Joha had found herself more frustrated at West’s cryptic and cynical answer to a vague attempt at request for gift help than she’d wanted to admit at first. Which meant, eventually, turning to the closest other parental figure she had and that was Uncle Sig. Asking Uncle for gift ideas, however, skirted the edge of uncomfortable conversation about who the gift’s recipient was.
The extremely vague and faintly defensive “just a friend who I wanted to make sure got a Valentione’s gift, that’s all” Sigmundre probably hadn’t actually bought, but when Joha mentioned her initial idea, the elderly man had forgotten all about the who’s and why’s.
He’d lead her to the proper book stacks, Dolly following under both their feet, Joha taking tome after tome he pulled free and trying so very hard to take in all the suggestions he was making. He extracted the promise of her showing what she’d found before shooing her off, his bones aching from the excitement.
Later, much later, Joha had been cursing the dirt under her pearly peach nails and mourning the small beads that had been sacrificed to the flower hunt in the woods. Thorns had scratched the leather of a new pair of boots, even! But better the boots than her shins, especially now that she was far too old to ask Madeline to dab them with antiseptic.
The hike had been fruitful, though, enough flowers collected to make several pressed petal groupings. And it had taken her hooooours to press them all, so many of which refused to behave, petals bending in utterly undesired directions. There had been a small tempter tantrum but we won’t speak of that.
When all was said and done, there’d had only been enough left for two collages. Perfect was an O’hteco curse but in this, Joha felt, it had been a useful trait if she did say so herself. Attention to detail and her eye for complementary colors gave the collages a whimsical softness.
One was left propped in Sigumndre’s favorite reading chair. A substitute for words.
The second was wrapped carefully then packed in a sturdy box, to be shipped off to Ishguard, note tucked under the twine that kept the paper around the wooden frame:
It seemed only right to celebrate first Valentione’s Day somehow. And since flowers aren’t likely to do so well with all that snow and ice, I thought these might liven up your dorm room while lasting longer than chocolates. ~ Joha
@sig-roys // @diskwrite-ffxiv
