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 Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:54 am
Nathan Darrow was on the hunt for something fun to do. He had been returning to some forgotten habits recently, because he felt he was getting too 'dutiful' in his dedication to serving as a senshi. He needed to loosen up a bit.
Have more fun.
Of course, his definition of fun was a very selfish one, and he cared little for the opinions of others. So if he did something that made someone else mad, for example, he could not bring himself to care. As such, most of his games resulted in other people getting pissed at him.
And cops chasing him.
He found himself in the mall, wandering through the crowds, though they were not too thick today, glancing into store fronts and pondering which ones had security he could elude and which were too much of a challenge for the level of commitment he was willing to make to theft today.
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 11:49 am
Orah Gowan, on the other hand, was already doing something fun in the form of window shopping, for once enjoying a little bit of free time. It was rare and a thing to be treasured, between school work, house work and senshi work. She'd even taken the time to dress up a little in a flirty skirt and sandals, a book bag hanging messenger style over her chest.
The mall was a great place to spend a little free time... there was so much to see, both things to buy and people too. She'd certainly done a good deal of looking at both, but the thing that really had her attention at the moment was behind the windows of the pet store near the entrance of the mall.
The teen girl cooed as she tapped the glass, watching the kittens inside tumble over each other as they tried to get to her fingers through the transparent barrier. Her father had always put her off when she'd asked for a pet... but it had never stopped her from wanting a cat of her own. Which of course meant that she could never walk by the pet store without at least looking at what they had today.
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 1:44 pm
Nathan was walking by when he saw the girl at the window, recognizing her. She wouldn't know him, of course, as he had been powered the last time they met. She was the one that had been attacked by the youma and had a good kick. He remembered enjoying her company then, and wondered how much gusto she had in her.
Maybe she was interested in playing a game with him.
He noticed she was at a pet store, looking at the kittens inside. Now that was a hard steal, taking a living animal from a pet store and getting away with it. It seemed like a pretty good challenge, but he had to weigh the consequences. He would probably not be allowed back in the mall if they caught him.
Did he come here that often?
Not really.
"You like cats, huh?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 7:18 am
"Hmm, what?" Orah looked up as someone spoke to her, dropping her hand from the window to grip the strap of her bag.
Her brown eyes were wide as she took in the boy that had approached her, suddenly feeling shy. He was cute, and probably a trouble maker, but that only seemed to make him more appealing. What was it about bad boys that girls liked so much? she thought to herself, biting her lip before she remembered he had asked her a question.
"Oh, the kittens... yeah. I love cats and I've always wanted one. My dad has always been a hard sell though. He's not big on the idea of pets. I'll convince him someday, but in the meantime I like to just look when ever I'm in the mall." The girl turned to look back at the kittens wistfully, giving a shrug. "What about you... what sort of pets to you like, if any?"
He looked like a dog person... or maybe a snake or lizard person. She tried to picture him with a fat cat draped over his lap, scratching behind its ears... Maybe.
"Oh! My name is Orah Gowan, by the way."
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 11:57 am
Nate carried himself like a guy who knew what he was doing, who knew that he was good looking and expected that to carry him far. He also looked like a guy that was contemplating stealing a kitten at the moment, not hiding his thoughts. He peered beyond the window, into the small store, looking for cameras and where they were angled.
It was seeming more and more doable.
"I'm not much for pets. I guess I have a dog but it's not mine, it's my dad's. Corgi. Useless." In his mind, dogs should be big and tough, and possibly mean looking but not necessarily aggressive. Good dogs to let chicks pet and introduce himself to them while they were busy giggling. He supposed Dogby had her own draw, being small and squishable, but it made him feel like less of a man whenever she was nearby.
Leave her to Tony.
"Nathan Darrow. Nate. Not Nathan. I don't know why I said that." He wrinkled his nose, then grinned. "Hey, how about we go inside and look at the kittens? They'd probably let you pet one."
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 3:26 pm
Orah laughed as he called his dad's corgi useless. Corgi's were real characters, but she could see how a guy could think the cute things as just... too cute for his image. She wasn't surprised that he wasn't into pets, but it was surprising when he suggested they go into the store to look at the kittens.
"Oh, um... sure, if you want to." She chuckled, shrugging and feeling shy again. "I thought you weren't a pet person?" The teen led the way to the store's front entrance, the door a normal mall type with a cage that came down across it at night.
Inside the pet store, there was woman behind the counter and some customers browsing the shelves. Birds called from cages while dogs and cats added their voices. Going up to the counter, Orah talked quietly with her, smiling as she asked if she could see one of the kittens.
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Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 1:08 pm
Nathan had been running into cats a lot recently, it seemed. He'd saved one from a youma and now he was planning on stealing one from this shop just for the hell of it. But they would both be going to better homes than he could provide, so there was that?
Not that he was in it to do good. He didn't really care.
Nathan watched as Orah talked to the sales person, looking at the cage and the kittens. He wasn't sure how he was going to steal one, if the employee was standing right there, but maybe he could create some sort of distraction while the cage was open and they could take one of the kittens then.
He grinned at the idea.
She was an unwitting accomplice, maybe, but he doubted what she didn't know would hurt her. And if they were good enough they wouldn't get caught. So. There was that.
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Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 7:52 am
Feeling a little nervous and excited now, Orah followed the pet store lady back to the glass-fronted cage that held a bundle of kittens and watched as she worked to open the door. This particular case must have combined two litters, unless the mother and father had been wildly different in coat. Five kittens, their colors ranged with two orange tabby, one grey tabby, one calico, and one tuxedo. A good selection, when someone was looking for a new pet to take home.
She was going to have to work extra hard on her father after this... it was going to be hard to put the kitten back and know that someone would come to buy it later. It probably wouldn't happen that way, but she'd be thinking all along that if she were fast enough, she could get back here to buy the one she had played with... Maybe if she made a solid case for it, pointing out all the benefits and all the things she had been doing lately to deserve it...
And then the case was open and the shopkeeper was struggling to keep the kittens from pouring out around her hands. They were eager to be out of the pen and with the people standing around, bored with each other and the small space. Orah laughed as she went to help, putting her hands up to block two of the kittens from jumping down from the window case.
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Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 6:47 pm
Nathan decided that this place was not the hardest hit in the world. They had no security, no cameras that he could see, and no way of proving if he took one of the kittens or not. He just had to sneak one out without anyone noticing, and he knew how to do that now.
The kittens would be a distraction.
"Oh!" Nate called enthusiastically. He put his hands on the shoulders of the worker and of Orah, clapping them both on the back with the action and peering between them at the kittens that were crawling around.
"Look how cute they are!"
He was just distraction enough for one of the kittens to make its escape, and the resulting scramble to catch it resulted in the others fleeing for attention. He grabbed one of the kittens, then Orah's arm, while the employee had her back turned.
"Oh, one got out of the store! We'll get it!" he called as he left, then took off running down the mall. It was believable enough, the kitten hidden under his baggy clothes for now. "Come on, hurry up!" he called back to Orah, though he didn't slow until he hit the nearest exit. No one seemed to be following them.
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Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2013 8:53 am
"Oh, geez!" Orah said as Nate rocked her and unleashed a waterfall of soft fur and mewling voices. She laughed as she scrambled to catch an escaping kitten, but her reach was foiled as someone grabbed her by the arm.
"Hey!" She squeaked as she was tugged towards the door, hearing Nate say one of the kittens had taken off for the mall. She stumbled then hit her stride, picking up her pace to try and keep up with the taller boy's long legs.
"Where did it go?" She called as he dragged her along, darting looks around to see if she could catch a wriggly little body as it booked it for cover. The teen started to wonder if they had missed it when they hit the exit though, turning back as he tugged her towards it. "Wait! I think we missed it. We should double back!" Orah said as they slowed, panting a little from their dash.
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Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2013 10:10 am
"No, we didn't," Nate said, tugging her outside and pulling her close to him for cover. He looked at her, not too far from her face but not close enough to be all blurry and weird looking, at least. He grinned devilishly and produced the kitten, who looked very confused but not entirely unhappy, from under his shirt.
It blinked a few times and then looked up at her. It started to purr very softly, like a tiny baby rattle, having no idea it was now contraband.
"Let's get out of here. Here, it's dangerous to go alone. Take this." He enjoyed his conquest here, looking very proud of himself for the whole theft. Even she hadn't realized he was lying about the kitten getting out, and that just tickled him further. His chest was puffed out and he was clearly posturing.
Anyway, he'd done good. Now she had a cat.
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Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2013 12:49 pm
Outside the mall, Orah found herself pulled to the side, out of the main area and rather close to Nate as he said something she missed. The situation had rapidly changed from playful to something that... felt a lot more serious, at least to her. He was a lot closer than anyone usually got to her, at least anyone that wasn't family or a girl, and it made her suddenly nervous and excited and confused all at the same time.
Blinking big, chocolate eyes at him, it took a minute to register what he said, which happened about the time he pulled a bemused kitten out of his shirt. She cooed as she took the kitten from him, cradling it against her chest.
"There you are, you silly thing... Where did you find it with us running down the hall like that?" She said as she looked up at him again, ignoring the way her heart had been fluttering just a moment before. Silly teenage girl hormones... "We should take it back to the store."
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Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2013 8:26 pm
Nathan laughed at her response, grinning devilishly and shaking his head.
"Nah don't worry about it. I'll go back and pay for it. You can consider it yours now, alright? Just take it home, I think it's had enough run around for one day. Probably tired and whatever."
He chuckled, advising that she take him somewhere else to get some gear like a litter box, as that little pet shop didn't seem to have very many supplies. And was probably over pricing them, anyway.
Not that he had any intention of going back in there.
But what she didn't know couldn't hurt her, and she looked pretty happy. Maybe he would tell her some other time that they were actually thieves, but by then the cat would be grown and untraceable and no one would ever be able to do anything about it.
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Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 12:14 pm
Orah was dumbfounded when he told her to keep the kitten, that he would go back and pay for it.
"But... I don't... Why?" It was hard to put together a cohesive sentence right now, even harder to come up with a reasonable argument as to why the kitten had to go back to the store. Truthfully, she really did want one, and had for years. He was offering to pay for it, and even if he was practically a stranger, it was hard to say no to a gift from someone.
Feeling herself start to melt when the warm bundle in her arms began to purr against her chest, Orah finally shrugged and sighed. Apparently, she now had a kitten. It was a little confusing as to why she couldn't get the supplies from that store, but... well, she didn't really need the supplies anyway. No one needed to know that she had hidden cat food, litter and toys in the back of her closet, in the hopes of some day convincing her dad to let her have one.
Which... sort of brought up the little problem of how she was going to explain coming home with a kitten. Maybe she could hide it for a little bit, give it time to settle in... Once he saw how nice it was, he'd surely wouldn't be able to say no, especially since then he'd have to find a place for it to go.
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Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 6:05 pm
Nathan grinned at her, thinking that cats were clearly his secret weapon. They were more effective than he could have imagined, as far as getting himself out of trouble. Even when he was getting into it to get them, though it also helped that she didn't realize what he'd done.
Today, he decided, was a win.
And he wasn't even the one walking away with a kitten.
"Alright, I should get home or something. But if you wanna hang out again some time, give me a call." He'd keep an eye on her, as he often did with people who didn't hate him and he didn't hate in return. There were a lot of youma out here, and he was not interested in letting one of his friends get eaten by one. Or taken by the Negaverse. So he did know obligation to others: and he would protect people he thought were worth the time and effort.
And those that weren't, he supposed.
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