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Very early on in Tim’s friendship with Mina, he learned something about her.
She LOOOOOOOOVED shopping.
Whenever the two of them would go to a store together, Mina would walk out with AT LEAST 5 bags filled to the brim with whatever has caught her eye. (And that wasn’t a hard thing to do. Mina liked pretty much anything cute, or colorful, or both.)
It wasn’t a problem when they were kids, because the things that caught her eyes were (usually) cheap. Occasionally her eyes would linger on something a bit pricey, but that was fine, it didn’t happen too often.
But as she got older, her interests changed. She started to be more interested in clothes, jewelry, perfume, makeup.
And Tim had learned (through his MANY trips with Mina to the mall) that makeup was EXPENSIVE.
It didn’t help that Mina had absolutely no self control whatsoever. She was a hardcore hedonist. If she liked it, she bought it, end of story.
He didn’t realize how much of a problem it was, until one week. Mina must have been going through something because they had gone to the mall 3 (THREE) times that week, and each time she spent at least 200.
But what really, really made her spending habits even worse was that half of the time, she didn’t even pay! 9 times out of 10 some stranger (someone she’d usually talked to briefly) would come up and offer to pay!
So when you give a hedonist with zero self control the ability to get the things they want for free, you get a girl with a VERY VERY VEEEEERY bad shopping addiction.
They were at the mall again today, and once again Mina made it her duty to buy at least half of the store.
"Oh my god Tim, look at this new lip oil! It’s SO cute!" She squealed, doing the little jumping in place thing she did when she was excited. If Tim didn’t hadn’t known her for multiple year and built a (semi) immunity to her charms, he would’ve bought anything she wanted too. "I’m definitely getting it!"
Tim sighed, this was becoming in genuine problem.
He watched her go to a different aisle, even though her bag was already full of things she DEFINITELY didn’t need.
Who was he kidding? This was already a problem and he was determined to solve it.
.
..
…
Once again, Mina and Tim were at the mall. This time though, Tim had a plan.
Mina hadn’t been to this mall before so she didn’t know the layout. That meant that she wouldn’t immediately be able to find her usual stores. (Sephora, Ulta, Pandora, etc, etc.)
So, as long as he made sure to avoid all of those stores, she wouldn’t be able to buy anything. He just had to make sure that she was properly distracted, otherwise she’d get bored and look at a map to find her go-to’s. (He could easily do that with food and sweets)
"Oooh!" Sung Mina, pulling Tim out of his planning. "We should go to this one place I’ve heard of, I heard they have REALLY good hotpot!"
The restaurant was on the second floor and (most) of her usual stores were on the 4th floor. He just had to make sure she didn’t see any of the stragglers.
Whenever they were about o walk by one he made sure to distract her.
When they were about to approach an Ultra, Tim picked up his walking pace.
"Oh, look!" Said Tim, pointing in the direction of the stores across from them.
"It’s a lego store, hey, we should build legos together the next time we hang out!" He suggested, grabbing her hand to make the two of them walk faster.
"Oooh, that’s a good idea! I have been seeing lots of lego bouquets online. They do look cute…" Mina paused, thinking. "…yeah, we should!"
She was so focused on his distraction that she hadn’t even noticed that they’d walked RIGHT past one of her favorites. Tim chuckled. This would be almost too easy.
…
It didn’t work.
The second they finished eating at the hotpot place, somehow, despite the fact that it was on an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT FLOOR, Mina had spotted a Sephora, Pandora, AND a Forever 21, all in a row. (And she wasn’t even wearing her glasses!!)
She squealed, yelling something about how she "NEEDED" to get the new limited edition strawberry—blueberry—something-berry—every berry flavored lip tinting, hydrating, plumping, oil.
So, of course, Mina dragged him up the stairs and Mina got strangers to buy her a bunch of things she definitely need.
Tim sighed as he saw the total, and he felt like sighing again when a stranger came up and offered to pay. Looks like he’d have to come up with a different solution. (At least he got to see her smile.)
.
..
…
The next time they went to the mall, it was their usual one. So making sure she didn’t see any of her usuals was impossible. He had a different idea this time though.
You see, Mina thought Tim was smart. (And to be fair, he is) So, Mina was very likely to listen to him when he suggested something, especially if he gave reasoning.
He’d tried it before, (a million times almost) he’d always try to convince her not to buy something or another, but whenever he was about to say something, he’d look into her dark brown eyes, shining with happiness, and his resolve was shaken. Then he’d close his mouth and shake his head, deciding that she could have her fun.
But that wouldn’t happen this time! This time would be different! His resolve wouldn’t be shaken and Mina wouldn’t (make someone else) spend over $200 dollars!
He nodded to himself as they walked into the Sephora, yep, he was determined to make this work.
Mina picked up a lip glaze. (Or was it an oil or a gloss? Tim could just barely tell the difference.) She loved them, he noticed, she always left with at least 5 every time they came to the store.
"What do you think of this one? Cute, right?" She asked, swatching they shade on both his skin and hers.
"It’s cute…" Tim agreed, taking great care not to look at her. "But don’t you have the same one at home?"
Mina looked up at him, her brow quirked. Tim struggled against his urge to look. "No I don’t." She said simply.
"Well," Tim started. "You don’t have that exact one, but you do have the same shade in a different brand, right? The Haus Labs one in the 'Persimmon' shade?"
Though Mina wanted to just ignore him and buy it anyways, she could never fully deny Tim. (Not without hearing him out.)
"Well, yeah, you’re right. But they’re from different brand, so they probably have different formulas and undertones. So they can serve different purposes."
Tim was about to argue against her, but he could see her moving to put in in her bag, and he knew that he had already lost.
He sighed, looked like that would work either.
.
..
…
Yet again, Tim found himself accompanying Mina at the mall.
And yet again, they were in a makeup store and Mina was buying at least half of the stock.
Tim groaned, since his last attempt, he hadn’t come up with another solution.
Mina glanced at him, tilting her head. "Is something wrong?" She questioned, grabbing his arm to swatch an eye shadow.
"No, nothings wrong it’s just…" He paused, not sure if he wanted to continue. "You spend lots of money on makeup, and most of it is stuff you don’t need."
Feeling attacked, Mina opened her mouth to speak but Tim continued.
"You have this exact shade at your home, you wore it last week when we went to that park for our picnic!" Mina took a breath, about to speak. "And don’t say they were different brands!" Mina closed her mouth. "Most brands use the same formula for stuff anyway, weren’t you just talking about how you found a 'dupe' for an out of stock lipgloss with basically the same formula?"
Mina stayed silent for a bit, scanning his face before sighing. "…If it really bothers you that much, I won’t buy it." Said Mina, putting back the sample.
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah, I mean, I guess you’re right, I don’t really need it. I haven’t needed anything I’ve bought for years, I just shop because it makes me happy. Well, it makes me happy for like 2 seconds, anyways."
Mina paused before looking back at Tim. "I’m still getting all of the other stuff though."
Mina didn’t think he minded though, as she would leave with only five items. (And even though those 5 items still totaled to literally 90 dollars, Tim counted that as a victory!) In fact, Tim was so happy that she’d cut down her spending, he bought her a few cake pops to reward her.
Mina chewed on the cake pop happily as they walked out of the mall. "You know, if you rewarded me every time I didn’t go over board on shopping, I’d probably cut down on my spending."
Tim’s eyes lit up. Of course! Why didn’t he think of that?
Mina would forget about her throw away comment the second the made it home, but Tim wouldn’t, certainly not.
.
..
…
It was time for the Wayne Family (and family friends) to spend some time together.
And this time, the hangout spot would be (one of) Mina’s favorite place(s) in the world!
So, once more, Mina and Tim, were at the mall, only this time, Tim wouldn’t be accompanying her.
Instead, Mina would be spending her time with her favorite girls, Steph and Cass.
Tim watched as the group of girls headed off to a different section of the mall, and this time, he didn’t feel the need to remind her of her spending limit, he only gave her a smile (which she returned) and they went their separate ways.
When all of the Waynes returned from their shopping, instead of Mina holding her average of 8 bags, she was only holding 5.
Immediately, Mina went up to Tim. (And Tim could hear some chuckles from his family, which he ignored) but instead of giving him a hug, or at least saying "Hi" like everyone expected, she only held out her hand.
Tim quirked a brow. "What?"
"I spent lest then 200." She said, (as if that was any more clear) making a grading motion with her hands.
Despite her vague answer, Tim seemed to understand her, as he pulled out a cake pop from one of the bags he was holding.
"Good job." He praised as Mina munched on her cake pop happily.
She nodded before going back to Steph and Cass.
Tim’s brothers, (who were standing next to him) were left confused as they walked out of the mall with the others.
"What was that about?" Asked Dick, eying Tim suspiciously. Tim’s other brothers waited for an answer as well.
"Oh. Well, Mina’s a really bad shopaholic, she always spend like 1000 dollars whenever she’s at the mall." Tim’s brothers nodded, unsurprised by Mina’s spending tendencies. "So, whenever she spends less than 200 dollars, I give her a cake pop."
All three brothers gave their own looks of disapproval.
"You conditioned your girlfriend?" Questioned Jason incredulously.
Tim only shrugged (ignoring the fact that Mina was most definitely not his girlfriend) and Damian scoffed in response.
"Can’t say I’m surprised. Drake has always been a weirdo when it comes to romantic relationships." Said Dami, speeding up to catch up with Duke. (Tim once again ignored the comment on the totally non-existent romance between him and his best friend)
BONUS:
Tim quickly found out that Mina’s spending habits were only (somewhat) good when he was around when he got a text from Mina’s best friends, Nico, informing him that Mina had once again spent a jaw dropping amount at the mall.
He sighed as he thanked Nico.
Bad habits die hard, he supposed.