12DoD #11: Buying Christmas Manga With Natsuki

"Can you go any faster Anon? We have to get there on time!" Natsuki impatiently says from her seat. We're currently stuck in stand still traffic trying to get into the city.

"Well I can't exactly make this traffic move any quicker Natsuki!" I snap back at her. She goes silent and I turn my eyes to see her looking upset. "I'm sorry Natsuki...I shouldn't have gotten mad. It's just this Christmas traffic is aggravating. Can you forgive me?" I reach a hand across the center console and offer it to her.

Natsuki takes my hand and holds in warmly, then pulls it up to her cheek, pressing into it. "I guess...you're the one taking me to get this new Parfait Girls volume anyway." Natsuki continues holding my hand to her face for a moment and lets go as traffic moves forward some and we continue onward.

Without much else to say to break our little silence, I turn on the radio and allow Christmas music to pour through the speakers. We're stuck in traffic for the next hour, relaxed by the dullness of the cars around us and the songs playing. Eventually we make it to our destination, the mall.

"Are you serious!? There's not a single parking spot in this entire fucking place?" Natsuki's right, we've been circling for several minutes and it's nothing but empty spots as far as we can see. "Oh wait there's one!" My eyes dart where she's pointing but as soon as I see it she's already spoken again. "Fucking double parkers, Agghhhhh!" Natsuki lets out a cry of frustration and falls back into her seat.

"We'll just have to circle until someone leaves I guess..." I say, earning a groan from Natsuki.

"But that could take forever! By now the line at the manga store is probably huge! There's only like 150 copies of the Christmas edition at each store and they're gonna be out!"

"Look, someone's leaving." I point at a little old woman who's leaving the store, pushing a cart full of items she would probably take an hour to load in her car. "She's heading for that car right there. I'm going to get out and help her pack it up, you hop the console and drive the car into the spot as soon as she pulls out okay?"

"Wait what? I've never driven your car befo-"

"Great! Gotta go!" I interrupt and dash out of the driver side door, meeting the old woman next to her trunk. "Hello ma'am, do you need any help with your bags?"

A smile spreads across her wrinkled face. "Why thank you young man, I could certainly use some help."

Nodding at her I begin to load some of her supplies into the trunk after she opens it, listening to her talk as I go.

"I really do appreciate this young man, none of my children or grandchildren would come help with this shopping trip...they were all to busy." the old woman says, her voice sounding weak for a moment. "But it's fine, I'll goo home and wrap these gifts for them and then they'll wish they'd have come."

"For what it's worth ma'am, if I was your grand kid I'd help." I say as I place the final bag inside the trunk.

"Oh well thank you young man. I've got to go now, have a merry Christmas!" the woman waves as she climbs into her car.

"Merry Christmas to you too!" I say just before her door closes and she slowly backs out of her parking spot.

As soon as the old woman's car clears the area Natsuki pulls my car into the now empty spot and jumps out as soon as she shuts it off, tossing me the keys as she makes a break for the door.

"Come on Anon let's go!" I remotely lock the doors as I begin to race after her, catching up pretty quickly due to her tiny little legs.

We make it into the doors quickly and are immediately slowed by the throngs of people milling about the mall, making running impossible. I take Natsuki's hand in mine so we don't get separated and spearhead our march though the crowd, clearing the way as politely as possible. We take an escalator up to the 2nd floor which thankfully has less people, allowing us to go faster.

"We're almost there, just right around this corner and we should be fi-" Natsuki stops both her sentence and legs as we round the corner and the manga shop comes into view. "...the line's out the door" Natsuki says defeated, like she's already given up on getting the special edition manga.

"Maybe most of them are here for something else? They're not all necessarily going to be buying Parfait Girls...let's get in line and see if we can get a copy." my words ring hollow of course, the line is full of otaku wearing wearing a variety of much too small shirts with the Parfait Girls logo on it, as well as several wearing some very unflattering cosplays of the girls from the manga.

"Ugh, I hate this fanbase." Natsuki quietly says to me. "They smell bad. Nothing like pastries..."

I raise my hand up to Natsuki's face to pinch her nose closed, giving her a smile like I'm fulfilling some kind of request. She slaps my hand away and pouts at me for playing with her like that. We wait in the line for quite a while, and eventually we're finally inside the store doors. I've been to this place before so  most of the decor is pretty familiar, instead I preoccupy myself by observing all the other people in line and Natsuki herself, who keeps peeking around to see how long the line is and if people are buying Parfait Girls or not. Deciding to ease her worries I place a hand on her shoulder and whisper into her ear.

"Sweetie just calm down, you'll get your copy no matter what, trust me."

Natsuki gives me a quizzical look. "What do you mean Anon? Do you have a plan?"

I'm suddenly very interested in the decor of the shop, so interested I just can't reply to Natsuki's question. Now I notice that a new cutout of Minori from Parfait Girls dressed in a Santa outfit has been added next to the front register. I should see if I can get that for Natsuki too, she can keep it in her apartment. While I was absorbed in ignoring Natsuki's attempts to ask me questions, the line has moved up even more and now there's just 3 more people in front of us, 2 of which get their books and leave and then the 3rd is about to buy his.

"Sorry man, just sold the last copy of Parfait Girls, but we have other stuff if you want that." the cashier with long shaggy hair says, leaning down on the counter with his chin resting on his hand.

"What! That's impossible! You're supposed to have 150 copies and I counted you handing out 149, now where's my copy!" the customers nasally voice grows agitated.

"Listen buddy either we got one too few or you counted wrong cause this box is empty." the cashier shakes the empty box that contained the manga to display his point. "Now either buy something or leave, we're pretty busy today so I can't have you holding up the line."

"Fine! But just you wait, I'm going to tell everyone 256chan about this! The Parfait Girls General will fall upon you like wolves!" The customer proclaims as he shakes his fist and leaves.

Natsuki sighs sadly next to me. "Let's just go Anon...they don't have any more copies." she turns to leave and I catch her by the shoulder.

"Wait, I've got this." I give her a reassuring nod and turn to the cashier, ready to work my magic. "What's up Riku?" I say nonchalantly.

"Oh hey! Whassup Anon, here to pick up that copy of Parfait Girls?" Riku reaches under the counter, already knowing the answer.

"Yep." I reply simply and Riku hands my the book, which I promptly hand to Natsuki.

"W-what? How did you do that Anon?" Natsuki stares dumbfounded from myself, to the book, to Riku.

"Well that's what happens when you have friends at a manga store, he let me pay in advance." I turn back to Riku and pull out my wallet. "Now, how much would this cutout cost?"

"Hmmmmmm, bout 75 bucks I guess. It's kinda limited."

"Sold." I hand him my card and grab the cutout while he swipes it. "I'll take this and you hold onto the book, okay Natsuki?"

Natsuki gives a slightly stunned nod and I take my card back. We both l.eave the manga store and stay silent thought are walk back to the car, no longer in the hurry we were before on the way in. Outside I carefully put the cutout in my backseat and return to the driver's seat, Natsuki is looking at me like she's about to say something.

"Thanks Anon...I haven't had many good Christmases before so this means a lot." Natsuki says.

"No worries, I'd do anything for you." I reach out and take her hand in mine.

Natsuki looks up at me and speaks."Then next time, tell me when you're going to pull a stunt like that so I don't worry so much!" she pouts at me.

"It was a Christmas surprise, now let's get home so we can read that together." I chuckle as I start to pull out of the parking space. "And no reading before we get back! I'm excited to read it too y'know?" I hear Natsuki shut the book quickly as I turn around.

"What? I wasn't doing anything!" she puts her hands up in weak denial.