Astrid hated malls. They were bright, loud, and always overcrowded. Even with the five foot radius that most people granted her, Astrid still felt cramped. Plus, there was the added awfulness of the people trying to sell you things from their little kiosks as you walked by.

Her reason for going to the mall had been simple: get the pretty black dress she had seen in a flyer. If only the store existed somewhere else that wasn't the mall, then everything would be so much easier.

Everyone around her seemed to be just as intent on going quickly about their business. That was the way of New York, though. Everyone had somewhere to be. 

Everyone had somewhere to be, especially the man who was walking behind her, typing on his phone, and apparently not paying any attention to the world around him. He walked at an alarming pace, straight into the back of Astrid's wings. 

She toppled forwards, her impossibly high heels offering her no support whatsoever. Damn that pretty but impractical footwear. Her arms shot out straight in front of her as her reflexes did their best to save the important parts of her body. She fell right into the back of a boy that had been walking in front of her.

The whole thing had created a domino effect, ending with about ten people lying on the ground in a sort of dog pile. It was incredibly uncomfortable, and Astrid was pretty sure that someone was stepping on her wing.

The people were looking around, trying to pick someone to blame. Astrid looked around, picking the first person she laid eyes on. The boy who had been walking in front of her. "Watch where going," she told him bitterly, insinuating that he was to blame for the situation. 

Kai liked malls. They were convenient, and he could usually count on finding what he was looking for, getting Dippin’ Dots from a nearby kiosk, and indulging in some window licking— as the French would say— on his way out. Today, though, he hadn’t even completed the first part of that mission when he was knocked over by someone falling onto him from behind.

Suddenly, he was a tangle of arms and legs and giant black wings… okay, scratch that, that was definitely not him. The whole thing had created a sort of domino effect, and about ten other people now had to pick themselves up from the floor. Including the abnormally pale girl with the wings; Kai was pretty sure she had pushed him over in the first place, and now she was blaming him for it?

”Watch where going.”

He looked from her heels to his converse. Deliberately, as if to say, Yeah, honey, that’s not even believable. Then he got to his feet and offered the girl a hand up anyway, because what did he care?

The boy didn't say anything, but he offered her a hand up. That was... Not how he was supposed to react. He was supposed to get all flustered and try to convince people that it hadn't been him. At least, that was how it usually went when she blamed stuff on other people.

She definitely wasn't going to take his hand, though. That would be a sign of weakness. Astrid propped herself up and attempted slowly to stand up. It didn't work, though. Her beautiful heels offered her no form of traction whatsoever. She fell back down on her butt, her skirt flying out behind her.

Astrid glared at the boy briefly, aware of the fact that she probably looked like a complete idiot, and made another successful attempt to stand. Finally, she was on her feet.

The rest of the people that had been involved in the tumble didn't look pleased. Most of them were glaring at her, choosing the obvious mutant to blame for the disaster. As much as Astrid liked taking credit for things that made her seem awful, she didn't really want a mob of angry suburban moms on her hands. Police, she could deal with. Moms, not so much.

"You should apologize," Astrid snarked at the boy again, trying to push the idea that he had done it. 

“You should apologize.”

Had it been anyone else, Kai would have laughed and walked away. The girl had already rejected his helping hand, and made a complete fool of herself in doing so, and it was obvious from the way the others were glaring at her that they thought she was in the wrong. He didn’t walk away, though, because he was a good person; that is, he was going to pretend to be a good person because it seemed like a suitably rewarding method of ruffling her feathers.

“Fine,” he said mildly, his mouth curving up in a habitual smirk. Then, without taking his eyes off of the girl, he spoke so the people around them could hear. “It was my fault. I apologize.”

“Fine, it was my fault. I apologize.”

Well, it wasn't a flustered denial, but at least the boy had taken credit for the fall. Now she was free and clear to walk away with minimal repercussions from the soccer moms. But at the same time, she felt sort of weird about it. Why was he going along with it? He obviously didn't look scared, and she hadn't even done anything to try to convince him to take the fall.

"Good," Astrid huffed at him. "Maybe now you learn to look where going."

There. He’d fake apologized. What was the next step in his master plan, one might ask? He was going to… play things by ear, because he didn’t really have a master plan at all. Yeah. That was alright. That was what he had always done, albeit never in these circumstances.

“Good,” Kai parroted. He smiled, again, and got into what the girl might consider to be her personal space. “I’m Kai, by the way, and you’re welcome.” For taking the literal and metaphorical fall for her, that was.

Tooclosetooclosetooclose.

The boy, or Kai, had suddenly gotten way to close. There was a line that Astrid preferred not to cross with people, and that line served as a good distance to stand at.

Astrid took a step back so that he was no longer in her bubble, and she could actually look him in the eye. People were usually a bit weirded out by her eyes, so she liked to maintain eye contact when possible.

"Welcome what?" Astrid raised her lip and asked him in a rather rude tone. She wasn't going to give up the idea that she had nothing to do with the fall, despite the fact that she was aware Kai knew the truth. "It your fault."

The girl took a step back. Then she made eye contact, which was a bad decision that quickly turned into a terrible decision when she decided to keep snarking off at him while making eye contact.

“Welcome what? It your fault.”

Gray eyes looked back at black for one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi…

At seven Mississippi, Kai was suddenly too close again. The combination of her fashionable, impractical footwear and his influence was enough; he had only to nudge one of her heels out from under her, and Wings went down for the second time that day.

For the second time that day, he offered her a hand up and a smirk.

“I didn’t lie for you because I thought you’d be grateful, but while you’re down there, why don’t we hear a thank you?”

Oof!

Astrid suddenly felt very dizzy as she made eye contact with Kai. Why did she feel so dizzy? She hadn't given blood that day, or even had anything to drink. So why was she suddenly on the ground? 

She was beginning to get a little sore from falling on the ground so much.

>>“I didn’t lie for you because I thought you’d be grateful, but while you’re down there, why don’t we hear a thank you?”

Astrid glared at Kai coolly, having no desire to give in. There was no way she was going to give him that pleasure. 

"No," Astrid growled and tried once again to stand up. Twice, she was unsuccessful. Her butt was getting a bit of a punishment, it seemed.

She sighed and smoothed her skit for a moment as she thought. It seemed that he shoes were not going to let her stand up without some help. "Fine, thank you." She hissed.

Knocking the girl down with his power was probably the worst thing Kai had done all week. He almost felt bad for her, even if she had deserved it for falling on top of him and then being an ungrateful brat after he took the blame for her. He was more amused by her efforts to get up than he was sorry, though.

“Fine, thank you.”

“That wasn’t so hard, hm?” Kai teased, as he helped her up. Then he turned away to dig in his man-purse for his glasses, because no way was he doing that again; he had a bad enough migraine as it was.

>>“That wasn’t so hard, hm?”

Astrid turned her mouth up at him and pulled hard on his hand as he helped her up. Hopefully it would be hard enough to sort of knock him off of his feet. Stupid smug boy was not going to just get her gratitude and then flaunt it in front of her. No, that wasn't how it worked.

She watched in disgust as he riffled through a purse that he had slung over his shoulder. Seriously, a post. It was horrible. Astrid didn't even usually carry purses. They got in the way of her wings too much.

"What you do?" She asked him, her voice charged with obvious judgement. "Look stupid, you know."

Either the girl was heavier than she looked, or she was purposely pulling at his hand to try to knock him off balance. Probably both. Kai stumbled forward a little, but caught himself by fisting a hand in her feathers. Then he amused himself with smoothing said feathers, to many a strange look from the passerby.

”What you do? Look stupid, you know.”

He followed her gaze to the bag slung over his shoulder, and laughed out loud because seriously, she was judging him because of that?

“Sound stupid, you know,” the teen mimed. He glanced down at his brown leather messenger bag; it was a ripoff of some designer brand, sure, but he liked it. Wings, on the other hand, was looking at it with an obvious air of disgust. “Are people unfamiliar with the concept of carrying their things with them, where you’re from?”

Ew ew ew. He was touching her feathers! Astrid gave Kai a look of utter contempt as he grabbed at her wing to steady himself. That was not an okay thing to do. Not in the least. You didn't just touch someone's wings.

Astrid shoved the boy off and scrunched her face at him. "Don't touch," she warned, her voice charged with anger.

“Sound stupid, you know,”

The girl rolled her eyes, well used to that comment. She knew she sounded stupid, but it was hard to try to pick up a new language with no experience and irregular human contact. Plus, English was a stupid, nonsensical language. In her not-so-humble opinion, she was doing quite well.

“Are people unfamiliar with the concept of carrying their things with them, where you’re from?”

Astrid scoffed. "No, just no little boys. Look stupid." 

Scoff. Eye roll. Repeat. The girl just kept on snarking back at him, and Kai found himself getting tired of her one-note act. It had been funny for maybe the first five minutes, but now his head hurt and he couldn’t have his fun with her anyway because they were in public. If things kept going at this rate, he’d waste the entire day standing in the middle of the mall.

“No, just no little boys. Look stupid.”

“I don’t look stupid,” said Kai, flatly. He put his glasses on, and the case away. “Now were you going somewhere, you know, before you fell on top of me?”

Then he put his arm around her shoulders and maybe her wings as well, because he just couldn’t resist. Maybe if he provoked her enough, she’d stop being so boring.

Where had she been going, exactly? Her mind seemed to have gone completely blank during her conversation with Kai. She had gone to the mall for something specific, and now she couldn't remember what it was. Astrid stood still for a brief moment before remembering suddenly.

The black dress from the flyer!

"There," Astrid pointed to a rather busy Hot Topic a few feet away. She had been so close to her goal, but now she was stuck with this vile creature.

Astrid's shrunk slightly as Kai put his arms around her shoulders. Why was he doing that? He was just about the strangest person she had ever met. She pushed him off and stepped a few feet away, crouching slightly as she readied for an attack.

"Touch again and die," she warned, her wings seconds away from shifting.