When they left the department store, Liona chose to ignore Erik's silent protest since he was trying not to vocalize it, but it was obviously written all over his face that the cost of the clothes had overwhelmed him.
She led the way to the next store where she decided was the best place for all the girls to go. Unfortunately for Erik's sisters, not all of them had decent undergarments and the sad and pathetic state of Nikki's garments told her all she needed to know about what they needed. She decided that she was taking them all to her favorite undergarment shop. They sold everything here from simple undergarments to the more adult tastes in the different areas of the store. They catered specially to omegas, but that didn't mean that they didn't have undergarments for alphas and betas as well.
This was part of her idea of necessary clothes shopping, so she had to giggle a little at the flushed face of Erik when they stood in front of the shop. She had already purchased multipacks of undergarments for the youngest girls at the department store, but she planned on getting the tweens and teens a few things here that they would need.
Taking pity on Erik, she said, "Erik, this is necessary, so I won't hear any complaints. This is my treat, so if you feel uncomfortable, you can stay out here with the youngest girls while I take your tween and teen sisters shopping for the things they need."
"Alright, I'll stay out here then…" He looked so embarrassed.
After Erik corralled his youngest sisters, Liona confidently strode inside with the tweens and teens and found a sales associate to help. As soon as the girls were measured, they started picking out things they liked in their sizes. She encouraged them to pick whatever they liked, no matter how crazy it looked. This was for them, no one else, so who cared what it looked like if you liked it. She didn't even bat an eye when Nikki was testing her by picking out a slightly more expensive bra. She just smiled and oohed over her choice. She complimented the tweens with their choices as well and pretty soon the girls had filled a shopping basket with their choices of undergarments. Paying for everything didn't even make a dent in her savings. She spent more than this on herself all the time, so the meager cost of everything for all the girls and Erik was nothing to sneeze at.
After leaving the undergarment store, they all headed for the specialty shoe shop where she planned on getting everyone a pair of shoes along with Erik. Here they were also measured for the correct size of shoe, and they quickly picked out the shoes they liked. They were all universal sneakers, but they were sturdy and would last them a long time without falling apart like she had noticed Erik's were the other day. Along with getting Erik a pair of nicer shoes to wear to her party, she also purchased him some new sneakers as well. He obviously needed them, so she insisted over his protests.
By the time they were done with all the shopping so far, the younger kids were getting restless so Liona made the decision to stop at the center play center for the little kids so they could burn off some of their excess energy. When she stood in front of the play place, the hesitation on the older kids' faces as well as the uneasiness on Erik's face was apparent.
She couldn't ignore this anymore, so she blurted out, "What's with your faces? You all look as if you've committed some horrible taboo!"
Erik looked away, but Nikki spoke up in his place, "That's because people like you don't like it when people like us play in your sight. We don't want to be blamed for playing within sight of all these rich people and then when something happens to their precious spawn, they immediately put the blame on us, regardless of if we did anything or not."
"That's total BS that happened to you all in the past, but I can guarantee you, that no one here will bat an eye that your little sisters and Tyler are playing here. If they do happen to have an issue, they'll have to go through me first." Liona spat out.
She wouldn't let anyone try anything stupid with her friends. Especially when she saw two familiar faces amongst the people sitting down in the play area. Her mom was here, with her Aunt Emma. That meant that her baby cousin, Ashleigh was probably playing in the play place as well. She was barely two-years old and was a New Year's baby, and also shared a birthday with her Grandpa Kaito. She was named after their great-great grandma, Ashleigh, as well as their Great- Grandma Ashina. She was such a cutie too and looked just like their Grandpa Asher with her violet eyes and black hair. Scanning the rest of the parents and kids in the play place, she didn't see Ethan, or Uncle Nathen so that meant they were probably together elsewhere in the mall. Ethan looked more like great grandma with his seafoam eyes, but he had his dad's light brown hair, but looked mostly like Auntie Emm.
"Um, if you're sure…" Nikki seemed to accept her response.
"Come on!" Liona encouraged the younger Norman sisters to come into the play place.
It didn't seem to take more than that for the younger girls to enter and make a beeline for the area where they were supposed to put their shoes, with the older girls directing them to follow the rules.
She, Erik, Nikki, and Kylee, all found a seat where they could sit and watch the younger girls play. Even though Heather was nine, she didn't look like it compared to the young kids here in the play place. She was about the size of maybe an average five-year-old. In fact, when the girls measured themselves for the fun of it next to the maximum height requirement, Heather was well below the height requirement, when an average nine-year old should exceed that by a fair margin. Sarah too was just at that maximum height requirement, and she was eleven. It seemed all of Erik's sisters were small for their age.
Sarah seemed to take charge and looked after Tyler, while Emily was running around happily, interacting with the zoo animal playground equipment. Kirsten and Heather were more interested in the learning aspect of the playground and followed the river of clues to find answers to questions about the animals and their natural habitats as well as their diets. Tyler, only being a few months old, just seemed to be happy with all the bright colors and the activity going on around him as he crawled around with Sarah keeping an eye on him. It was fun watching each of the kids play in their own way. After a few minutes watching the kids play, it seemed that Ashleigh spotted her and made a beeline for her.
"Li-Li!" Ashleigh made grabbing motions at her as she stood in front of Liona.
Liona smiled at her baby cousin and reached down to pick her up. She then lifted the slight child into the air and wiggled her around as she giggled at the motion, before setting her down again. As soon as she did, she was tugged on and motioned to follow her.
Before she followed Ashleigh, she explained to Erik and his sisters, "This is my baby cousin, Ashleigh. She's my cousin, Ethan's, who you've all met, baby sister. She is my Aunt Emma's youngest child. She's sitting across the way with my Mom having a chat, it looks like, so I'm going to pop on over and say hi. I'll be right back."
Before Erik, or Nikki and Kylee could say anything, Liona followed her baby cousin and let her lead the way over where she wanted her. As she suspected she was dragged over to her Aunt Emma and Mom.
"What a nice surprise, Leigh! You found your cousin Liona!" Her Aunt Emma laughed before turning to her. "Hello Liona, I see Ashleigh found you again. I swear this little daughter of mine has this ability to sniff out any of her family members! Just earlier she found her grandparents here with Your Uncle Atreus' girls!"
Liona laughed, "She must get it from you Auntie! Mom says that you were sensitive to pheromones when you were a baby too!"
"That's right, Liona. Emma was just a darling little baby that could find me anywhere in the house when she was a baby. She was my little shadow for so long! I miss those days!" Her Mom was obviously teasing her Aunt Emma, who was laughing as well.
"That's because the boys were so focused on me, I could only escape by finding you! If I stuck close to you, then Atreus and Artemis would give me a minute of peace!"