Black Licorice and Butterscotch // Dennor

Tourists and Tchotchkes

With each day creeping closer towards June 17th, Lukas could feel the increasing guilt of being bad at getting his brother a proper birthday present. It was only a few days until Emil's birthday, and Lukas was still struggling to figure out what to buy. He always found the teenager quite hard to buy for, so he always ended up getting him a wool sweater. The kid's closet was practically full of them. 

As the day approached, Lukas was in full panic mode. Now that it was Emil's 17th birthday, Lukas felt he needed to step his gift-giving game up. He had already adamantly decided that he wasn't going to get another wool sweater, but it was already the day before Emil's golden birthday, so he decided he would scurry into a couple more stores in an attempt to find a slightly more epic gift than a sweater. 

The first place Lukas stumbled into was a little tourist shop at the edge of their village. They lived in a fishing village amidst the fjords, so in the summer it got quite touristy. Lukas had never found himself wanting to step into one of the tourist-filled shops, but he figured getting Emil something related to where they lived would be a pretty safe gift. Besides, the teenager would be heading off to university in a year or so, so he needed something to remind him of home. 

As Lukas stepped through the door, he heard a bell ring, signifying his entrance, and watched as a gaggle of tourists looked up at him with welcoming smiles before looking back down at the knick knacks they were tinkering with. Lukas shot back a confused stare. Tourists always freaked him out for some reason. He always felt like he was another novelty part of their trip to stare at, like "oh look, there's a native!" He didn't pay them any mind though, they never meant any harm. 

After distancing himself from the people looking at the keychains and mugs with pictures of the fjords and the quaint houses in their village, Lukas glanced around. The shop looked like a cottage from the outside, but the inside was filled with tons of shelves and tables with various novelty items and tchotchkes relating to their village and Norway in general. As he wandered further into the store he grew more discouraged, realizing a key chain or mug definitely wasn't a good enough present for his little brother. He frowned slightly as he realized he could never get it right. Even though he had practically raised his brother since he was a child, he knew very few things about him. Lukas was pretty sure Emil felt the same way about him as well because every birthday Emil had also gotten him a wool sweater. 

Lukas nearly turned to leave in frustration before he glanced across the store at a shelf filled with stuffed-animal puffins. Immediately a light bulb went off in Lukas' head. Even though Lukas knew very little about his brother's interests, he knew the boy loved puffins. When Emil was a child, he used to beg for a pet puffin every christmas and birth month. Lukas used to let him down whenever he told him they couldn't have one, and Lukas could never forget the dissapointment in the kid's eyes. Now he could finally get Emil a puffin- Sort of. 

Lukas had finally found the perfect gift. For once in his life he'd be able to give Emil something sentimental. Emil always called him the least sentimental person in the world, and now Lukas could prove him wrong. Practically skipping over to the shelf, Lukas picked out the cutest, softest puffin before walking over to the counter and placing it in front of the cashier. 

The girl had jet black hair and a septum piercing that made her look slightly more intimidating than one would expect from a teenager. Lukas shot her a weak smile before she rung him up. As she handed him the bag, she paused a moment as her gaze lingered on Lukas' face. 

"You're Emil's brother, right?" she asked, surprising Lukas as he took the bag from her hand. 

"Yes. You know Emil?" Lukas asked, still dumbfounded that someone had even recognized him. Lukas usually kept his trips to the shops brief and scarce, so he didn't really know many people from town, but they always seemed to know him. 

"He's in my class. His birthday is tomorrow, right?" she asked, raising a pierced eyebrow at him curiously. 

"Um yeah. This is actually for him." Lukas responded, gesturing towards the puffin in the bag. The girl snorted before lifting her hand to her mouth to stifle her laugh. Lukas felt his face turn a little pink. Was she laughing at him?

"Well, tell him I say happy birthday. And if you need anything else to get him I'd recommend black licorice. That kid goes through licorice twists like no one I've ever seen before. But I'm sure you already know that" she said, letting out a breathy chuckle. Lukas frowned slightly. He didn't know that. 

"Thanks for the help" Lukas muttered finally, giving her a polite nod before scuttling past the tourists and onto the street. As soon as he was back outside, he let out a sigh. That girl probably knew more about his brother than he did. He couldn't help but beat himself up over how much he didn't know about the kid who shared so much of his DNA. Shaking the thought out of his head, Lukas looked down at his watch to check the time. Realizing he had plenty more time to shop before returning to make lunch, Lukas figured he would check out the candy shop across town. 

Hey. So as written in the story description, this will be a pretty short fic. I wrote most of it in 2017 and now, in 2019 I have decided to finally finish it because I am a hot mess. This is what i get for deciding to post my drafts lmao. Anyway.. hope you guys enjoy. (I unpublished this a while ago so hopefully yall dont remember any of it)