Santa Baby
Dec. 11th, 2005 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolevalanTitle: Blue Christmas
Fandom: Shadow Clan
A/N: Dedicated to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mousling, with much love. She is the proud owner of Selia and Madine. The Shadow Clan is not mine - only Gabrielle and this story. Yay.
Gabrielle didn’t have much shopping to do. Which was unfortunate, really, as she prided herself on both her good taste and her recently acquired source of disposable income. The two boys, of course, were easily taken care of – Ruvio, she thought with a pang, had been much more tricky to shop for, but for her employees, a nice bottle of wine and a cash bonus would be quite sufficient.
Christmas was, of course, a good time for greasing her contacts’ respective palms as well. And she could afford to be generous – it always paid off later. She made herself a list (in code, of course) and hummed to herself as she did, indeed, double check it. The vast majority of her help had been decidedly nice this year. Good for them.
Which left her with one actual Christmas gift to purchase. She’d fallen more or less out of touch, for which she felt bad…she wasn’t even completely sure if the marriage had taken place or not. New Year’s Resolution: keep up with non-business correspondence, she noted to herself. But she’d been planning the gift far enough in advance that she was fairly certain it would still be appropriate. Surely Selia hadn’t changed that much in the time they’d been apart.
Gabrielle wasn’t going to lie, the research had been part of what she enjoyed about the idea. The months she spent tracking things down, editing, hiring artists… it had reminded her of the best parts of her days back home. And frankly, it gave her something to work on during downtimes. Everyone needed a hobby; it was true. And as much as serial cake-baking could have been entertaining, it lacked a certain flair. Practical jokes were only so funny if the target didn’t get them.
She carefully wrapped the bound album in colorful green paper and slipped it in her knapsack. Now for the fun part.
The speeder clipped over the snow, leaving a small blizzard in its wake. She would be easily spotted, were anyone watching. Or rather, if anyone who was watching cared, as Gabrielle found it hard to believe she could get even this close to a purportedly military establishment without someone taking note. She was about a half a mile out when she stopped, not bothering to hide the speeder. Someone might notice it…but based on past experience, she found this somehow hard to worry about.
For completion’s sake, she disappeared a good ways before she got close. No telltale footprints in the snow, no disturbance in the morning’s stillness. She wondered if she’d have to look for a new way in. It was always possible that they had wised up and blocked her last means of entrance. A challenge would be nice.
Sadly, it was not to be. She slipped in, passing several people in the hallways without the suspecting anything. The first problem occurred when she arrived at Selia’s old quarters. It suddenly occurred to Gabrielle that if she had, indeed, gotten married, she either would have moved out or her husband would have moved in. This could be…awkward.
She picked the lock and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. No one was there. She looked around, trying to determine if the quarter’s were still Selia’s. They were rather Spartan, and by the mess, she judged that if Selia lived here, it was no longer alone. Well, well… she thought. Hopefully not a jerk, anyway.
As much as she would have loved to stay and chat with her friend, the longer she stayed, the more likely someone would notice her. Not that she would normally mind – but she had already sold the diamond rose Shadow gave her, and she had a feeling things could get testy fairly quickly.
She left the festively wrapped package addressed to Selia on the desk, and slipped out of the fortress as easily as she had slipped in. Perhaps she should have gotten them a better security system as a collective Christmas gift…
--
When Selia eventually received the present, she would be presumably surprised to discover a scrapbook of Madine – school papers, photos, cards, etc. Though most of the house and its contents had been destroyed in the demon attack, Gabrielle had managed to track down their old schools, former friends, and all sorts of obscure contacts to give Selia as much as her lost sister as Gabrielle could possibly find. The note simply read,
Ma petite,
I hope that the gift gives you more pleasure than pain, but I felt you should have it in any case. When you get done saving the world, feel free to come visit your old, humble acquaintance.
Gros Bisous,
La Renarde
Fandom: Shadow Clan
A/N: Dedicated to
mousling, with much love. She is the proud owner of Selia and Madine. The Shadow Clan is not mine - only Gabrielle and this story. Yay.Gabrielle didn’t have much shopping to do. Which was unfortunate, really, as she prided herself on both her good taste and her recently acquired source of disposable income. The two boys, of course, were easily taken care of – Ruvio, she thought with a pang, had been much more tricky to shop for, but for her employees, a nice bottle of wine and a cash bonus would be quite sufficient.
Christmas was, of course, a good time for greasing her contacts’ respective palms as well. And she could afford to be generous – it always paid off later. She made herself a list (in code, of course) and hummed to herself as she did, indeed, double check it. The vast majority of her help had been decidedly nice this year. Good for them.
Which left her with one actual Christmas gift to purchase. She’d fallen more or less out of touch, for which she felt bad…she wasn’t even completely sure if the marriage had taken place or not. New Year’s Resolution: keep up with non-business correspondence, she noted to herself. But she’d been planning the gift far enough in advance that she was fairly certain it would still be appropriate. Surely Selia hadn’t changed that much in the time they’d been apart.
Gabrielle wasn’t going to lie, the research had been part of what she enjoyed about the idea. The months she spent tracking things down, editing, hiring artists… it had reminded her of the best parts of her days back home. And frankly, it gave her something to work on during downtimes. Everyone needed a hobby; it was true. And as much as serial cake-baking could have been entertaining, it lacked a certain flair. Practical jokes were only so funny if the target didn’t get them.
She carefully wrapped the bound album in colorful green paper and slipped it in her knapsack. Now for the fun part.
The speeder clipped over the snow, leaving a small blizzard in its wake. She would be easily spotted, were anyone watching. Or rather, if anyone who was watching cared, as Gabrielle found it hard to believe she could get even this close to a purportedly military establishment without someone taking note. She was about a half a mile out when she stopped, not bothering to hide the speeder. Someone might notice it…but based on past experience, she found this somehow hard to worry about.
For completion’s sake, she disappeared a good ways before she got close. No telltale footprints in the snow, no disturbance in the morning’s stillness. She wondered if she’d have to look for a new way in. It was always possible that they had wised up and blocked her last means of entrance. A challenge would be nice.
Sadly, it was not to be. She slipped in, passing several people in the hallways without the suspecting anything. The first problem occurred when she arrived at Selia’s old quarters. It suddenly occurred to Gabrielle that if she had, indeed, gotten married, she either would have moved out or her husband would have moved in. This could be…awkward.
She picked the lock and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. No one was there. She looked around, trying to determine if the quarter’s were still Selia’s. They were rather Spartan, and by the mess, she judged that if Selia lived here, it was no longer alone. Well, well… she thought. Hopefully not a jerk, anyway.
As much as she would have loved to stay and chat with her friend, the longer she stayed, the more likely someone would notice her. Not that she would normally mind – but she had already sold the diamond rose Shadow gave her, and she had a feeling things could get testy fairly quickly.
She left the festively wrapped package addressed to Selia on the desk, and slipped out of the fortress as easily as she had slipped in. Perhaps she should have gotten them a better security system as a collective Christmas gift…
--
When Selia eventually received the present, she would be presumably surprised to discover a scrapbook of Madine – school papers, photos, cards, etc. Though most of the house and its contents had been destroyed in the demon attack, Gabrielle had managed to track down their old schools, former friends, and all sorts of obscure contacts to give Selia as much as her lost sister as Gabrielle could possibly find. The note simply read,
Ma petite,
I hope that the gift gives you more pleasure than pain, but I felt you should have it in any case. When you get done saving the world, feel free to come visit your old, humble acquaintance.
Gros Bisous,
La Renarde
