We Fell In Love In October - Wintumn Flufftober

Giving Gifts

A/N - It's a little ramble-y again....

Autumn loved giving gifts. She took any chance she could to get someone a gift; birthday's, anniversaries, a particularly sunny Tuesday afternoon; even the slightest occasion called for a gift. Not long after she left her "villain ear" she became the designated "gift giver" for all office birthdays and anniversaries. She came into the office one day and found Marjorie even more stressed and scattered than usual. She had been called to a last minute manager's meeting at head office, meaning that she wouldn't have time to prepare for Charlotte's birthday celebration that night.

"I'll take care of it." Autumn offered as she got settled into her desk.

"You? No." Autumn raised her eyebrows at the other manager, slightly offended that she didn't think she could handle such a simple task. "Oh I didn't mean...I just...I'm sure Charlotte will understand if it waits until tomorrow."

"Marjorie, it's fine," she rolled her eyes as her focus turned to her computer. "I can shop for Charlotte, don't worry about it. I'll have everything ready when you get back."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. As long as no one finds out it was me."

"My lips are sealed."

As soon as Marjorie left the office, Autumn pulled out what used to be her mistake book. Now that she was trying to be a better manager it had been put to a different use. Whenever she overheard someone in the office mention something they liked or needed she made note of it. She quickly found a note she recently made on Charlotte and set off. All the shopping was done in less than an hour and the presents were wrapped and waiting for Marjorie before she even took a lunch break. Autumn didn't even attend the staff meeting where they gave Charlotte the gifts, the thought of seeing any emotion out of her coworker was her actual nightmare, but she knew they were a hit when the next day Marjorie told her she'd be doing all the office shopping from then on.

When Christmas rolled around, she had no trouble shopping for everyone. She got Marjorie personalized wine glasses that she quite annoyingly found in her purse before she could slip them on her desk, leading to far more emotion than Autumn wanted to deal with. She put together a stockpile of Carly's safe foods and slipped them into the cupboards in the staff room so she would always have something on hand to eat. And she bought a carload of brand new toys for the new nursery. Her whole list was taken care of in just one afternoon...except for one person.

Ever since she started seeing Winter, she had even more chances to buy presents; she just couldn't stop spoiling her boyfriend. He'd often find a coffee and pastry waiting for him in the staff room during his first break of the day or the book he was eyeing at the shops magically appearing on their bookshelf the next day. At least three times a week she'd leave something around for him to find. Of course he knew it was from her, who else would have known to replace his watch the literal day after it had stopped working, but he never brought it up. He knew she liked it better this way.

But for some reason she just couldn't come up with what to get him. She'd never had this much trouble thinking of what to get someone before; but then, no one had been as special to her as Winter before. This felt so much more important. It was their first Christmas together; it had to be perfect.

She had looked through her notes a hundred times at this point, she had more notes on him than anyone else. Even before they were together she was paying extra attention to him. At the time she told herself it was because she'd have a much harder time shopping for him because they hated each other so much; looking back she really wondered how she didn't realize what she really felt. Still none of the notes she had helped her that much. She already had a couple gifts: a bottle of A Midwinter Nights Dram whiskey and Santal 33 to replace the Lynx Africa that almost outed their relationship, but still neither one felt special enough.