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Description
The Date

After they were all dressed up and ready to go, Mau and the twins' father took the four kids to a place called Arkham Mall. It was like any other typical mall, but was rather close to Mau's house. It was known across town to be one of the most fun places to visit in town.

The shopping mall was gigantic, period. Crowds of shoppers flooded the area. Inside there were many department stores and restaurants. Such places included Owenpool, Ray Laurel, and even the expensive Caloste was there. And look! They even had a McDonald's in the food court.

There were also two different movie theaters, each one at opposite ends of the mall, playing different movies from each other. At the front entrance of each one, there were also two or three big game rooms, and they weren't just the little video arcades for kids. There were also special game rooms for adults and senior customers too, including miniature casinos and bingo games. Also there was always a food court located at the very center of the front lobby. Many people enjoyed their favorite fast foods served at the counters, because they had everything you could ever dream of; Italian, Mexican, Indian, Oriental, the list went on. Each theater was generally built like a miniature city.

The Arvide's had never known about this mall, probably because it had only opened just recently. They were simply amazed at how they had somehow failed to notice this big shopping mall standing out in plain sight, because they had never even seen or heard about the mall. That place seemed to be perfect for...everything!

The kids were dumbfounded by its greatness, and after marveling at it for a little while, they decided to walk into the entrance. As they got in, everyone had different opinions as to where to start looking. Mau told them, "I think we should all split up and go our separate ways. We'll all meet up at…" he moved forward, to look at the mall's map, and pointed at a black spot on the food court, "...this McDiggie's here."

With a grin on her face, Karen told Mau and Lizzie "Okay! Miina and I will start from the West Wing and you two can take the East Wing."

I wonder why she is smiling like that, Mau thought to himself. He stared at the map to plan on what places they were going to visit first.

Satisfied with what he saw, Mau went back to Lizzie and asked, "Wanna go now?" Lizzie responded with a nod.

"So, what do you think? We'll meet back with each other in about… two hours?" Mau asked the twins.

"Sure! That'll give us plenty of time to explore everything!" Miina answered.

"Alright then…we'll meet back at half past five, got it?" Mau told the twins, just a little before they began walking away.

"Hai!" The twins answered eagerly, emulating the characters they watched from their favorite anime series. The two quickly disappeared, out of Mau's sight.

Ha-ha those girls will never change; I hope they don't get too carried away with all this. This has to be the biggest mall we've ever visited, Mau thought as he began walking around, holding Lizzie's hand.

"Mau, we're gonna have a great time," Lizzie told him, as they walked through a lot of people, giving him a very cute smile.

"I know, Lizzie. We'll enjoy it for sure," Mau said happily, as he dragged Lizzie closer to him, making her blush a bit.

Later after a long walk, then found a good place to start their date: a coffee shop called "Nicky and Moe's", which wasn't like your average Peet's Coffee or Starbucks. This place had decorated with a romantic theme, and the whole setting and atmosphere seemed as if it was perfectly made for their date. They sat down on one of the tables, both facing each other, and started talking.

"You know, Lizzie. Looking at you right now makes me wonder why I lost so much time in my grief, not paying attention to you. You're the most precious thing I have; I feel like an idiot for not being there with you these last two months," Mau confessed to her, with a tone of sorrow in his last words. "I really want to make it all up to you...by spending the time I have now here with you."

"Mau...you are so sweet! I...I don't know what to say..." Lizzie stuttered, lost in Mau's words, and in how he looked so down. She reacted by gently holding his hands, and rubbing them.

"T-thanks, Lizzie..." Mau said, flushing because the warm feeling of Lizzie's hands holding his was something that he had longed for, for a very long time.

Embarrassing seconds passed by like they were minutes, and Mau changed the subject a bit, "So uh...how have you been in all this time?"

Since Lizzie was still lost in the moment, she didn't answer right away. When she did, she simply said, "I've been good..." and then she came back to herself and added "...but I've missed you so much; you were so apart from me...I thought that you'd lost the interest in me," Lizzie paused a bit. She wiped off a tear that nearly slipped from her eye. Not allowing Mau the chance to intervene, she continued, "But now...that I'm seeing you again...I know that my love for you has only gotten stronger, and that you never meant to be apart from me...I mean, your loss made you be like that, so...I forgive you, my love."

Mau's heart skipped a beat and a stunning feeling of happiness filled him. He felt like he wanted to say something, but words didn't come out of his mouth. Instead he stuttered and he could only articulate a few weird mumbles and then he stayed quiet, not wanting everyone to notice that he could not talk properly. Lizzie's words caught him off guard.

Lizzie laughed a little, thinking it was kind of cute how Mau always struggled to say something after she told him something like that.

"You're cute, Mau," Lizzie told him, and then drank the water she had ordered.

Mau laughed nervously, and then said, "B-but...you're cuter than me," which made Lizzie flush instantly, because he said it in such cute way, and so suddenly, that she couldn't stand it.

When Mau saw that, he thought, So this is a little game I will start with her... let's see who makes who blush more! Ha-ha! I'll tell her about it later, maybe she'll like it. He then asked her if she wanted to go to another place, which she answered positively.

He stood up from his chair, and helped her up, making her blush a little more, because she loved it when Mau acted like such a gentleman.

Together, they started to walk through the mall, looking at all the stores, checking prices for future things to buy, and talking about random stuff. They also ate some food.

Meanwhile, the twins were stopping every five seconds in a new store. But if they ever came across an arcade, the time they spent lasted much longer...Miina enjoyed how they looked at everything so fast, but Karen was starting to get annoyed with her sister.

Scared by her yell, Miina turned back to see her sister, who was, by the looks of it, furious. With fear in her voice, she asked, "W-what is it Karen…?"

Karen steadied herself before answering to her sister. It was the first time she had been so mad at her, but she needed to know a few things, "Miina...can we please look through the stores more...calmly? I really want to look at some of the clothes here… please."

Miina understood what her sister wanted, and apologized, "I'm sorry, Karen. I didn't know you really wanted to see the clothes… sorry."

Seeing her sister this way was new for Karen. She had never seen Miina do that before, and didn't know what to say to her. She simply said, "Thanks..."

"So, you wanna take a look in here, sis?" Miina asked Karen, leading her inside the store where they had been shopping in less than a minute ago.

"Nah...Let's go here!" Karen corrected Miina, and led her to the store beside it. "They have some really awesome clothes! I might come back and buy us some stuff. Ha-ha!"

Once they were inside, Karen looked carefully at the selection of female clothing that the little store had to offer, while Miina just looked about deciding what and what not to buy. Choosing clothes seems so complicated... she thought, as she took a look at the sports clothes that store had, maybe they had her favorite team's shirt. "Ooh! These ones look cute!" Miina exclaimed, shuffling through some tops.

After a little more than twenty minutes, Karen finally finished looking through the clothes, and looked for Miina, who was searching for her size in a shirt she had liked. When she found her, she told her, "You see Miina, if you just spend a little more time looking through the stores, you might find something you like...it's good to just relax and take a look once in a while."

Miina smiled at her, because she was happy to have learned something new, and something that she would find useful in days to come.

"That's why I love being your sister, Karen, I can teach so much to you… you just need to open up a little bit more and tell me everything you want to know from me, I won't bite you," Miina told Karen.

Her words had such an impact on Karen, that she was about to cry, but, she controlled herself, and said, "You're the best sister I could ever want Miina. I love you."

Miina was pleased with what she had heard, and offered Karen to walk together, holding hands, so that she could be sure to stop whenever Karen wanted to look around. Karen gladly accepted the offer, and held Miina's hand with hers.

They continued to walk around the mall, until they found the biggest arcade in the mall. There were tons of video games, and they served lots of great snacks to eat too!

They entered the arcade and immediately played on all the video games. The twins enjoyed many exciting games like Soul Calibur III, Time Crisis IV, and Initial D.

However, Dance Dance Revolution Supernova 2 was especially their most favorite game to play, as they each took turns dancing to popular songs like Arrabbiata, Electrified, and Bloody Tears (IIDX EDITION). The DDR machine also included a selection of random bonus songs like Caramelldansen, Levan Polkka, the Numa Numa featuring video footage of the ever-so-popular "Numa Numa Kid", and even the infamously popular One-Winged Angel, played by none other than The Black Mages.

Their dancing attracted quite a lot of people, because they were scoring high score, after high score, after high score, and almost never failing any dance step as they played.

They were creating quite a commotion with the people who were watching them and those who passed by asked, "Why don't you girls compete against each other to see who's the best?!"

They thought about it for a while, and seeing that they still had a lot of time until it was half past five, they accepted. Both of them agreed to compete with each other on one condition: that no matter who won, the winner would fully respect the other and not make fun of them, so that the one who lost wouldn't be frustrated at the winner. They were going to play a nice friendly match.

With all the arrangements made, they began their DDR competition that would have no end (well, at least until it was half past five o' clock). Oddly, they always missed the same steps, and always earned the same score, no doubt they were twins. They did everything almost exactly the same.

People began to make bets on the twins, to see which one of them would be the first one to lose against the other; and now each girl had her own club of supporters.

The competition started out slowly with "Have You Ever Been Mellow?" as both girls danced calmly to the very slow and gentle steps. The crowd however showed their disappointment and booed at them, demanding them to choose a more upbeat song to dance to.

With that said, the next song came up with a slightly higher upbeat tempo called "Bumblebee." The crowds then began cheering and rooting for the girls. Once the heat went on, then came a fan favorite: "Sexy Planet."

Eventually, just at the very moment that everyone had least expected it, Rick Astley's song Never Gonna Give You Up started to play, and the twins began dancing to its simple steps.

"Awesome! Rick Roll!" a boy in the crowd cheered. Apparently, the boy was no stranger to love.

"What the hell?" said someone else in the crowd, "What's Rick Astley doing in DDR!? That guy never gives up."

"I don't know and I don't care," another on-looker said. "These girls ROCK!!!"

After about fifteen minutes into the match, they decided to challenge each other to PARANOiA HADES, an expert level high-speed song they found interest in. As soon as they made their selection, the competition got intense when the song came into play with incredibly insane dance steps that came in at impossible speeds. The twins continuously struggled to keep up with the fast pace of the tune; just as its name suggested, it was like a song from hell.

Karen, who was dancing with two-centimeter heels, became incredibly exhausted and decided to retire from the competition, giving Miina the upper hand and earned her the epic victory.

"Damn it, I lost the bet!" exclaimed one of the on-lookers as Karen stepped off the stage. "Aww man! You let me down!"

"Ha-ha! A bet's a bet! Gimme the money!" yelled another.

Karen immediately went out of there, to grab some air, and was panting like crazy. Miina began to worry a lot, and she went after her to see if she was alright.

"Oh, my God. Are you alright, sis?" Miina asked Karen, concerned for her.

"*huff* Y-yeah *huff*" Karen answered, still breathing a bit too heavily for Miina's liking. "Don't worry about me. I-I'll be fine."

"You want us to go where Mau said that we'll meet so that you can rest for a long while?" Miina offered her sister, and received a nod in response.

They slowly walked together towards the McDiggie's. Miina really didn't like the way her sister was breathing so heavily and how she struggled to catch her breath. She thought that they might have overdone it, and felt guilty for it, because she was the one that had accepted the request from the people, and convinced Karen to dance.

Seeing the grief on her sister's face, Karen struggled to tell her, "It's...not...your fault...Miina...I decided...to dance too..."

Miina felt a little better, but still felt bad for what had happened to her sister. She refused to stop helping Karen when she felt like if she already had enough strength to walk on her own. Miina continued to stay beside her until they reached the place they needed to go to. They sat down on a bench and waited patiently. The twins had a little more than twenty-five minutes to wait until Mau and Lizzie came around.

Coming back to the couple, during the time the twins were dancing and looking at clothes, Mau and Lizzie had looked through all the stores and cafés that were on the right side of the building, staying a little while on every one of them. On their way, they were chatting about all the things Mau had long forgotten about during his epically emo state, which only made him more and more sad for losing that much time.

"You don't have to worry about it, Mau. It seems like if this only made our relationship grow stronger," were Lizzie's constant words of compassion to Mau.

Those words made Mau feel better, because, in a way, it was all true. But still, he missed the chance of being two months together with her, and that was too much for him to handle. He decided to make up for all the time he had lost in those two months.

He leaned closer to her, and kissed her delicately on her smooth cheek. He then gave her another kiss on her forehead, as soft and delicately as the first one. After that, he hugged her tightly and whispered to her ear, "I love you, Lizzie. Thank you so much for all your support."

This made Lizzie blush like crazy. It was the first time he had ever kissed her without any warning, and it had not only been one kiss, but two! She became overwhelmed with joy and returned the hug. At that moment, she didn't care at all about anything else but being with him.

They stayed like that for quite a while, or so they thought, because for them, it had been like hours, even though they had been like that for just a little more than a minute.

After they separated briefly, they continued walking through the mall, but they were not in this world. They were lost in a world of their own, in which only the two of them existed.

Then when Mau was about to bump into a second man in less than four minutes, they came back to the real world and sat down on a near bench. Together they talked to each other about life, how it was complicated to live it, and how it hid a lot of surprises.

When it was finally time to meet up with Karen and Miina, Mau told Lizzie and they went towards the McDiggie's restaurant, walking a little faster than normal because they realized they were a little late for their meeting with the twins.

Fortunately, they arrived exactly at the time Mau had said. He was astonished to see both girls there waiting for them.

"Hey! We've been waiting for you for a long time!" Miina received Mau and Lizzie.

"Ha-ha. Sorry, girls," Mau apologized. "I guess we both got a little side-tracked."

"So how did it go at the East Wing of the mall? Was it good?" Miina asked eagerly.

"Yeah, I think I know why Karen wanted us to go over there first," Mau said. "There were lots and lots of places for couples to go to. Thanks a lot, sis!" was Mau's answer.

Miina answered for Karen, who was still having little difficulties with her breathing, "Oh! Ha-ha, she is really smart isn't she? Our part was rather fun too! We looked through a lot of clothing stores, and played a lot of games! I enjoyed both a lot! Especially the clothes...they just had the cutest-"

"The clothes!?" Mau interrupted.

"Yes, Mau, the clothes, ha-ha," she continued. "I learned from Karen to take my time looking through closely, and to have fun doing it! It was rather nice."

Karen nodded with approval, and Mau noticed that she wasn't talking or saying anything, which seemed strange. She was not like that, so he asked, "Did something happen to you Karen? You seem to be awfully quiet right now...and tired."

"Uhm… she's a bit too exhausted, Mau...and it is my fault," Miina told him with guilt in her voice.

"What were you two doing?" Lizzie asked calmly, not thinking it had been entirely Miina's fault.

"We were dancing..." Karen answered, with a very low voice. "...on DDR. But I guess we danced too much. Now she's too tired to keep going, I think I'll call dad to come for us both. You and Lizzie can stay here if you like. I want her to rest now, it's been really tiring for her and besides, she had heels, so that's why she felt so tired," Miina continued Karen's answer.

"I see...let me call dad," Mau said, as he took out his cell-phone and dialed his father's number.

The three girls stayed silent, and when Mau came back, he told them they needed to go to where they had parted ways, because his dad would be waiting there for Miina and Karen to pick them up. And so, Mau carried Karen over there, and the other two girls were by his side.

Karen enjoyed every second of the ride, and wished that it would never end. She was finally feeling that close to him, and not only that, she wrapped her arms around his neck. To her, it felt like if she was in heaven.

When their father arrived, she didn't want to go, but when Mau told her that she needed to, she accepted and got into the truck.

Miina and Karen left, leaving Mau and Lizzie alone. They still had a whole two to three hours left to spend together, and they were going to make the best out of them.

They began walking towards the West Wing, where Miina and Karen had started and noticed that there were lots of people over there; not that the other side was less crowded, but on this side you could barely walk freely, so they were struggling to stay together.

They feared that if they were separated even for a little more than five seconds, they would go on totally different ways, and just as they feared, it happened.

Lizzie mistakenly confused Mau with another young boy, and when she noticed that he wasn't her boyfriend, she stayed where she was, silent like a statue, because she had made a big mistake and now she was lost!

Mau immediately noticed that she was missing and started looking for her. Where did she go?! I can't see her with all this people around… and she's so short! I hope she's not too far away from me, Mau thought as he moved through the crowd of people, looking for Lizzie.

After a few seconds of looking and struggling to move through, he saw her characteristic blonde hair, with which she was privileged, being the only one to have that tone and he made his way towards her.

When he finally reached her, he grabbed her by her shoulders and whispered to her ear, "I finally found you..."

Lizzie was so glad to hear her boyfriend's voice that from being a statue, she changed to being the happiest person on earth. She let him embrace her from the back, and rested her head against his chest, hearing how his heart beat, and flushing slightly by the sound of it.

Then they found a bench, and decided to stay there until the place started clearing, so that the little incident wouldn't happen again.

"I think it'll be better if we stay together and sit down, instead of trying to walk through all these massive crowds of people...I didn't expect this place to be so crowded!" Mau declared to her, amazed by the constant floods of people he saw passing right in front of him.

"I know...I also think it's best if we stay here for a little while...I don't want to get lost again," She told him, feeling a bit down for what had happened earlier.

Mau rubbed her back and said, "Aww...don't worry, Lizzie. I look like everyone else in here. I mean, I am average height, my hair is dark brown, and so are me eyes, so, it's easy to mistake me for someone else if you are behind me..." Mau thought for a bit about those words, and then continued, "...in fact, I was the one who made the mistake of letting you walk behind me. I need to be more careful with you...and I left you behind...I'm sorry, Lizzie."

Lizzie was amazed at how Mau always tried to take the guilt to his side. Instead of making her feel bad about something, he would transfer that guilt to him. She kind of like that about him, but sometimes, he had to let the girl accept the guilt, and this was one of those times, "Mau...I find it cute that you always want to take the responsibility, trying to make me feel good, but I have to tell you this...I'd like to accept, for once, that I was the one who made the mistake. Please, I hope you understand."

Mau didn't know what to say. It was the first time that someone had said that to him, and it felt so...liberating! He didn't have to carry on with the guilt, and she won't feel bad about it. "I understand, Lizzie; I just didn't think that you would react like this...I thought that...uhm...never mind. Ha-ha." Mau lost his will to continue, because he didn't know what else to say.

"Thanks..." Lizzie felt great. It was one of the first mature things she had done in her life, and she felt so happy to have done it.

In the end, going against what they thought was best for them was what they could do, and they were satisfied by it.

After the mall became less populated, they got up and started walking, watching everything and admiring every bit of the super-center, especially the place were Miina and Karen had danced because it was a huge place to have fun. They wanted to stay there and play a few rounds on the DDR machine, but they had so little time for it, so they decided to leave it for another date.

And just like that, the two hours that they had for themselves passed by without anything surprising or unexpected.

But just then, a boy approached them, and asked them something in Spanish. When Lizzie saw that Mau was getting mad, she went to hug him tightly. The boy walked away without another word.

"What did he ask, honey?" Lizzie asked innocently.

"He said that he wanted to be your boyfriend. And when he saw that you hugged me, he immediately knew that either I was your brother or boyfriend. So he went away," Mau explained to her.

"Wow...am I that popular?" Lizzie teased him.

"A beautiful girl like you would always be popular. But you're just for me, ha-ha. No one else is allowed to get close to you," Mau told her, a little too proudly. He thought Lizzie wouldn't like they he had said it, but she understood, because someone had tried to make a move on her in front of his face.

"Mau!!" was the only thing Lizzie said, as she pushed him gently. "You know I'll never betray you. I love you!"

After that, Mau hugged her and she returned the hug, "I am never gonna give you up! Ever!"

"Y-You won't let me down either, will you?" she asked, holding him tightly.

"Lizzie...how could I?" Mau said, smiling. "I could never desert you! We've known each other for so long. Inside, we both know...I could never part with you..."

The date had gone great, and they were so happy to have had it. Nothing could have gone better, and even though they didn't want the day to end, it was starting to get late and Mau knew that his parents would be there in just a few minutes. So they walked back to the front gate.

They reached the entrance and stepped outside the building and waited for their ride. Mau stood beside a big wall, holding Lizzie's hand tenderly, talking to her about the date and how much they had enjoyed it. Looking at the beautiful twilight, the two stood together, eagerly pondering at what surprises the new day would bring them.

End of Chapter #21

Description
The Date

After they were all dressed up and ready to go, Mau and the twins' father took the four kids to a place called Arkham Mall. It was like any other typical mall, but was rather close to Mau's house. It was known across town to be one of the most fun places to visit in town.

The shopping mall was gigantic, period. Crowds of shoppers flooded the area. Inside there were many department stores and restaurants. Such places included Owenpool, Ray Laurel, and even the expensive Caloste was there. And look! They even had a McDonald's in the food court.

There were also two different movie theaters, each one at opposite ends of the mall, playing different movies from each other. At the front entrance of each one, there were also two or three big game rooms, and they weren't just the little video arcades for kids. There were also special game rooms for adults and senior customers too, including miniature casinos and bingo games. Also there was always a food court located at the very center of the front lobby. Many people enjoyed their favorite fast foods served at the counters, because they had everything you could ever dream of; Italian, Mexican, Indian, Oriental, the list went on. Each theater was generally built like a miniature city.

The Arvide's had never known about this mall, probably because it had only opened just recently. They were simply amazed at how they had somehow failed to notice this big shopping mall standing out in plain sight, because they had never even seen or heard about the mall. That place seemed to be perfect for...everything!

The kids were dumbfounded by its greatness, and after marveling at it for a little while, they decided to walk into the entrance. As they got in, everyone had different opinions as to where to start looking. Mau told them, "I think we should all split up and go our separate ways. We'll all meet up at…" he moved forward, to look at the mall's map, and pointed at a black spot on the food court, "...this McDiggie's here."

With a grin on her face, Karen told Mau and Lizzie "Okay! Miina and I will start from the West Wing and you two can take the East Wing."

I wonder why she is smiling like that, Mau thought to himself. He stared at the map to plan on what places they were going to visit first.

Satisfied with what he saw, Mau went back to Lizzie and asked, "Wanna go now?" Lizzie responded with a nod.

"So, what do you think? We'll meet back with each other in about… two hours?" Mau asked the twins.

"Sure! That'll give us plenty of time to explore everything!" Miina answered.

"Alright then…we'll meet back at half past five, got it?" Mau told the twins, just a little before they began walking away.

"Hai!" The twins answered eagerly, emulating the characters they watched from their favorite anime series. The two quickly disappeared, out of Mau's sight.

Ha-ha those girls will never change; I hope they don't get too carried away with all this. This has to be the biggest mall we've ever visited, Mau thought as he began walking around, holding Lizzie's hand.

"Mau, we're gonna have a great time," Lizzie told him, as they walked through a lot of people, giving him a very cute smile.

"I know, Lizzie. We'll enjoy it for sure," Mau said happily, as he dragged Lizzie closer to him, making her blush a bit.

Later after a long walk, then found a good place to start their date: a coffee shop called "Nicky and Moe's", which wasn't like your average Peet's Coffee or Starbucks. This place had decorated with a romantic theme, and the whole setting and atmosphere seemed as if it was perfectly made for their date. They sat down on one of the tables, both facing each other, and started talking.

"You know, Lizzie. Looking at you right now makes me wonder why I lost so much time in my grief, not paying attention to you. You're the most precious thing I have; I feel like an idiot for not being there with you these last two months," Mau confessed to her, with a tone of sorrow in his last words. "I really want to make it all up to you...by spending the time I have now here with you."

"Mau...you are so sweet! I...I don't know what to say..." Lizzie stuttered, lost in Mau's words, and in how he looked so down. She reacted by gently holding his hands, and rubbing them.

"T-thanks, Lizzie..." Mau said, flushing because the warm feeling of Lizzie's hands holding his was something that he had longed for, for a very long time.

Embarrassing seconds passed by like they were minutes, and Mau changed the subject a bit, "So uh...how have you been in all this time?"

Since Lizzie was still lost in the moment, she didn't answer right away. When she did, she simply said, "I've been good..." and then she came back to herself and added "...but I've missed you so much; you were so apart from me...I thought that you'd lost the interest in me," Lizzie paused a bit. She wiped off a tear that nearly slipped from her eye. Not allowing Mau the chance to intervene, she continued, "But now...that I'm seeing you again...I know that my love for you has only gotten stronger, and that you never meant to be apart from me...I mean, your loss made you be like that, so...I forgive you, my love."

Mau's heart skipped a beat and a stunning feeling of happiness filled him. He felt like he wanted to say something, but words didn't come out of his mouth. Instead he stuttered and he could only articulate a few weird mumbles and then he stayed quiet, not wanting everyone to notice that he could not talk properly. Lizzie's words caught him off guard.

Lizzie laughed a little, thinking it was kind of cute how Mau always struggled to say something after she told him something like that.

"You're cute, Mau," Lizzie told him, and then drank the water she had ordered.

Mau laughed nervously, and then said, "B-but...you're cuter than me," which made Lizzie flush instantly, because he said it in such cute way, and so suddenly, that she couldn't stand it.

When Mau saw that, he thought, So this is a little game I will start with her... let's see who makes who blush more! Ha-ha! I'll tell her about it later, maybe she'll like it. He then asked her if she wanted to go to another place, which she answered positively.

He stood up from his chair, and helped her up, making her blush a little more, because she loved it when Mau acted like such a gentleman.

Together, they started to walk through the mall, looking at all the stores, checking prices for future things to buy, and talking about random stuff. They also ate some food.

Meanwhile, the twins were stopping every five seconds in a new store. But if they ever came across an arcade, the time they spent lasted much longer...Miina enjoyed how they looked at everything so fast, but Karen was starting to get annoyed with her sister.

Scared by her yell, Miina turned back to see her sister, who was, by the looks of it, furious. With fear in her voice, she asked, "W-what is it Karen…?"

Karen steadied herself before answering to her sister. It was the first time she had been so mad at her, but she needed to know a few things, "Miina...can we please look through the stores more...calmly? I really want to look at some of the clothes here… please."

Miina understood what her sister wanted, and apologized, "I'm sorry, Karen. I didn't know you really wanted to see the clothes… sorry."

Seeing her sister this way was new for Karen. She had never seen Miina do that before, and didn't know what to say to her. She simply said, "Thanks..."

"So, you wanna take a look in here, sis?" Miina asked Karen, leading her inside the store where they had been shopping in less than a minute ago.

"Nah...Let's go here!" Karen corrected Miina, and led her to the store beside it. "They have some really awesome clothes! I might come back and buy us some stuff. Ha-ha!"

Once they were inside, Karen looked carefully at the selection of female clothing that the little store had to offer, while Miina just looked about deciding what and what not to buy. Choosing clothes seems so complicated... she thought, as she took a look at the sports clothes that store had, maybe they had her favorite team's shirt. "Ooh! These ones look cute!" Miina exclaimed, shuffling through some tops.

After a little more than twenty minutes, Karen finally finished looking through the clothes, and looked for Miina, who was searching for her size in a shirt she had liked. When she found her, she told her, "You see Miina, if you just spend a little more time looking through the stores, you might find something you like...it's good to just relax and take a look once in a while."

Miina smiled at her, because she was happy to have learned something new, and something that she would find useful in days to come.

"That's why I love being your sister, Karen, I can teach so much to you… you just need to open up a little bit more and tell me everything you want to know from me, I won't bite you," Miina told Karen.

Her words had such an impact on Karen, that she was about to cry, but, she controlled herself, and said, "You're the best sister I could ever want Miina. I love you."

Miina was pleased with what she had heard, and offered Karen to walk together, holding hands, so that she could be sure to stop whenever Karen wanted to look around. Karen gladly accepted the offer, and held Miina's hand with hers.

They continued to walk around the mall, until they found the biggest arcade in the mall. There were tons of video games, and they served lots of great snacks to eat too!

They entered the arcade and immediately played on all the video games. The twins enjoyed many exciting games like Soul Calibur III, Time Crisis IV, and Initial D.

However, Dance Dance Revolution Supernova 2 was especially their most favorite game to play, as they each took turns dancing to popular songs like Arrabbiata, Electrified, and Bloody Tears (IIDX EDITION). The DDR machine also included a selection of random bonus songs like Caramelldansen, Levan Polkka, the Numa Numa featuring video footage of the ever-so-popular "Numa Numa Kid", and even the infamously popular One-Winged Angel, played by none other than The Black Mages.

Their dancing attracted quite a lot of people, because they were scoring high score, after high score, after high score, and almost never failing any dance step as they played.

They were creating quite a commotion with the people who were watching them and those who passed by asked, "Why don't you girls compete against each other to see who's the best?!"

They thought about it for a while, and seeing that they still had a lot of time until it was half past five, they accepted. Both of them agreed to compete with each other on one condition: that no matter who won, the winner would fully respect the other and not make fun of them, so that the one who lost wouldn't be frustrated at the winner. They were going to play a nice friendly match.

With all the arrangements made, they began their DDR competition that would have no end (well, at least until it was half past five o' clock). Oddly, they always missed the same steps, and always earned the same score, no doubt they were twins. They did everything almost exactly the same.

People began to make bets on the twins, to see which one of them would be the first one to lose against the other; and now each girl had her own club of supporters.

The competition started out slowly with "Have You Ever Been Mellow?" as both girls danced calmly to the very slow and gentle steps. The crowd however showed their disappointment and booed at them, demanding them to choose a more upbeat song to dance to.

With that said, the next song came up with a slightly higher upbeat tempo called "Bumblebee." The crowds then began cheering and rooting for the girls. Once the heat went on, then came a fan favorite: "Sexy Planet."

Eventually, just at the very moment that everyone had least expected it, Rick Astley's song Never Gonna Give You Up started to play, and the twins began dancing to its simple steps.

"Awesome! Rick Roll!" a boy in the crowd cheered. Apparently, the boy was no stranger to love.

"What the hell?" said someone else in the crowd, "What's Rick Astley doing in DDR!? That guy never gives up."

"I don't know and I don't care," another on-looker said. "These girls ROCK!!!"

After about fifteen minutes into the match, they decided to challenge each other to PARANOiA HADES, an expert level high-speed song they found interest in. As soon as they made their selection, the competition got intense when the song came into play with incredibly insane dance steps that came in at impossible speeds. The twins continuously struggled to keep up with the fast pace of the tune; just as its name suggested, it was like a song from hell.

Karen, who was dancing with two-centimeter heels, became incredibly exhausted and decided to retire from the competition, giving Miina the upper hand and earned her the epic victory.

"Damn it, I lost the bet!" exclaimed one of the on-lookers as Karen stepped off the stage. "Aww man! You let me down!"

"Ha-ha! A bet's a bet! Gimme the money!" yelled another.

Karen immediately went out of there, to grab some air, and was panting like crazy. Miina began to worry a lot, and she went after her to see if she was alright.

"Oh, my God. Are you alright, sis?" Miina asked Karen, concerned for her.

"*huff* Y-yeah *huff*" Karen answered, still breathing a bit too heavily for Miina's liking. "Don't worry about me. I-I'll be fine."

"You want us to go where Mau said that we'll meet so that you can rest for a long while?" Miina offered her sister, and received a nod in response.

They slowly walked together towards the McDiggie's. Miina really didn't like the way her sister was breathing so heavily and how she struggled to catch her breath. She thought that they might have overdone it, and felt guilty for it, because she was the one that had accepted the request from the people, and convinced Karen to dance.

Seeing the grief on her sister's face, Karen struggled to tell her, "It's...not...your fault...Miina...I decided...to dance too..."

Miina felt a little better, but still felt bad for what had happened to her sister. She refused to stop helping Karen when she felt like if she already had enough strength to walk on her own. Miina continued to stay beside her until they reached the place they needed to go to. They sat down on a bench and waited patiently. The twins had a little more than twenty-five minutes to wait until Mau and Lizzie came around.

Coming back to the couple, during the time the twins were dancing and looking at clothes, Mau and Lizzie had looked through all the stores and cafés that were on the right side of the building, staying a little while on every one of them. On their way, they were chatting about all the things Mau had long forgotten about during his epically emo state, which only made him more and more sad for losing that much time.

"You don't have to worry about it, Mau. It seems like if this only made our relationship grow stronger," were Lizzie's constant words of compassion to Mau.

Those words made Mau feel better, because, in a way, it was all true. But still, he missed the chance of being two months together with her, and that was too much for him to handle. He decided to make up for all the time he had lost in those two months.

He leaned closer to her, and kissed her delicately on her smooth cheek. He then gave her another kiss on her forehead, as soft and delicately as the first one. After that, he hugged her tightly and whispered to her ear, "I love you, Lizzie. Thank you so much for all your support."

This made Lizzie blush like crazy. It was the first time he had ever kissed her without any warning, and it had not only been one kiss, but two! She became overwhelmed with joy and returned the hug. At that moment, she didn't care at all about anything else but being with him.

They stayed like that for quite a while, or so they thought, because for them, it had been like hours, even though they had been like that for just a little more than a minute.

After they separated briefly, they continued walking through the mall, but they were not in this world. They were lost in a world of their own, in which only the two of them existed.

Then when Mau was about to bump into a second man in less than four minutes, they came back to the real world and sat down on a near bench. Together they talked to each other about life, how it was complicated to live it, and how it hid a lot of surprises.

When it was finally time to meet up with Karen and Miina, Mau told Lizzie and they went towards the McDiggie's restaurant, walking a little faster than normal because they realized they were a little late for their meeting with the twins.

Fortunately, they arrived exactly at the time Mau had said. He was astonished to see both girls there waiting for them.

"Hey! We've been waiting for you for a long time!" Miina received Mau and Lizzie.

"Ha-ha. Sorry, girls," Mau apologized. "I guess we both got a little side-tracked."

"So how did it go at the East Wing of the mall? Was it good?" Miina asked eagerly.

"Yeah, I think I know why Karen wanted us to go over there first," Mau said. "There were lots and lots of places for couples to go to. Thanks a lot, sis!" was Mau's answer.

Miina answered for Karen, who was still having little difficulties with her breathing, "Oh! Ha-ha, she is really smart isn't she? Our part was rather fun too! We looked through a lot of clothing stores, and played a lot of games! I enjoyed both a lot! Especially the clothes...they just had the cutest-"

"The clothes!?" Mau interrupted.

"Yes, Mau, the clothes, ha-ha," she continued. "I learned from Karen to take my time looking through closely, and to have fun doing it! It was rather nice."

Karen nodded with approval, and Mau noticed that she wasn't talking or saying anything, which seemed strange. She was not like that, so he asked, "Did something happen to you Karen? You seem to be awfully quiet right now...and tired."

"Uhm… she's a bit too exhausted, Mau...and it is my fault," Miina told him with guilt in her voice.

"What were you two doing?" Lizzie asked calmly, not thinking it had been entirely Miina's fault.

"We were dancing..." Karen answered, with a very low voice. "...on DDR. But I guess we danced too much. Now she's too tired to keep going, I think I'll call dad to come for us both. You and Lizzie can stay here if you like. I want her to rest now, it's been really tiring for her and besides, she had heels, so that's why she felt so tired," Miina continued Karen's answer.

"I see...let me call dad," Mau said, as he took out his cell-phone and dialed his father's number.

The three girls stayed silent, and when Mau came back, he told them they needed to go to where they had parted ways, because his dad would be waiting there for Miina and Karen to pick them up. And so, Mau carried Karen over there, and the other two girls were by his side.

Karen enjoyed every second of the ride, and wished that it would never end. She was finally feeling that close to him, and not only that, she wrapped her arms around his neck. To her, it felt like if she was in heaven.

When their father arrived, she didn't want to go, but when Mau told her that she needed to, she accepted and got into the truck.

Miina and Karen left, leaving Mau and Lizzie alone. They still had a whole two to three hours left to spend together, and they were going to make the best out of them.

They began walking towards the West Wing, where Miina and Karen had started and noticed that there were lots of people over there; not that the other side was less crowded, but on this side you could barely walk freely, so they were struggling to stay together.

They feared that if they were separated even for a little more than five seconds, they would go on totally different ways, and just as they feared, it happened.

Lizzie mistakenly confused Mau with another young boy, and when she noticed that he wasn't her boyfriend, she stayed where she was, silent like a statue, because she had made a big mistake and now she was lost!

Mau immediately noticed that she was missing and started looking for her. Where did she go?! I can't see her with all this people around… and she's so short! I hope she's not too far away from me, Mau thought as he moved through the crowd of people, looking for Lizzie.

After a few seconds of looking and struggling to move through, he saw her characteristic blonde hair, with which she was privileged, being the only one to have that tone and he made his way towards her.

When he finally reached her, he grabbed her by her shoulders and whispered to her ear, "I finally found you..."

Lizzie was so glad to hear her boyfriend's voice that from being a statue, she changed to being the happiest person on earth. She let him embrace her from the back, and rested her head against his chest, hearing how his heart beat, and flushing slightly by the sound of it.

Then they found a bench, and decided to stay there until the place started clearing, so that the little incident wouldn't happen again.

"I think it'll be better if we stay together and sit down, instead of trying to walk through all these massive crowds of people...I didn't expect this place to be so crowded!" Mau declared to her, amazed by the constant floods of people he saw passing right in front of him.

"I know...I also think it's best if we stay here for a little while...I don't want to get lost again," She told him, feeling a bit down for what had happened earlier.

Mau rubbed her back and said, "Aww...don't worry, Lizzie. I look like everyone else in here. I mean, I am average height, my hair is dark brown, and so are me eyes, so, it's easy to mistake me for someone else if you are behind me..." Mau thought for a bit about those words, and then continued, "...in fact, I was the one who made the mistake of letting you walk behind me. I need to be more careful with you...and I left you behind...I'm sorry, Lizzie."

Lizzie was amazed at how Mau always tried to take the guilt to his side. Instead of making her feel bad about something, he would transfer that guilt to him. She kind of like that about him, but sometimes, he had to let the girl accept the guilt, and this was one of those times, "Mau...I find it cute that you always want to take the responsibility, trying to make me feel good, but I have to tell you this...I'd like to accept, for once, that I was the one who made the mistake. Please, I hope you understand."

Mau didn't know what to say. It was the first time that someone had said that to him, and it felt so...liberating! He didn't have to carry on with the guilt, and she won't feel bad about it. "I understand, Lizzie; I just didn't think that you would react like this...I thought that...uhm...never mind. Ha-ha." Mau lost his will to continue, because he didn't know what else to say.

"Thanks..." Lizzie felt great. It was one of the first mature things she had done in her life, and she felt so happy to have done it.

In the end, going against what they thought was best for them was what they could do, and they were satisfied by it.

After the mall became less populated, they got up and started walking, watching everything and admiring every bit of the super-center, especially the place were Miina and Karen had danced because it was a huge place to have fun. They wanted to stay there and play a few rounds on the DDR machine, but they had so little time for it, so they decided to leave it for another date.

And just like that, the two hours that they had for themselves passed by without anything surprising or unexpected.

But just then, a boy approached them, and asked them something in Spanish. When Lizzie saw that Mau was getting mad, she went to hug him tightly. The boy walked away without another word.

"What did he ask, honey?" Lizzie asked innocently.

"He said that he wanted to be your boyfriend. And when he saw that you hugged me, he immediately knew that either I was your brother or boyfriend. So he went away," Mau explained to her.

"Wow...am I that popular?" Lizzie teased him.

"A beautiful girl like you would always be popular. But you're just for me, ha-ha. No one else is allowed to get close to you," Mau told her, a little too proudly. He thought Lizzie wouldn't like they he had said it, but she understood, because someone had tried to make a move on her in front of his face.

"Mau!!" was the only thing Lizzie said, as she pushed him gently. "You know I'll never betray you. I love you!"

After that, Mau hugged her and she returned the hug, "I am never gonna give you up! Ever!"

"Y-You won't let me down either, will you?" she asked, holding him tightly.

"Lizzie...how could I?" Mau said, smiling. "I could never desert you! We've known each other for so long. Inside, we both know...I could never part with you..."

The date had gone great, and they were so happy to have had it. Nothing could have gone better, and even though they didn't want the day to end, it was starting to get late and Mau knew that his parents would be there in just a few minutes. So they walked back to the front gate.

They reached the entrance and stepped outside the building and waited for their ride. Mau stood beside a big wall, holding Lizzie's hand tenderly, talking to her about the date and how much they had enjoyed it. Looking at the beautiful twilight, the two stood together, eagerly pondering at what surprises the new day would bring them.

End of Chapter #21