'tis the season to f r e a k o u t

Saffron Wickersham was not in a good mood. She hadn't, in fact, been in a good mood for quite the while. At least... not consistently. For the past month or so, maybe a bit less... she had found herself stuck in some sort of perpetual cycle of PMS, except without the M part following.

Meanwhile, the rest of the school was indulging themselves in the cheerfulness of the season. Stupid freaking fracking kids. Yes, Saffie was not in a charitable mood. And it was probably a good thing there was no mood ring on her finger to calculate her exact temperament- that would probably just infuriate her more and she'd most likely end up throwing it and flushing it down a toilet or something.

Suddenly, the shrieking sound of a cell phone took over the room. Green Day's Good Riddance engulfed the room in a ripping shout. Saffron cursed aloud, and lunged at the bed for the phone.

"Helllllloooo?" She inquired, emphasis on the 'hell'.

"Saffron," her mother cooed on the other line.

She muttered an extra curse. "Hello, mother." This was definitely not a good time to talk to mommy dearest.

"How are you darling? Good?" It wasn't as much of a question as a nicety. "Listen dear," Her quick change of subject proved her lack of interest in Saffie's well-being. "Your father and I have spoken about it and how do you feel about coming home for a couple weeks in January?"

Saffron nearly choked. "As lovely as that sounds, mother, I'm afraid I have- y'know- school." Her horror at the idea was hardly hidden- in fact, it was all too clear.

"Well, no need to be rude. In any case, you don't know the circumstances- your cousin Martha's getting married!"

Saffie inspected her nails, her curiosity un-piqued. "Hoo. Rah."

Her mother huffed on the other line and Saffie looked sharply to the door. Someone was knocking.

Grasping a small, gift-wrapped box with a small bow on it, Gerard had stalked through the halls, pausing at the door of the lounge where many of the others had congregated, before passing by. Her room next, he'd reckoned, and had rattled the box lightly for a small amount of comfort. Pleasingly, it still made a sound, though faint and muffled, not giving away what it was at all.

Really it was a charm bracelet, with a charm already attached. The little camera had been so wonderful he'd had to go into the shop and buy it. He'd then realised that, unless she kept it hidden, Saffron didn't own a charm bracelet. In his pocket was a second charm, to give to Saffie soon. He knew, of all people, she would appreciate the reference to songs no one sung anymore. Simply because no one sung them.

He had bounced the rest of the way up the stairs, before pausing outside her door, able to hear Saffie on the other side of the door, and paused for a moment. Maybe she was talking to someone about something important? He rejected the idea the next instant, and knocked.

"Saaaffff? I come bearing presents?"

His voice came out more questioning than he'd intended, and frowned for a moment. Oh well.

Saffron eyed the door for a minute, questioningly. Then she heard Gerard's voice, and smiled. Then her mother's voice ripped through her head,

"To a neurosurgeon," she sighed dreamily. Oh great. Just one more major accomplishment of a cousin her parents could hold over her head. Just another example of how imperfect Saffron Adelinde Wickersham was... Wickersham... more like Wickershame. Saffron sighed, but not dreamily.

"And I repeat..." She walked over to the door, her hand placed on the knob.

"Well don't sound so excited! You know how important events like these are to the family and it's really truly a shame that you couldn't find a little bit of enthusiasm deep down in that artistically sensitive heart you're always talking about-" Saffron had zoned out after 'You know'. She was opening the door for Gerard and placing a hand over the phone receiver so she could whisper,

"Hey babe," when her mother got to 'about'.

"-and in any case it should be quite obvious to you that your cousin Martha... did you just say something Saffron?"

"What mom?" Saffron bit her bottom lip, mouthing 'hold on' to Gerard and turning away for a second to address the maddening woman.

"Where are you?"

"My room at the ski lodge..."

"You just let someone in- who?"

Saffron sighed, "Listen mom I'm really not feeling well, and I haven't been for the past month- I think I'm coming down with something so I really shouldn't be around the family, okay? It would be ever so much of a terrible shame to get Martha sick right before her wonderful wedding, don't you agree?"

"It's a boy isn't it?" There was a moment of silence, during which Saffron stood in an uncomfortably poised position. She had this thing... just talking to her mother made her feel like she was home- she swore the woman could hear slouching through the telephone. And nakedness... she'd guessed that Saffron wasn't wearing socks once- she'd been scarred ever since. "Oh God Saffron, don't be pregnant."

"Whaat?" She hissed into the phone. "God mom shut up! I am not!"

"Oh thank God. That's the last thing we need, you're trouble enough as you are. Keep it that way." Her tone was unnecessarily harsh, Saffron thought. "Alright- well- feel better dear. Your father and I love you. Goodbye." The farewell was over-rehearsed- stale. Saffron hung up rolling her eyes, but somehow her mother's words weren't so easily dismissed. She could feel the color flush from her face. Two deep breaths later, she turned to Gerard, and forced a smile.

"Mother... can't live with her... can't live..." she faked thinking about it for a minute, "oh wait..." she laughed. "So, what did you say? Gifts, did I hear?" She hopped onto her bed, her legs pulled in indian-style, looking quite excited, like a child sitting in Santa's workshop. She'd always loved Christmas.

Smiling as he was let in, Gerard pressed a kiss to Saffie's cheek, murmuring a 'hey' back to her. He could hear the annoying voice from the other end of the phone, made tinny and unintelligible by the speaker to the phone from a distance. He could hear it stop mid-sentence, moving onto a different topic. Biting his lip, he watched Saffie (sort of) argue with the voice, until there was no voice, and no Saffie talking. He waited until she hung up, before climbing onto the bed with her, chuckling along to her joke.

"Yes, yes, presents. What was it your mother said to you anyway?"

He rolled his eyes at her slight impatience, and placed the box in his hands in front of her. Gerard leaned on her shoulder, arm going round her back, and grinned at the excited look on her face.

"Enjoy. Merry Christmas sweetheart."

He kept the other one in his pocket. Brushing his hair out of his eyes with his free hand, he kept his eyes on Saffie's hands, smiling to himself. He felt sure she'd like it. Or at least pretty sure. Before he'd seen that, he'd been thinking of buying her a 4 gigabyte memory card for her camera. Which was more useful, but less romantic. And if there was one thing Gerard liked, it was romance.

Presents were one thing Saffron had never been deprived of. Her family's wealth and size kept plenty of packages under her super tall, expensively decorated Christmas tree. Now, presents she actually wanted... that was another thing altogether.

Saffron kept her cool when Gerard re-brought up her mother, but she didn't like it. She simply brought her hand up to brush some bangs out of her face and scrunched up her nose like she'd tasted something bad and said,

"Please, please- let's not talk about my mother," she heaved a sigh. "Let's talk about... oh I don't know... what's in that box!" Real smooth, Saff, real smooth. Oh well, Saffron wasn't one for being dense- she was translucent, clear as crystal.

Saffron honestly smiled, for the first time in awhile, as Gerard handed her the box. And already, before she'd even opened it, she felt tears welling up in her eyes. She sniffled, feeling like a silly little child, and tried to hide them as she tore through the paper coating. Her bottom lip beginning to tremble gently, she opened the container. Something gleamed inside.

"Oh my gawsh," she burst into a full blown smile, followed by tears. "This is," she sputtered stupidly, "the nicest thing," sob, sob, sob, "anyone's ever gotten me..." cry, cry, sniff, sniff, and a great big, long, kiss, planted to Gerard's lips. "Thank you..." She looked down at the bracelet in the box; she'd not even noticed the little camera charm- and now that she had- she choked back more tears. Stop crying, she told herself. Smile, just smile. And she did, wiping at her cheeks with her sleeves.

Even though Gerard simply gave Saffie a look, he filed her reluctance to talk under 'significant'. A lot of things came under 'significant' for him. Like the golden ratio. Or why pi is pi. That sort of thing. And her emotions changing so quickly. He didn't know why that was significant, but it was. For now, he'd assume illness and go from there.

Hands were draped loosely around Saffie's waist as she cried, and one of them slipped gently into her hair as she kissed him. Gerard kissed her back gently, wiping tear tracks off her face. He admired how, even like this, she still looked so incredibly beautiful, as he pulled back, hands still wiping away tears.

"Shh, come on now Saff, you need to be able to breathe before I give you the other one."

He kissed her nose, and pulled her into a tight hug. Leaning his forehead against hers, so he could look straight into her eyes (resisting the need to giggle- people having one eye looked funny), his hands slipped into combing her hair in long strokes.

"Breathe. There's a present in it if you do."

A million and one things were swimming through Saffron's head. Gerard's amazingess. Her month of bad-feeling-ness. Her possible pregnancyness. Her total and complete abhorrance of her mother for bringing the pregnancy thing up... ness. The charm bracelet... Breathing...

Saffron took in a staggered breath and sighed out a giggle, rubbing her nose against Gerard's- the warmth of his lips still tingling on the skin of her own.

"More presents?" The paradox of her crying happiness was slowly beginning to grow. She found that she had this uncontrollable feeling somewhere in the pit of her being that was throwing her all about, emotion-wise. One second she was happy as a clam, the next she was crying pearl-sized tears. She sucked in another breath and let it out, calm resonating through her in a soft shudder. She pecked at Gerard's lips.

"Okay, no more tears now... I'm good." She was thinking about her own present for Gerard as she waited more patiently for her next one. His was tucked under her bed, yes, the two were sitting above it right then. It was wrapped up all in silver and gold and a little card was tucked into the ribbon tied around it. She couldn't wait to pull it out.

"Yeah, more. Just for you."

As Saffie let out a breath that shuddered and resonated through her, Gerard allowed his hands to drop back, one from her face to her waist, and the other to pull the box out of his pocket. He had spent several days searching for this one- he'd found this charm online and had proceeded to trawl shops to see what it looked like first. Either way, he'd found it in the end, and he touched a finger to one edge of the box.

"Ok, now let's see you close your eyes."

He touched his fingers to her temple, smiling like the cat who got the cream. He really couldn't believe she was all his. Sometimes he wondered how he'd got her in the end. A combination of an unwillingness to let things go and a writer's mind, he supposed. The perfect juxtaposition to... well, most of her asshole boyfriends that she'd had before. At least he hoped so anyway.

When he was sure her eyes were closed, he fumbled in his pocket for a moment, the box catching on the fabric of his jacket. He let out a breath of laughter, before he pulled it out. He palmed the gold wrapped box for a moment, considering what he'd do next.

"Okay, hand out, palm up."

His hand hovered, waiting for her to comply.

Saffron never could have imagined herself in such a position. She felt totally and completely safe with Gerard, closing her eyes was hardly a feat, with the exception of the anticipation... she really wanted to know what this extra gift was. She closed her eyes, taking comfort in the sensation of Gerard's hands as they moved away from her to the mystery gift. And then her temples... she bit her bottom lip.

"This suspense is killing me!" she declared with a bounce and a giggle.

"Okay, hand out, palm up."

Saffron sighed softly as she reached her hands out and turned them both palm up. This was too much. She was going to break down and cry any second now and Gerard would have no clue what was going on and she was going to seem like a total freak. No, no, she was going to keep herself together. She could do it. She'd been in worse situations before... or had she? No matter, she was in this with Gerard... whatever she was in...

Gerard smiled at how cute she'd seemed in that moment with the little bounce, the small giggle. He pressed a kiss to her lips as he leaned forwards, placing the box into her hands. "I hope you like it, Saff." He pulled back and bounced a little where he sat.

There was a grin of utter excitement, as Gerard folded his legs up, and he fiddled with the belt he wore slightly. The suspense of waiting for Saffie's reaction would kill him soon, just like Saffie's suspense was killing her. He didn't do waiting for things well. Like an excitable puppy, or maybe a small kid, who wants an ice cream now.

He really did hope Saffie liked it, because he'd seen it and thought she deserved it. He'd tiptoed around saying 'I love you' since that night after prom, but this was probably to show Saffie that he still did love her. Would love her no matter what. It was his way of telling her things like that. What a sap he was, so mushy and gooey when it came to Saffie.

Saffron was much more at ease now, her mind completely off of the troubling topics that'd been plaguing her before. Right now- for now- she could just concentrate on Gerard and how very amazing he was to her. She took the little box from him and held it in her hands, not looking down at it though until Gerard's lips had left hers. His kisses were so sweet.

"You've already gotten me too much." She sighed, and opened the box. Against the black cloth of the interior, the little purple heart sparkled. "You want me to cry, don't you?" she laughed lightly. "I can't even believe this... you'll put it on the bracelet for me?" She held out her wrist to him, and smiled, holding back her happy tears, since smiles were much more warmly recepted.

"Oh! And wait," she put the two boxes gently to the side and swung over the side of the bed to grab the gift box beneath the fringy covers. "Now it's your turn."

In all the time Saffron had known Gerard, she'd always taken pictures of them together- even before they were "together" as they were now- they'd been friends for so long- and she'd always had a Fred with her. It was a nobrainer then what she could do for Gerard- the model, the love of photos. She put together a collage of their pictures, and in the center, the picture of them kissing from the studio, the last time they'd gone there together. It taken her quite some time to put it together just right- to develop each photo and arrange it, put a glaze over it and frame it... but it came out perfectly- framed in black stained wood and decorated with a red heart-shaped button along the bottom of the frame- centered. She hoped he could understand how much this otherwise simple gift really meant... though compared to his... she was feeling a bit cheap...

Gerard beamed to himself when he realised exactly how much Saffie liked it. Not that it took much guesswork, rather a little really. Especially seeing as Saffron was so close to bawling her eyes out, had even said she was likely to cry. And Gerard... He was slightly dumbstruck by her reaction.

"Of course I'll put it on the bracelet for you."

His murmur was low, as he leant ever so slightly closer to Saffron, hands ready to affix the small charm to her bracelet. He could tell that, if she was an outsider right now, she would have taken the picture. They were leant close together, foreheads almost together. Just the perfect picture of lovers as they should be.

"Ooh! My turn! Wow."

With a sincere grin, he couldn't be telling a lie. The problem was that he could do sarcasm with the same voice that he would normally use, the same little parts that usually made a tell tale sign of sarcasm or of sincerity never changing. But his expression didn't change when he liked something. Eyebrows set for sarcasm. Relaxed face and body, wide eyes for true excitement.

"Come on, what's taking you so long?"

A finger was pressed into Saffie's side as he changed into a bouncy child, happy and excitable. Well, he always did like presents. In fact, he loved them. He liked not knowing what he was being given. He liked the anticipation, then the elation that often followed. He just enjoyed the pleasant (or, on occasion, not so pleasant) surprise. He enjoyed it all, because the presents meant something. Usually it did, anyway.

Saffron's smile was brighter than she could ever recall it being as Gerard wound the bracelet around her wrist and clasped it. She shook it around a little, listened to the soft clink of the metal, the jingle. It was like Christmas was on the wrist. She'd always remember this moment when she heard that sound. She wished she could capture sound with her camera; wished she could take a picture and still be in the moment. She knew she'd just have to settle with the memory. Nothing could make this wrong... nothing could take away from this moment... no matter what.

Saffron inspected Gerard's face with suspicious eyes- he was so hard to read sometimes- nah- pretty much all the time. Unable to figure out what tone exactly had been used she settled with just laughing in response and pulled the gift up from beneath the bed, and thrust it forward towards her man. It was rather large- a flat rectangle, 2'6" by 3'.

"Here you absolutely amazing guy, you. It can't really compare to the stuff you got me... but it's for you all the same." Her smile softened and she pulled her feet in so she sat indian-style before him. She was anxious to see the silver wrapping paper torn away and thrown to the ground, and the gold ribbon, too. "And you so deserve it."