utselet: (so they won't forget)

[personal profile] utselet 2015-12-24 11:50 am (UTC)(link)
"Christmas," she echoes, looking up in mid-fold with a slightly dismayed expression, as though she'd completely forgotten about it -- which is more or less true -- and isn't especially happy to remember it now -- which is definitely true. She mutters something unhappily in Russian. Christmas itself is meaningless to her, of course, but this mysterious holiday spirit she keeps hearing about has managed to infect her anyway, if for New Year's instead. The upshot is that she has her own list, one actually already written, but the idea of having to rewrite it fills her with the kind of dread she's been managing to stave off until now. It's one minor detail in the middle of everything else, but it feels momentarily insurmountable.

She sighs a little shakily, her voice and her expression both wavering. "Do you think we could do it later? Maybe when yours is ready? It's just... it's been a very long day."
utselet: (when i leave this world)

[personal profile] utselet 2015-12-25 06:22 am (UTC)(link)
Something tightens in her stomach, and she takes a deep breath and makes herself nod when she doesn't actually want to. She wants to apologize and give Tiffany a hug, tell her to go get the gift... but this is the instinct that keeps getting her into trouble, she realizes. She can't keep letting herself fall for people. Not even for Tiffany, whose only crimes are those she hasn't yet and may never commit.

"Sorry," she offers instead, affecting a wince. "I didn't grow up with Christmas; I'm still wrapping my head around it. We didn't do much with presents when I was little. And... I think I really just need to go and lie down." Or to have some quiet in her cell, anyway, to think, to regroup.
utselet: (Default)

[personal profile] utselet 2015-12-26 01:15 am (UTC)(link)

"I know, Tiffya," she says gently, trying to soften things with the use of the diminutive. She spreads out a large silk scarf and starts setting her clothes on it, turning it functionally into a bundle. "You've always been very considerate."

utselet: (Default)

[personal profile] utselet 2015-12-26 01:20 am (UTC)(link)

She shakes her head. "It's nothing to do with you, I promise." It's true, really; she's paying the price for other people's sins.