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He had been looking for flowers for Kaidan's anniversary present. Not a big bouquet or anything, but pallets of color that could be planted in the little plot outside their front door. Every time they left the house--their house, and James still got giddy every time he thought about that because how long had they been married before they'd finally managed to actually get a place? Too damn long, that's how long--Kaidan would stop and stare at the little empty plot with disappointment on his face. He wanted something to grow there, so James wanted something to grow there, simple as that.
But he'd grown up in the middle of the city, and the nearest "nature" had been the beach. Then he'd spent the next half of his life on spaceships or on Alliance bases. What did he know about planting flowers? Maybe he could have just gotten Kaidan some seed packets and gardening tools, but the idea of surprising him on their anniversary with a riot of color in that little plot was just too appealing.
So he'd gone out looking for flowers.
Only it was apparently the entirely wrong time of year for flowers. He couldn't find what he was looking for anywhere--and he spent two days of his leave hunting. So he was walking dejectedly down a street lined with shops, resigned to trying to come up with a new idea, when he practically tripped over the perfect gift.
Well, he practically tripped over the lady selling it, anyway. She was sitting on a bench outside a little hole in the wall restaurant, her legs stretched out into the sidewalk, feet propped up on a stool. The place was the really good kind of hole-in-the-wall restaurant, actually. It was one he and Kaidan came to all the time. But he'd never seen the lady on the bench before, with a rack of beautiful handmade blankets next to her, while she happily worked away on another one, yarn and crochet hook flashing in her hands, and the blanket just flowing into existence in her lap.
"They're for sale, if you want to take a look," she said after James had been standing there for a few minutes. Staring, he realized, giving himself a little shake. He hadn't seen anyone crochet since his abuela, and watching the woman had given him a strange but strong sense of home.
"The restaurant owners going into a new line of business?" He stepped over to the rack, figuring that it couldn't hurt to see what she had for sale.
"Nah," she said, not looking up from her work. "They're my aunts. They let me set up here a few days a month to sell my stuff."
"Cool," James said, already reaching out to the afghan that had caught his eye.
It was soft, and looked warm. Half of it was blue with white stripes, reminding him of the armor Kaidan used to have back when they met. The other half, dios, it was like it had been made just for them. The other half was the same grey as his favorite t-shirt--the one Kaidan teased him so much about wearing all the time (it wasn't like it was the same shirt, it was his favorite, so he had about a dozen of them, it made getting dressed a lot easier when there wasn't too much choice, in his opinion), but that James knew he loved anyway. The grey wasn't striped like the blue, but there were decorative lines worked across it in black, reminding James of his ink.
"This one," he told her. "How much?" She named the price and he handed over a credit chit, not even bothering to watch her swipe it on her omni-tool as he folded it up into a small, neat square. "Thank you," he breathed, and turned to head home.
The next morning, he got up to cook breakfast while Kaidan was still asleep. By the time it was ready, Kaidan had emerged from the bedroom, all sleepy smiles and rumpled hair in his boxers and--James couldn't help but smirk--one of James' t-shirts. He kissed James on the cheek and fixed a cup of coffee before wandering out to the back porch where they liked to have their breakfast.
The porch was screened in, with a clear view of the nearby orchards that always made Kaidan smile. But it got chilly in the mornings, sometimes, and Kaidan never really got to sit out there as long as James suspected he would like to. So this morning, after James set down a plate of breakfast in front of Kaidan, he reached under the table for the item hidden in his own chair. He smiled at Kaidan's look of surprise and wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, pressing a light kiss to his forehead before sitting down.
"Happy anniversary, mi amor."