Abby was glad it was winter. Everything was so beautiful, and it meant she got to bundle up all warm. She'd even signed up for secret Santa this year! The person she'd gotten, with the self-appointed nickname "Moon Moon" wanted Pokemon cards or coffee.
She didn't know much about Pokemon, so she'd just picked one of those large boxes of packages. The coffee was a little more fun. She'd imported some special medium roast beans and gotten a small grounder so he could ground them as smooth as he liked. That was the good kind of coffee. Beyond that, Abby had gone out and got some of those fancy style hot chocolates, the type that came in mints and other assorted flavors along with a new coco Pokemon themed mug.
All in all that had her tallying in at three presents all neatly wrapped and set in a themed bag. She'd gone to the school courtyard with the information that this was a student. She'd told him to meet her near the center fountain at a specific time. Had gone there a little early and gotten them both some coffee from a nearby shop as she sat on the fountain's edge and waited for her partner to arrive.
It was much harder than he expected. Romance novels could easily turn into erotica and since a good portion of them were supernatural romance novels, Ven wasn't sure what ended up being inappropriate in more ways than one.
What Ven ended up getting was a volume of love stories that accompanied inspirational quotes. He'd been surprisingly moved when he picked it up. Then, just to be certain, Ven had gone to interview some of the more romance-themed creatures on campus: cupids and demi-goddesses and succubus, oh my. He'd jotted down his notes in careful, neat handwriting and bound the pages with ribbon and slipped them into the book. To be safe, too, there was the return receipt and a giftcard to the bookstore in the inside cover. Not the most intimate of gifts, but Ven was nervous.The whole thing was neatly wrapped in parchment paper and decorated in a shiny blue bow.
Ven was, unfortunately, running a little bit late thanks to living his soul, then the gift, in his dorm room. He ran into the courtard, feet skidding on the grass, and almost topped right into the fountain.
Out of break, he looked up at the woman standing near the fountain's edge and asked, 'Are you--'
a few pants
'--Abigail?"
Abby smiled down at Moon Moon. What a cute kid. She set her presents on the side of the courtyard's fountain and kneels down to help him to his feet. "Yup, that would be me! That must mean you're Moon-Moon?" Which Abigail that was an even more adorable nickname, though she didn't say so out loud. Teenagers got embarrassed so easily.
"So! I suppose we really out to sit and open our presents, hm? Oh, I got you some coffee. A few flavors because I didn't know what you'd like so feel free to pick any cup and I'll choose one you don't want."
Abby lived with small children. She wasn't afraid of little germs or the type of people who took one sip out of each cup or one bite out of each flavor of candy.
Abby sat down and arranged his presents in a pleasing manner to the eye, watching for him to situation himself.
The light seemed to hit her just right to make her appear like an Angel, further helped by her warm smile and the clothing she wore. Something about her just screamed perfection.
He sat down on the edge of the fountain as she arranged the neat stack of presents. Ven opened his back pack and pulled out his gift to her.
"I will admit I was a little bit nervous about this," he grinned up at her. His smile was very much that of a puppy dog who brought his owner a stick he'd found in the yard. Ven had that sort of naive, friendly quality to him, which tended to hide the bags under his eyes.
"Oh! Thank you so much," Ven said, looking down at the coffee. He leaned forward and, after a moment, gave a big whiff of the steam. "They all smell so good. this is going to be a hard choice!"
He picked one at random then and gave an appreciative 'mmm!' as he took his first sip.
He held out the wrapped package to her and said, "I hope you like this. i must tell you, it was really fun getting to explore the island looking for the right gift. I'm glad I was partnered with you for this!"
He sipped his coffee, waiting for her to open his first. His mother had instilled it in his head: ladies first.
Abigail grinned at Ven's enthusiasm. He was like a cute little puppy. She'd have liked to imagine her son would have been like this. Peppy and clumsy and running around. But, ah, now was not the time to think about such things.
Abby picked one of the coffees that Ven hadn't and took a sip. It was a chocolate blend of some sort, and while it wasn't the best coffee she'd ever had, it tasted good against the cold air here. She made the same appreciative sound and giggled.
Gently, Abby took the gift from Ven, her grin stretching ear-to-ear at his compliments. "My aren't you just the little prince charming! I bet I'll love it," she said as she took apart the wrapping and took a look at the book.
She noticed pretty quickly that he had notes that went along with it and skimmed a few of them, her smile softening into something softer and more genuine.
Abby put a hand on her heart and sighed, "oh this is so lovely! You even wrote notes for it? This must have taken so long..." She flipped through a few more pages of the book, nervous that she might ruin the pages. "No one could have given me anything better, thank you."
And with that, Abby gave him his arranged stack of presents. "I'm afraid mine lack that intimate touch, but I didn't expect to get such a Romeo!"
he confessed, "It's...really not as nice as it might seem. See, when I came here, there was a bit of that...I don't know. Culture shock. All these things I thought were just in story books were real. And I wanted to get you a book like that but.."
Ven unfolded his hands like he was opening a book, then took another sip of his coffee. "Suddenly it was all real! All of the stories. And I wanted to be sure I was at least getting it right. Just in case, you know? "
Now that it was Ven's time to open his gifts, he did so with restrainted excitement. Ven seemed like the sort of person who would just tear into a package, but he smoothed the paper carefully between his hands and worked the seams to carefully unfold the gifts. His eyes were beaming. He was absolutely thrilled, so excited to open up the card packs.
"Can uh.." he realized this might be awkward, so he set his coffee down before he asked. "Is it okay if I hug you? To thank you? This is so wonderful! I'm going to have so much fun with this. I just got back into playing the cards and games, it's been so long, and I've been kind of homesick. This was so wonderful, thank you so much."
If she didn't seem to want a hug, Ven could easily go for a handshake, but his arms were open and his eyes were wide and excited.