train_baby | (no subject)

The tree isn't a very big one, but then, Yona isn't very big, either. It doesn't make much difference, anyway, when she's lying beneath it, her head by the stand holding it up and under the scraggly branches, bare, skinny legs sticking out. At her side sits a carton that used to hold eggnog, empty now.

Winter makes her uneasy; that's not something she could hide if she tried, and not just because of the first one she spent here, when all that snow came and stranded people at the ski lodge. It's just that, every time it gets cold, she expects it to stay that way, to get colder still until everything freezes, a mirror of the world she grew up watching. This year, though, has been a step up on that front. There's hardly been anything in the way of snow or ice, the weather more conducive for rain, and that, she's more than willing to be content with. It's easier to accept what's in front of her, what she can see and feel for herself, than the promise of a Spring that she spent seventeen years never knowing of.

However she feels about the season, Christmas is an exception, anyway. All the shining lights and decorations, they had nothing like that on the train, and every year, they strike just as much awe into her as they did previously. Even the small ones illuminating the tree, casting a glow onto her face in red and blue and green, seem almost magical.

It probably doesn't hurt in that regard that she drank all that eggnog.

She's reaching up to absently toy with one of the colored bulbs when she hears Edgar's voice, only his feet coming into view from her current vantage point. "What the hell are you doing there?" he asks, as much of a laugh as anything else. She wasn't invited over, but there's no way he isn't used to that by now.

Still under the tree, she shrugs like he'll be able to see it. "Just looking," she says. "And I like the smell."

"You can still smell the tree from the couch, you weirdo." He isn't wrong. Yona simply doesn't care. A few moments later, he's crouching down near her, anyway, and she smiles brightly when she can meet his gaze, lifting her head just enough to do so. "Hi," she says.

Edgar sighs, sounding more exaggerated than actually put-upon. It's a sound Yona is used to, one she throws back at him from time to time; now, she meets it only with her smile still in place, even as he reaches for the carton of eggnog and finds it empty. "Did you really drink all our eggnog?" he asks.

Yona nods. "Yes," she replies.

"You know, one of these days, I'm gonna make you start paying to replace all the groceries you take from us," he says, his expression one of fond exasperation. Yona doesn't know whether or not he'll actually ever make good on the threat, inasmuch as it is one at all, but neither does she care. One thing she's figured out quickly is that, if there's anything she doesn't mind actually spending her money on, it's food and drinks. It doesn't mean she won't readily take what she can without doing so, but it isn't a bother, either, even if keeping track of money isn't exactly her strongest suit. (She still sometimes wonders why it's necessary.)

It is a holiday, though, or at least it's close to one, and abruptly, she decides, "I'll bring you some. For Christmas." Of course, that's hardly a guarantee that she won't just drink that one, too, but it's the thought that counts. That's what people seem to say around this time of year, anyway, and she's far more likely to get caught up in looking at one of the shiny displays than buying anything meant to entice customers. She hasn't, for that matter, thought much about gifts at all, so this might just be a step in the right direction.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor now, just to the side of her knees, Edgar shakes his head at her. "You're fuckin' strange, you know that?" he asks. It doesn't sound like an insult, nor is it the first time.

Yona smiles as she nods. "I know," she confirms. If she's honest, she thinks it's the people here who are really the strange ones, but she's never tried to pretend she isn't, either. Besides, if she is, she's not the only one, either: "So are you."

Edgar laughs, then, warm and a little surprised, and it isn't long before Yona joins in, too, the two of them staying like that for a few moments.

"Merry Christmas, kid," he says.

"Merry Christmas, Edgar."