> ”Twwwenty? Twenty-one?” He counted out the years on his finger best he could, trying to factor in their visiting sister’s birthday on top. “...Let’s do that.”
> Snapping up cards for both a twentieth and twenty-first anniversary they turned the aisle corner, their time running short
> And there, resplendent in some great, marketed display of the plush arts, was Franny
> Or at least a stuffed figurine of a nandroid whose hair, now just a lump of cloth stuffed and stitched together, was styled like Franny’s
> ”Woah…”
> The little plushie was just one of several dozen, stacked together in a towering display alongside other bits and bobs of Sterling merchandising
> Shoppers idly passed it by to view the magazine selection next to it, but he boys were absorbed in the display
> A universe of nandroids was stacked limply atop each other, each with their own unique felt-and-cotton hairstyles
> Here was a bobbed redhead, and there the messied pixie-cut of a rockstar or spaceman
> And, their eyes settling on the bottom-most ring of them, their own home nanny-droid
> ”...Should we?”
> ”I don’t think we’ll be allowed to-
> ”Ryan,” Nathan snipped, “I think we can whine *enough* to where we can get something for-”
> ”For Franny?”
> ”Wait… yeah! Franny would… she’d like it I think?”
> ”Let’s grab it then!”
> Nabbing the tiny figure, its little cardboard tag swinging behind it, the boys zipped off to meet their sister
> Meeting together at the agreed upon little intersection the three started offloading everything into the larger cart
> ”This everything?”
> ”Yup,” the boys chimed in response
> ”Alright… alright… nice! Let’s go check- what’s this?” The woman’s delicate hands grabbed the squooshy little figure, its cotton insides giving just a bit underneath her fingers. “Boys I said no toys-”
> ”It’s for Franny!”
> ”Yeah,” Nathan added, hands balling nervously together. “...Like a thank you…”
> ”Hm… Well, that certainly seems nice.”
> Holding the doll she plopped it in the cart, conspicuously nudging it into some of the other things the boys had grabbed
> ”Yeah!”
> The two cheered together, waiting on their sister as she went over the list
> ”And this is the *only* thing you two added?”
> ”Well-”
> ”Because as nice as it would be there wasn’t any,” she said, filing through the handful of snacks and confections piled in, “‘Smacarons, the French confectionary cereal’? Why of all things do you guys need this? *Or* this doll?”
> ”W-We’ll put them back!”
> ”Yeah, we just wanted to get Franny a gift…”
> The sister narrowed her eyes a bit, setting the other snacks and miscellany back in their cart
> ”I’m going to go check out- I want you two to put these back and get right back here, okay?”
> ”Okay!”