It's the day after New Year's and, as usual, the Bazaar is bustling with activity. Various booths advertise 'Day After' sales on all New Year's items, and the city sanitation department is out cleaning up all the rubbish left from the previous day.

Within the crowd, a certain tabby warrioress Khatta, and a very luck-lacking black Khatta peruse different clothes shops and booths, looking for a replacement of the one article of clothing the black Khatta lacks: a shirt.

Kira looks from booth to booth. "Now where would we find you a good shirt?"

Jynx, standing near to the warrioress and rubbing his sore neck, looks up a bit angrily. "I dunno, they're all the same to me… " he mutters.

Kira shakes her head. "Well, we should find you something nice."

Jynx sighs slightly, and shivers. As usual, he's not in the best of moods: his neck is sore, he's shirtless, and he's still embarassed. "Well, whatever."

Kira says, "Did you have any color in mind?"

Jynx shrugs, "Brown, gray, black, anything like that." The Khatta isn't into bright colors.

Kira frowns at Jynx. "Hmm, then we'll go find somthing in brown."

The black Khatta looks up at the tabby. "Where'd you get that get-up, by the way? You look like you're a circus person or something… "

"Doesn't that get drafty?" he unsuavely adds.

Kira looks at her clothes. "Well I get around, so most of it I bought on the road."

Kira tweaks one of Jynx's ears. "And hasn't anyone taught you any manners? Hmph."

Jynx owwws! "Ouch! Hey! Yeah, they try all the time!" The younger Khatta hisses a bit. "It's not like I'm still a kitten!"

Kira hrumphs again. "Well you could have fooled me."

The black Khatta rubs his ear, "You treat me just like Lylia does… " He grumbles, "Let's just get a shirt then get out of here."

Kira blinks at Jynx. "Who is Lylia?"

"My mother," Jynx replies. "She treats me like a kitten too." ( Not to mention grabbing me by the ear like that. ) "I'm almost seventeen, for Dagh's sake!"

Kira flashes a toothy grin. "Would you rather I had punched you in the face?"

Jynx blinks! "Uh, n-no m'am… " ( Mom never did THAT though… ) With that, the Khatta shuts up again, just looking miffed.

Kira smiles at Jynx. "Moms are just like that."

Kira says, "Oh, there's a booth over there with shirts."

Eventually, the two come upon a promising-looking booth full of the drab colors the young Khatta seems to be partial to. The proprietor of this establishment is a bored-looking dark-grey Rath'ani, who is currently nibbling on some sort of stick that must have carried food at one time.

Other clothes booths stand next to this one, with brighter colors and perkier owners.

Kira looks around at the dark, drab colors, "Are you sure you wouldn't like something else, Jynx?"

Jynx walks up to the drab booth. "Why? This is grade-A material!" The Khatta picks up a baggy black shirt, which looks as though it had been thrown into the mess-up bin at the local tailor's. "It's hard to find stuff like this!"

Kira looks at the shirt and mutters, "That's because most tailors would burn this stuff rather than sell it."

Jynx's brow furrows. "Well, I'm choosing the shirt here! And if a tailor is stupid enough to throw this out, he deserves to lose money!" He turns to the raccoon, "Hey Ringy, how much for this?"

Seemingly ignoring the 'ringy' remark, the Rath'ani, whose morose-looking mood and drab dress fit the atmosphere for his booth entirely, turns boredly to look at the Khatta. "That item is 30 shekels," he sighs. "So I doubt you can afford it."

Kira says, "Well I'm paying for it. At least pick something better than that."

"What? That's a steal!" cries the black Khatta. "And besides, you tore my shirt, so I get to choose!"

Kira turns to the Rath'ani in disbelief. "30 shekels? That shirt isn't worth that much!"

The raccoon sighs, and rolls his eyes in a superior fashion. "If you're too uncultured or brutish to see the art in this, I pity you. But then I should have guessed from looking at you that you weren't good enough for such material."

Jynx nods, "Yeah, what he said!"

Kira yowls, "What?!"

"Uh, minus that too good stuff… " the black Khatta adds as he remembers the punch-in-the-face remark, also adding a flinch for protection.

The Rath'ani crosses his arms. "I'm selling fine works of apparel art here. I've no time for uncultured… cats," he snorts. "So please, either buy something or go elsewhere."

Kira leans towards the Rath'ani. "I happen to have great taste in clothes."

Jynx looks longingly at the shirt, a feeling in his stomach telling him owning it is just a pipe dream.

Kira turns to Jynx. "Pick something better out."

To this the raccoon sneers, giving the warrioress Khatta a snooty glance up and down, "You call that taste? I call it worse than a horrible airship disaster! What are you supposed to be dressed as, a circus clown?" He seems very impressed with himself.

"But I want this shirt! It matches the one that got ripped!" Jynx looks pleadingly, then he hears the Rath'ani's remark. "Uh sir, you might not want to… "

The other, perkier booth owners stare on at the scene in fascination.

Kira looks at her clothes yet again, and flashes the Rath'ani a slightly toothy grin. "My clothes are fine! And they are much better quality than this stuff you're over-charging for."

Kira looks at Jynx. "You want this shirt that much?"

"Yeah yeah, fine taste, can we just get this and go?" the black Khatta pleads. He nods as the question is asked.

"I've seen better taste on a half-dead Drokar!" remarks the Rath'ani.

Kira growls under her breath, "OK, I'll buy, but not for 30 shekels."

The Rath'ani nods, "Alright, fifty shekels! Ten for quality I just noticed, and ten more for the fact that I feel like it."

Jynx sighs; all he wants is the Dagh-forsaken shirt!

Several other shoppers have wandered over to look at the booths with the brighter, better quality shirts. Many of them have started to watch the scene as well.

Looking from Jynx to the shirt to the Rath'ani, Kira growls, "That shirt isn't worth 30 shekels and it's not worth the 50 you're trying to rob from me."

The Rath'ani looks indignant now. "It is if I say it is! As a matter of fact, it's 70 shekels now because I don't like you!" He gives the tabby warrioress an arrogant look, "What do you have to say to that, hmm? Now pay, or leave!"

Kira grins.

Jynx groans out loud, "Come on! We just want the stupid shirt!"

The Rath'ani looks to Jynx. "Eighty, because I don't like your little boyfriend there either!"

Taking the shirt and checking it carefully for flaws, Kira holds it up against Jynx.

Kira says, "It'll fit."

Many of the shoppers and store owners start to move away, giving the Rath'ani distasteful looks.

Jynx blinks at the Rath'ani, then blinks even wider as the tabby warrioress fits the shirt. "Y-you're still gonna buy it?"

Kira finally turns and smiles at the Rath'ani. "He's not my boyfriend."

"Why? You two were made for each other," the Rath'ani says. "You both look ugly and have poor taste. Why, he's not even wearing a shirt!"

The Rath'ani leans over close now, "Alright, ninety shekels, because it fits!"

Jynx looks at the Rath'ani, "Wait a minute, now that's a bit much!"

Kira smiles even wider, leans towards the Rath'ani, and punches him in the face. "Hmph, ninety shekels? Yeah, right, here's 30 shekels."

SMACK! The Rath'ani, who seems a frail sort, goes sailing to the ground, and touches down with lights out and a bloody nose. The surrounding crowd of Bazaar shoppers goes silent briefly, then a round of cheers and applause is given forth. Apparently, this raccoon wasn't well liked…

Kira rubs her knuckles, and looks down at the Rath'ani. "And you really have to work on your customer service skills."

Kira takes the shirt and hands it to Jynx. "Well I feel much better, and this probably would look good on you."

Jynx's mouth hangs open as he takes hold of the shirt. "Uh… yeah… " He just stares at the comatose raccoon dumbly, then looks at the shirt. "Y'know, it is a bit drab though… "

Kira looks at Jynx blankly. "What?"

Jynx starts to inch away, "Oh, y-you know, like you said. A b-bit too dark, maybe one of these booths has… something… better… ?"

Kira stares at Jynx.

Jynx doesn't like that stare…

Kira grins toothily at Jynx. "Are you sure?"

Jynx shrugs shakily, "Well… I mean… you know… maybe I need a change, and this is sorta passe and all… " The Khatta puts some ground between himself and the warrioress tabby.

Kira starts closing the distance that Jynx is puttting between them, and cracks her knuckles loudly.

Jynx starts to obviously move away now, rather quickly at that. "Th-then again… "

Jynx, seeing the agitation in the other Khatta's eyes, heads for the hills as fast as he can!

Kira yells "Jynx!" and starts chasing the black Khatta.

A scruffy old Jupani with one eye, at his stall, under a faded sign that reads '#) -s Makah's Goods' comments wryly as the two felines disappear, "It's about time someone punched him. He was starting to give us honest merchants a bad name."