Toys were everywhere around them. Hanging for the ceiling on the floor. There were riding toys, push toys and large balls to play with. Dolls and stuffed animal. Then Kita’s eyes saw a large ball pit. She looked to Tsukiro and nodded her head with a sly grin.
Tsukiro looked from Kita to the ball pit and back then shook his head gravely, giving her a look. "No," he said. "No. No way. You are not getting me into trouble in a toy store. Forget it."
“But?” Kita pointed at the ball pit as a parent and two children jumped in. “Their doing it. So it must be ok.” Just then, a Toys r’ Us employee walked past. “Excuse me Miss?” Kita called to her walking up. “Are we allowed to play in that ball pit over there.”
The young girl looked the way of the ball pit. “Of course. That’s why we sit it up.”
Kita looked back to Tsukiro. “Last one in…” She was about to take off toward it.
Well, this is going to be slightly embarrassing... Tsukiro thought as Kita ran for the pit.
"Oh, what the hell. Wait for me!" Tsukiro hop-skipped over, trying to take off his shoes while running. When he got to the opening he set down his high tops and jumped in. He looked around the sea of balls, trying to find her. All he saw were screaming and laughing kids.
"Kita? Where'd you go?"
Coming up behind him, Kita pushed him down in the balls. “TIMBER!” Kita yelled as she watched him land in the colorful balls some flying into the air as he landed in them. Kita then jumped forward diving into the balls next to him. She rolled over looking up at the roof of the ball pit.
“I have not played in a ball pit since I was 5. I forgot how much fun it was.” She giggled as she tried to stand up again.
Tsukiro stood up from the pool of colored balls with a gasp and huffed, trying to catch his breath. "I think I almost drowned down there."
He looked down at Kita who seemed right at home. He laughed slightly, fixing his hair back into place. "Well, it's different. No towel or bathing suit necessary."
Then he picked up a blue ball and bounced it off of Kita's forehead.
Kita blinked as the ball hit her head and bounced off. She stood there in a daze for a second then started showing balls toward Tsukiro as she picked them up quickly and started throwing them at him.
Tsukiro laughed as he tried to dodge Kita’s attacks while at the same time trying to counter them with his own attacks. Then he stuck his arms in the pool of balls and threw a huge wave of them at her, as if splashing her in a real pool filled with water. The wave of colored spheres rained down on Kita.
Kita started laughing uncontrollably as she batted balls with her hands. She could not escape them there were too many. She got to laughing so hard she fell in the balls and sat there.
Tsukiro laughed as Kita fell into the pool and didn’t bother to get up. Tired, he sunk down into the mess of colored balls next to her. “Well, that was… different.”
“It was fun.” Kita laughed as she rested her head to his shoulder. Quickly she jumped up grabbing his hand. “Come on lets see what else we can get into.”
She pulled him to his feet and out of the ball pit. Once they had their shoes back on Kita spotted a huge display of stuffed animals. She took off like a rocket toward them.
Tsukiro’s head spun, as he was yanked and pulled off to somewhere else in the store. He barely had time to slip on his shoes before she pulled him over to the stuffed animals. Kita went about looking at all of them and he smiled at her. He just so happened to turn his head and spotted one in particular.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said as he picked up a medium sized, fluffy, gray, black and white stuffed snow leopard.
He turned it around in his hands. It looked a lot like Kotaishi. He smiled and laughed. How ironic. Then, he got an idea. He looked at Kita, who was too busy to even look at his find. Quickly he dug around in the bins filled with other stuffed animals until he found what he was looking for: A stuffed tiger. He glanced over at Kita again to find her still not paying attention. Tsukiro grinned and snuck off down a different aisle, backtracking to the checkout counters, not telling Kita where he was going. When she finally looked, he was nowhere to be found.
Kita looked around the area for Tsukiro. “Where did he go?” She started walking the aisles. “He must have found something that caught his eyes to have disappeared on me without saying something.”
Finally, making her way to the front of the store she saw Tsukiro standing on the other side of check out. A huge bag in his hand. She started making her way toward him.
On the inside, Tsukiro sighed in relief as Kita spotted him merely ten seconds after the cashier handed him his bag. He smiled at her, revealing nothing. “Hey, sorry I ran off. I found something and couldn’t wait.”
Kita smiled warmly. “I understand. I have done that before myself.” She looked toward the exit. “Well are you ready to hit the next shop then?” She tried to peek and see what he had in the bag, but to no avail he had it close tightly.
Tsukiro put the bag behind his back, out of reach from Kita. He nodded. “Yup. Let’s go to a clothing store next.”
Kita nodded. “I need some more clothes. Besides what I have on, I only have two other outfits.” She started slowly toward the exit. Looking back to see if he was coming. Though, in reality she wanted to know what was in the bag he had. “Come on pokey.” She called to him.
