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He needed – wanted – to get Lana a Winter Star gift.
The perfect Winter Star gift.
But which one-
He kept turning over ideas in his brain – but all of them lacked something, all of them weren't truly perfect-
he sighed. And hesitated. Again and Again, while the Feast of the Winter Star kept creeping closer on the calendar, slowly but surely.
And so, the sixteenth of Winter had already arrived when Shiro found himself walking to Pika's – both Yuuma and him had been craving pizza for a while, but it wasn't practical for him to try and deal with their oven on his own while being unable to bend down. Yuuma was eager to help, but he didn't want to risk having him handle a hot baking sheet, either. Pika's pizza tasted better than what he could make at home, anyway. (No-one had been able to recreated Pika's secret sauce to date.)
“Anything good at the night market?” he asked Corine while they both waited for the pizza to cook. In the end, he would go down irregardless – Yuuma wouldn't go if he didn't, and he hoped that Yuuma would find a few things he liked – but by now, it basically was his last hope for Lana's gift.
“Still didn't get all your gifts?”
He gave her a lop-sided grin. “You know me too well.”
“It's the same as every year, I'm afraid. Lupini... the coffee guy... those candy cane decorations... the travelling cart lady might have a wildcard or two. I got a really nice beer stein for dad. But by now, her selection will have been picked over. For whom are you still searching, anyway?”
Oh no.
“Oh – well – erm-”
Corine's grin widened. “Lana? A little birdie might've told me about your sudden enthusiasm for hydrotherapy – as long as it involves getting to see Lana in a bikini...”
“I'm going to kill Phil”, he groaned.
“No you won't. I don't get enough time off to visit you in jail. Hmmm... you could gift her a houseplant? Decorations guy had a couple pretty decent ones...”
He didn't want decent. He wanted – needed – it to be the perfect gift-
“What are you gifting this year? Aside from the beer stein, that is?” He highly doubted that Lana would be interested in that.
Corine shrugged. “I'm actually not all the way done yet, either. I'm making a hand-knitted scarf for Ysa – Maddie is teaching me. To quote her, “stabbing things a lot after work is good for your mental health, and if it's wool it's legal.”
He silently reminded himself to never cross Maddie.
Corine had far more thoughtful ideas than he had. So far, the only ones he had come up with had been a farmer's almanac (and he couldn't help but feel like he would be the worst boyfriend ever if he gifted her something work-related for their first Winter Star together) or some sort of jewellery (but he had rarely seen her wear any – he guessed that it probably didn't mix well with the farm work.)
“A plant would be an idea”, he acquiesced.
But a lame one. She already cared for plants all day.
“What if I make her something myself, too?” A self-made gift would automatically be far more meaningful, right?
“You want to knit a scarf, too?”
“...maybe not.” He didn't think he could learn it that fast, and while he only had a foggy idea what knitting entailed, he was somewhat sure that it involved waving around two sticks (needles?) for extended periods of time.
The sinews in his left arm had needed quite a bit of patching. He still constantly lost to Yuuma when playing Prairie King because his hand just didn't move that fast any more.
Corine leaned forward, propping her elbows up on the counter.
“Let's figure this out. What does she like?”
“Clothes-wise?” Aside from the utilitarian stuff she wore to farm – mud-stained jeans and old t-shirts with mystery rips in them? She had told him once that she missed dressing up, the way her desk job in the city had allowed her to.
But the only thing he remembered was that super thick winter sweater she liked to wear – it was made of fake fur, and the hood had two little fabric attachments to make it look like she had cat ears.
It was SO fluffy.
She looked very cute in it. And amazingly cuddle-able. (Enough to regularly make Shiro indulge in his cuddle-related boyfriend privileges.)
“Something fluffy, and warm, for winter?”
Winter wouldn't last forever, but Spring mornings could stay pretty crisp for a long while here in the valley.
“Hmm. Well, it'd be best to avoid anything you'd need measurements or clothing sizes for.”
He saw the point to be made in that argument. Yes, anything related to clothing sizes could go downhill rather quickly.
“I guess I'll have to search some more”, he sighed.
“If you try to order off Jojabay, it won't come in time with how overwhelmed Ferngill Post always is around the holidays”, she warned him.
“Ugh.” He didn't want to gift Lana a plant. Even if he was aware that he was being difficult about this.
“But...” deep in thought, she tapped her lips with her index finger. “I like that DIY idea. If you decide that's the way you want to go... ask Faye, would you? She's constantly telling me how she doesn't know where to put all the fabric she bought any more. She might be willing to sell you something for cheap-”
“Corine! Get the pizza out before it burns!” Pika shouted over.
“On it, boss!”
With that, their conversation was over. He felt slightly bad about having kept her for so long from a job as busy as hers, anyway. As he walked home with a bag of very tasty-smelling pizza in his hand, he kept turning over her suggestions in his mind.
The clock was ticking.
He wanted to find a gift that Lana would truly enjoy.
Fabric... fuzzy fabric... those adorable cat ears on her hoodie... but something he could finish in time...
He had an idea.
The next morning, he knocked on Faye's door, bearing a peace offering of cookies (he hadn't been the one to barf mostly-undigested burger all over her at this year's Gathering, that had been Phil – when would the man learn to pace his drinking – but he felt a bit guilty by association.)
“Shiro? Hi!” He couldn't fault her for looking surprised. While he visited Pika's somewhat regularly to get take-out, staying out late with friends and having a couple drinks wasn't exactly part of his life right now – and since Faye focused on serving drinks at Pika's while Corine handled the food, he couldn't remember if they had ever spoken more than greetings and passing small-talk – she had only moved to Ridgeside during his deployment.
Even he had learnt that she was obsessed with designing clothes, though.
He awkwardly handed the cookies over. (He could only hope she wouldn't notice that they were store-bought.)
“Corine mentioned... that it might be possible to buy some fabric from you?”
She stared at him. “...you want to commission something?”
“No, no, just the fabric. I'm trying to make a gift for, erm-”
Lana and he were... official-adjacent? It wasn't like they were hiding that they were together. But they hadn't exactly been shouting it from the rooftops, either.
But he didn't want to make the gossip harpies descent on her without warning, either.
“For someone who is important to me”, he finished, clumsily.
Her squeal would've made him jump if he would have still been capable of doing so.
“Come in, come in! I'll help you make a very special present-”
“I, uh, just wanted to buy fabric”, he was left to mutter while she already fluttered all over the place, pulling out a bunch of fabric here, and boxes full of embellishments there (no, he wasn't interested in pink glitter bows).
She turned around. “And you have needles? Matching thread? Pins? Tailor's chalk? Some proper fabric scissors?”
“Uh. No.” His mom maybe had some of that? But he didn't want to go rifling through his parent's things while they were away.
“Then make it here, you can borrow my tools! What do you have in mind, anyway?”
“I actually already printed the pattern out.” The pinstagram post had labelled it as “beginner friendly”. It even had a how-to video. He still wondered if he'd been a bit of a megalomaniac. He had never tried to make clothes on his own before.
“Gloves! Fingerless gloves! With paw prints? Oh, these are SO cute-” Making Faye happy, he learned now, was a loud affair. Goodness, that woman could squeal! But if she approved of the design, maybe Lana would like it, too? Even though her style couldn't be further away from Faye's dresses, full of flowing, pale purple fabrics. “Gloves don't need that much fabric. And that appliqué will need even less. Let's look though my cabbage box first!”
What, pray tell, had vegetables to do with this whole thing.
Oh. Cabbage meant fabric scraps in this case, apparently.
Well. He didn't know much about sewing language.
“Just pick out what you like most! I'd only use these for stuffing otherwise, anyway.”
He quickly found some dark brown, felt-like material for that paw pads that would adorn the gloves, but for the main body... oh, that faux fur looked good. So thick! It would keep her warm when she worked.
“That looks great, but-” Faye sighed wistfully - “it'll get on your last nerve during sewing. The long hairs make everything slip all over the place constantly.”
Aw. He thought about all the little pieces he needed for the paw pads. And his lack of skill.
“What would you recommend that's still warm? But easier to work with?”
“Hmm... thermofleece? I think I still have an offcut of it somewhere – I used it to line a winter coat so that the lining wouldn't get too bulky-”
Far faster than he would be ever again, she was up and down the step-stool, retrieving a folded length of fabric from one of the upper shelves. Its pale beige colour was surprisingly similar to the faux fur scrap he had picked.
“I swear, this house is advanced tetris at this point”, she joked. “But every time I see a really good fabric – I just can't leave it behind! There's always a design that will need that exact one-”
He touched the fabric slowly, reverently, almost. Yes, it was warm – he could already feel it the reflecting the warmth back into his fingers. And so soft!
“And... you're okay with me using this? If you need it for a project-”
She waved him off. “I've already used it for the coat. No – it's useful fabric, but it never gave me – that spark of inspiration, you know? It just doesn't have pizazz. But it seems like you're vibing more with it than I do! So, come sit down. I'll work on my own projects, and you can ask me if you need help with something. I might even catch – you know – vibe infection!”
He couldn't help but smile. Vibe infection. Right.
He pushed the cut-out pattern pieces around on the fabric – wasn't there something about them needing to face a specific direction? But how did you figure that out?
“So how did you learn to sew, anyway?”
“Oh, I've never made clothing myself before. I learned a few basics as part of my training, believe it or not. More for mending, really – if your gear breaks down behind enemy lines, you can't just order replacements. You need to make do.”
Faye, looking at him, nodded wide-eyed. A world – a way of living, of thinking – so diametrically different than anything she'd ever known. And still, it had brought them to these very unexpected crossroads.
Please don't ask, he pleaded internally. He wanted to think about bow-wrapped gifts and trees full of tinsel. About Lana's smile.
Not about heat so merciless it blurred your sight, about the explosions-
“You need to add seam allowance to that”, she said instead, and Shiro exhaled.
“Seam allowance?”
“You need some extra width to put your stitches into. Otherwise, once you turn the gloves right-side-out, they'll be too small. Like this.” She folded her sleeve over, showing him the seam on the inside. “Fleece doesn't fray, so you won't need as much – a quarter inch should be enough for something as small as gloves. And for the appliqué, you won't need seam allowance at all, since it's sewn on top.”
Following her instructions, he laid out the pattern pieces, and marked their outlines with bright white chalk.
Her approving nod meant more to him than he would've cared to admit.
“Now, it's time to cut them out. You need proper fabric scissors for that.” the pair she unearthed from her seemingly endless supply of miscellaneous boxes was as long as her lower arm, and adorned with a large tartan bow.
She cradled them protectively.
“You may use mine. Under one condition.”
“...okay?”
“These are for fabric only. Anything else, and they get dull. No paper. No cardboard. No “I just need to get this can open”. Fabric. And nothing. Else. Understood?”
“Yes Ma'am.”