thecapitol | Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wyatt noticed Howard's reaction, the way he paled even more than he had when he'd tried to touch him.

Clearly, Howard did know her.

For a moment he was silent, wondering if it would be better to just let it go.

"A heat rock..." he finally echoed, slow and uncertain. Not because he necessarily disagreed, but because he had no idea what that was supposed to be. "Don't 'spose you'd mind pointin' one out to me?"

"Sure. We can probably find it at a pet store or something. It's like...it's a rock you put in aquariums that heats up so lizards and stuff can stay warm."

Howard's much more comfortable talking about this than how he knows Iskierka.

"And I should hit the pet store anyway so I can get something for Sigma. And maybe a Santa hat for my Tribble."

That didn't exactly clear things up - he would have to see it for himself to really understand - but he fell into step just the same. Trusting in Howard.

At the mention of the fuzzy little tribble, he couldn't help but smile.

"How's the little bit doin' by the way?" he asked. "Get through the arena alright?"

Pasha had said it would - that it would be waiting just as happy as when it had been left - but like the heat rock, he was more inclined to believe it when he saw it.

"I think it misses me, but it's kind of hard to tell, you know? It purrs but then it kind of always does that." It bothers Howard to leave one of his pets in the care of an Avox, especially since he's still not certain he isn't torturing the poor thing by not feeding it.

Howard takes Wyatt down to the same petshop he stole Sigma's cat from. Patterned puppies yip and gambol in the front window. Howard pauses in front of a cage of kittens and reaches his hand in to pick up one blue tabby.

They were quite the bunch, these Capitol folks. Just when Wyatt thought he'd seen everything, they brought out the tiger-puppies and the pink kittens.

What would they think of next?

The kitten mewled, that high-pitched cry of a baby, and Wyatt reached out to pet it, scratching the tiny ears gently.

"'Spose I could get Max a pup to go with his cat," he joked. "But it'd probably figure the little thing was a snack."

"That cat thought I was a snack," Howard says, making an exaggerated pout. "Wish I could have a cat."

He gazes wistfully at the kitten in his hand, then dumps it back into the pen.

An employee comes by, sees their cuffs, and clears his throat at them.

The kitten padded off, returning to it's bothers and sisters all stiff-legged and fluffed, and Wyatt turned narrowed eyes onto the employee. Nothing way his eyes roamed over them and lingered at Howard's wrist.

"Heat rocks?" he asked flatly.

The employee seemed to consider it a moment, as if weighing whether or not to lie, then nodded down the aisle.

"In the back."

"Let's just boost 'em," Howard mutters, wondering if he can turn the marshal lawless just for this moment. He wanders to the back and points out the rocks. "Something like that?"

While 'boost'em' was not a phrase Wyatt was particularly familiar with, he was able to figure out the meaning by context.

"Someone bein' an ass don't give us the right to steal from 'em," he murmured with a frown, following Howard toward the back of the store. "Though it does mean ya don't have to pretend to be nice to 'em."

And if Howard wanted to let loose with that sharp tongue Wyatt knew all too well he had, he wouldn't say anything.

Moving up beside him, Wyatt looked over the boxes, at the few rocks out on display and arched an eyebrow.

"...Bit on the small side, ain't they?"

"These people watch us kill each other on TV. I'm having a hard time respecting the law right now." But Howard keeps his hands to himself, balled up in little fists inside his coat pockets.

"Maybe get a whole bunch of them and fill a stocking with them?"

"Hmm." Wyatt hummed thoughtfully, a rumbling sound in the back of his throat as he reached out to take one of the display stones in hand.

Plastic - like so many things in this place - with a long cord sticking out from one side.

"An' she's 'sposed to lay on these?"

Didn't sound particularly comfortable... but then he wasn't dragon either.

"Yeah. I think they're made for bitty lizards, though. The kind you can eat." Howard picks at one of his teeth before leaning his head forward and resting his cheek on one of the rocks.

"I guess it's kind of warm?"

He slanted Howard a side-long look, not wanting to say it was a bad idea, because it wasn't, but he couldn't see how it was going to work either.

"I think we're gonna need somethin' more person sized. Like somethin' me er you could use if we had such a need...."

His mind turned, images of fireplaces and bed warmers tumbling behind his eyes. The latter she'd already have, of course, the suites all did, and the latter... come to think of it he hadn't seen again like the old coal pans he knew in the Capitol.

He put the rock back and turned to Howard.

"What 'bout a bed warmer?"

"Like an electric blanket? That's probably a better idea." Howard glances back over his shoulder, looking at how the cashier watches him. He didn't help save the city from aliens, so he still holds the brand of a troublemaker.

Which soaks under his skin, even though he feels like he should be used to being a person non grata in places.

"And then we won't be giving money to stink-eye back there."

Wyatt opened his mouth to ask what that was, but looking back after Howard to find the employee still watching (he straightened under Wyatt's attention and quickly found something on the shelve next to him to busy himself with), he decided it didn't matter.

Mouth pursing, he reached out to take Howard's stone and returned it to the shelf.

"Come on, that sounds like a better plan."

Pretty paper, pretty ribbons of blue.

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