Benedictus (Yulia)

There were a few things that still overwhelmed Lia, malls being one of them. That was why she was so glad that she had someone with her. That tended to make the shopping experience a lot easier, or rather a lot shorter. Having someone to keep up with meant that she could not stand and stare perplexed at the sometimes very odd displays. She didn’t understand the holidays here, it just seemed like too much. It was something that she had not celebrated in years before she came to Vermont, and even when she had it was not on this scale.

Despite that, she would not have traded it for anything in the world. She loved Vermont, and Pilot Ridge had now become the home that she had lacked. She felt comfortable there, she felt like she fit, and she had warmed to how her life had changed. It was something that had taken time, but had come together. Everything else was just the past now, and that was that.

“Ummm… Yes, sort of.” That was really the only answer that she could give Sean when he asked if she had her list. The truth was that she had a minimal one, but she wasn’t all that good at the whole Christmas shopping thing. She knew that she could be upfront and ask exactly what people wanted, but that only worked half the time from her past experiences. The other times it made them balk and she’d rather just avoid that entirely.

“People like Snow globes, right? I think I’ll get a bunch of those, and chocolate. I think that should generally satisfy everyone, so my actual list is pretty short.” It was also written on her hand, and she removed her right glove to look at it. “I thought more would come to me than this, I just need to keep a running list all year round so I don’t forget anything.”

Lia bit her lip. She was beginning to feel like she should have been more thoughtful about her list, but this was the same sort of thing that she had done every years since she had come here. She appreciated the holidays but did not think of them with the level of importance that some did. If she was going to give truly specific gifts it was going to be on birthdays, which she tended to do better to remember. Maybe all of that would come with time.

Her lips twitched into a frown for a moment as she considered what she was working with. “Maybe I’ll just stick to the chocolate. I’d hate to…” Lia tried to think of the right word, her head tilting to one side and then the other as she considered it. “… Junk up anyone’s space. Oh, clutter, I mean clutter. So lets go to Lindt and I’ll just buy bags of bags.”

Just then she was distracted by the sight of a very harried looking woman trying to stuff her keys in her purse as she tried to keep a hold on the leash, attached the harness that was, surprisingly, attached to a child.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.” She chuckled a moment later. It was hard to be surprised when you lived where they did.

Yulia’s eyebrows shot up. Free samples, that was right, she hadn’t even thought of that. The prospect alone was pretty exciting to her at the moment. That was the nice thing about stores at the holidays, so many free samples.

“I’ve seen them around before, but I didn’t know that they were actually… a thing,” Lia said for lack of a better term. “I don’t like it, my mother had three children, she never needed any leashes.” After she said that she was mildly surprised to have put a point in favor of her family, but it was the holidays after all. Instead of dwelling on it she just headed for the Lindt store.

En route came the traditional holiday human obstacle course, but it was surprisingly manageable save for the occasional stroller. Once in Lindt she wasted no time in plucking bags off of shelves and choosing foil wrapped Santas.

“Did you come up with anything particularly brilliant for the holidays?” She wasn’t exactly sure how into giving the perfect gift Sean was, but she knew that some people were. Then again, maybe that would be too tempting or too easy, given the telepathy and all. Lia tried to quickly count what she had.

“I think that this should cover pretty much everyone.” Maybe she should pick up some wine bottles as well…

Lia put a lighter spin on things. “My mother didn’t even have to try to keep us in. Norilsk is in the arctic circle, you can’t just run out, you need to be prepared.” She chuckled. There had never been a desire in her to run out into the cold without being properly prepared. “No one got to sneaking out until my oldest sister turned 15.”

Lia picked up a basket and proceeded to put everything that she had already picked up into it. Then she counted again, trying to decide if she truly thought that she had enough. This was the kind of thing that never went wrong, so now it was just a matter of making sure that she didn’t give anyone something that they were allergic to. Maybe she just shouldn’t get ones with peanut butter in them at all.

“How many siblings do you have?” She didn’t know very much about Sean’s family, but then again family was never all that common of a conversation topic. It was almost like religion, you never quite knew where everyone stood, and how many scars had been left behind. “And are you going to go visit for the holidays or are you staying in town?”