“So you are going on a date?” Willow asked, she kept her voice smooth completely flat, not upset at all, and thankfully Matt couldn't look behind himself to see the murderous look she had on her face that would have brought the schrade crashing down around her.  

Keep calm, cool, collected.

Don't do anything stupid, you just got a little on his good side.

Don't do anything stupid.

“Yeah, have a date, tomorrow.”  he said, as he sped through the narrow streets avoiding cars and the odd pedestrian with a great deal of skill and ease as he quickly wove his way through to a shopping center. “What is her name?” she asked, deciding that whoever this woman was she would be her eternal rival. This was simply a setback, she could overcome this.

She would overcome this.

“Monica,”  he said casually, as he pulled into a parking lot area in front of a massive shopping complex.  The building was a pristine white and blue and was only three stories high, making it seem short compared to the surrounding buildings.  It however felt anything but small, seeing as it rested on three and a half acres of space and took up that entire area.  Contained within were over 700 shops, and many more vendors and stalls, there was even an park in the center of the building.

It was the center of the entertainment district. The entertainment district was one of four subsections of the city of Elpída, it in itself was large enough to hold the entire population of Elpída trice over.  The parking lot alone was a pretty long walk, long enough to have benches and shuttle busses to bring people to the front of the mall.  Putting the kickstand down Matt leaned the bike to the side, resting it on the peg and got off, pulling the starter chip and pocketing it.  He straightened his jacket and looked back at Willow, who was taking in the sights with an unwavering interest and wide eyes.

Thats right, she had never seen something like this before, to him it had become a mundane event, something he simply took for granted. But to her this was the first time she had seen a world that hadn't fallen into ruin.  Of a non apocalyptic world.

“Coming?”  he asked, and she glanced over at him, breaking her contact with the massive surrounding buildings and the bustling crowd.  

“Sure,”  she said, and watched as he pulled his wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans and stuffed it instead in the front pocket. “Why did you do that?”  she asked, and he looked over at her with a confused look. “Put your wallet in the front of your pants pocket?”

“Oh, that, that is due to there being so many pick pockets, and the fact that it is almost impossible to steal a wallet out the front pocket of pants,”  he laughed, and his eyes got that look to them he always got when he remembered something. “I used to carry two wallets, one that had the important stuff, and another that was filled with junk and insults.”  he chuckled, “diversionary wallet ha.”

She giggled along with him, and quickly turned to catch up.

“Hey thinking about it you could watch my back.”  he said, but was quickly refuted by her.

“I cannot, I am not actually here remember?”  she said. “I am installed in your caser, my physical form is simply a hallucination, so I can only see what you can see, and I have no way of watching your back unless you can do that yourself.”

“Ah, that makes since.”  he said with a smile, “Let's get some food, I am hungry.”  he paused, “I was going to order some food for you, but you don't eat do you?”

“Just order yourself some, I will use the chemical signals your brain receives to experience it for myself.” she said with a smile, it was nice that he was thinking of her.

“You can do that?”  he asked looking at her.

“The caser can read that data, I believe it is a function they use to make medicine taste good, they change the chemical signals that your brain receives so the taste of medicine that is needed is easier to get down, if I am not wrong they also use it to deter the abuse of substances, making them taste something awful if the specific drug is not needed or prescribed.”

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“Ah,” he nodded, it was a function he had heard of but had never really thought about.  He kept walking along the path, it was close enough that there was no need for the trolley that picked up passengers.  The entrance of the mall was massive, 17 doors stretched across the front and there was hand railing, or bumper railing depending on how you looked at it, for each entrance, causing the crowds to be corralled into the entrance.  Getting into one of the lines he reflexively grabbed Willow’s hand and pulled her to his front, it had been something he had always done for Taylor, acting like a shield for her. The weirdest part about it however was not the fact that he did this out of habit but rather that fact that he could actually feel her.

The touch was decidedly ghostly, like there was less to her than should be there, but it was indeed physical.  If he wanted to he could of course squeeze her hand and no doubt he would be able to fully close his hand, like there was nothing there.

Because there was nothing there.

He however didn't wish to try this, he knew it would not physically hurt her, seeing as that was impossible, but he also didn't wish to try it.

“Sorry it is a habit.”  he said to Willow. He received a quizzical look from the guy standing in the lane next to his own, but he simply pointed to his vidcom he had tucked in the front of his shirt and the man nodded and looked away, apparently satisfied with the explanation.

“It's fine,”  she said, she turned away from him to hide the blush in her cheeks, it felt remarkably good to be thought of as real by him, even if his rational brain knew she wasn't, his reflexes and habits were still there, and they told a completely different story.

It took a full 30 minutes to get into the mall, but according to Matt this was normal.  Inside a colorful array of stores and shops lay displayed in front of them in a sensory overload of colors lights and sounds. He looked at Willow’s amazed look and smiled, it was nice to see someone not simply milling about, like they had seen this place thousands of times over, and to be honest that was probably true for a lot of the people here. The only people that acted like she did were young kids coming here for the first time with their parents.

It was honestly slightly enduring.

“Come on,”  he said with a smile and he started walking off, this broke her out of her awe and caused her to run along, catching up with him quickly.  As they passed windows filled to the brim with clothes and dresses designed for women she would pause and look at them with a exclamation of awe, and he would lag, standing slightly off to her side, allowing her to look at them as long as she wanted. There was a particular outfit they had put on a mannequin that seemed to have completely captured her attention.

The clothing was black and grey, the top was a sleeveless half dress that went down to mid thigh, with grey stripes down the sides.  The neck of the dress was like a loose fitting turtleneck, at the center of the dress a vee was cut out to emphasize a woman's bust, and on the wrist were some fingerless gloves that stretched up to mid forearm. The legs were covered in black skin tight leggings, and a set of grey and black thigh boots completed the look.  

The mannequin on display was rotated around proudly as to show the entire outfit. “I would see about getting you that but I doubt you would be able to actually wear it.”  he said with a laugh, but she looked at him and smiled.

“Look over there,”  she said, pointing off behind him, and he in curiousity did just that, looking away, but seeing nothing of interest he looked back, and much to his surprise she was clothed not in the scarred survival clothing she was normally in but rather in the black and grey dress, complete with the leggings, gloves, and boots. ”What do you think?” she asked doing a little spin to display the dress.

“Looks very nice,”  he said with a smile, causing Willow to blush slightly.  

“Thank you,”  she said softly.

”No problem it really does look good on you.” he said with a shrug, and honestly it did, the tight fitting dress hugged her form in all the right places.

“No, not just that,”  she said still looking away from him. “For letting me stay, and for being so nice to me after I was so rude and.”  she sniffed, the prelude to tears.

“Hey,”  he said, and she looked over at him, he saw the track of a single tear that had made its way down her face. He had to stop himself from reaching out and brushing it away. “Like I said, it is no issue.”

It was not to long before they found themselves in the park’s area, and much to his surprise the two of them were eating.  Matt had a burger and fries, and Willow who was sitting across from him on the other side of the table was eating one as well.  She consumed the food she had simulated form his with a gusto.  Apparently this was the first time she had ever eaten anything. It was fun to simply watch her eat, with as much enjoyment she got out of it.

Off to the side there was a group of three women, all of them around the age of twenty or so, and Matt was not blind he could see them glancing at him and looking away to confer in hushed tones and giggle every now and again.  He chose to ignore the angry look Willow would cast their way every now and again.  It didn't take long for one of them, a slightly asian looking woman to walk over to him with her tray of food.

“Excuse me,” she said shyly blushing bright red as she spoke. “Can I sit here with you?”  she asked.

“I'm sorry, I am saving this spot for my friend.”  he answered apologetically.  She glanced at the spot and back at him quickly.

“I’m sorry to bother you,”  she said, and quickly turned around with her head hung and retreated to the safety of her friend's table. She sat down with her back turned towards him, head down, he caught out the corner of his eye one of her friends use her arm to make a downward motion, accompanying the movement with a whistle that started high and ended low, and as the sound stopped she made a rumble with her mouth and flared her hands dramatically like there was some kind of explosion. Another one patted her on the back and shot an angered glance in his direction, calling him an asshole just loud enough for him to hear.

Willow nodded with satisfaction, as they all got up and left the area. “Barring that moment this was a nice day,”  he said.

She looked over at him and smiled deeply. “It was a very nice day,”  she glanced over to the side, and he followed her look, when he looked back she was right there in his face, he almost jumped but before he could react she placed her lips on his.

The ghostly brush of her against him was like electricity as it ran through his body, slowly she closed her eyes and ran her fingers through his hair.  She pulled away hands still on the back of his head and smiled. “It was a very nice day, almost like a date,”  she smiled, and there was a hint of maliciousness hidden in those red lips.

Oh shit, was the only thought running through his mind.