Another one word prompt.

. . .

Winter

. . .

"It all seems kinda… cultish. Right?"

Raven stared at him before accepting the styrofoam cup of hot chocolate he had brought her. "Exactly," she said at length. "How did you know what I was thinking?" Cultish. That had been the word she was searching for just before he walked up.

Beast Boy shrugged and moved out of the way for a group of screaming children still sporting their nativity costumes, though the play had been over for nearly an hour. The carolers had taken the stage now-it was the advanced choir from JCU, and they were putting Christmas carolers around the world to shame with their unearthly harmonies. Behind them stood the thirty foot Christmas tree that everyone had come out tonight to see. After the carolers finished it would finally be time to light it. Cyborg was off somewhere in the park hamming it up as Santa Claus and Starfire had dragged Robin up to the front so better to hear the music and see the lights when the time was right. That left Raven to wait for the lighting ceremony with Beast Boy, who had brought her the hot chocolate as reparations for getting snow inside her hoodie during an enthusiastic snowball fight with the kid in the Joseph costume.

"You remember that I grew up outside the US, don't you?" Beast Boy joked as the audience clapped for a madrigal version of O, Holy Night. "I didn't experience any of this stuff first-hand till I was like, twelve."

Momentarily surprised by his statement, she stopped trying to shake the leftover snow from her hoodie. "Right, of course."

She didn't know why she hadn't thought about that before in the context of holidays. Of course Robin and Cyborg were super into Christmas, as homegrown hot-blooded Americans, and Starfire had a fiery enthusiasm for each and every holiday on Earth. But for once, Beast Boy was like Raven.

Maybe it was the hot chocolate's doing, but even though snow had begun to melt inside her shirt, Raven was feeling a little less cold.

"It's strange, isn't it?" she entreated, relieved to have found someone to talk to that shared her sentiments. "All these people who don't know each other, getting together to sing praises to a being only half of them believe in. And where do trees and presents come into it? And elves, for that matter? The significance of all this," she gestured lazily at the stage with her free hand, "escapes me." Really, she was trying. She'd been trying to understand this holiday for years. Though she had learned to just shut up and enjoy the festivities, it had never quite clicked with her on an emotional level.

"Oh yeah," he agreed. "It's hella strange. But… good-strange. Come on, I wanna show you something."

Confused, she followed him through the crowd and around the back side of the rented stage, into full view of the towering evergreen. Gold tinsel was draped around it in bountiful layers, and up close she could see the strings of electric lights that would soon illuminate the entire town square. "What are these?" she asked, pointing at the nearest of the little paper balls hung on the branches, each decorated with small print.

"Look closer!"

She did. Alejandra Fuller, this one said. Age 13. Likes baseball, musicals, and Pokemon.

"All the ornaments represent a child in need," Beast Boy explained, "like one whose parents can't afford presents, or aren't around for one reason or another. Someone like us takes the ornament and buys the kid a present. What a crazy holiday, huh?"

"Yes," she had to agree, plucking the ornament from the tree. "A crazy holiday." A fat snowflake stung her nose and she shivered with sudden misgivings. "Um… If I take this, could you help me find something for her? I don't know anything about sports or musicals or whatever this-"

"Pokemon. And yeah." He tugged his scarf free of his neck and offered it up to her with a hopeful glint in his eye. "You wanna just.. go now?"

"I am fairly sick of Christmas carols," she grumbled. "And I don't particularly care about the lights, which will be up for 25 more days." She traded the rest of her hot chocolate for his enormous woolen scarf and wrapped it around her neck and shoulders, shuddering with relief. It was still warm.

"Yeah, me neither. I mean, Star put the lights up on the tower the day after Halloween! I'm over it already, y'know? Let's go to the mall, then. It'll be nearly empty and I guess now is as good a time as any to teach you about the wonders of Pokemon."

She rubbed her hands together as they left the park behind. "Pokemon." She tested the word on her tongue, trying to remember what it meant. He eyed her curiously as he plucked snow off windowsills, pressing it into a ball in his hands. "That's the eight day Jewish holiday, right?"

"Uhh, no, Rae." He laughed and smushed the half-formed snowball on her arm. "I think you're thinking of Hanukkah."

Raven buried him in snow with her powers and used his scarf to hide her embarrassment. "That's what I said."

I feel like everyone always forgets that the only people that grew up normalized to American culture are Rob and Cy. I love exploring how differently everyone would react to stuff like this. (I've always thought Christmas must seem totally weird to anyone who didn't grow up celebrating it.)

PLEASE NOTE: It's been brought to my attention that I was a little confusing (probably especially with that note there at the end). Obviously Christmas isn't a purely American holiday. I was referring specifically to the commercialization and corporatizing of the holiday that happened over the last century in the US (seen here in the fic with the events and the Santas and the way people who didn't believe in it were still participating). Obviously BB had heard of Christmas before moving there, and possibly even celebrated it, he just probably wouldn't have been used to the in-your-faceness of it that happens in big cities. I imagine anyone that moves into a big western city from outside that culture would take awhile to get completely accustomed to it. Even here in the story I would say he's gotten used to it, I think it's just easier for him to see how Rae's feeling about it since he has been there done that. Hope this clears that up a bit. Thanks!

Next OWP: cruelty