An Incomplete History

Interlude chapter - It can't be that bad

5 Minutes after Gale leaves the cafe after their interaction with Ryuma, Aquila and Tomasi sit there still confused by the interaction. "Let's just move past that, whatever Ryuma was talking about, it can't be that bad." Aquila says but a look of concern still sits in his eyes. "Yeah you're right, let's give Gale the night to cool down and we can check in on him in the morning." Tomasi smiles in an attempt to move past the unsettling confrontation. "Want to do anything?" Aquila asks. "Sure, we can go to the mall if you'd like, or we could try and catch a movie." Tomasi looks at Aquila awaiting a response, Aquila's eyes suddenly widen as he turns to Tomasi. "Hey, remember when we went to the mall that time, it was me, you and Angie. We found this store and it had a key-chain that we thought looked scarily like Gale, but me and him weren't talking at the time so we didn't get it, want to try and find it again?" Aquila grins. "It's been years, is that store even open now?" Tomasi looks at Aquila. "Only one way to find out." Aquila stands up and Looks back down at Tomasi. "It's not a far walk, let's go." Aquila starts walking and Tomasi catches up with him. "Why are you so eager to find this key-chain all of the sudden?" Tomasi turns his head to Aquila as they're walking down the street, a slight breeze hits Aquila's face as he puts his hand in front of his face to stop his hair from getting messed up. "I think it would make Gale laugh, and I think he needs to laugh." Aquila smiles, his bright yellow eyes illuminated by the sun. "Alright, fair enough." Tomasi smiles. "Hey, have you ever thought about who invented shrimp?" Tomasi asks, It takes Aquila a second to react to Tomasi's question, after it registers in Aquila's head he turns his head with a look of complete confusion, then turning his head back forward, refusing to acknowledge whatever just came out of Tomasi's mouth.

After 20ish minutes of walking, they arrive at the mall. The mall is around 3 stories tall and one of the biggest in North America. It then sets in that finding this one store will serve to be a more difficult task than originally thought. Aquila and Tomasi take the elevator up to the 3rd floor and begin searching, then stopping at a smoothie store, Aquila gets a medium strawberry-banana smoothie while Tomasi gets an odd green colored kale-apple smoothie. "You certainly like weird things Tomasi." Aquila takes a sip of his smoothie as they leave the store. "Hey, let me like what I like okay." Tomasi pouts and Aquila giggles quietly, they go from store to store attempting to find the store to no avail, they almost finish going through the 3rd floor, when they abruptly find a store that looks similar but when they finish going through it they couldn't find anything that was the same, Tomasi picks up a pendant that has an eagle on it and buys it discreetly, while aquila goes through shirts in the store. After leaving the final store they sit down at a rest area. "Do you think it's still open?" Tomasi asks. "I'm still unsure but we still have the second and first floor to go." Aquila shrugs. "True, hope we find it soon, I'm getting tired." Tomasi stands up and Aquila follows, heading down to the second floor.

After going through stores for a bit, Aquila runs to the bathroom and Tomasi waits near the entrance for Aquila when a massive yell is heard, Tomasi runs into the bathroom to see Aquila standing on the toilet as a mouse scutters around. "Tomasi quick! Kill that thing!!"

Aquila's intense reaction to a mouse causes Tomasi to break out into laughter. "Stop laughing and help me, That creature is gonna give me a plague!" Aquila's pleas go nowhere as Tomasi can't stop laughing at how scared Aquila is of a mouse. The mouse gets driven off by Tomasi's laughter and Aquila steps down and looks angry at Tomasi. "Thanks for the help dick." Aquila side-eyes Tomasi. "You're so so welcome Aquila." Tomasi finishes laughing and wipes the tears out of his eyes, but as they go to walk out of the bathroom the mouse runs by again causing Aquila to shriek, making a very feminine scream and Tomasi is once again on the ground laughing.

They finish walking through the floor and make it to the first floor, and scan around, as daylight slowly falls as they run from store to store attempting to find the key-chain. "Hey uh, when was the last time you spoke to Angie?" Aquila asks, seemingly remembering the last time they were here. "It was a few months after we last hung out, she started distancing herself and when I asked why she told me that her master asked her to, so I'm assuming she fell into some sort of cult thing.." Tomasi goes silent as his face goes from bright to dim. "I see... I hope she's okay at least." Aquila sees the sadness in Tomasi's eyes and tries to change the subject. "The first floor is almost done, you think we will find it?" Aquila awkwardly smiles. "Yeah, I think we will find it" Tomasi smiles and and the two continue walking, after scanning through the final mall, there was no luck at finding the store, the hours spent felt like nothing now, as they go to leave the mall a quick flash catches Aquila's eye as he turns to see it, a giant smile erupts on his face, The key-chain they were looking for this whole time was right there in the little pop-up shop near the exit. Aquila grabs Tomasi's arm causing Tomasi to yelp, Aquila grabs and pays for the Key-chain before Hugging Tomasi, they leave the mall to see it's already dark out. "Want to meet up at Gale's place tomorrow, can we surprise him with this?" Aquila asks. "Sounds good man. See you tomorrow" Tomasi smiles before walking off, Aquila looks up at the moon for a second and starts to walk home, the key-chain dangling from his hand.

The moonlight hits the key-chain causing a purple highlight on the key-chain's eye to be visible, but Aquila isn't aware.

[Interlude chapter end]