Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanks for the reviews, here's the new chap.

Enjoy

So ;)


Act 27: Sara

"I need your help with something," I state out of the blue.

"Sure," Lindsey replies immediately.

I stick the tip of my tongue out of the corner of my lips and press the buttons of my controller with more enthusiasm; I wait for our respective Sackboys to reach the new checkpoint before speaking again.

"I want to get your mom a gift."

As soon as the words leave my mouth Lindsey slaps my character, sending me dying into an electric pit then pause the game. "Hey, what are you…" I start to protest.

"What did you do?" she asks sharply. I'm taken aback by her sudden change of mood and frown.

"What do you mean?"

"Mom's birthday isn't for another month, it's not Christmas or Valentine's day. In my experience that means you did something bad and trying to smooth things over; again what did you do?"

"Nothing," I reply. She narrows her eyes at me clearly not convinced. "Nothing happened!" I add. "It's not a 'forgive me' gift, it's just a gift… gift."

Lindsey's stare is unwavering, if anything she looks more and more like a small angry Catherine. "Sara," she warns. "If you fess up now, I might be inclined not to kick your butt."

"I swear nothing bad happened," I defend myself. "I swear on the Fifth House," I raise my right hand making a reference to the Harry Potter secret society we made with her cousins.

She keeps staring at me for a moment then points a threatening finger at me. "I trust you."

I simply nod in response. She turns back to the screen and puts it on play mode again, "What is it for?" she asks. "The gift."

"Just like that," I shrug.

Once again she kills my character, however this time she waits for it to revive and kills it again and again until I can't come back. "Dude!" I protest. "That's not funny."

"Yeah it is," she chortles. "Alright, what did you have in mind?"

"I saw something at the mall."

She looks at her watch. "We have a couple of hours before mom gets back, I need a new cable for the controller anyway. Let's go."

Catherine was on call for the week end so I offered to watch over Lindsey. I'm still awkward when it comes to the teenager but lucky me Linds is easy to get along with and I think she cuts me some slack when we're alone.

I send a message to Catherine just so she knows that I'm going out with Lindsey

"So… what do you think?" I query.

Lindsey and I are hunched over the glass case display of a jewellery store at the mall.

"It's neat," she shrugs, her lack of enthusiasm speaks volume.

"It's lame," I voice her thought.

"No… it's… a pretty necklace," she gives me an encouraging grin.

"Alright, I can think of reasons to take it. It's pretty, and the colour will bring your mom's eyes out…"

"Corny," she rolls her eyes.

"I think she'd like it…"

"She would."

"When I saw it, it made me think of her…"

"Corny again," Lindsey gags.

"Not helping," I push her playfully.

"Fine, name one reason not to take it."

"It lacks originality," I state immediately.

"Well, I only have movies for reference, but as I understand it, jewellery is a standard gift when you date."

"Hardly the best reference, according to the same source the standard gift for you are pink clothes; make up and unicorns," I deadpan.

Lindsey makes a funny face at my list. "Right…"

"You see, I think a gift should be tailor made, not… standard."

"How about we go find my cable and look around in hope you'll find inspiration. If you don't, get the necklace and make something nice before offering it."

"That's a plan."

"Rock on," she snaps her fingers and points the direction of the video game store.

We start walking but then I stop abruptly when the proverbial light bulb comes to life in my head.

"Sara?" Lindsey calls me when she notices that I'm not next to her anymore. I don't answer right away giving a moment to my mind to fully grasp my idea and store it appropriately. "Why are you smiling like an idiot?"

I finally focus on Lindsey again. "You're a genius, did you know that?" I beam.

"Right," she looks at me suspiciously. "I take it we're not getting the necklace."

"Nope, let's go," I wrap an arm around her shoulders.

"Where do you buy unicorns?" she asks with a shake of her head and I just chortle in response, ruffling her hair a bit, happy that she allows me to do that every now and then even though she protests just for the form.

A week later I start the day making breakfast for Cath and take the both of them out for the day. I must say that I enjoy those moments a lot, with just the three of us. I feel like I was part of their family, I'm getting more and more used to it and it's not a bad thing. I've never really felt that with anyone before, I know I lack a lot of emotional tool and maybe I was not ready for something like that in the past, but with Catherine and Lindsey it came slowly and kind of naturally, which is probably why I didn't run in panic as soon as I've started to feel like an addition to their duo.

I decided to take them to lunch at the restaurant where Catherine and I had our ten minutes date; I don't know if it's because we had to wait for so long to actually get a chance to eat there or just because we were having a really good day, but the food was excellent and since there were three of us we got to taste even more samples.

After the restaurant, I decided to go to a park to have a quiet walk since it was sunny outside, Catherine and I sat in the against the bole of a big tree to be shaded while Lindsey had fun running around, before being invited to play freeze bee by some other kids.

It was quiet and as close to perfect as can be. It was one of those moments when I felt contented with my life, one of those moment the world doesn't seem like such a bad place after all.

We had ice creams on the way home and after actually winning the battle for the remote we had good laughs watching my favourite robot going in space to woo the one who captured his little heart.

"Thank you for today," Catherine leans in to give me a sweet kiss, then goes back to the bathroom to get ready for the night.

I take the moment to sort out what I want to tell her. "I'm glad you had a good time."

"I had a great time," she comes back out of the bathroom rubbing lotions on her hands. She frowns a bit when she looks at me. "What?"

"I have something to tell you," I make a funny face. I figured that if I confess to her what has been on my mind, then she might not be as offended as if I'd pretend I knew better.

She sighs and as subtle as the change may be I can see her good mood being slightly eroded. "I hope it's not a bitter pill that would turn today into some sort of sugar coat."

"No, it's nothing bad," I assure her.

She sits on the bed with her back against the head of the bed. I lie down with my head on her lap, I take the hand she has resting on my stomach and play with it idly. She looks down on me. "I'm all ears."

"Well… we've been together for a few months and…" I sigh and clear my throat. "Okay, here's the thing. I've never care for things like keeping track of how long I've been dating someone… like anniversaries and stuff… it's not my thing, I find it ridiculous," I ramble. "…but I thought that you might be into it and so I wanted to make an effort… that's when I found myself in a pickle, because I couldn't figure out when I was supposed to start counting, keep in mind that I'm new at this stuff… I mean, do I start from the bet because technically that's when things kind of changed, do I start from the day I ask you to breakfast after scavenging in garbage… do I start from our first date or from our first kiss… for me all those days are technically valid, and depending on which one I pick I'm off in my timing for the six months mark, either I'm late by a month or more or ahead by the same amount…" I talk without pausing.

"So what I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry if I missed our anniversary, I care about you and about us a lot, I'm just not good at those details, but if you can tell me which day I'm supposed to take as a starting point then I promise I'll never miss the mark again."

She seems nonplussed for a moment, raises her eyebrows when she finally processes the words I've just spewed, then against all expectation she laughs. I frown at this but she just leans in and captures my lips in a long kiss.

I'm glad to be lying down already because I'm a bit lightheaded when she breaks the contact. "You're adorable," she states fondly.

"I always have a hard time to associate myself with that adjective," I scrunch my nose.

"Well, you are adorable when you ramble," she shrugs and starts caressing my hair. "Do you want to hear a secret?"

"Sure," I give her my full attention.

"I don't care for those things either," she chuckles.

"You don't?" I look at her with wide eyes.

"Nope," she shakes her head. "I only count days when things are bad… like a countdown to figure if I should call things of or not."

"Oh."

"Yeah…" she smiles tightly. "I don't do anniversaries or Valentine's day, the latter mostly because it's originally meant for friendship, but that's a debate for another time," she rants. "The point is, I don't do those things either."

"So we're good then?"

"Very good," she nods. "I'm very touched that you considered all this though."

"Yeah?" I beam, glad to have scored some brownie points.

"Uh-huh," she leans in a kisses me again. She looks at me seriously. "I don't need a specific day to remember that I'm lucky to be with you, that you are special, that what we have is precious and special and that I love every second of it…"

I lose myself in those cerulean eyes of her, and feel something blooming in my chest incredibly close to my heart.

"… and that was super corny," she breaks the moment with humour something for which I'm grateful.

"Yes, it was," I laugh.

"Bite me," she rolls her eyes. I decide to take her literally, turn my head and bite her lightly on her stomach. "Hey!"

"So we don't celebrate anniversaries or Valentine's day," I repeat just to be sure we're on the same level.

"Nope."

"I like that," I nod.

"Cool."

I sit up and push a hand under my pillow. "I have something for you," I declare, pulling out a tiny box and handing it to her.

"Thanks," she grins with affection.

"I just wanted to do something nice, no reason," I shrug.

She kisses me. "Thank you."

She opens it, then looks at me with an intrigued smile. "Turn it over," I instruct.

She snorts with a smile. "No way…" she takes the tiny object out of the box.

It's a royal blue metallic guitar pick, I made it engraves making, the gothic silver letters spell the words 'Black Jacks', the name of the band she had when she was younger.

"It's beautiful," she sounds genuinely pleased.

"I'm your number one fan, now."

She giggles and rolls her eyes. "I love it and so does my inner rock star, she almost wants to come out and play."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she nods enthusiastically. "Thank you, it's really awesome," she beams.

"You're welcome."

She puts the pick back in the box and puts down on her nightstand. She turns back to me and crooks her finger. "Come here, I've got something for you," she says with a mischievous smile.

I comply gladly and don't resist when she starts undressing me, my desire immediately matching hers.

Much later we're enjoying each other closeness in the afterglow of our embrace.

"We could still make our thing though," I state thinking about our earlier conversation.

"How about every year we pick a day at random in the calendar and decide to do something special, like bungee jumping or pottery or sky diving or whatever…" Catherine replies without needing any elaboration from me.

"Every year, uh?"

I can feel her tense a bit. My own heart is going crazy, not out of panic but rather excitement.

"Yeah," Catherine whispers shyly.

She seems to be about to add something, perhaps backpedal but I cut her off. "Like a tradition… I like that plan," I turn my head so I can seal our agreement with a kiss.

She grins in return, even with the dim light of the room I can see relief in her eyes. I think for a moment there she was afraid to have gotten ahead of herself.

"That being said, I'm not sure about the pottery," I point out and she chuckles in response.

I won't lie there was a time I would have run at such a simple statement, at what it implied. Right now, however, I'm scared out of my mind but very glad to know that Catherine is as committed to this as I am.

I'm not stupid or naïve and I know no one can promise forever, but Catherine wants to have a tradition with me; that knowledge alone is enough to make me smile like a moron.

We're in for a long run.

Fuck…

When did I get so lucky?


Sara and Linds are playing 'LittleBigPlanet' and they watch 'Wall-E' (waaalll- Eee :P)

Thanks for reading