High Point Mall OLEABE

GABE was back. Waiting for. OleABE. He was pretty hungry, too, so. He decided to try to get dinner out of one of those employees here in the food court.

But, uh. It didn't work, and he got rejected, and now he was doing his best to stay at a table out of that poor guy's sight.

Did leave him still hungry, though. He looked around for sign that his shopper was appearing.

He was here!

Hustling from the depths of the mall, Oleander was neck deep in plastic and paper bags, and clothing hung and wrapped. Some of them were draped over the bags. There was even a cowboy hat perched on his head. If Gabe didn't like it, he would happily take it. The rest of these clothes? Not entirely his style. Though he was willing to expand his horizons. Dark jean wouldn't look terrible on him... But he saved every receipt.

He peered over fabric mass, eyes franticly searching for his new vampire whatever. Client? People in the food court were eyeing him oddly.

"I'm here! A little late, oopsie." He strolled up to the table and tried to set everything down carefully. The hat rolled off of his head and slid across the table, and in the moment of blindness, a paper bag tipped over, spilling a number of rings out, saved from a noisy floor fate by the thick paper they were tied to.

WAS HE THOUGH. "Dude. I can't tell time," he lied, definitely donning a playful smirk for it. Gabe knew he was dumb sometimes! He felt it!

And now he could put his interest in Oleander's beating heart aside because! He saw clothing bags. And he was very interested. He made a grabby hand for the hat, but before he could put it on his head, also made a mid-air snatch for... rings on paper???

Oleander scrumbled a scoff while he fumbled with the pile of items. The ring went unnoticed, so he was trying to set everything out on the table. This one has shirts, pants,.....uhhh...where was the jewelry?

Oh! He followed the messy jewelry trail to Gabe grabbing at the rings. The little plastic zip tie held them in place and they simply jingled gently. Safe.

"Oo, nice catch." His hand clasped to his chest and he sank into an uncomfortable food court chair. The tines always knew how to press into his back in the most uncomfortable way. "Those little rings are yours. And all of this."

A side glance, a side smirk, and a "Thanks," was the cocky little response. But after that, he had to stand to properly take stock of everything he was looking at, rings still in hand.

"Dude. This stuff looks great," he gushed. Picked up one of the shirts, admiring the style and the quality. Fuck yeah. "You think they'll let me turn the bathroom into a fitting room?"

Look, Oleander was just glad to meet a vampire that didn't try to do the weird eye fuckery or vomit on him. And it felt good to be useful. And fun.

As Gabe picked over the items, Oleander felt a strange anticipation, like what if something didn't quite pass inspection? But...seemed good so far! He wouldn't overthink it.

Wiggling his shoulders, he got right back up from the chair. "They cannot stop us."

"My man," he praised for that response, laying the clothing over his arms, leading him to the restroom. "Was it fun? Like. I've never shopped for someone else, to be honest. I guess I don't even know what's like."

Despite putting him up to it.

Oleander wiggled along behind him, very excited for the mini fashion show impeding.

"I felt like a kid in a candy store, honestly." He adjusted the bags on his arms. "I shop for myself all the time, it's kind of boring and predictable. But this felt like a puzzle." And they were about to try the last piece.

That was cute. He was really, like, cute. For an older guy. Who... looked younger than he did!

"Well! I hope it never gets boring. Because I may," he wiggled his words as he opened the door for them to a frankly unexpectedly extremely clean bathroom, "just ask you to do this again."

Wandering to the handicap stall, he threw the clothing over the door, though he didn't really make an effort to close it. Whatever, they were both dudes!

It was pretty immaculate in here. Oleander wandered over to the sinks to lean against the counter, taking a brief second to pat the surface so he wouldn't get a puddle of water soaked into his shirt. Dry. "Really?" He questioned in a not over-enthusiastic way, but certainly surprised. He got half way through the thought "how many clothes does one person need?" before imagining the inside of his own closet. That shut it down very fast.

"Well, let's make sure you like what I got first." Oleander sat right at the edge of the door, not going out of his way to peek, but not exactly chastely averting his eyes either.

"Pshh," he grinned. Gabriel was stupid, but still nice enough to say he liked something even if he didn't.

And! To be honest, the first three shirts were not his favorites once he put them on. They were fine! Just not what he'd reach for unless his favorites were in the laundry basket. Still, he came out after he'd tossed on a new pair of pants and shoes, too, modeling them. That was more exciting, anyway.

Turning on the end of his invisible catwalk, his eyebrow rose. Upon coming face to face again, he asked, "Whatcha think?"