"Ano," he lowered his voice, "I've never bought a birthday gift before."
"Honto?!" Neko's eyes widened in surprise. She couldn't imagine it.
Except that he had only ever lived with Tanzanite before. She didn't suppose that Tanzanite would care about birthdays, so it was certainly plausible.
"And I want it to be good," he admitted.
"Well, we'll make sure it is. Come on!"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Tenshi looked over Mi-chan's shoulder at Neko's list.
"Koneko-chan wants all this?"
"Yeah. We always ask for a lot, so everyone has a lot of choices and they don't have to feel like they have to get us the same thing. We don't expect it all, of course."
"Oh. Where should we start?"
"I don't know. What do you guys think?" she asked Kimahou and Chibi.
"Clothes," answered Kimahou.
"Books," answered Chibi.
"Ano, let's go to the bookstore." Mi-chan didn't think that Neko would be there shopping for her. Unfortunately, first they had to get through the department store to get to the other shops. She just hoped Neko wasn't here.
Tenshi looked back at the list to see what books Neko wanted and sighed. Neko hadn't left any specifics about what kind of books she liked to read, CDs she wanted, or clothes she needed. Thank goodness her siblings were here!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Uh oh!"
Neko grabbed Jian-kun and pulled him behind a clothing rack.
"Mi-chan!" she whispered angrily.
Jian-kun peeked. Sure enough, there was Mi-chan, with Tenshi, Kimahou, and Chibi. Suddenly Mi-chan stopped and looked around. He ducked.
"What are they doing?" he whispered.
"Probably shopping for me. She was supposed to stay away from the mall today! I told her to!"
"Well, at least she had good intentions. Maybe she's just helping Tenshi-san out. After all, you're helping me."
"Yeah, demo�." Oh well, it wasn't all that important, Neko supposed. Now that she was alert, she could tell when Mi-chan left. She just waited until Mi-chan was out of the area before she came out from behind the clothing rack, bringing Jian-kun with her. "It's still not fair."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mi-chan frowned. "I'm so gonna be in trouble when I get home," she predicted.
"Why?" asked Chibi, nosily wondering what she would be in trouble for and what the punishment might be for it.
"Ano, Neko-chan told me to stay away from the mall today," she confessed.
Tenshi stopped walking. "Ara, Mi-chan! You didn't have to come here for me. I would have gone anywhere you suggested to shop for Koneko-chan."
"I know, demo this really is the best place to look for stuff for Ko- I mean, for Neko-chan. You can get almost anything on her list here." She shrugged nonchalantly, "Don't worry about it. I won't get in that much trouble."
"If you say so."
"Neko-chan's gonna kill you," Chibi sang.
Mi-chan grabbed him and started tickling him. "What was that?" she threatened.
"Nothing," he said between laughs.
Tenshi laughed too. Neko's siblings were fun!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Neko and Jian-wa hadn't found anything at that department store, so they decided to try the one across the mall.
"Come on, Jian-kun." She pulled him along.
"I need a break," he said. "We could get some ice cream," he suggested.
"Well, I never say no to ice cream."
She turned and ran right into Chibi.
"Neko-chan! Uh, what are you, uh, doing here?" he tried to make it sound like a big surprise that he should happen upon her at the mall. "Gee, I was just here with some, uh, friends, and, uh-"
"Give it up, I already know Mi-chan's here."
"Oh, okay." He relaxed.
"So where are they?"
"Oh, they left me at the bookstore and went to look at CDs."
"Good, keep her in this side of the mall. Ja ne." She grabbed Jian-wa and pulled him away, forgetting about the ice cream.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chibi met the others coming out of the music store.
"I got Neko-chan's present," Kimahou sang.
"Great. Ano, Neko-chan knows we're here."
Mi-chan glared at him, "I suppose you had nothing to do with that."
He raised his hands to shield himself. "It wasn't me. She already knew."
"Uh huh." Mi-chan still looked skeptical.
"Hey, why don't we just continue shopping. If we run into her, we'll deal with it then," Tenshi suggested.
"Okay," Mi-chan agreed reluctantly.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
