WHO: Brandon and Leah WHAT: Raiding Christmas things. A bittersweet moment for sure. WHERE:Manhattan Mall. WHEN: 12/15/18, afternoon. RATING: TBD/medium for cursing? STATUS: In progress.
Christmas, much like Thanksgiving, had always been relatively special to Brandon before the world went to hell. He wasn't particularly religious and he'd always hated the baby in the manger, three wise men, lambs and sheep and blah-blah aspect to it, but he'd loved the feeling of family. How it was the time of year when you'd hear from long lost (and occasionally forgotten) relatives. Just the positive feeling in the air always used to make this his favorite time of year.
Now, though? Now there were so many bad feelings surrounding it that it was hard to get excited at all let alone be genuinely happy for it.
Still, here he was with Leah, in the middle of the Manhattan Mall, wandering through what was left of Walgreens and doing some Christmas "shopping." This used to be one of his favorite activities, to be honest. It had been tease-worthy, a man; a cop no less, loving Christmas shopping so much. But Brandon didn't care. He'd always loved his family and spending the time picking out things that he knew they'd love had always made him happy. Now it felt slightly more bitter than anything else, though. The stores were mostly empty, important supplies were running thin in the inner-city and Brandon wondered for the thousandth time when they'd need to start making supply runs outside of the city. For now, they clung to what they could find.
It wasn't a lot. Right now, in his pack he had a bottle of expensive rum that he'd managed to find for Regan and a nice, pretty new jacket in Kori's size. When Leah wasn't looking, he'd also managed to snag a pretty silver necklace with a pendant of marigolds on it. He wondered if it was such a good gift idea, but… he figured that if it wasn't, he'd deal with it. He'd deserve it.
He turned and looked at his big sister, a somewhat hopeful half-smile on his face. "Finding anything good, sis?"