Bad Friend

11- Merry Christmas

"I got you something," Harry said, watching me as I sketched on the last page of my sketchbook.

"Hm?" I asked him, not looking up from my drawing. It was a skin rip, my newest area of interest at the moment. I had a rough sketch of an arm, the skin ripped open down the middle with a bunch of wires and mechanical bits inside. Harry cleared his throat, and I looked up, pausing what I was doing to give him my full attention.

He adjusted the thick bandana wrapped around his head, a new accessory addition to Harry's wardrobe since the last time I'd seen him. It was big, a little bulky, and it made his hair stick out in some places, but he looked cute. Harry always looked cute to me. "I said I got you something. You know, for Christmas."

"You did?"

I didn't think that gift-giving was something we did. We'd never gotten anything for each other before—birthdays, Christmases, small random holidays that might require any kind of gift—but I suppose all that had to do with the fact that we'd never really seen each other on a holiday or birthday before. Except for one Thanksgiving, but that wasn't a holiday where you gave gifts to people.

"Uh, yeah. It's not anything, like, big or fancy. I just saw it exploring in Austria one day on tour, and I just, I don't know, I thought of you."

Harry got up from where he was sitting next to me on the living room couch and rummaged through his duffle bag. Sitting back down, he handed me a package wrapped in tissue paper. I took it from him, inspecting the outside and trying to see what it was before I opened it. "Well, go on," he said, nudging my shoulder with his. With one last inspection, I tore at the paper, now eager and curious to know what made Harry think of me while he was travelling the world. It surprised me a little when he told me that; sometimes I thought with our lack of communication and the long periods of time we went between seeing each other that he hardly thought about me at all.

Ripping off all the paper, I set it aside and held up Harry's gift in front of me. "Oh, Harry," I whispered, my eyes widening a bit as they scanned over the detailed leather journal.

"Wow, you used my actual name. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Harry teased, but I heard the hint of uncertainty in his voice. Still, I didn't answer him right away, too busy looking at the journal to say anything.

It looked old with its ornate lock and the sunburst etched into the leather. It was beautiful, a work of art in its own right, and now I felt bad that it was a couple weeks before Christmas and I didn't have anything for him. My fingers lightly traced over the journal's cover, trying to think why he decided to get me a gift for Christmas all of a sudden.

"G? Earth to G?"

My eyes flicked to Harry again, and something in his eyes looked pleading. I guess my silence had sent him into a panic. "It's—it's beautiful, Edward. Thank you."

"You're welcome. And good timing too it looks like." His face broke out into a smile then, and seeing how happy he was when I told him I liked his gift made me smile too. Harry quietly went back to watching the Christmas movie he insisted on us watching, leaving me to quickly think of something to give to him in return. I combed my mind for ideas, but none of them seemed sufficient. My thumbs absentmindedly rubbed across the front of the journal, a sketchbook for me, feeling the ridges and grooves from the image on the cover. And then it came to me.

"I have something for you too," I said suddenly.

"G, you don't have to do that," he tried to say, but I was already standing up from the couch and hurrying into my room.