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Fandom Island Museum, Thursday Daytime

It was the gift giving season. As such, Steven was working on souvenirs that might be useful for the holidays. The museum hadn't done this sort of thing before, so Steven and Blathers had agreed to start small to see how it went.

As such, Steven was setting up a small display of Fandom Island Museum themed coffee mugs and keychains right there on the welcome desk. Once that was done, he worked very carefully on designing and printing a sign saying how they made a great gift.

He was of course interruptible by any visitors who might wish to come by.

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Nell poked her head in to say hello before class. She came without baked goods today because she'd had a busy yesterday. She didn't think Steven would mind. "Morning, Steven!"

Of course Steven didn't mind. Seeing Nell was it's own reward after all.

"Morning, Nell! How are you today?"

"Good," she said. "A bit tired. Busy day yesterday. How are you?"

She looked at what he'd been doing. "Oh, how cute! Museum gifts!"

Steven looked very proud. "Do you like? I've been setting up the display. Trying to make them look nice but not so nice people are afraid to have a look at them."

"I think you've done well," Nell said. "They don't look cheap, but they don't look so fancy you'd be afraid you'd break them or that they'd cost an arm and a leg."

"Exactly the sort of thing I was aiming for!" Steven said, pleased she'd picked up on that. "Figure a good number would be visitors looking to bring something home with them or it's a gift to send to family and friends, yeah? So nothing you'd be too worried about with it in your luggage or being shipped. Still nice, but not too fragile."

"Perfect, then," Nell said with a smile. "Nice job!"

"High praise, coming from you," Steven said. "Successful shopkeeper as you are. How have you been? Past weekend must have been busy, yeah? Sales?"

"Very busy," Nell admitted. "Online sales have really kept me hopping. But it's a good busy."

She smiled at him. "Though it will be nice when the holidays are over and I'll have more quiet time."

"On your feet a lot?" Steven guessed. "Packing up orders and the like? Any plans for after the holidays? I think I told you Llewellyn and I will be going away for New Years?"

"Oh yes," Nell said. "Run straight off my feet for sure."

She shook her head. "I don't think you did mention it. Where are the two of you going? Gladio and I were supposed to go away that weekend everyone turned into little kids."

"Place up in Canada where we could see the Northern Lights," Steven said. "That's where I tried snowshoeing the first time. Well, be the second time if I try it again when we're there. But it was nice. Cozy. Good spot for a quiet new year, if that's the sort of thing you like."

"Oh, that sounds very nice," Nell said. "I hope you two have a wonderful time."

"It was lovely," Steven said. "Never saw the Northern Lights in person before. Absolutely beautiful. Nice being out in nature as well. Peaceful."

Little did Steven know how valuable peace was going to be come Friday morning.

"Do you find it's still comforting for you to be out in the woods when it's winter?" Steven asked, curious. "The snow doesn't, I don't know, damp it down for you at all? Your connection?"

"It sounds lovely," Nell agreed. "And yes, it's still comforting to be in the woods even in winter. It's quieter then, but there's still so much life."

"Llewellyn and I did a hike the other day," Steven said. "It was still nice, even with the trees getting ready for winter. Tempted to go back after it's snowed to see what that looks like. If the trails are open. Suppose I should check, make sure they don't shut down for safety or something."

"I'd imagine most trails would be open even in the snow," Nell said. "Unless they were dangerous in some way. But lots of people hike or ski or snowshoe throughout the winter."

"Right, of course." Steven shook his head sheepishly. "Snowshoe trails have to come from somewhere, don't they? You can tell I don't do much of this. Outdoors things. Luckily Llewellyn doesn't seem to mind."

"All the more new things for you to experience then," Nell said with a smile. "Nothing wrong with that."

"I'm not athletic like you are," Steven said. "You're lucky, that being something you and Gladio have in common. No worries about you having to keep up with him."

Except maybe literal ones considering the height difference.

"Oh, I'm not sure I can ever actually really keep up with him," Nell said with a laugh. "But when you spend your whole life doing hard physical labor..."

She shrugged. "The rest comes pretty easy."

"The important thing is spending time together anyway," Steven said. "I mean there's things I like that Llewellyn's not as fond of but he's happy I'm happy. And there's the reverse as well. It's why we fall in love with them, isn't it? Who they are as their own person. Probably be a bit boring if we all liked and disliked the same things."

Steven was reassuring himself as much as anything here. He was a little self-conscious about not being as sporty as other people.

"It certainly would be," Nell said. "And how would we learn about new things to try if we only ever were with people just the same as us? I've learned so many things I never could have even imagined back home."

"That's a good point, isn't it?" Steven said. "And if they were the sort of person to laugh at you because you fell on your arse trying to snowshoe, well not the person you want to be with, are they?"

"Well," Nell said. "There's laughing and there's laughing. One is good natured teasing a bit as they're helping you up and the other is just mean. You certainly don't want the second."

"That's the one I meant," Steven said. "The second one. Mocking. You want to feel safe to make mistakes with the person you care about, yeah? Know they love you at your best and your worst. Llewellyn's good about that with me, which helps."

"Yep," Nell said. "You want to feel safe. And I do. And I'm glad you do as well. That's so important. To be able to be who you are and know that whatever it is, you're okay."

"It makes me very happy you've found that as well," Steven said. "I hope that's not overstepping on my part to say so. But you deserve that. Someone who loves and values you."

"It's not overstepping," Nell assured him. "And thank you. He does. And I love and value him. Hard to believe it's real, but it is."

"It's a nice part about being on this island, isn't it?" Steven said. "It has a laugh at times but we get to meet people we never would otherwise. People who turn out to be very important to us."

Steven might have to remind himself of the benefits of the latter when tomorrow came and the former was going to be in full and annoying swing.

Nell nodded. "And gives us freedom to do things we might otherwise never have been able to do," she agreed.

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Fandom Island Museum, Thursday Daytime

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