the concept of golden boy shane hollander being absolutely terrible at wrapping gifts and it’s fine because you can pay people to do that. experts. people who will have beautiful wrapping paper and crisp folds and perfect corners and flat ribbon with a full bow. it’s fine. everyone knows. except one year, they’re at the hollanders’ before christmas and yuna is busy. colorful rolls of wrapping paper stuck in a tall bin. several tape dispensers. fancy scissors that everyone knows are only for paper.
ilya is absolute astounded by her wrapping skills (“you only used one piece of tape!?!????”) and however she does the ribbon bows (honestly david and shane have no idea and that’s not from lack of trying). so while originally the men were supposed to be working on the food, ilya is attentively sat at the table watching yuna wrap, learning how to wrap.
and later on the drive home, shane asks about. not that it’s bad, but shane knows ilya doesn’t like arts and crafts. not really. he’ll color or whatever with jade and amber but he’s never been one to make and card and shane knows ilya doesn’t wrap presents! or at least, he’s never seen ilya wrap a gift. shane takes all the presents to get wrapped or ilya just loves a little gift bag with excessive amounts of tissue paper and filler (“it’s hilarious, shane. you think there will be gift but no! is more paper! and then I say ‘TA-DA’ and hand them unwrapped present.”)
ilya is quiet for a moment. then softly explains that it feels like cooking. as if the time and attention and detail could contain all the feelings of love in a physical object. as if there was a way to convey the feeling without words, without baring so much of yourself. simply the effort put in as a show of the love someone has.
not that there’s anything wrong with a chef or paying someone else to wrap gifts or anything. he also clarifies. because it’s true. love is shown in more than just one way, one act. if anything it’s in multitudes, in the action—not just the moment.
shane sits with that.
and then when they go home, after ilya falls asleep, he tiptoes into the hallway, pulls ilya’s gift out of the closet that he tells ilya has spiders (it doesn’t. it did once. but now it’s fine. except ilya was scared of it for a while. so now shane says there’s still a spider and hides ilya’s gifts in there throughout the year.).
clearing off the dining room table, shane layouts the wrapping paper and gets to work. surely he must’ve picked up on what his mom was doing. shane’s watched her wrap gifts for years, there’s no way he’s learned nothing.
except the first try is terrible. the paper didn’t want to stay. the folds are all crooked. the paper was choppy where he cut it off the roll. shane is very much reminded why he doesn’t wrap gifts. with a huff, he peels off the paper, and begins again.
this time the corners are crushed and the design on the paper is fading from the number of times shane has had to adjust the placement. there’s also place where the ink was just removed and stuck to the piece of tape he realized wasn’t right after pressing on. so the paper comes off and he tries again.
because it has to be perfect. it’s for ilya. doesn’t ilya deserve that?
it’s 3am when shane feels… okay about the results. it’s certainly no masterpiece. he’s seen the gifts yuna wrapped and the work done by the volunteers at the mall. the folds don’t all meet up in perfect lines, but for it being early in the morning shane thinks it’s pretty good. he did his best (if the pile of wrapping paper spilling onto the ground and mini ball of tape is any marker) and that’s got to count for something right?
the one issue is the bow. that’s incredibly lopsided and sitting funny. (plus it’s in some bright red that they just so happened to have in the house that shane can’t recall buying and it certainly does not match the paper.) yet shane tried 15 times and they all looked terrible. the videos online didn’t help because, well shane reckons this might be the wrong kind of ribbon but it’s the only ribbon they have and even if ilya didn’t notice shane leave the bed he would certainly hear the car if he went to the store. a store that probably wouldn’t be open.
so he clears up the mess, put the gift paper in the spider closet, places ilya’s gift in the drawer of his bedside table, and slides back into bed. pressing a kiss to ilya’s forehead, shane whispers and “I love you” before sleeping himself.
it’s christmas morning and they’re sat cross-legged across from each other in their bed. it’s only been a few occasions, but since living together, shane and ilya decide this as a nice way to exchange gifts where it’s equally a suprise without either of them applying gymnastics and parkour to their hiding techniques (ilya tried to hop the couch once when he left the gift on the coffee table. shane tripped in his rush to shut the office door where he was hiding gifts.).
ilya has the biggest grin on his face and shane hopes his looks the same. hopes it doesn’t give away any of the nervousness, because he knows ilya will like it. ilya said it’s about the effort and shane has never wrapped a gift for ilya before. so it’ll be fine. and it’s not like ilya has ever done so either. it’ll be great. and if ilya laughs, well shane can laugh too and then donate the rest of his wrapping paper and never ever ever touch a roll of ribbon ever again. see? he has a plan—
except! they countdown and ilya was not supposed to pull out his own perfectly wrapped present!
I mean, shane wouldn’t say perfectly. objectively. he’s seen his mother’s work. but also it’s ilya.
“while you were in the kitchen, I asked mom for help,” ilya says shyly, the grin softened as he push the gift closer to shane. “it’s not—“
shane grabs it quickly, holding it to his chest, “it’s perfect!” and ilya laughs and shane would do anything to see that light in his eyes all the time. “it’s perfect,” shane says more calmly, studying the present now that it’s closer.
forget what shane thought earlier. he was wrong. this is greatest wrapped gift ever because ilya wrapped it. his ilya. his ilya that doesn’t usually do the wrapping paper. his ilya that usually does gift bags or nothing. his ilya that sat and watched his mom wrap gifts for an hour and then learned how. shane thinks he can feel what ilya meant about the love put into it.
and, as he slowly hands his present over to ilya, shane can’t help put hope ilya can feel the love he put into his wrapping, too. because shane thinks if he knew before what it meant to ilya, then maybe shane would’ve tried before. earlier. done more to learn. taken the time to practice. wouldn’t have waited til the night before to try out his wrapping skills for the first time since high school.
“oh” shane’s pulled out of his thoughts as their fingers brush as ilya takes the present from him and looks up to find ilya crying.
well. fuck.
he didn’t think the wrapping was that bad.
“sorry. this was like the 15th attempt. I know it’s not good but—oof,” shane is cut off in surprise when ilya leans forward to press a kiss to his forehead with a loud MWUAH. “baby, what—“
“do not apologize,” ilya wipes at his cheeks quickly. “is perfect.”
“but the bow is—“
“my mama used to make them like this,” ilya laughs wetly. “she even used the same ribbon.”
yesterday my grandma found a penny on the floor and said to my grandpa “there’s that penny again, pa!” and i absolutely lost my mind because i couldn’t shelve the thought of a single panel Far Side comic of two old people on the front porch in the middle of nowhere and a giant penny angrily and inexplicably rolling through the wastes
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