Cas turned toward the mall as Iris said nothing was coming back to her yet. He was a bit surprised, since everyone in the capital liked to visit this place. There were plenty of stores for shoppers to visit, but there were also good restaurants, a virtual reality arcade, a movie theater, and other sources of entertainment to suit any type of visitor. Personally, he frequented it for the arcade, where he could lose his sense of time and waste hours playing games until his father called to make sure he was still alive.

[color=#b97703]“We’re going inside anyway, so hopefully it’ll come back to you,”[/color] he said, turning back to return her smile. [color=#b97703]“I’m sure you’ve been here before too.”[/color] If she hadn’t, he would have been shocked. Even if she wasn’t like most high borns in the sense that she liked to cook and knew how to clean, surely she had similar hobbies as everyone else. Maybe she had visited the mall more often when she was in high school, so the memories weren’t as close to the surface? He had a feeling she would find it more familiar once they started walking around inside. Perhaps even a certain store would ring a bell to her.

Falling in step beside Iris, Cas was careful to keep up a slower pace than usual, so she wouldn’t have to push herself to keep up with him. [color=#b97703]“I can imagine,”[/color] he laughed when she spoke so eagerly about changing clothes. [color=#b97703]“Wearing the same thing day and night doesn’t sound very comfortable.”[/color] He followed her gaze as she marveled at the stores around them. Having grown used to the luxury, he didn’t find them very impressive anymore, but he could see why she would have been taken by the sight. The tall ceiling was designed to look like a cloudy sky, giving off a steady glow to make it feel like they were still outside. All the storefronts were made to look like separate buildings too, with different materials on each façade and roof faces on top. It would have been a breathtaking environment to anyone who had never seen it before.

[color=#b97703]“Okay,”[/color] he nodded, following her lead as she headed into one of the nearby clothing shops. When she brought up how she was feeling, he casted her a sideways glance. [color=#b97703]“I’m sure it’s normal,”[/color] he assured her. [color=#b97703]“You probably won’t recognize much until it all starts coming back to you. Walking around might help though.”[/color] He waited while she examined the clothes on one of the racks, looking absently around the rest of the store. This one mostly sold women’s clothes, so he rarely stopped by, especially since his mother’s passing. There just wasn’t anything he was interested in buying here.

Movement in the corner of his vision caught his attention, and he peered over his shoulder to see a group of women looking in his direction and whispering amongst themselves. He turned away from them again. Everywhere he went, people stared, so he was used to the treatment. He couldn’t help but ponder what they thought he was doing with Iris though. He wondered if it would have been better for them to go to a less popular shop, so he wouldn’t draw as much attention to them.

[color=#b97703][i]Someone else might recognize her though,[/i][/color] he realized suddenly, gaining some optimism in the situation. Maybe one of her friends was at the mall today and would come over to say hi. Deciding it wasn’t the worst thing that people were staring, he left it alone for now.

[color=#b97703]“Pick whatever you want,”[/color] he said, stepping up to stand next to her. [color=#b97703]“Money’s no object. You can have anything you’d like.”[/color]