Heaven Help Us

Christmas Shopping Pt. 2

I mentally saved the directions the lady gave me and found my way over to the little kid's clothing sections.

It took me a moment, but I finally spotted the Batman stuff.

Which was also where I found Rain.

I walked up beside her.

"So, how much of this does he already have?" I smiled, looking up at all of the plushies, chairs, playsets, action figures, apparel, and various other things decorated with pictures of Batman and Robin or the logo.

She jumped slightly and then noticed it was just me. "Jesus fucking christ, Andy."

I looked at her and laughed. "Jumpy much?"

"Fuck you, it's Christmas."

After a moment of trying to glare at me, she smiled.

"Have you found anything yet?" She asked.

"Not yet. I want you to help me out, since I don't know what all he already has or needs or wants..."

"Alright. I'm almost finished shopping, anyway. One second," She put back a Batman alarm clock and dropped down to her knees to rummage through a ton of shopping bags. After a moment, she pulled out a long piece of paper.

"Are you Santa or something?"

"Shh, don't tell Jeph," She smiled up at me.

"What is that? A list?" I asked when she stood up.

"Yeah. Of people to shop for."

I felt my eyes get wide.

"Um..."

"Okay, I've already got Jeph, Jinxx, Sammi, Jake, you, CC, Ashley, Gerard, Frank, Ray, Mikey, Alicia, Christa, Ella, Dante, Brooklyn, Shaun, Jimmy..." She muttered, scanning the list. I could tell it went far past just those people. "Yeah, I've got everybody shopped for." She paused for a moment, and then pulled out her phone. "And so does Dante."

"You both shopped for all of those people?"

"Yeah, every year." She folded the list and stuffed it into her pocket. "Hey, Andy, will you run over there and grab a couple of carts?" She indicated the lines of carts a couple yards away.

"Yeah, sure."

Rain watched as I struggled and fought with the two carts to get them over to where she was standing.

When I finally made it back over to her, she smirked.

"All of your fans think you're so graceful at everything you do, Andy. But I know the truth." She said and leaned up with a hand on my cheek to sing, "Dear studio audience, I've an announcement to make: it seems the artists these days are not who you think..."

I smiled and rolled my eyes at her. "Let's get shopping."

We put all of her bags into one cart and stood there for a few more minutes, picking out some Batman things for Jeph. Dante met up with us in the art section, and we looked over what we'd gotten everyone except each other to make sure we hadn't gotten the same things.

I had a ton of presents for Jeph and everyobdy else, which made me feel really good for some reason. I  hadn't shopped for this many people in years...

"Let's get back to the buses!" Dante said as we put everything in the car and the trunk.

I don't know how we all fit in the car but we managed it, laughing and talking the whole time.

I think it was the best Christmas Eve I'd experienced in forever.

I loved it.

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Sorry about the kinda crappy quality of this one. I thought I'd have a lot more time to work on this now that it's summer because I'm pretty anti-social in the world outside of the internet, but I was surprised with a schedule of parties and things...  .-. Anyways! Here's an update. <3