Log: Matt & Hope

[x-daredevil.livejournal.com]

Matt and Hope go holiday shopping.



Getting off the public bus at the Salem mall, Matt unfolded his cane and placed his hand on Hope's shoulder. "Alright, so...where to?" he asked, unsure. He wasn't much for shopping in general and holiday shopping (and the crowds), but the sooner he got it done, the better. "What're you getting people? We can start there?" Maybe he could get something for people at the same time she did.

"For the girls I need to visit a jewelry store... but for the boys I am not sure yet... Where would would you like to go, Matt? Did you have something specific in mind?" Hope looked over her shoulder. She had absolutely not minded helping out Matt with some gift shopping.

"No idea," Matt replied as they entered, his grip tightening slightly on his cane. He had earplugs with him too in case he needed them, "We can go to your jewelry store and maybe I'll find something there? I've got something for Sue, it's just everyone else..." he trailed off, "I don't know what girls like."

"That can be difficult." Hope agreed. "It depends much on the person though... Did you plan on buying something for all the girls in the New Mutants?"

He'd debated back and forth on that before finally nodding, "I think so, unless it gets too expensive. There's not too many of us..." he trailed off, unsure. "I wanna try to get the same thing for everyone, I think. Not necessarily the exact same, but similar, you know?" It would be better than leaving someone out. "And there's Clint and Billy."

Hope smiled and nodded. "Clint and Billy are also hard for me to find gifts for." And Matt... but she didn't say that. Gifts for boys in general were just harder. "I'd welcome suggestion though."

"Um..." He had no idea, too. They were his suitemates, but they didn't hang out very much, "Maybe something sports related? Clint and I were foster brothers for a while years ago...it didn't end so well," it ended with his first arrest. "Not sure that really helps though."

"I might have an idea for Billy though, but I do not know Clint well. I might just have to ask Maddie for a suggestion if I cannot find anything..." Hope tilted her head thinking.

"What's your idea for Billy?" Matt asked. They liked movies, he knew that, but Matt had no idea which ones or anything. They hung with Maddie a lot and he didn't. "Maybe I'll get them a book?"

"Something to do with music." Hope kept it slightly vague, since she was not completely sure about the gift herself yet. "But I am not completely sure yet."

Billy did like music. "Okay," he agreed, pausing to yell, "Watch where you're going!" waving his cane. Idiot. "Ugh. There are so many people!"

"He should have been watching. And there are many people. But yelling at people does not help your cause, Matt." Hope gently chided him. "It's not behavior fitting a gentleman."

"Since when am I a gentleman?" Matt retorted with a grin, "Is there a bench or chair or something nearby?" He wanted his ear plugs.

"There is one close by." Hope took his elbow and quickly gathered him over. "Here we are. And you can always chose to become one, Matt."

"Why?" he asked reasonably, "What good does being a gentleman do me?" Matt sat and fished out his ear plugs, pushing them into his ears. He was feeling overloaded with all the sounds and scents. "These don't block all my hearing, but I'm getting overloaded, so I'm kinda going to be more blind than normal," he informed Hope, unsure if she quite understood.

"Well, then I will teaching you how a gentleman escorts a lady around. You never know when it might come in handy and Sue might like it." Hope had to smile a little at the idea, though she was mostly joking. "I hope it gives you enough guidance though."

"I just hold her hand," Matt didn't get it. "And see, me getting the guidance I need is more important than escorting a lady," he stood again, cane out in front of him as a warning to others, "What do I smell?" he asked, turning and zooming in on a store. Some stores smelled gross and he tried to avoid them. This one was strong, but it was still pretty good.

Hope delicately giggled behind her hand. She had expected this reaction. "That would be fine. People might get wrong idea's though and if a classmate from the local high school sees you..." She left the fact it could come back to Sue unspoken. "I think you are smelling that bakery that is just to the the left." Hope quickly examined the window. "I think they have a great variety of freshly baked cookies."

"No...not that," Matt disagreed, still turning as he tried to find it. "There..." he headed into a store, cane arcing in front of him as he went to explore and accidentally left Hope behind, the entire gentleman thing forgotten. "This store smells good!"

She had to smile again and followed him quickly. "Oh, that one look very interesting indeed. And it smells good indeed." Now that hey had gotten closer Hope could smell the various scents for herself. "It's quite lovely."

The store wasn't very busy surprisingly and after chatting with a sales girl, Matt ended up going through almost the entire store, smelling his way through it. It was a ton of fun. "Hey Hope!" he called, "This place is fun!" Not to mention smelling good. That was important to him.

Hope had tried out a few of products herself, quizzing one of the sales girls about it's ingredients and their function. "You might be able to find a few Christmas gifts in here." She suggested to him when he came closer. "You can maybe pick something that fits everyone?"

"Oh, hey yeah!" Matt lit up at that idea, thinking that he could get something for all the girls. "Good idea. I bet the girls would like something, huh? You go out so you don't see!" He instructed her. Not that he intended to tell Hope what was for her even if she did see it.

"Alright." Hope thought for a moment. "I believe there is good jewelry store about three stores to the left. Perhaps you could come there once you are done?" Looking around the store she figured it could take a while.

"Okay," Matt agreed, letting Hope go. It didn't take as long as he thought it would to pick something for everyone, partially because there weren't so many students at the school. Pausing once he was done, he ran his fingers over what he had chosen and then decided he should get something for Ms. Frost too, since she had been so helpful to him. Armed with a medium sized bag, Matt headed to the much quieter jewelry store, taking a seat near the door to let Hope finish what she was doing.

Hope had noticed him sitting by the door, but since she was almost done, she simply asked the lady behind the counter to bring out the last two trays and calmly examined the small pieces in front of her. Finally she pointed out two more and let the jeweler wrap all of them up and tuck them in a bag. "I am sorry that took so long..."

"No worries," Matt replied, standing and holding his hand out to take her bags, "I'll carry those. Since you want me to be a gentleman or whatever," it was just the right thing to do since she was helping guide him.

"Only if you want to, Matt. I was mostly teasing." Nevertheless, Hope did hand over the bags, since it would be very bad taste to refuse the offer. "Is there any other kind of shop you'd like to visit?" She needed to visit the music store for a few of her violin supplies, but that would not take long.

"Well, I still need Billy and Clint," Matt replied. He had no idea what to get the other guys. It was hard to know what video games or whatever were cool right now, "And I guess your Christmas shopping is done? What'd you get me?"

"I still need to select something for Billy and Clint, but I am not quite sure what to get them yet." Hope thought for a moment. "Though... I do want to see if there is a store in the building with a good collection of cards. I'd like to get a number of them."

"No idea..." Matt was not an expert on mall stores, "Is there a mall directory? Or do you just want to walk around?"

"Why don't we explore for a little and if we come across a mall directory we will consult it?" Hope suggested practically.

"Works for me," Matt agreed easily. If he got overwhelmed and into migraine territory, they'd leave, but for now he was good. "Thanks for coming with me. I hate the mall in general and the idea of going alone powers or not, is not a happy one."

"I was glad to be of assistance, Matt. I had been debating when to do my own shopping, so this made for a good combination." Hope said as they made their way through the mall. "There is a music shop though. Would you mind if I popped in there quickly?"

"Music! Absolutely!" It was hard to tell a music store from simply a store playing music, plus the mall was playing holiday music, too. "I love musics stores," he confided in Hope not so secretly. "Looking for anything in particular?"

"Nothing in particular, but I always like to check out the classical music selections. Or something else interesting." Sometimes she even found a nice disk with several famous aria's on it for example.

"Classical? Old, dead white dudes who don't write lyrics?" Matt had no interest in that. "I shouldn't be surprised, but really Hope? You don't live in Victorian England. Let's find you some good music made in the past...I dunno, century?" He wasn't surprised that she wasn't into the same music as him, but there was lots of genres of music without being classical!

"It has some amazing violin music though. Really, I do not just listen to classical music. I also enjoy Irish music or Vanessa Mae for example. Her single 'Destiny' is one of my favorite numbers." Hope explained as they entered the shop.

Matt was Irish, but he had absolutely no idea about Irish music. "Like Riverdance?" he asked, dubiously. "And I have never heard of her." Well...Hope did play the violin. That at least made some sense. Still though. She could listen to better stuff. "I'm gonna talk to the guy behind the counter and find you good stuff. Or at least, better stuff."

"Hmm..." Hope contemplated her idea for a moment. "Alright, I have a suggestion. I will listen to some of your music. But you listen to music I enjoy. And yes, that also means classical."

"Fine," Matt agreed, thinking that the classical was going to put him to sleep. Well, he liked naps. "I'll even try to keep the music clean and not violate your sensitive, virgin ears."

"Why, thank you, sir."

Chuckling, Matt let go of her shoulder and headed to the counter to talk to the guy behind it. It took a minute for the guy to get what he was saying, he was apparently not the brightest crayon in the box, but finally Matt got his point across and the guy made a few suggestions. Good enough. Matt had no intention of buying any music, he preferred to download it, but having artist names would help a lot. This was going to be fun!

Hope just followed him, a slightly quizzical look on her face. "May I ask what you have chosen?"

"For you? Norah Jones, Jamie Cullum and the Beatles," of those three, Matt only knew the Beatles, but this wasn't about music he liked, it was music she would like that wasn't classical. "Apparently, the next step up from classical is jazz infused adult-rock aimed at women in their 50's." Which...yeah. No thanks.

"The Beatles?" Hope had heard of them during her studies in modern art history of course, but she had never really listened to them. "And who are Norah Jones and Jamie Cullum?"

Oh, Hope. She so lived in a vacuum. "No idea. The dude at the counter recommended them for you. But I know the Beatles and they're cool. Everyone likes the Beatles. I've got some of their stuff at home," he mentally reviewed how much money he had in his wallet and decided he couldn't get her a CD, "We can youtube the others when we get home if you want?"

"Oh, I know of the Beatles. We discussed them during modern art history. We also listened to one or two of their songs. And I have my own music back at the mansion." She thought Matt might like the 1812 Overture. Most men seemed to like the cannons in it.

Somehow, the thought of Hope only knowing the Beatles through a modern art class made Matt sad. That was no way to know about them, they were a band you grew up with, that was the soundtrack to everyones life. "I wanna see if Jason Mraz has a new album out. Help me look?"

"Jason Miraz you say?" Hope looked around and quickly navigated them towards the appropriate section. "Miraz... Miraz..." She quickly flipped through the small plastic cases. "I am sorry. I cannot see it..."

Really? That was odd. He was pretty popular. Hm. "What section are we in?" He asked. Maybe that was the problem. "M-r-a-z. Mraz." He had no idea what sort of name that was, but it was his name.

"Ah, without the i? Now it makes sense. Let me check the correct row." Once more Hope flipped through the CD's. "Mraz... here we go. This album called 'Love' looks like the most recent one."

"That's it," Matt agreed, taking it and holding the case, not that it did him any good. All CD cases were the same shape and feel so he couldn't differentiate them without labels. "It's a good album, I've heard most of it on YouTube. Should I get it or just download from iTunes?" decisions, decisions. "I think you'd like some of it though, too."

"Perhaps what offers the most advantages financially?" Hope took another of the cases from the bin and studied the song lists. "Or depending if your like all the songs on the disk?"

Oh, logic. "I'll just download it," Matt decided, "It's how I have the rest of my music. Okay, anything else you want here or should we keep walking?"

"I would like to check one or two more cases, but then I suppose we can continue on our way..."