eddie n.
[Among more presents that were left under their tree Christmas morning -- which did include his part of a matching pajama set (yes, Bandit and Matilda got theirs, too) and an air cannon gun -- in his stocking are two presents wrapped in cheery (and cheesy) Christmas paper: a gaming system that he can build on himself and a cute picture hand-drawn by Stephanie herself. There is only a simple card signed All my love, Stephanie.
Underneath all of that are three other presents, wrapped this time in shiny green paper. The first is a scrapbook. Their symbol -- a question-mark with bat ears -- painted in purple adorns the front. In it are a variety of keepsakes and the like from everything from the year. Movie tickets, a dime bag of sand from Hawaii, her key from the apartment in Bludhaven. Things like that. And pictures. So many pictures. Pictures he's seen and some he didn't even know existed. From Christmas morning in his apartment last year all the way up to last week in her apartment and everything in between. The second just looks like a small chunk of wood at first, but it's actually that same symbol on the scrapbook. The exact one they carved over Siobhan's door all those months ago.
The final present, tucked away all the way at the bottom, is placed in a tiny box and carefully wrapped in that shiny green paper with a purple ribbon around it. When he opens the box, he'll find a vintage, fully-functional compass, chain included inside as well. There's a note scrolled up among the gifts in her scribble:]
Eddie,
There's so much I can say, and so much more I want to say. Thank you for helping me out when you didn't have to, for letting me kill your computer that night, for holding my hand when I needed it the most. Thank you for making this the most important year of my life, and for filling it with so much love. (And, of course, for being a pain in the ass.) I don't regret a second of spending it with you, and I can't wait to spend more and more with you.