White Christmas
by Sapphire
"Cosmo? Are you ready?"
The call rang through the Magic Express. Ace Cooper,
the owner of the train, glanced once again at his wrist watch. At the last
moment he refrained from tapping his foot impatiently. The black panther
at his side looked up at him, emitting a low rumble. For once Ace ignored
Zina.
"Cosmo! We're going to be late!" Ace called once more.
They were really getting late. It was the day after Christmas,
and Ace had a matinee scheduled at the Ring Theater starting in forty-five
minutes. As every year at Christmas, this matinee was going to be a special
one. Two hundred tickets had been given to the children homes and orphanages
of Electro City; the money from the remaining six hundred tickets was going
as a donation to the same facilities. As Ace always premiered his newest
tricks at that Christmas show, the tickets were an ultra hot item, and
they had been sold out months in advance.
So it wouldn't do if the star of the show would be coming
late.
A bumping sound coming from the former guest room of
the Express, which now had a permanent occupant for the last half year,
announced the arrival of Ace's charge. A young teenager, maybe thirteen
years old, lanky, even for his age bracket, stumbled into the corridor.
The red, unruly hair was held out of the face by a headband. The boy wore
red pants and a blue and red shirt, topped by a yellow, red and blue leather
jacket. He was fighting with pulling on the second of a matching pair of
red boots, hopping on one leg, as he tugged the boot in place. Ace had
to suppress a grin at the sight of his charge in what has almost become
an uniform for him. Cosmo loved the ensemble, particularly the jacket,
which he had bought the first time he had been shopping with Mona. Then
Ace's eyes darkened when he recalled what else had happened at that particular
shopping trip.
"Sorry, Ace," the youth apologized with a loop side grin,
looking not very sorry at all. "I couldn't find one of the boots."
"If you hadn't played so long with that new computer
game, you would have had more time to search for it," Ace teased, grinning
to show he wasn't really mad at Cosmo.
The teenager blushed, showing Ace's guess on what had
been the reason for the delay had been correct. The teenager straightened
up, brushing his hands on his pants.
"I'm ready, Ace," he announced, combing with his fingers
through his hair in an attempt to smooth it down. It didn't really work,
as the mop still stood in every which direction.
As Ace went to open the door, he marveled how much Cosmo
had changed during the last half year. Six months ago, every negative comment
would have changed Cosmo into a quivering bundle of fear. Fear of being
scolded, fear of being beaten, fear of being punished. All thanks to a
brutal drunk of a father, who had used every opportunity to mistreat his
son. Finally Cosmo had run away, only to join a gang of other teenagers,
specialized in breaking and entering in rich people's houses. Cosmo's amazing
skill with computers and security systems had been pretty useful to them,
until the gang leader had killed somebody in front of Cosmo's eyes. Luckily
Cosmo had come to Ace, and Ace had decided to take over the guardianship
for Cosmo, giving him a chance to get out of the mess he had dug himself
into. Cosmo had taken the outstretched hand, and neither of them had regretted
it ever since. Sure, their had been some stumbling blocks - no teenager
grew up without causing problems - but together they had managed to get
over them so far. And the shy boy had turned into a healthy and active
teenager.
Placing his hand on Cosmo's back, he began to shove Cosmo
out of the Express, only to stop mid-movement when he saw what was outside.
The rail yard he had acquired from the city two years
back, was totally transformed. Over night, snow had fallen, covering every
surface with a four inch thick white blanket. Thick snow flakes were still
tumbling from the sky, adding to the snow which was already there. Though
snow was fairly rare in Electro City, it was not unheard of, and the forecasters
had spoken of a chance of snow fall for the last week. Still, actually
seeing it was something else.
"Oh, wow!" Cosmo exclaimed, as he stepped out of the
Express, his boots crunching in the snow.
Zina didn't hesitate and followed Cosmo outside. For
a moment she sniffed at the white surface, then she shot off, as if launched
from a catapult. Ace knew the panther simply loved snow, though she had
few opportunities to enjoy it. Now he had to grin, as the black cat bounced
around, chasing one snowflake, then another, then began rolling in the
white mass like a young kitten, and not like sixty-five pound of grown
panther.
Cosmo had picked up some snow, forming a snowball, but
moved it from one hand to the other, almost as if he couldn't decide what
to do with it.
A white missile hitting him squared between the shoulder
blades took the decision from him. He whirled around, just in time to see
Ace launch another missile, which hit the teenager at the right shoulder.
This was too much of a tease.
Not hesitating any longer, he threw the snowball he had
been holding. Ace whirled aside, a boyish grin on his face, as the white
projectile missed him by a hair's breath.
By now the grin threatened to split Ace's face. "You
never gonna hit me," he teased, as he bowed down to scoop up more snow
to make another projectile. For the moment their appointment at the Ring
Theater was forgotten.
"You think so?" Cosmo called back, raising to the challenge.
He, too, grinned from one ear to the other, looking for once like a carefree
young boy. He looped a snowball at Ace, followed closely by a second one.
The first one missed, but the second one hit Ace at one arm.
"Oh, you won't get away with this."
Ace let go of his snowball, but this time Cosmo could
avoid it.
"First you have to hit me, old man," Cosmo teased, laughter
in his voice, as he ducked behind a stack of wooden beams. He gathered
snow from the top, keeping an eye on his mentor.
"May I remind you, I've already managed to hit you not
only once, but twice," Ace reminded Cosmo of his earlier success, also
taking cover behind some empty crates.
"Yeah, but then you surprised me. That was not fair,"
Cosmo replied, as he tried to make out when it would be the best time for
his next attack.
"This is not about being fair," Ace called, loosing another
volley that, however, missed its intended target completely. It didn't
matter, as the last snowball had only been a decoy.
Hidden by the crates, he called the Magic to him, forming
up the dislocation spell. Raising his cloak over his head, he activated
the spell, and vanished, only to reappear one step behind Cosmo, who was
peering from behind his cover, trying to make out Ace.
Who wasn't at the place he had been seconds before.
Ace saw how Cosmo tilted his head, as if he was listening
to something far away. The teenager slowly began to turn, but Ace didn't
give him the chance to complete the movement. Gathering a handful of snow,
he launched himself at his charge, shoving the load into Cosmo's face.
"Hey," was all the youngster could mutter, before the
snow drowned his voice.
Loosing his balance, Cosmo tumbled into the snow, pulling
Ace down with him.
They brawled for a second, then Ace stopped suddenly,
when he felt the body underneath him beginning to shake. Immediately he
let go of the boy, fearing he had gone too far. When Cosmo had first come
to Ace, he had been scarred to death of tight places and any close contact,
and only slowly he had began to come over it.
"I'm sorry, Cosmo," he mumbled, pulling back, ashamed
of himself. How could he forget? Being pushed into the snow like this,
all bad memories of Cosmo's father must have surfaced.
Damn. What had he done?
A muffled sound came from the teenager, as his shoulders
shook. Ace longed to reach out and place a comforting hand on Cosmo's shoulder,
but he knew this would only aggravate Cosmo's fear further. He had tried
that one before and it had ended in disaster.
"'M 'kay."
Cosmo rolled to his side, so Ace could see his face.
It was wet, but it was impossible to say if it was from the snow, or if
the boy was crying. Still shaking, Cosmo waved his hand in a dismissive
gesture.
"I'm really okay, bro," he said, hiccuping, as he was
whipping his face with the back of one hand. Sitting up, he took Ace's
proffered hand, and pulled himself up.
He was still shaking, but now Ace could see it was not
from fear. If possible, the teenager was grinning even more than before.
Relief flooded Ace, when he realized the clucking sound Cosmo was making
was breathless laughter.
It was a wonderful sound.
One Ace hoped to hear more often.
He swallowed down a lump in his throat, then harrumphed.
"I think we're going to be late, if we don't go now," he said as he started
to brush off snow from Cosmo's clothing.
Laughter twinkled in Cosmo's eyes. "I didn't start it,"
he reminded his friend, helping him in his task to get rid of the snow.
Luckily his outfit was of a watertight material, so it hadn't suffered
too much, and he was still - more or less - presentable. Ace, of course,
was still impeccable, any traces of snow having vanished as if by magic.
Ace had no choice but to laugh as well. "You are right
at that, Cosmo."
"One thing I don't understand, Ace," Cosmo asked, as
they began to walk down the snow-covered road. "How did you get behind
me so quickly just now?"
Placing his arm around Cosmo's shoulder, Ace called for
Zina, who pounced up to her humans.
"What do you think? It's magic," Ace said, smiling quietly
to himself.