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Kromli led the way to his room, and immediately regretted leaving the package out in the open in the center of the bed. Knowing that it was too late to hide it and try to present it with any finesse, now, he decided he'd address it first thing.
"I um... Got this for you," he said, a little embarrassed. "I hope that you like it. Merry Ex-Mas."
He and Matasoga both used a pronounced way of secularizing the word and with that (at least in Matasoga's mind) gearing it towards principles and values far more humanist in nature than Christian.

Kromli said, "Yeah, I'll stop in to see my mother for half of the day and the other half will be spent here. Did you know that Matasoga plans to open the bar to the public for free food, sort of like a soup kitchen, except with more than just soup available? I plan to help out with that."
As Tinuviel opened the package, she found a very worn-looking, dog-eared, leather-backed book with yellowing pages. Chipped and faded gilt lettering bore the title "Goblin for Beginners." Inside the cover was a note written that said, "If you don't really want to learn Goblin, it's okay, but you brought it up more than once, so I thought maybe this would be a good gift. If you were just being nice, that's okay, and you don't have to learn what really is a rather ugly language. Either way, please also enjoy the gift card for any other books you may like and don't have already."
"It's.... My copy. From when I was a kid. It's... Not in the best shape, and not that current either, but I hope you like it anyway," he said.

Kromli's eyes (and the rest of his face) lit up. He knew that she wasn't one for politeness at the expense of truth, so her words brought him great assurance.
"You, bought a present for me?" Kromli asked, even as he accepted them. "I'm so touched. Usually only Matasoga and my mom get me presents...
"Thank you," he said, visibly flustered. He opened the small package first.

"Thank you so much!" he said, absolutely overcome. He threw his arms around her for just a moment before collecting himself. He remembered that she wasn't so free with her affections as most of the guildwomen were and had hugged him once but then stopped. Though he thought on it quite little when it happened, it suddenly seemed rather important.
He nearly leaped back, saying, "Oh, um... Was it okay to hug you? Was that alright?"

"Oh," Kromli said in an understanding voice that was less expressive than before. He knew what it was about, or at least was certain that he did. It didn't matter how close they were. He was still half-goblin and she was still quarter celestial and half-elf. There were lines that goblins were not to cross when dealing with humans, much less something so much... more. He had forgotten his place.
There was no feeling sorry for himself. There wasn't even any pain. It was something quite deeply ingrained. He had a place and he had forgotten it. He was just a little mad at himself for being so carelesss and forgetting these very important facts.
"Sorry. I don't know what came over me. I shouldn't have done that. It won't happen again," he said very quickly, turning away in shame.

Wait... What? He was sure that he had heard her right There was really no mistaking her words, so close, quietly as they were offered. He would understand exactly what was happening if those words were said to Matasoga but... He wasn't Matasoga. Nothing of the sort! He was Kromli and such things just didn't happen to Kromli. This simply did not compute at all. What on Earth was happening?!
"Um-da... Uh..." He was simply dumbfounded. He filled the air with incoherence and unintelligibility for no less than five seconds (after two or three of silence) and finally pulled himself together, took a deep breath, and decided to figure out exactly where the misunderstanding was coming from.
"So you... liked when I hugged you?" he put forth, as meekly as if he was asking if the Earth wasn't really round, after all.

He was... At a loss. Maybe this was why Matasoga advised him to always plan for every eventuality, but this he had never considered.
When all else failed, and the issue was not him having stolen something, the best thing to do was usually to be honest, because he couldn't lie the way that Matasoga did. And so he told the truth.
"I... Don't really know what to say. No one has ever said anything like that to me before and... I kind of thought that the most anyone would ever do is tolerate my hugs and wait for them to end, if I was ever fool enough to give one," he said, before giving a significant pause.
"If it makes any difference," he said, staring at his shoes, "I liked it too."