The royal blue sign among the boarded up store made it hard to miss. The fact that he was the only one in the hallway made it even harder to overlook. One of the brown paper bags that Henry McCoy was carrying fell to the ground. Tooth paste, shampoo, soap, conditioner and a few boxes of feminine hygiene care tumbled out. Hank quickly doubled over and scooped everything off the ground and into it's original place in the bag, a deep blush spreading across his holographic face and underneath his blue face underneath the hologram.
He had been, so to say, whining about not being able to leave the school grounds for a week so Ororo had sent him out, rather irritably for her, to run errands. When word got around that he was going shopping, a list had been composed full of jokes and necessities.
As much as he thought Ororo, Jean or Natasha should have bought them instead he was given the pleasure of buying everything instead.
Hank stood upright, the blush creeping down his neck, leaving his whole holographic face a bright red. He inched closer to the display in the window, neck cranked up in a strange way as he read the sign. "Isn't it about time you bought that special someone a special something? Entire store 40% off!" a sample display was underneath. A set of diamond earrings and necklace was around a large ruby set on a golden ring.
"May I help you sir?" a clerk asked; expertly hiding a look of surprise.
"Uh, yes. I'm looking for something for my girlfriend, I haven't been able to get her something for a while.
"Oh we have the perfect thing! How long have you been seeing this woman?""we've been dating for three years, this Thursday actually." Beast said with a reminiscent smile.
"I hear wedding bells!" the clerk, whose name tag read 'Andy' said. "What kind of girl is she? Rubies? Pearls? Diamonds?" Andy asked as she walked Hank into the store and showed him display cases for each.
Henry gazed at the rings. Ruby red; that was the colour of dress she wore when he first took her dancing. Along with that she also wore ruby studs that really stood out from her hair that covered her ears perfectly; a few strands dipping and curling past her shoulders elegantly. He was so nervous he stepped on her feet, three times! Yet they were still . She wore a pearl necklace every time she was nervous. Or home sick. Natasha had once told him that on her thirteenth birthday her grandmother had given it to her, and that it had belonged to her great great grandmother before Natasha had told him that she had had a falling out with her family, she wore the necklace when ever she could.
Diamonds. 'Heh' thought Hank as he said to Andy "She isn't to fond of diamonds for some reason." 'they remind her to much of what Emma did to Jean and Scott.'
"May I take a look at you collection of ruby and pearl engagement rings?" Henry asked, glancing at the rings again.
"Oh of course! Just a second." Andy sighed happily 'he might actually buy something!'
Andy returned with a small box of rubies of all cut and clarity. "These are all of our ruby rings."
Hank peered at them. The rings were held up by a fusion about one and a half centimetres in-between each.
After about half an hour of inspecting each and every ring hanks shoulders fell a bit. None of them were right. He didn't even know what he was looking for all he knew was that none was the ring he was going to propose with.
"We still have the pearl rings." Andy said desperately; Hank was her first customer in a week and she needed him to buy something.
"Ah! Yes I'd like to see them."Andy rushed off, quickly returning and bringing a box. Placing it beside the box of rubies. Hank glanced at the first two columns. He had a sinking feeling that none of them were going to work.
"What is that doing here?" Andy exclaimed having just notice a ring second from last that was obviously not a pearl.
"What?" Hanks head snapped up as the clerk pointed it out. Carefully he took it out of the box.
Surely it couldn't be a diamond! It looked nothing like one; there were glints of red, the exact shade as Natasha's dress, and the cut was exactly like the necklace she wore. It was as if the ring was made for them.
-0-0-0-"Mr McCoy! Did you get what we needed?"
Beast looked up, quickly shoving the ring back into his pocket. Jocelyn had just rushed down the stairs. Seeing her Beasts eyes widened, oh god there was going to be squealing!
SOOOOO SORRY FOR THE WAIT! Yeah! Blame the stupid computer! Oh good greif, I am so sorry StormyNightingale the wait was since last year and its really short! If it helps at all this is my tenth story and it marks a stone… so yeah….