vanilla and sprinkles
Story: Timeless { backstory | index }
Title: Teal
Rating: G
Challenge: Vanilla #24: a gift
Toppings/Extras: sprinkles
Wordcount: 1,284
Summary: Robyn Walshe misjudges a Christmas gift for her newest friend.
Notes: OMG CHRISTMASSY FLUFF. I’ve mentioned this scarf before (in passing) and here is its story!
For some reason Robyn really, really cared what Victor thought of his Christmas present. It was the first Christmas since he’d joined the black ops team and they were all exchanging gifts before parting for a couple of days. Wolfgang was visiting his brother and his family and Bradley had arrangements with his own clan.
Sometimes, especially in the wintry season, Robyn wished she still kept in touch with her family. The blonde immersed herself in work even more than usual during the Christmas period, which seemed a little backwards to most but Newson didn’t mind. Or care.
Victor hadn’t requested leave.
Sitting in a small lounge that joined onto their various living quarters, fire crackling, there was a cosy feel in the air and Robyn squeezed every last drop from it that she could. Sat on a sofa with his bulky arms spread along the back was Wolfgang, her closest friend, smiling his own sort of smile that could warm any heart right from the centre. Robyn sat next to his feet on the floor, knees drawn up. Bradley had sprawled himself sideways across an armchair and Victor was also sat on the floor, cross-legged. They had been talking backwards and forwards for almost an hour now in the woozy, almost liquid way of comrades about to part.
“I don’t care that it’s not Christmas,” Robyn said, beaming her most sunshiney smile towards Victor. “I want you to open my present before you catch your death. Seriously, Vic, don’t you feel the cold?”
“Sometimes,” he said mildly, and then set to gently opening the present, easing his slender fingers beneath the tape and opening it without ripping it. Robyn raised her eyebrows, remembering back when she used to have the patience to open presents like that. It had been quite a long time ago.
God, she hoped he’d like it.
Disguising her anxiousness with a stupid grin, she watched as Victor pulled out her gift: a bright scarlet scarf, thick enough to be warm but thin enough to be svelte, just the sort of thing she could imagine him wearing. He seemed to own hardly a thing that had any colour in it at all and she thought it would brighten him up a little.
His reaction wasn’t what she had hoped for. There was a long silence as he stared at the scarf, pulling it free of the wrapping and holding it up, light gleaming from its brightly coloured side. After a few moments, began to wrap it around one of his fists slowly.
“Thank you,” he said, not meeting her gaze. He was trying to smile politely but she could tell something was wrong. “It’s... it’s lovely.”
Robyn nearly winced. Oh, God.
Next to her, Wolfgang’s knee moved to nudge her. When she looked up at him, she found that he was giving her the strangest look ever. Shaking his head as though unable to believe her, grinning slightly in bewilderment, he mouthed: Really? Robyn frowned, having no idea what he meant.
After a moment he stood, made some baffling excuse up and beckoned her out of the room. She followed him, a sickly disappointment still curdling the pit of her stomach.
“A red scarf?” Wolfgang asked once the door was shut behind them. One eyebrow was raised and he seemed to be expecting her to answer for herself.
“Yeah,” Robyn said slowly. “What? What’s wrong with it?”
“Are you serious?”
“Well, obviously,” Robyn snapped, folding her arms. “What the hell have I done now?”
“Blackledge uniform,” Wolfgang said. Two words was all it took. Groaning, Robyn put her head in her hands and ducked her head forwards, sending her golden rope of hair swinging over her head and in front of her.
“Blackledges!” she moaned. “They’re impossible.”
“It’s just one thing,” Wolfgang said reproachfully. “And you had to get him one...”
Now that she thought about it though, it was obvious. The grainy images of the Blackledges in the Facility that had been leaked showed the rows of children clearly, in their grey uniforms with a red band around each of their arms, printed with their serial number. And around each and every one of their necks? A red scarf tucked into their collars.
“I didn’t even... oh, bloody hell,” she said. Wolfgang grasped her by the shoulders and tipped her head up.
“He probably doesn’t mind much,” he said. “He is Victor, after all. And... it was a long time ago...”
It didn’t matter. She had failed him. Her supposed ‘friend’. Her wonderful Christmas present could only remind him of the living hell that had been his childhood.
“I’m going out,” she sighed, heading to the door.
-----
Britannia City transformed in the snow. Victor liked it. He’d always liked snow. Standing on one of the wide walkways branching out from Hamlet Tower, he gazed across the skyscraper metropolis serenely as clusters of flakes tumbled and twisted from the bleach-white sky. The air was thick with them, flurrying in the wind, and his dark hair and lashes were soon bristling with them.
People were coming out of their homes onto the many balconies, staring up at the falling snow. There weren’t many people that couldn’t be cheered up by a good bit of snowfall. Drifts were already forming on open-air platforms and far below him the flakes disappeared into the pinkish Smog.
He heard boots clanging across the walkway behind him and turned around in time to see Robyn Walshe walking towards him, hands deep in the pockets of a large overcoat. He bit his lip guiltily.
“I was just going to put it on,” he blurted.
Half-smiling, Robyn shook her head slowly.
“Don’t bother,” she said, and brought one her hands out from its pocket, pulling out with it a long, slippery length of gleaming fabric: another scarf, this one bright teal. Victor only stared as she smoothed it out with her hands and then leaned forwards to wrap it around his neck, doing it up unhurriedly and then dropping it against his chest. “Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think.”
“I’m sorry,” Victor replied, looking ashamed. “I was ungrateful. You shouldn’t have bought another one.”
“I’m glad I did,” Robyn said, smiling. “It suits you more. Puts some colour into your eyes.”
Victor moved his hand to his neck and ran a finger along the silky material. Almost reluctantly, he looked at her.
“Really?”
Robyn just nodded.
Gaze dropping to his feet, Victor smiled slightly lopsidedly, moving his hands back into his own pockets. Flakes of snow buffeted in the wind, bouncing from Robyn’s cheeks which were pink from the cold.
“Thank you,” he said. His voice was timid but filled with warmth. Robyn realised with a start that he looked happy. Really, really happy. Even though his lips were only in a shallow curve and his eyes still didn’t quite meet hers, there was something in his face, a softness to his hard-boned features. The grim tightness of his lips had eased.
“Make sure you wear it when it’s cold out,” she said, taking a step backwards as the snow continued to fall thick from the sky. It was icily catching the back of her neck but somehow she didn’t mind at all. Victor’s eyes moved up to meet hers, their usual colourlessness tinged with an illusion of bright blue-green from the scarf at his neck.
“I will.”
“Merry Christmas, Vic.”
His fingers found their way to the scarf again, rubbing it against his neck.
“Merry Christmas,” he replied in a voice scarcely above a whisper.
She was no expert on these things, but she later decided that was probably when she fell in love with him.