Title: Christmas Cheer
Author: Melissa, aka ILH
Rating: G
Spoilers: Last Call At The Broken Hammer, The Widening Gyre
Central Characters: Harper
Challenge: Use these things in a story: Christmas lights; Paint brushes; Flour; Feather boa; Body piercing; Wind
Author's Note: I've been having some major writer's block and writing issues and this and the other fic I posted today aren't anywhere near my usual quality level. Both of them sounded much better in my head--where they probably belonged. Here's to hoping something will revive my good fic muse.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Deck the halls and get out your yuletide spirit 'cause it's Christmas! Woohoo!" Harper exclaimed as he ran down the corridor grinning.
Trance couldn't help but smile at Harper's enthusiasm as she headed down to Command Deck in search of Beka and Dylan. Rev was already down in Harper's quarters, which Harper had spent two weeks cleaning and decorating for the season. Trance couldn't remember a time she had seen him happier.
Dylan and Beka were on Command Deck, chatting and smiling. They turned to face Trance as she approached them.
"It's time!" Trance said. "And we'd better hurry. Harper's getting a little impatient."
"A little? I bet he's already bouncing off the walls dying to tear open his presents," Beka said. "I had to hide mine for him until this morning."
"I must admit I haven't seen Harper this...joyous ever," Dylan said.
"I'm glad he's happy. It shouldn't matter what he's happy about or what he's doing to show it." Trance continued smiling.
The trio exited Command Deck and walked at a leisurely pace down to Harper's quarters. They were intercepted on the way by Harper himself.
"C'mon guys! I've been waiting forever and Rom-doll just came in with all the yummy Christmas goodies!" He sprinted off ahead of them, turning around to say, "Let's get moving!"
Trance, Beka and Dylan did speed up a little bit to appease Harper's impatience.
"You guys have [i]got[/i] to see what I did to my quarters. Man, you're gonna love all the decorations!" Harper yelled twenty feet ahead of them, walking backwards.
"We've already seen it, Harper. Fifty times at least," Beka said under her breath.
"Beka," Dylan warned.
She sighed. "Yeah, I know. It's Christmas."
"After all he's been through we should be glad he can still be this happy about something," Dylan said.
"Yeah." Beka became pensive, and rather quiet.
"Can't you walk any faster than Vedran fur-snails?!" Harper asked, still walking backwards ahead of them.
"We're coming, Harper. You'll have to forgive me for being a little slow in the ripe old age of 304," Dylan said, smiling at Harper's impatience.
The group reached Harper's quarters and even Beka was amazed at what she saw. From a few minor decorations the day before, Harper's quarters had become a veritable haven of all that which is Christmas. Strands of beautiful Christmas lights from every color of the rainbow bordered the room with holly and mistletoe hanging from them. Intricate ceramics of the nativity or Santa Claus and other such decorations lined the shelves and tables. Most amazingly, though, was the huge Christmas tree that was in the center of the room where Harper's bed had been. Silver garland and lights were wrapped around the tree. On the very tip of the tree, instead of an angel, there was a small model of Andromeda in ship form. Tons of presents were piled around the tree, boxes and bags of all shapes, sizes and colors.
Trance stepped closer to the tree. "Look at the ornaments!" she said excitedly. She removed a small purple paintbrush with a flower for a handle on a shimmery palette with her name on it in golden letters. "It's mine!"
Everyone had their own ornament specialized for each of them--Rev had a Wayist symbol in metal; Dylan had a miniature forcelance that emitted red light when it was extended; Beka had a real working music disk with her name on it; Tyr, if he were there to see it, had a seemingly innocent circular storage case that turned into an extremely sharp and lethal dagger; and Rommie had the model of herself on top of the tree.
"What's on this disk, Harper?" Beka asked.
"I happen to have a portable disk player just for the occassion," Harper said, widely grinning.
Harper opened the disk player, and Beka placed the disk in it. It started playing 'We Will Rock You' by Queen.
"That was my favorite disk!" Beka exclaimed with shock. "But Rafe stole it. How did you-"
"Trust in the Harper. The Harper is good," he said. "Try the later tracks."
She passed over several tracks and played one near the end. It was Incubus. "That was another of my favorites...it's almost impossible to find this stuff, Harper. Are you sure we don't have an alien bounty hunter with your head on his list chasing us?"
"Completely legal. Don't worry about it, Bek," Harper said. "Now, it's time for the Christmas goodies."
"Where are they, Harper?" Trance asked, looking around.
Harper turned in a complete circle without seeing what he was looking for. "Rommie?"
"My avatar is on the way now with the cookies and candy," Rommie's voice replied.
"Great, Rom-doll! Thanks! And in the meantime, we can get comfortable. Ummmmm..." He moved some of the decorations and cleared a spot on the floor. He went over to his closet and pulled out several bean bag chairs, which were almost too big for him to carry all at once so he threw a couple on the floor and kicked them along. "I found these in storage while I was looking for all this stuff." He gestured at the decorations and tree. "And I thought they might come in useful." He threw them into a line on the floor.
"These are neat!" Trance said, plopping down on the purple bean bag chair.
"I had no idea we had so much in storage," Dylan remarked.
"The possessions of a crew of four thousand does usually include many items, and a wide variety that reflects on the diversity of the crew," Andromeda's voice said.
The avatar walked in the door at that moment with a big platter of cookies and candy. Her uniform was somewhat covered in various ingredients of the treats, and she had flour in her hair and on her nose. Everyone chuckled at her.
"Let me get that, Rommie," Harper said, taking the platter from Rommie and putting it on the table. "You've got some flour here and here." He pointed to the spots on his face and in his hair.
"I know. I was just waiting to put down the platter before I took care of it." She smoothed her uniform and wiped away the flour.
"You can all get some cookies while I work out how we're going to do the gift opening thing," Harper said as he went to the tree and began sorting the gifts. He stopped soon after and sighed. "We'll just do it the old-fashioned way."
Everyone returned to the bean bag chairs with cookies and candy, eating and chatting and generally enjoying themselves.
"Okay. If no one objects, I'm gonna pass out the gifts one by one to who they go to and just work my way around the tree," Harper said.
"Sounds good," Beka said.
"Yep," Trance agreed.
"Fine with me," Dylan said.
"I can help if you like, Master Harper," Rev offered.
"Nope, that's okay. I can do it. But no one opens anything until I get them all passed out." Harper started passing out the gifts.
Fifteen minutes went by before Harper finally handed the last gift to Rommie. He glanced over at the pile of gifts for Tyr and sighed.
"Don't worry about Tyr," Beka said.
"He is currently lifting weights in his quarters," Rommie said.
"Yeah. We can't let him ruin our fun. Now, let's open our presents!" Harper said.
As the presents were opened, most of them were completely expected gifts, such as the disks and leather pants Beka received and the Wayist texts and music that Rev received. However, there were a few major surprises.
Trance opened a purple box from Harper and found a very long purple feather boa with a clip on it. "What's this for, Harper?" she asked, confused.
"Let me show you!" Harper said, grinning. "Stand up."
He clipped the purple boa to her pants where her tail had been before the accident.
"It's like a new tail," she said with a smile.
"Since I couldn't give you a real one, that's the closest thing I could think of," Harper said.
Everyone laughed as Trance galavanted around the room with her new tail dragging behind her.
The other biggest surprise was the body piercing kit Harper received from Trance.
"What do you want me to pierce, babe?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I thought this would look pretty on your ear," Trance said, lifting the small metal earring with a surfboard on the end.
"Thank, Trance," he said, eyeing the earring with uncertainty. "I'll ummmmm do this later."
"I hate to break up the party, but I have some stuff to do on the Maru," Beka said, standing up. "Thanks everyone."
"I should be finishing up some paperwork myself," Dylan said. "This Christmas has been great. Thanks for all you've done, Harper. And everyone else for the gifts and a great time."
"Where did Rev go?" Trance asked, looking around.
"He must have slipped out while we were opening gifts," Beka said.
"Yeah, he probably had some Christmas prayers to say or something," Harper agreed.
"Where did Tyr's gifts go?" Dylan asked.
"Rev probably took them down to Tyr's quarters. We'll have to thank him later," Trance said.
Beka and Dylan left, Rommie following them, which left Harper and Trance together alone on the bean bags next to each other.
"Harper, can I ask you something?" Trance asked.
"Go ahead," Harper said.
"Why did you get so excited over Christmas this year? You haven't ever before..."
He sighed. "Y'know the thirteen little buddies I have down here?"
"I'm still working on a cure," she assured him.
"Well, I thought this might be my last chance to be excited. And Christmas was never something else on Earth like it was this year. Which reminds me, I didn't give you your real present."
"Oh?" Trance asked.
He pulled out a very old small glass snow globe and handed it to her. She glanced into it and saw a windy city surrounded by snow when she shook the globe. The people within the globe seemed to be happy and full of Christmas spirit.
"It was my mom's and she gave it to me right before the Nietzscheans got her and dad...and then Beka and Bobby found me and I kept this old thing for some reason. And now I want you to have it. You're my best friend, Trance."
"Thank you, Harper. But you aren't going to die. I'm going to find a cure and everything is going to be fine." Her tone was very certain.
He leaned his head on her shoulder. "That means a lot to me, even if you don't-"
"I will," she whispered. "I will."
The minutes passed and turned into hours. Harper fell asleep leaning against Trance, as she stared at the Christmas tree's twinkling lights and the lights they cast upon the wrapping paper and boxes scattered on the floor. Everything thing, down to the smallest detail, was perfect in her eyes. She had never felt more serene, nor had Harper. It was a Christmas neither of them would forget.
Author: Melissa, aka ILH
Rating: G
Spoilers: Last Call At The Broken Hammer, The Widening Gyre
Central Characters: Harper
Challenge: Use these things in a story: Christmas lights; Paint brushes; Flour; Feather boa; Body piercing; Wind
Author's Note: I've been having some major writer's block and writing issues and this and the other fic I posted today aren't anywhere near my usual quality level. Both of them sounded much better in my head--where they probably belonged. Here's to hoping something will revive my good fic muse.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Deck the halls and get out your yuletide spirit 'cause it's Christmas! Woohoo!" Harper exclaimed as he ran down the corridor grinning.
Trance couldn't help but smile at Harper's enthusiasm as she headed down to Command Deck in search of Beka and Dylan. Rev was already down in Harper's quarters, which Harper had spent two weeks cleaning and decorating for the season. Trance couldn't remember a time she had seen him happier.
Dylan and Beka were on Command Deck, chatting and smiling. They turned to face Trance as she approached them.
"It's time!" Trance said. "And we'd better hurry. Harper's getting a little impatient."
"A little? I bet he's already bouncing off the walls dying to tear open his presents," Beka said. "I had to hide mine for him until this morning."
"I must admit I haven't seen Harper this...joyous ever," Dylan said.
"I'm glad he's happy. It shouldn't matter what he's happy about or what he's doing to show it." Trance continued smiling.
The trio exited Command Deck and walked at a leisurely pace down to Harper's quarters. They were intercepted on the way by Harper himself.
"C'mon guys! I've been waiting forever and Rom-doll just came in with all the yummy Christmas goodies!" He sprinted off ahead of them, turning around to say, "Let's get moving!"
Trance, Beka and Dylan did speed up a little bit to appease Harper's impatience.
"You guys have [i]got[/i] to see what I did to my quarters. Man, you're gonna love all the decorations!" Harper yelled twenty feet ahead of them, walking backwards.
"We've already seen it, Harper. Fifty times at least," Beka said under her breath.
"Beka," Dylan warned.
She sighed. "Yeah, I know. It's Christmas."
"After all he's been through we should be glad he can still be this happy about something," Dylan said.
"Yeah." Beka became pensive, and rather quiet.
"Can't you walk any faster than Vedran fur-snails?!" Harper asked, still walking backwards ahead of them.
"We're coming, Harper. You'll have to forgive me for being a little slow in the ripe old age of 304," Dylan said, smiling at Harper's impatience.
The group reached Harper's quarters and even Beka was amazed at what she saw. From a few minor decorations the day before, Harper's quarters had become a veritable haven of all that which is Christmas. Strands of beautiful Christmas lights from every color of the rainbow bordered the room with holly and mistletoe hanging from them. Intricate ceramics of the nativity or Santa Claus and other such decorations lined the shelves and tables. Most amazingly, though, was the huge Christmas tree that was in the center of the room where Harper's bed had been. Silver garland and lights were wrapped around the tree. On the very tip of the tree, instead of an angel, there was a small model of Andromeda in ship form. Tons of presents were piled around the tree, boxes and bags of all shapes, sizes and colors.
Trance stepped closer to the tree. "Look at the ornaments!" she said excitedly. She removed a small purple paintbrush with a flower for a handle on a shimmery palette with her name on it in golden letters. "It's mine!"
Everyone had their own ornament specialized for each of them--Rev had a Wayist symbol in metal; Dylan had a miniature forcelance that emitted red light when it was extended; Beka had a real working music disk with her name on it; Tyr, if he were there to see it, had a seemingly innocent circular storage case that turned into an extremely sharp and lethal dagger; and Rommie had the model of herself on top of the tree.
"What's on this disk, Harper?" Beka asked.
"I happen to have a portable disk player just for the occassion," Harper said, widely grinning.
Harper opened the disk player, and Beka placed the disk in it. It started playing 'We Will Rock You' by Queen.
"That was my favorite disk!" Beka exclaimed with shock. "But Rafe stole it. How did you-"
"Trust in the Harper. The Harper is good," he said. "Try the later tracks."
She passed over several tracks and played one near the end. It was Incubus. "That was another of my favorites...it's almost impossible to find this stuff, Harper. Are you sure we don't have an alien bounty hunter with your head on his list chasing us?"
"Completely legal. Don't worry about it, Bek," Harper said. "Now, it's time for the Christmas goodies."
"Where are they, Harper?" Trance asked, looking around.
Harper turned in a complete circle without seeing what he was looking for. "Rommie?"
"My avatar is on the way now with the cookies and candy," Rommie's voice replied.
"Great, Rom-doll! Thanks! And in the meantime, we can get comfortable. Ummmmm..." He moved some of the decorations and cleared a spot on the floor. He went over to his closet and pulled out several bean bag chairs, which were almost too big for him to carry all at once so he threw a couple on the floor and kicked them along. "I found these in storage while I was looking for all this stuff." He gestured at the decorations and tree. "And I thought they might come in useful." He threw them into a line on the floor.
"These are neat!" Trance said, plopping down on the purple bean bag chair.
"I had no idea we had so much in storage," Dylan remarked.
"The possessions of a crew of four thousand does usually include many items, and a wide variety that reflects on the diversity of the crew," Andromeda's voice said.
The avatar walked in the door at that moment with a big platter of cookies and candy. Her uniform was somewhat covered in various ingredients of the treats, and she had flour in her hair and on her nose. Everyone chuckled at her.
"Let me get that, Rommie," Harper said, taking the platter from Rommie and putting it on the table. "You've got some flour here and here." He pointed to the spots on his face and in his hair.
"I know. I was just waiting to put down the platter before I took care of it." She smoothed her uniform and wiped away the flour.
"You can all get some cookies while I work out how we're going to do the gift opening thing," Harper said as he went to the tree and began sorting the gifts. He stopped soon after and sighed. "We'll just do it the old-fashioned way."
Everyone returned to the bean bag chairs with cookies and candy, eating and chatting and generally enjoying themselves.
"Okay. If no one objects, I'm gonna pass out the gifts one by one to who they go to and just work my way around the tree," Harper said.
"Sounds good," Beka said.
"Yep," Trance agreed.
"Fine with me," Dylan said.
"I can help if you like, Master Harper," Rev offered.
"Nope, that's okay. I can do it. But no one opens anything until I get them all passed out." Harper started passing out the gifts.
Fifteen minutes went by before Harper finally handed the last gift to Rommie. He glanced over at the pile of gifts for Tyr and sighed.
"Don't worry about Tyr," Beka said.
"He is currently lifting weights in his quarters," Rommie said.
"Yeah. We can't let him ruin our fun. Now, let's open our presents!" Harper said.
As the presents were opened, most of them were completely expected gifts, such as the disks and leather pants Beka received and the Wayist texts and music that Rev received. However, there were a few major surprises.
Trance opened a purple box from Harper and found a very long purple feather boa with a clip on it. "What's this for, Harper?" she asked, confused.
"Let me show you!" Harper said, grinning. "Stand up."
He clipped the purple boa to her pants where her tail had been before the accident.
"It's like a new tail," she said with a smile.
"Since I couldn't give you a real one, that's the closest thing I could think of," Harper said.
Everyone laughed as Trance galavanted around the room with her new tail dragging behind her.
The other biggest surprise was the body piercing kit Harper received from Trance.
"What do you want me to pierce, babe?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I thought this would look pretty on your ear," Trance said, lifting the small metal earring with a surfboard on the end.
"Thank, Trance," he said, eyeing the earring with uncertainty. "I'll ummmmm do this later."
"I hate to break up the party, but I have some stuff to do on the Maru," Beka said, standing up. "Thanks everyone."
"I should be finishing up some paperwork myself," Dylan said. "This Christmas has been great. Thanks for all you've done, Harper. And everyone else for the gifts and a great time."
"Where did Rev go?" Trance asked, looking around.
"He must have slipped out while we were opening gifts," Beka said.
"Yeah, he probably had some Christmas prayers to say or something," Harper agreed.
"Where did Tyr's gifts go?" Dylan asked.
"Rev probably took them down to Tyr's quarters. We'll have to thank him later," Trance said.
Beka and Dylan left, Rommie following them, which left Harper and Trance together alone on the bean bags next to each other.
"Harper, can I ask you something?" Trance asked.
"Go ahead," Harper said.
"Why did you get so excited over Christmas this year? You haven't ever before..."
He sighed. "Y'know the thirteen little buddies I have down here?"
"I'm still working on a cure," she assured him.
"Well, I thought this might be my last chance to be excited. And Christmas was never something else on Earth like it was this year. Which reminds me, I didn't give you your real present."
"Oh?" Trance asked.
He pulled out a very old small glass snow globe and handed it to her. She glanced into it and saw a windy city surrounded by snow when she shook the globe. The people within the globe seemed to be happy and full of Christmas spirit.
"It was my mom's and she gave it to me right before the Nietzscheans got her and dad...and then Beka and Bobby found me and I kept this old thing for some reason. And now I want you to have it. You're my best friend, Trance."
"Thank you, Harper. But you aren't going to die. I'm going to find a cure and everything is going to be fine." Her tone was very certain.
He leaned his head on her shoulder. "That means a lot to me, even if you don't-"
"I will," she whispered. "I will."
The minutes passed and turned into hours. Harper fell asleep leaning against Trance, as she stared at the Christmas tree's twinkling lights and the lights they cast upon the wrapping paper and boxes scattered on the floor. Everything thing, down to the smallest detail, was perfect in her eyes. She had never felt more serene, nor had Harper. It was a Christmas neither of them would forget.