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Dec. 25th, 2009 04:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
3nanashiChristmas is quiet, in the ways that matter.
The circus has just finished its tour of the L3 cluster, and it's time for a few weeks off. Those who have other homes to go to have mostly dispersed; everyone else converges on their home base at XF-190, a colony near the outer edge of L3. Soon enough, everybody will gather again to practice new routines and restock and replace worn-out equipment, and do all the thousand little jobs needed to prepare the circus for its next tour of Earth, but not yet. For the holidays, the circus is quiet.
That's not the sort of quiet that matters. That would be the lack of wars breaking out. But it's still kind of nice.
There are no visitors this year. Cathy makes coffee, and adds cheap peppermint flavoring and whipped cream to hers, and informs Trowa that he has NO HOLIDAY SPIRIT when he drinks his black-and-sweetened like usual. He rescues the cake from burning, rather than comment.
(Cathy makes him help frost it. He shrugs, and obligingly sprinkles on colored sugar. Cathy is the one who writes MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! in looping red icing.)
They put presents under, which is to say mostly beside, the tiny plastic Christmas tree overnight. That means nearly all the dining room table is cluttered with tree and boxes -- the trailer's kitchen is very compact -- so they open presents before breakfast. At noon, Cathy invites everybody in the circus over for cake and hot cocoa and coffee; several of them bring food, and it turns into an impromptu potluck picnic.
Trowa keeps tabs on the news and the world, even more than usual. Christmas is the anniversary of the armistice that created world peace, and the anniversary of the brief war that's been the only serious break in that peace thus far. It's a powerful symbol. He skims past tribute speeches and memorials, except when phrases catch his eye as worth watching; he pays attention to the mutters and whispers, the patterns of events. There are always things to monitor, and that's true on this Christmas Day as much as ever, but nothing that seems urgent.
That, too, is nice. Every year, peace is a welcome surprise.
He gets a few calls and emails from friends, of course. It's mostly predictable who contacts him and who doesn't. He doesn't mind the ones who don't. Holidays have never been particularly important to Trowa, and neither has regular communication.
The lack of an email from Duo is unexpected, because Duo's one of them who usually makes more of an effort to stay in touch, but not particularly worrisome. Duo's emails aren't so regular that this is breaking a pattern. He's been busy, and there are . . . extra considerations this year, between him and Heero. No communication also means no alerts sent to any of them.
Christmas is quiet.
The circus has just finished its tour of the L3 cluster, and it's time for a few weeks off. Those who have other homes to go to have mostly dispersed; everyone else converges on their home base at XF-190, a colony near the outer edge of L3. Soon enough, everybody will gather again to practice new routines and restock and replace worn-out equipment, and do all the thousand little jobs needed to prepare the circus for its next tour of Earth, but not yet. For the holidays, the circus is quiet.
That's not the sort of quiet that matters. That would be the lack of wars breaking out. But it's still kind of nice.
There are no visitors this year. Cathy makes coffee, and adds cheap peppermint flavoring and whipped cream to hers, and informs Trowa that he has NO HOLIDAY SPIRIT when he drinks his black-and-sweetened like usual. He rescues the cake from burning, rather than comment.
(Cathy makes him help frost it. He shrugs, and obligingly sprinkles on colored sugar. Cathy is the one who writes MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! in looping red icing.)
They put presents under, which is to say mostly beside, the tiny plastic Christmas tree overnight. That means nearly all the dining room table is cluttered with tree and boxes -- the trailer's kitchen is very compact -- so they open presents before breakfast. At noon, Cathy invites everybody in the circus over for cake and hot cocoa and coffee; several of them bring food, and it turns into an impromptu potluck picnic.
Trowa keeps tabs on the news and the world, even more than usual. Christmas is the anniversary of the armistice that created world peace, and the anniversary of the brief war that's been the only serious break in that peace thus far. It's a powerful symbol. He skims past tribute speeches and memorials, except when phrases catch his eye as worth watching; he pays attention to the mutters and whispers, the patterns of events. There are always things to monitor, and that's true on this Christmas Day as much as ever, but nothing that seems urgent.
That, too, is nice. Every year, peace is a welcome surprise.
He gets a few calls and emails from friends, of course. It's mostly predictable who contacts him and who doesn't. He doesn't mind the ones who don't. Holidays have never been particularly important to Trowa, and neither has regular communication.
The lack of an email from Duo is unexpected, because Duo's one of them who usually makes more of an effort to stay in touch, but not particularly worrisome. Duo's emails aren't so regular that this is breaking a pattern. He's been busy, and there are . . . extra considerations this year, between him and Heero. No communication also means no alerts sent to any of them.
Christmas is quiet.
