The glass case beckons, its surface glimmering in the cool air of the jewelery department, and Jenny tugs on his hand softly as she makes her way through the steady crowd of people to stand in front of it. She slips her gloves into her overcoat pocket, freeing up her other hand to brush a fingertip along the edge of the case. The watch is simplistic, not too expensive, but definitely out of her price range; a Swatch watch suits Dan well, but she won't shell out for something that he'll only look at to tell the time.
A soft sigh slips through her mouth, and Jenny looks back up at Nate, shrugging. "Just had to see," she explains, "but we can go now. Who's left on your list?"
Nate shrugs a bit. "The usual suspects," he answers, without particular enthusiasm. "Chuck, Blair, Serena. All awful to buy for."
She doesn't have the slightest inkling what to get Chuck, nor does she really want to think about it, so she shrugs and moves on to the next name. "Blair, huh?" Jenny gives him a quiet, appraising look. "You've always gotten her the classy, impersonal gift, haven't you?"
"When I tried to be thoughtful and original she wouldn't speak to me for a week," Nate answers wryly, and spares a moment to wonder what it says about her and about him that Jenny had jumped immediately to the cold but correct conclusion.
"Oh." She frowns slightly, squeezing his hand for some kind of comfort, though she doesn't know exactly what she's comforting him for. It just feels appropriate. "I was going to suggest a sort of.. personalized perfume. Something original, but still classy, that shows you wanted to get her something no one else could imitate."
There's a moment's silence. "You're way, way better at this than I am," he finally says, a little impressed and a little discouraged.
Jenny shrugs. "You get creative when you're making things from scratch," she admits softly. "I don't mind helping. It's the least I can do."
"Creative was never exactly encouraged, for me," Nate says. "Stay inside the lines, you know?"
She smiles, slightly. "You're not so bad when you color outside the lines, Archibald," Jenny reminds him, and her eyes light up as she claps her hands together, an idea striking. "Have you still got those early photographs you did of her? The negatives, at the very least?"
He looks briefly shifty. "As far as most people are concerned I don't even still have the camera."
"Most people, pft." Jenny waves a hand dismissively. "She can tell them it was done by a professional-- it's not like anyone would question it. Have one of the negatives professionally developed into a large piece, and frame it. That'd be a great present; I'm sure Blair would love it."
"Hm," he hums, mostly to himself, chewing on his bottom lip as he considers. "It's not too personal for an ex?"
She knows there's a line there, one she probably isn't helping him avoid with her suggestions, but somehow, it doesn't seem to matter. "You and Blair," Jenny tells him softly, "you and Blair and Chuck and Serena. You're past exes and relationships and all of that. You're you, and you.. can't help that. How could anything be too personal, with all you four have gone through?"
For a moment Nate just looks at her, stunned into silence and blue eyes rather wide. When he does speak, his voice is quiet and difficult to read. "I.... don't think anyone else has ever gotten that before," he tells her.
"How could I not get it, being as jealous of it as I am?" she replies, steady and honest even though there's a hint of nervousness in the words. Jenny squeezes his hand, still interlaced with hers, a little tighter, and leans up to press a kiss to his cheek. "Am I not supposed to get it?"
"People usually don't," Nate says, and he could say more, could explain all the little misunderstandings and misinterpretations, but right now he doesn't want to or need to. Instead he pulls her to him and kisses her, right in the middle of the store, an arm around her waist and his other hand still holding on to hers.
There is a quick flutter of eyelashes, a skip in her heartbeat from surprise, a catch in her breath, before Jenny relaxes and smiles against his mouth, pulling back with a warm flush along her cheekbones that can't be quite blamed on the temperature outside. "I like when you color outside the lines, Archibald," she murmurs quietly, smiling up at him.
"Mm, well." He leans down to steal another kiss, shorter and lighter. "It's not a bad feeling from my end, either."
"Why don't we knock out a gift for Serena, and then you can call it a day, hm?" She knows she ought to pull away, knows that, even though this is the season to be jolly, people will wreck the moment. She knows that this easy peaceful moment could be shattered so quickly with the shutter of a camera-phone. But Jenny doesn't quite want to; the moment is so easy, his arm holding her in and his presence warm against her.
"Sounds like a plan," he agrees, smiling a bit. "Her I actually have an idea for, there was a bracelet I caught her eyeing a couple weeks ago."
Her free hand comes up to rest against his chest, pushing playfully as she laughs. "To the bracelet, then. Make sure they wrap it so she doesn't automatically know what it is. Surprise is nice."
"The day I manage to surprise Serena is the day she hasn't been paying attention," he says, but his voice is light, more amusement than resignation.
"We'll have to work on that, then. Surprise is a very, very useful skill, indeed." She grins, half-dragging him away from the watch case to spur him on.
Nate lets her pull him along without protest– it's an experience he's long since gotten used to. "She just knows me too well."
Jenny just rolls her eyes. "So, this bracelet. Going to buy it or just talk about it? Walk the walk, Nate, come on."
"Don't give me that look, you," he says, elbow bumping lightly against her ribs as he scans the jewelry case for said bracelet.
"I'll give you any look I like," she scoffs, trailing her eyes along the long rows of jewelry. They are the sort of baubles Jenny has long since considered ornaments- for her, they are to be looked at, admired, occasionally held up to the light, but never taken home and used like everyday pieces. That Serena Van der Woodsen and those like her consider them to be little more than accessories does not grate quite as much as it used to, though it still stings.
"There it is." Nate indicates it with a flick of one finger, a chunky gold cuff. It's the sort of thing Serena likes, elegant but a little unusual, not like the dainty little bracelets most of the girls he knows wear. He pulls his wallet out of his pocket as the man behind the counter wraps it for him, hopes Jenny won't feel a need to comment at the casualness he's spending this much money with.
The cuff is pretty, in its own right, and Jenny admires it as the man wraps it up with a practiced hand. He gives her a look, and Jenny shakes her head just slightly. The bracelet isn't for her, she tells him. Too much, too extravagant. For Serena, it's dilute, hardly anything.
Jenny can't help but lean a little closer to Nate for a moment, resting her hand on his arm quietly.
Gift for Serena obtained, Nate links an arm with Jenny's as they walk out of the store together, presses a brief kiss to the top of her head. "Are we pressed for time, or do you want to walk around for a little bit?" he asks. "We could get hot chocolate, maybe. Check out the window displays."
"I'm all yours for today," she tells him. "Lead the way." Jenny doesn't really care what they do, so long as it's something simple. She likes these times, when it's just them and there isn't any sort of social fence around what they can and can't say or do. "I wonder if they have a Santa here anymore."
"No idea. We'll see, I guess." He lets go of her long enough to do the buttons of his coat back up as the December air hits them, then settles an arm loosely around her shoulders. "All mine, hm," Nate says, a hint of teasing in his tone. "I think I like the sound of that."
Jenny laughs, leaning her head against his side as she pulls her coat tighter around her waist. "Is that so? And what, exactly, are you planning on doing about it, sir?"
Nate quirks a playful little smile at her in return. "Not sure yet. Got any ideas?"
"A cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream sounds perfect, if you catch my drift," she teases, her voice affecting that innocent sort of tone, but hardly believable. Jenny is no actress.
The smell of coffee and chocolate and overpriced bakery goods hit her, and Jenny closes her eyes for a moment and smiles as she takes in the scent. She's been getting used to house coffee- the only thing Vanessa will agree to give her on the house at the gallery- but Jenny can never resist truly good brews. She imagines she looks a little ridiculous, with her head tilted back, eyes closed, mouth just the slightest bit open to breathe in, out, in the scent of the cafe.
"I'll wait in line while you get a table, if you tell me what you want," he offers, smiling a little.
"I don't mind waiting," she says immediately, but smiles and nods anyway. "But, uh, a hot chocolate. That's all." Jenny looks around; the cafe is unsurprisingly busy today, and it looks as if all the tables are full.
"Alright." Nate shrugs a bit. "You can wait with me if you'd rather. Just thought you might want to sit after all the walking around."
She has to smile at the gallantry, but shakes her head. "I'm alright, and besides, I'd rather stand with you than sit by myself."
"Good, then," he says simply, smiling in return as they step into line.
Jenny nods, threading her fingers through his hand quietly and giving them a squeeze. There is a moment of silence before she pipes up again. "Did you ever get a picture with Santa when you were little?"
Nate glances at her with faint trepidation. "Some, yeah. Why?"
"I never did," she tells him with a slight shrug, "and I was thinking about getting one sometime. To make up for it."
"Really, never?" It seems weird to Nate, like the kind of thing normal families did that she would've done for ages, the kind of thing that he might not have. "Huh."
"My mom called it 'pandering to commercial holidayism', I remember." Jenny laughs. "I just wanted the candy cane."
"Well, see, we're all about pandering to commercialism in my family," Nate says with a roll of his eyes, but it's good-natured. "We can go if you like."
"Oh, no, we don't have to. I just saw a sign in the store, it made me think." She shrugs. "It'd probably be weird, a high school girl sitting on Santa's lap."
Nate cocks his head at her. "Maybe. Know what you're wishing for, yet?"
"You are so transparent," she dead-pans. "I told my dad I wanted world peace. Think the Archibald credit line extends that far?"
He just laughs. "Considering there's not usually even peace between all the Archibalds? I have my doubts."
"What a shame. I guess I'll never get my Christmas wish now." Jenny smiles warmly up at him, shaking her head. "But honestly, I don't even have a list. I've got what I want, right now, for the most part."
Nate gives her hand a squeeze, but whatever reply he might have made is forestalled when the reach the front of the line and he gives their orders to the clerk.
Jenny can't help but roll her eyes at the timing, waiting patiently as he pays- eventually, she tells herself, she will argue and pay for something herself- before they sidle over to wait for their drinks. "You were saying?"
"I was saying nothing, because I so don't know how to reply to that without getting un-guyishly sappy," Nate answers, "and you don't want that."
Jenny does her best to affect a pout, though she can barely hide that bright smile. "Oh, please, now I'm dying to know what sappy thoughts are lurking behind that puppy exterior."
"You'll just have to be curious, then," Nate murmurs.
"That is so not fair," she retorts. "C'mon, whisper it in my ear. It'll be our secret."
The corners of his lips quirk. "And what's in it for me?"
"If you're asking me to pick, you're not going to get the answer you want," Jenny murmurs, nudging him. "C'mon, tell me."
Nate slants a sidelong glance at her and presses her hot chocolate into her hand. "Just that, very possibly, I've been sort of thinking the same."
She beams at him, taking a sip of her hot chocolate and letting the liquid sit in her mouth a moment before swallowing. "Good answer," Jenny murmurs before tugging on his hand to pull him back out onto the street.
"I wasn't aware it was a test," Nate says mildly.
"Life is a test, and you're passing with flying colors," she assures him, leaning up on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek.
"You must be the only one who thinks so," he answers, but sways into her a bit, closer.
Jenny just laughs, wrapping her free arm around his neck. "I'm the only one that matters, obviously." She is laughing, her lips brushing against his skin repetitively, barely a hint of pressure as she sways on the spot.
Nate makes a faint noise that might be agreement in the back of his throat and turns his head so her lips are on his instead of his cheek. He's not quite as restrained as Jenny, but the hand not holding his hot chocolate merely rests on her shoulder, doesn't pressure or demand.
The laughter bubbles over, her mouth still open, into his, and Jenny can't help but take the moment for what it's worth. It's not often that Jenny takes the reins, and even though she's technically not doing so now, it is enough of a leap to send a nervous thrill through her.
Nate really doesn't want to break the kiss, but he does so eventually, rests his head against hers for a brief moment, eyes closed. Just a moment.
She smiles softly, a little out of breath, and nuzzles his cheek. "Want to take a walk?" she murmurs.
Walking isn't the first thing he can think of that he wants to do with her (actually at the moment it doesn't really make the top five), but he knows all that will have to wait. A better time, a better place. "Sure," Nate says. "Where to?"