The mall wasn't that far, only twenty minutes from Henry's house, it shouldn't have been that bad or anything. Like most things with this group, easier said than done. As it was, it was the longest twenty minutes of anyone's life.

Henry drove, it was his van after all, and Susie and Alison sat up front again like the last time, and also like the last time, the back was crowded with men. Unlike last time, everyone was awake and uncomfortable. For a while, the back was quiet hissing of arguing, and thankfully it stayed that quiet way for the most part and only started to escalate just as they were pulling into the parking lot.

Everyone got out of the van and started walking towards the store. The mall meant multiple clothes stores, even a thrift store, which they were thinking might be the best one to start at.

Of course, they got some interesting looks in the parking lot, a nearby little kid, probably around five or so, asked his mother why one of the group was missing feet and being carried. In response to that, Sammy groaned and hid his face in Wally's shoulder, but Wally just laughed slightly. The mother hushed her son and everyone continued walking.

The thrift store was a fairly big one with an extensive clothing section, thankfully. Everything was separated by gender and size, so everyone quickly split into groups to find the clothing they wanted. Susie and Alison went to the ladies' section, naturally, while the boys separated by size range for the most part, Wally, Sammy, Grant, and Shawn being one group while Henry, Joey, Norman, and Thomas were another.

"Never in a million years would I have thought the two of us would start working together," Alison stated as she skimmed the rack of shirts. She pulled out a light blue one that was a little frillier with eyelets and tiny ruffles flaring at the collar and sleeves, little details embroidered into it. She held it to herself and stared at her reflection in the metal rack, unsure if she liked the color.

"You look great, Allie," Susie assured her. She laughed slightly. "I remember when the studio first started, Wally made a joke and Sammy hated him for a week, but then they started getting along," she explained. "I guess we're becoming a lot like those two."

"I think we had more reason to hate each other than a simple joke," Alison commented.

"Let's not discuss the past, let's just get back to shopping," Susie said, pulling out a coral top with rhinestones sewn in a pattern on the front. "After all, Alice is alive now, she doesn't need a vocalist, there's no need to fight over who's the better voice anymore."

"That's true," Alison agreed.

.~.~.~.

"Of course you pick something nerdy," Wally muttered, looking over the shirt Grant picked out. It was a blue polo shirt with a white collage and a front pocket that had some pun or something made of math on it. "Only you would show the world that you're an accountant," he sighed.

"I like numbers," Grant stated with a shrug. "As do you, if I'm not mistaken, you did study engineering, after all."

"And dropped out," Wally replied. He pulled out a navy blue tank in a fairly thin size, "cause of death, slow wifi" was written on the front in white letters with a skull in the middle of it. "Sammy, I found a shirt that screams you," he said, handing the shirt off to Sammy. "Find anything, Shawn?"

Shawn turned to him, holding up a pair of blue jeans and a Halloween shirt that was lime green with black spider webs and purple spiders all over it. "It's tacky and I love it," he stated. "The stitch work's a little cheap, but not bad." He handed the clothes over to Sammy, who was sitting on an ottoman, folding and watching all the clothing.

Wally continued to shift through the rack until he looked up on top of it. It was like the heaven's just opened up and light was raining down upon the blessed shirts. "Jackpot," he breathed, smiling widely at it. "Gentlemen, pick your fandom."

.~.~.~.

Henry had left them a while ago, going to search for household items since he didn't need clothing. But he did have a group of missing humans and cartoons living in his house now, and that was something to go shopping for.

For starters, he wanted to get the Butcher Gang some things to entertain them with as well as get them a place to sleep, since the last couple nights they slept in the weirdest places they could. Now, all the toons were a bit like children in some respect, so he started in the children's section.

Not long later, he picked out two play tents, a few toys, a couple building kits, and some clothing for small children for five out of six of the toons, since Boris was taller than the others. He also picked up books for just about all ages, including one about reading braille and one actually in braille.

With the haul for the toons picked out, he started looking around for other things for his new roommates, soon completing a small haul for that, too.

A checker was kind enough to keep everything for him while he went to check on everyone else. Susie and Alison were amassing a nice collection of clothes, shoes, and a few accessories. Joey, Thomas, and Norman had a decent amount of clothes as well and were working on a pair of shoes each. Then he got to the last group.

He was greeted with Wally smiling widely at him as he held up a stack of graphic t-shirts, some were clearly things like anime, superheros, and a variety of band shirts that were probably mostly Sammy's. "We hit the motherload!" Wally informed him happily.

Sammy looked up in his vague direction and finished folding a pair of jeans, sitting in on the stack of the rest of the clothing that sat next to him on the ottoman. "Please tell me there's a little black in that pile," he requested.

"You need to wear more colors, Sammy," Wally replied. "You've been nothing but black and white for years, none of us have, it's time you branch out to blues or something."

"Wally's right," Susie agreed as she and Alison joined the group, the two other groups returning to merge together again. "And I promise you he picked out some good clothes for you exactly in your style but a little more colorful," she assured him.

"You guys pick out some shoes and bring everything to the checkout, okay?" Henry told them, going back towards the checkout counter to begin buying everything as he had a feeling that it would take a while.

Sure enough, it did. What felt like an hour but was probably about ten minutes later, everyone had new clothes, coats, and shoes including the toons but excluding Sammy on the shoes part. After that, they did a quick trip to the van to load up the shopping bags then back to the mall for lunch.

.~.~.~.

"Here you go everyone, eat up," Henry said, sitting the last pizza on the group's table. Seeing as it was such a large group of people, they split up again so about half the people were at one table and the other at another. He left them to go sit at the table with Joey, Grant, Thomas, and Norman. The other table consisted of Wally, Sammy, Shawn, Susie, and Alison.

Wally quickly took a piece of pizza a shoved it in his mouth, taking a bite and sighing happily. "I think I just died and went to heaven," he stated.

"Eat with your mouth closed like a normal person," Sammy told him, carefully picking up his piece to take a small bite. "Never realized how much I'd miss pizza, or food in general really," he commented.

"It's pretty good," Alison agreed.

"In the studio, all we had to eat was Bacon Soup and ink," Susie added. "It's wonderful to have pizza again."

"We should have marketed bacon pizza instead of soup," Wally agreed with a laugh. He sat his pizza down and turned to look to the side of the table, sighting a small, plastic container filled with candy hearts and a sign that read "Free! Happy Valentines Day!"

"Cool, free Conversation Hearts," he stated, smiling excitedly.

"Conversation hearts? They're called Sweet Hearts," Sammy corrected him.

"I've only heard Conversation Hearts before," Wally argued.

"What world do you live in in-which-?" Sammy started to argue before getting cut off by Susie.

"Let's not fight over candy, boys," Susie sighed.

"They've been called both, it's fine," Alison agreed

"It's whatever you want to call it," Susie stated. "Sweet Hearts, Conversation Hearts, it's whatever."

"Let's just go back to appreciating pizza," Wally said with a smile

"Fine," Sammy agreed.

{~ I had meant for this to be done by Valentines Day... obviously that didn't happen seeing as the fic itself wasn't even posted. Anyway, the argument in here is inspired by an iJustine video (Valentines Day Cake Fight), which had inspired me to look up the name of the candy hearts.

Their copyrighted name is 'Sweet Hearts', they were created by the New England Confectionery Company (now Necco) in 1847 and words were added in 1866. They can also be called 'Conversation Hearts', so technically both arguments are true. Also, not to be confused with the similar candy from the UK called 'Love Hearts', which are circular with hearts and words printed on them and are inspired by something from the Victorian-erra.

Anyway, thanks for reading the fic and this kinda long author's note ^-^ ... would say I'm sorry for how long it is, but I'm actually not because candy facts ^-^~!}