Cold Case Set On Fire

"Here," Kate said to Ekko. "Try this. It might help." She handed her a small piece of paper. She had a list of what she thought Ekko's sizes might be, as a rough guess, and on the other side she had a start of a list of essentials, just in rough catagories. "Now, Ekko, you don't have to stick only to the list. I want you to see what you like. It's fine to get some things you like too," she said.

"Pants," Abbey said to Ekko. "You need pants. Everybody wears these." She pointed out a rack of jeans to her. "You need some of these."

"Once you find what size fits for you, you should get several pair," Kate suggested. "And it is fine to have more than one color. Blue ones for every day are a good thing. Black ones can be worn for dressier things, and the colored ones and printed ones can be worn either way. The color of your tops don't matter. Whatever you like. Jeans go with everything, any color. Oh, and if you like them, there are leggings. They look can look really sharp with the right shoes."

"Kate," the clerk called, "those new heels for Khaat came in. Do you want to take them with you?"

"More shoes?" Abbey frowned at her grandmother. She looked at Ekko. "Mama has a bezillion pairs of tall skinny shoes. Marcus breaks the feet off 'em though."

"Heels," Kate translated the Abbey-speak to Ekko. "And she's right, Marcus does break the heels off of them."

"He thinks it makes them run slower from the doggies," Abbey said.

"Werewolves, Dear," Kate translated.

"Yeah, so he breaks the feet off 'em, and then Mama just buys more." She was immediately distracted by a rack of colorful socks. "Ohhh, look! Socks!"

"Four year old attention spans," Kate shrugged. "About thirty seconds for her, unless she has a book attached to her someplace. "Yes, please," she called back to her clerk. "Wrap them up and shrink them please?"

"Will do," the clerk called back.

"That's so Gram can carry them all at once," Abbey said to Ekko in a happy singsong.

Ekko held the paper that Kate had given her in both her hands, one holding each lower edge rather awkwardly as she looked at the rack Abbey had pointed out. Ekko walked over to the rack and started looking through some of the jeans that were on it.

She tilted her head to the side as she looked, thinking a lot of them looked rather plain but when she looked at the printed ones, she thought those were a little too much for her liking. Although there were some leggings with music notes that she liked and decided to take from the rack. She held it out in front of her and then showed Abbey. "Think this is good?" she asked the younger girl.

"I think Marcus has the right idea." Ekko nodded. Werewolves were fast. "But I can't.. imagine Khaat is very happy about getting her shoes broken." She added, grabbing a pair of black and a pair of blue jeans. Having at least one of each would keep her prepared for anything, she thought from what Kate had told her. "I don't think I'd like those shoes, though." Ekko said, looking down at her own, worn shoes.

The ten year old's eyes lit up at the sight of the socks Abbey had just gotten distracted by, though she felt her cheeks heat up a bit when Kate spoke. ".. Anyone can get distracted by those, though." she said softly, lowered her face to hide the pink tone to her cheeks and rushed over to the rack to look at the socks with Abbey. There were so many different colors and designs on the socks that Ekko didn't know what she should take.

"There's so many.." she said to Abbey, hoping she would have a thought on what she should get.

"Oh, nice!" Abbey said, liking Ekkos' choice of leggings. "I like those. No, Mama gets mad when Marcus breaks her shoes. She got him back though..."

"Oh, you aren't going to tell that story, are you?" Kate laughed.

"Yup," Abbey said. "Mama put big tall spiky feet on Marcus' shoes. He was not happy."

"Stilettos," Kate said, looking at Ekko. "And she's right. He was not happy. They used to be his good work shoes. Not anymore."

"I think you should get lots of socks," Abbey told Ekko. "I wear them at bedtime for slippers too....Oh, look, Ekko--kneazles!" She held up a pair of turquoise socks with orange kneazles.

"There are hippogriffs too somewhere, Abbey," Kate said.

"Where?" Abbey frowned. Kate came over to the rack and looked. The gray socks with the pink hippogriffs were towards the back. Kate pulled off a pair and handed them to Abbey. "Nice!" Abbey said. "We gots a hippogriff at home, Ekko," Abbey said. "We can ride him when he's in a good mood, but Papa says he's snarky. I want to go by myself but Papa says I gotta get bigger first. Maybe Daddy will take us to ride---if you like flying."

"He's not snarky," Kate laughed. "Well, sometimes. He's more snarky with Papa because he likes treats, and Papa sometimes forgets to bring one. I can't blame him for being unhappy about Papa forgetting his treat. You wouldn't like it either, Abbey, if Angus stopped making us his raspberry sugar cookies. If you go out to see the hippogriff, I'll go with you, and we'll take him some chicken. And if you want to ride the hippogriff or the horses, Ekko, we'll go."

Kate noticed the jeans that Ekko had selected and she picked up another pair of black and another blue pair identical to what Ekko had selected and put them on the counter. Kate understood Ekko's desire to be a bit conservative. If she were in the young girl's shoes, she would tend to be a bit timid about asking for things too.

"Do not be afraid to get plenty of clothes, Dear," Kate said. "It is a busy, active house, and you might find that if you like to spend any time outside, you might want more than a couple of pairs of jeans. And, when you look at tops, you might want to also look for a good spring jacket."

"Like a hoodie?" Abbey asked. "If you get a hoodie, Ekko, Gram can paint something pretty on it for you. Gram likes to paint pictures and things."

"Hoodies are good too, especially for outside around the fire pit or out in the barn," Kate said, "but I was thinking of something that would keep Ekko dry in the rain. But, yes, if you find a hoodie you'd like me to paint a design on, I can certainly do that. It would be my pleasure."

"She painted me one with goldfish that swim around on it," Abbey said.

"That reminds me," Kate said. "Don't let me forget to go to pick up more sketching pencils before we go home, Girls."

"That means we'll get to stop for candy," Abbey said, grinning, to Ekko. "We gotta go past Sugarplum's to get there. They gots good chocolate."