Chapter 5: A Day Of Presents
The next morning...
Boss walked down to the bench again this morning. It was a week and a half before Christmas. It was a bitter cold Tuesday with a light rain. He was not exactly sure if Mike would be walking today.
Boss looked up at the bench but heard Mike coming up the other way. He stood there until Mike reached him, which he began talking immediately.
"You still in the mood to walk?" he asked.
"...What else do you have in mind?"
"I was thinking we could go Christmas shopping. I mean, we're late this morning... Five thirty..."
"I guess we could go and walk in the streets of town until the stores are open."
And the enemies set off walking down the trail to town. Neither talked until they got there around six. The stores were beginning to open now.
"Good thing it's early," Boss remarked. "No one will see me with you."
Mike scowled. "Sure thing... What are you going to get your gallie?"
"I dunno... Something that matches her eyes..."
"You like her eyes, don't you?"
"Yeah, but you know... We only have a week and a half until Christmas."
"Yes, we do. It's the fourteenth today." Mike nodded as if he were trying to insinuate something. "I wonder what I'll get Stells..."
Boss glanced around through the shops windows as they walked. He could not see anything that Caitlin would want. This continued until he saw a sign...
"Mike, I think I know exactly what to get her," he remarked as he stopped next to a window.
Mike glanced over his shoulders. His eyes then went to sparkles. "Ooooh!!! Me, too!!! Gimme!!!" Mike ran into the shop as Boss stood back outside. He then heard hamsters scream and a few gunshots, too.
"He's carrying his gun?" Boss asked himself as he stepped back from the window.
A few minutes later, Mike came back out with an envelope. He handed it to Boss. "First row, baby! ...Shut up, you. The day after Christmas..."
Boss opened the envelope and glanced in. "Fun..."
"You might wanna...er...get her something else, too. Girls don't come that cheap, especially yours."
Boss nodded. "What would I get her?"
"Something she could use."
"She could use...um...I dunno."
"Hmm... Let's go check out the jewelry store."
"Are you going to shoot more people up?"
"I didn't have to last year."
"'Didn't have to'?"
"Yeah...um...let's go...heh heh heh..." Mike began walking towards the jewelry store. Boss shrugged and followed behind him.
Meanwhile...
"I wonder where Boss is?" Caitlin asked Bossy as she rocked the little baby back and forth at the table. "Do you know, little Bossy?"
Bossy stared up at her with his big, sapphire eyes.
"Oh, so you just like to stare at me, don't you? Sigh..."
Caitlin knew something was missing somehow. She knew Christmas was not complete, and something that was about to happen would make it even more incomplete. Caitlin sighed as she glanced around the room.
"I'm back!" Boss shouted as he marched through the door. He was carrying a cartload of bags, and Boss set them down on the table. Caitlin glanced at the bags.
"What are those for?"
Boss blushed and got them off the table. "Um...you don't know..."
"That's why I asked."
"Um, Christmas..."
Caitlin took another look at the bags. "Ah. Where'd you find the money to buy it and that new watch?"
Boss paused as he quickly covered the new watch he had gotten at the jewelry store. "Oh, that was a gift from someone..."
Caitlin stared at the watch for a good minute. "It's pretty expensive. Someone who has a lot of money must've gotten it for you..."
"Um, yeah..." Boss carried the bags into the bedroom. "Don't look in these bags... They're for Christmas... Heh heh heh..."
Caitlin shrugged as she followed him. "I suppose."
Boss put all of the bags in a closet. He turned around toward Caitlin and looked directly into her sapphire eyes. Her eyes sparked with confusion.
"Is something going on that I'm not aware of?"
"What?"
"You're hiding something from me. What are you doing in the mornings?"
"I'm walking with M-... I mean, I'm just walking..."
"Walking with whom?"
"...I'm walking with Mike in the mornings. That's who." He paused. "...And no, he didn't-"
Caitlin sighed as she marched past him and out into the main room. Boss watched her as she walked away.
"Sigh, I'll never get her problem..."
Meanwhile...
"So you already went Christmas shopping?" Stella asked Mike as she followed him down the hallway.
"Well, most of it," he responded.
Stella sighed. "I haven't done any... Are you going to get a present for-"
"Yes, I am."
"Whoa, me, too."
Mike flashed his chocolate brown eyes.
"...Not that I would've if you didn't..."
"That's what I was hoping..."
With Caitlin...
"Wellys, what do I get him NOW?" Caitlin sighed. She looked around to Natsu, to Kayla, and then to Megan. "You guys know of anything?"
"BREAD IS A GOOD PRESENT," Natsu shouted randomly.
"...We'll choose to ignore that," Megan murmured.
"I've got an idea!" Kayla declared.
"What?" the three other girls asked. Kayla explained her idea, and Caitlin liked it.
"Why didn't I think of that? Of course!" Caitlin snapped her fingers. "That would be a great present for him! Let's go look for one... What are you guys gonna get?"
Megan shrugged. "Still single and still loving it."
"I'm gonna get Howdy a deodorant bar!" Natsu shouted randomly.
"...Howdy doesn't need one, though," Caitlin sighed.
"...Well, I'll figure something out..."
Kayla thought for a minute. "What would Number 1 want?"
Caitlin shrugged. "Dunno. Let's go out and look in through the windows of the shops."
Later that night...
Later that night, Boss got all of his bags back out. He set them down on the table with every single present in its own white box. Boss pulled out red wrapping paper from another bag and was going to wrap a small box.
A few minutes later, Caitlin walked over while she was feeding Bossy. She looked over Boss's shoulder.
"I thought it was a box, not a wad of paper."
Boss stared down at the box. The wrapping paper did resemble a wad of paper after he wrapped the gift. "...Shut up, CC."
Caitlin sighed. "And I thought you'd be more creative than a wad of paper..."
"...Man..."