Story: Timeless {
backstory |
index }
Title: Gift
Rating: G
Challenge: Strawberry #6: pocket watch
Toppings/Extras: sprinkles
Wordcount: 600
Summary: Robyn Walshe’s gift from Victor Blackledge.
Notes: Follow-up to Last Minute... kind of. Hope your Christmases were wonderful!
It was a present she’d been a little too excited about, which was why she saved it until last. Although not the kind to read much importance into gifts, Robyn had to admit it had been a good haul that year. Wolfgang-who always knew what to get her-had indulged her with a new pair of leather gloves which she knew were probably not cheap, and Bradley had opted for a huge selection of hot chocolate mixes. She hadn’t even known white hot chocolate and Mayan spice cocoa hot chocolate existed, but she did now. She would indulge herself later.
Victor’s present had been wrapped meticulously. Turning it over in her hands, Robyn admired it with a smile. The sheer concentration that must have gone into it was astounding-but Victor didn’t seem to know how to do anything any other way. It would probably take weeks of intense training for him to figure out how to sloppily bundle a gift up in wrapping paper, to lopsidedly yet lovingly tape things together.
A box of some kind, a little heavy for jewellery-besides which, surely he wouldn’t get her jewellery? That wasn’t her thing at all. She shook it a little bit and it gave the slightest rattle.
Patience finally running out, she scraped a nail under one of the rare exposed folds of the painstakingly wrapped present and ripped it open, pulling out a small black cardboard box of the kind which usually did contain jewellery. She found herself pausing again as she stared at the small box in her hands, jeweller’s logo embossed upon its top.
After a moment, she lifted the lid.
Nestled in a cutout of foam was a gleaming silver pocket watch, the exact size of the centre of her palm. Round and with a gleaming cover, it sat there perfectly snug. It wasn’t of particularly fussy design, with a few concentric circles engraved on the lid, a gilt pattern within one of the layers. When she clicked it open, the clock face peered at her earnestly, elegant black numbers on a white background. The second hand was already ticking.
Somehow, even though she hadn’t expected it, she wasn’t surprised at all. With a small smile she turned it over a few times in her hands, letting the silver chain slither through her fingers.
Victor liked clocks. She knew that. Everyone knew that. He wore about five watches at a time, if not more, and the couple of times she had glimpsed his living quarters had been a little scary, with at least one clock on every wall and more on the tables, mantelpieces, sideboards.
Closing the lid and wrapping the charming piece of archaic technology up in her hand, Robyn couldn’t help but read into the gift, as much as she tried to resist. Victor liked clocks a lot. He found them soothing. Trusted them when he couldn’t trust his own mind. They meant a lot to him. Didn’t they?
“Wolfgang,” she was saying breathlessly on the phone a few minutes later, feeling like an idiot because Victor was in the same building as she was and her best friend was in another city. “What did Victor get you?”
She didn’t even need to see his face. One eyebrow was raised, she knew it.
“Merry Christmas to you, too,” he replied. “Newspapers. A lot of newspapers. I’m not sure what it means. Why?”
“Just wondering,” Robyn said, feeling a boundless fizzle of static burst through her chest. She realised she was grinning like a madwoman. “Merry Christmas, Wolf! Have a great, great day.”