destinystrings | 01 - Selphie's Merry Christmas

Who: Selphie and anyone who happens to be around or passing through ie, Open!
Where: Pisces Ward, Level 5
Summary: Selphie is decorating for Christmas! Yay!
Warnings: Singing and lots of Christmas cheer, and a clutz on a ladder.

Christmas time! Selphie's been around her new home for almost a month and gradually, bit by bit, she's getting more used to the place. The fact that Christmas is coming up is keeping her happy, and busy. But she doesn't have a job yet, and her money's running low, so as much as she'd like the decorations to be magical or splendid, all she has is some cheap tinsel.

Does that bother Selphie? Not in the slightest. She's done decorating her room, and now she's moved out into the hallway. Lucky people who live on her floor! She's managed to find herself a ladder and, given that she's pretty tiny, she's standing on it quite high, reaching up to tape tinsel along the ceiling. There are strands of red and gold, and she's doing her best to keep the tinsel straight and stopping it from dipping too low over the doorways to each department. For the clumsy girl that she is, the whole scenario is a little precarious. But it's jolly and cheerful too, as Selphie sings loudly as she goes along, whistling and humming when she forgets the words to the Christmas songs she knows.

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"Sure." He watched her for a moment but then looked to the counter as he considered it.

"Yeah, guess you have a point. I just worry." But he'd need all the help he could get, wouldn't he? "If you want, you can join when I get it set up."

Selphie couldn't help it - he'd got her in a bit of a huff. She wasn't a girl to accept the help or worry of others - her job was to do that for other people, not for others to do for her. She slid a bowl of pasta over to Locke, before turning to leave the kitchen without looking at him.

"Yeah. I can look after myself, you know."

Selphie flopped down onto her sofa, and promptly began shoving forkfuls of food into her mouth.

He caught the bowl and smirked to himself. Heee'd offended her. He followed her into the other room and sat beside her, taking a bite before he spoke again.

"Sorry. I know you can." Another bite, delaying a bit.

"You're important to me; I don't want to see you hurt."

Selphie was all set to ignore him, at least for a little while until she had calmed herself down. But he apologised, and her shoulders visibly relaxed. She turned to him, a large forkful of pasta almost at her lips, and she blinked.

She looked away for a moment, giving her time to eat and swallow her food while she tried to think of some reasonable way to react. "If I'm not there, then who's going to look after you?"

He glanced at her but then took to studying his food instead. He didn't have someone to look after him, just people to look after. But not anymore, it seemed. It wasn't fair to Selph to discount her and her abilities.

"Yeah, guess you've got a point. We'll just have to look after each other, then."

It was all very well for Selphie to tell someone off for not looking after themself - a bit of a hypocrite, really. So at his suggestion, Selphie turned to him and gave a reluctant smile - she still wanted to be mad at him, but she really wasn't, and it showed. "Exactly. We will."

He smiled back and set the bowl aside a moment. Then he leaned towards her and kissed her cheek, lightly. It could mean a lot of things, but mostly it was just for how grateful he was to have her again.

He missed having someone he could be himself around, someone to care for.

Selphie wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but it wasn't that. In fact, it was enough of a fright that she dropped her bowl, the contents tipping onto the floor. There wasn't a lot left, but she instantly moved from the sofa to scoop it all up, "Oops..."

At least this way she could concentrate on cleaning the mess, instead of just staring at him and tring to decide what she was supposed to do. Was that the kind of thing where she was supposed to kiss him back, or what?

"Sorry!" He didn't know how he'd expected her to react, but that wasn't it and now he just felt bad. He could have chosen to show his gratefulness another way...he probably should have.

He finished off what was left in his bowl quickly and then stood, taking her bowl from her as he passed by on his way to the kitchen. "I'll clean up." He could at least do that for her.

"No, no. Sorry. That's my fault!"

Selphie could feel her cheeks blushing as she bowed her head, concentrating so hard on picking up the food. She glanced up as Locke took the bowl from her, and suddenly felt very ashamed of herself.

She got up slowly and moved into the small kitchen, reaching to take the bowls back from him, "No, it's okay. You're my guest."

"I'm your friend. Let me take care of them." He held them out of her reach and took them to the sink to start running water in them. With that going, he took his gloves off and set them to the side, focusing on the cleaning rather than the girl behind him.

"I'm sorry if that bothered you, I guess that was a better idea in my head than out of it."

Selphie looked Locke in the eye, considering for a moment if she should actually try and wrestle the dishes out of his hand. But she didn't, she just lowered her eyes and moved out of the way to let him clean.

If he could see the look she was giving him while he said that, then he might have changed his mind. Behind him, Selphie bit her lip for a moment before swiftly stepping up to his side and pressing a light kiss on his cheek.

"There. Now we're even."

He started a little and looked over his shoulder at her, a small smile curving it's way onto his lips. He hadn't been expecting that, but he was happy to have it.

"Guess we are."

He finished washing the dishes and set about to drying them instead.

"Thank you."

Selphie lingered just behind him, smiling as he dried up the dishes, relieved more than anything that he didn‘t seem upset or annoyed at her.

“Hmm..? What for?“

He shrugged, glad he could look at the dishes instead. "For everything. I didn't get a chance to thank you or say good bye before I left Vath. I wanted to thank you for being my friend."

She knew that. At least, the bit about him not saying goodbye. Her memories still might be fuzzy, but she remembered that feeling of being left.

"Well, you're welcome. And thank you for being my friend. Now I know where I can get someone to clean my dishes so perfectly!"

He laughed and handed them to her to put away. "Yeah, sure, whenever you need a maid, call me."

Selphie took them and crouched to put them into the cupboard beside the oven. "I will. I'll get an apron for you and everything. I mean, I'll be extra busy when I'm working on your project...right?"

He crossed his arms and leaned against the counter, smiling as he watched her."Right. Just, do me a favor and don't make it pink, okay? I still have some pride to maintain, after all!"

Selphie narrowed her eyes and scanned him over, tilting her head as if considering it, "I dunno..I think pink would kinda suit you. Pink with frills!" And, as she did try to picture it, she started to laugh.

"Hey, now, you trying to ruin my reputation or something? Master treasure hunters don't wear pink frills, not even when they're doing dishes!" He crossed his arms, pretending to be offended, but he couldn't stop from smiling.

Selphie raised a brow at that, a hand on her hip, "Reputation, huh?" She grinned at him and shook her head, walking past to get to the living room, "Don't worry. It can be our secret."

01 - Selphie's Merry Christmas

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