Raizel had almost been prepared to admit that buying the giant teddy bear had been a mistake.  The original purchase had seemed necessary because 1) its resemblance to Muggly the Bear had been uncanny, and 2) it was nearly bigger than Raizel herself, which made it at least seventeen times the size of Gabriel.  Unfortunately, being seventeen times the size of Gabriel made the giant teddy bear extremely unwieldily for her to carry, which was the only way that Adon had agreed to purchase it.  So while he had been lugging around the plastic bags containing toy guns that shot foam arrows, a pastel-colored animal mobile, and a collection of bright plastic action figures -- all of which were much, much lighter, and rather more interesting, now that the Muggly resemblance had worn off -- Raizel had been stuck lugging an enormous plush toy.

Which was not what she wanted to be doing if she was going to enjoy going shopping.

Not that they were really shopping.  Adon had been clear on that.  They had a set list of things to buy, all of which had to do with the baby -- and most of which she got to come up with, since her old school friend claimed to have no experience with baby people.  Now that the purchase plan had been mostly agreed on, Raizel was not allowed to detour, she was not allowed to add things to the list, and she was not allowed to look for herself, which would have taken most of the fun out of the day if Adon hadn't proven himself willing to be talked into things like purchasing giant teddy bears. The Auror had even gotten snippy when she had asked if they could eat at an interesting-looking noodle bar for lunch, although Raizel had no idea why.  Maybe he hadn't liked the name.  They had ended up going to a chicken restaurant instead.

But the teetering on the edge of defeat hadn't lasted long.  She was Raizel Cohen after all, and as such, it hadn't taken her long to come up with a workable teddy bear solution.  She shot Adon a meaningful look as she returned from the bathroom, the now-miniature plush toy tucked into her purse and the purse tucked under her arm. 

"Now I will carry it," she announced triumphantly, slipping her hand around his arm as she flashed him a winning smile.  "Where next?  Did you ask where the baby clothes are?"

She started walking, tugging him along without waiting for an answer and wrinkling her nose as she examined the elaborate decorations all around them.  The enormous Muggle department store had apparently decided to go for a Middle Eastern theme with its appearance, but the lavish gold paint and enormous sphinxes did nothing to convince her that whoever had been in charge of the decorating had ever actually left England, let alone traveled anywhere near Cairo.

"This does not look like anywhere in Egypt," she informed him under her breath, huffing a sigh.  "I don't see why anyone would spend so much money here, either.  Do they think even tourists would agree to these prices?  I hope whoever is selling things in the baby department is reasonable, or we won't --" 

Suddenly, she noticed the display that was coming up around the next corner.  Raizel's eyes lit up.  "Oooh!" she squealed excitedly, stopping short.  "Shoes!"

Women and their bathrooms.  Adon tucked his hands in his pockets, resting his back against a gaudily-tiled wall in Harrods, standing outside the Ladies' WC for... Adon felt like he had aged 2 years at least.  And with her dragging that stupid bear in, it was bound to somehow take even longer.

It would not be wholly honest to say that the sole reason for purchasing the oversized teddy bear was to win over the heart of his newest and onli-est nephew in the world. (A spot that was more or less assured due to the lack of competitors for title of Favorite Uncle.) Its resemblance to Muggly the Bear was striking.  And wholly adaptable to at least 4 prank scenarios, off the top of his head.  Surely Gabriel would allow his Favorite Uncle to borrow a gift he so graciously gave, once and a while?

Oh, and he got to watch Raizel waddle as she tried to carry it. That was very amusing, too--though he managed to successfully cover his mirth at her expense with a sigh of exhasperation which, when in her company, seemed to be contagious.

Part of his fun ruined by her cleverness, Adon could not help but smirk anyhow at her ingenuity.  "Well done," he complimented, slinging the orange nerf gun over his shoulder and offering his arm to her in a typical display of gallantry. Raizel took the offering all too eagerly, and in a few moments' time, Adon's own arm was starting to feel like a leash, unwillingly jerking him along. 

"Rai," he protested plaintively. 

She eased up a little, her attention on the gaudy ceiling. Cairo?  It had never even occurred to him before.  "Well, of course not," he dismissed with a wave of his hand, wresting his arm away and rolling his shoulder slightly to give it a rest.  "Harrods is British--these people are English." As though that explained it all.  Could you expect more from a country that thrived on mushy peas and lived in misty, grey climates all the time?

Adon was about to reassure Raizel that, yes, he was prepared to pay, until he became aware that it was not assurances Raizel now needed, but limits.  At the squeal of excitement, Adon pinned his elbows to his side, tucking his arms in, lest she make another attempt to drag him anywhere.

"No," he stated firmly. "No. No shoes. We determined no shoes."

"And they're on sale!"  The blonde Cursebreaker was beaming.  She looked far happier and far more excited than she had since she'd been sentenced to live in England -- her eyes were shining, and a grin had already spread from ear to ear.  Looking as if she might nearly die from the serendipitous excitement of it all, she fumbled behind her to grab Adon's arm again, only to be foiled by his preemptive elbow defenses.

Looking surprised at her lack of success, she shot a look back at him, her expression immediately crumbling as he made his position clear.  No shoes?

Raizel swallowed hard, and then gave him an absolutely crestfallen look.  "Please, Adon?" she begged.  She twisted her fingers in the fabric of her skirt, looking especially pitiful as she shot another hopeful glance toward the distant tables of shoes as if they were the only oasis in a hideous stretch of heat-searing desert.

 "I am not buying, I am just looking.  Five minutes," she pleaded, her tone hopefully entreating.  "Less than that, if you really don't want to.  One minute."  That sounded so inherently reasonable, and her body language gave the impression of being so pitiful, that Raizel was certain only the truly heartless could say no.  Unfortunately, Adon probably more than qualified, but she could still cross her fingers.  "We'll walk by, and I'll only look, and then we can go back to buying everything else that you need.  I promise."

"Damn it," Adon growled quietly in disapproval.  With a roll of his eyes at the unreasonable and impossible promises, Adon allowed himself to be led into the shoe-selling enclave, looking more like a man being led to the scaffold.  "I hope those shoes are worth it--using your IOU capital like that. You know I don't like it when you pull those eyes."

It was not that Adon didn't like being manipulated; half the time he realized that he was.  It was that he didn't like going along with being manipulated.  It put him in difficult situations. Like... figuring out where to sit; no. If he sat, Raizel would think he was comfortable and drag it out.  Where to look, then. 

That didn't take too long, though.  Within moments of them crossing the threshold, and Adon taking in the sales assistants--to look for the most no-nonesense sort, the sort that would get him out quickly, he settled for the most attractive instead.  Flashing a winning smile at the assistant--who flashed one back with a reciprocal level of ease and skill that betrayed practice--he ambled over to her, hands in his pockets.  "So my friend here is interested in the sale shoes..." he began, looking over to Raizel with a smirk that did not exactly say (only seemed to hint) that he'd won some sort of competition.  If he was going to pass five (times five) minutes in this place, it might not be so bad.

The noise that escaped the blonde mage could only be described as an explosion of pure glee.  She launched herself at Adon with a joyful cry, giving a delighted, bubbling laugh as she threw her arms gratefully around his neck.

"You are the best, best friend!" she gushed excitedly.  Releasing him quickly, she took hold of his arm again, immediately starting off for the nearby shoe department.  "I will never, ever complain about you again!  And I will tell anyone who asks that you are the nicest, kindest, best person ever!  And smart!" she exclaimed happily, her eyes shining.  "And brave!  And handsome too!  And not at all fussy like your brother said, because he is very wrong and you are clearly --"

As they rounded the corner, the emotion brought on by the sight spread before them was too much.  Raizel cut herself off with a squeak of utter delight.  Row after row, display after display of beautiful, awe-inspiring footwear stretched as far as her eyes could see.  Interspersed amongst the tables were large, brightly-colored signs proclaiming that nearly everything was available at a bargain price.  It was like a shoe lover's mecca.  The Cursebreaker let out a gleeful laugh, immediately losing all visible interest in Adon as she launched herself delightedly at the nearest display.

It was pure bliss.  She immediately dove in, comparing styles and checking prices as she began to pluck through the shoes in a frenzy, completely oblivious to any comments or smirks that might have been aimed at her from behind.  Heels, sandals, flats, wedges, boots -- in more colors than she could imagine, and all, nearly all on sale.

Before the sales associate could respond to the Auror's remark, Raizel had surfaced again, darting back over as if all the sundry of beautiful shoes before her might vanish if she moved too slowly.

"These and these here," she interrupted excitedly, quickly shoving two pairs of heels at thesalesperson.  "I'll need -- a 39?  What's the right shoe size here?  Adon," she called happily over her shoulder, beaming at him as she held up another pair. "What do you think?  Do you like these better in orange or in white?  And hurry, hurry!" she ordered the woman urgently.  "We only have five minutes!  You have to be quick!"

Adon had been expecting a lot of things, but even he did not think her register could get that high.  If there had been dogs around, they'd be howling.

Clearing his throat and tugging on his earlobe in the hopes of clearing the echoing "eeeeee!" from his memory, he gave a hesitant smile as she marched off to ravage, pillage, and otherwise plunder what had once been a semi-orderly array of shoes.  He grumbled at the enthusiastic hug, adding an additional measure of clearing his throat during the complimentathon until, starting--

"Fussy?" Adon glowered before realizing--no, Raizel was having a go at him.  Except she didn't seem to be doing it to fluster him--not at all because, frankly, she was not even looking at him.  Usually she relished her manipulation.  Rubbing his forehead wearily, already exhausted from watching her hyperactivity, Adon lifted a platform wedge arbitrarily, looking at the scrawled price on the sole.  Hardly a sale.  Even at 30% discount, these shoes still likely cost more than ... 3 dinners.  (When one began to quantify articles of clothing in terms of numbers of steak dinners that could be purchased, it gave one pause.)    "Raizel--" he began to call, to inform her of this foreboding calculation, but she was hidden behind a rack of shoes.  Adon could only hear the frantic shuffling of cardboard boxes and a soft gasp of delight.

He sent a commiserating glance towards the sales clerk, who gave a polite smile back.

"I suppose you deal with this all day..." he said in his understated accent.  "Brave woman."

Her eyes crinkled into a smile.  "I do, but you are a brave man--usually the boyfriends do not dare enter."

"Wish I could take the praise, but actually I am not--" Just when Adon was about to extricate himself from the off-limits "boyfriend" zone, Raizel came back barking orders.  Adon frowned, trying to give Raizel a signal which was, promptly plowed over with exuberant force of a small army of stilettos.  Adon's intentions of flirtation lay mangled in the aftermath to languish in a ditch by the proverbial road.  He heaved a sigh and pointed arbitrarily at a pair of shoes.  She wouldn't be quiet until he did, and who was he to crush her fun?

"Shoe sizes are the same here as in Israel," Adon informed, more to the attendant than to Raizel, "so, yes," he said, giving the woman a polite nod, "39s will work wonderfully. Orange. Please don't rush on our account."

Though, if she did not, Adon was gravely concerned what additional finds Raizel would unearth in that time.

Raizel could barely believe her ears.  Orange.  Please don't rush.  In her wildest, most far-fetched dreams, she had never, ever, ever even dared to imagine that Adon might one day be so cooperative.  He usually acted like the only reason he was even deigning to spend time with her was because she'd twist his arm or yell at him if he didn't.  This sort of behavior was uncanny.  If they hadn't been in the middle of a Muggle department store, she would have been tempted to make certain that he wasn't under the Imperius curse.

As it was, she was willing to take the sudden surge of unexpected kindness at face value.  Raizel beamed at him, her grin plastered from ear to ear as the saleswoman gathered up the shoes that she had selected in her footware frenzy. 

"You are the best," she informed him enthusiastically, giving the other woman a happy wave.  The sales representative gave her a patient smile, exchanged a knowing look with Adon, and started for the back room to gather her stock.   

This was the closest that Raizel had felt to utter contentment since she'd arrived in England.  Somehow, five minutes of shoe shopping made all of the endless aggravation, unbearable cold weather, terrifying goblins, foreboding visions, and iconic fussiness that she'd been putting up with over the past few months seem suddenly worth it.  The Cursebreaker gave a deliriously happy sigh and dropped into one of the chairs, smiling at the other mage as she settled comfortably to sit.

"After this, we can do whatever you want," she informed Adon sincerely.  "Do you want to look at sunglasses?  Or maybe shirts -- we could find one that you would look very nice in, I think."  She gave him a happy, pleased smile, her eyes gleaming.  "Whatever you want," she offered generously, as her gaze began to play across the other shoes on display nearby.   Blue.  Green.  Purple.  There were so many choices!  And judging by the signs, they were all on sale.  "And you can even take more than five minutes."

It was an uncanny phenomenon.  Raizel--who had, in this most recent incarnation of her British self--been a closely guarded, armored Sabra--was nearly melting with happiness.  For shoes.  Adon had never seen, in all his years of knowing her her, such a subsuming and totalizing expression overcome the petite blonde.  Shoes.  She had mentioned it frequently enough--he might have known, but how could one woman go into a--it was like a shoe coma--over such a thing?  He'd have to check with the attendant to see if this was a common condition in women.  And how long the effects lasted.
Not that the effects were unpleasant, for now.  They were simply unpredictable.  God himself might not know what came next, if, say they didn't have the right size, or if Raizel realized she might spend half her life's savings in one fell, blissful swoop.  Anger? Remorse? Tap dancing? Tears? Women, with their mercurial natures, were terrifying.

For now, at least, Raizel was docile and sweet and affectionate and Adon would not bother enough with protesting that he didn't like it.  And if it lasted, it would certainly need to be something to consider a bit more seriously.  She had seemed unhappy for quite some time--Adon had seen that in their first reunion dinner, and had seen the self-doubt and fear mounting since then.  Had the cure really been lying in wait in a department store the entire time?  He regarded her with a fond smile, joining the seat next to her and suppressing a soft chuckle.  He sighed through her listed gestures of good will.  Well, Raizel certainly had a set notion of happiness.  He oughtn't be surprised when she tried to extend it towards him.  He shook his head, quietly, appreciating the gesture. Adon did not like shopping.  He did not like buying.  He only liked having--the desired aftereffect of an otherwise unpleasant process. Especially when he could dangle something like an iPhone 3 in front of Jonas.

"I want to buy baby presents for Gabriel," Adon informed quietly with a prim, little smile.  "And then I want to get food."  Lamb, if he was reading his stomach correctly.  After flirting a bit more with the sales assistant who was presently returning with several white and black boxes.  Adon rose politely from his seat as she returned, smiling at her and then, upon seeing her somewhat puzzled expression, quickly began looking around for some plausible explanation to be standing.  He supposed, then, it was little use to offer to hold some of the boxes.  Mother's training did not seem to have extended smoothly into the Muggle world, and he hung back, looking at women's trainers (something Adon felt safe in assuming Raizel would not insist on trying) before glancing back over his shoulder.
 
"Is it true," he asked the women jointly as he regarded a pink trainer, "that women's feet change sizes when they are pregnant--or after?"  It was a valid question.  Akiva'd just had a baby, after all, and was always on her feet, and had been through an awful lot, and--frankly, probably didn't get too many gifts even though she'd done most of the work... If she needed new shoes...

He regarded Raizel and put the shoe quickly down, as though guilty--hoping she didn't suspect his innermost thoughts. That, for all he had denied her shoes for years he was thinking of doing so for another woman. 

"Just curious," he said with a shrug.  The expression on the sales associate's face informed him instantly that there would be no subsequent number and he sighed, shaking his head.  "How do they fit?" he asked Raizel.

The beautiful shoes, the incredible sale, the unbelievably cooperative company -- it was like something out of a fairy tale.  Raizel tore her eyes away from the row after row of footwear long enough to favor Adon with a grateful, affectionate smile.  Finish their shopping mission and then get food -- yes, she was willing to commit to no more detours now that he had acquiesced to her one long-standing request.  On top of that, she would be as pleasant and as gracious as she could be for the rest of the afternoon, and she would even buy him dinner without complaining.  Raizel pressed a hand to the Auror's arm in silent agreement, returning his smile warmly, and then settled back to wait blissfully for the sales associate's return.

It didn't take long for her second favorite person in the building to make a reappearance, this time with her arms laden down with box after box of shoes.  Beaming, Raizel thanked the sales associate enthusiastically and promptly tore into the stack, not paying Adon a second look as she began to try them on, one glorious pair after the other.

Orange shoes, white shoes, green shoes, black shoes -- it would have taken a lot for anything besides footwear to register at this point, but then the one horrible, blaring word -- pregnant -- burst through her happy haze and completely ruined the moment. Raizel gaped, her face turning bright red, and she shot the other Israeli a horrified, indignant look.

"Adon!" she hissed, her face burning.  She gave him a piercing glare, and then shook her head emphatically at the sales associate. 

"No, no, no, no, no.  That is not what he meant.  A friend of ours just gave birth," she said, speaking quickly in her obviously anxiety to clean up any misconceptions.  "His sister-in-law.  We are out shopping for her and the baby today.  So that is why he is asking."  Impolitely was implied by the fierce, withering look that she gave the Auror. He was lucky he had just earned so many good friend points, or she would have gone beyond merely 'fussy' in adding to Dreogan's assessment of his brother. 

Adon knew that tone.  It was usually reserved for unruly puppies (who had, probably, chewed Raizel's shoes).  Adon gave a tight-lipped, dissatisfied smile in response, waiting for the other figurative shoe to fall.

Yes, she was unhappy, but he'd be hard-pressed to say about wha--

"WHAT?" He echoed. "Wait," he said, spinning and looking at the sales associate with startled eyes.  Was that what that glance had meant?  "No--absolutely right," he said emphatically, with a cutting motion of his hands.  "These--for Akiva.  That's not even..." he gestured towards Raizel numbly.  "That's Raizel. She's... we're not even..."

That was too much for a shoestore.  "I didn't mean to..." He looked pleadingly at Raizel. "to imply..." He ran a hand over his face, covering his eyes and heaving a sigh.  He could feel already that his face was warmer than usual.  "I am sorry."

The light, feminine laugh caught him wholly off-guard. Judging from the color he'd last seen in Raizel's cheeks, he suspected it wasn't coming from her.  Dropping his hand enough to crack an eye open, he noted that the sales associate was looking between the two of them, shaking her head and beginning to box up some of Raizel's rejected selections.  "It is not really for me to judge either way," she said simply.

Which was not a "I understand very clearly that you and this woman are not having babies." 

"But really," he insisted.  "Raizel--she's definitely not..."  Adon did not need to be a genius in women (though, sometimes, he was), to realize that this was not going to get him anything but another puppy-reproach.  Looking desperately to Raizel for an out, he asked, "Any of them seem to work out? Any more you want to look at before we leave?"

Leave. Yes. Please.

For all that she was the one trying on the shoes, Adon had deftly inserted his foot into his mouth.  Raizel continued to glower at the other Israeli as he stammered his way through an explanation, his face a brighter red than she had seen it in years.  It wasn't often that the Auror and former soldier lost his composure, but she wasn't about to let him recover it so quickly.

Especially not after his last comment.  "Definitely not what, Adon?" Raizel snapped, her voice as icy as her glare.

With a loud, annoyed huff, the Cursebreaker returned her attention to the stack of boxes before her.  At least shoes could be counted on not to ruin whatever favor they had managed to gain.

"Yeh, I want to look at them all," she said irritably, gesturing at the boxes scattered around her, and the shoes still sitting on the shelves.  "And they will all work out.  The orange ones, and these white ones, and those blue.  And the purple, too."  Enumerating the shoes that she wanted to buy had something of a cathartic effect; the sigh she gave was much less irritated as she began to shift through the boxes.  "And maybe also --" 

She had been intending to narrow her choices down to maybe four or five, when the price on the upmost box caught her eye for the first time.  Raizel froze as she read over the numbers three times, her expression immediately crumpling.  The second was no better.  And the third -- as she checked box after box, she felt like she was going to cry.

"Well, maybe just one pair," she said quickly, her heart pounding.  Unhappily, she looked down at the shining white shoes on her feet, and then over longingly to the pair of orange heels that she had just set aside.  Even one pair was going to cost at least a third of a paycheck -- maybe more, if she did the math.  How were these supposed to be on sale?  Raizel tried to set her jaw in preparation for battle, but the crestfallen glimmer was already present in her eyes.  Haggling over prices didn't work nearly as well in England as it should.

Her shoulders slumping in defeat, Raizel heaved a sigh and looked over dejectedly to Adon.  "Which do you think?" she asked miserably.  "The orange or the white?"

"What," Adon cut back, trying to hide the edge in his voice. "You want me to say the word now? Raizel you are definitely not pregnant." 

It would, undeniably make things worse, but at the moment, he didn't care.

That was until he saw Raizel looking unhappy.  The fact that it was the shoes--and not him--that was obviously causing that hurt expression on her face helped a little, but not much.  It felt awkward and unpleasant, watching his friends like this.  "Look," he sighed, not really looking at the shoes and pointing to each pair in rapid succession.  "Birthday, Hanukkah."  He looked at her with an attempt at a stern expression. "But then we go.  And this is the only time."

Raizel should know his stance on shoes by now.  Even if it was rapidly degenerating over the past 15 minutes.  Give an inch...

It took more than a moment for the unexpected words to sink in.  For as long as she'd known him, Adon Eleor did not simply surrender.  Back in their Beit Gaddol days, his stubbornness had been legendary, and some of their more epic battles had spanned months and years.  Even more than that, she knew that he never gave an inch without some sort of equivalent offer in return.  Everything was a negotiation, and besides, she knew his stance on shoe shopping -- he was more likely to agree to getting his teeth hexed out one by one with a Cruciatus curse than he was to indulge anyone's love for footwear, even when she was nice to him.

But now he was talking about birthdays and Hannukah, and Raizel could only blink at Adon in confusion.  Did this have something to do with him being flustered?  Her birthday was in April, and he had never shown very much concern for remembering it before.  Then suddenly, realization struck and any inane comments about pregnancy were instantly forgiven. 

Without thinking, Raizel gave an exuberant cry and launched herself at the Auror.  It wasn't until she had practically tackled him around the neck that she remembered that that was not the sort of response he usually encouraged.  This shopping trip was the most tolerable, most pleasant, and downright most thoughtful that she had ever seen her old school friend act.  Abashed, Raizel quickly untangled herself, attempting to look properly chastised as she drew back.

"Are you sure?" she asked earnestly, doing her best to fight back the grin that was threatening to engulf her face as she tried to give him a serious look.   "You don't have to, Adon."

Adon gave a non-chalant shrug to disentangle himself from the embrace.  Adon Eleor would be the last person in the world to point out to Raizel that "You don't have to," in woman-speak was as well as a command.

He absolutely had to.  "I want to." Because, he added with his eyes, he was so nice.  And he would make certain she recollected that in the coming weeks.  250 quid might not have, in the long-run, been a large lump of money, but Adon certainly didn't spend that on his shoes.

Raising his eyebrows and giving a slow smile to the sales associate, he pulled out a small rectangle of platinum plastic, slipping it to her deftly.  He wanted this done with.  "So...Food?" he asked, waiting for Raizel to slip her own flats back on.  One thing was certain: it was not going to be at a noodle bar.

Adon might as well have declared his intent to dedicate his life to serving others, or to selflessly donate all of his life's savings to world peace.  Raizel was glowing, her eyes sparkling as she beamed back at her friend.  Never, never, never ever had he ever been this kind, and certainly not because he wanted to.  It was as if her former school mate had been stolen away and replaced by some sort of well-meaning doppelgänger, identical except in his opposite temperament.

But she wasn't going to question it, and she wasn't going to do anything that might spoil this sudden surge of generosity.  At the moment, Raizel would have gone to Israel and back again if Adon had asked it.  In the grand scheme of things, his return request was relatively minor.

"So...Food?"

"Yes," Raizel agreed happily as she slipped her shoes back on.  Smiling gratefully at him, she rose back to her feet and reclaimed his arm, this time being careful not to jerk.  "Anywhere you want.  Do you want me to carry some of the other bags, too?" she offered graciously, gesturing at the rest of the collection for Gabriel.  A shrinking charm would work just as well on them as it had on the enormous plush bear that was currently tucked into her purse, and at least for now, she was feeling especially kindly toward the Auror.  "You pick where you want to go, and it will be my treat."