The mall was crowded with sales-obsessed individuals, Christmas shopping happy-goers, and screaming children waiting for their turn to take pictures with Santa.

A gigantic Christmas tree decorated to the nines was at the center of the mall where people took photos. Most store employees wore red hats or some sort of holiday t-shirt to emphasize their seasonal discounts. Tacky t-shirts and sweaters filled the racks with some embellished in flying reindeers and others a nod to the Home Alone franchise with the famous line, Merry Christmas ya filthy animal.

Sage currently held a blue sweater to his chest with a gingerbread man and the words, Let's Get Baked, imprinted on the top. "This would be perfect for Tejas."

Solace ignored him and continued to swipe the hangers viciously to the ends, looking for anything that Louis might like. What did teenaged boys wear nowadays? Clothes didn't seem like the most practical choice since she didn't have the faintest idea what his pant size was. She could buy him a top, but he would end up hating it. She knew that for a fact.

With it being the weekend and Christmas in a few weeks, Solace thought it was the perfect opportunity to finally get her gifts in order. She had already ordered her parents their presents online and sent them to their house. A back massager for her dad as he was always lifting and pushing heavy weights, and a side bag for her mom to take to work as a dental assistant. All that was left to buy was for her brother, Emi, and Evelyn.

After finding nothing, she decided to give up and just buy him something basketball related. She wasn't sure what, but when she saw it, she would now. I hope.

She glanced over at Sage, who was no longer standing where he was seconds ago. Why couldn't he stay in one spot for longer than a minute? Her eyes roamed over the store to see a tall boy wearing the same hoodie and flannel searching in the women's section. He was meticulously looking at all the shelves and racks as if they somehow held the answers to all his problems. It was like he knew she was staring when he looked up and grinned at her with a wave. Then, he began to move towards her, his hands in his pockets.

"What were you doing?" she asked when he was close enough.

"What do people do at malls, Solace?" he drawled with a roll of his eyes.

"No need to be sassy," she muttered, glancing at her phone to see it was almost two in the afternoon. Solace had to get a move on to get back home in time and study. Solace began walking to the entrance, and Sage followed like he always did.

"Can we take pictures with Santa?" he wondered, nudging her shoulder.

"No." There wasn't enough time to fit in the plan, and besides, she hadn't taken photos with Santa since she was twelve. It was a family tradition until she entered her teens and thought it was lame. She didn't see the point now. All the chubby man in the red suit would do was smile and ask them what they wanted for Christmas. She didn't have an answer for that.

"Come on," urged Sage, his nudging becoming more and more frequent. "It'll be fun."

"You say that a lot," she pointed out as she entered a video game store. There were cases lining every inch of the shop with consoles and gaming computers.

He picked up Mario Kart and examined it. "I didn't tag along to spend more time with you," Sage remarked. "I came for Santa."

He tagged along because he was unable to spend time by himself. Anyway, Solace didn't want to leave him alone if she had the option to drag him along. Emi was at work, and she couldn't peacefully shop knowing that Sage was on a possible rampage in her apartment. She couldn't peacefully shop now with him either, but she had become better at ignoring him. Selective hearing when it came to Sage was crucial.

"Go find Santa somewhere else. They're on every street corner," she said, walking over to where boxes of headsets were organized.

"Those Santa's are awful and smell like beer. I'm very particular when it comes to my Saint Nicholas."

This was a perfect example of a sentence to tune out.

"We can buy matching Christmas sweaters," Sage continued, grinning widely.

Another prime example.

A black headset with pink lining caught her attention. The box said something about spatial audio and custom-tune drivers. I have no idea what that means but it sounds fancy. And the pink would go perfectly with Emi's neon lights.

"It's something Jabari and I did every year," he said quietly, and that finally caught her attention.

She glanced up at him to see his hopeful expression. At the mention of Jabari, Louis still hadn't got back to her about him. She would have to text him back. "You guys sure loved matching. Didn't you two have matching Halloween costumes last year?"

His grin grew. "I was Harry, and he was Ron."

The memory of Sage in long black robes, fake round glasses, and a scar on his forehead flashed in her mind. Jabari had even gone all out with a red wig. "Oh, right. I remember you screaming Avada Kedavra at me whenever I saw you in the halls," she said unimpressed with narrowing eyes.

Sage sighed wistfully. "Good times."

Solace let the idea of the pictures sit in her mind. She could cut him some slack. It wasn't like it would take long. And it seemed that Sage knew he was getting to her when he spoke. "Santa comes back from his break at four, so the line will be short. Your schedule won't be deterred by much. 30 minutes max, and I'll go buy the sweaters."

"Please make sure they aren't stupid."

Sage's brow rose. "Do you realize who you're talking to? Of course, they'll be stupid."

And she didn't expect anything else from him. "I'm going to keep shopping, so I'll see you at four. Do you have a phone?" she asked, and she was met with a shake of his head. "How will I find you, then?"

"I'll find you," Sage assured, walking backward to the exit. "I always do."

And he did find her. Two hours later, she had walked out of another shop after buying Louis a jersey of some basketball team he liked. For Emi, she had bought the headset and a pair of hair curlers for her bangs. Everly was on the more difficult side because what do you buy for someone who has everything? Then, she recalled her telling Solace about a new recipe book by a famous baker. Purchasing Sage a gift had crossed her mind since he would be spending Christmas with her, but she didn't know what to get him. Her mind was blank. She didn't know him. She spent most of her years despising him. Solace only ever really got to know him on the premise of messing with him.

"Santa is walking back from Subway as we speak," Sage muttered to her as if they were on a mission to track down jolly Kris Kringle. "We got exactly five minutes to put on our sweaters and get in line."

She walked faster to meet his large steps, a bag swinging from his arms. They headed down the escalator, and she thought Sage was taking this a bit too seriously. For one, who runs down an automatic moving set of stairs when you can just stand? It was an unnecessary use of energy.

After turning past Cinnabon, Santa Clause was just returning to his red cushiony couch. Trees with fake snow and presents surrounded him with reindeers lining the edges. There were only two people in line, so Sage and Solace quickened their steps, a laugh escaping her lips at how ridiculous this was. He glanced back at the sound, grinning largely.

Once they were safely in line, Sage began to ruffle through the bag and handed her a sweater. "I went for medium-stupid," he said.

She grabbed the sweater, not trusting his words for a single second. It was a bright green and in the center was a gingerbread man with half of his head bitten off. On the bottom, it said, I can't feel my face when I'm with you.

"You love it, don't you?" Sage smirked as he ripped off his flannel and hoodie. His chain came free, and his shirt lifted a great bunch until she could see some scars and his toned abdomen. She turned her gaze away and began to pull off her coat, and threw the sweater on top of her black turtleneck.

"It's... something," she finally said, taking out her hair from inside of the sweater. She glanced down at it, a part of her feeling stupid and the other part oddly not caring.

"It was either this or Let's Get Elfed Up," Sage chuckled, patting down his unruly hair. "I didn't think you would appreciate the complexities of the second sweater."

Solace snorted, gathering her shopping bags and coat as a girl dressed up as an elf called them forward. She directed them to place their items by the gate and take a seat with Santa. Either of them sat on either side of him. He smelled like peppermint and rosemary with a black buckle around his protruding stomach and soft white gloves.

"How's it goin' Santa?" Sage asked as if they were old friends.

"Just merry," he replied with a laugh. "What are your names?"

"I'm Marco, and that grump is Solace," he introduced, and she didn't even realize she was frowning until he mentioned it. She put on a small smile when Santa glanced over.

"Um, hi," she said awkwardly.

"How delightful to meet you two! Now, have you two been good this year?" Santa asked with playful eyes. His pink cheeks rose as he smiled and his golden rimmed glasses sat on the edge of his nose.

Solace smirked. "I've been great. Can't say the same about Marco over here."

"Don't talk shit about me to Saint Nick," Sage hissed as he leaned forward to stare at her. "You shouldn't listen to her. I have been a model citizen this past year."

I think he means model criminal and a model pain in the ass.

"You can't trust the innocent face on Solace. She threatens to kill me every day," he said as he continued to make his case.

She gritted her teeth when Santa gazed at her in shock. She couldn't have him thinking she was a sociopath. "That is not true." Liar, you absolutely threaten to murder him at least ten times a day. "And even if I did, he's a maniac, who doesn't understand boundaries."

"And she has a stick up her ass," Sage fired back.

"Don't talk about my ass," she snapped.

"Okay," Santa interrupted. Poor guy was beginning to look a bit frazzled. "Is there anything you both would like for Christmas? Santa will try his very best to deliver."

"A sense of humor for her," Sage drawled.

"Some intelligence for this moron," Solace said at the same time.

Santa coughed awkwardly. "I'm going to need more tangible –"

Sage scoffed, leaning over Santa with challenging eyes. "You wanna go, Laurent?"

Solace did the same, almost pushing Santa back in his seat. "Bring it, bitch."

"Enough!" exclaimed Saint Nick. His face was turning red as he shuffled in his seat. The elves standing by the camera jolted with the sudden raised voice. "We are going to take the picture silently and you two can fight it out behind the mall."

The two of them ashamedly moved back into their seats as if they were scolded by their parents. This was what happened when things were going even slightly well. One of them would say something that would trigger the other. It was like the domino effect and before Solace knew it, they were ready to throw hands. She would've wrung his neck right there and then if it wasn't for the children waiting in life who most definitely heard the conversation and swearing.

Santa wrapped his arms around the two of them. She put on around his back to feel Sage's hand there. She slapped it away only for him to whack hers back in retaliation.

"Say Rudolph everyone," called the elf.

So, as Solace smiled for the camera, she was really trying to pull Sage's arm out of his socket as he pinched her skin.

Santa was definitely going to be retiring after these two.

***

Author's Note:

Hi everyone!

Hope you all liked this chapter! My best friend actually bought the same exact sweater that Sage bought, and we took Christmas pictures with Santa! It was really fun lol.

We got one more chapter before they break into the office!

Until next time – m.k.t