"Aren't all gifts supposed to be that way?" he asked, tilting his head a bit to look over at Aoba curiously. Well, biased maybe a little, at least in the sense that some gifts were supposed to convey more meaning than others. His gifts for Aoba would naturally be different from gifts he'd send to Aoba's grandmother, but that was because of personal feelings. When he looked at a thing and felt something in his chest acting funny and started thinking about Aoba, then he knew it was something he needed to get for the man. Would he feel the same about a gift for his Grandmother? He didn't think so...

Aoba was different.

"I'll try to pick something nice and useful, but not to blandly utilitarian. Pretty without...being a frippery? You think that would work?" Like what...slippers? That seemed kind of too impersonal. He'd have to find something lovely without being pointless. Like framed art. Art felt mostly pointless to him. He liked looking at beautiful, real things. Nature. People. Some artifacts that he admired for their age and purpose. Mac was a magpie. The things Declan picked up were different from the nonsensical baubles the Warlock liked. He retrieved things that made him think of other things, like Aoba. Something was beautiful because of the emotion it elicited, not because of the feeling it was designed to convey.