Kevin & Yvette | Tuesday Afternoon

[x-wither.livejournal.com]

Yvette finally gets her birthday present from Kevin, months later.

It was hard to find a box big enough to fit the sculpture without it looking like he was delivering a television set or something. The inside of the box was filled with packing peanuts and bubble wrap to keep the structure safe within its cardboard walls. It looked a great deal more delicate than it was, but that didn't mean it couldn't be bent or damaged somehow if Kevin wasn't careful. By the time he was done Yvette's birthday present was so snuggly safe inside that he was sure he could toss the box in the air and it would be fine even when caught again after flipping over a few times. Of course, he wasn't actually going to test that confidence at all. The box was covered in wrapping paper carefully arranged so that if viewed right side up it was a sea of blue and red flowers in a bright green field with an endless sky stretching up above it all. If you looked closely you could tell it wasn't store bought, but rather it was all painted. Kevin had taken the time to match the blue as closely as possible to the shade of Yvette's eyes and the red to her skin. He was probably a little off but he was okay with that. Sunlight streamed down from the endless sky that decorated the top half of the box. It had been one of his exercises in capturing light more accurately. Wrapping paper was meant to be ripped to ragged shreds, but it was pretty while it was whole and it helped complement the actual gift inside.

Only after Kevin was sure that everything was perfect from the wrapping job to the packed sculpture inside did he set off to actually locate the recipient he'd spent months preparing this for. The plan was to start with Yvette's room and then check all the places inside the mansion before checking to see if she was in the tree house. He pretended to not notice the odd glances he got for carrying the nearly three foot by three foot box around.

Fortunately for Kevin and his Box, Yvette was in her suite. Bright and poppy music was playing on the DVD player through the television speakers, and the small Albanian girl was dancing around the living room, completely oblivious to anyone, and singing along in a soft, but not unpleasant voice. Then she caught sight of bright colours through the partly-ajar door, and she came to an abrupt stop. Any embarrassment at being caught dancing to Miley Cyrus was lost as she caught sight of the Box. "~Oh, wow,~" she said, slipping back into Albanian.

Kevin pushed the door open further with his foot and gave Yvette a curious look. At first it was for the music because he'd like to think she'd have better taste than that, then it was for the words which made no sense to him whatsoever. It took a minute to realize it really was some other language and definitely not just him being dense. "Hey. Ah come bearing gifts. Well, gift," the final consonants were stressed to emphasize the singularity of his gift. Despite the music and the wide eyed look on Yvette's face, Kevin grinned. "Ah know it's late, really late, but Ah couldn't go giving you a birthday present that wasn't worthy and all." His words fell much more naturally from his lips than they once had. The re-emergence of his native Georgia accent seemed more at ease and the sounds of his words slid out like warm butter melting down hot pancakes. If he tried he could have been damn charming with a voice like that.

If Yvette could have blushed, she would have. Instead, she ducked her head a little and turned off the music. "For me?" she asked, still wide-eyed at the size of the box. "It is so big! And so pretty!" She came over to look at the paper more closely, smiling at the colours - Kevin hadn't been too far off with matching her eye and skin colours. "Thank you!"

"Yeah, course it's for you. Who else would Ah be carrying around a box like this for?" Given his silent pseudo-relationship status there really weren't any other possibilities that came to mind. Kevin took a few steps further into the suite and set the box delicately on the floor so Yvette could reach the top of it more easily once the paper was off to reveal where the cardboard flaps were taped together. "You still gotta open it." He nodded toward the box as he stepped back, urging her to open her incredibly belated gift.

She poked her tongue out at him and came forward, pulling off one glove so she could cut the paper off. "The paper is so nice, I do not want to hurt it," she said, looking up at him. "Are you making it, Kevin?"

He shrugged a little; wrapping paper was made to be destroyed, right? "Yeah, Ah made it. Ah guess you could just cut it where Ah taped it closed, but then what would you do with it?" Of course, there was the obvious things you could do with it, like put it up on a wall or something like that. It really was a nice scene but he hadn't filled it with anything much except flowers and clouds and sunlight on top of the blue sky and grass. It wasn't that remarkable as far as he was concerned.

"Make the origami, of course," she replied, with the 'silly' unspoken but implied. Carefully she ran her finger along the taped-up section, sharp skin slicing easily through. Then she put her glove back on and carefully folded the paper back - it was far too nice to tear. At the sight of the taped cardboard, she grimaced at the thought of the glove coming off again, then grinned and grabbed a lock of her hair - it was half-way between spiky and curly at the moment - and used that to get through the tape instead. Finally, she was able to fold back the flaps and look inside. Definitely one of Kevin's sculptures... wait, she recognised that leaf style. Her eyes glowed as she looked up at him. "You made me the tree?"

Her reaction instantly put a wide smile on his face. Kevin only nodded and took a step forward so he could brush some of the packing peanuts off the top of the tree. The delicate, pink cherry blossoms looked up at them. "Yeah. Seemed fitting. Besides, this way it's always in bloom." Cherry blossom trees were only in bloom for so short a period of time that he thought it should be frozen for Yvette. Something fleeting that was always hers. Maybe it was just his way of trying to give her something no one else could have as a way of making up for the things they had that she didn't.

"It.. oh, thank you, Kevin. It is beautiful." Long gloved fingers brushed away more packing peanuts, revealing the fine metal branches. "It is the nicest present any person has ever given to me." There was a slight catch in her voice, but when she looked up at him again, she was smiling broadly as she lifted it carefully out of the box. "I will, how you say? Be making the treasure of it?"

"It's all metal. Ah wasn't going to, but Ah didn't want you to have to worry as much about hurting it. Except for those, anyway," he pointed to the base of the tree which was covered with fallen blossoms. Most of them were the painted metal blossoms that he'd affixed to the branches, but about a dozen glittered and caught the light. "Stone should be hard enough, though." Small rose quartz blossoms were scattered around the tree's base, smiling up at Yvette. The grass the fallen blossoms laid upon as well as the trunk and branches of the tree were all painted appropriately, though Kevin did his best to shadow and shade them so they looked less like metal and more like a combination between bark or grass and cloth.

"Stone is being hard to cut, yes." And she loved shiny things. And pink. "This is such the wonderful present, Kevin. Is this the big secret you were making in the workshop all this time?" She'd been so good and hadn't peeked, not once.

Kevin nodded, the smile still on his face. "Yeah, that's what Ah kept hiding away when you'd come in. Ah had this other idea, but it didn't really work. Well, it worked, but it wasn't right. So I threw it out, more or less. And this, well, it just took longer to do. Well, to do right. No point in making it if it's not gonna get done proper, y'know?" There was the faintest tinge of pink to Kevin's skin and his eyes fell down to the tree itself, away from the observation of those bright blue eyes. "Ah'm glad y'like it."

"I am very glad you are making it," she countered. Slowly, so he'd see what she was doing, she reached out with her gloved hand and touched his. "I am liking it very much."

His eyes tracked her hand as it moved closer and closer to his own. Kevin didn't think she would actually touch him, but he also didn't startle when contact was made. His eyebrows shot upward and he did have a moment of minor panic caused by the touch despite both of them wearing gloves. In an effort to cover the reaction so Yvette wouldn't take the surprise badly, Kevin forced a smile onto his face. It very quickly became natural and he looked back up at her with a nod toward the door. "C'mon, Ah gotta owe you pie or ice cream or somethin' for being so late with this."

"Oh, I think I am owing you the treat," she replied, smiling back. "For being such the good friend."

A hand waved through the air dismissively. "It's like Yvette Birthday part two, so you're not allowed to owe me anything."