Iced Cocoa

December 19th

Magnus POV

The Christmas lights in the city were beautiful, I thought, as Simon and I strolled through the streets together. Since it was almost Christmas, we wanted to get the presents together. Even if it was just the two of us, we thought we'd buy some for our friends in Los Angeles to give it to them later. I also thought that maybe I should give Alexander something. I mean we got along pretty well and I would dare to call him a friend. Friends give each other something for christmas, don't they? I was a bit afraid that he would find it strange, but by now he should have gotten used to me, right?

Normally we would go skiing today, but since we were having a pretty exhausting day yesterday, Alec thought we should rest today. I was happy about it, because it gave Simon and me enough time to get the presents. "Maybe we should start with Catarina and Raphael," I suggested. Both of them were our closest friends and I thought it would definitely be easier for us to get their presents. Simon nodded with a smile and we made our way to the first store. Since Catarina loved books, I thought I would give her a few books that fit into her favorite genre. Actually it didn't matter what I gave her, she would be happy either way, because she was just a kind hearted person. We knew each other from school and immediately got on well. We spent every free minute together, even studied together. Her parents were my second parents  and they loved me as much as they loved their own son. She was one of the most important people in my life. She was a nurse and loved helping others. As mentioned before, she was the best person I knew. She would never mean harm to anyone.

"Any ideas for Raphael?" I wanted to know while I was packing the books in a bag. Raphael was more like Simon's friend than mine, because they spent more time together than I did. Sometimes I saw him when we were doing something together, but that didn't happen too often. Still, I liked him a lot and he had a good sense of humor. "Something for traveling, he likes to travel." he explained to me what made me think. The first thought I had was a suitcase, but that would be boring, wouldn't it? "What's your budget?" I asked and he shrugged again. Buying gifts with Simon wasn't exactly the best idea. "I don't care, there is no shortage of money,“ he let me know and now I had an idea. „How about a travel voucher? Not far away, so it wouldn’t cost that much?“ I asked and Simon seemed to have an idea as he started to smile bright. "He mentioned once that he'd like to go to Arizona. That's pretty close, isn't it?" suggested Simon and I nodded, because that wouldn't cost too much. That's why we went to look for a travel agency and after a short time we found one. The woman who gave us advices there was very nice, she was charming and knew her way around, you could tell. She told us how beautiful Arizona was and how much she loved to be there with her fiancé. That gave us confirmation that we were on the right track. After an eternity, we were finally done in this area and had a travel voucher in our pockets. Not many presents were missing now. Simon had got his family's belongings ages ago and my parents and I never celebrated together anyway. So only the present for Alexander were missing. "Are you going to give Isabelle something?" I asked Simon and he seemed quite surprised by the question. "I mean, I don't know how you feel about each other, but maybe things will go well." I added. He laughed and nodded. "Sure, I think she'd be happy. She raves about these new boots. She hasn't had the time to buy them yet, but she definitely wanted to do that after Christmas." he explained to me. That sounded like a beginning. "Do you remember what they were called?" I wanted to know because that was important. We didn't want to just buy any. "Something with louis .. um-" "Louis Vuitton! Now I know which one you mean!" I said enthusiastically, because I also thought they were beautiful. If I could wear that, I would, but I'd break my legs. "Okay, let's go to the Louis Vuitton store." I said and luckily everything stuck together, so we found one pretty quickly. I was a little surprised that there was one here at all. Everything around here was fancy and quite expensive, but I understand that it was worth to Simon. Isabelle seemed to be very important to him and he would really impress her with it. There was only a couple left here so it was pretty close. We almost didn't get any and there certainly wouldn't be a second shop here. To the cash register and paid - we left the shop with a full bag.

"So what do you want to give Alexander?" asked Simon now that it was really the last thing that was outstanding. I actually thought about it all day and I thought that a cookbook would be very nice after all, since he had recently told me that he loved to cook for his family and friends. He also told me that unfortunately the time was often too short. I thought that made him very attractive because cooking was something that I could do but not really enjoy. Sometimes cooking with friends was fun, but it was boring alone, which is why I preferred to order something. Pizza, pasta, lasagna or burgers, but Alexander wasn't like that. He'd rather cook himself or go out to eat if there wasn't time. „Let's go to the bookstore again, I think we might find something there." I informed Simon and he frowned. "Why do all your friends read books? How boring." he commented and I laughed. Simon wasn't a fan of books and I could understand that because I wasn't either. Nevertheless, it was just as understandable for me to get lost in the lines of a book. "I don't know if Alexander reads books, but he does read cookbooks." I replied as we rummaged through the shelves. There were many and it would be hard to find one, but in the end I decided on one that looked a bit older. It made you feel like you were looking through grandmother's cookbook. I didn't want it to be modern, no, it should be special. As special as Alexander was to me.