A series of loosely connected Christmas drabbles, because I don't really have the time or energy to do a fully cohesive fic this year. It's RWBY, it follows on from Emergence but it's set two months after the end.
This is definitely not as stringently written in terms of flow, characterization, or realism as my other fics. But hopefully it will be enjoyable nonetheless.
A Christmas Emerging
1: What's Christmas, anyway?
"Okay, team!" Ruby announced as they approached the cold exterior of their school. "Today, we find out what everyone's getting so excited about."
"Isn't it just a slightly different version of Yuletide?" Yang commented, but her remark went unheard.
"Really?" Weiss snapped. "You know, we could just look it up-"
"Not what it is is, what makes it special to people," Ruby countered.
"She's right, Weiss," Blake commented. "You can't get that from a book."
Yang mentioned, "Isn't it going to be a little weird if we start asking?"
"Well, it's not like our Christmases were very happy, considering we're orphans," Blake said coldly.
"Come on, we don't want to be late!" Ruby called, running toward the school. The bell had rang some time during their conversation, but she was the only one to notice it.
Ruby's first class in the morning was metalwork. She leaned against the lathe, flipping her workpiece between her fingers. Eventually, it would be a candle holder, but right now, it was just a short cylinder of aluminum.
"What's so good about Christmas?" she mused idly.
"You get free shit," Jeff answered, stopping beside her. He was a year older than her, and not very good academically, but probably the best in the class when it came to building things. They were sort-of friends, though Ruby tended to use a more liberal definition.
That answer was disappointing, to say the least. "That's it?"
"Well, that's what I like about it," he replied. "Some people like it because of the holiday break, some because of family and friends and all that shit, and then there's the religious people."
"Oh, okay." Ruby sensed that she wasn't going to get a good answer from him.
"I guess it wasn't too happy for you, was it?" he remarked before realizing he said it out loud. "Sorry. Are you going to use that lathe, or-"
"Yeah, yeah," Ruby replied. She turned back to the machine and started fitting the cylinder into the chuck.
Weiss didn't see the point in asking, but she knew that Ruby wouldn't be happy if she didn't. So immediately after Social Studies, she asked Beth, one of the better students in the class. "What would you say the meaning of Christmas is?"
"Christmas is a commemoration of the birth of our lord and saviour Jesus Christ, the son of god, who was sent forth to bring joy and peace to the world." Though Beth's words held conviction, they sounded awfully recited to Weiss.
"Are you trying to convert me?" Weiss asked, folding her arms.
"You asked what the meaning of Christmas was," Beth replied. "I think we're losing sight of what it's truely about, because of all the commercialization and secularization of Christmas."
"Right, okay," Weiss said as politely as possible. It wasn't that she was anti-religious, she was just put off by Beth's fervor. She made a show of checking her watch. "I have to get to English."
Blake waited until second period to ask. She was hesitant, but knew Ruby expected her to do it, and didn't really want to lie to the girl. During a quiet point, she asked the girl next to her- Lisa was her name- what she thought Christmas was about.
"It's about taking a break and getting together with the people that are the most important to you," Lisa replied after a moment.
"So it's a social occasion?" Blake asked.
"You really did live under a rock, didn't you?" Her words didn't have malicious intent, but still stung Blake.
Fortunately, she was a master and not letting it show. "I guess. Christmas wasn't really an occasion for us."
"Well, for me it was always about getting together with friends and family," Lisa repeated. "Page 160."
"Huh?"
Lisa pointed at Blake's closed textbook. "The explanation is on page 160."
Yang also had mixed feelings about asking people what the meaning of Christmas was. It sounded so cheesy. She waited until the last minute, asking the boy sitting beside her in the last few minutes of pre-calculus.
"Psst," she hissed. "What do you do for Christmas?"
"I'm Jewish. I don't celebrate Christmas." He replied slightly sadly before smirking. "Just Boxing Day."
"Boxing day?" Yang asked with a mischievous grin. "Does that mean I get to punch people?"
"No, it's when there's big sales on everything," Seeing her confused expression, he added, "It was a joke- nevermind. Just ask someone else."
After school, the four of them met up again for the walk home. Ruby was, of course, the one to broach the question. "So, how did it go? I asked Jeff but he said it was just about getting free stuff."
"I got a religious spiel," Weiss said curtly.
Blake told them, "I was told it was about family and friends, getting together. Lisa did a bad job of explaining it, but I think the message was there."
"The only person I asked was Jewish," Yang said, shrugging.
"Why didn't you ask somebody else?" Ruby asked.
"Why didn't you?" There was a short but awkward silence.
"Oh well." Ruby shrugged after a moment. "We'll figure it out."
