A Merry Little Christmas for @PureDeviance_
Sometime before midnight on Christmas Eve, Gem decided that @PureDeviance_ was impossible to buy for. She couldn’t afford the type of things he liked and what she could afford simply wouldn’t do at all. It was times like this she wished she was handy outside of a garage. Giving all the vehicles a Holiday tune-up might suffice for @KyvanRus and @MellissaHiggens, it it wasn’t going to cut it for Simon.
She’d been stalking the halls, trying to come up with an idea, any idea, of what to get Simon for Christmas for more than a week now and still coming up empty. He hadn’t dropped any hints, and she was sure he’d known she had ulterior motives for lingering in his presence. Gem suppressed a sigh. He probably thought she was a bigger fool than he had while trying to teach her to ice-skate. She had signed up for skating lessons and though not by no means an expert, she no longer resembled a stumbling drunk on ice and was looking forward to an opportunity to demonstrate her new-found skill.
But that wasn’t a Christmas present.
Somehow Gem had wandered into the portrait gallery. Vaguely, she wondered how many of these faces the vampires had known and how many were, or had been vampires themselves.
"Too bad this isn’t a Harry Potter movie," Gem told the paintings. "I bet you all could come up with great gift ideas and I could really use the help."
She continued walking along the gallery, trying to place the faces in their appropriate eras of Russian history by their dress. It sounded easier than it was but then most things were. About halfway around the room, something caught her eye. Leaning closer over the display case, Gem studied a palm sized landscape displayed beside an ornate set (or so she assumed) of matryoshka dolls. A slow grin lit her face. That just might work but only if….
She hurried out of the room, eager to test her idea. She stopped in Kyvan’s office to ask about Security then retraced her steps to @TigerQuinnBD’s office. Sure enough, he told her everyone, including guests, was discreetly shadowed by a security detail, especially since Kyvan had been attacked in a nightclub. With the tiger’s help she secured a still from the surveillance video. It wasn’t great, but didn’t have to be. Saving it to her iPad she applied a few filters to make it look like a vintage painting of another time. Provided people wore jeans and furs to skate in other eras. She hit print and ran out to buy a frame at the very last minute.
As gifts went, it wasn’t much. If you looked closely, however, it was just possible to make out the smile on Simon’s face. The image caught him in a rare moment of laughter without making it too obvious that Gem was flailing around and in the midst of falling. Gem treasured the moment and the way his eyes had sparkled when he caught her. Quietly, she slipped down to Simon’s door, set the package against the door, knocked and ran back around the corner to hide. She couldn’t resist peeking back when he opened the door.
Maybe she should have skipped those other skating lessons…
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