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Tales of Vesperia, "Instructions in Thoughtful Gift-Giving" (Rita/Estelle)
The problem is that Rita doesn't know what to give the princess who has everything when the holidays roll around. As usual, Estelle ends up helping her far more than expected.
Contains Rita/Estelle. Mostly fluff, not shockingly. For the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
femfeb_prompt: "girls giving each other jewelry".
.instructions in thoughtful gift-giving.
"Oh! Rita! Look!" Estelle's hand grabbed hers suddenly, and when Rita looked up she found that Estelle's other hand was occupied excitedly pointing at something in a shop window they were passing by.
The window looked into a jewelry shop, although it was not the sort of high-end, fancy jewelry that Rita would have expected to catch the eye of a princess. The shop was small and cozy and featured many necklaces and earrings and bracelets made of simple materials -- wood, wire, beads. Handcrafted and mostly inexpensive.
But even Rita's eye, unpracticed in the girly arts of makeup and finery, could tell that the display necklace that Estelle was calling to her attention was beautiful. It was strung with a dozen thin white wires, and each one was threaded with countless tiny elongated beads in various pastel colors. Naturally it called to Estelle; it suited her in every way, and it would doubtless look beautiful on her.
Instead of saying that, Rita shrugged. "Don't you have tons of jewelry already?"
"Well," Estelle said, deflating slightly. "Yes. But I don't have this necklace, and it's lovely!"
"You have plenty of money. You could just buy it for yourself."
"I suppose I could," Estelle said, repossessing her hands and tangling them together in front of her. She looked somewhat torn between bemusement and disappointment. "But the new year is coming up, and someone keeps saying that she doesn't know what to buy the princess who has everything, so I thought..."
Ah. Rita felt herself flush, and she was dimly aware of their friends around them, doubtless watching with smirks and grins. She looked pointedly away from all of them. "It's just as bad to be told what to buy," she said, with a cool she didn't feel.
"I would have pointed out other things-- Then it could've been a surprise..." Estelle was growing more crestfallen, from her tone, and that both made Rita feel bad and feel defensive, and she had no idea what to say to that without stabbing Estelle's efforts.
"Oooh, what about that one," Judith said slyly to distract them, because she was a good friend, and she tapped the glass above the finest, glitziest gemstone violet necklace hanging in the window. "Don't you think it would go perfectly with my coloring?" She pressed up against the window, as close to the necklace as she could get, and leveled Yuri with a measuring glance.
"Looks like it would get you robbed," he said, his voice dry. Judith lifted her eyebrows at him, as if daring him to find the fool who would rob her, and Karol cracked, "You know she'll just con someone else into buying it if you don't, Yuri!" and Yuri grumbled, "Why do you have to have such expensive tastes? Ask Estelle to buy it for you, she's the one with the money," and Estelle chimed in eagerly, "Oh, that's a great idea! I'll buy it for you, Judith!" and Judith asked, her tone mildly offended, "What makes you all think I can't pay for it myself? What do you think I've done with my gambling money?"
Rita reached up to the notebook hanging on a string around her neck. The front of the book was filled with encoded mathematical equations and scientific theorem and mana research observations, but she liked to flip to the back and keep personal notes on the last few pages. She plucked a pen from her pocket and wrote, Gift idea: Holly's Orn., xr Royal Av & 19th, pastel wire bib necklace.
As she lowered the book again, she caught Estelle watching her, so she suspected that her stealthy note-taking had not gone unnoticed. But at least no one was openly smirking about how foolish she felt.
The dilemma now was that she had something to get Estelle, but she couldn't get her only that, because then there would be nothing personal about it -- Rita would end up feeling like little more than an errand girl, fetching Estelle things at her whim, paying out of her own pocket with confidence that Estelle would get her something that would more than compensate her for the purchase.
So when she returned to the store, she had a plan.
"Hey, are you Holly?" Rita asked, coming up to the counter and folding her arms.
The woman behind the counter nodded, shifting to her feet. "Are you interested in some of my ornaments? I hand-make most of them myself."
"Yeah, I figured that out." Rita jerked her head to the side at the window. "I want to buy that pastel beaded necklace in the window."
Holly paused for a beat, an anxious look coming into her face, and she hemmed, "That one... That is a display model. I have nothing to replace it with if it goes down. It really isn't for sale yet."
This was not part of Rita's plan. Her eyes narrowed. "I'm not asking if it's for sale, I'm telling you I want to buy it. How much is it?"
"I really am not planning to..."
Rita marched over to it and peered around it, seeking a tag with a price written on it. She caught sight of a couple just outside the window admiring it, and she knocked on the glass to get their attention. "This one's taken, fellas," she told them with arch sweetness. "Move along."
"Ma'am, I'm really sorry, but it's supposed to encourage people to come into the store..." Holly sounded mortified behind her.
"You can't encourage people to come into the store by promising them things you're not actually selling," Rita snapped. She found the price and then lifted the necklace, letting it hang over her fingers. As she'd thought, it was cheap enough -- probably expensive compared to most of the store's contents, but certainly not priced at the fortune that any jewelry actually befitting Estelle's station would have been. "I'll give you twice this," she pronounced.
Holly shut up.
"And I want something to go with it." Rita looked around for anything in similar pastel beading. "Earrings, or... a bracelet or something. Don't you have anything that matches?"
"Like I said, I didn't even have another of that necklace ready to replace it in the window..." The shopkeep tucked a strand of honey-colored hair behind her ear, and then offered, "I could make something, though. Is this a Year's End gift?"
Rita glanced at her sidelong. "Yes. Can you have something finished in that time?" And she was a tiny bit wary. Never mind the fact that Holly did not appear to work very quickly; there was also the fact that she would be buying something sight-unseen that was very much appearance-dependent. What if she commissioned earrings that turned out incredibly tacky? A quick glance around the shop refreshed her memory about the sort of mixed results that Holly had already turned out. What if Estelle didn't like the new piece, or didn't like them as a set?
"How about this-- You leave the necklace with me for a week." Holly lifted her hands defensively as Rita started to glare at her. "And I'll use it to make another necklace, and to make a pair of matching bracelets. The bracelets will be unique -- only for your gift. How does that sound? No one else will have them!"
That was actually a very tempting suggestion. Rita scratched her jaw, thinking. Year's End was more than two weeks away, so there was enough time. And a unique gift, one that would never be replicated... That was a gift worthy of a princess.
"Deal," Rita said firmly, reaching for the book hanging around her neck. She flipped it open and added an arrow below her previous note. 3rd Remday: 2x wrist + 1x neck. "I'll leave you a deposit for the sign price of the necklace. You'd better get working." She did not intend to tolerate any more delays when she returned.
As she left, she noticed with some pleasure that Holly was adding a folded card that read SOLD below the necklace.
They met at the house in Halure for Year's End. It was freezing, with thick fluffy snow decorating every surface, but unsurprisingly, Estelle had braved the cold to add her own decorations: the roots framing it were strung with gold streamers, and shimmering red glass hung at every window, chiming gently as the wind stirred them. Rita eyed them as she headed to the door, reaching up to pull her scarf down from above her mouth and nose.
"Are you sick now?" she asked wearily, stepping inside with her packages securely under one arm.
"How did you know?" Estelle answered, her eyes wide as she shuffled out of the kitchen. She was wearing a quilt around her shoulders, and her face was flushed, nose red. She looked a little ridiculous, but she moved more quickly over to Rita, only to stop a foot away and hover. It took her a moment to decide to just lean slightly closer and air-kiss the space near Rita's cheek.
For some reason, that was more embarrassing than an actual kiss. "You lowered your internal body temperature by standing out in the cold all day," she said. "That suppressed your immune system, which allowed you to catch sick. I thought you'd know that with all your reading. What have I told you about staying indoors when it's cold, idiot?"
"I only read biology texts when I'm out of other reading material, believe it or not," Estelle said wryly. "Let me make you some tea!"
"Wrong. You, sit down. I will make you some tea." Rita set down her packages, and then went into the kitchen. Of course Estelle had found a way to make herself sick for Year's End. She simply excelled at putting herself at risk on arcane principle of doing something cute.
By the time Rita returned with tea, Estelle had curled up on the couch with her legs bent almost up to her chin, and she had greedy eyes on Rita's pile of gifts, with her arms around a few packages that must have been her own.
"You're not going to be able to wait until tomorrow to open gifts, are you?" Rita asked, her lips quirking up into a smile. She handed Estelle her mug. "Honestly. You're like a little kid."
"I am sick," Estelle said, hopefully. "So, you know, if I opened just one gift, it might make me feel better..."
Like a little kid. Rita glanced at her gifts, and thought about their contents. There was the jewelry, two books that she had thought Estelle would like, a cute hat, a few decorative items for the Halure house that Rita had never bothered with for her own, and some hand lotion that Rita had thought smelled like flowers, and when she'd first caught the scent she had imagined Estelle wearing it, and touching her with hands that smelled of it, and it had all felt right.
Logically speaking, the jewelry was the best gift, and she should save the best gift for tomorrow when the gifts were supposed to be given, when all their friends would get together in Aurnion for the grand party that everyone who was anyone would be attending. But the jewelry was also the one gift that Estelle would know to expect, so it would not have the same impact as the surprise presents.
And she knew Estelle would want to wear her new accessories tomorrow when they went to see the others, just as if they were the sort of fancy jewelry she would ordinarily wear in the presence of kings and commandants and guild leaders...
"Fine," Rita said, and she reached to sort the necklace and the bracelets out of the pile. Estelle squealed her excitement and then deliberated over her own gifts for a moment, biting her lip, before finally thrusting a long slender box at Rita. "You first," Rita prompted, making the exchange.
"This isn't just one," Estelle observed with surprise. "You want me to open two?"
"They sort of go together," Rita said. She folded her arms, still holding Estelle's gift, trying not to show her own excitement.
Estelle shifted a little impatiently, debating whether to object or not, but the anticipation was too much for her, and she tore into the wrapping on the necklace box.
Rita honestly wasn't sure what to expect. Of course Estelle would be pleased, but how pleased could she be when she already knew what would be in the gift? She told herself that any sincerely positive response meant Estelle was happy to have gotten it, but was unprepared for the gasp and the sheer delight on Estelle's face when she opened the box, as if the sight within took her breath away.
"You got it! Oh, Rita!" Estelle bounded up off the sofa, arms opening, and then looked sheepish. "Oh-- I'm sick."
"It's okay," Rita said, rubbing the side of her neck. She felt very off-balance.
"This is so wonderful! I love it." Estelle was practically glowing, lifting the necklace and stringing it over her fingers, admiring it up close. "I'm so happy."
"Yeah, I can tell." Rita cleared her throat, and corrected the dry response with a more sincere, "I -- I'm really glad that you like it so much. Seeing that is all the thanks I need."
"I can't wait to wear it tomorrow," Estelle announced, just as Rita had predicted.
Rita smiled, feeling a slow pleasure building up in her. This, at least, would be a surprise. "You haven't opened the other box yet."
"What? Oh--" Estelle paused and blinked at it; a slightly bigger box, although not as wide. "It goes with the necklace?" she asked tentatively, and went for the wrapping.
In a few seconds she had the top off, and her expression transformed into one of wonder. There were two thick cuffs in the box, identical white metal bracelets inlaid with the same long pastel beads that decorated the necklace. There was less color than in the necklace, so it was more silver and white than pastel, but the beads in it were artfully arranged to form a beautiful pale pattern. They were an elegant match to the necklace, and beautiful in their own right. Holly had done a good work, and Rita hadn't regretted a single of the gald spent on her commission. She had even made a note, in her notebook: Future gifts @ Holly's
"Oh, Rita..." Estelle said, breathless. "They're gorgeous! I can't believe it... Did you find these in the store?" She was already putting them on, admiring the way they settled on her wrists.
Rita shrugged, as if it were an unimportant detail, but her lips were curved up in spite of herself. "She made them special at my request," she said casually.
Estelle's hands went to her mouth, shocked, and then she bounced in her seat, sickness apparently completely forgotten in her joy. "That is amazing! It's wonderful. I can't believe you did all this for me... They're wonderful, Rita."
No doubt she had hundreds of nicer pieces. No doubt they would be the least expensive jewelry she owned; no doubt other nobles would find them tacky and crafty. But that didn't matter to Estelle.
The real significance of the gift was just that: that Rita went through the trouble for her. While Rita had spent so much time trying to think of something that would make Estelle happy, that she wouldn't already have or that would compare to her other things without being redundant, things that would be worthy of her. She had forgotten that her princess needed nothing -- what Estelle wanted was to see that her friends cared.
Maybe, especially, that Rita cared.
Not that she could help it. Rita smiled at her, the pleasure thoroughly contagious. "I might have been overthinking what to get you," she admitted. "Thanks for taking the time to smack some sense into me when I wasn't getting it."
"Don't say it like that! You would have figured something out eventually," Estelle chided, and then gestured, excitedly. "Now you have to open yours!" She said it with the same eagerness that she had showed while waiting for hers.
Rita blinked, looking down at the slim box in her hands. She had almost forgotten about it. "Ooookay." She couldn't imagine anything better than Estelle's happiness, sitting there with the bracelets already on even though she was otherwise dressed in comfortable houseclothes and buried under a quilt, the watercolor of her eyes perhaps somewhat glassy. But those eyes were rapt on her, and she felt a little self-conscious as she peeled the paper from the box, and then opened it.
Inside was a golden chain, twisted around itself like a rope; it was long, much longer than the necklace that Rita had given Estelle. Rita touched it with some fascination, marveling, and her fingers dipped to a little gold hoop halfway through its length. She wondered if it was real gold. Probably.
Then she looked up, belatedly thinking that she should respond, tell Estelle that it was beautiful. Estelle was still watching her, still bubbling over with anticipation. "Put it on!" the older girl urged before Rita could even open her mouth.
Rita lifted it obligingly, but forged ahead, telling her, "It's beautiful, Estelle! I don't exactly own a lot of jewelry, other than the accessories we all got together while we traveled, but--"
"Put it on," Estelle repeated, this time laughing.
Puzzled, Rita draped it over her head. It fit neatly under the edge of the modified bodhi blastia that she still wore as a choker to help her channel mana, and draped down her chest, ending neatly between her breasts--
--exactly where her notebook hung now, on its coarse string. And then Rita figured it out, and it took her breath away. She had worn this notebook, and a thousand notebooks just like it, on string, a thousand strings just like this, that she kept until they threaded apart and snapped from use. Things she wanted to research and alternate theories for what she was working on and epiphanic breakthroughs were always coming to her in situations where she could not properly make use of them, or while she was doing other work, and she would jot them down in the notebook to keep track of them later. Rarely -- but more and more, recently, since she had met Estelle and the others -- there were also personal observations, small things like birthdays and appointments and errands, that she would promptly forget about if she did not have it written down, to be reviewed at the end of the day while lying in bed, the way she always did, thumbing through her little notebook on its little string.
It had been years and years.
"I've noticed you using that notebook a lot," Estelle offered, shyly. "I thought maybe you could try something a little nicer than string and see if you like it. You don't have to use it, of course! I won't be hurt if you don't like it. I just thought it might be... nice, even if you only want to use it when you're at an event, like when we get dressed up tomorrow."
Rita barely heard any of it.
No one had ever bought her jewelry. It was useless, after all. Just trinkets to look pretty, and Rita had never cared for looking pretty. She had her blastia, of course, but she had had that made for herself because it served a pragmatic purpose, and it wasn't really jewelry. Yuri had once bought her a pendant necklace that she had worn a few times because she'd been secretly touched, and Judith had one time turned up on her birthday (even though Rita had never told Judith when her birthday was) with a pair of earrings and only smiled secretively when Rita had inquired about where they came from, but she forgot about them more often than not. They were an unnecessary extra step of personal care, when Rita's normal morning routine was to roll out of bed, eat a cold breakfast in the bath, and then head straight to the chalkboard, often without even bothering to wear more than the wet towel.
But Estelle had bought her jewelry... that served a pragmatic purpose.
It was the most personal and perfect gift she had ever been given.
"I love it," she said, and her voice was somewhat choked. She cleared her throat, self-conscious.
"Oh, Rita." And then Estelle was up, and her sickness was forgotten, because she dropped down to the floor in front of Rita's couch and wrapped arms around her, and Rita clung to her and told herself -- not for the first time -- that a horrible chain of events had been set into motion that had brought this amazing person into her life, and that this amazing person had loved her without reservation and without reason, and that however terrifyingly unlikely and statistically improbable those things were, it did not matter as long as they had happened, because sometimes, everything just came together and was perfect.
Contains Rita/Estelle. Mostly fluff, not shockingly. For the
femfeb_prompt: "girls giving each other jewelry"..instructions in thoughtful gift-giving.
"Oh! Rita! Look!" Estelle's hand grabbed hers suddenly, and when Rita looked up she found that Estelle's other hand was occupied excitedly pointing at something in a shop window they were passing by.
The window looked into a jewelry shop, although it was not the sort of high-end, fancy jewelry that Rita would have expected to catch the eye of a princess. The shop was small and cozy and featured many necklaces and earrings and bracelets made of simple materials -- wood, wire, beads. Handcrafted and mostly inexpensive.
But even Rita's eye, unpracticed in the girly arts of makeup and finery, could tell that the display necklace that Estelle was calling to her attention was beautiful. It was strung with a dozen thin white wires, and each one was threaded with countless tiny elongated beads in various pastel colors. Naturally it called to Estelle; it suited her in every way, and it would doubtless look beautiful on her.
Instead of saying that, Rita shrugged. "Don't you have tons of jewelry already?"
"Well," Estelle said, deflating slightly. "Yes. But I don't have this necklace, and it's lovely!"
"You have plenty of money. You could just buy it for yourself."
"I suppose I could," Estelle said, repossessing her hands and tangling them together in front of her. She looked somewhat torn between bemusement and disappointment. "But the new year is coming up, and someone keeps saying that she doesn't know what to buy the princess who has everything, so I thought..."
Ah. Rita felt herself flush, and she was dimly aware of their friends around them, doubtless watching with smirks and grins. She looked pointedly away from all of them. "It's just as bad to be told what to buy," she said, with a cool she didn't feel.
"I would have pointed out other things-- Then it could've been a surprise..." Estelle was growing more crestfallen, from her tone, and that both made Rita feel bad and feel defensive, and she had no idea what to say to that without stabbing Estelle's efforts.
"Oooh, what about that one," Judith said slyly to distract them, because she was a good friend, and she tapped the glass above the finest, glitziest gemstone violet necklace hanging in the window. "Don't you think it would go perfectly with my coloring?" She pressed up against the window, as close to the necklace as she could get, and leveled Yuri with a measuring glance.
"Looks like it would get you robbed," he said, his voice dry. Judith lifted her eyebrows at him, as if daring him to find the fool who would rob her, and Karol cracked, "You know she'll just con someone else into buying it if you don't, Yuri!" and Yuri grumbled, "Why do you have to have such expensive tastes? Ask Estelle to buy it for you, she's the one with the money," and Estelle chimed in eagerly, "Oh, that's a great idea! I'll buy it for you, Judith!" and Judith asked, her tone mildly offended, "What makes you all think I can't pay for it myself? What do you think I've done with my gambling money?"
Rita reached up to the notebook hanging on a string around her neck. The front of the book was filled with encoded mathematical equations and scientific theorem and mana research observations, but she liked to flip to the back and keep personal notes on the last few pages. She plucked a pen from her pocket and wrote, Gift idea: Holly's Orn., xr Royal Av & 19th, pastel wire bib necklace.
As she lowered the book again, she caught Estelle watching her, so she suspected that her stealthy note-taking had not gone unnoticed. But at least no one was openly smirking about how foolish she felt.
The dilemma now was that she had something to get Estelle, but she couldn't get her only that, because then there would be nothing personal about it -- Rita would end up feeling like little more than an errand girl, fetching Estelle things at her whim, paying out of her own pocket with confidence that Estelle would get her something that would more than compensate her for the purchase.
So when she returned to the store, she had a plan.
"Hey, are you Holly?" Rita asked, coming up to the counter and folding her arms.
The woman behind the counter nodded, shifting to her feet. "Are you interested in some of my ornaments? I hand-make most of them myself."
"Yeah, I figured that out." Rita jerked her head to the side at the window. "I want to buy that pastel beaded necklace in the window."
Holly paused for a beat, an anxious look coming into her face, and she hemmed, "That one... That is a display model. I have nothing to replace it with if it goes down. It really isn't for sale yet."
This was not part of Rita's plan. Her eyes narrowed. "I'm not asking if it's for sale, I'm telling you I want to buy it. How much is it?"
"I really am not planning to..."
Rita marched over to it and peered around it, seeking a tag with a price written on it. She caught sight of a couple just outside the window admiring it, and she knocked on the glass to get their attention. "This one's taken, fellas," she told them with arch sweetness. "Move along."
"Ma'am, I'm really sorry, but it's supposed to encourage people to come into the store..." Holly sounded mortified behind her.
"You can't encourage people to come into the store by promising them things you're not actually selling," Rita snapped. She found the price and then lifted the necklace, letting it hang over her fingers. As she'd thought, it was cheap enough -- probably expensive compared to most of the store's contents, but certainly not priced at the fortune that any jewelry actually befitting Estelle's station would have been. "I'll give you twice this," she pronounced.
Holly shut up.
"And I want something to go with it." Rita looked around for anything in similar pastel beading. "Earrings, or... a bracelet or something. Don't you have anything that matches?"
"Like I said, I didn't even have another of that necklace ready to replace it in the window..." The shopkeep tucked a strand of honey-colored hair behind her ear, and then offered, "I could make something, though. Is this a Year's End gift?"
Rita glanced at her sidelong. "Yes. Can you have something finished in that time?" And she was a tiny bit wary. Never mind the fact that Holly did not appear to work very quickly; there was also the fact that she would be buying something sight-unseen that was very much appearance-dependent. What if she commissioned earrings that turned out incredibly tacky? A quick glance around the shop refreshed her memory about the sort of mixed results that Holly had already turned out. What if Estelle didn't like the new piece, or didn't like them as a set?
"How about this-- You leave the necklace with me for a week." Holly lifted her hands defensively as Rita started to glare at her. "And I'll use it to make another necklace, and to make a pair of matching bracelets. The bracelets will be unique -- only for your gift. How does that sound? No one else will have them!"
That was actually a very tempting suggestion. Rita scratched her jaw, thinking. Year's End was more than two weeks away, so there was enough time. And a unique gift, one that would never be replicated... That was a gift worthy of a princess.
"Deal," Rita said firmly, reaching for the book hanging around her neck. She flipped it open and added an arrow below her previous note. 3rd Remday: 2x wrist + 1x neck. "I'll leave you a deposit for the sign price of the necklace. You'd better get working." She did not intend to tolerate any more delays when she returned.
As she left, she noticed with some pleasure that Holly was adding a folded card that read SOLD below the necklace.
They met at the house in Halure for Year's End. It was freezing, with thick fluffy snow decorating every surface, but unsurprisingly, Estelle had braved the cold to add her own decorations: the roots framing it were strung with gold streamers, and shimmering red glass hung at every window, chiming gently as the wind stirred them. Rita eyed them as she headed to the door, reaching up to pull her scarf down from above her mouth and nose.
"Are you sick now?" she asked wearily, stepping inside with her packages securely under one arm.
"How did you know?" Estelle answered, her eyes wide as she shuffled out of the kitchen. She was wearing a quilt around her shoulders, and her face was flushed, nose red. She looked a little ridiculous, but she moved more quickly over to Rita, only to stop a foot away and hover. It took her a moment to decide to just lean slightly closer and air-kiss the space near Rita's cheek.
For some reason, that was more embarrassing than an actual kiss. "You lowered your internal body temperature by standing out in the cold all day," she said. "That suppressed your immune system, which allowed you to catch sick. I thought you'd know that with all your reading. What have I told you about staying indoors when it's cold, idiot?"
"I only read biology texts when I'm out of other reading material, believe it or not," Estelle said wryly. "Let me make you some tea!"
"Wrong. You, sit down. I will make you some tea." Rita set down her packages, and then went into the kitchen. Of course Estelle had found a way to make herself sick for Year's End. She simply excelled at putting herself at risk on arcane principle of doing something cute.
By the time Rita returned with tea, Estelle had curled up on the couch with her legs bent almost up to her chin, and she had greedy eyes on Rita's pile of gifts, with her arms around a few packages that must have been her own.
"You're not going to be able to wait until tomorrow to open gifts, are you?" Rita asked, her lips quirking up into a smile. She handed Estelle her mug. "Honestly. You're like a little kid."
"I am sick," Estelle said, hopefully. "So, you know, if I opened just one gift, it might make me feel better..."
Like a little kid. Rita glanced at her gifts, and thought about their contents. There was the jewelry, two books that she had thought Estelle would like, a cute hat, a few decorative items for the Halure house that Rita had never bothered with for her own, and some hand lotion that Rita had thought smelled like flowers, and when she'd first caught the scent she had imagined Estelle wearing it, and touching her with hands that smelled of it, and it had all felt right.
Logically speaking, the jewelry was the best gift, and she should save the best gift for tomorrow when the gifts were supposed to be given, when all their friends would get together in Aurnion for the grand party that everyone who was anyone would be attending. But the jewelry was also the one gift that Estelle would know to expect, so it would not have the same impact as the surprise presents.
And she knew Estelle would want to wear her new accessories tomorrow when they went to see the others, just as if they were the sort of fancy jewelry she would ordinarily wear in the presence of kings and commandants and guild leaders...
"Fine," Rita said, and she reached to sort the necklace and the bracelets out of the pile. Estelle squealed her excitement and then deliberated over her own gifts for a moment, biting her lip, before finally thrusting a long slender box at Rita. "You first," Rita prompted, making the exchange.
"This isn't just one," Estelle observed with surprise. "You want me to open two?"
"They sort of go together," Rita said. She folded her arms, still holding Estelle's gift, trying not to show her own excitement.
Estelle shifted a little impatiently, debating whether to object or not, but the anticipation was too much for her, and she tore into the wrapping on the necklace box.
Rita honestly wasn't sure what to expect. Of course Estelle would be pleased, but how pleased could she be when she already knew what would be in the gift? She told herself that any sincerely positive response meant Estelle was happy to have gotten it, but was unprepared for the gasp and the sheer delight on Estelle's face when she opened the box, as if the sight within took her breath away.
"You got it! Oh, Rita!" Estelle bounded up off the sofa, arms opening, and then looked sheepish. "Oh-- I'm sick."
"It's okay," Rita said, rubbing the side of her neck. She felt very off-balance.
"This is so wonderful! I love it." Estelle was practically glowing, lifting the necklace and stringing it over her fingers, admiring it up close. "I'm so happy."
"Yeah, I can tell." Rita cleared her throat, and corrected the dry response with a more sincere, "I -- I'm really glad that you like it so much. Seeing that is all the thanks I need."
"I can't wait to wear it tomorrow," Estelle announced, just as Rita had predicted.
Rita smiled, feeling a slow pleasure building up in her. This, at least, would be a surprise. "You haven't opened the other box yet."
"What? Oh--" Estelle paused and blinked at it; a slightly bigger box, although not as wide. "It goes with the necklace?" she asked tentatively, and went for the wrapping.
In a few seconds she had the top off, and her expression transformed into one of wonder. There were two thick cuffs in the box, identical white metal bracelets inlaid with the same long pastel beads that decorated the necklace. There was less color than in the necklace, so it was more silver and white than pastel, but the beads in it were artfully arranged to form a beautiful pale pattern. They were an elegant match to the necklace, and beautiful in their own right. Holly had done a good work, and Rita hadn't regretted a single of the gald spent on her commission. She had even made a note, in her notebook: Future gifts @ Holly's
"Oh, Rita..." Estelle said, breathless. "They're gorgeous! I can't believe it... Did you find these in the store?" She was already putting them on, admiring the way they settled on her wrists.
Rita shrugged, as if it were an unimportant detail, but her lips were curved up in spite of herself. "She made them special at my request," she said casually.
Estelle's hands went to her mouth, shocked, and then she bounced in her seat, sickness apparently completely forgotten in her joy. "That is amazing! It's wonderful. I can't believe you did all this for me... They're wonderful, Rita."
No doubt she had hundreds of nicer pieces. No doubt they would be the least expensive jewelry she owned; no doubt other nobles would find them tacky and crafty. But that didn't matter to Estelle.
The real significance of the gift was just that: that Rita went through the trouble for her. While Rita had spent so much time trying to think of something that would make Estelle happy, that she wouldn't already have or that would compare to her other things without being redundant, things that would be worthy of her. She had forgotten that her princess needed nothing -- what Estelle wanted was to see that her friends cared.
Maybe, especially, that Rita cared.
Not that she could help it. Rita smiled at her, the pleasure thoroughly contagious. "I might have been overthinking what to get you," she admitted. "Thanks for taking the time to smack some sense into me when I wasn't getting it."
"Don't say it like that! You would have figured something out eventually," Estelle chided, and then gestured, excitedly. "Now you have to open yours!" She said it with the same eagerness that she had showed while waiting for hers.
Rita blinked, looking down at the slim box in her hands. She had almost forgotten about it. "Ooookay." She couldn't imagine anything better than Estelle's happiness, sitting there with the bracelets already on even though she was otherwise dressed in comfortable houseclothes and buried under a quilt, the watercolor of her eyes perhaps somewhat glassy. But those eyes were rapt on her, and she felt a little self-conscious as she peeled the paper from the box, and then opened it.
Inside was a golden chain, twisted around itself like a rope; it was long, much longer than the necklace that Rita had given Estelle. Rita touched it with some fascination, marveling, and her fingers dipped to a little gold hoop halfway through its length. She wondered if it was real gold. Probably.
Then she looked up, belatedly thinking that she should respond, tell Estelle that it was beautiful. Estelle was still watching her, still bubbling over with anticipation. "Put it on!" the older girl urged before Rita could even open her mouth.
Rita lifted it obligingly, but forged ahead, telling her, "It's beautiful, Estelle! I don't exactly own a lot of jewelry, other than the accessories we all got together while we traveled, but--"
"Put it on," Estelle repeated, this time laughing.
Puzzled, Rita draped it over her head. It fit neatly under the edge of the modified bodhi blastia that she still wore as a choker to help her channel mana, and draped down her chest, ending neatly between her breasts--
--exactly where her notebook hung now, on its coarse string. And then Rita figured it out, and it took her breath away. She had worn this notebook, and a thousand notebooks just like it, on string, a thousand strings just like this, that she kept until they threaded apart and snapped from use. Things she wanted to research and alternate theories for what she was working on and epiphanic breakthroughs were always coming to her in situations where she could not properly make use of them, or while she was doing other work, and she would jot them down in the notebook to keep track of them later. Rarely -- but more and more, recently, since she had met Estelle and the others -- there were also personal observations, small things like birthdays and appointments and errands, that she would promptly forget about if she did not have it written down, to be reviewed at the end of the day while lying in bed, the way she always did, thumbing through her little notebook on its little string.
It had been years and years.
"I've noticed you using that notebook a lot," Estelle offered, shyly. "I thought maybe you could try something a little nicer than string and see if you like it. You don't have to use it, of course! I won't be hurt if you don't like it. I just thought it might be... nice, even if you only want to use it when you're at an event, like when we get dressed up tomorrow."
Rita barely heard any of it.
No one had ever bought her jewelry. It was useless, after all. Just trinkets to look pretty, and Rita had never cared for looking pretty. She had her blastia, of course, but she had had that made for herself because it served a pragmatic purpose, and it wasn't really jewelry. Yuri had once bought her a pendant necklace that she had worn a few times because she'd been secretly touched, and Judith had one time turned up on her birthday (even though Rita had never told Judith when her birthday was) with a pair of earrings and only smiled secretively when Rita had inquired about where they came from, but she forgot about them more often than not. They were an unnecessary extra step of personal care, when Rita's normal morning routine was to roll out of bed, eat a cold breakfast in the bath, and then head straight to the chalkboard, often without even bothering to wear more than the wet towel.
But Estelle had bought her jewelry... that served a pragmatic purpose.
It was the most personal and perfect gift she had ever been given.
"I love it," she said, and her voice was somewhat choked. She cleared her throat, self-conscious.
"Oh, Rita." And then Estelle was up, and her sickness was forgotten, because she dropped down to the floor in front of Rita's couch and wrapped arms around her, and Rita clung to her and told herself -- not for the first time -- that a horrible chain of events had been set into motion that had brought this amazing person into her life, and that this amazing person had loved her without reservation and without reason, and that however terrifyingly unlikely and statistically improbable those things were, it did not matter as long as they had happened, because sometimes, everything just came together and was perfect.
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I hope you didn't expect coherency with my OTP! Uh. NOT ENOUGH KISSING.