((Credit to Ask-Blinky for the inspiration pic! Check out his blogs on Tumblr! And here's the link to the picture set that was used: ask-blinky . tumblr . com(slash)post(slash)174612679345(slash)i-was-going-to-add-text-but-i-think-the-images

He also kindly gave permission for me to use the final image as the cover for this story - Thank you sooooo much!

Also this is post season 3, and at least semi-canon (in obviously that we know next to nothing about what happened after they leave Acadia Oaks). So Troll!Jim, New Trollmarket, all that.

Gift from the Heart

Given the early departure of his biological father and the busy, often varying schedule of his mother, it came as no surprise that Jim had learned a number of domestic skills at a young age compared to his peers. By the time he was a teen he shared laundry duties with his mother, could both clean every room and complete minor home repairs, mowed the grass of his own volition, and often handled the grocery list each week in addition to the cooking he was also famed for among his family and friends.

The one that often went unnoticed, however, was the one that he was now utilizing: Jim Lake, the Trollhunter, could sew.

Jim sat bent over his project on a ledge in the newly-dubbed New Trollmarket, a community all of a year old now and still much under construction beneath New Jersey. The part Troll, part Human was thankful for his new body at the moment, as well as the ways it was unique when compared to other Trolls. His eyesight in the dim light of a phosphorescent crystal was far better than a human's, but his fingers - even the thicker four on his 'Troll hand' - were thin enough to handle the needle and thread. And hey! Stone skin meant no need for a thimble!

Jim had been working on this project in secret whenever he could slip away discreetly for almost the past month now. And finally he was on the last part. Just in time too, if he wanted to give it on the day he'd intended...which just happened to be that very day!

Though he had to admit he felt more than a little nervous about the actual giving part of the whole thing, especially when Jim had no idea how it would be received. Hands down it was not the usual thing that would spring to mind when he thought about a gift for this particular Troll, yet...

Yet it felt exactly right!

Three more stitches, then two, then one, then -

"Done!" He murmured to himself as he unbent his spine with a popping sound. Carefully he tied the final knot, then used his summoned dagger to cut the thread and tucked the needle into the spool for safekeeping before turning the article rightside-out and looking it over.

It was perfect, exactly as he'd imagined and planned!

Excitement decided to war with his nerves, and impulsively he picked up his phone, set nearby on a rock, and fired off a text to his mentor and surrogate-father, Blinky.

-Where are you?-

-Trying to figure out how best I can get the shelving space I need in this chamber. Why, is something wrong?-

-No, nothing's wrong. I just have something to show you – I'll come to you.- With that Jim stood and quickly made his way down from his hideaway and to find Blinky. At least he knew where to look, given the scholar's reply: though his sleeping and eating chambers had long since been completed Blinky was never quite satisfied with the study-slash-library area, convinced he could manage just an inch more room along this wall or that the planned shelves along another wall could handle being a little bit closer (even though they really couldn't). It was about half-done, and what books that had been salvaged from the Arcadia Oaks Trollmarket or acquired/rewritten anew that had yet to find homes were stacked on the floor in a system only Blinky understood.

Jim was greeted by some of the other Trolls as he went, careful to have his project bundled up securely so no one else could see it, and soon made it to the domicile in question, adjacent to his and Claire's own two-bedroom one. With the familiarity that their close bond permitted Jim just entered without knocking, hearing his mentor's voice from exactly the room he expected, muttering to himself.

"Is that you, Jim?" Blinky called.

"It's me," confirmed the teen as he stepped into the room. Blinky was just straightening from where he had likely been doing some measurements if the knotted rope in his hands was any indication.

Suddenly Jim felt very nervous again, and tucked the object behind his back, trying to make himself look casual.

"The numbers not quite working for you?"

"No, though I'm certain if I can just get this section to cooperate – ah, well, perhaps after a break I'll see things more clearly." Blinky turned to face his surrogate son, and paused; even if Jim really tried it was hard to fully hide what was dangling behind his legs. "Is that what you wanted to show me?"

"Um, well, er... yeah..." With a sheepish smile, Jim crossed the room to the Troll he called his father and somewhat timidly held up the cloth item in front of him, slightly opening it so Blinky could see. And when he did Blinky's upper hands pressed to his cheeks in surprise even as his lower ones folded together from how his heart warmed and tightened at the same time at the sight.

It was a jumper in a very attractive shade of blue, made with four arms and looking almost perfectly his size. And across the front in big, white patch-appliques were the words "#1 Troll Dad."

"Jim..." Blinky was at a loss for words.

"It's – it's Father's Day," Jim explained, "and I saw something like this once online, but I knew it would be impossible to buy one for you because you have four arms. So I... made this one."

"You made it?"

"I had Claire to get the fabric and all for me when she would go topside, but yeah." Blinky blinked a few tears from his eyes and moved forward to wrap Jim in an embrace that his son returned.

"I am both touched, and awed, my son. Thank you so much." Jim relaxed in the hug knowing that the gift was well-received, then handed it over so Blinky could try it on. "Ah, a perfect fit! How did you manage that?" Jim chuckled.

"Well, a little rough guessing and some comparisons to your staff when you weren't looking, and when I was really stuck I asked Toby to borrow Dictatious from the TV and text me the measurements." Blinky laughed, clearly amused by the mental image of his mostly-blind and irritable brother being used as a model back in Arcadia Oaks where he was living still, awaiting completion of Trollmarket.

"I believe this has now become one of my most cherished possessions." Blinky pulled Jim into another hug.

"Happy Father's Day, dad. I love you. "

"Thank you, son. I love you too."

And if the next month Blinky had a gift for Jim, a red jumper more bought than hand-stitched but with painstakingly sewn on appliques reading '#1 Troll Son' well, it was only fitting that they match.