"No, I just saw him." She gestures vaguely in the direction of the library with the package she's holding, smiling, and then holds it out. "Dropped off his present. This one is for you."
"A present--" Martin short circuits for just a second. It's not like the concept of gift-giving at the holidays is foreign to him, but he's worried he's missed something. "I- does the Barge do Secret Santa? Did I miss Secret Santa? I don't have anything for you."
She smiles, crouching for a moment to scruffle her hands through Winnie's ruff. "Only if you guys got stocked up. I know it was running short before port."
"I've been rationing," he says lightly as he gestures her to follow him to the kitchen, because it's really a comfort thing more than anything else. "And it'll make me feel better if I can at least put a kettle on for you."
"Fair enough." Taylor brushes her hair back as she follows him, making sure her usual passengers are out of sight. "Did you get to go planetside for the port? It was a fun one."
"Did a little bit of sightseeing, yeah. Never felt so small in my life." It doesn't really sound like a complaint. He sets the water to heat, nabbing the mug and teabag in preparation. "What about you? Did you enjoy yourself?"
As soon as the water heats to temperature, Martin pours both of their mugs. He'll retrieve a small amount of cream and sugar to set on the table, and then he seats himself across from her while their tea steeps. "I felt a bit like I was in one of those - oh, uh, if you've seen those - giant inflatey bounce castles. Not exactly that, but close. Like one in slow-motion."
She nods. "Rags and I found a food cart the size of an apartment building, and it had stairs up the side. Coming back down was kind of amazing. I wish we could have stayed there for a while. Best Barge-weird yet. Though I didn't mind last week, either."
"Was the food in it any good?" He pauses, then picks up the small bowl of sugar. "And how do you take your tea? Sorry, I feel like Jon probably knows."
"Lots of sugar, no milk, please." She dismisses the apology with a little shake of her head. "It was pretty good. We got something like popcorn, but each kernel was fist-sized and it was all seasoned with something like black pepper and brown sugar. Like savory kettle corn."
"Sounds like I really missed out," Martin says, and it's partially just conversational, partially sincere. He'll tip the sugar into the cup, stirring it for her before passing it over. He'll tug the gift on the tabletop a little closer to him, then, starting to pick it open. "What'd you get Jon?"
She sits back, both hands wrapped around her tea and smiles behind the rim of the cup.
"Same things, but his is green."
And he'll see what she means in a minute - inside her brown-bag wrapping paper are two smaller packages - one is a snowman shaped out of dark brown candied nuts, gold with honey and carefully wrapped in wax paper. The other is a cap, made of soft, almost silky felt, with small hard shapes flat inside the cloth. It's dyed a deep dusty blue.
"Oh. This is lovely." The snowman is nice enough on its own, but Martin marvels softly at the cap, turning it gently over in his hands before placing it carefully on his head. "My hair's not sticking up anywhere, is it? How do I look?"
Taylor grins brightly. "It looks good. I had to guess at a fit, I couldn't get a measure on you and the silk doesn't have much give." Her usual technique is absolutely off-limits for Martin, Jon, and Tim. "It's piercing-resistant, and some protection against impact, but it's not absolute, so like I told Tim, no testing." Which is said teasingly, because she doesn't think Martin would.
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corkscrewed) wrote2017-11-05 04:46 pm
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"Same things, but his is green."
And he'll see what she means in a minute - inside her brown-bag wrapping paper are two smaller packages - one is a snowman shaped out of dark brown candied nuts, gold with honey and carefully wrapped in wax paper. The other is a cap, made of soft, almost silky felt, with small hard shapes flat inside the cloth. It's dyed a deep dusty blue.
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