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“Do we really have to go around delivering these? It all seems like a massive waste of time… These silly human traditions never meshed well with me.” Aya muttered, cleaning a bit of snow off her shoulder. It’s not like she had very clear memories of Arcan traditions, but the winter equinox was held in high esteem at the time. Though now, in the modern period, it seemed like just an excuse to make a racket and indulge in materialistic desires.
“Mmhm, we’re gonna deliver all of these and pick up some other presents,” Sig came back from the door of Lidelle’s home, holding another box in his hands and placing it on the sled they were using to transport the presents. Aya fidgeted nervously as she watched the growing pile of presents for them. She shrugged it off and picked up the rope attached to the sled, ready to go to their next stop.
“Wouldn’t you rather go to the party Amitie is hosting? I assumed that you go every year.”
“Well, maybe a quiet holiday isn’t so bad once in a while,” Sig glanced at her with warm eyes. “Plus, we both know you don’t really like crowds…or noise.” Aya scoffed, which brought a small smile to Sig’s usually stoic face.
“I suppose! But you know you can go at any time, okay? I’ll be fine as long as I have some peace and quiet tonight.”
“Ahaha,” his laugh was deadpan as always, but she’d grown to appreciate the hidden friendliness in it. She flushed as her embarrassment deepened, though… it’s not like she hated the extra attention he was giving her tonight. “C’mon, we only have a few houses to go to tonight. After this, I’ll hang out with you at Glasses’ place, and we can stay up late ‘nd open presents,” Sig spoke with a hint of wonder in his eyes. The way he marveled at these things in an almost innocent way thawed the ice that had built up around Aya’s heart for so long… Perhaps human traditions weren’t so bad with the right company.
The couple skipped through Primp Town, dropping off and picking up presents before evening colored the sky a dark, navy blue. Just earlier, Lidelle had been preparing to head out for Amitie’s party, dressed to the nines in festive holiday attire complete with hair accessories that actually brought out, instead of accentuating her horns. Apparently, she had been inspired by Raffina and Aya to be a bit more confident, so she was hoping that it would go well with everyone at the party. Their next stop, Raffina, was still in the middle of a multi-step process that involved many words that neither Sig nor Aya could understand… The only thing they really noticed was that her gown was probably too extravagant for a casual party that Amitie was throwing, but she was probably trying to make some sort of statement (or impress Amitie…?).
At Accord’s home, she and Lemres were still in the middle of baking all sorts of sweets and pastries for everyone to enjoy at the party. They accepted (begrudgingly, on Sig’s part) some of the cookies to take home and enjoy since they wouldn’t be going that night. Accord lamented Aya’s absence at the party, but she knew that it would take some more time for her to adjust to so many people. After they were sent off with pair of smiles, they made their final stop at Amitie’s home. She was still frantically preparing and pinning up decorations, it was a bit funny to see her in such a tizzy. She handed the pair a hastily wrapped present, and apologized for the quality, but Aya giggled, everything she did really had such an Amitie-esque touch to it. After bidding them a goodbye and a happy holiday, Aya and Sig started to make their way back home.
“Hahh! That was so much walking, and all out in the freezing cold. I simply can’t be bothered to move another inch,” Aya threw off her coat and laid herself unceremoniously out on the couch. Sig laughed at her theatrics and began to bring the presents inside. After propping their sled up outside, he sat himself down on the couch next to her. She looked up and saw him staring into the distance, deep in thought…probably. “Sig, is there something you wanted to say?” He tilted his head, not moving his gaze from that point he was staring at.
“Not especially, I was just thinkin’ it’d be nice to open presents a little early.”
“…Early? Whatever for?”
“I just wanna see your reactions is all,” he replied straightforwardly, but Aya felt like there was some sort of ulterior motive in his words… Ah, she should stop thinking like that. He wouldn’t want to hurt her. No one in Primp Town had reason to do that. Sig just wanted to do something nice to get into the holiday spirit, surely. “Aya?” His voice snapped her out of her daze and she smiled nervously at him.
“Sure, we can open them together.” While he went off to pick up the presents, Aya sat up on the couch to give him more room to sit down. He came back with a stack of presents, all the ones that they had picked up from their friends just a bit ago.
“I wanna open these three, but we don’t have to open all of them if you don’t wanna, okay?” He set them on the floor and handed the smallest one to Aya for her to open.
“Alright. They’re just presents, dear, I’m sure they’re all quite lovely…!” her fingers wavered as they reached for the ribbon on the packaging, and Sig suddenly reached out to hold her hand in his.
“You shouldn’t force yourself,” he spoke plainly. “I think…you should see how much people really care about you, though.”
“…I know. I can’t help it, though.”
“I can try to help you, then.”
Sig reached over and put his hands over hers, guiding them to untie the ribbon, tear the gift wrapping off of the box, and lift the lid. Aya flinched instinctively as the lid was lifted, but when she opened her eyes, she was pleasantly surprised at the sight before her. It was a small barrette shaped like a butterfly, and while small, it was adorned with rhinestones in all the colors of the rainbow. It might have looked cheap to someone else, but to Aya, it was a beautiful gesture of kindness, and the kindness behind it made the rhinestones twinkle even brighter. “This is…lovely,” she finally managed to speak and picked the accessory up delicately.
“Here, let me put it on for you,” Sig smiled warmly as he clipped it onto her hair, the room’s warm light bouncing off of the barrette and sparkling in its rainbow hues.
“Does it suit me …? This was…from Lidelle, wasn’t it?” Sig nodded in response to her question looked at her with a gentle gaze.
“It is, she made it for you since you said you wished you had more hair accessories.”
“I never imagined she’d recall that… It’s very sweet of her to make something like this just for me…”
“She’s a lot better with her hands than she looks, don’t let the sleeves fool you.” Aya chuckled at his joke, but she knew Lidelle was certainly more skilled than she let on. It was a shame that she tried not to stand out… Aya would have to thank her later.
“…How’re you feeling? You feel like opening another?” Sig’s hand rested on Aya’s while she thought it over, looking at the rest of the unopened presents in front of them.
“…I…think so, forgive me if I’m still slow. …Opening these makes my heart race a bit, in a bad way.”
“I know… That’s why I wanted to ask,” he planted a gentle kiss on her cheek. “It’s not worth making you upset just for some presents, but I know everyone wanted you to see these.” He picked another present from the pile, it was slightly bigger and more ornately wrapped than the last one from Lidelle, which was little more than a gift box with a cheap ribbon tied onto it.
“From appearances, I’d guess this one is from Raffina?” Aya looked at the tag and smiled when she saw that her guess was right. “I…am looking forward to what she chose for me.” A hint of a smile could be seen at the corners of her lips, and she once again began to open the present. “Sig, sorry, could you…?”
“Oh, yeah, right.” He had forgotten briefly, but he once again put his hands around Aya’s helping her to open the next present. It felt like almost a shame to Aya to tear open such beautiful wrapping, but she supposed it was made for this in the first place… As the wrapping came off, an equally ornate and high-class gift box revealed itself. Aya noted that the brand name was some well-known jeweler and her eyes widened. This was certainly a step up from the last present, but she was a bit taken aback at what Raffina had gotten for her… She lifted the lid off the box, and a beautiful diamond and ruby necklace was seen, resting in the box. The pendant was ruby surrounded by smaller diamonds, and it hung from a silver chain.
“Oh…! Th-This is, too much… Surely she must be joking,” Aya laughed nervously and looked at the necklace in the box as if it was intimidating her.
“Rafflesia said that you mentioned wishing you had more jewelry, since Glasses doesn’t have any”
“Raffina…”
“So Raffle said she got this for you as your first piece of jewelry.” Aya laughed at Sig seemingly ignoring her words, but she looked back at the necklace and accepted that Raffina was giving this to her out of the goodness of her heart.
“I can’t imagine how I shall repay this, but… There are no words for how grateful I am to her.”
“You don’t have to repay it, dummy, it’s a gift.” Sig teased his girlfriend playfully. She was always so hung up about these sorts of things, but he understood that it was difficult for her to understand the concept of “gifts” given her background. “Here, let me put it on you.” Sig took the box from her hands and lifted the necklace gently from the box, but he realized that it was a bit risky to hold it with his left hand… “Ahh… Aya, maybe you should do the clasp bit…”
“Ahahaha, Sig…” Aya giggled at how he’d forgotten about his own hand and took the necklace back from him. “I appreciate the thought,” she said as she put the necklace on. With the barrette resting in her hair and the necklace around her neck, she looked almost like a painting to Sig. He shook himself out of his daze and said a simple sentence to her.
“You look pretty.” Aya blushed at his compliment, she looked like she was about to refuse it, but bit her lip and decided to stay quiet and accept the special attention Sig was showing her right now.
“We got one more to get through, here it is.” He picked up the awkwardly wrapped one from Amitie, it was about the same size as Lidelle’s present, though the presentation of it left much to be desired… Aya smiled and let Sig hold her hands again as they opened the present together. It had gradually become a bit easier, but it made her happy to have Sig’s hands guarding hers. As they tore away what little wrapping paper there was, Aya found another small box. The brand on it was familiar to Aya, though not because it was a fancy, high-class brand, but because it was a popular brand with children and young teenagers for their brightly colored accessories. She lifted the lid without much hesitation since she guessed what was inside it, and sure enough, there was a bracelet with multicolored plastic beads resting inside. The colors didn’t seem to have much rhyme or reason to them, but they were blue, red, purple, yellow, and green in color, which almost reminded Aya of the common colors of Puyo…
“Wow, that’s what Amitie got you? It looks real nice.” Sig smiled and looked at the bracelet in Aya’s hands. “I think the colors’re supposed to represent all of us.”
“…Us?”
“Yeah, like, purple for Glasses, yellow for Ragamuffin, green for Lidelle, and red for Amitie…and you.”
“…That’s so sweet of her, did she make this herself…?”
“Well, she told me she wanted to, but I think she ran out of time and had to get it custom-made,” Sig shrugged and chuckled. “I think that’s why it was wrapped at the last second.”
“While I was thinking that the presentation was lacking, the thought behind this gift is more than enough for me…” Aya slipped the bracelet onto her wrist and showed it to Sig. “How does it look?”
“It suits you,” he smiled. “And we’ll be with you like this all the time if you wear it.”
“Ahaha…I’m not sure if it suits me to wear such childish-looking jewelry,” she said, putting the bracelet back in the box. She really just said that to sound cool. She hoped she could wear it as often as she could, in all honesty.
“Oh wait, don’t put it away.”
“Hm? I thought this was the last of the presents?”
“I forgot that I had one more thing…Or, we had one more thing. Sit tight.”
Aya leaned back. The assortment of gifts still adorning her in a strange, sort of clashing way. But she liked it, they all brought out the personalities of her dear friends and truly did exemplify their best qualities in their own ways. She sighed and thought about what sort of gift Sig was getting for her…he did say “we”, but who were the others he was talking about…? Aya tried not to think about it too much, but she started thinking about how he’d spent a little too long talking to Ms. Accord and Lemres. He didn’t even like the latter, so why did he spend extra time talking to them…? She didn’t trust them either, so it was even stranger that they would stop by their house too. Sig might have just wanted some of their cookies, though…
“Aya, you okay?” Sig looked at her quizzically, or as quizzically as he could look. A box rested in his arms, and it was much larger than the last ones they had opened. “If you wanna stop here, it’s fine.”
“N-No, I’m fine,” She nervously fixed her hair and looked up at Sig. “I want to see what this present is. Who is it from? You said “we” earlier, so I was curious…”
“It’s from me and Glasses.”
“Klug? Really, that’s hard to believe.”
“Yeah, really. He wanted to get you something you’ve been talking about forever. That’s what he told me, anyway.”
“I can’t believe he actually listens to me once in a while…” She shook her head playfully as Sig sat himself onto the couch. “I look forward to what he got me though, especially with your input.”
“He listens to you a lot, actually. Though I don’t really pay attention all the time, he talks too much sometimes… ‘nd too fast.”
“Oh, tell me about it. Later though! We aren’t here to discuss him after all.” She laughed and let Sig sit back down on the couch, and he laid the box on her lap.
“You want me to help you open this one too, Aya?”
“Hmm… If it’s from you, I know it’s safe for me.”
Sig gave her a wide smile. To anyone else, it would’ve been a barely noticeable smile, but Aya knew that this was the biggest smile he could possibly muster.
She removed the ribbon from the box and tore off the wrapping, a plain box coming into view. It looked cheap and practical, the kind that Klug would certainly have chosen for gift-giving. Klug had probably picked out the gift wrap and the box, he liked doing logistics like that, and thinking of that made her chuckle. After taking a moment to shake the box around and feel its weight in her hands, she finally lifted the lid. A little gasp escaped her lips as she saw what rested within. It was a dress, a simple one, but it would be Aya’s first one that she could call her own that wasn’t borrowed from Raffina’s closet. It was a white dress with a long red skirt, and flowy poet sleeves that were trimmed with red lace.
“Sig…Is this really…for me? From you and Klug?”
“Yup,” Sig took the rest of the dress out of the box and extended the skirt for her to see that it ended in an intricate scalloped pattern. “Glasses said you’ve been wanting a dress for the longest time, so I picked it out for you… I thought you’d want something that’s kinda simple, but refined…”
“I…I love it. This is the best present ever…” Aya threw her arms around him and hugged him close, tears of joy pricking the corners of her eyes. Sig put his arms on her back and returned her embrace, resting his arm in the crook of her neck.
“You should try it on. I wanna make sure it fits you.”
Aya nodded and stood up quickly to go change into it, leaving Sig alone on the couch. He was left to think about how much she had grown and accepted being friends with him and the rest of Klug’s friends. He was…proud of her, in a way. It was weird to think that, so he decided that he wouldn’t say anything yet.
“How does it look…?” She stepped out nervously, her arms awkwardly at her sides. Sig was stunned for a moment. The dress accentuated her long legs, shoulders, and fit well with her tall stature, even with the mishmash of accessories she had on.
“You’re beautiful,” he said as he stood up and held her hand. “You should wear it for the rest of the night.”
“Sig…! Haha, you’re embarrassing me,” Aya blushed and gripped his hand tighter. “I…I will though, along with everyone else’s presents. It’s like they’re here celebrating with us right now.” She touched her forehead to Sig’s, looking into his eyes. “I’ll thank Klug later, too… This is really the best gift you could have gotten me– ah?” Suddenly she was lifted into the air and spun around, in Sig’s arms. She held onto him tightly, worried that she’d fall, but that quickly turned into amusement and wild laughter. “Sig, Sig! Ahaha! Put me down!” She landed softly and gently and they hugged once more, even tighter this time.
“Sorry, I just got excited.”
“It’s alright, I’m happy you did… and I’m happy the dress fits so well,” Aya released Sig from her embrace and twirled around, the skirt whirling along with her movement. “It’s all perfect.” She held Sig’s hand again.
“You’re welcome, and happy winter equinox, Aya.”
“Perhaps indulging in materialism every once in a while wasn’t so bad,” Aya thought as she hugged Sig and felt the bracelet on her wrist again.