AN: In which Kyrie and Nero get that sweet Smokin' Sexy Style score, and Tessa ruins all of it on purpose

Chapter 12 - Super Shiny Showstopper Shoes

Tessa covertly swallowed another pain pill and waited for Kyrie to come out of the changing room.

"No, seriously, you're going to faint from heat stroke in that dress, please just humour me here."

"I—I don't know…" came her reply, and for once Tessa and Nero were on the same page, rolling their eyes in tandem. "It's a bit—"

"What, short?" Nero said suspiciously. Tessa had grabbed a pile of clothes and basically thrown them at her the moment they got to the mall.

"No, more like…" She stepped out of the changing room and looked down at her sundress. "Fruity...?"

It honestly wasn't even that bad. It was just an off-white cocktail dress—a fruit cocktail dress, with peaches and strawberries and pineapples printed all over. It had a sweetheart neckline and ruffly, off the shoulder sleeves that made her look a whole lot more girly than her Order dress. She seemed used to having her knees covered, and brushed her skirt down, playing with how swooshy it was when she moved.

Tessa gave her a thumbs up. It was so much better than her last one, which had been ice cream themed. She looked so much better in warm colors anyway. "I think it looks great."

"It has pineapples on it." Nero grimaced. "With sunglasses."

Tessa flipped a blonde curl over her shoulder and rolled her eyes at him. "It's not my fault the Order never thought about funky fruit with a bit of personality. I mean, in the city you can wear just about anything and get away with it."

He scoffed and turned his attention elsewhere, looking like he sorely missed his headphones. She caught him eyeing a rack of shoes. "Who even needs stuff like this? Nobody needs shoes that light up."

"For once we agree," she sighed.

He looked at her. "What do you have against them?"

"They're obnoxious," she answered, watching as Kyrie started packing up her things. "You'd have to be an asshole and an idiot to get disco shoes, I really don't—wait what are you doing…?"

"Kyrie what's my shoe size, I'm trying these on."

"Nine, and what…?"

Tessa watched in complete disappointment as Nero picked out the right size and kicked off his shoes. When he was done, he kicked down his heel and watched with satisfaction as they light up red and blue, like some sort of obnoxious police car.

"Are you happy with yourself?"

"Oh, totally," he said, looking up from his feet. He tapped his toes in a little rhythm, just to make a point of how much of a child he was. Tessa shook her head and looked away, thoughts of bullets on the brain. How could a guy who fought demons daily, shot at civilians—her—be amused by shit like that?

Honestly, Tessa didn't even know why she even bothered.

Narrowing his eyes at her, Nero seemed disappointed in her response, and turned to Kyrie. "What do you think?"

She had her old dress folded over her arm, still wearing the fruity pineapple dress as she stepped out of the change room. "I think… they're very colourful. The question is, do you like them?"

Tessa had to roll her eyes; Kyrie sounded like his own personal therapist. She had to interject before Nero did something stupid, like actually get them. "Size nine is pretty small… for a man..."

He made a coughing, offended sound, brows coming together with a little crease. "Scuze me?"

"Believe me, as a doctor, I see this all the time." She took a sip from her water bottle and sat back in her chair, pleased that the pain in her shoulder wasn't as intense as before. "So sad. You know what that says about a guy..."

"That they… need smaller socks..?" Kyrie looked between them, unsure where the sudden spike in animosity came from. "What does it mean?"

"I dunno, why don't you tell her Nero," Tessa said, amused.

The flashing lights from his shoes died down, and he tapped them a second time to keep them going, still glaring. "I don't know what she's talking about Kyrie. Are we done here? It looks like we're done here—let's go pay."

Tessa cackled as he all but picked Kyrie up and shoved her towards the register. Getting up from her seat gave her another sharp jolt of pain, but she soon followed after, trailing the red and blue flashing police lights. "Are you paying for those? What about your shoes, Nero!"

"Oh my god shut up about the shoes," he groaned, pushing Kyrie faster. She fumbled with her dress and their other shopping bags, and eventually he had to stop to give her a moment to collect herself. Tessa neared closer, and his shoes were still lit up like a big obnoxious beacon. He looked like a giant preschooler. If she checked, Tessa was sure his sneakers would have lightning mcqueen decals on the sides. "You're getting the dress, right?"

"She said it looked nice, so, yes, I think so?" Kyrie said hesitantly. She smoothed down her skirt and traced the sunglasses on one of the pineapples. "It has… character."

Nero rolled his eyes. "If that's what you want to call it… fine, sure. I'll pay."

"Are you sure..?" She dropped her voice to a whisper as Tessa approached. "I know you've had… some troubles, it's fine, this one time I can handle it—"

"I'm pretty sure our joint account has more than your savings, so yeah, it's fine, I can handle it." He started digging around in his pockets for his wallet. "Where did I put…"

"You should be disgraced, making me lug your shoes across the shop." Tessa dumped his boots in front of him, shoulder stiff as she righted herself. A curl of hair fell into her eye and she blew or a puff of air to try and make it go away. "Your tiny, slim shoes—"

"Okay, can it with the tiny feet jokes, I have perfectly normal sized feet for your information—and everything else—so shut up!" The lights above them flickered for a moment, though he completely shrugged it off, gesturing with his feet. "You're just jealous of my style."

The lights flickered again, and Tessa glanced up at the ceiling. "Yeah, me and everyone else in the police force. You only put those on because we both agreed they were awful."

"A guy can change his mind." For a great long second, his shoes were the only source of light in the tiny shop, and he looked at her, his face highlighted by blues and reds.

Tessa glanced over as Kyrie reached out to grasp her arm when the lights didn't come back on. "What's going on?"

"I dunno, something with the power?" Tessa moved to reach the register and speak to the clerk, but her bad arm caught on something hard and metal. Shades and prescription glasses fell to the ground in a clatter. She gripped her shoulder and let out a slew of filthy curses. "I can't see for shit in here!"

"Hold on, I got this." Nero stomped his feet and his skechers lit up. In the dim light, she could still see his smug expression, and Tessa wished she was blind. "Not such a bad fashion choice after all, huh?"

She was just about to insult him again, when they heard tire screeches and glass shattering out in the rest of the mall.

Nero stared at her, then back at Kyrie, and dropped the shopping bags in his arms, heading for the front of the store. "You two stay here, I'll be right back."

"You—Nero, the shoes," Tessa reminded, only for him to wave her off and run into trouble. Tessa stared back at Kyrie, dismayed. "Where does he think he's going? What does he expect us to do here? Twiddle our thumbs?"

Kyrie slipped the cashier a handful of bills and shrugged her shoulders. "We're supposed to wait. I have faith that he'll come back."

"Well I don't," she scoffed, hearing even more catastrophe down the hall. "Screw this, think about your own safety—we're going back to the van. Nero can find us when he's done playing mall cop."

Kyrie yelped as something in the back of the room came crashing down. Something demonic and goopy bubbled out of the display cases, and the thick scent of decay and sulfur filled the air.

"Time to move!" Tessa grabbed her hand and started dragging her out of the store. People started streaming out around them, panicking as more demon eyes started twinkling in the dark, and someone roughly shoved her in the shoulder trying to escape.

Kyrie caught her before she went down. Tessa bit down on the side of her cheek and gripped her shoulder, eyes watery.

"A-are you okay?"

"Fine," she spat, shakily getting to her feet. Kyrie pointedly looked down at her shoulder, and Tessa noted that her stitched had broken and there were specks of blood seeping through her sweater. She gave the girl a pointed stare. "It's ketchup."

"What? No, It's not—"

She forced Kyrie to duck as the glass doors behind them shattered. She glared back at the demons inside, attacking the mannequins and anything else human shaped. "We need to get out of here—do you have the keys for the van?"

"I-I think Nero has them!"

"Goddamnit!" Tessa turned and faced the opposite way they had been going. "Even when he goes off to get himself killed he still somehow has to drag us into it!"

Kyrie wordlessly followed her as they followed the sounds of carnage. The store displays were achingly dark, and shadows moved around every corner. Tessa couldn't make sense of it—demons didn't attack populated places like this during the daytime. Something was off, it just didn't make sense. Unless something was making them come out…?

More tire screeches ran out down the hall. They ran together into the main part of the mall, where the cafeteria bled into the lower part of the store. The escalators had gone out with the power, but the emergency lighting had come on in some of the stalls, and they caught sight of Nero with his stupid magic sword fighting a demon on top of the tables. His light up shoes drew more demons towards him, and he kicked one in the head as he put some distance between him and the rest of the horde.

"What the hell is he doing?!" Tessa panted, out of breath. She felt weirdly woozy from her pain meds, and Kyrie held onto her arm to keep her upright. She cupped a hand to her mouth and shouted at Nero as the demons rounded on him again—he just couldn't lose them with those stupid sneakers. "I told you they were obnoxious!"

He cut two demons in half and hopped onto the safety railing next to the escalators. "It's called fashion, look it up!"

Tessa couldn't believe how much of an idiot he was. "You're going to fall to your death up there!"

"Why do you care?" He said back, and she honestly had to ask that question herself. There had to be thirty or more, hissing and clicking and all vying for a chance to rip them to pieces, but most of all really angry that Nero's feet kept flashing light in their eyes. Tessa could relate. "Take Kyrie out of here and run!"

In their shouting, a couple demons caught sight of the two of them, and Kyrie sucked in a breath. Tessa stepped in between them and pushed her back, just as they heard more tire screeches from somewhere in the mall. The sound got louder, and then—

"Oh my god." Tessa closed her eyes.

"You again!" Nero called, pointing Yamato at the leather-clad motorcyclist as they drove straight into the crowd of demons. A second later, another bike whizzed passed them both, and together, the crowd of demons broke apart, bewildered. Their strategy worked so well, Nero blinked in confusion. "Wait, why am I seeing double? there's two of you?"

Tessa was going to kill them both. She tugged Kyrie backwards while the demons were distracted, whispering furiously to herself. "Who the hell said this was a good idea? What are they doing here?!"

"What's going on—you know them?" Kyrie asked quickly, watching with a mix of awe and apprehension as one of the cyclists drove his bike down the escalators and into another pile of demons waiting below.

"No," she lied. She didn't catch the patch on the last cyclist, but she could see Jamie's shoulder patch as he pulled out his baton and started swinging. What the fuck was he doing here? "Come on, lets go."

"I've had enough of this—" said Nero, and he—where the hell had he pulled that pistol from? Jamie let loose a couple cans of their repellant, and Nero started coughing. "Can it with the cannisters!"

And no, just no, no way was Tessa going to let him shoot anyone else today, let alone her ex.

Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, she wrenched herself free of Kyrie's hand and darted between the demons over to the railing where Nero stood. She didn't account for there to be blood and other demon guts on the floor however, so when she made it to Nero, she was going pretty fast.

And she couldn't really stop in time.

So when her hand met his obnoxiously glowing light up shoes—

And she saw his obnoxious glowing magic sword—

And caught the barest glimpse of his arm glowing under that glove of his—

Admittedly, she panicked.

And grabbed him.

And Nero, with his arm raised ready to shoot, his mind completely elsewhere, reacted like anyone would when they thought a demon had gotten too close, grabbing at them. He jumped back.

Into the open air.

And fell.

Tessa looked over the banister and watched him fall into a kiosk and break everything inside. She winced at his hard landing—it wasn't one of those pillow kiosks. Glass shattered and littered the floor. Nearby, demons turned their heads and looked on in shock. Kyrie made the saddest, soft gasp she had ever heard, and honestly a record scratch could've happened right then and there, because it really did feel like one of those moments.

Honest to god, Tessa thought she might've killed him again.

When the dust settled though, Nero opened his eyes and breathed, and angels could have sung if he hadn't immediately ruined it all by glaring up at her with so much disdain and loathing, it could've curdled milk.

Tessa flinched. Hard.

"You are—" he coughed, and more glass crunched under his weight. Nevertheless, his shoes flashed red and blue as demons padded their way towards him. "—the bane of my fucking existence."

Well… score settled…?

Tessa groaned and closed her eyes.

Not her finest moment, by far.