Keeping The Family Together (Complete)

Shopping with the Toma Team

                                                               **North**

When I park the jeep at the Mall, Kayli is finishing up her story of how she shot Marc in the leg. Sang looks positively terrified but is still laughing along with the rest of us. God how I love her laugh, I'd do anything to hear it. It was like I was an addict, and Sang Baby was my drug of choice. I could never get enough of her, and never wanted to let go. We all hop out and Kayli loops her arm through Sang's, dragging her away from us and off to the entrance.

"Have you ever seen her that comfortable with someone before?" I ask Silas.

He turns from the car and starts to walk beside me, "Yea, us." He says chuckling.

I run my hand through my hair, shaking my head, "You know what I mean."

Axel turns to look at us, "Your bird isn't exactly anti-social if she's working at the diner."

I shake my head at him, "That's not what I mean...she's had a tough go at things. She was just as broken as we were. Wouldn't even let us touch her when we first met her...she would always flinch. Still doesn't let anyone other than us hold her, but this...after Jade..."

"Yea, I know what you mean." says Silas, "but this is a good thing, she looks happy, and the only other times she's happy is with us. It'll be good for her to have someone to talk to who isn't us. Someone who can relate to what she's going through."

Fucking silver tongued bastard, "Yea I know." It'll be good for her...she needs a friend who won't try and jump her bones when they see her. This is a good thing.

                                                                       **Sang**

When we step into the mall I have no idea what to do next. I don't need to go shopping, and even if I did, Gabriel would kill me for going without him. Fortunately, I don't have to do much thinking as we're here for Kayli. I'm usually more hesitant around other girls after what happened with Jade, but for some reason that isn't a problem with Kayli. She leads us to a clothing store close to the back on the first level. It isn't very crowded, which makes the looks we get stand out even more. Kayli looks over her shoulder and laughs, "They look like body guards don't they."

I look behind us, and sure enough our boys are giving the evil eye to anyone who looks our way. I blush a deep red and turn back around. Kayli's muttering something about personal space; personally I can't hear her over the blood rushing around in my head. Suddenly she turns us around and marches straight to Axel. "Wait outside the store."

"Not a chance in hell. You wanted to shop, so shop." He replies indignantly.

She turns to me and says "Sang, help me out here." I feel my eyes widen at her plea, how in the world am I supposed to help!?

Silas takes pity on me, and with a chuckle he says, "Aggele, do you want us to give you some space to shop?"

"Yes!" That's Kayli.

"Fuck no!" And that would be North.

Silas looks at me, "Aggele?"

Why me!? "Um...Yes?"

"Yes!" That would be Kayli again. Which receives a grunt from Raven, and a very scary glare from Axel. Maybe shopping wasn't such a good idea.

In the end, the boys agree to standing at the front of the store where they can keep an eye on us but not leave the store completely. This pacifies Kayli and then we're off to browse around the store. When we're relatively out of hearing range Kayli starts the inquisition. She starts out pretty easy, wanting to know how long I've known the boys and if I'm in the Academy. I answer all of her questions in stride, and just as she asks which one I'm dating my phone goes off.

Kota: I need to talk to you.

Well that couldn't be more ominous. What could he want to talk about? What if the meeting with Mr. Blackbourne didn't go well? I need to find out what this is about before I drive myself crazy.

Sang: Sure, what about?

Kota: I'd prefer to talk about this in person. I can pick you up from the diner.

Sang: I'm actually at the mall with North and Silas. I can have him drop me off at your house.

I conveniently leave out that we're with Axel and Raven not knowing how he would react to this.

Kota: Ok, see you soon.

I turn back to Kayli who has watched my interaction with Kota the whole time with a curious look on her face. "Um... I need to go..." I say hesitantly.

"Ok, no problem. This was fun." She replies.

"Yea it was." I say with a smile. She then loops her arm back through mine and starts to head to where our boys are waiting. Before anyone can say anything I say to North "I have to go talk to Kota, can you drop me off at his house?"

He looks at me quizzically for a moment before he says "Sure Baby, no problem."

As we start to walk out of the store and to the Jeep I'm stuck in my head on how to handle this, and I think about how my fun afternoon at the mall just took a turn.