WHO: Addie and Cutter WHAT: Failed attempt to be sneaky and avoid gift- giving face to face WHERE: New York Public Library, the loft in the patents room WHEN: April 14th, early evening. RATING: Medium STATUS: In Progress.
The days away had done almost nothing to clear his head or help solving any of the problems that had presented themselves, but at least he had done some shopping. Cutter was wearing an almost new black leather jacket, his old parka now served as a comfy blanket for a dog he had crossed paths with several times until he had suspected that the animal was following him. There were a few more clothes in his possession now, just in case he wanted to wear something that hadn't been mended a few times already.
By now he regretted that he had informed Addie that he would be back, but he had to ask what her favorite colors were and it sort of slipped out with the question. Somehow he had figured that he favorite colors were on the list of things that had changed, along with the type of gift she'd like. So he had passed by the toy store and instead of fretting endlessly over which of these hideously mutated and girly colored ponies to get her this time he had gone straight to the jewelery. Just to fret even longer about what to get because he definitely didn't want to send any wrong signals. And to accomplish that he would have to understand how those things actually worked. Rings were out of the question, of course. Even he knew that that was something he should stay away from entirely. But other than that... After two hours filled with disgruntled sighs and angry mumblings he had had an epiphany. After that, things were fairly easy and he could concentrate on wrapping the gifts he had collected. For him Prembus had always been relatively easy because there were only two people he bought gifts for. Now it were three, technically, but in his world scheme Charlie belonged to Rodeo just like Addie had before, so they were sort of one person. It worked for him, at least most of the time.
Quietly climbing the stairs to the loft he sighed with relief as neither Addie nor their loftmate Bob were anywhere in sight. So he could sneak Addie's gift under her blanket, let her find it when she went to sleep and he could pretend he was already sleeping. or he would go and see if Rodeo was up to a few drinks and not come back until after she was asleep. Both were great plans and as long as he didn't run into her and had to be around when she unwrapped the damn thing it was fine. All the excitement on Addie's part and lack thereof on his, the thank yous and whatever else would happen would just be too much. He had never gotten any gifts from his parents and he wouldn't have minded if his friends wouldn't have started, either. Although, when he passed by his aisle and saw the safe, he had to chuckle because he had a pretty good idea how it got there. It was practical and not one of her pony pencils or bracelets she used to make and that he had actually worn. The boys had known better than to taunt him for it.
So he sneaked into the aisle she had set up camp in and lifted the corner of her blanket to slip in a package neatly wrapped in green paper. He had entertained the thought of adding a bow, but decided he had had enough grief with the wrapping itself and a bow would be just a tad too much. It contained two gifts: a movie he had stumbled upon more or less by accident, and a charm bracelet that had almost driven him over the edge. He had picked a few charms to start, thinking that they were pretty obvious: a horseshoe with a cowboy boot (there had been "I <3 Rodeo" charms but that would have been a little too obvious), a crown and boxing gloves, as well as a four leaf clover and a unicorn. Now that the gift was in place he just had to see that he got out again undetected and... When he got up and turned around his face fell. So much for his plans.