Hello everyone. I'm back, and with my annual Christmas fanfic!
I would have posted this and started posted "Shattered" much earlier, but the motherboard of my laptop died 3 weeks ago, so my computer (and especially my internet) access is much more limited now. But, I'll do my best to started posting in the next few days!
This oneshot was inspired by the song "Song For A Winter's Night." It is a lovely, haunting song, and I encourage you all to take a listen to it. This is a stand-alone fanfiction, but it can also fit into my "Shattered" fic (I've been so immersed in its planning lately, I couldn't pull myself away from it totally...) So, this is both a Christmas special and a little sneek peck to Shattered (though not that big of one, really).
Disclaimer: I do not own the Storm Hawks, nor "Song For A Winter's Night," which was originally written and sung by Gordon Lightfoot in 1975, but which I know from Sarah McLachlan's Christmas CD, and quoted below.
A Winter's Night
"If I could only have you near
To breathe a sigh or two,
I would be happy just to hold the hands I love
On this winter's night with you."
Winter had brought an early darkness that evening. The cool metal surrounding the Condor's inhabitants seemed to embrace the night's black caress, so the only cheer came from the warm glow that radiated from the bridge.
Aerrow had left his squadron mates some time before. He'd paused in the lights of the decorations that spilled out into the hall, but quickly moved on to his room, his clanking steps echoing through the empty space. Radarr had poked his head around the doorframe, gave a chirp of concern and went to follow his best friend. Piper had caught Radarr mid-leap. Shaking her head, she'd placed the little blue creature on her shoulders. The pair did not turn back to the pleasant atmosphere just a few steps behind them, but stood silent in the limbo between the dark and light, watching their leader's retreating form.
Aerrow now sat on his bed, the only light coming from the small lamp on the table next to him. Two mugs stood under the lamp's halo. One was almost full, a beverage Junko had brought earlier that day and called a family tradition. The thick, purple goop looked like one of Piper's failed experiments, and tasted as such. Aerrow had been forced to take a few sips and comment on its excellence while Junko watched expectantly at his door. Once the Wallop had continued on to distribute the rest of his "drinks," Aerrow had laid the cup aside and rushed to the kitchen for a glass of water. He'd met Piper halfway there. She'd also had a tray of mugs, but the steaming hot chocolate filling them looked far more appetizing. Piper had wordlessly handed Aerrow a cup as she passed, her green complection telling the sky knight that she'd already suffered through Junko's "tradition," and apparently, much more of it than he.
Seeing the empty mug, Aerrow found himself wishing for more. Hot drinks always relaxed him, their warmth spread through his body, making him drowsy. Aerrow longed for a distraction, but everything he saw seemed to bring new, painful memories. The sky knight turned his eyes to the little wooden box that lay beside him on the bed. Aerrow couldn't decide if it was a blessing or a curse, but ever since he'd found the intricately carved box hidden in a little nook in his room, forgotten memories came to him sporadically and without warning.
The box's contents were strewn across the blanket. Letters, photographs, and even a few newspaper clippings surrounded the sky knight. Aerrow had been young when he'd lost his family, and the little he had remembered about who they were and what had happened to them had become fuzzy over time. Passing years, like a thickening fog, had blurred faces, names and events, until everything was hidden. Aerrow's sole memory had only come to him in his nightmares, where a voice he assumed to be his mother's shouted at him to run to safety from the invading Cyclonians. Now, forgotten faces smiled up at him, and lost names and events were methodically written on the pages before him.
Aerrow had discovered his relation to the original Storm Hawks; his own father had been their sky knight, as well as the owner of this box of memories. Aerrow's mother had written most of the letters. Though she never expressed it, Aerrow could sense her loneliness as she wrote of her growing children to an absent father and husband. He'd had two older siblings; a sister named Sky and a brother named Claus. They had been twelve and thirteen when the Talons attacked and stole their young lives.
The fog had begun to lift as blurred faces were replaced with exact features and the many pages of stories and loving words pulled memories from hidden places. Aerrow had done his best to hide this new development from his fellow Storm Hawks—there was no need to worry them. However, Piper and Radarr were far too observant, catching every far-off look and tear threatening eye. They'd confronted him together, and Aerrow had not stood a chance. He'd pulled the box from its new hiding place under his bed and shown the pair its contents. Aerrow had let himself cry for the first time, his head pillowed in Piper's shoulder as she and Radarr wrapped comforting arms around him. Aerrow had not seen the tears that sparkled in Piper's own eyes, or the knowing look Radarr wore.
Fighting his want to break down again, Aerrow gazed out the window. Snowflakes drifted by lazily, landing gently to create a layer of icy cotton. The people of Atmosia would be happy to have a white Christmas. Aerrow could almost see the young children building snowmen and trying out new toboggans, hardly able to move under the layers of clothing piled on them by their illness-fearing mothers.
Piper had insisted they come to Atmosia for the holidays. She'd done her best to make their first Christmas as a squadron a happy one, buying decorations and a tree for the bridge, and hiding the ingredients for a proper Christmas dinner so she would not go to the kitchen the next day to find the others had unknowingly left her nothing to cook with. The other Storm Hawks had joined Piper in her seasonal spirit fairly willingly. Even Stork helped to trim the tree and made special Christmas cookies from his vast store of Merb cabbage.
Aerrow had done his best to join the others in their festivities, but found himself forcing smiles and faking excitement. He felt guilty because he knew that Piper was putting so much effort into her preparations in an attempt to cheer him up. Aerrow had seen her happy eyes lose their sparkle if they caught him without his facade, and felt he was ruining her Christmas.
Aerrow picked up the letter and collection of photos that had been torturing him those past few days. The letter was bordered with carefully drawn holly and berries—his mother always drew something for his father, for the man loved his wife's artwork. His mother wrote of Christmas preparations, the family's anticipation of his father's return, and a few reminders of gifts his father was supposed to buy. The letter was accompanied by five pictures of Aerrow and his siblings baking cookies, decorating the tree and wrapping presents. The letter's date told Aerrow this was the last Christmas his family spent together before the Cyclonian invasion only months later. The irony of the unknowingly happy faces smiling up at him made Aerrow sick to his stomach.
The memories to go with the pictures had been coming back to Aerrow all week. It was no longer only Radarr and Piper who caught Aerrow in his dazed states that were always the aftershock of his lost memory retrieval. All of his fellow squadron mates had expressed some level of concern for him.
A soft knock on Aerrow's door and Piper's following entrance was a welcome distraction. Seeing the makeshift cardboard box—just as colourful and childlike as he remembered—in her hands, Aerrow couldn't help but mirror the crystals specialist's nostalgic smile.
Piper waited quietly as Aerrow refilled his wooden box and placed it back under his bed. Then they walked together to the bridge, a comfortable silence between them.
Finn and Radarr were waiting for them. Aerrow felt a pang of guilt in his happiness that it was only the four of them, but some traditions were meant only for those who held them.
As the light of a new Christmas day skirted over the horizon, Piper opened the box and handed each their allotted ornaments. They were as childlike as the box in which they were held, made of scraps of paper and wood, the glue holding them together dripped in blobs in places it was unneeded. They had made them on their first Christmas together; one for each family member they had lost. They placed the ornaments on the tree—much bigger and fuller than any they'd had previously—saying a silent prayer for the ones they loved.
They stepped back and admired the tree together, Radarr on Aerrow's shoulder and Piper holding both boys' hand. It was in this moment that Aerrow remembered something he'd shamefully forgotten those past few months. He had always comforted the others in their loss by saying that they were now each others' family. It was only now, with his newfound memories, that Aerrow could understand their pain. He was ashamed by how easily he had forgotten his own words as he wallowed in his grief.
Tightening his grip on Piper's hand, Aerrow reminded himself that he had a new family to love and care for. It could allow himself to miss those he'd lost and grieve for them, but he could not let himself dwell in the past. He had to live in the present and look toward the future.
So, as the sun rose and its rays danced in sparkles over the snowy ground, Aerrow put an arm around Piper and thanked her for their best Christmas yet.
I hope you all enjoyed my story.
You may have noticed that there wasn't any dialogue in this fic. I did this as an exercise, since it is never good to have too much dialogue in a story and it is always good to test ones writing skills. Please tell me how it turned out.
I'm not very pleased with the ending, I don't really like how it turned out, but I guess not everything can be perfect. If anything, this was a nice warm up for me before I sit down to write "Shattered" (I have it all planned out now, I only need to type it up, and I plan to post as I go, so it shouldn't be long before chapters start popping up).
I hope you all had a Happy Holidays and have a wonderful new year!