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Nephrite laughed, which caused several customers nearby to turn their heads with a slightly puzzled look, as this "sound" was in their heads.

'Can't say I haven't gone that route before,' she agreed. Her gray eyes glittered with amusement. 'Not much more, I don't think,' the young fiend guessed as she glanced at the other's guardian. 'She is already making the "math" face.' She knew that expression all too well from her own guardian.

"You tell me." Amon laughed. "Curtains burn really well, I've learned.And I've got to turn in my tablet for repairs pretty much every other week because it keeps dying the heat-death."

"Riiight," he sighed. At least nobody was expecting him to master his element over night. Though a certain someone definitely was adamant that he ought to master it eventually. Athan was subtle about it, but also very insistent. "It is scary," he admitted quietly. The flames of the candles in the shop flickered as if to agree with him, but it was only the draft caused by someone having stepped through the entrance. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief. So many open flames always made him very self-conscious about the power he wielded but often failed to properly control. "If I had the choice, I'd rather be rid of it. Alas, I was told that is definitely not an option."

He shrugged and peered at the contents of the basket Triveni was holding. "I'd say we strategically move close to the counter," he suggested with a wink, "so we can pay up as soon as the girls return the next time. That looks to be quite enough for one shopping trip to me."

Nephrite's brows shot up when she caught sight of the runner's price tag. 'Just keep wearing it,' she suggested with a sly look, 'maybe they wont notice.' Amon would, though, she was sure of it. He was very attentive at least when it came to her trying to sneak out things by wearing themt.

Oh~! Now there was a thought. Maybe she could talk him into paying for it, as a treat for her new friend? It was worth a try at least, and Amon tended to be too good-natured for his own good. Plus, he and Nell's guardian seemed to get along really well. It was rare to see him so relaxed in someone else's presence. Like, actually relaxed, not just acting it. She'd always been able to tell the difference.

'I know where the prisms are,' she said and floated ahead, then turned and waved for Nell to follow her.

"Nah, not while there's still a warranty on it." Amon winked. "Though I think they are starting to get suspicious . . ." He paused, his eyes lingering on a sleek glass-and-steel cafetière. He had one almost identical to this at home, bought from this very store actually, but smaller. A little too small at times, particularly when he had visitors over.

"I don't know. I haven't been aware I even had it for most of my life,"—been in flat-out denial about it was more like it—"so I don't think I'd miss it all that much. It's caused nothing but trouble for me." Except for when it had saved his life not just once but several times. Even that one time Nephrite had gotten badly injured . . . Without they'd both be dead. Not to mention it essentially made him fireproof and impervious to heat. "At least I used to think like that."

Now he seemed to be stuck in a weird in-between place where it still scared him, but not as much as it used to do. And at the same time he yearned to learn how to use it, so he no longer would have to be afraid of it.

"According to Athan, to get rid of one's element would be to get rid of part of one's soul," he said matter-of-factly. "He was very convincing," Amon grimaced. "He's the one who helps me getting the hang of it. Major info-dump in the form of a pile of books on the matter for starters."

'They don't quite match,' Nephrite agreed. It had been bothering her from the start, but she'd been too polite to point it out. She floated back a little to take in the appearance of her new friend as a whole. 'And the fabric is too stiff for a shawl really. I would get silk. Perhaps saffron colored. It would compliment the color of your skin and your clothes.'

She settled next to Nell but in some distance to the display. She could tolerate the ambient lighting of the shop itself, but the display was uncomfortably bright, with lights set up underneath and near the crystals to literally highlight their refracting properties. The little rainbows they cast on the nearby wall and all over the place were nice though. And those crystals were small . . .

'I really like that one,' she said, pointing at one that had been cut to look like a lotus flower.

Amon quirked a brow and smirked. Switching stores was a pretty good idea—he might go ahead and just do that the next time his tablet was due for repairs.

"I doubt you'd find those books anywhere." Amon put down his basket and casually leaned against the counter. "Most were from his homeworld, I believe. He translated them himself. That whole . . . elemental thing,"—he motioned at the candle flames—"it seems to have been pretty commonplace where he comes from."

Nephrite had already tugged on her long sleeve to wrap the fabric around her hand for the same purpose, but . . . well, what Nell had done worked too.

She bent her head over the treasure her new friend had retrieved. 'That would look very pretty,' she agreed and picked the small pendant from Nell's hand. She turned it this way and that, a look of admiration upon her face. And then, just like that, it slipped into her sleeve.

Amon noticed Trivii's look of disappointment. "Or," he suggested, "you could always ask Athan. If he's lent those books to me, he'll surely let you borrow them as well. He knows a lot. I know he may appear intimidating, but really, he is not as—" His eyes narrowed and he broke off mid-sentence. There had been a good reason he had picked his spot at the counter. It was a perfect vantage point to keep an eye on the girls without the need to constantly turn his head.

"I knew it," he muttered darkly. "I'll be right back." If he was swift he might get this resolved before the shop staff noticed anything and got involved. Really, Nephrite was worse than a magpie.

'Oops,' Nephrite made.

"Lovely. Yes." Amon said, unperturbed. It was pretty obvious Carnelian's intent was to distract him. "Very expensive candy in fact. Now please move aside." He reached for shoulder to move her out of the way.

'No need.' Nephrite appeared at her new friend's side and had already started to turn her long butterfly sleeves inside out. She knew the drill. 'Nothing there, see?'

Amon gave her an incredulous look. He was certain he had caught her palm something. "Sash." He said simply as he loomed over his Shadow.

Nephrite glared at him defiantly for a second, but then rolled her eyes and loosened her sash. She did not want to cause a scene in one of her favorite shops. 'Nothing there either, see?' she said as she turned around. 'Shall I strip naked?' she challenged her guardian.

"No need." Amon still stared at her warily. But if nothing had turned up until now, nothing would turn up even if she did strip naked. She'd probably already gotten rid of whatever it was she'd palmed. Dropped it somewhere underneath the tables or something akin to that.

He glanced at the crystals Nell was still holding out expectantly. "That"—he pointed at the large lotus—"goes back on the display right now, that is way too pricey. The other two you will have to ask Miss Triveni about." He paused and gave a sigh. He might have considered treating her, but not if she was covering for Nephrite like that.

Nephrite tugged her obi back into place. Had Nell noticed the slight tug at the back of her sash, she wondered? She cast a quick sideward glance at the other fiend and winked.

Amon picked the lotus from her hands without even thinking about it—it was hard to say "no" if one was looked at with those eyes.

Her little act with the pirouette, however, gave him pause. Now she was definitely overdoing it. She was flirting, no doubt, in a way that seemed very professional. After all, it was what he did for a living. It was a little off-putting to see her do that, given her apparent age. It was easy to forget at times the fiends were not really like human children. They'd been someone else before, and even if they did not remember anything about their past selves, occasionally that "someone else" shone through.

But there was also something incredibly familiar about the way each movement had been carefully measured: the flick of her wrists, how the that lock of hair slipped free just so . . . . "Do you dance?" he asked, a little perplexed, as he looked down at her.

Nephrite arched her delicate brows. Who would have thought, her new friend was full of surprises! 'I'd go with a silk scarf,' she said calmly. She reached to gently take the runner from Carnelian's shoulders, and started to fold it up neatly. Suddenly she was rather intent to stay on Amon and Trivii's good side, because she very much wanted to see her new friend again after today's chance meeting!

'Pendant is in the back of your sash,' Nephrite "whispered". She kept her mental voice low so that only Carnelian could hear. 'I'll get it later.'

"The way you moved just now," Amon said simply, as he moved to put the crystal lotus back onto its display. "I do dance myself, so I noticed." He smiled a little. His job required him to be adept at the most commonly used ballroom dances of course, but his other, more . . . exotic dancing skills were something he rarely shared with anyone.

"Okay," he said and cleared this throat. He e looked down at his watch, not really to check on the time, but rather to get things moving. "Nephrite," he said, "that runner goes back to where it came from."

Nephrite nodded, already on her way with the item in question draped over her arm.

"As for those . . ." Amon glanced at the two small prisms that had remained with Carnelian for now, lips pursed. "You each get to pick one—no fighting over it!—my treat." They hadn't really deserved it, but to have encountered a fellow dancer had put him in a surprisingly amicable mood. He'd let it slip this time . . . something that was probably going to come back and bite him later.

Nephrite quietly returned to Carnelian's side, without the "shawl" this time, and just in time to overhear the last bit. A little surprised she looked at Nell. Just how had she pulled that off? What was her secret?