Stupid drivers..."

In the passenger seat next to her, Komaine was hanging on for dear life. Figment was in the back seat along with Sei and Dia. All four looked a little white.

"Maybe if you hadn't missed the exit.." Sei suggested, earning himself a glare from the cat-eared girl.

"They said it was Fashion Valley, not Mission Valley." she retorted, inching the car forward as the light changed, cars moved, and then the light went red again. She began cursing the city engineers in every language she knew, which was quite a few actually.

Two left turns, a loop when they got lost, and another incredibily long light later, they found a parking spot and piled out of the car in front of Macy's. Komaine dropped to his knees and tried to hug the ground.

Kitty scowled and dragged him up by his ears. "My driving is NOT that bad!"

"No," he admitted, "it's the OTHER five point six million drivers I'm afraid of."

"..." She checked the cowboy hat covering Ko's ears, then the long coat hiding his tail, and deemed them safe to enter the store. Figment had ditched the wings and ears for once, and his pecuilar shade of hair and eyes could easily be passed off as dye and contacts.

A few meters inside the store, it became rather obvious that something was wrong.

"Kitchenware, furniture, bedsheets, pots and pans... Uh... Miko..." Dia said slowly, "I thought we were looking for boots."

"We are." Kitty replied darkly, turning and stalking out of the building. Sei and Ko exchanged looks, then followed her out. Figment examined his face in a mirror, then grinned and bouncily trailed after. Dia, having no interest in the appliances, was the first one out the door.

Back in the car, they pulled out and slowly found the street again. Packed, of course. The five of them resumed their various positions of clinging to doorframes, each other, and the steering wheel. Again, they had to turn around after Kitty missed the right turn. Finally, at long last, they arrived at Fashion Valley.

Fashion Valley was basically the ultimate shopping complex. It took up at least three city blocks, and had multiple levels. There were cars and pedestrians everywhere, so of course there was no parking place.

"Maybe we should have taken the bus after all..." Figment said, staring wide-eyed at the massive evidence of urbanization.

"Or the trolley." Sei added sourly. "Just hush and look for a bloody spot..." Kitty muttered. Indoors, outdoors, parking garage... They got lucky. Just as they pulled into a ground-level parking structure, another car was leaving.

"Dive!" Kitty exclaimed.

The boys exchanged looks, but wisely decided not to comment. Soon they had all piled out of the car again and crossed the little street to stare up at the large and imposing presence of the Neiman Marcus building.

"So, uh, how do we find Macy's?" Ko asked. They all exchanged glances. Dia tossed his ponytail over his shoulder and marched off to the left. The rest of the bewildered crew followed.

Dia must have had a fashion sixth sense, for sure enough he found the main stretch of little shops with the tall and dazzling presence of MACY'S looming over all. Of course, with all those little shops to pass before they could get to the big store, it became quite a challenge to drag Dia away from looking at the latest fashions.

Inside, at long last, they stared at the amazing assortment of clothing items in an expression akin to awe.

"Oooh boy.. uh.. Dia... work your magic again and find the shoe section." Kitty said slowly.

Dia looked around, decided that what he saw wasn't worth looking at, and set out for the center of the building. Which proved to contain escalators. They rode up to the second floor, where Dia made a beeline for the shoe section. Or what was left of it anyway.

Footwear littered the utilitarian carpeting, most of them lacking their mates, as an army of shoppers tried on sizes and tossed them away when they failed to meet standards. The five of them just stood there for a moment, taken aback by the mess, then Kitty turned and faced them.

"Ok, you remember what we're looking for, right? Boots, black, calf-high, no heels, 9'1/2 to 10. K?"

She got four nods, then they scattered to survey the disaster area formerly known as Macy's Shoe Department. A few minutes later they all met up again in front of the clearance rack and one lone black boot. The four boys and one catgirl eyed the boot as if it were a snake, then she reached out and hunted for the tag.

"5 1/2. Of course. ONE BLOODY BOOT in the whole F'ing store and it's made for a pixie!"

"... I guess this means we go home now?" Ko asked. The other three looked at Kitty expectantly.

She sighed. "Yeah, we go home."

"Then I'm taking the bus." Ko said firmly.

Back to Writings