Quote:
At some point, you notice a present nestled somewhere in your house that you've never seen before. Maybe it's somewhere obvious, maybe it's sitting on a window sill or hidden in the back of your closet. It's decorated very festively, with a cursive script letting you know that the present's owner is none other than yourself but there's no sender listed on the tag. Who in the world could have put it there?

Opening the present reveals an item that you've sorely wanted for some time now but haven't been able to afford or haven't allowed yourself the pleasure of buying. The trouble is that you've never told a soul about wanting it.

Who could have known? And how did it get there?


Ainsley was in heaven, she’d actually gotten a DATE with Nick. Well, okay - they’d gone out for coffee as friends but that was close enough to a date in her book that it was going to count! They had talked, they had laughed, and for a short while, Ainsley had felt like a normal girl hanging out with a guy. Sadly it had come to an end, but she cherished the moment and she’d even kept the reusable holiday cup they’d been giving out at the store. It was her new favorite.

Take that cheerleader barbie!

She made her way into the house, divesting herself of her scarf and coat, hanging both on their pegs as she slipped out of her boots. Then she padded across the floor, heading toward the study that she still used to work on her miniatures. She still had work to do - and she also had to wrap her present for Nick, which had thankfully been secreted away (Thanks Ashley) to the back room before he’d been able to show up for the day. She felt bad about lying to him (by omission) but she’d wanted to do something nice for him for Christmas - so after their coffee date she’d looped back around to the store to pick it up. She’d hand it off to him the next time he came into the store.

She put the bag from the game store down by her chair, and had been ready to snag the prize from its bag when the semi-large festively colored package caught her eye - sitting on the workbench/desk she used to work on her miniatures. Her mother wasn’t due home for at least a few more hours - and she had left before Ainsley that morning, not to mention Ainsley had been the last person in the room before she’d locked the house when leaving to head to the store (Ashley had told her the tank had come on the truck, and that she needed to hurry if she was going to beat Nick to the store, because automated emails.) so nobody else should have been able to leave such a gift on her worktable. Frowning, she slid the chair out of the way, and moved to look it over. There was a large very ornately scripted tag with her name on it - and no other markings.

Christmas was literally right around the corner, but all the gifts were already under the tree. There would be no reason for this package to be on her desk unless someone wanted her to open it explicitly. She shook it gently, hearing the faint tinkle of metal parts moving around, and her frown deepened. She carefully tore back the wrapping, before placing the several boxes of metal figures down on the workbench, her frown growing deeper and more concerned with each passing moment. Before her, arrayed out on the table, was an entire Mechanized Infantry Company’s worth of Mordian Iron Guard. It had been an army idea she’d shelved once she’d done the math and realized trying to gather the parts was just too expensive - what with them being Indefinitely Out of Stock/Discontinued. She could have trolled Ebay or even Amazon and hoped - but the prices had been in the 15$ range for just one figure - let alone a SET. She couldn’t even begin to try and math out the… COST… of the metal figures in front of her.

She didn’t remember sinking into the chair, but she sat there, staring at the miniatures in absolute shock and disbelief.

Nobody had known her plans. She hadn’t told anybody her idea. It’s why she’d switched to a standard Artillery Regiment idea, yeah, but it still made no sense how… THIS… had gotten here. The time, effort, and money costs would have been - well - outrageous. She looked over the tag again. No sender, no address… Just her name in a flowing cursive script.

She threw up her hands in frustration, rising from the chair to gather up the boxes and she put them in her To-do pile. She didn’t have time for this! She had to get Nick’s present finished before she saw him again! Grabbing the tank box from the store bag, she wrapped it in a nice golden paper and taped it as crisply as she could. Then she took the card and scribbled a quick note, before signing it.

“Nick,

It’s been another great year, and here’s to many more. I hope you enjoy the present.

Ainsley

P.s. - I’m totally down for more coffee, anytime.”

Then she sealed the note, and taped it to the box. All that was left was to wait until she saw Nick again, which would hopefully be soon. Ashley had promised to call her if she saw him enter the store (and keep him busy and run interference) - just so she could drop off the present.

With that, she got up and stretched, pointedly ignoring the mystery gift, and made her way into the kitchen to make some hot cocoa. It had been a pretty good day, all things considered. She would have to thank Ashley for all the assists. Granted, the woman had been hounding her to confess her feelings to Nick for AGES. Strangely she’d gotten even more insistent about it when Nick had started dating the Ms. Pretty-in-Pink. Ainsley only ever saw her in the store with Nick or with what she presumed was her younger brother. But, she’d never seen her at a painting night or a build night or at any of the tourneys - tabletop or otherwise. The attached note on the gift was the CLOSEST she’d gotten to even being close to confessing how she felt about Nick - and even then, she saw what she was up against - and that was seriously steep competition. Perfect skin, perfect hair, probably perfect vision. She had a body that Ainsley was pretty sure should not exist in nature. Topping it all off was the fact that she was some redhead - which meant that in all likelihood she and Nick had already… done… THINGS. Things that Ainsley knew about in a completely theoretical sense.

She could not figure out why that made her so angry - it wasn’t like Nick belonged to her or anything - but the thought of Nick’s first… ANYTHING… going to that hussy made her just scowl and glower at the brightly glowing Christmas tree. To be fair - Ainsley didn't’ know her from eve, and she could be a decent person, completely innocent as new fallen snow… But with that figure? And with how easily she hung off Nick? No… No… She’d DONE things. She’d HAD to have done things. Next time she saw her she was totally checking for horns and a tail. Freaking succubus.

She sipped her hot cocoa and stewed on it for awhile, before finally settling in to try and get some reading done before her mother got home and the two had to get dinner ready.