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Written for the seventh day of the 2017 "Holigay" prompt challenge.
The prompt was: "Two or more of your characters have just realized they didn’t get anything for each other for the holidays! They all rush to the nearest shopping center, coincidentally on the same day, and desperately attempt to not let them see each other. Or, if they do see each other they try to play it off real cool like and try to hide the presents."
Summary: Jesse, Natalie, and Yvette all wind up at the mall, attempting last-minute shopping for their partners... without getting spotted.
Fluffy, slice-of-life.
Jesse was the first awake, and it was very tempting not to get up. The bed was warm, Natalie and Yvette were both still sound asleep, and dragging himself out the door to go shopping was one of the absolute least appealing things he could imagine. But he’d had one of those realizations—one of those wake-you-up-at-3-am-in-a-cold-sweat realizations—that he hadn’t done his Christmas shopping yet. He’d been putting it off for more than a week, always finding a reason to push it forward, and he was rapidly running out of days to push it to.
Today was one of the few days all three of them had off, so he was loath to spend it elsewhere, but it had to get done.
He slid out of bed, made coffee to fortify himself against the early hour and the winter air, and then headed out into the cold to visit the mall.
Natalie’s alarm on her phone went off, and she shut it off within a second, the reaction to that particular tone ingrained into every fiber of her being, awake or asleep. She’d shut it off fast enough that Yvette hadn’t even stirred.
She got dressed in the dark in the bedroom so she wouldn’t disturb her girlfriend, and then started on making breakfast. Jesse had already made coffee, as usual, a fact for which she remained profoundly grateful every single morning. They all hated fighting with the cranky old coffee maker, but he seemed to have the best luck with it, despite being the one who hated it the most. He’d left a sticky note on the top of the old machine, the message written in his tiny, precise writing.
Hey, loves. I’m going to be gone for at least a few hours running errands. Send me a text if you need anything while I’m out! You two have a good day. Love you! –J
She finished cooking her pancakes and sat down to eat. At least she wasn’t the only one who’d be out running errands. She’d managed to cross everyone off her Christmas list except for the two most important people: Yvette and Jesse. She knew what she was getting them, but had to actually get the items. Hopefully Jesse’s errands wouldn’t take him near the mall.
Yvette’s phone buzzed, alerting her to a new email. “SHIPPING UPDATE:” was the subject line, and she opened the message.
Due to weather along the shipping route, all shipments have been delayed by up to five days. We have refunded any priority shipping charges, and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay. New anticipated arrival date is December 28.
“Shiiiiiit,” she groaned. There went those Christmas gifts. She’d still give them to Jesse and Natalie, of course, but wrapping up an IOU under the tree was no fun. She had to get them something for the day itself. She was the last one in bed that morning, taking full advantage of the day off. At least that meant she had time to go shopping today.
She heard the front door close, alerting her that someone else had just left the house.
Yvette got dressed in what felt like record time, running a brush and some gel through her short, spiky hair, and grabbed her wallet.
Getting downstairs, the whole house smelled delicious, though no one seemed to be around. There was a covered plate on the stove with a note in Natalie’s nice cursive.
Morning, Yvie! Help yourself to pancakes! I’m heading out to run some errands, and it sounds like Jesse will be out for a while, too. Let either of us know if you need something. There’s some coffee in the pot, too.
Yvette couldn’t restrain a joyous sound at the note, pulling back the cover and looking at the pancakes. Natalie’s cooking was never something to be missed. And they were still slightly warm. Taking a bite, she tried to identify the flavors—Nat was always trying new combinations. She thought that today’s were almond, orange zest, and… some spice she couldn’t name. And there was a very light, clearly homemade, orange syrup in a jar when she opened the fridge.
It was well worth the extra ten minutes she sacrificed to enjoy them.
Jesse hoped to be in and out of the mall as quickly as possible, gifts in hand, so he could get home and spend the day with his girlfriends. Sadly, it was not to be. Even getting there a mere twenty minutes after the mall opened didn’t save him from the crowds. Navigating the walkways was an exercise in patience and judging how to dodge between hazards.
He visited a clothing store first, hoping it would have things that suited both Yvie’s and Natalie’s wildly different styles. His luck started off all right, finding a long pastel scarf that would be perfect for Nat. And a black fitted t-shirt with the words “Shopping Maul” on the front in gold was absolutely the kind of thing Yvette would wear.
It was his second goal of the day where his luck ran out, because just as he was about to make a move toward the door of a kitchen gadgetry store, he saw Natalie walking the opposite way through the crowds. He altered his course, cutting in the middle of a large family group, and ducked behind a kiosk so she wouldn’t see him. He ignored the man in charge of the kiosk, who was trying to sell him on the benefits of whatever too-good-to-be-true miracle product he was hawking, in favor of sneaking a look past the edge. He saw Nat heading into the same store he’d been planning on going into, blonde ponytail swaying.
He breathed a sigh of relief at having been lucky enough to see her before they’d wound up in the same store, but of course it figured that she’d come to the mall on the same day that he did. He’d just have to try to avoid anyplace else she was likely to go.
When Natalie pulled into the mall parking lot, she almost couldn’t believe it. The car she’d pulled in next to was Jesse’s car. Glancing through the passenger side window and seeing his novelty geek steering wheel cover confirmed it. She groaned out loud, smacking her head lightly against her own steering wheel. Of course he’d left early to come here. Well, with hundreds or thousands of people here, how likely was it really that they’d run into each other?
Her first store was safe: her absolute favorite kitchen supply store. She glanced wistfully at some of the aisles containing items off of her wishlist, but wasn’t here for herself. Instead, she headed straight for a display of high-tech automatic coffee makers. While it was the kind of gift all three of them would use, Jesse by far would be saved the most hassle by replacing the piece of junk they currently relied on. She found one that seemed the best suited to their needs, and grabbed a package of reusable self-fillable pods as well. The process of checking out took far longer than usual. The poor cashier was by herself, and the line was stretching into one of the aisles.
After making sure it was okay for her to come back and pick the heavy coffee maker up at the end of her shopping trip, she headed out for her second destination: a high-end makeup store.
They had an enormous limited edition eyeshadow palette that Yvette had been drooling over, but had lamented being unable to justify buying for herself. It contained a rainbow of vibrant, jewel-toned and metallic shades that looked stunning on Yvie. Anything that bright tended to look garish on Natalie, but Yvette could make anything look like she was ready for a photoshoot. And Natalie was (slightly selfishly, but mainly appreciatively) looking forward to seeing the looks she created.
She just had to make it back to the kitchen supply store to pick up the coffee maker, and then she’d be free.
Until she literally ran into someone she hadn’t been expecting. Not Jesse. Yvette.
“Yvie!” she squeaked, hiding the tell-tale bag behind her back. If Yvette saw it, she’d absolutely know what was likely to be inside.
“Natalie!” Yvie jumped as much as Nat had, though she recovered a bit faster. “How’s it going, stranger?” she asked, winking and aiming a finger gun at Nat, while trying to hide her own bag behind her back with her other hand.
“Pretty good,” Natalie said. “Just, er, picking up a couple things. Here. At the mall.”
“Yeah, yeah, me too. Those pancakes were amazing! What were they? I got almond and orange and?”
“Cardamom!” Natalie said. “Thanks! They did turn out pretty well.”
“So… I have to get… going…” Yvette said, starting to edge around Natalie while keeping her bag behind her back.
Natalie turned with her, in order to keep her own bag out of sight.
After they’d managed a total 180 degree turn, Yvie darted forward, pressing a quick kiss to Natalie’s lips. “See you at home in a little while!” Then she ducked into a large group of shoppers and vanished into the crowd.
Natalie smiled as she headed to pick up Jesse’s gift.
Yvette let out a sigh of relief as soon as she was out of sight of Natalie. She thought she’d managed to keep the bag containing the box of very fancy chocolate out of sight.
She’d spent quite a while picking them out. Varieties of chocolate combined with unlikely flavors like “rose petal” and “chai pear cordial.” Yvette had always been fond of mostly the basics: dark, milk, and white chocolate, maybe with caramel or nuts, or chocolate covered fruit if she was feeling especially fancy. But Natalie loved unexpected flavors, and the things that Yvie found bizarre were the sorts of things she adored.
Finally catching her breath, she headed for her last stop, the bookstore.
She wanted to get Jesse one of his favorite trilogies of books that had just been released in new editions. He’d been so excited about them, thrilled that they contained new short stories and whatever the writer version of liner notes would be called. But he hadn’t gotten them because he already had the books themselves, and didn’t want to blow his book budget. Which, as far as Yvie was concerned, made them perfect as a gift.
She’d just picked up the three books, when she caught sight of the one other person she was hoping to avoid running into coming around the corner of the shelf. Jesse.
She backpedaled so fast she almost dropped her armload of books, but made it around the far end before he saw her, though she bumped an end display, knocking several other books to the floor.
“Crap!” she said before darting into another aisle. She’d come back to pick up the books. If he hadn’t already noticed her, having said something out loud was going to make it a lot more likely he would.
Feeling silly, she crouched down and glanced around the edge of the shelf, and saw him picking up the books she’d knocked down. He glanced around, but didn’t seem to see her.
“Yvie?” he asked.
She bit her lip and tried to keep from laughing. If he wasn’t sure she was there, she wasn’t going confirm it.
Finally he left, and she felt she’d killed enough time to make it safe to check out.
Jesse walked back to the car, scarf and extensive set of silicone baking molds for Natalie, and the shirt and a set of queer-themed comics for Yvette safely acquired. Natalie hadn’t seen him, at least. He was almost positive he’d heard Yvie in the bookstore, but maybe it had been his imagination. What were the odds that all three of them separately wound up at the mall on the same day?
Natalie was the first one to get home, which was a relief. Jesse’s car had still been there when she left, so maybe he wouldn’t even know she’d been to the mall today. Yvie knew she’d been there but hadn’t seen her gift, Natalie was pretty sure. Now she had time to hide her presents away before either of her lovers caught sight of incriminating bags. Really, what were the odds that all three of them had gone to the mall at the same time?
Yvette hid her purchases in a canvas bag so that she could bring them into the house without anyone seeing what they were. Being the last one to pull into the driveway, she had to laugh a little. If they’d known, they could have just carpooled. But what were the odds that the three of them had all had the same destination in mind?
[This got a minor SPAG and word choice edit in 2023 when it was posted.]
Note in 2023: This is my other favorite of the pieces I wrote for this challenge. It was fun, and I enjoyed all three of the characters, even though I'd just created them for this prompt.
A lot of the challenge's prompts lent themselves mostly toward fluffy fills, which was on-purpose for the whole seasonal cheer thing. Lots of them were also specific enough prompts that they mainly also suited slice-of-life sorts of fills, which are rarely something I write... yet I *did* really enjoy this one.
The prompt was: "Two or more of your characters have just realized they didn’t get anything for each other for the holidays! They all rush to the nearest shopping center, coincidentally on the same day, and desperately attempt to not let them see each other. Or, if they do see each other they try to play it off real cool like and try to hide the presents."
Summary: Jesse, Natalie, and Yvette all wind up at the mall, attempting last-minute shopping for their partners... without getting spotted.
Fluffy, slice-of-life.
Jesse was the first awake, and it was very tempting not to get up. The bed was warm, Natalie and Yvette were both still sound asleep, and dragging himself out the door to go shopping was one of the absolute least appealing things he could imagine. But he’d had one of those realizations—one of those wake-you-up-at-3-am-in-a-cold-sweat realizations—that he hadn’t done his Christmas shopping yet. He’d been putting it off for more than a week, always finding a reason to push it forward, and he was rapidly running out of days to push it to.
Today was one of the few days all three of them had off, so he was loath to spend it elsewhere, but it had to get done.
He slid out of bed, made coffee to fortify himself against the early hour and the winter air, and then headed out into the cold to visit the mall.
Natalie’s alarm on her phone went off, and she shut it off within a second, the reaction to that particular tone ingrained into every fiber of her being, awake or asleep. She’d shut it off fast enough that Yvette hadn’t even stirred.
She got dressed in the dark in the bedroom so she wouldn’t disturb her girlfriend, and then started on making breakfast. Jesse had already made coffee, as usual, a fact for which she remained profoundly grateful every single morning. They all hated fighting with the cranky old coffee maker, but he seemed to have the best luck with it, despite being the one who hated it the most. He’d left a sticky note on the top of the old machine, the message written in his tiny, precise writing.
Hey, loves. I’m going to be gone for at least a few hours running errands. Send me a text if you need anything while I’m out! You two have a good day. Love you! –J
She finished cooking her pancakes and sat down to eat. At least she wasn’t the only one who’d be out running errands. She’d managed to cross everyone off her Christmas list except for the two most important people: Yvette and Jesse. She knew what she was getting them, but had to actually get the items. Hopefully Jesse’s errands wouldn’t take him near the mall.
Yvette’s phone buzzed, alerting her to a new email. “SHIPPING UPDATE:” was the subject line, and she opened the message.
Due to weather along the shipping route, all shipments have been delayed by up to five days. We have refunded any priority shipping charges, and apologize for the inconvenience caused by the delay. New anticipated arrival date is December 28.
“Shiiiiiit,” she groaned. There went those Christmas gifts. She’d still give them to Jesse and Natalie, of course, but wrapping up an IOU under the tree was no fun. She had to get them something for the day itself. She was the last one in bed that morning, taking full advantage of the day off. At least that meant she had time to go shopping today.
She heard the front door close, alerting her that someone else had just left the house.
Yvette got dressed in what felt like record time, running a brush and some gel through her short, spiky hair, and grabbed her wallet.
Getting downstairs, the whole house smelled delicious, though no one seemed to be around. There was a covered plate on the stove with a note in Natalie’s nice cursive.
Morning, Yvie! Help yourself to pancakes! I’m heading out to run some errands, and it sounds like Jesse will be out for a while, too. Let either of us know if you need something. There’s some coffee in the pot, too.
Yvette couldn’t restrain a joyous sound at the note, pulling back the cover and looking at the pancakes. Natalie’s cooking was never something to be missed. And they were still slightly warm. Taking a bite, she tried to identify the flavors—Nat was always trying new combinations. She thought that today’s were almond, orange zest, and… some spice she couldn’t name. And there was a very light, clearly homemade, orange syrup in a jar when she opened the fridge.
It was well worth the extra ten minutes she sacrificed to enjoy them.
Jesse hoped to be in and out of the mall as quickly as possible, gifts in hand, so he could get home and spend the day with his girlfriends. Sadly, it was not to be. Even getting there a mere twenty minutes after the mall opened didn’t save him from the crowds. Navigating the walkways was an exercise in patience and judging how to dodge between hazards.
He visited a clothing store first, hoping it would have things that suited both Yvie’s and Natalie’s wildly different styles. His luck started off all right, finding a long pastel scarf that would be perfect for Nat. And a black fitted t-shirt with the words “Shopping Maul” on the front in gold was absolutely the kind of thing Yvette would wear.
It was his second goal of the day where his luck ran out, because just as he was about to make a move toward the door of a kitchen gadgetry store, he saw Natalie walking the opposite way through the crowds. He altered his course, cutting in the middle of a large family group, and ducked behind a kiosk so she wouldn’t see him. He ignored the man in charge of the kiosk, who was trying to sell him on the benefits of whatever too-good-to-be-true miracle product he was hawking, in favor of sneaking a look past the edge. He saw Nat heading into the same store he’d been planning on going into, blonde ponytail swaying.
He breathed a sigh of relief at having been lucky enough to see her before they’d wound up in the same store, but of course it figured that she’d come to the mall on the same day that he did. He’d just have to try to avoid anyplace else she was likely to go.
When Natalie pulled into the mall parking lot, she almost couldn’t believe it. The car she’d pulled in next to was Jesse’s car. Glancing through the passenger side window and seeing his novelty geek steering wheel cover confirmed it. She groaned out loud, smacking her head lightly against her own steering wheel. Of course he’d left early to come here. Well, with hundreds or thousands of people here, how likely was it really that they’d run into each other?
Her first store was safe: her absolute favorite kitchen supply store. She glanced wistfully at some of the aisles containing items off of her wishlist, but wasn’t here for herself. Instead, she headed straight for a display of high-tech automatic coffee makers. While it was the kind of gift all three of them would use, Jesse by far would be saved the most hassle by replacing the piece of junk they currently relied on. She found one that seemed the best suited to their needs, and grabbed a package of reusable self-fillable pods as well. The process of checking out took far longer than usual. The poor cashier was by herself, and the line was stretching into one of the aisles.
After making sure it was okay for her to come back and pick the heavy coffee maker up at the end of her shopping trip, she headed out for her second destination: a high-end makeup store.
They had an enormous limited edition eyeshadow palette that Yvette had been drooling over, but had lamented being unable to justify buying for herself. It contained a rainbow of vibrant, jewel-toned and metallic shades that looked stunning on Yvie. Anything that bright tended to look garish on Natalie, but Yvette could make anything look like she was ready for a photoshoot. And Natalie was (slightly selfishly, but mainly appreciatively) looking forward to seeing the looks she created.
She just had to make it back to the kitchen supply store to pick up the coffee maker, and then she’d be free.
Until she literally ran into someone she hadn’t been expecting. Not Jesse. Yvette.
“Yvie!” she squeaked, hiding the tell-tale bag behind her back. If Yvette saw it, she’d absolutely know what was likely to be inside.
“Natalie!” Yvie jumped as much as Nat had, though she recovered a bit faster. “How’s it going, stranger?” she asked, winking and aiming a finger gun at Nat, while trying to hide her own bag behind her back with her other hand.
“Pretty good,” Natalie said. “Just, er, picking up a couple things. Here. At the mall.”
“Yeah, yeah, me too. Those pancakes were amazing! What were they? I got almond and orange and?”
“Cardamom!” Natalie said. “Thanks! They did turn out pretty well.”
“So… I have to get… going…” Yvette said, starting to edge around Natalie while keeping her bag behind her back.
Natalie turned with her, in order to keep her own bag out of sight.
After they’d managed a total 180 degree turn, Yvie darted forward, pressing a quick kiss to Natalie’s lips. “See you at home in a little while!” Then she ducked into a large group of shoppers and vanished into the crowd.
Natalie smiled as she headed to pick up Jesse’s gift.
Yvette let out a sigh of relief as soon as she was out of sight of Natalie. She thought she’d managed to keep the bag containing the box of very fancy chocolate out of sight.
She’d spent quite a while picking them out. Varieties of chocolate combined with unlikely flavors like “rose petal” and “chai pear cordial.” Yvette had always been fond of mostly the basics: dark, milk, and white chocolate, maybe with caramel or nuts, or chocolate covered fruit if she was feeling especially fancy. But Natalie loved unexpected flavors, and the things that Yvie found bizarre were the sorts of things she adored.
Finally catching her breath, she headed for her last stop, the bookstore.
She wanted to get Jesse one of his favorite trilogies of books that had just been released in new editions. He’d been so excited about them, thrilled that they contained new short stories and whatever the writer version of liner notes would be called. But he hadn’t gotten them because he already had the books themselves, and didn’t want to blow his book budget. Which, as far as Yvie was concerned, made them perfect as a gift.
She’d just picked up the three books, when she caught sight of the one other person she was hoping to avoid running into coming around the corner of the shelf. Jesse.
She backpedaled so fast she almost dropped her armload of books, but made it around the far end before he saw her, though she bumped an end display, knocking several other books to the floor.
“Crap!” she said before darting into another aisle. She’d come back to pick up the books. If he hadn’t already noticed her, having said something out loud was going to make it a lot more likely he would.
Feeling silly, she crouched down and glanced around the edge of the shelf, and saw him picking up the books she’d knocked down. He glanced around, but didn’t seem to see her.
“Yvie?” he asked.
She bit her lip and tried to keep from laughing. If he wasn’t sure she was there, she wasn’t going confirm it.
Finally he left, and she felt she’d killed enough time to make it safe to check out.
Jesse walked back to the car, scarf and extensive set of silicone baking molds for Natalie, and the shirt and a set of queer-themed comics for Yvette safely acquired. Natalie hadn’t seen him, at least. He was almost positive he’d heard Yvie in the bookstore, but maybe it had been his imagination. What were the odds that all three of them separately wound up at the mall on the same day?
Natalie was the first one to get home, which was a relief. Jesse’s car had still been there when she left, so maybe he wouldn’t even know she’d been to the mall today. Yvie knew she’d been there but hadn’t seen her gift, Natalie was pretty sure. Now she had time to hide her presents away before either of her lovers caught sight of incriminating bags. Really, what were the odds that all three of them had gone to the mall at the same time?
Yvette hid her purchases in a canvas bag so that she could bring them into the house without anyone seeing what they were. Being the last one to pull into the driveway, she had to laugh a little. If they’d known, they could have just carpooled. But what were the odds that the three of them had all had the same destination in mind?
[This got a minor SPAG and word choice edit in 2023 when it was posted.]
Note in 2023: This is my other favorite of the pieces I wrote for this challenge. It was fun, and I enjoyed all three of the characters, even though I'd just created them for this prompt.
A lot of the challenge's prompts lent themselves mostly toward fluffy fills, which was on-purpose for the whole seasonal cheer thing. Lots of them were also specific enough prompts that they mainly also suited slice-of-life sorts of fills, which are rarely something I write... yet I *did* really enjoy this one.
