#let alone christmas shopper traffic

[biohazard-inevitable]

Hearing christmas songs play over the radio while watching lightning strike putside my work as rain pounds down from above is such an interesting experience

[thezombieprostitute]

Music in the Air

A/N: Written for Vee's Holly Jolly Challenge (@sstan-hoe). Reader is implied fem, "girls like me". No physical descriptors used.

Prompts: Bucky Barnes - My house, my rules. The Christmas music stays on.

Summary: You and Bucky discuss poinsettias.

Bucky's arm was having problems. Again. In all the years he had the arm he never really got to understand how it worked. He could figure out how to fix a lot of things, but his arm wasn't one of them. That's why he was glad he had you to turn to. You had quickly become his go-to engineer in the Avengers Tower. You were a rare and delightful combination of "not afraid of him" and "not overly friendly". You would smile, but let him initiate the conversation when he wanted.

At least, normally you were his favorite. Ever since December started you only every played Christmas music in your lab. He was still trying to get used to how much the holiday had changed and the music was, well, a lot. Especially when you were always listening to some kind of heavy metal Christmas music and he had only ever heard Christmas music sung a capella or maybe a church organ.

"Do you really need to listen to that music all the time?"

You smiled while working, "I did the respectful thing and waited until December before I started listening."

"Yeah, but it's just so..." he struggled to find the words.

"Non-traditional?"

"Jarring."

"Well, Sergeant Barnes," you reply, setting your tools down, "My house, my rules. The Christmas music stays on. However, I am willing to switch it for something that's maybe a little more your speed."

You walk over to your laptop and open up your playlist. It takes you a minute, but you finally find the song you're looking for and press the play button. As the speakers sing a lighter, slower tune, you turn back to Bucky, "you should be grateful. I don't turn off Trans Siberian Orchestra for just anyone."

Bucky blushed as he smiled, listening to the song. It was very different from what you had been listening to. For a start, there were lyrics. They told the story of a poinsettia named Percy and how had been overlooked and abandoned but grew and shone when given love. He almost smacked himself for having empathy for an imaginary plant.

To distract himself he said, "I'm surprised you like this song. It's so different from what you were listening to before."

You smile and respond, "it's a childhood favorite. This song just really hit my heart in a way no other Christmas song did. It stuck with me so much that, even in college if I saw my flowers for sale that were wilting or on their last legs, I'd buy them. Just to make sure they had love before they fully wilted."

Bucky looked at you with a softness in his eyes before you shook your head, "I know, it's stupid. I was an adult, I should've known better but some things just stick with you, you know?"

"Yeah," he whispered. "I know. Did you stop buying flowers because you kept getting them from dates or something?"

You chuckle, "I stopped because I had to prioritize my budget. I can't remember the last time I had flowers in my apartment. But thank you for the compliment."

"What do you mean? The guys you date don't give you flowers?"

"Girls like me don't get dates, Sergeant. I'm not whatever enough for guys to ask me out. Whether it's my size, my intelligence, my hobbies, there's just always something that keeps guys from asking me out, let alone bringing me flowers. But, again, thank you for the compliment."

You set down your tools and start putting them away, "your arm is all patched up. Hope this fix lasts you at least through the end of the year. I've got a lot of projects to finish up before the end of the year so I might not have the time to take care of you."

"You're not staying here for Christmas, are you?"

"I am," you nod. "My family celebrates holidays on days that aren't the day of so that we can avoid traffic and last-minute shoppers. So I set up an office lunch for the people who either don't celebrate, have nowhere to go, or whatever other reasons. Mr. Stark has been very generous with the budget for that."

"I'm glad you won't be alone on Christmas," he gives you a gentle smile.

"How about you," you ask. "You're welcome to join us if you'd like."

"Sam is insisting on taking me to Louisiana," he replies.

"Good," you assert. "I'm very glad you also won't be alone on Christmas."

You really shouldn't have been surprised to see the poinsettia on your desk the next day. There was no note, but you suspected. It wasn't very big and it had started wilting, but you loved it nonetheless. You gently hugged the plant and promised to give it the best of care for as long as it needed. After a week it was like a brand new plant, bright and strong. Doesn't hurt that you asked the biolab techs for help and resources.

It made Bucky's year to see how big your smile was, watching your poinsettia grow and how much you clearly loved it. It took him a while after to gather his courage and ask you on a date but your quick "yes" reassured him. Neither of you would ever be alone on Christmas.

[fortheloveoffanfic]

Home for Christmas

12 Days of Christmas Writing Event- Day 10

John Wick x Reader

Masterlist 12 Days of Christmas Writing Event Masterlist

Prompt 1- “Doesn’t matter where I go, I’ll always come home to you for Christmas.”

Warnings- brief descriptions of injury

She knew the life, Y/n knew it well, it was hers too after all. The danger, the blood, the long nights that would turn to pain filled days, the gruesome injuries and the grueling recoveries. It was a harsh life, one she wouldn't wish for another, it was the alluringly lucrative one that she'd grown up in. It was the life that made her worry for her husband's safety every time they parted for work.

Work. Ideally, one would think that they'd work together, watch each other's backs, though while she and John adored each other- they were married after all, working together was rare for them. Their styles never seemed to mesh well, she accepted that John was the best of the best, the creme de la creme of hitmen, but she also thought he was a little…messy, while John always credited her devotion to not leaving a trail, of blood or any other sort, but couldn’t stand that she’d sometimes take months of finish a one kill job simply because she spent time getting close enough to be unsuspecting.

While they were polar opposites in the field though, Y/n and John were completely in sync when it came to every other aspect of their live. They just got each other, and even when they weren’t together, she knew that somehow, in some way, they were connected. That was how she knew that something was wrong. That, and the fact that he was two hours late- John was never late. She’d tried convincing herself that it was the Christmas Eve traffic; last minute shoppers, people trying to get home and the steady snowfall all congesting New York’s roads but he hadn’t called either and that alone was completely unlike him.

It had been a domestic job, one just over in Brooklyn, so really, he should have been home by then. But he wasn’t and John hadn’t been picking up his phone either. Like a pot on a steady fire, the worry in her chest bubbled and Y/n just couldn’t seem to sit still as she waited. There was an old holiday film playing on television, and she and John had initially planned on watching it together, but it was almost through and he still hadn’t gotten in, so instead of watching, at the very least as a distraction, Y/n had found herself pacing the expansive living room and anxiously wringing her hands.

Vaguely, she was aware of Dog’s occasional whines, her worry getting him on edge. Y/n simply couldn’t help but let her mind wonder the worst; what if something had happened to John? What if he wasn’t coming home at all? Could she really live without him? Shuddering at that final one, Y/n reached for her phone on the coffee table, pulling up the number to the Continental’s front desk, deciding that she’d just check with Charon one more time before pulling on her shoes and coat to go find John herself. Her finger was right over the little green ‘call’ icon, and Y/n was just about to give it a hasty tap when in the distance, she heard a sound that seemed to aid the boulders of worry resting on her shoulders in melting away; the rumble of a Mustang she knew all too well. There were thousands, if not millions, of cars in New York, but that car, John’s car, she could single it out by just its hum emanating from the start of the winding driveway .

Dropping the phone to the sofa, Y/n hurried to the garage, just in time to catch the door rolling down just as John turned the engine off. Even from the doorway, Y/n could see that he looked disheveled; hair askew, blood on his face and by the looks of it, tie loosened. Furrowing her brows, she jogged over to the car, yanking the door open before John could even reach for the handle, gasping loudly at the side of blood completely soaking the front of his white shirt, an open wound obvious through the rip in the fabric. “John,” Y/n crumbled to her knees, resting one hand on his thigh as the other moved to shift his suit coat away from what appeared to be a deep stab wound, at least three inches long. “What the hell happened?”

He was breathing heavily, and when John rose his hand to touch her arm, it was shaking, “Really big knives,” he huffed. His blinking was slow, and upon realizing that his clothes were soaked primarily by blood, Y/n was surprised that he’d made it home in that condition.

“Yeah, I can see that,” it was a struggle, largely because John was far bigger and heavier than she was, but Y/n eventually managed to help him out of the car without losing her own footing. “Baby, why would you drive home like this?”

Coughing quietly, John did his best to help support his own weight as they stumbled back to the house, headed for the downstairs bedroom where they usually kept medical supplies for emergencies. “It’s Christmas Eve,” he explained shortly, wincing when she helped him on to the bed, “You wanted to see It’s a Wonderful Life.”

She smiled softly, marveling at how, even while bleeding out and in excruciating pain, John had managed to put her first. So many people would never see that side of him, and perhaps, that was what made it so much more precious. The rest of the world got an unstoppable assassin, she got an adoring husband. “If you’d gone to the hotel,” she began as she got everything prepared after sterilizing her hands, “You could have seen a doctor and we’d have watched the movie there.”

Slowly undoing the buttons of his shirt after shrugging off his jacket, John dismissed, “The tree’s here.”

Licking her lips, Y/n pulled a chair close to where he was on the bed, “The tree?” She queried a brow, and John leaned back so she could clean the area and get to work on closing him up, “You came home because of a Christmas tree?”

By just the look on his face, she could see that he’d been feeling every slight movement of the needle, and the pull of the thread through his skin as Y/n closed him up. Thankfully though, his rival hadn’t gotten anywhere near something vital, so while the knife had gone pretty deep, Y/n was versed enough to deal with it on her own. John was a stellar patient too, uncomplaining, didn’t fault her methods and knew how to hold still. “I came home because of you. You’ve been looking forward to us spending Christmas together, here at home, for weeks. I didn’t want to disappoint you," John sighed softly before adding in a tone so affectionate that she might have melted, "Doesn’t matter where I go, I’ll always come home to you for Christmas.”

“John,” she sighed softly, leaning in to capture his lips. When they parted for a moment, her nose was still pressed to his and she uttered softly, “I think you might be perfect.”

John chuckled, kissing her again, and while she wasn’t quite done with his stitches, they lingered like that for a minute, “Well not perfect,” he teased, “I do currently have a gaping hole in my side.”

“Right,” Y/n giggled, pulling away after one final kiss, “I’m working on it. And then we are so watching that movie.”

“Sounds perfect,” John assured as Y/n finally cut off some excess thread, proceeding to place a large bandage over it, “I wouldn’t want to do anything else, with anyone else.”

Feeling her cheeks heat up, Y/n peeled off her gloves and leaned in once more, words punctuated with slow pecks as she returned sweetly, “Neither would I.”

[dreamersdreamloud]

Last Christmas

Lena Luthor x Reader 

Warning: Angst 

Lena POV

December 24, 2020 - Christmas Eve 

It’s been a year since I last celebrated Christmas but it wasn’t like any other simple December Christmas vibe. (Y/N) proposed to me last December and it was like a dream. Her original plan was to propose on Christmas Day in front of our friends and family. She couldn’t wait so she took me out on a lovely dinner, two weeks before the holiday week. 

I found out that she reserved the most popular restaurant in National City and that it took her weeks to get a table for two. Alex and Kara told me that she worked so much overtime almost every week at her workplace to get the most beautiful and expensive engagement ring. It was so selfless of her. 

The night she gave me the ring, we were both in tears. I promised her that I will not take off this ring until we get our official wedding rings for each other. We expressed our love for each physically until the morning rose. Our friends congratulated us and they couldn’t wait for the wedding day to come. 

It never did. 

Last year on Christmas Eve, (Y/N) was on her way to L-Corp to pick me up. There was a nasty storm coursing through our city. Frank, my driver was supposed to take me back to our shared penthouse but I forced the man to take an early leave to go be with his family. (Y/N) was being very protective and told me that she would come and get me. I knew it would take longer to get to L-Corp due to the heavy traffic of last minute shoppers and the storm making it dangerous for drivers to see clearly. 

“Be careful driving, Darling. I love you.” I said on the phone. 

“Yes, I know. I’ll be there in 30 minutes. I love you too, Love.” 

I love you too, Love . . . They were her last words to me. 

When those 30 minutes were up, I was starting to worry. If she were late, she would always call or text me. She never did so I tried to call her. It would ring countlessly and reach to voicemail. 

I would look out the windows from my office to see if the familiar car she drove would be nearby. Her car was nowhere to be seen. I constantly check the security cameras if she was arriving soon. Still nothing. 

I was going to call my future wife again until I got a call from Kelly. I wanted to ignore it but it was best to answer to see if she knew where my (Y/N) had gone. 

“Hello?” 

“Lena! Where are you?” 

“I’m at L-Corp. I’m waiting -”

“Lena, it’s (Y/N). She was involved in a really bad accident. Kara flew her to the hospital where Alex works.” Kelly spilled out all the information so fast. 

I couldn’t compose any response to Kelly. I hung up and ran out of the office. Once I was in the parking lot, a car blocked me from heading to my car. It was Kelly.

“Get in the car. I’m not letting you drive in this state of mind. (Y/N) would be mad at me if I let that happen.” 

She was right. 

We bolt inside the hospital and I tried to look for my fiancée who was going into emergency surgery. The nurse pushed me back but it took two more nurses to hold me back. 

“Lee, you need to stop. She’s in surgery. We have to wait.” Kara told me. I didn’t know I was shedding so many tears and my exhaustion was hitting me. 

Kelly rubs my back and pulls me into a tight hug, “Lena. Alex is doing everything to get your girl back to your arms. She’s strong. She’s always a fighter.” 

She fought. She really did. 

It was tiring. The waiting was so damn tiring. 

She didn’t make it. 

The moment Alex walked out of those double doors. She gave the look of defeat. Her eyes were all red and puffy. I tried to stand up to go talk to her. To get the official news but my knees buckled and I just fell to the floor. I didn’t want to believe what was happening. I cried so loudly, Kara and Kelly tried to help me get up but didn’t want to move. I knew. I knew she was gone. I could feel she was nearby but she also felt so far. She tried to fight off her death but Alex said her injuries took a toll on her. 

Alex told me that she saw her eyes open for a few seconds for the last time and gave her a sad looking smile. The older Danvers knew that look she gave. She was mentally telling her that she couldn’t stay alive. My (Y/N) couldn’t do it. She tried. If (Y/N) were able to talk to Alex during those last seconds it would have been “Please take care of Lena and the others.” 

Her heart flatline. The nurses tried to bring her back to life. Alex tried to bring her back to me. 

We were supposed to get married. 

We were supposed to plan our wedding date and decorations after Christmas. 

Last Christmas was the most terrible time of my life and I don’t think I’m able to recover. 

I wish you were still here. I’m sitting here all alone in our shared penthouse apartment when we were supposed to be sitting on this couch looking at our decorated Christmas tree. 

I miss our warm cuddles and playful kisses. 

If I knew we were going to have a last Christmas, I wished it to be that we were already married. 

I’m still keeping that promise. The ring is still on me. My engagement ring is on a necklace where I can always hold close to my heart. 

Last Christmas I gave you my heart and I will never give it to anyone else but you. 

Merry Christmas, Darling. I love you. I say in a whisper as I study the ring once more. 

“Merry Christmas, love. I love you too.” Could be faintly heard in my head. 

[etoileholland]

wrapped in red | chapter 1; oh holy night, I’m alone tonight

Tom Holland x reader series

summary; two Christmases ago, while you were working your usual seasonal job at a holiday gift wrapping shop, Tom came rushing in at the last second to have some last minute presents wrapped. As time went on, he quickly became enchanted by you, and was soon wrapped up in your life, and you his. However, things would take a turn for the worst when someone from your past emerges, causing your relationship to unravel. Could it be salvaged, or was this romance destined to live in Christmas past?

this story will contain; fluff, with some angst sprinkled in

warnings for this chapter; none

word count; 3.2k

a/n; here it is! I’m beyond excited for this series to debut, I’ve poured a lot out into this series as a whole so I really hope you enjoy ❤ if you’d like to be tagged in upcoming chapters please let me know!

Christmas: a day that’s usually associated with love, cheer, and magic. A day that’s loved by many people all around the world, a day that brings people together, a day wrapped with hope.

Christmas used to be one of your least favourite holidays, until very recently, that is. For you, Christmas was filled with awkward and tense family dinners, with loneliness, underlying anger, and hopelessness.

Until one unsuspecting Christmas, two years ago.

//Two year ago//

You were working your seasonal job at a gift wrapping shop on Oxford Street. It was a fairly easy job, with little to no stress. That is, except for the occasional client who would complain about the prices. Other than that, it was a pretty nice job. The hours were flexible, and your boss allowed you to do coursework when there were no customers in the shop, which was nice since you were in your second year of university.

Today was Christmas, and just like last Christmas, you were working alone tonight. It was fairly slow today, with only the occasional last minute shopper popping in since everyone was at home celebrating with their loved ones. And since you were the only person who didn’t have a family, you had to work. It’s pretty depressing when you sit and think about it, but it’s true, you didn’t have a family like your boss and coworkers do.

You only had about ten minutes left until closing time, so to pass the time, and to take your mind off the fact that you were completely and utterly alone, you were sitting at your workstation, reading your favourite book. You were so engrossed in your make believe world when you heard the bell above the door ring, signaling that a customer had entered the store.

Sitting up in your seat, you closed your book and pushed it to the side. You looked up to see a boy rush in, a boy that seemed around your age. His cheeks were slightly frostbitten, and there were small snowflakes sprinkled on his hair. He was carrying a tall brown paper bag in one hand, his phone in the other. He knocked the snow off his shoes on the doormat, and when he was finished, swiftly walked over to you. When your eyes met, he gave you a small yet rushed smile. 

“Hi,” he let out an exhale, shaking the rest of the snow off his coat, “Is it too late for me to have a few things wrapped?” He set the bag on the counter carefully. “I just got off a flight back here from Spain and I bought these presents before the flight since it was laid over, but I was in such a rush I forgot to buy wrapping paper and no one else is open to wrap gifts and I’m under a tight time constraint.” He spoke so quickly that he was out of breath, his face turning redder by the second. “Can you please help me?” He looked at you with pleading eyes, and a small quiver in his voice. You could tell that it seemed he was on the verge of tears, “Please?”

Sliding the bag closer to you, so that you could peer inside, you mentally counted how many items needed to be wrapped. There seemed to be around ten things inside the bag, which would take some time, but it could be done. You looked up at the boy, who was looking back at you with pleading eyes.

“Of course I can help you, that’s what I’m here for.” You smiled at the boy, and a smile beamed across his face.

“Really?” He asked, “it wouldn’t be too much trouble for you?”

You shook your head. “No, I promise not at all.” Taking the gifts out of the bag, you carefully laid them all out on the counter. There was something that was wrapped in a leather casing, two matching knitted jumpers, a book of piano sheet music, a cookbook, a small jumper that was either for a small child or a dog, a pair of AirPods, and lastly a vintage camera. He seemed to have good taste in gifts, for each item seemed handpicked, even though he said he was in a rush when he bought them.

“Not to pressure you,” he spoke up quietly, “but about how long do you think it’ll take you to wrap those?”

You pondered his question for a second, taking into account the multiple items he brought in. “So, this may take a little bit of time, maybe about 30 minutes?” You estimated, and judging from his facial expression, he seemed happy with the time frame.

“That’s fantastic, now as long as the London traffic isn’t too bad then I should make it home in plenty of time.”

You quickly glanced up at the clock on the wall, the time being five minutes after five. “By the time I’m done, I think you’ll have just missed the rush hour, so you should be good.”

“Thank you.” He flashed a quick smile at you. “And what time do you close?”

We already did, you thought to yourself. Since you didn’t have the heart to tell him that he was keeping you late, you instead said, “at 6, so don’t worry.” You gave him a reassuring, and hopefully, a convincing smile. When he smiled back, you knew that he believed you. Getting out of your chair and pointing to the wall that was lined with various gift wrap, you asked him which colours he would like.

“Red and gold, please.” He pointed to the crimson red colour, and the gold foiled paper. “Those two right there are my favourites.” Tearing off large sheets of paper, and grabbing a few varying sizes to accommodate each gift, you walked back over to your table, laying out the pieces of gift wrap.

“Do you have a preference for which gifts to be wrapped in a certain colour?” You asked, to which he nodded his head no.

Picking a piece at random to wrap first, you grabbed the gift that looked the most intriguing to you. It was a thin leather case, with two things etched into the leather, the word “Omega” and the numbers “007”. The case was heavier than it looked, and by the looks of it, seemed quite expensive. “It’s a watch.” He spoke up, “it’s for my mate Harrison. He loves James Bond, and watches, so when I heard that Omega released a limited edition James Bond collection, I knew I had to buy him one.” He held out his hand, palm faced up. Realising that he wanted you to hand it back to him, you placed it gently in his hands. You watched him open the leather bound case carefully, and you gasped when you saw the watch. It must’ve cost him a fortune, you thought. 

“I picked the watch that was designed after the one that James Bond wore in ‘No Time to Die’, since Harrison pointed out how cool the watch looked when he watched the film.” He closed the case, and handed it back to you so that you could wrap it. “I hope he’ll love it.” The boy added.

“He’ll definitely love it, I don’t see why he wouldn't.” You grabbed a piece of the gold gift wrap, and placed the gift on top of it. “The gold will go best with this, and it’ll also go with the theme, you know, like maybe an homage to the film ‘Goldfinger’.” As you wrapped the gift, you saw that Tom was watching your movements. He almost seemed entranced watching you wrap the gift up, his eyes wide. Even though your reference wasn’t totally correct, he half smiled anyway.

“I just realised, I completely forgot to get your name.” He looked up at your face, his brown eyes meeting yours. “I’m Tom.”

“Y/N.” You answered, giving him a small smile before resuming wrapping the gift. After a minute, the present was perfectly wrapped.

“Would you like a bow on it?” You asked, and Tom nodded his head yes.

“Yes please,” you reached underneath your workstation and pulled out a box of assorted ribbons.

“What colour?”

“Red for the gold packages, and gold ribbon for the red packages please.”

“Okay.” You held up a spool of velvet red ribbon, and he nodded his head in approval. You cut off a piece and wrapped it around the present, and finished it off with a bow.

“It’s beautiful, thank you Y/N.”

You looked up at Tom, who was beaming at you. “You’re welcome.”

The next gift you grabbed were the two matching jumpers that were folded loosely. Taking a second to fold them neater, you set them back on the table.

“Could you please wrap them in red paper?” He asked, and you hummed in agreement.

“Those are for my mum and dad, it’s been a tradition for me to buy them matching jumpers each year. It’s a funny story really.” He spoke, letting out a small laugh. “One year, I didn’t know what to get them, and the store I bought them at had a buy one get one free sale, and since that was the only design they had I bought two of them.” He smiled as he spoke, reminiscing about the memory.

As you wrapped the gifts, he told you who each present was for, as if you were familiar with the people he was describing. In a way, you were getting to know who each person was, the people who were near to his heart, without having met them. Hearing these stories made you feel close to Tom, even though you had just met.

“I bought the AirPods for my mate Tuwaine because he always steals mine.”

“Sounds like something my friend would do.” You joked, making him laugh at the comment.

“The cookbook is for my little brother Sam, since he loves to cook.” Tom stated, “He makes a mean shepherd’s pie, you should try it one day.”

You listened to him speak and tell stories of the person’s whose gift you were wrapping. Listening to him talk about his family made you feel less alone about the fact that your family was away this Christmas, only god knows where. You didn’t care though, you haven’t seen them since you were ten anyway.

“Can I try?” He asked, snapping you out of your thoughts. He was pointing to the red paper that was laying on the table. Pushing the gift wrap towards him, you watched as he wrapped, well more like attempted to wrap a present.

“It’s bloody awful, innut?” He asked, laughing while doing so. To put it nicely, it looked like a five year old did it, but it wasn’t the worst you’ve seen.

“I think it looks cute.” You said, “it’s the thought that counts.”

“You’re too nice.” He placed the present next to the other ones that you had perfectly wrapped. “Thank goodness I’m not the one working here, otherwise people would hate me and would demand a refund.”

“You’re just being too hard on yourself, it looks alright. Although it takes a lot of practice to get this good.” You playfully boasted, ending the sentence with a wink.

“Have you been doing this a long time?” He tilted his head up to look at you, and when his brown eyes met yours, you almost forgot what he has just asked you.

“Um, this is my second year doing this, but last year this location was in a mall, instead of here.”

“Ah, I see.” He answered softly. You were nearly done with wrapping his presents, and although you had just met this boy, you didn’t want this to end. Sure, he was keeping you late, but it’s not like you had somewhere else to be. You were intentionally wrapping the presents just a little bit slower than you usually do, not too much as to keep him later than he wanted to, but just enough to talk to him a little bit longer than you would’ve normally.

“That’s a vintage Polaroid camera.” Tom spoke up, pointing to the only present that was unwrapped. “My little brother Harry, who’s Sam’s twin by the way, loves photography. He’s been going on for ages saying that he wants this exact camera.”

You listened to Tom as you wrapped the box carefully, mentally cherishing the last few minutes you’ll get to spend with Tom.

From the sights of it, Tom was a lot calmer now that he’s spent the hour talking to you. When he first came in, he was beyond flustered, and his gaze was fixed to the clock on the wall. Now, he hasn’t looked at the clock since he first came in, almost as if he doesn’t have anywhere pressing to be.

When you finally finished, it was 5:54pm. As you gently placed the gifts into the brown paper bag that Tom had originally brought the gifts in, you quickly glanced up to see Tom looking back at you, a hint of sadness in his eyes.

“Y/N, thank you so much for helping me out. Really, I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t here.” He placed his hand on the nape of his neck, rubbing it nervously. “And you finished in the nick of time, right before closing.”

Before you could stop yourself, your brows furrowed in confusion. You had forgot that you told him that you closed at 6 instead of 5, but you didn’t have to say anything, since your look of confusion gave you away.

“Don’t tell me, you were closed when I rushed in here.” He said remorsefully, as his hand played with one of the buttons on his coat. “Why didn’t you tell me I was keeping you late?”

You paused for a second to think of the best way to word what you wanted to say. “Well, I promise it wasn’t a problem. I don’t really have anywhere else to be anyway, and I could see just how badly you needed something good to happen today.” You shuffled over to where your jacket was hanging up, along with your bag. “I really wanted to help you out.”

Tom began to pull out his wallet when he asked, “how much will all this cost? I’m not very good at math, but looking at the prices-”

“It’s free.” You interjected.

“No, it’s not.” You watched as he pulled out a few £20 notes. “Would like 4 of these-”

You waved your hand in front of you. “Consider it my Christmas gift to you.”

“But-”

“Merry Christmas Tom.” You walked past him to close the shop up, closing the blinds and putting all the supplies away. When you finished, you carefully picked up the bag of Tom’s presents and handed it to him.

“You’re an angel, like my Christmas angel.” He stated. His eyes were soft as he looked at you, his pupils slightly dilated. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

You smiled softly at him. “It was no problem, now you should get going so you can be with your family.” You took a step over to the door, opening it for Tom and you to leave. The snow had let up a little bit, as it was now a small flurry. Tom stepped past you, standing as you locked the door behind you both.

“So,” Tom spoke up, “how are you going to get home?” There was some concern in his voice, and although he didn’t explicitly say it, you knew that he already cared about you.

“Oh, I’m just gonna walk home. I live about five minutes away from here.”

He turned his head to look over at you, his eyes searching your face to see if you were joking. When he realised that you were telling the truth, he shook his head. “I can’t let you walk home alone Y/N. It's cold, and dark out, and it’s dangerous for you to walk home alone.”

“I promise I’m fine, I’ve walked home alone from here many a time, it’s really just a short walk.”

“I can’t, not in good conscience at least. I want to walk you home.”

You opened your mouth to speak, but Tom just shook his head. “I want to walk you home, I mean it.”

“I’ll be okay, you need to get home to be with your family tonight. I don’t have anyone to come home to.” When you said it out loud, you realised how depressing it sounded. At least I’ll be able to drink away my sorrows tonight, you thought.

Tom turned his head to look over at you, and then straight ahead. “I don’t feel good about you being alone on Christmas.” He was silent for a second, when suddenly a thought popped into his head. His heart began to race, and even though it was freezing out, his cheeks felt warm. “Why don’t you spend Christmas with me and my family tonight?”

You stopped walking, and placed your hand on top of his arm. When you saw his face turn red, you took your hand and placed it in your coat pocket. “Oh, no, no, no. I am not crashing your Christmas dinner.”

He let out a small laugh. “You wouldn’t be crashing it, darling. I invited you, there’s clearly a difference.”

You had to admit that him calling you darling made your heart race, you could get used to him saying that. “But your family won’t be expecting me, and what if your family gets mad because there’s not enough food for another person and-”

“It’ll be fine.” He took his free hand out of his coat pocket and grabbed your hand. “I already called an Uber and from the looks of it, I believe it’s already here.” He pointed to the car that was parked by the curb, the Uber logo visible in the window.

You stopped in your tracks again. “But I don’t know your family, what if you guys are like, I don’t know, murderers?”

Tom snorted out a laugh. “Trust me love, if I was a murderer, I would’ve killed you a long time ago. After all, it was just the two of us alone in the shop for a whole hour.” He was still holding your hand, shifting it so he could lace his fingers with yours. The two of you walked hand in hand towards the car, and when you were close enough, Tom opened the door for you. You buckled in the seatbelt, and a second later Tom was in the car doing the same.

“Merry Christmas Tom.” You looked up at him, smiling.

“Merry Christmas to you too Y/N.” He answered as he reached for your hand again, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Maybe this Christmas won’t be as terrible as the others, you thought. Maybe things will be alright, you thought as you looked out the car window.

additional a/n; chapter two will be posted next week on 11/27! 

series taglist + regular taglist: @scarletxwidow​ @fangirlwithasweettooth​ @lmaotshollandd​ @musicalkeys​ @calltothewild​ @finelinesupremacy​ @quaksonhehe​ @geminiparkers​ @thenoddingbunny-blog​  @imperfxctly-me @wunder-13 @weirdowithnobeardo

[therandomfics]

AMA Pt5

“Hey doll, what are you doing out here?” Sonny called out as he approached you. Thirty minutes had passed and everyone was back inside, something about dirty Santa. The knot in your stomach only served to tighten as you tried to look at Sonny without showing him your disappointment. “You’re gonna catch your death. Come inside. We’re about to play Dirty Santa. I don’t wanna get stuck with socks again.” 

“Of course, sorry. My mother texted me. I didn’t want to be rude and on my phone in front of everyone,” you lied, standing up and allowing Sonny to guide you back inside. 

Dirty Santa was a game you had played often in college among your friends. Pick a number, hope you’re the last one, and pray that if you’re first your gift doesn’t suck. One time, you remembered fondly, you went home with three bottles of wine. On the flip side, you’d also gone home with a toilet seat once. It was a fun game to play and you usually enjoyed it, so you tried your best to be enthusiastic especially since you were with his family for the first time. You had chosen number 10, out of 18 options. When it was your turn, you picked a small bag and opened it, revealing a pair of leather driving gloves. They were very beautiful, and though you seldom drove, you knew they’d prove useful. Sonny was number 12, and took your gloves, leaving you to pick again. This time, you picked the largest box left and unwrapped a wine carafe with a bottle of vintage Merlot. 

“This is pretty amazing,” you commented as you sat down next to Sonny. He wrapped his arm around your shoulders and you leaned into his warmth. Surely he had a good explanation, and you wanted to have a good night, so you let it slide. 

Mrs. Carisi was 17, and she took Sonny’s gloves - no, your gloves - and waved them in his face. “Serves you right!” she chirped and sat back down. Sonny, having to pick again, got up and picked a package at random, selecting a Barnes and Noble gift card. Solid choice. 

Finally, at number 18, Nicole stood up and sauntered over to the table. You couldn’t help but notice that she seemed to be dressed for warmer weather - or, her cleavage was at least. She scanned the table and then turned back, walking right up to you and stepping on your toes with her heeled boots. You winced and pulled your feet away as she snatched the box from your lap. “Thanks Amanda,” she said loudly, flashing you a smile that could only be described as ridiculous. The room fell silent, eyes of the guests trained on the trio that somehow had unknown history. 

“Fuck you, Nicole,” Sonny spat, a flash of frustration on his normally pleasant features. 

“Again?” Her sickly sweet voice made your stomach turn. “All you hav’ta do is ask, Dominick.” 

“What?” you whispered, mostly to yourself, though Sonny heard you and turned in his seat to face you. Before he was given a chance to speak, you shook your head and murmured, “Please, don’t.” 

You didn’t know how, but you ended up outside, pulling your hat on and buttoning your pea coat. Sonny, inside arguing with Nicole, didn’t even realize you had slipped away. Several blocks later, your phone vibrated in your pocket. 

“Hello?”

“Y/N, where did you go?” Sonny demanded. 

You sighed and looked around. “This was a terrible idea, Sonny. I’m going to catch the Ferry and go home. Thank you for inviting me, but, I just.. I think it’s best I leave.” 

He stayed silent, though you could hear his heavy breathing. He was angry. At you? Maybe. “No. I’m gonna come get you. Where are you?” he asked again. 

“I think you’ve got your hands full with two women already. You don’t need to worry about me, too,” you chided and hung up the phone. The port was only a few minutes away, and the schedule online said the next boat left in ten minutes. So long, Staten Island, you thought to yourself. Good riddance and may we never meet again. Sadly, you didn’t know if you meant the island, or Sonny. 

When you got home that night, you were exhausted. Mentally and emotionally, not to mention physically. It had been hell to get home from the ferry. Traffic was insane - Christmas shoppers - and you were on the verge of tears the entire time you trekked home. You must have looked like a mess, but it was New York. No one really paid any mind to the crazy people.

As you curled up in your bed, you tried not to let the situation get the best of you. Though you tried, it was pointless. You broke down, shaking and crying into your pillow. It wasn’t just Sonny, or the fact that he’d hidden parts of his life from you. It was how unwanted, unneeded, misplaced, and tossed out you felt. You knew it stemmed from your childhood, and if you knew anything it was how impossible it was to get over childhood trauma. It was hard to feel loved and wanted being passed from home to home, and it was even harder to feel loved and wanted when you became part of a family where only a handful of them appreciated your existence. You didn’t fit their mold of sharp bone structure and dark features. No, you were soft, rosy, nothing like them. And though your mother and father had always done well to provide for all of your needs, it was hard to believe them. That’s why now, it was hard to trust Sonny. Not only was it hard to trust him, it was hard to understand why he’d hide Amanda, why he’d allow himself to be seen so close to Nicole, why he’d bring you to meet his family if he knew she would be there. Nothing made sense, and you had no one to turn to in your time of need. 

For several hours you’d lied in wait, hoping sleep would grace your mind. When the clock finally read 1:00AM, you realized the fight was useless and got up, padding into the kitchen. You struggled in your sad state to pop the cork on a bottle of white wine, but rejoiced quietly and threw the corkscrew and cork into the sink. The bottle didn’t last long, less than thirty minutes, and before you knew it, you were drunk. The wine took over and had a mind of its own, ensuring that you picked your phone up and called Sonny. Two in the morning, but the wine didn’t care. It rang twice. 

“Hello?” Sonny answered. Wherever he was, it was noisy. 

“Where are you?” 

Background noise, shuffling, a door opening and closing, and then silence. “Where are you?” he countered. 

You sighed and fell back onto your bed. “In my fucking bed.” 

“I’m at O’Malleys,” he finally answered. You sat up. That was the bar two blocks from your apartment. A female voice in the background caught your attention, causing your ugly jealousy to peek through. 

“Who’s that?” you demanded. 

You could hear the strain in his voice when he answered, as if he thought answering slowly would prevent you from getting mad. “Amanda.” The line went dead, leaving Sonny standing outside in the cold, with no one on the phone. 

You were three days out from Christmas, and six days past the last time you’d spoken to Sonny. Unfortunately you were no where closer to understanding who Amanda was, or if he’d really had a relationship with Nicole, or if anything he’d ever told you was true. The hardest part, though, wasn’t figuring out the truth from the lies. It was trying to fill time in your schedule that you’d once spent with him. Eating lunch alone, spending evenings alone watching television, falling asleep without having anyone to bid farewell.. it wasn’t easy. It had felt like ages, though it had barely been a week. Your only consolation was that you’d taken three weeks off, starting the day before Christmas and into the second week of January, and had high hopes of finding something to occupy yourself during those weeks. 

A faked illness got you through Christmas - meaning Chinese delivery and all of the Die Hard movies. Your parents were disappointed but wished you well, offering to send over food if you’d wanted it, but you declined. What a depressing way to spend your second favorite holiday, you thought. But, how much worse would it have been to spend it with someone who didn’t care for you the same way you’d cared for them? Sonny hadn’t tried to reach out in a few days, but you didn’t blame him. You didn’t give him a chance to explain himself, and he hadn’t tried after the night you caught him with Amanda at 2AM. It seemed like a big waste of time, time you couldn’t get back, but that you could learn from at the very least. 

New Year’s Eve finally arrived. You had no plans, no glittery dress and heels to wear, no one to kiss at midnight. It was no different than the past 29 years, but for some reason it seemed morose this year. For a while you contemplating calling Sonny, but he was probably with Amanda. You were too embarrassed to update your relationship status back to single on Facebook, but not proud enough to stop stalking Amanda’s page, grimacing each time you saw her name. Stop torturing yourself, you thought, you’re not making anything better. As you closed out of the app, your phone vibrated and Sonny’s name appeared at the top of the screen. 

Sonny: I just wanna make sure you’re okay. 

You: How “okay” am I supposed to be? 

Sonny: I know. I want you to let me explain everything. No bullshit. 

You: Let me guess. You slept with Nicole when you were a teenager. It was a passing fancy. Now you just enjoy seeing her, reminding yourself that you fucked a guinea. And as for Amanda, you guys slept together a few times, decided to stop and keep it professional, but the kid’s yours? Now you just spend time together because it’s convenient when you’re lonely at 2AM the same night you get into a massive fight with your girlfriend over the very girl you’re with. Why’d she call me Amanda? 

Three dots in a thought bubble popped up and disappeared off and on for ten minutes. 

You: That’s what I thought. Fuck you, Sonny. 

[diinfotechin]

How to Boost Your Sales During Festivals with Your Website

The Indian festive is the peak of the year when people indulge in online shopping for various products and services.  This means if you are a business that delivers services online and expecting a sales rush during the festivals, this is the perfect time to work with a website development company in Delhi to prepare your business for the upcoming festivities.

Hire an IT Company in Delhi to build a festival website, migrate to a newer platform, enhance your existing website with SEO strategies, or create a brand promotion plan to capture your customer’s attention and increase sales.

Read this post to learn how to boost your sales during the festivals with your website.

Tips to Make Your Website Festive for Indian Shoppers

During the festival season, people don’t mind spending online, and as an owner of an online business, you must prepare yourself to meet the rise in demand now. Whether it’s a product or a service, make sure you have enough in stock. Let’s read some of our website enhancements tips here.

Give Your Website a Festive Makeover

When was the last time you upgraded your website with fresh content?

There’s no time like the Indian festivals to change the look of your website with festive vibes.

You don’t have to change the entire look of your website. Ask the website designing company in Delhi to revamp the homepage alone or create a new landing page that promotes the best products and services you have.

Consider updating the banner images to something that suits the festival, like diyas and lights for Diwali, snow, and Santa for Christmas, and spider web during Halloween.

You can also update your entire site to highlight seasonal products and services. If you don’t have photographs or visual content to display, don’t fret. Highly-visible coupon codes and other festive offers can equally attract customers for holiday shopping.

Run a Google Ad campaign on the landing page to maximize your marketing efforts.

Be Resourceful, Informative, and Trustworthy

Compile the major attractions of your products and services and display them on your home page. By doing so, you will be directing your potential customers to the products and services that are best fit for their needs.

Ensure your rewards, discounts, or festive sale products and services are clearly titled. There shouldn’t be any confusion about the purpose and result of your business offerings. Use the right keywords and detailed descriptions to give people enough information to make a purchase decision on the spot.

Remember that you have thousands of competitors, and all will be trying their best to stand out. So, give your page the needed support with quality and captivating content and images.

Work with a graphic designer who understands your brand’ and gives ideas about the best possible way to improve your website’s homepage.

Offer a Seamless and Beautiful Mobile Shopping Experience

Mobile eCommerce has boosted 100 times more in the last year.

Smartphones and tablets are the biggest drivers for festive shopping. As an eCommerce business, if you wish to encourage return traffic, make your website mobile friendly.

You must aim to provide a seamless and frictionless shopping experience to non-technical customers.

Make sure your ad campaigns revolve around all mobile browsers for maximum visibility. This means the website designing company in Delhi you work with must prioritize adaptive design to achieve your festive sales goals.

Also, ensure your website runs on the platform’s updated version for optimal security and user experience. For instance, if you are running your website on Magento 1 platform, migrate to Magento 2 for better website functionality.

DI Infotech is a good website development company in Delhi that offers mobile website optimization at affordable rates.  They also provide Flexible EMI options for eCommerce website development.

Improve Other Areas of Marketing and Promotion to Support Your Website

Having a high-performing website alone wouldn’t generate sales. The IT company in Delhi you work with must invest its time and energy in other marketing strategies to boost your website’s performance.

They include the following.

Reduce cart abandonment by making the purchase experience simple yet special.

Keep your ordering cost minimal or nil and transparent

Provide a quick checkout option

Provide special prices on festive products,

Strategically place your CTAs

Give cashback options

Improve your customer service for maximum retention.

For instance, make sure your products and services are delivered on time, you have easy return and refund policies, provide multiple payment options, send personalized festive greetings or freebies, and offer real-time order tracking.

Find and engage your customers via social media.

Social media has become a gold mine in customer conversions. It allows businesses to provide personalized service to each customer through DMs and chats. To improve your website sales, promote your product and services on social media and add a link to your website.

Hire a website development company in Delhi that offers additional services like digital marketing, website maintenance, and support services, and graphic designing solutions.

Bottom line

While the Indian festive season is a great time to boost sales, it also can be an opportunity to create lasting relationships with customers.

With online shopping becoming a smarter solution, making your website the crux of your ecommerce business will be your superlative power.

If you wish to revamp your website quickly and affordably for the holiday season, hire DI Infotech’s website development services in Delhi.

[bixbobbynet]

181115 | Santa’s Elves [AU]

HB: Every year without fail, Hanbin takes his daughter, Yooae, to the shopping mall downtown a week before Christmas. A key feature to the festivities include sitting on Santa’s lap and making a wish. Yooae always seems to ask for easy gifts to fulfill, so he’s more than happy to do let her develop a list. Besides that, the mall includes something of a classroom art activity for the children. His daughter had always been too young to partake in it, however is eligible this year. Folks around town call it ‘Santa’s Workshop’ as it has allowed the kids to pretend like they’re Santa’s elves, and make a range of fun and colorful crafts. “Can I? Can I really?” Yooae asks excitedly; practically bouncing out of her shoes. “Of course, sweetheart. We can make gingerbread houses, and Christmas tree ornaments, and anything else you want to do.” The black-haired male wonders if he can leave momentarily to buy some last-minute presents. Unfortunately, it’s yet another year where the two of them only have each other, but if he can see his little girl smile then nothing else really matters.

BB: "c'mon, dad - how long does your hair have to take, are you trying to meet someone at a /kids/ workshop?" Haru rolls her eyes as she thunders down the hall, dinosaur backpack swinging behind her with every step as she pulls herself into her boots and jacket. Jiwon, ever so amused at the incredibly sassy nature of the girl - something she's definitely picked it up from her mother, - grabs his car keys and lets her hop into the vehicle before he locks the door with one last look at his perfectly coiffed strands. "Just looking good for you," he answers here with a laugh, reaching over to ruffle the 8-year old's hair as she buckles herself in, and he pulls carefully out of the driveway. The mall is bustling with far too many last-minute shoppers, all sweaty shoulders and squeaky sneakers on tile when the two of them attempt to push through the crowd in the direction of Santa's workshop. "what do you want to do first, Haru-ya? Should we look for something for Donghyuk samchun?"

HB: Having decided to stick around through the introductory section of the children’s workshop, he’s acutely aware of the people that are looking at him. No part of this situation—just a father and his daughter—seem to make sense to them in a place filled with mothers and their children about to do arts and crafts. Yooae fidgets in her seat as her legs sway back and forth. The 7-year-old has always been a bit hyperactive, but Hanbin has never once faulted her for it. If anything, he’s always found endearing; even if she accidentally kicks him sometimes. In the meantime, the mandatory instructions are over and done with, and the families are free to begin on their projects. In their particular group, they’ve forgone the coloring pages in favor of the gingerbread house-making. Yooae immediately begins to instruct him on what to do as her very own personal assistant. His job includes pouring ready-made icing into an applicator, and laying out all the pieces of the house while his little boss picks out the decorations.

BB: the instructor's introduction has already started by the time he hurries in with his daughter, in the back of his mind blaming the incredibly filled parking spots in the lot out front, fighting to thread through lanes of traffic and honking cars in the early winter's breeze. haphazardly he shoves Haru to one of the empty stations at the corner of the room, just next to another little girl who looks to be a around her age - part of him hopes the workshop will take a substantial enough amount of time so that he can do some shopping of his own. "--parents, if you could please take your places, we can begin with setting up the basic structure of the gingerbread house, and softening the icing for Santa's helpers here," the program coordinator drones on as Jiwon peeks over at Haru and watches at where she's already taking everything out of their packaging, arranging the candy by size and colour. "hey slow down, let me help with that," he complains before grasping hold of the icing tube, working gentle fingers down the plastic encasing. chuckling softly, he turns to the parent situated beside him with a grin, ready to make a joke when he notices just how.. attractive his neighbour is.  "heh, looks like they barely need our help now, huh?"

HB: Hanbin fixes his posture as he holds one side of the construction in place on the white, rectangular base. Getting the icing into the bag feels so much more tedious in comparison, and Yooae insists on doing that part anyway. He’s watching his little girl carefully empty out the bowl and start work on connecting each side of the building. It’s here that he hears an unfamiliar voice speak on his right-hand side, so he turns with an automatic smile—partly because he’s already been smiling, and partly because the statement rings true. “And here I thought I had a couple more months to go.” He responds playfully. The brunet looks over at the stranger’s daughter, and is even more pleased to learn how similar their situations are. “She looks pretty clever. I bet she’s pretty smart, isn’t she?” He asks joyously, knowing full well the look of a proud father. “Hold this wall, too, daddy.” His own cuts his train of thought to revert his attention back to the project at hand; doing as requested of him within a moment’s notice. “There’s no crumbles for the road to the house..” She says with a frown. He quickly looks for a substitute among their limited stash of decorations and candy. He soon picks up a couple options with his free hand. “We can crush the lollipop or.. skittles.” Yooae seems to light up at the idea, then grabs the candies straight out of his grasp. “Anything else, sweetheart?” She doesn’t answer very clearly; presumably unsure herself.

BB: the voice that's emitted from the young father isn't quite what he expects, but it's velvety, subtle; he finds himself a little in awe before he snaps out of his reverie and flashes a sheepish grin. "more like a couple years... they really grow up so fast. how old is yours? she's beautiful." Jiwon's soft gaze follows down to where the little girl is fussing with the walls, an earnest comment out of the plethora of badly-behaved kids he's encountered before. She's quiet, but determined - not unlike his own daughter who's more keen on working away than socializing. the two males trail off briefly to tend to - or, supervise - their own projects in various stages of completion; Haru is already trying to stack the roof and handed him a package of sprinkles to rip open when his neighbour speaks, drawing his attention to the warm, twinkling gaze and high cheekbones once again. "she's very sharp. gets it from her mother," he chuckles in mock-exasperation, "Witty, but stubborn." As if proving his point he gestures to the girl, who in turn whips back to frown at him with a pout. "That definitely comes from you," she huffs, then ignoring the pair in favour of concentrating on her house. they work in silence for a little while longer, Haru quietly instructing Jiwon to hold pieces for her as they dried - hence his current squatted position trying to keep the green Christmas tree in place. "-- don't use the lollipop, that's for the door," both parents blink at the girl when she breaks the silence to point at the candies in Yooae's grasp. "here - use my extra cookies," pudgy fingers push a package of crumbled chocolate chip cookies in her direction as Jiwon looks on with a proud grin. "that's very sweet of you, Haru-ya. What do you want to use for yours?"

HB: Delighted to talk about her own, he answers right away. “She’s seven. A month away from eight, in fact.” He softly brushes Yooae’s hair as he speaks. “What about yours?” It’s truly not everyday that he gets to talk to another father, especially with the kind of sigma he’s surrounded by. 

He watches the way Yooae reacts to the act of kindness. Although she voices her thanks the other girl and accepts the cookies right away, she feels conflicted somehow; as if her plans are all stupid and this other girl’s a complete genius. Then, because she’s always been more influenced by Hanbin than his counterpart, Yooae hurries up to finish the basis of the gingerbread house since finishing the task always comes first.

As soon as the house is built, the decoration is done fully by the kid herself. It seems like the best time to leave temporarily to do some last-minute shopping, but then again, he’s not that comfortable leaving his 7-year-old daughter in the middle of a mall—least of all when Yooae hasn’t gotten a phone yet.

Hanbin settles for the idea that they’ll be shopping with one another once all the events are over and done with. In addition to that, he’d somehow been convinced that they would need to have ice cream afterwards. In the meantime, Yooae’s been chatting away one-sidedly at all her decoration choices—and by some means created candy people to represent ‘father and daughter’ living in this semi-edible abode.

BB: Jiwon watches fondly as the little girl stirs under her father's gentle hand, shifting slightly although she doesn't deviate from her concentration. "Wow, she's a big girl, huh?" He snaps out of his reverie with a smile and meets the other male's own, nostalgia laced in his tone. "Almost nine, now... it's been so long I don't know what I'd do without her." In so many years of raising Haru alone, he only found comfort in her companionship and the ups and downs they both went through together -- he feels guilty for how difficult it's been for her growing up without a mother but she knows that he's doing his best. And no one understands him better than she does.

The rest of the room is filled with the various sounds of whining children, the clattering of candies and wrappers, and the faint jingle of Christmas tunes just drowning out the cries of frustrated parents. It might be the happiest time of the year, but kids being off from school always means extra chaos. He's summoned yet again to tear the individual packaging off the colourful gumdrops when Haru starts to build the "bushes", intermittently feeding him the candies that look too squished or came out crumbled. Jiwon's just satisfied watching her triumph over the small project, her cheeks puffed in determination - and the squeal she emits when he distracts her with a wet chocolatey peck to the cheek. "Daddy stop, you're gross," comes the mutter, despite the tight clutch in his sleeve that remains with the fingers of her free hand.

He glances over to the warm sight of the other parent and the lively conversation happening with his daughter, at which he merely chuckles and peeks over in a bout of curiosity. "So have you two gotten all your Christmas shopping done yet?"

HB: Hanbin’s dark locks fell over his eyes as he watched his daughter in such animated actions. “I know what you mean.” Soft-spoken, yet visibly reminiscent of a period long passed. “She’ll always be my little girl, though. No matter what.” He chuckled just to keep it light-hearted and friendly.

Yooae eventually completed her build, however didn’t fail to catch any so-called ‘flaws’ that she had encountered while she gave it a good, thorough inspection. Hanbin could reassure her to hell and heaven, and back again, but it seemed like that just would not stick. “You made such a beautiful gingerbread house, sweetie. I’m so proud of you.” He pulled the little girl closer for a small squeeze before she started whining and pushing off of him in embarrassment.

“Thank you..” She muttered after a short while. 

The two of them made quick work of their hands, and tidied up their station. There was nothing in particular to throw away, though, as Yooae was somewhat efficient in her construction. In the meantime, he heard the other father speak out once more. He couldn’t tell if the man was trying to be polite or was genuinely invested into their broken conversation. Either way, he enjoyed the company of the other. “Oh, i’m afraid not.” He wiped the table in loose motions. “We’ll be going around for some last-minute shopping once we’re done here.” Hanbin pulled his sweater’s sleeve back to reveal his watch. “It’s almost lunch, so maybe that should be taken care of first.” He faced the other once more with a soft smile. “If you have some time, would you care to join us?”

[prettylittlesestras]

christmas magic

Christmas has always been Beca’s favorite. As a teenager, she scoffed at cheerful holiday shoppers and rolled her eyes at couples holding hands while ice skating, but she couldn’t help but smile when she listened to her mom sing Christmas carols, when she watched her family’s faces light up when they opened their gifts, or when she stepped back to admire the tree after placing the final ornament in its place. Christmas was her favorite because even as a broody teenager she couldn’t stay angry when she thought about the magic of Christmas.

The magic this Christmas, however, was…lacking. Beca was still working at the local music store she’d been at since leaving the campus radio station, and, while she knew she’d have to pay her dues, she didn’t count on them including working alone on Christmas Eve.

In all truthfulness, she brought this on herself. The music store is owned by a 87 year old woman known all over town as “Mrs. Bea”. When Mrs. Bea told Beca that she couldn’t get anyone to work the Christmas Eve shift and that she’d have to miss Christmas dinner with her grandchildren, Beca immediately insisted on working, and since Beca had been managing the store for eleven months without any problems, Mrs. Bea agreed. Beca wouldn’t have sacrificed her holiday for just anyone, but she knew closing the store wasn’t an option when ten percent of their holiday sales happen on Christmas Eve when last-minute shoppers rush in. Beca couldn’t bear to let Mrs. Bea miss Christmas dinner, so she faced the day alone. Christmas magic, right? She hadn’t really been in the Christmas spirit this year or felt any semblance of Christmas magic this year, but maybe doing something nice for someone else would help. Hopefully.

“Christmas magic. Christmas magic.”

That’s what she muttered over and over under her breath as hundreds of customers filed in and out of the music shop. She expected quite a few people to be out shopping today, but there’s no way she could’ve predicted truly how many shoppers she’d have to help.

By the end of the day, she couldn’t even muster up an ounce of Christmas cheer until her watch struck 9:30 and she looked up and saw Chloe strolling through the door to pick her up. It’s hard not to smile when a smile as bright as Chloe’s is directed right at you. She made her final decision to stick around campus for the holidays when she found out Chloe was staying too. Since Chloe had decided that this would be the year she would graduate, she was all business. She was staying at school over Christmas break to prep for the next semester and complete her grad school applications. If Beca had to be here, Chloe is the only person that could make it still feel like Christmas.

“Let’s go, Mitchell! It’s almost Christmas, and there’s four boxes of Chinese food in the car getting cold!” Chloe said with a smile as she brought Beca in for a hug. Chloe’s hug was soft and warm. She smelled like the perfect mixture of vanilla and peppermint, and she was the literal embodiment of Christmas joy. Beca glided over to the automatic sliding glass doors and as the last customer left and punched around on the keypad to lock the doors behind him, her mood already picking up.

“Let me just grab my stuff from the back and I’ll be ready to go,” Beca said as she disappeared down the hall and into the break room. She grabbed her bag, and as she was putting on her jacket she heard a loud crack and then all the lights in the building went out.

“Chloe? Are you okay?” Beca yelled as she ran down the hall to find her.

“I’m fine. What happened?”

They both walked over to the glass doors and looked out to see that a large tree branch had fallen onto the power lines and caused them to fall. There was so much snow on the branches that it wasn’t surprising that one had fallen.

“No no no this can’t be happening,” Beca muttered getting more and more panicked.

“What’s wrong? It’s just the power, and the store is closed. I’m sure it’ll be back on by the time the store reopens after Christmas,” Chloe said reassuringly.

“The locks on the doors are electronic. I was here when they came and installed all new doors and locks three weeks ago. Mrs. Bea may be old but she really likes to stay on top of all the new technology,” Beca said looking more panicked than ever.

“What does Mrs. Bea’s love for technology have to do with the fact that we’re still inside and there’s an egg roll in the car that’s calling my name?” Chloe asked with a slight giggle.

Beca closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead in frustration. “Chloe, we’re locked in here until the power comes back on. There’s a generator outside, but it’s not doing us any good in here.”

Chloe’s eyes got wide, and she started to look worried. “You mean we have to spend Christmas in here?”

“There’s no way I’m letting that happen. I’ll call the power company and let them know about the outage and see how quickly they can get it fixed,” Beca said, starting to look less worried now that she had a plan. She called the power company on her cell phone and was told by an automated voice to leave a message but that with the amount of ice on the roads, holiday traffic, and outages all over town that it would take days before the whole city had its power restored. When she told Chloe the news, Chloe’s mood quickly shifted from worried to determined.

“Well, I guess we better get busy,” Chloe stated very matter-of-factly.

“Busy with what?” Beca couldn’t think of anything they had to get done while stranded in a music store on Christmas Eve.

“Christmas, silly,” Chloe said with a grin. She stood up and gathered tinsel and santa hats from around the store that had been used as decorations. She placed pieces of tinsel around their necks as scarves and hats on each of their heads. They looked like two of Santa’s elves, and Beca rolled her eyes but kept the costume on. If Chloe wanted to make the best out of this situation, she wasn’t going to stop her.

Beca walked down the hall once again and emerged with a battery-powered lantern, a bottle of eggnog, and a bottle of rum. “We need to keep warm, right?” Beca asked with a smirk on her face. “Mrs. Bea loves a good cup of eggnog, and I figured we could break into her stash just a little.” Beca laughed as she poured two mugs full of eggnog for them to sip on. They sat and talked and drank eggnog for hours.

After a while, Beca got up and headed to the guitar section, grabbed a beautiful acoustic guitar, and brought it back over to where the two had been sitting. She sat down and began to strum the tune of “Deck the Halls”. Chloe sat in awe, and when Beca finished playing she said, “I didn’t know you could play! We live together! How could you not tell me?”

“I’ve worked in a music store for two years, Chlo. I don’t know; I picked up a few chords here and there, I guess,” Beca said as she smiled sheepishly. “We get lots of cool people who shop with us for their guitars, and they love to sit down and play. Sometimes people even give free lessons too, so I just pay attention while I work.” Truthfully, Beca had stayed after work many nights playing around with the guitars and teaching herself how to play different things with the “Guitar for Dummies” book. She couldn’t believe she was actually playing for Chloe. She never really got nervous when she was singing with the Bellas, but there was something so vulnerable about playing for Chloe and showing her something she’d worked so hard on and never let another person hear, like it really mattered if Chloe liked her playing. It was more intimate with another person than she had been in a long time; more intimate in a close and personal way than she had really been with Jesse if she’s being honest with herself.

Chloe sat, amazed, while Beca began to play “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”. Chloe sang along, and Beca joined in on the chorus. This was the first time during the night when it truly felt like Christmas for Beca, and she could tell that Chloe felt it too.

After their impromptu concert, Beca was practically shaking she was shivering so hard, so she got up and grabbed the lantern. “Wanna go see if we can find some blankets?” Beca asked while hanging the guitar in its rightful place. “There’s a pull-out couch in the break room, and I think there are blankets and pillows in the closet. Mrs. Bea keeps them up here for when her grandkids come and visit.”

Beca laughed as Chloe struggled to pull out the creaky bed from within the couch and quickly helped her get it set up. While Beca straightened out the mattress and sheets, Chloe rummaged through the closet to find two pillows and a couple of blankets. She tossed them over to the bed, and one of the pillows was so heavy that it hit Beca and knocked her onto the bed.

“Not nice!” Beca yelped. Chloe couldn’t hear her over her own laughter though. Chloe skipped over to the bed and plopped down beside her friend.

“I’m tiny! I can’t help that my body can’t withstand the force of the pillows you launch at me from across the room.” Beca laughed as she spoke.

“Well get your tiny body under these blankets! There’s no way we’re going to keep warm all night if we don’t share body heat.”

“You’re just trying to get in my pants, Beale. I see through that ‘good girl; facade,” Beca said with a level of sarcasm that only Beca Mitchell could achieve, but she didn’t actually mind.

“Sure, Becs. You just keep thinking that.”

Beca nestled into Chloe’s arms, and the two drifted off to sleep rather quickly. After a couple of hours, all of the lights came on at once, and Beca and Chloe both jolted awake.

“Hey Becs, do you want to go home now or just wait until morning?” Chloe whispered.

“Let’s just wait until morning,” Beca slurred sleepily. Chloe got up and turned out the lights and dropped back onto the bed. After a few minutes, Beca rolled over to face Chloe, their faces only inches apart.

“Hey Chlo?” Beca whispered

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for sticking by me through all of this. I’m sorry we had to spend our Christmas Eve trapped in a music store. Even though it’s been cold and dark and not actually anything like Christmas at all, I’m glad I had you here with me.” Beca spoke so quietly that her words were almost inaudible. She felt dumb for being so open with her feelings.

She started to turn back over when Chloe grabbed her face and brought their lips together, and that’s when she felt it. Christmas magic. That’s what she’d been missing. The music and trees and decorations were still the same this year, but she hadn’t felt the magic until now, until she was laying on a creaky pull-out couch cuddling for warmth and kissing her best friend. And that’s when she knew for sure that she loved her. She’d ignored the feeling for years. From the moment she spotted Chloe at the activities fair, the thought was there, always gnawing at her. But she pushed it further and further back in her mind. And then once being friends turned into being best friends which turned into the two of them being practically inseparable, she knew nothing could happen from there. She wouldn’t ruin a friendship over some stupid feelings. Beca pulled back looking confused but happy.

“Sorry, I don’t know what gave me the courage to do that, but I’ve wanted to for a really long time. I’m sorry, really, I am. I overstepped. I know we’re just friends and I–” Beca cut off Chloe’s desperate ramblings with another kiss. She felt it again. Christmas magic wasn’t about the presents or the songs or the decorations; it was about people, and Chloe was her person.

“Okay yeah so here’s the thing. I kinda love you, and I think I have for a really long time, so please don’t apologize for kissing me,” Beca said while adding a quick peck on her forehead. Chloe smiled and wrapped Beca in a big, warm hug. That’s when Beca knew that Chloe was all the Christmas magic she’d ever need.

merry pitchmas to @enchanteecloneclub from your (no longer) secret santa!!! sorry i’m a day late, but i hope you like it!

[discordantwords]

11: violin

Previous

Also on AO3 if you prefer to read there: Another Auld Lang Syne

I’m going to keep on trying post these daily. Please bear with me if I fall a bit behind. I’m so deeply appreciative of all of the kind words this fic has received. <3

The coat was ill-fitting, unfamiliar. Scratchy wool against his neck. Sherlock tugged at it, frowned. The buttons at the front were a cheap plastic. One was coming loose.

 Lestrade had brought him a change of clothes. Had held out his own spare winter coat with a hesitant smile and a sigh.

 "Since yours—well. You know."

 Sherlock hadn't known, but it wasn't much of a surprise. It bothered him more than it should have.

 "I'll drive you," Lestrade said.

 "I'll take a cab."

 Lestrade opened his mouth, shut it again. Shook his head. He did not look annoyed, merely resigned.

 "Right," Lestrade said, after a time. He reached out, clapped a hand on Sherlock's shoulder. "Glad you're all right. You had us worried."

 Sherlock thought of John standing in the doorway, the frozen expression on his face. Thought of the words he'd tried to force out, the words he'd been holding in for so long, the words that John had not wanted to hear.

 Lestrade's hand was still on his shoulder. His face was kind. It was almost too much to bear. "Come on. It's Christmas Eve. Sure you won't let me drive you?"

 Sherlock straightened up, sniffed, did his best to look bored. "Mm, no. I do have a reputation to uphold."

 He took a taxi from the hospital, sat alone in the back in his uncomfortable and unfamiliar coat, tried not to sigh too loudly every time the driver braked for traffic.

 It had stopped snowing, and the streets and pavement were a slushy mess. Sherlock watched last-minute shoppers (some rosy-cheeked and laughing, others looking altogether grim) as they milled about on the pavement, bags clutched in gloved hands.

 There are things…

 John's face, frozen, twisted, seemingly at war with himself. The way he'd leaned in the doorway, the way his hand had trembled and he'd tried to hide it by rubbing at the back of his neck.

 The way he had not stepped over the threshold into Sherlock's room.

 There are things…

 There would always be things, Sherlock suspected. He ran into trouble when he tried to voice them. It was not his strong suit. It never would be.

 The cabbie stopped at a red light, and Sherlock watched a man emerge from a storefront laden with shopping bags, a small child in a winter coat bounding ahead of him. The child had bouncing blond curls, was pink-cheeked and grinning.

 The sight twisted something in his chest, and he turned away, his gaze falling on a street musician standing at the edge of the kerb. The man was dressed far too lightly for the weather. His hair was cropped short, though he had the unkempt beginnings of a beard. The violin he clutched in his ungloved hands was beautiful.

 "Stop," Sherlock said.

 The cab stopped. Sherlock paid, then slipped out into the bitter cold. He burrowed his neck into the scratchy collar of his coat, shivered. Leaned against the nearest building and watched.

 The man was almost certainly homeless. There was a tension in his posture, a proud set to his shoulders that spoke to a military history. A quick glance at the tanned skin of his hands, fading to pallor at the wrists, confirmed it.

 A soldier. Fairly recently discharged.

 The violin gleamed. It was well cared for, clearly a prized possession. The man cradled it, caressed it, coaxed music from its strings like a lover. Christmas songs. One after another after another, blending seamlessly together, old and new, jaunty and sad, cloying and melancholy. The man's eyes were closed, his mouth unsmiling. Every note rang out clear, haunting. Beautiful.

 Sherlock's vision blurred. He shut his eyes, brought his hand up to rub at them. His cheeks were wet.

He breathed out, shaky. His entire body seemed to be trembling.

 The man finished playing, let the last note hang in the air. Pedestrians continued to bustle by, traffic continued to clog the streets. It seemed wrong, somehow, that all of London was not held in thrall, that the world had not paused in the face of such beauty.

 Sherlock slipped the coat off of his shoulders. The cold air bit at him.

 He draped the coat over the man's violin case. He turned away, fell into step with the crowds, his shoulders hunched against the wind.

[runmilder]

Baldur’s Bane

AO3 link here

Chapters: 1 / 4 Fandom: DCU, DCU (Comics), Batman - All Media Types Rating: Mature Relationships: Tim Drake/Reader Tags: Mistletoe, vague sex pollen,  happy holidays from Poison Ivy

Summary:

The Poetic Edda has one thing right: mistletoe is a pain. The batboys and their mistletoe machinations.

There is no worse time to live in the city than during the holiday season. Traffic is more congested than usual, public transit is overcrowded with both travelers and their purchases, and outings have to be plotted with more precision than most military operations. And if the cutthroat soccer moms in retail lines aren’t brutal enough, there’s always an uptick in criminal activity, Gotham’s villains cooking up more than just Christmas ham.

And speaking of Christmas ham—

“Where are you?”

Your grocery bags leave angry stripes on your arms as you manage to adjust your phone between your ear and shoulder. Not for the first time, you consider going hands-free. You’re sure your boyfriend would hook you up with something considerably higher tech than a Bluetooth, though, so you don’t mention your struggle.

“Sorry?” you say, lifting one overburdened arm to plug your other ear.

“Are you home?” Tim sounds out of breath. “Please tell me that’s the television I hear in the background.”

You look around at the holiday crowds in the shopping center. “Um. It’s the television?”

Tim mutters something unintelligible. It might be a curse. “Stay where you are. I’m coming to get you.”

You open your mouth to reply, any number of comments sitting on your tongue, but he’s already hung up. He always forgets the niceties when he’s stressed; you try not to take it personally. You also don’t bother to ask how he knows your location, instead staring down at the dark screen of your GPS-emitting phone with something akin to betrayal.

Hero-types. Honestly.

Though he instructed you to stay put, you’re sure Tim didn’t mean for you to stand in the middle of foot traffic, so you move off to the side. There’s a bench in sight of the complex’s garland-wrapped stairs and accompanying escalators, and you gratefully sit, bags splaying around you. Your arms protest the sudden return of circulation. Nothing in your immediate vicinity strikes you as alarming—other than the weirdly breathy rendition of Santa Baby playing over the loudspeakers—and you consider checking your news feed to see what has Tim in such a tizzy. Is it another mechanical Santa gone rogue? Are the roads being converted to ice rinks via freeze rays?

How soon does this food need to be refrigerated, anyway?

You have a Christmas potluck at work to prepare for, and then a few last-minute gifts to worry about purchasing before you can even think about settling back and enjoying the holidays. Just sitting here listening to increasingly bad covers of Christmas songs has you feeling antsy.

In your distraction, you almost don’t notice the creeping greenery.

There’s no shortage of people-watching to be done in the heart of Gotham, the city drawing people from all walks of life. You’re playing the old stand-by game, How Many Hero Shirts (twelve so far, and one shirtdress with bat symbol print,) and you can’t help but note that there’re a lot of handsy people out today. There’s a couple making out on the escalator, stumbling as their steps level out with the floor. Two others bump into a column near you, locked together in a passionate embrace. You’re starting to feel like a voyeur, actually, your eyes darting around to see more coat clad figures succumbing to… what? Holiday spirit? Where’s the sense of decorum?

Your eyes meet the scrunched gaze of a kid, probably eight or so, whose parents are getting a little too friendly nearby. Both of your expressions say the same thing: what the hell? Or, in his case, heck.

And then you see the mistletoe.

“Only in Gotham,” you mutter. There’s no one in hearing range (who isn’t otherwise engaged) to hear you let loose a string of colorful words, and you gather up your bags, heedless of Tim’s previous warning, and make toward the nearest exit. The greenery stretches along the walls and vaulted ceiling of the complex, spreading ever further even as you watch. The skylights are quickly being overtaken, the natural light choked out by waxy leaves. It’s unmistakably mistletoe, berries hanging in clumps of both red and white, although you’ve never heard of it growing as a vine. It’s beautiful… and ominous. Somehow, you don’t think the glimmering substance drifting off of the leaves like clouds of golden pollen is anything as innocuous as craft glitter.

Your nose itches, and you valiantly repress a sneeze.

There are other shoppers rushing past, and only some of them look aware of the possible danger. A pinch-mouthed woman with an oversized purse marches past, glaring at the living décor, and you realize that some of the pedestrians are just willfully ignorant. Apparently, some things are more important than Poison Ivy’s (because who else could it be?) newest gambit, although you can’t imagine what. Maybe Kirklands is having a sale.

A sudden tug scatters your thoughts of country chic bargains, and you’re dragged into an emergency exit hallway before you have a chance to protest.

“Sorry for the ambush, but we have to go.” It’s Tim. Of course it’s Tim.

You note that he’s in civilian clothes, eyes unmasked, and you open your mouth to question him, but he half-turns, looking around with suspicion, and you see a peek of red beneath his coat. Ah. You’d bet anything that if you checked his pockets right now, you’d find a domino mask.

“That’s awfully sloppy for you,” you tease, nodding to his outfit when he meets your gaze with a quizzical look of his own.

He looks down, then hastily buttons his coat.

“I didn’t exactly have time for a full costume change,” he says, mouth flat, but eyes crinkling up. He lifts your bags from bloodless fingers and jerks his head toward the glowing exit sign. You’d ask about the alarm on the door, but you’re almost certain that he came in this way.

“Are you going to or from an engagement?” You’re careful with your phrasing even when you think you’re alone; it never does to assume around here. Not when the walls have eyes and ears.

“I’m in the middle of an engagement,” he says, emphasis on “engagement.” He hoists the bags up higher, readjusting. “Did you buy rocks, by any chance?”

You trail behind, through the door and into a service alley. There’s a sleek car there, parked no-doubt illegally.

“They were on sale,” you say, rolling your eyes. “If you can’t handle them, I can take them off of your hands.”

The car’s tiny trunk pops open, the parcels quickly wedged inside. Tim turns with a tiny grin and a raised eyebrow. “I think I got it.”

“Baby.”

“Oh, are we doing pet names now?” His grin grows, widening to near shit-eating proportions. He leans against the rear bumper, keys spinning in his hand, and you want to wipe the self-satisfied look off his face.

Preferably with your face.

Something must show in your expression, because Tim’s smile flickers and he’s suddenly in your space, eyes shifting from warm to analytical. He reaches up and brushes your shoulder, and you glance in surprise to see a fine dusting of golden powder puff beneath his fingertips.

“Well,” you say, swallowing against the sudden tightness in your throat. “That’s… probably not good.”

Tim’s mouth is a hard line. “Nothing life threatening, but—” He rubs his fingers together, the dust dissipating. “I’m taking you home.”

You’re ushered into the low-sitting sports car, Tim sliding into the drivers seat a half second later. There’s no music to distract you from your growing anxiety, and no police scanner either. Tim, when you glance at him, looks distracted, though his eyes are on the road, and his driving smooth as he slips through traffic. Your eyes keep slipping to his mouth, and you berate yourself for it. You’re as bad as the shoppers in the—

Wait.

“Did Poison Ivy infect the city with sex pollen?”

Tim grimaces, eyes flicking to yours and then away. “”Sex pollen” is a bit of an overstatement. There’s certainly some kind of aphrodisiac element to the plants, but we don’t think it’s anything strong enough to break through preexisting reservations.”

“So people aren’t jumping each other in the street right now?” You look out of the window as if to check, but you’ve already passed the last of the spreading greenery. There were several blocks infested with it, though.

He looks uncomfortable. “I didn’t say that.”

“Shouldn’t you be out there?” Not that you aren’t thrilled to be out of the thick of it—who knows when the plants might start to choke their victims with something more than pollen—but your boyfriend is kind of an important person to the city.

“I was—actually, I was one of the first on sight.” He shifts in his seat, taking the turn into your apartment’s parking.

You stare at him.

“Are you—?” Realization dawns. “You weren’t wearing anything over your face.”

Tim parks the car, but leaves it idling. “…No.”

You lean over, turning his chin so that he’s looking you in the eye. His pupils are blown.

“Oh my god,” you say.

“Like I said, nothing life threatening.” He shifts in his seat again. “Just—uncomfortable.”

You almost laugh, but—no, that would be mean. And frankly, hypocritical, because you’re feeling “uncomfortable,” too.

You regard each other for several breaths.

“Well,” you say at the same time Tim says, “Do you—?”

You both stop, and then, with a mental shrug, you decide to just go for it.

Your seatbelt clicks open with a startlingly loud crack, and you let it sling back toward the window even as you duck under the low roof of the car and shimmy over the console. It’s not a car designed for spontaneous lap-sitting, but you think you can make do. Tim, quick on the uptake, slides the seat as far away from the wheel as it will go—not very—and immediately brackets your hips with his hands.

“We could just go insi—” he starts, but you cut him off with a press of your lips. He doesn’t protest after that.

The angle isn’t great, and there’s a little movement as Tim tries to lean the seat back, but you ignore the twinge in your neck and move your mouth against his, his lips softening into compliance. You curl your fingers over his shoulder, your other hand traveling up to grasp dark strands of hair, drawing a little sound from him when you tug. You draw back and he reels you back in, one kiss turning into a flurry of not-quite closed mouth kisses. You breathe a sigh against him, happy to have him here, regardless of the circumstances, and he takes the opportunity to deepen the kiss, tongue sliding sweetly against yours.

You’re a little more frantic now, and a lot less reserved. The pace of your kisses quickens, your breaths coming in short pants. Beside you, the window is fogging. Tim’s hand slips beneath your shirt, palm like a brand over your spine. You shift, bringing your bodies closer, and your hips press into his, and oh—

“I think,” Tim rasps, breaking away with a gutted sound, “that we need to get out of this car before we get arrested for public indecency.”

You run your thumb over his lower lip, and he turns his head to nip at it.

“You want to do indecent things to me, Tim Drake?” You mean it to sound coy, but it sounds more like a plea.

Tim reaches behind you to open the door, his chest pressing against yours. Cold air rushes in, but that’s not what has you shivering.

“I have a list of indecent things I’d like to do to you,” he says in your ear. “Would you like to go alphabetically or chronologically?”

It’s probably the nerdiest dirty talk you’ve heard in your life, but you’re already clambering out, Tim hot on your heels.

“Oh!” you say, starting to turn. “The ham.”

Tim makes a sound not unlike a growl. “Forget the ham; you’re coming over for Christmas dinner.” His hand is on your lower back, already guiding you away.

You open your mouth to protest—it’s not for you, it’s for the potluck—but then his words sink in.

Coming over for—

Oh. He’s inviting you to the manor. With his family. Of superheroes.

You stumble up the stairs to your apartment in a sort of daze, but then you’re at the door, and Tim is commandeering your keys, bundling you inside, mouth on your neck, and then—

And then you don’t do much thinking at all.

[mbrainspaz]

mini-rant, anyone?

I told my grandma I can’t help her with her work tomorrow because I need to work, but it’s also because I can’t handle the sheer tide of ignorant racist bile for another day. She didn’t miss a single opportunity to sneer at hispanic people today. It didn’t matter if they smiled at her or held doors for her or minded their own business. She was just chalk full of hate and what’s worse is that she expected me to join in. I called her out every single freaking time to let her know I won’t be a part of that but she just kept on goin’. Stopped by police? “Probably Mexicans.” Stolen merch at the store? “Mexicans.” Waiting too long for lunch? “Slow Mexicans.” Cutting her off in traffic? “Those Mexicans!” (side note: in at least two of these instances it was definitely white dudes anyway, but that’s not the point.) So no, I’m not going to help tomorrow, and she can drive around town with the stupid Trump bumper sticker and be annoyed by spanish christmas songs all alone. I need the time to catch up on Duolingo anyway. I’m still psyched about the fact that I could actually understand most of what the hispanic families in the stores were saying today and all those lyrics to the spanish christmas songs! And I’m still reeling from the fact that she just stood there, surrounded by hispanic employees and shoppers, and complained loudly about a spanish song on the radio. Helloooo. We were the only two white people in the store! Not everything has to be about YOU! (Not only that but it was ONE song, so I mean... just shut up, honestly.)  “Why don’t you just learn some Spanish instead of complaining about it?”  “I won’t,” she sneered (there was a lot of sneering going on all day). “This is America! We speak English!” At which point I mentally shut down to dodge any more verbatim Right-Wing News quotes she feels like tossing around. Gosh. Heavens. No more. I am so sick of realizing how racist some of my family can be. You’re probably thinking the Trumper Sticker was a dead giveaway but I honestly expected them to be better than this. Can ya’ll just not

[bluesletter]

24 — Let’s Go to the Mall

“New Oldsmobiles are in early this year.”

Soon enough, all malls will be dead malls.

A dead mall is vacant and has lost its “anchor store” — the retail behemoths like JC Penny, Sears, Nordstrom, who get rent discounts to drive foot traffic that supports the smaller stores. KMart,  Alexander's, Montgomery Ward, Woolworth's, Marshall Field's, Filene's, and Hecht's. Dead, more or less, all of them! Did you know that, since 2010, we’ve been in something called a “retail apocalypse?” My friend’s girlfriend just lost her job at Barney’s because Barney’s closed. For good! Wikipedia assures me that the quantity of malls grew twice as fast as population over a 40-year period, but, cmon: I asked a robot that lives in my house to reorder diapers today. I think it’s no tjust about real estate.

And then I see the list of defunct department stores and am immediately saddened, of course — dicking around in the aisles of a Penny’s while my mom helped my brother try on church shoes is a memory that sticks. The promise of free-sample-chicken in the food court and an Electronics Boutique perusal run to look at the new video games sounds as compelling today as it was in the 1990s, but am I sad malls are done? Really?

Maybe shopping malls aren’t great. Maybe the not-so-subtle message in the Dixie Square chase scene — that a bemused appreciation of the mall is best countered by commerce’s absolute, literal destruction — is the right one. Sure, fuck Amazon forever (unless you have a baby, and then, man, it’s nice for diapers and wipes), but was the mall ever a community center? It’s hard to pick apart.

Loitering, browsing, sneaking snacks into movies, first surreptitious attempts at shoplifting — their real value in my life is nostalgic. Amazon destroyed a thing that already was destroying the good version of shopping. Consider that Dixie Square Mall was a dead mall before The Blues Brothers and Landis rented it for filming.

And consider, for a minute, the violent history of Dixie Square, which closed after only 12 years, as the surrounding area of Harvey quickly descended into blight and crime. Three murders across the first few years of the ‘70s, followed by disrepair, employee theft and shoplifting led to it closure in 1978. 

After the movie shot there, the complete destruction of the property just ... congregated. Caretakers couldn’t clean it up. Drug dealers began to use its carcass for their activity. A police station AND juvenile court very close by weren’t able to tilt the scales. Weather damage and tree overgrowth took hold. The homeless found it. In the early ‘90s, it was the site of another murder.  

The mall is everything that unfettered growth at all costs — the new American expansion — can ruin. Like Jane Jacobs’ criticisms of the Garden or Radiant City, malls are communal but not containing a community. Organized but to no purpose. Public but providing no utility or function outside the commercial. Left alone, the enclosed suburban space becomes itself dangerous, as we see. 

Over Christmas, I went to Seattle with my wife, and we visited two malls, one in Lake Forest Park that has a still-functioning BASEBALL CARD store, along with a sprawling three-restaurant food court that opened into a tremendous indie bookstore, replete with massive kids’ section, swarming with children — and I’ll be damned if it didn’t seem like a declining-but-vibrant still-going quirk, hungover from decades prior. It was wholesome and lovely. And then we went to Northgate Mall, preparing for its overhaul/facelift, but completely abandoned. Shuddered breweries, blocked walkthroughs, dead ends. It had, only a few years prior, been bustling in the day or so after Christmas, full of gift-card shoppers and gift-receipt returners, and the takeaway in December 2019 was nothing shy of “totally freaky.”

I guess, like we discussed earlier on the blog, anything is better than nothing, and so we’ll mourn the demise of the shopping mall — every one reflected the character of its community, maybe not because of their unambitious architecture, but in what those communities said and did and bought in those malls — commerce can tell a story, even if that story doesn’t have meaning. In the meantime, Dixie Square Mall was revealed to be full of asbestos, and then began a 7-year journey to force its eventual demolition in 2012. Its story is not dissimilar from the whole story of American commerce, labor and land exploitation, and the decline of the middle class, but, much like Landis, celebrating gleefully in its destruction, we will not mourn it.

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INTERVIEW How Hobbycraft has prepared for Black Friday trading

Jennifer North, head of digital experience at Hobbycraft, took time out from her Black Friday preparations yesterday to speak to InternetRetailing on how the craft retailer, ranked Top100 in IRUK Top500 research, has prepared for what it expects to be its biggest day of the year online

  The run up to Black Friday has felt like a “waiting game” for Hobbycraft’s Jennifer North but now that it’s here she’s expecting the biggest online sales day of the retailer’s year.

  Last year Black Friday week was the first time the craft retailer, ranked Top100 in IRUK Top500 research, had turned over more than £1m in a week online. But that record is set to be beaten this year – even though its offers have now been online and available since November 20.

  “We still think this Friday will be our biggest day even though we’ve been out in the market for 10 days, which is our longest exposure of offers ever,” says North, who is Hobbycraft’s head of digital experience. "But that’s more been driven by the dates and the way payday sits.” Because of those factors it has felt, she says, “like a waiting game”.

  How shoppers are buying

Hobbycraft started its peak trading campaign with its biggest email send ever – rewarded by the biggest volume of email opened on day one. “For our engaged customers by going early we had that peak and then we’ve been operating a comfortable increase on the year every day which we’re obviously very happy with,” she says. Sales began to build up from this Wednesday. “We still think on Friday it’s payday, the offers are out there on the market. Customers have nothing left to wait for then.”

  This year, Hobbycraft has seen a real shift in traffic towards mobile, which chimes with predictions for the day. As of yesterday, traffic was running at about 70% on mobile, with 55% of revenue from mobile transactions. “That’s a big leap on the year – it’s probably 15 percentage points up on the year in revenue. We’ve found this year has been our mobile game changer year. I think it’s been different for different retailers depending on their audience and proposition. This year has been the year of the mobile for us, on that absolute tipping point. It’s grown steadily but ahead of its previous run rate this year for us.”

  The mobile effect started to be seen in the first half of the year, says North. She believes it has come about as a result of changing customer behaviour, both within the craft market and more generally, and through the retailer’s move to target mobile customers with paid search. The effect on metrics has been noticeable. “You get more visits per conversion on a mobile - we’ve had to go back to basics on metrics, and say what is the right way of measuring. You get a lot more visits to a conversion on mobile. Your conversion alone is going to look negative but your absolute volumes are really healthy. We just have to make sure we’re looking in the round at all the metrics.”

  The role of the store

While most of Hobbycraft’s online sales are now via mobile, the majority of sales still take place in the store. Of the sales that have resulted from its email campaigns, 80 to 85% of sales have been made in-store, and about 15% online. “It’s a very multichannel experience for customers,” says North. “If you live near a Hobbycraft store you’re highly likely to go there rather than buy online because you like to go there, it’s an excursion. For customers, crafting is a passion and an escape and going into a Hobbycraft store is considered a worthwhile investment of time. If you’re near a store you’re often happy to go there because you know you’ll see something unexpected and you’ll top up your basket. Customers tend to spend up to a threshold - because there’s lots of low value items. They’ll tend to get to around their Hobbycraft threshold and they know they can do that in store and that’s what we also look to replicate online with the product discovery experience.”

  In store, customers can also take part in Hobbycraft’s regular Saturday making workshops, which have been Christmas-themed since about September.

  Preparing for Black Friday

After a successful Black Friday week last year, Hobbycraft has aimed to build on that result. “It was probably bigger than we expected last year and this year we’ve planned for something bigger,” says North. “We’ve been really joined up, we’ve planned for every single area that has an accountability, that relates to delivering the end to end service, all the way through to identifying the right products, setting up the right deals, the right website experience, right in-store experience.

  “Probably a week out from the campaign we started the routine of the daily call. We have our checklists, our KPIs and we look at them every day and we’ve got the flexibility to change things. We might make a change on stock, on our delivery proposition. We just maintain flexibility, we have the right accountable people talking every day. That gets better every year as the event matures, we mature with it and we’re comfortable with how it’s working right now.” The retailer’s also learned from the data, delivered via Contentsquare analytics tools so that it knows what it is doing that is having an effect on conversion. “All the team has their own dashboards so they can look at their measures and it can translate really nicely as we go into peak time," says North. "For us, looking at the paid interactions and also at the traffic vs conversion and that’s helped us understand if we’ve got something that’s not performing as expected, is it because of awareness and traffic or is it because of the proposition. We’ve been able to make decisions day by day. If we’re not good on exposure we change the online experience. If we’re not quite converting we’ve made a few price actions or we might say well let’s wait until after Friday and that might influence the offers we put out after Black Friday.”

  She added: “All the segments are useful for us, we have tonnes of segments set up in Contentsquare – customers that have or haven’t visited a page, customers that have used search. There are so many infinite segments and they help us drill in really fast to what we already know about our customer and help us understand if things are different.”

  North is preparing for higher Hobbycraft sales today, compared to last year – but does she think it will be a big Black Friday more widely?

  “It feels like a waiting game,” she says. “But I think there are some really big offers out there. I think Asos have gone to up to 70% – which is huge. We’re monitoring closely every day. It’s a great time to get shopping done. Deals feel as strong as ever. If there is a sense that people are tightening their belts this Christmas more than ever, I think ultimately everyone still has to be investing in Christmas gifts – so I don’t think it’s going to be smaller.”

  Image courtesy of Hobbycraft

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Black Friday 2019: What You Need to Know

In the age of e-commerce, Black Friday can feel like an anachronism. But don’t be fooled. The Friday after Thanksgiving remains enormously important — at least symbolically — to the retail industry. And millions of shoppers will still be out in stores, working off that turkey and stuffing by racing to find the best deals.

Many others will simply stay at home, content to cruise the internet to do their shopping. Whether it’s in stores or online, our reporters will be covering it here, with a little help from our friends at The Wirecutter.

Shopping has become easier, and more fun

It’s hard to think of a better time to be a shopper. There’s one-day delivery, online purchases with in-store pick up, even $17 cocktails served while you shop for shoes.

Retailers are trying to be all things to all shoppers, but it is proving to be a tough and, some say, unsustainable way to run their business. The more money retailers invest in new initiatives to boost sales, the more their profit margins seem to shrink.

Amazon is driving a lot of this pain, as old-school retailers try to catch up with the online giant, which sets the standard for speed and convenience.

— Michael Corkery

Online sales start strong. ‘Frozen 2’ toys, L.O.L. Surprise dolls and laptops are hits.

Let’s get real: Black Friday shopping, online and in stores, really starts on Thanksgiving and lasts all weekend. So it will be awhile before we know how the retail sector did this year. But one early indicator was positive: Shoppers spent $4.2 billion on Thursday, about 14.5 percent more than on Thanksgiving 2018, according to Adobe Analytics.

Adobe, which tracks purchases made on thousands of websites, said the top-selling items online were toys and products affiliated with the movie “Frozen 2,” L.O.L. Surprise dolls and toys, Amazon Fire TV products and Apple laptops.

Separately, the software company Salesforce projected that online sales would reach $7.4 billion in the United States on Friday alone, about 16 percent more than last year, and $40 billion globally, about a 24 percent increase.

The company found that more people had started their Black Friday shopping early by looking for deals online on Thanksgiving, and 60 percent of those digital orders were placed on mobile phones.

At Costco, the website was slow so the store extended one-day online deals intended for Thanksgiving into Friday. “The website is currently experiencing longer than normal response times,” Costco wrote in a banner across its home page. “We apologize for any inconvenience.”

— Jacey Fortin

Hoping for Gucci in the bargain bin? You’ll have to wait a bit longer.

When Barneys, the iconic Manhattan department store, was sold for pieces last month, it marked the end of an era in New York retailing. It also set the hearts of consumers racing, as talk of an unprecedented liquidation sale swirled. What sorts of deals could be had on cashmere? Would Gucci be in the bargain bin?

Alas, consumers have since been disappointed. Barneys’ liquidators — led by B. Riley Financial’s Great American Group — have largely limited the discounts to just 5 percent or 10 percent off the chain’s luxury wares. Twitter has been rife with incredulous shoppers. “I just checked out Barneys New York closing down sale and socks are $97,” one user wrote. Another remarked that they needed more than 10 percent off, noting, “This is like a rich folks sale.”

This week, however, B. Riley said it would deepen discounts at Barneys beginning on Wednesday, for an average of 30 percent to 35 percent off items throughout the weekend. It promised additional promotions for in-store shoppers. There’s a chance that will spur sales — though shoppers may continue to wait for even bigger discounts during December, as the liquidators will have to offload all of the inventory at some point.

— Sapna Maheshwari

Some shoppers are done already

People who get an early jump on their holiday shopping inspire both envy and awe, and there has been even more early shopping this year.

During the first week of November, consumers had completed 24 percent of their holiday shopping, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation. It was the highest level in the history of the trade group’s survey, and up 16 percent from a decade ago.

For the retail industry, it means that the all-important holiday shopping season is getting longer, and Black Friday’s importance is increasingly fading.

— Michael Corkery

How to not get fooled by bad tech deals

Black Friday offers an avalanche of tech sales, and many aren’t worth your time, either because of the quality of the item or a discount that isn’t very exciting.

TV doorbusters, for example, are usually filled with low-quality, off-brand products, or even stripped-down models from top brands that are only available for the holidays. But that doesn’t mean all TV deals are bad deals. The Wirecutter Deals team has found large high-end models from last year at a bargain. We’ve also seen nice discounts on well-regarded midrange sets for everyday viewing or gaming.

While many people are hoping to snag Apple products for a steal, only select product lines are exceptionally priced. Surprisingly, some of the newest models are being discounted, though the reductions are meager. The best deals we’ve seen have been on older model watches. In general, you’re more likely to see discounts on Apple tablets and accessories from big box stores, but if you see a too-good-to-be-true price from a third-party site, it’s likely a refurbished unit with a shorter warranty and no quality guarantee.

In the world of gaming, consoles, controllers and subscription plans have seen strong discounts, as have tech accessories like wireless mice and keyboards. But before you get swept up in the hype and marketing language, we always suggest comparison shopping to ensure you’re getting the best deal on the best products.

— Nathan Burrow

Black Friday in France: Sales and a backlash

Thanksgiving is just another Thursday in Europe, but Black Friday is a bone of contention: embraced by some and rejected by others as an alarming invasion of American consumerism.

Black Friday sales can be found in many countries, from small stationers to major chains to car dealers. In Britain, many retailers, like John Lewis & Partners, a source of appliances and furniture, started offering Black Friday discounts days ago. Curry’s PC World, an electronics retailer, has a “black tag” event claiming savings of up to 50 percent.

On the rue Vieille du Temple in the Marais district of central Paris, nearly every boutique within a one-block stretch is plastered with signs promoting “Black Friday” in English. While France has been slower than other European countries to join the trend, retailers forecast 6 billion euros in sales this year around the event.

In some cases, something is lost in translation. In Germany, the “Friday” is often dropped in signs promoting a “Black Sale” or “Black Week.”

But a backlash has been gaining steam. In France, lawmakers this week proposed to ban some Black Friday promotions starting next year, citing misleading pricing tactics and the rising environmental cost from the delivery of millions of packages.

Élisabeth Borne, the French environment minister, warned of “a frenzy of consumption” in which people are encouraged to buy products they don’t need.

“We need to consume better, not more,” she added.

Parisian authorities also asked the government to allow cities to slap a so-called eco-tax on Amazon and other delivery platforms to make e-commerce players pay for pollution and rising delivery traffic.

Protesters from the Extinction Rebellion movement and other environmental groups held “Block Friday” demonstrations throughout France. Many of the events were aimed at Amazon, with some banners saying “No to Amazon and its world.”

— Liz Alderman and Stanley Reed

Is a short holiday season ‘the fright before Christmas’?

How did the week of Thanksgiving become so entwined in consumerism?

It may have started with Franklin D. Roosevelt. The 32nd president of The United States was so eager to jump-start the economy in 1938 that he moved the holiday’s official date up a week in order to create more shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

It was a bold move — and unpopular. The nation had been celebrating Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November ever since Abraham Lincoln declared the day a federal holiday following the battle of Gettysburg.

Roosevelt reversed course in 1941 and returned Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of the month, where it remains.

The holiday’s late arrival this year is worrying retailers since it means there are 26 shopping days before Christmas, six fewer than last year.

The abbreviated shopping period is one of reason Morgan Stanley analysts labeled their 2019 holiday retail outlook “The fright before Christmas” and are expecting a less than stellar shopping season.

— Michael Corkery

Santa’s list is packed with everyday items

Black Friday may be known as the raucous kickoff to gift-giving season (especially this year, as Christmas and Hanukkah overlap), but some people aren’t actually shopping for loved ones.

Instead, Wirecutter readers’ lists seem squarely rooted in everyday products. Some of the items our readers have asked us to look out for deals on: baby gates, electric toothbrushes and a garage door opener. And the retailers know this. The Wirecutter Deals team has found excellent pricing on everything from shower curtains to fly traps to computer cables that don’t exactly scream gift. Though, perhaps, nothing says “I love you” like a dongle.

— Annemarie Conte

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Original Post from McAfee Author: McAfee

As we gear up to feast with family and friends this Thanksgiving, we also get our wallets ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have practically become holidays themselves, as each year they immediately shift our attention from turkey and pumpkin pie to holiday shopping. Let’s take a look at these two holidays, and how their popularity can impact users’ online security.

The Origins of the Holiday Shopping Phenomenon

You might be surprised to find out that the term “Black Friday” was first associated with a financial crisis, not sales shopping. According to The Telegraph, the U.S. gold market crashed on Friday, September 24, 1869, leaving Wall Street bankrupt. It wasn’t until the 1950s that Black Friday was used in association with holiday shopping when large crowds of tourists and shoppers flocked to Philadelphia for a big football game. Because of all the chaos, traffic jams, and shoplifting opportunities that arose, police officers were unable to take the day off, coining it Black Friday. It wasn’t until over 50 years later that Cyber Monday came to fruition when Shop.org coined the term as a way for online retailers to participate in the Black Friday shopping frenzy.

Growth Over the Years

Since the origination of these two massive shopping holidays, both have seen incredible growth. Global interest in Black Friday has risen year-over-year, with 117% average growth across the last five years. According to Forbes, last year’s Black Friday brought in $6.2 billion in online sales alone, while Cyber Monday brought in a record $7.9 billion.

While foot traffic seemed to decrease at brick-and-mortar stores during Cyber Week 2018, more shoppers turned their attention to the internet to participate in holiday bargain hunting. Throughout this week, sales derived from desktop devices came in at 47%, while mobile purchases made up 45% of revenue and tablet purchases made up 8% of revenue.

So, what does this mean for Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping this holiday season? Adobe Analytics projects that Thanksgiving and Black Friday will bring in $12.3 billion in online sales and Cyber Monday will bring in $9.48 billion. If one thing’s for sure, this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are shaping up to be the biggest ones yet for shoppers looking to snag some seasonal bargains. However, the uptick in online shopping activity provides cybercriminals with the perfect opportunity to wreak havoc on users’ holiday fun.

Holiday Bargain or Shopping Scam?

Inherently, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are pretty similar, with the main difference being where users choose to shop. While Black Friday sees a mix of online and in-store shoppers, most consumers will participate in Cyber Monday sales from their mobile phones or desktops at work. Plus, with mobile Cyber Week sales increasing year over year, it’s clear that users are gravitating towards the convenience of shopping on the go. However, the increase in mobile online shopping also creates an opportunity for cybercriminals to exploit. The latest McAfee Mobile Threat Report revealed a huge increase in device backdoors, fake apps, and banking trojans. With more and more users turning to their smartphones this holiday shopping season, they are in turn potentially subject to a wide variety of mobile cyberattacks.

Another threat to users’ holiday shopping sprees? Rushed purchases. Thanks to a later Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday falls on December 2nd, leaving users with one less shopping week between Turkey Day and Christmas. Because of this time crunch, many users are feeling pressured to get their holiday shopping done in time and might forego some basic cybersecurity practices to speed up the online shopping process. This includes not checking online retailer authenticity, falling for fake Black Friday deals, and hastily giving up more personal information than necessary, all in the interest of jumping on a sale before it’s too late.

How to Stay Secure This Holiday Season

In the blur of the holiday shopping frenzy, how can you help protect your personal information online? Before whipping out your credit card this Black Friday and Cyber Monday, check out these cybersecurity tips to ensure your holiday shopping spree goes off without a hitch:

Look for the lock icon. Secure websites will start with “https,” not just “http.” Double-check that you see the padlock icon right next to the web address in your browser. If you don’t, it’s best to avoid making purchases on that website.

If you can help it, shop on your desktop. Although shopping on a smartphone allows you to make purchases on the go, this opens you up to threats like mobile malware and fake shopping apps. Additionally, URLs are often shortened on mobile devices, making it easier for scammers to trick you with clone websites.

Ask the critics. Cybercriminals will often create fake websites to try and exploit users looking to get in on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday action. If you’re unsure about a product or retailer, read lots of reviews from trusted websites to help see if it’s legitimate.

Be on the lookout for suspicious websites. Misspellings, grammatical errors, and poor website design are often a sign that it’s a rip off of a legitimate site. If the site looks a little rough around the edges, this is probably a sign that it was created by a cybercriminal.

Don’t be too optimistic. Beware of bogus Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals with fake “free” offers. If you spot an ad online that seems too good to be true, chances are it probably is.

Use a comprehensive security solution. Using a solution like McAfee LiveSafe can help your holiday shopping spree go smoothly by providing safe web browsing, virus protection, and more. Click here for 50% off so you can shop knowing your devices and data are secured.

Looking for more security tips and trends? Be sure to follow @McAfee Home on Twitter, listen to our podcast Hackable? and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.

The post It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Holiday Shopping: Secure Your Black Friday & Cyber Monday Purchases appeared first on McAfee Blogs.

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Go to Source Author: McAfee It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Holiday Shopping: Secure Your Black Friday & Cyber Monday Purchases Original Post from McAfee Author: McAfee As we gear up to feast with family and friends this Thanksgiving, we also get our wallets ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.