Shopping had never been his forte but it was too short notice to enlist anyone's help. Marth wandered through the department store slowly, already lost although he'd only just started. In his mind he tried to imagine what his mother might like, then his sister, then his father. Oh, this would be so much easier if he could just buy them all socks. But he felt obliged to at least try and buy them something more original.

Women's section first. Red seemed to be the main theme, undoubtedly something to do with the fact it was Christmas. Hmmm, a dressing gown? No, his mother already had a nice one of those from her friend last year. Above him, radiating from all the speakers, old and new Christmas songs, sickly sweet and cringe-worthy. He continued to browse.

"Can I help you?" Oh good, an assistant. Evidently someone else could tell he was lost too.

"Yes, I'm looking for last minute presents for my family."

"We have special Christmas sales for him and her just along and to the left. The toy section's one floor up if you're shopping for younger children and we have a special sale on all Christmas-themed decorations on the ground floor, not to mention…" She continued to drone on and Marth began to regret asking. He felt his attention drifting away. His gaze trailed vacantly over the items he could see over her shoulder. Then suddenly his eyes refocused.

"Ike!" he squeaked.

"Pardon?"

Why did he have to be here? Just a little way behind the assistant Ike was browsing through the rails of pyjamas, probably looking for a present himself. Any moment he might look up and see Marth. Automatically Marth glanced around for somewhere to hide, and seeing a stack of Special Offer coffee-makers just to his left he dived behind it. The shop assistant looked bewildered and began to turn away, just as the top of the stack began to wobble precariously.

"No, no…" Marth willed the stack to stay upright, he hadn't brushed against it that hard… But with an inevitably loud crash the stack toppled and fell, drawing the attention of everyone nearby. Including Ike.

"Marth?"

"I-I-I…was…."

"Shopping?" Ike finished, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." He could feel himself blushing and willed the redness away, feeling like an idiot. With Ike's help he rebuilt the stack of coffee-makers.

"Are you going to get one?" Ike asked.

"Huh?"

"A coffee-maker."

"Oh." He hadn't thought about that. But actually, his father might like it. And it would save him an awkward explanation as to why he knocked them over.

"Yes," he said, picking one up.

"One present down…" Ike smiled at him.

"Two more to go," Marth supplied, sighing.

"Who for?"

"My mum and sister."

"I didn't expect to see you here," Ike admitted.

"Neither did I," Marth muttered. They began to wander aimlessly through the store together, pretending to browse at intervals.

"Who are you shopping for?" Marth asked.

"Aunts and uncles. My parents are at home putting up decorations, they've sent me out on errand."

"Are they coming over for Christmas – your aunts and uncles?"

"Yes, they're actually meant to turn up this evening. Mum panicked when she realised we'd forgotten presents. What about you?"

"Some of my parents' friends are coming over tomorrow, but that's it for me I think."

Ike nodded, then his face lit up. He pointed. "Hey, check out those Christmas outfits."

There were a row of them, mainly reindeer and elf outfits with a single Santa Claus costume at the end.

"Bet all the rest were used up by dads with children under seven," Ike joked. "Go on, I dare you to try it."

"Why?"

"I think you'd make a lovely Santa."

Marth, that's not even a compliment. Don't blush, damnit.

"Plus, I'm bored of shopping," Ike added. "Come on. I'll try the reindeer one."

They headed to the changing rooms and Marth began to put on the Santa outfit. He could tell immediately that it was far too big for him, and as he tried the hat on it kept slipping down over his eyes. Still he persevered with the top and finally the trousers. The zip stuck as he tried to do it up. He tried again, annoyed, but the zip wouldn't budge. Up or down. The idea of asking Ike to help him passed briefly through his mind, but the thought of having Ike assist him in such a situation…

"Marth? Are you done?"

"Y-yes – one second…" He struggled with the zip again and to his relief this time is zipped the whole way up without incident.

"Done!" He stepped out of the cubicle, trying not to fall over the long trouser legs. For a long moment Ike, looking rather comical in his reindeer outfit, simply smiled at him without speaking. Then he blinked and coughed self-consciously.

"That's, um…too big for you."

"I know." Once again his hat slipped down over his eyes, as if to prove the point. He tried to pull it up again but his long sleeves got in the way. Ike walked over to him and pulled it up for him, and suddenly Marth found himself looking straight into Ike's eyes.

"Um…" He looked away quickly, his heart pounding.

"Excuse me, do you know where the toy section is?"

Marth jumped and turned around to find a woman in a pink coat looking at him, waiting for an answer.

"Oh, I don't… One floor up."

"Thank you." She turned and walked away. Ike grinned.

"Probably thought you were a member of staff. Staff are always dressing up Christmas-themed nowadays."

"At least I still know where it was."

"Well done." Ike gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder before tilting his head to one side questioningly. "Piggy-back?"

"What?"

"You're Santa Claus, I'm a reindeer…" He shrugged. "There's no sleigh so it's perfectly logical."

Marth laughed. "You really hate shopping, don't you?"

"Any excuse to put it off." He smiled, offering Marth his back. After a short pause, Marth jumped on.

"Alright, go!"

Ike started off at a steady jog and Marth smiled happily. This was more fun that he'd had shopping for ages. Ike had always livened up his life like this. He'd only known him a year but he couldn't remember a time without him.

Ike began to run faster, turning corners alarmingly off balance and almost running into several people.

"Ike, slow down!" But he didn't really mind. He felt happy. How easy it would be to tell Ike he loved him, how completely natural and simple. And how completely impossible.

Ike began to head towards the escalators.

"No! That's not safe! You don't have any hands free!"

Ike only chuckled. There was a moment at the top when Marth feared he would fall over, and as the escalator descended he clung to Ike tightly, worried of overbalancing.

"Ike!"

Ike turned at the bottom of the escalator to the one parallel going back up to where they had come from. But instead of waiting on the step he ran to the top, leaving Marth clinging on for dear life.

"Ike! Put me down! I'm going to fall!"

"No you're not. I've got you."

"Let me down!"

"Alright…"

"No, not whilst we're still going up! Aaahhh!"

Ike laughed and put him down once they had reached the top. Marth breathed a sigh of relief.

"I thought you were going to trip over."

"What – me? I never trip ov– oommpff." Having been looking at Marth and not watching where he was going he had promptly bumped into someone coming the other direction. His momentum cut he tripped sideways onto Marth and they both collapsed like dominoes, looking up automatically to apologise to whoever they had collided with. To his surprise it was someone they recognised.

"Link?"

"Ike."

"Sorry about that." Ike stood and helped Marth up. "Wasn't looking."

Link shrugged. Ike paused.

"How are you?"

"Fine."

"Are you Christmas shopping as well?"

"Yeah."

Marth sensed an awkwardness between them and was confused. Link had been one of Ike's old friends, he was sure.

"For your parents?" Ike persisted.

"For Zelda." Link's voice was curt, abrupt. So it wasn't just Marth's imagination. Had they fallen out? Ike looked like he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Well I have to be off," said Link eventually.

"Right. See ya then."

"Bye Link," Marth piped.

"Bye Marth." And with that he turned and walked away.

Marth looked at Ike, who looked hurt. "Ike?"

"Come on, let's get changed out of these silly outfits."

"Are you–"

"That's two people I wasn't expecting to bump into today," Ike interrupted. Marth just smiled, deciding not to ask any more about it.

Later, once they were both changed, they agreed to split up and look for presents separately. Ike hadn't completely regained the happy tone he had had before they had bumped into Link and as Marth resumed shopping he pondered over what might have happened. Perhaps it had something to do with the little snow-fight they'd had the other day. He shrugged the thought off, assuming that the tension would soon pass, especially with the Christmas party coming up which was bound to lighten everyone's mood. He finished buying his presents and headed home.