Merry Christmas, Kaz
AN: Hello everyone and of course *AHEM* MERRY CHRISTMASSSSSSS!1111 It's my favorite holiday and I am proud to offer up my very first Christmas special. This also marks the very first special I have ever created and I am having a blast writing it and making everything as whimsical as possible while still fitting into the characters I have created along the way.
The final thing I need to hit on is that I have mentioned my favorite YouTube personality when it comes to Fallout New Vegas, Mr. Al Chestbreach. I do not of course own Al Chestbreach. Al Chestbreach owns Al Chestbreach. I honestly think that Al deserves to have his own "Chuck Norris-esque" jokes. I just wrote the first one. Anybody got any others?
"Ohhhhh…Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way! Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh!" Kazdin crooned, a bright open-mouthed smile shining on her face as she held a deep cardboard box overflowing with old Christmas trimmings.
In the foyer of Elder Schuler's office stood a twelve foot pine tree. Some of the green on its branches had faded to brown, but for the most part the flora stood proud and green. Around the tree several Brotherhood of Steel Paladins and a few scribes stood gawking as they watched the strange tall woman in blue stare lovingly at the tree, bouncing excitedly left and right as she anticipated one of her favorite activities; trimming and decorating the Christmas tree.
"Of all the strange things I have seen since inviting this Kazdin Willow into the Brotherhood, this tops them all. This is number one." Scribe Ibsen complained as he watched the Texan approach the tree and set the box of ornaments down.
"What, you've never celebrated Christmas before?" Schuler asked, cutting her eyes to Ibsen with a smirk on her lips.
"Not so. It's just the tree seems a little…out of place when juxtaposed with all the grey steel around here."
"That's all? Hell, it does get a little drab after staring at it for a while. Not to mention that we have called this place our home for close to a year now. That is a lot of time staring at grey steel walls. Let the little scamp dress up a tree and hang some stockings, it's not like she is hurting anything." Schuler retorted dismissively.
"You have to admit that this is not entirely up to Brotherhood standards." Head Paladin Hardin said, crossing his arms as he took in the display of the dark haired woman lining silver garland around the prickly limbs of the huge pine tree.
"Oh yes, the standards and practices of the Brotherhood of Steel. Don't ever have a good time. You must always be an insufferable prick and stand behind all of that power armor, laser weaponry and machismo. Come on, Kaz isn't hurting anybody and she's having fun and it seems as if some of the Paladins are, if not enjoying the show, then at least humoring the woman."
"Well, you may be right. I'm just not the type of guy who likes a lot of…change." Hardin sighed after a moment.
"Things have changed. I can't deny that. But it is changing for the better, don't you think?" Schuler asked seriously as she cut her eyes to the Head Paladin and the well respected Scribe. Both were silent as they contemplated the words their Elder had spoken.
"Ohhhhh, Frosty the Snowman was a kind and gentle soul! With a corn cob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of coal!" Kazdin sang as she sprinkled the tree with green, red and silver glitter.
Her eyes were fixated on nothing more than her Christmas tree as Boone looked on from a few feet behind his girlfriend. His arms were crossed and he stared at the happily hyper courier, not in anger or annoyance, but mirth and wonder.
"I didn't know people still celebrated Christmas. Well, except for Al. But I think you're the only other person I've ever seen dressing up a Christmas tree." Boone said as he watched her.
"Hey! Mr. Chestbreach is a god amongst men!" Kazdin defended, taking her eyes away from her labor of love for a moment to glare at Boone.
"Yea I know, and a man I wouldn't want to piss off. Be that as it may, though, Kaz, don't you think this was a waste of time?" Boone countered. Kazdin shrugged.
"It's a lot of fun! I've always loved Christmas! The joy, the laughter, the giving, Jesus being born! What's not to love about the holiday?" Kazdin exclaimed. Boone frowned.
"Kaz, it took us three days to drag that big ass tree all the way down from Jacobstown. I've still got splinters from carrying it with you." Boone said thinking back to the unpleasant memory of Kaz insisting that she and Boone take a trip to the super mutant refuge in order to shop for, of all things, a good looking pine tree.
"I still think that was one of the best parts," Kaz said as she got back to work sprinkling the tree with her glitter.
"And besides, we got to be alone together."
Boone had to smile at that.
"That's true I guess. It's hard to find time for us to go on proper dates. That part wasn't bad." Boone conceded.
"Great! So come on, Mr. Grumpy. Help me put some of these Christmas lights on." Kazdin said, smiling wide.
She handed him one end of the tiny multicolored lights and she began the process of winding the wire around and around the tree's limbs.
The door to the chamber opened and in stepped Veronica and Stella. Both stopped still and gawked up at the tree. Their gaze shifted to Kaz and Boone stringing their lights around the branches. Boone busied himself with plugging the end of the cord into a handy wall socket when Kazdin stepped back and announced that she was finished placing the lights on the tree.
The lights flickered on and shone prettily. A few of them were busted and sat dull and lifeless among the green, but the ones that did shine sparkled happily.
"Someone is celebrating Christmas!" Veronica exclaimed happily. Kazdin spun around and waved to her friends as they approached.
"Hi guys! Like the tree so far?" Kazdin asked, hugging both of her friends in a tight embrace.
"Yeah, it looks great. Can we help?" Veronica said. Stella shook her head in the negative, but couldn't hide a smile of mirth as she took in the rare sight of a lit up Christmas tree.
"Sure! The more the merrier! I'm about to put the ornaments on. You can help if you want to." Kaz said.
Veronica agreed quickly and followed Kazdin to her box of ornaments and they began the process of picking out which decorations were the best as they bantered together like old friends do.
Stella made her way over to Boone.
"Looks like you two are getting along. Not too annoyed I hope." Stella said in greeting as she stood beside Boone, watching the proceedings with interest.
At one point Kaz and Veronica got tangled up together in a mess of golden velvet braided rope. Both Stella and Boone laughed as they watched Veronica and Kazdin trying their best to work together in order to untangle themselves.
"No, I'm not. I have to admit that this is something I really am not used to. I don't know what it is about her, but while I have to sit back and shake my head at her personality, in a good way of course, something about her won't let me forget. I'm drawn to her as much as her…weirdness for lack of a better term makes me wonder." Boone said, wondering himself what the words meant.
"She's a really nice girl." Stella said pointing a smile in Boone's direction.
"The best. I don't know of anyone else I could feel for the way I do about Kaz." Boone admitted.
"She seems to be as deadly as she is beautiful, but at the same time she is so…" Stella began. Boone spoke the word on both former NCR soldiers' hearts in time with Stella.
"…playful."
Boone and Stella shared a glance.
"There's nothing wrong with enjoying something different, Boone. Not everyone in the wastes needs to be a gritty sole survivor with a checkered past and a hard nose." Stella said.
"For instance, someone who can celebrate such a cheery holiday as Christmas, but who is still acceptable to such a hardcore group as the Brotherhood of Steel." Boone said, nodding.
"Precisely." Stella agreed.
Kazdin approached the two former NCR with a demure smile on her lips.
"Um, can I ask for your help?" Kazdin asked Boone shyly.
"Of course, what's the problem?" Boone asked. Kazdin looked at him and smiled.
"Well, it's time to put the star up on top and neither Veronica or myself are tall enough. So can you give me a boost please?" Kaz asked, presenting the golden star in her hands.
Boone smiled and nodded.
"Did you try boosting Veronica?" Boone asked, following Kazdin over to where Veronica stood, staring at the top of the tree in contemplation, her forefinger grasping her chin and her eyebrow arched.
"Yeah, but she's too short. I figure you are taller than her and so am I, so if you lift me up I can put the star on." Kazdin reasoned aloud.
"That makes sense. Okay let's do this." Boone said.
Veronica grinned at Boone as he stepped to her side. He nodded his head and went down to his knees. Kazdin straddled his shoulders and on a count of three Boone lifted her up.
"Whoa! Oh!" Kazdin cried out, wrapping her strong arms around Boone's neck as she was lifted over six feet off the ground.
"Don't worry. I've got you." Boone assured her. Kazdin nodded and licking her upper lip, let go of Boone's head and lifted the star to its rightful place atop the tree. She plugged the male end of the string of Christmas lights to the female end that attached to the star itself and the star came alive with different colored lights.
Boone laughed wickedly as he bucked his shoulders. Kazdin cried out as she fell, only to be snatched up in Boone's powerful arms before she hit the ground. Kazdin was wide eyed in Boone's embrace and her mouth was open in surprise. Boone grinned down at her as he held her and pressed a kiss to Kazdin's slightly parted lips. She returned the gesture with a kiss of her own and was before long placed once again upon her feet on the steel floor of the bunker.
BBBBBBBBBBB
The rolling hills and mountains of the wasteland were still arid, if not slightly cooler than normal what with it being the month of December. The cooler temperatures felt like a white Christmas to Kazdin however, as she set up the last of her decorations.
She had met up with Michael Angelo in New Vegas and had spent a week conjuring plans for outdoor Christmas decorations. She had explained to the man the concept of reindeer and sleighs and snowmen and Santa Clause and she had at last trekked home to Hidden Valley with an effervescent smile and wide blue eyes as she carried a very Santa-esque giant sack full of components for her to create a festive atmosphere around the dreary Brotherhood of Steel base.
Before long she got motivated with Veronica to set the decorations up around the front of the base. To Kazdin's surprise Dan and Monroe joined in the Holiday cheer by helping her piece together the metal supports in the shapes of various Christmas staples.
Monroe lifted the heavy contraptions and set them up along the order that Kazdin suggested. Before long the giant metal supports were set and the three humans got busy stringing the different lights along the supports.
Santa was brightly colored in red and white. His sleigh was a deeper red. His reindeer was brown, as reindeer tend to be. White snowmen and green Christmas trees completed the landscape around the exterior of the base and finally the trio strung up a line of dangling white, red, blue and green flashing lights around the top of the base's entrance. Monroe completed the day's festivities by plugging the cords into a handy fusion generator. The desert floor lit up in a cacophony of colors as Kazdin, Veronica, Dan and Monroe stood shoulder to shoulder, arms around one another as they took in the sights around them with a collection of smiles. Monroe had the equivalent of a robotic smile on his static facial features.
"Job well done!" Kazdin exclaimed.
"Thank you…Uh, thank you for including me in your Christmas celebration." Daniel said, blushing and looking away when Kazdin and especially Veronica looked his way and grinned deeper.
"Of course, think nothing of it." Kazdin said nodding.
"It's just that, this is the first time I ever was able to celebrate Christmas. I'd heard of it before, but I just never got the chance." Daniel said shyly. He pushed his thick rimmed glasses up on his angular nose.
Daniel's short curly blonde hair fell into his eyes as he looked down to the tan sand. He kicked at the sand with his toe idly as his mind wandered to unknowable thoughts.
"Why have you not had the chance to take part in this great Holiday?" Kazdin wondered. Veronica moved forward and grasped the man's shoulder.
"Well, I don't want to go too far into it. It still hurts, you know?" Daniel said with a tight lipped smile.
"Of course not! You don't have to share anything you don't want to." Kazdin assured him.
"Thank you. You are very kind." Dan said with a sigh of appreciation.
"Don't mention it Danny boy." Veronica chimed in. Dan looked up at the familiar nickname the Scribe gave him. He smiled and nodded.
"It's just that I didn't have a very good childhood. Whole adulthood seems to want to kick me in the balls, really." Daniel said with a single chuckle.
"Clever expression, Dan." Kazdin laughed. Daniel nodded and thanked her.
"I was abused and left alone a lot by my mother. My brother seemed to resent me because…well, he got the worst of it mostly, so he ignored me and never helped me when I was getting it. That's why I eventually built Monroe." Dan indicated his hovering half-Securitron, half-Gutsy robotic companion who floated beside him dutifully.
"I was wondering about him actually. He is so high quality and absolutely loyal to you. And his architecture is really unique and shows a bit of artistic ability along with his master's high intelligence. I am a fan, Danny." Veronica quipped as her attention moved to the gigantic robot. Her eyes took on a tinge that was somewhat star struck. She really, really liked robots.
"Wow, thank you." Dan said softly, blushing again,
"That is really high praise coming from a Scribe as talented as you are."
"You know it." Veronica said with a cocky grin.
"Anyway, I studied robotics and science as long as I could, as often as I could. There were so many nights I just didn't bother to come home. If I found a place that was relatively safe I would stay there for days upon days just poring over every technical manual and robotics book or magazine I could find.
When I wasn't being abused by mother, I would wander off to this cave by our homestead and build Monroe. It was hard finding the Securitron and Gutsy bodies, but when I did I jumped on the chance. Robotic components are very hard to come by and when I found the two robots I bonded their different components together with what I had and built Monroe. So it wasn't really an art form that I was going for. I wanted a friend and protector." Daniel explained. Veronica shrugged.
"Maybe you weren't trying to make an art project with Monroe, but he is unique from every other robot I've ever seen. So you weren't striving to be artsy, but it turns out that Monroe is artsy." Veronica responded.
"Wow, thanks." Daniel said, blushing. Veronica smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder before returning her arm to her side.
"So, you're saying you never had an opportunity to celebrate Christmas because you were abused?" Kazdin said with sympathy. Daniel nodded.
"And then I grew up and plied my trade wherever anybody needed a science specialist. It kind of landed me in NCR territory for better or worse."
"NCR always needs engineers and robotics majors." Kazdin nodded her understanding.
"Yeah, I did some work on the dam and I spent my final couple of months working on the Helios One power plant until some idiot with sunglasses took my job with his theoretical degree in science. Whatever, the NCR never appreciated me anyway. I was just another body. Thanks for taking us in, Kaz."
"My pleasure." Kazdin said with a smile. Veronica looked angry.
"What's wrong, Veronica?" Daniel asked, wondering.
"Look, I thought maybe you were a good guy, but you're telling me you were at Helios One for two months?" Veronica said, her voice suddenly taking on a hard edge.
"Yeah, I thought you would want me to be honest." Daniel said.
"If you were there for that long, then that would mean that you were posted there only a few days after the NCR stole that plant from the Brotherhood!" Veronica shouted, making a motion with her hand and then marching back into the bunker leaving a stunned Kazdin and Daniel and an emotionless Monroe standing out in the light given off from the Christmas decorations.
"What did I say?" Daniel wondered aloud. Kazdin shook her head.
"Veronica lost a lot of friends when the NCR took the power plant. She lost her grandfather after he discharged himself after their defense failed. It's very tender for her, I would warn you to tread lightly." Kazdin said with a half grin.
Daniel didn't know what to say.
"I wasn't a part of the attack. I am just a scientist for lack of a better term. I'm not a soldier! I need Monroe to do more than half of my fighting for me!" Daniel explained desperately.
"I'm sure you had no part in the attack, but Veronica is likely to believe you were guilty by association. Maybe she will let you explain, but even then she may not understand. Just be nice to her and if she tells you to go away, just do so. I'll talk to her when her anger tapers a bit. She won't listen if she's still mad." Kazdin said.
"I'd be grateful. Veronica is a nice lady. I'd like to at least get to know her a little bit." Daniel said sadly.
"All is not lost, Dan. Don't worry. We'll see what happens." Kazdin assured him.
"Thank you for saying so. I won't get my hopes up though. This isn't the first time someone's gotten angry with me. I would…I would just appreciate it if you would talk to her." Dan said.
"I said I would, so I will." Kaz said with a smile.
"Thanks. I think I'll just go and get some sleep. C'mon, Monroe." Dan said forlornly.
"Goodnight Dan."
"Goodnight Kaz."
"THIS UNIT IS BEING RELIEVED OF DUTY. GOOD NIGHT KAZDIN." Monroe bellowed. Kazdin laughed.
"Good night Monroe." She answered.
A few seconds later they were gone and Kazdin stood outside alone as the sun retreated fully behind the mountains, leaving Hidden Valley dark. Her immediate area was bathed in lights of different colors.
Kazdin turned in a slow circle admiring her Christmas creations. She sighed.
"Merry Christmas, Kaz." She said to herself before entering the giant metal door.
A/N: So this is only chapter one of this Christmas special. It won't be a humungous undertaking. Probably only a few chapters before I get back to work on Brotherhood of Steel. So expect an update on AOKWBOS soon-ish. I will likely be working on both of my stories as December comes to a close, but I will be concentrating more on this one so I can get it done before New Years.
So enjoy ladies and gentlemen. If this story goes over well then I will do other specials. New Years and Easter and Halloween and Thanksgiving and all of those other wonderful major Holidays.
-FalloutGuy