The Twelve Days of Deckerstar

The 8th Day - Eight Different Presents

The day after the L.A.P.D.'s holiday party, Chloe dragged herself and Lucifer to the mall the next day to look for presents for Ella's Secret Santa party in a few days. Lucifer, of course, was physically fine, just bored. Chloe had a small headache but knew that they had to get this done before time got away from them. What made it worse is that it is now five days before Christmas, and the mall is packed with shoppers. Most stores have lines out the door, parking was a nightmare, and nobody can seem to remember what manners are.

Ella had been pestering their friend group since the beginning of December to do a Secret Santa, so eventually, everyone caved and agreed to it. It started off just their core seven plus Trixie and Charlie, but when Ella announced that she was bringing Michael, Maze got defensive, pissed, and decided to bring Eve, so they had to do rearrange the Santas. 

Now, Lucifer had the fairly easy job of getting a gift for Ella, but Chloe's was very difficult. Chloe had to get gifts for Maze. The rules say that you can't tell anybody who you have, but Chloe and Lucifer told each other who they had immediately after not getting one another. 

She had made a list, racking her brain for anything Maze would like that Chloe could purchase legally. So far, she had a bottle of Absolute vodka that came with two tumblers, a case of coconut water, some cleaning products for her knives, and a gift card to a clothing store Chloe didn't even know existed that apparently Maze gets a lot of her clothes from. 

"Are we done yet?" Lucifer complained as he shrugged their bags onto his forearms, "This is bloody boring!"

Chloe, frustrated with her gift list and now her annoying partner, hesitated and then said confidently, "Yes."

"Thank Dad!" Lucifer breathed as he turned in the opposite direction they were walking toward the car, "Finally! Let's go-"

"With half the list." Chloe finished with a smirk.  

Lucifer froze in the middle of his rejoicing. He slowly turned toward Chloe with hurt eyes and a slightly gaping mouth. 

"Why must you be so bloody cruel?" He whimpered.

Chloe scoffed and said with more seriousness, "C'mon, I need help! I only have four things for Maze."

"I think four presents is enough, Detective, honestly, not just because I'd do anything to get out of this human hell-hole right now." He looked distastefully around at the mall. 

"Really?" Chloe asked, looking down at the bags, "I was thinking that maybe eight different presents would be okay."

"Eight?" Lucifer nearly screeched, "Bloody hell! Do you like Maze that much?"

"Well, we didn't really set a price max, but when I asked Ella, she said probably just don't go over one hundred dollars, so that's what I was thinking about spending." Chloe explained. 

"And," Lucifer drawled, raising his eyebrows at her, "how much have you spent so far?"

Chloe did the math in her head and answered, "Seventy-five dollars."

Lucifer nodded and supplied, "Okay, twenty-five more to go by your range. You can either get one thing that costs around twenty-five dollars, or a few things that add up to the same amount."

"Right," Chloe said quietly, gnawing on her bottom lip as she thought. "Let's just walk and see what we can find."

Chloe and Lucifer circled the whole mall, wondering if Maze would like something in any of these stores. Most of the time, Lucifer would vigorously shake his head or just pull Chloe away. 

"What'd you get for Ella then? Have you finished your Secret Santa shopping?" Chloe pestered.

Lucifer scoffed, "Of course I have. I knew what I wanted to get her as soon as I pulled out her name."

When he didn't continue, Chloe raised her eyebrows and asked, "Which is...?"

Lucifer grinned deviously and replied, "A Star Trek poster...authentically autographed by William Shatner and a few of the other original cast members who are still alive."

Chloe's eyes widened and she blinked a few times before answering, "Wow! How'd you manage that. Who is he, again?"

She had heard the name William Shatner before, Chloe just had no idea who he played in the series.

Lucifer shrugged and easily replied, "I just collected on a deal, so it didn't cost me a dime. He plays Captain Kirk, one of the chaps in yellow. That's about all I know."

He and Chloe laughed, appreciating Ella's geekiness. 

"Well that's very sweet. I think she'll love that." Chloe said. Just as she finished saying that, they passed by a book store, and one of the display windows had some book to do with historical weaponry and Chloe stopped. Anything to do with weapons or sharp things was all she needed to walk in. 

She found the Historical section and saw that this bookstore had just gotten a new shipment of analyses and the like about different styles of weapons throughout history, which groups of peoples invented, used them, and what they were used for. She found two that seemed very descriptive and graphic, so she bought them for Maze's reading enjoyment. 

"Ah, Detective," Lucifer intervened, "I'm not sure how much of a reader Mazikeen is."

Chloe shrugged and replied, "Well, maybe if it's a topic she likes, she'll at least flip through them. Trixie refuses to read anything that doesn't involve some sort of fantasy or adventure. Now that she's getting older, her teachers are assigning more non-fiction books for the kids to read, and Trixie hates them. She refuses to even open it if it's not something she'd usually like."

On their way up to the check out, Lucifer stopped and got side-tracked by another section of books. 

"What'd you find?" Chloe asked as she watched him flip through something that looked like a  cook-book. 

Lucifer grinned and exclaimed, "I'm going to get this for Miss Lopez, too!"

"What is it?" Chloe asked as Lucifer eagerly handed it over. 

The title of the book was: A Geek's Guide to Drinks.

"It's got alcoholic drinks' recipes based on all of these different franchises!" He explained and pointed to a few of them as Chloe began to flip through the book.

"See, they've got Star Trek, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, X-Files, Walking Dead, Supernatural, Harry Potter, and so many more I don't think I've heard of."

Chloe smiled, nodded, and said, "Oh! It's drinks based on the shows!"

"Exactly!"

"Ella would love that," Chloe agreed, handing the book back to Lucifer. 

They went to the front and checked out. Now that they were done with their Secret Santa shopping, they finally got to leave the mall. Lucifer celebrated (and practically ran) their entire walk to the car and then insisted that they go grab something to eat. Chloe didn't fight it because she was still slightly nursing her hangover, so some water and carbs sounded excellent. 

I don't think A Geek's Guide to Drinks is a real book, but I really wish it was. How awesome would that be?