Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue.

[the_marshal]

WHO| Wyatt and OTA
WHAT| Christmas Shopping!
WHERE| Various Capitol shops
WHEN| After getting the Secret Santa notes
Warnings| None at the moment. Will edit if anything comes up!



Like all the others, Wyatt had discovered the note in his room directing him to come up with a gift for one of his fellow tributes for Christmas. Never mind that he'd never even met the "Iskierka" listed on the card, or even known there was any kind of gift exchange going on in the first place.

...But he couldn't say that the idea didn't appeal, the more he thought about it. There hadn't been much to celebrate, that first Christmas of his in the Capitol, but this year....

Picking up the strange card he'd been given - trying not to think of the funds they'd given him as blood money - he cornered his escort for information (the man tried at least to look sheepish for signing Wyatt up) and then headed out into the snow.

Even armed with everything his escort could tell him about Iskierka, Wyatt still had little idea where to start shopping for a dragon. While he chewed it over, he hunted down some other gifts, knowing nothing would really be able to tell Max or Howard what they meant to him, but wanting to do something, all the same.

Comments

[the_marshal]

"I think I'll be alright," he politely declined with a soft chuckle. "But I thank ya kindly for the offer."

Reaching out he gently tugged down the flaps of the bottom-most hat by it's corded strings, pulling it down better over her ears.

"Besides, I doubt I'd be able to stack mine up as nicely as you've got yers."

[knifewithnoname]

She grinned as the hats were pulled down. "Well if you do be being sure, I be thanking you." She was getting better with manners.

"What do you be doing, Wyatt?"

[the_marshal]

"Well, Miss Pruna, Christmas is jus' around the corner, an' I've got some good little boys an' girls on my list," he smiled down at her, pushing back up into a stand. "So I'm out here to see if I can't find 'em some nice presents."

[knifewithnoname]

She wrinkled her nose at that, "You do no be being Santa do you be being?" She didn't think Wyatt lived on a pole, but that's what everyone said about Santa that he brought presents to people who were good.

[the_marshal]

He laughed, the low, rumbling bark of a sound. Tickled both, that Pruna knew who Santa was, and at the suggestion.

"No. No, I ain't Saint Nick," he chuckled. "I'm jus' a fella with some good friends who deserve somethin' nice for Christmas."

[knifewithnoname]

"Saint Nick?" She wrinkled her nose, slowly piecing things together, "Do that be being another word for Santa?"

Wyatt was clever, maybe he could help clear things up. "Sandy do be saying that Santa do be giving presents but only if you do be being good, and Kevin did be saying Santa do be being a lie that people do be telling and I did no never be hearing of him or Christmas before." She sighed, "Do you no be thinking Santa will be giving your friends presents then?"

At the moment she was more inclined to believe Sandy, just because she trusted her girlfriend more than Kevin.

[the_marshal]

Wyatt's smile faltered, sliding away into a surprised, and slightly confused, frown. Somebody had told her Santa wasn't real? They couldn't have something else to ruin besides a child's Christmas?

Shaking his head, he pushed that away.

"Santa, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, they're all the same man," he explained. "A magic man, who delivers toys to good little boys and girls on Christmas Eve. An' I'm sure he'd be happy to bring some for my friends, but I wanna get 'em somethin' too."

[knifewithnoname]

"Do that be what you do be supposed to be doing then? As well as honouring someone's sacrifice?" This Christmas thing was getting more and more complicated.

[the_marshal]

Ah, that old chestnut again.

"That bit ain't what Christmas is about," he told her. "Christmas is a time to be happy, an' to be with the one's ya love. That other stuff's jus' the Capitol bein' mean again."

[knifewithnoname]

"Oh." She wrinkled her nose, "So we should no be giving people things to be honouring them?"

[the_marshal]

"I didn't say that," he replied, softening a bit and smiling. "Yer still honorin' 'em, but for the good things, not the bad."

He paused for a moment, then tried to explain with an example.

"Ya remember the crownin' with the tiger, how they made us watch it hurt everybody again? That's what the Capitol calls honorin', but it didn't very good to watch, did it? To be reminded like that."

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna frowned for a moment and then nodded, "I did be getting mad and did be wanting to be killing it, but Effie did be grabbing me and then Maximus did be beating it up." She hadn't liked it, because it had made Sandy go all leaky eyed.

[the_marshal]

To his credit, he knew Pruna well enough now not to be surprised by her desire to wrestle a tiger.

Pruna wasn't like any little girl he'd known before... and truth be told, that was a big part of why he liked her so.

"Point is, ya didn't like it. Now, do ya make yer friends feel that way? The way the Capital make you feel?"

[knifewithnoname]

"I do no be knowing." She wrinkled her nose, because she hadn't really had friends before. "But I do no be liking it when Sandy do be getting all leaky eyed. So I would no be wanting her to be feeling like that."

[the_marshal]

He grinned, pleased.

"There's a good girl, an' a good friend." He gave her a gentle clap on the shoulder, a happy squeeze. "Think about the sorta things yer friends smile, instead of makin' 'em cry, an' you'll be on the right to a good present."

[knifewithnoname]

"So I do be needing to be making them smile... that's how you would be honouring your friends?" She asked wrinkling her nose.

[the_marshal]

"My friends make me smile, make me happy," he reached around and tapped the end of her nose to soothe out the wrinkle. "Showin' how much I appreciate that, an' makin' 'em feel the same's the least I can do."

[knifewithnoname]

The tap made her blink and then she nodded. "What do you be getting your friends then?" Because understanding the concept, and having any idea what she was actually going to get them was different.

[the_marshal]

"Well, I ain't quite decided yet," he admitted, returning his hands to his belt as he looked at the down street, weight shifting on his heels. "There's lots'a stores here. I wanna make sure I don't miss somethin' good."

That, he still didn't have the foggiest where to start for a dragon.

[knifewithnoname]

"There do be being a lot of stores." She agreed with a sigh. "Where do they be getting all these things from?"

[the_marshal]

"Some of it comes from the Districts, I'd imagine, the rest..." His head tipped, mouth twisting wryly. "Lord only knows."

A lot of the thing these people enjoyed he'd have imagined, never would have believed, until he'd seen them for himself.

[knifewithnoname]

"I have no been seeing most of them before." She wrinkled her nose, "I can no be even starting to be thinking of where to be starting."

[the_marshal]

He looked down at her.

"Well what do'ya say we give 'em a look see together?" He held out a hand to her and smiled. "We'll see if we can't find somethin' for both our friends."

[knifewithnoname]

She grinned and nodded, though she didn't take his hand. "Okay, who do you be looking for things for?"

[the_marshal]

He didn't take it personally, just patted her cushion of hats instead and steered her gently toward the nearest door.

"I got my friends Howard, he's jus' a bit older than you," he told her, not knowing if she'd ever met him. "An' Max, you know him a'course."

He slanted her an amused look. He'd missed it himself, but had heard about their adventures at the Crowning, Pruna cruising through the crowd from atop the man's shoulders.

"An' the Capitol says I should I get somethin' for Iskierka." The pull of his mouth turned wry. "I'm afraid I don't know much at all 'bout her."