simon_doctor | (no subject)

The stall owner notices this, and offers Simon a better price if he wants to buy the jumping-jack too.

He glances at Kaylee, eyebrows raised in question.

Kaylee looks at it, smile slightly crooked.

"Better not." There's regret in her voice.

He turns back to the proprietress and shakes his head regretfully, lifting one hand in a what-can-you-do? gesture. She returns a wryly understanding smile, and the negotiations continue.

Shortly they're walking away from the stall, with a little bag hanging from Simon's wrist.

"Well. That's one." Kaylee slips her hands in her pockets, and raises her face to the sun.

"Maybe we should get him a hat," muses Simon. "...I don't think I've ever seen him wear one, though. Except outdoors in bad winter weather."

In which case it was usually something dreadful and furry.

She keeps walking, eyes on the sky. "What about a winter one, then?"

"If we see a good one." He grins suddenly. "Maybe one like Jayne's."

"The best part about Jayne's is that it's handmade."

Kaylee eyes him speculatively. "You gonna learn to knit?"

"...I hadn't planned on it, but a lot of the things here are handmade."

He nods toward one of the stalls they're passing; it displays a wide assortment of wickerwork goods, with a small sign proclaiming them to be HAND WOVEN.

"Oh well." Kaylee affects a sigh of disappointment. "You could've made me a hat, too. But I guess we can try and find something here."

"If I ever do learn to knit," he assures her, "I will make you a hat."

"A purple one?"

"Absolutely."

As it happens, the stall across the way is selling skeins of yarn and embroidery thread, as well as various knitted and crocheted items. Simon gives it a speculative glance.

Kaylee grins at him.

"Don't have to put your money where your mouth is today."

"No, but look --"

Sure enough: hats. Warm woolly ones, some with earflaps.

There is one that is lime green.

Kaylee points to it. "I don't think it'd suit him at all."

"...definitely not."

There's one with a pattern woven into it that suggests a pair of enormous eyes directly above the wearer's. Simon looks at that one rather dubiously.

"That one." Kaylee looks enchanted. "About the only way it could get any better is if it had big ears on the top."

"You know, I tried that," the man behind the stall tells Kaylee, conversationally, "but I couldn't get the shape right. You like it?"

(Simon's trying not to laugh.)

Kaylee's grinning. "Shi a. It's kinda adorable. And there's this fella we know that I think might like it." She looks at Simon.

"I think he really might." Simon's starting to grin too.

The hat stares at them all, cheerfully.

"We'll take it," Kaylee says grandly.

Maybe she can find a way to put ears on it before they send it off.

This time Kaylee gets to haggle.

By the time she's done and coin has changed hands, Simon's already looking ahead at the next stall, which is piled with incredibly old-looking paper books.

Uh oh, Kaylee's expression says by the time she wanders over.

"You're carrying anything comes from here," she warns.

"I don't mind," he says, half-absently, looking over the titles.