Author's note: I do not own Trinity Blood or its characters. This is set before the episode in Barcelona in the anime.
Christmas in the Air
With a sigh, Caterina wrapped her scarf more tightly around her neck. It was much colder this year than it had been before. She couldn't complain though. It wouldn't do any good, and at least she had the pleasure of watching Esther figuring things out. It was the first that the young nun had participated in this particular tradition. It was old hat for the AX agents now, but it always surprised newcomers.
The best she could tell the whole thing was a holdover from Abel's past. She had never heard of the tradition before. But ever since Abel had come into her life, the week before Christmas he had dragged her and whoever else was around out to the woods the week before Christmas to find the perfect evergreen tree. Once they found the tree, they had to cut it down and drag it back to the Vatican to decorate it. Of course, first they had to find the tree.
Abel had dragged nearly every available AX agent out for this, and this year Alessandro had decided he wanted to tag along. Caterina had managed to arrange transport for all of them, and now the whole group was wandering the snow covered Italian woods looking for the perfect Christmas tree. It was not an easy task as Abel had very exact standards. It was most likely to take them a few hours.
"What about this one?" Leon called. He had taken to scouting ahead for likely trees.
Caterina wrinkled her nose. Abel wasn't going to go for this one. It was too short for one thing. Abel stalked around the tree, examine it from every angle. He shook his head.
"No, it's too skinny, and there are too many holes in the foliage. Besides, it's not quite tall enough."
They moved on. Abel rejected another three trees before Esther shyly approached Caterina.
"Lady Caterina, why are we doing this? Couldn't we just order a tree?"
Caterina smiled at the young woman. "To tell the truth, Sister Esther, I don't know why we always do this. Abel has never explained why we do this, but it's important to him, so we do it every year. Besides, there really is nothing like coming home from this and having hot spiced cider and cookies. Sister Kate will have those ready when we get back."
Esther nodded and rejoined Sister Agnes and Sister Noelle. Caterina was struck by the thought that they must make a pretty ridiculous looking group. Over half a dozen assorted clergy bundled up enough for an artic excursion traipsing through the woods. And that wasn't even including Alessandro's entourage. Still, it was like this every year. If there had been anyone around to see them, they would have been used it by now.
It took them another hour before they found a tree that satisfied Abel's expectations. Then they had to actually cut it down. Abel had brought a saw, but it didn't appear to be doing a very good job. Hugue finally got sick of waiting and took care of the problem. It took three of them to move the stupid tree, and they could move very fast. It was nearly dark when they finally made it back to the cars. Caterina ended up drawing the short straw and was stuck riding in the truck with Abel. As they started back to Rome, Caterina couldn't help smiling. It was a rather ridiculous tradition, but it wouldn't be Christmas without it.
