p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The holidays has never been a very happy time for Dutch or Johnny./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Johnny's abusive father used the holidays as an excuse to drink a little more than usual and Johnny's Jakk addict mom used the holidays as an excuse to spend what little bit of extra money they had on drugs. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"For Dutch the holidays meant it was time to observe other people's families, find vulnerabilities in each target's loved ones. Some holidays were better than others, sometimes she spent the holidays alone; the harem she lived in was empty during the holidays because everyone left to spend time with their families. Even Khlyen didn't visit her, she didn't know if he had his own family to be with or if he just didn't want her to think of him as family./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Regardless, Dutch and Johnny had never looked forward to the holidays, but things were different now that they had found each other. They were their own little family. Closer to each other than either had ever been to their biological families./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The holidays were especially hard on Dutch because since Khlyen had shot her husband, Dutch had been lying to everyone around her to keep her identity hidden- expect Johnny. To the rest of the world she was Dutch and they had no one had any idea of her previous life as a princess. They might have suspected Dutch had been trained go be some sort of assassin early on in her life, bu they didn't know anymore than that. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She wasn't lying to them exactly. Dutch could be considered a nickname and they had never asked if it was her real name. Justifying it to herself didn't make the facts any different because there was something about hiding who she was, that made it hard for her to see her adopted Westerly family as the kind of family you spent the holidays with. She was Yalena of the house Yardeen and they had no idea./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But when she was with Johnny things were different, she was who she was. He had met her at her lowest, when she was still Yalena, the night he tried to steal Lucy. Yalena had her gun to his head while wearing a wedding dress covered in her husbands blood and yet he was there for her anyways. He was also there when she became Dutch, a level 5 Killjoy who feared by many. He was there for her when the nightmares of being Yalena filtered into her dreams at night, waking up afraid of going back to sleep. He had been there for her through everything, he was her family now./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So this year they decided to celebrate, to try and greet the new year as new people, people who weren't haunted by their pasts. Most years they usually went to Pree's bar and tried to drown themselves in enough alcohol so that neither of them remembered anything, let alone their pasts. But this year when new years eve turned to new years day Dutch and Johnny were sober enough to remember their promise to try and move on, leave their old lives behind./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"That year Dutch and Johnny grew closer than they had been before, each relying on the other. When Dutch started to drown in her past Johnny was there to pull her out and when Johnny couldn't escape his own nightmares Dutch was there for him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Happy New Years Dutch", Johnny /"Have a good one Johnny", Dutch said./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"And what a year awaited them.../p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Johnny's abusive father used the holidays as an excuse to drink a little more than usual and Johnny's Jakk addict mom used the holidays as an excuse to spend what little bit of extra money they had on drugs. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"For Dutch the holidays meant it was time to observe other people's families, find vulnerabilities in each target's loved ones. Some holidays were better than others, sometimes she spent the holidays alone; the harem she lived in was empty during the holidays because everyone left to spend time with their families. Even Khlyen didn't visit her, she didn't know if he had his own family to be with or if he just didn't want her to think of him as family./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Regardless, Dutch and Johnny had never looked forward to the holidays, but things were different now that they had found each other. They were their own little family. Closer to each other than either had ever been to their biological families./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The holidays were especially hard on Dutch because since Khlyen had shot her husband, Dutch had been lying to everyone around her to keep her identity hidden- expect Johnny. To the rest of the world she was Dutch and they had no one had any idea of her previous life as a princess. They might have suspected Dutch had been trained go be some sort of assassin early on in her life, bu they didn't know anymore than that. /p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She wasn't lying to them exactly. Dutch could be considered a nickname and they had never asked if it was her real name. Justifying it to herself didn't make the facts any different because there was something about hiding who she was, that made it hard for her to see her adopted Westerly family as the kind of family you spent the holidays with. She was Yalena of the house Yardeen and they had no idea./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"But when she was with Johnny things were different, she was who she was. He had met her at her lowest, when she was still Yalena, the night he tried to steal Lucy. Yalena had her gun to his head while wearing a wedding dress covered in her husbands blood and yet he was there for her anyways. He was also there when she became Dutch, a level 5 Killjoy who feared by many. He was there for her when the nightmares of being Yalena filtered into her dreams at night, waking up afraid of going back to sleep. He had been there for her through everything, he was her family now./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"So this year they decided to celebrate, to try and greet the new year as new people, people who weren't haunted by their pasts. Most years they usually went to Pree's bar and tried to drown themselves in enough alcohol so that neither of them remembered anything, let alone their pasts. But this year when new years eve turned to new years day Dutch and Johnny were sober enough to remember their promise to try and move on, leave their old lives behind./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"That year Dutch and Johnny grew closer than they had been before, each relying on the other. When Dutch started to drown in her past Johnny was there to pull her out and when Johnny couldn't escape his own nightmares Dutch was there for him./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Happy New Years Dutch", Johnny /"Have a good one Johnny", Dutch said./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"And what a year awaited them.../p
