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He felt nervous now handing over the small box, suddenly extremely self-conscious about the little figurine delicately wrapped up inside. The secret Santa seemed like a fun idea until he had discovered who his partner was.

Tala. 

Lee would have taken anyone over any of the members of that team. He was surprised they were even taking part in the first place, no doubt strongarmed or subtly blackmailed into it by Mr Dickenson. A pale hand took the box from him but Tala continued to stare at him with little to no expression, it was creepy. They stood in silence for a few moments, Tala holding the box but making no motion to open it. Simply holding onto it without a word like he didn't quite know what to do with himself either. Well, at least Tala seemed to be as uncomfortable as him in this situation. 

“Aren’t you going to open it?” Mariah huffed crossing her arms finally getting tired of watching this whole awkward exchange. Tala’s eyes flicked up to look at her for a moment before looking down to study the small box in his hand. Much to Mariah's annoyance, he turned his attention back to the room as he surveyed what everyone else was doing. Opening and giving gifts to each other, not a single hand was empty even that of his teammates who had split up to hand off their own halves of the exchange. 

Lee felt a lump in his throat, Tala dragging this out more than necessary was just making this exchange a thousand times more awkward than it already was. Part of him just wanted to rip open the box and shove it in Tala's face to get it over and done with but now, finally face to face with him he suddenly felt his gift was ridiculous. Its homemade nature suddenly felt embarrassing.

Tala seemingly tired of Mariah’s fussing opened the lid, tucking it under the base as he moved aside the layers of tissue paper that seemed silent in the uproar of the festivities around them. Pale fingers plucked out the small wooden shape pulling it up in front of his face to inspect. Lee swallowed and looked away self-consciousness taking over him. 

The figure was small, only about nine centimetres or so, carved from a solid chunk of wood. When lee had drawn Tala’s name he had no idea what the other man would want. At least if it had been Bryan he could have got a knife and been done with it but the elusive captain of the Russian team was straight up a mystery to him. He had looked all over at many things nothing even remotely caught his interest. He could have phoned it in with something generic but at the same time, his pride would never have allowed that. 

It had finally come to him when he was fussing over it trying desperately to rack his brain for an idea. He had been sat down whittling away at a small piece of wood, a calming hobby he had picked up the past few years. If there was one thing Tala seemed to care about it was wolborg, all of the bladers had a fondness and affinity with their bitbeats, so it was a safe bet. 

His first attempt was pretty but wrong. The beast was sat down tail wrapped around its body, the best sort of pose for this kind of craft, it made it strong and solid leaving no small parts that could easily snap. But the more he looked at it the more it didn't seem right. The wolf looked passive, almost friendly nothing like wolborg or its master. 

His second attempt was better. The figure was standing up but again it didn't seem right, its head was looking up and while not passive anymore its body language didn't convey what he felt it should. It looked more like a pet dog looking up at its master definitely not the feeling he got from wolborg.

On his third attempt he had thrown his normal techniques out the window and just went for it. The beast's body was in motion, twisted like it was about to start running after its prey, its legs each in a different position sprawled out and separate from the others. The wolf's head was pointed down but not in submission as its mouth was open and growling showing off its large fangs. Its tail up and alert just like the beast's signature embedded icicles that seemed to almost form wings on it’s back. It looked dangerous and wild just like it should, unfortunately, this left the figure itself extremely fragile. Pretty much every detail on this thing was a weak point, only a small amount of pressure would snap it in multiple places. It felt right however, compared to the other two while it wasn't as pretty or aesthetic but it felt truer to the actual beast.

He had no idea why he had even put so much effort into this, and now he all but regretted it.

“It’s beautiful, thank you” 

Lee almost couldn’t believe his ears, he expected Tala to scoff at the thing or at least make a smart little comment as the redhead often did. He looked up seeing Tala with an unreadable expression on his face, Fingers delicately turning the wolf over in his hand looking at the small details Lee had carved into the wood grain.

“Uh I-...You're welcome” He mumbled out, suddenly more embarrassed than ever but under that, he felt a little smug at actually getting some kind of approval from the redhead. Mariah clapped him on the back and said something about wanting to give her own gift now before promptly dragging him off. He couldn’t help but look back at Tala, he was still turning the small wooden figure over in his hands with an almost faraway look in his eyes.