So now we come to that part of the story where Daniel is reminded of his unique situation - both amongst the witches and his one way trip through time and space. He can't be with his family as usual, but now he has a girlfriend. What exactly can he do to celebrate on the front lines during wartime? Read on!
Daniel and Sasha decided to tell the rest of the unit about their newly found relationship the next morning after breakfast. However, they were beaten to the punch when Hikari and Nipa greeted them just outside the dining hall with hearty congratulations – which everybody else saw and heard. While there were congratulations all around, a couple of the others also gently expressed how envious they were.
However, Commander Rall called the two of them into her office once breakfast was done. When they sat down, they saw the commander with a very serious look on her face, making them a bit nervous. Finally, she said to them, "I think you know what we're here to talk about." They both nodded slowly and she continued, "Strictly speaking, your relationship violates protocols regarding such things." Both Daniel and Sasha gulped, fearing what she would say next.
"However, I am inclined to make an exception in this case." Rall then looked directly at Daniel and explained, "When I talked to both Mio and Minna about bringing you here, they both said that you are an honorable person and that you could be trusted to do right by all of us. Based on your general conduct and overall willingness to help us so far, I believe that to be true - and I especially believe that to be true regarding Sasha."
Daniel and Sasha both sighed in relief and gratitude - it appeared that Commander Rall was going to be supportive of the couple's new relationship. However, she also laid down a few ground rules that they had to follow – first, their relationship couldn't interfere with their duties; second, they had to be discreet about showing affection toward one another, especially when the male support staff members were around. "We can't have them getting any ideas," she explained. The final rule, which Rall stressed emphatically, was that Sasha couldn't get pregnant. "If you violate this rule, there WILL be hell to pay. Understood?" Daniel and Sasha agreed to these rules immediately with a simultaneous "Yes ma'am," as they were dismissed. Before they left the office, Rall said to them, "One other thing...good luck - to both of you."
A couple of weeks later, it was Christmastime, or Saturnus, as Daniel learned it was called in this world. 'I guess Christianity didn't become the dominant religion here like it did in my world,' he thought. It was this time of year that he really missed being with his family. As they were Jewish, Hannukah was the big holiday this time of year, and man did his mom make the best Hannukah dinner! Tender braised brisket, crispy potato latkes, matzah ball soup, and even flourless chocolate cake were regular parts of the holiday for him growing up.
However, as much as he would have liked to have shared these holiday favorites with his comrades, that turned out to not be a possibility about a day before the Saturnus festival was scheduled to be held. It was lunchtime, and Hikari was absent from the table with a fever and cold she had developed earlier in the day after sledding on the river with Kanno and Nipa. When Shimohara came out to serve lunch, it consisted of a simple broth with only simple doughy dumplings in it – called 'suiton soup.'
Unfortunately, the Neuroi attacks on the warehouses in town had depleted their supplies, and Commander Rall said not to expect more for at least several weeks. Not only that, but Rall also said that the supply shortage meant that the Saturnus festival would be cancelled – something that was definitely not met well by Nipa in particular. 'So much for some holiday cheer,' thought Daniel.
Later, as Daniel was in the hangar with Sasha while he was doing the usual maintenance on his fighter, Kanno and Nipa approached them with an idea of holding a scaled-back version of a Saturnus festival – if only so that Hikari could experience it. Sasha came up with the idea of carving a wooden matryoshka doll as a gift for Hikari, commenting that she had received one as a child and had loved it.
While Daniel sheepishly apologized for not being able to contribute to the gift – he couldn't carve, paint, or draw to save his life – Nipa came up with the idea of him playing his music during the party. Daniel agreed to this immediately, and as soon as he completed his maintenance work, he went to his room to create a good playlist.
After about an hour or so of looking through his collection, Daniel thought that he had come up with a pretty good list of songs to play - songs that he felt everyone would enjoy, even if they didn't know them - although the only holiday-themed one he had was Bruce Springsteen's version of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (he had it just because it was Bruce Springsteen - and really, is any other reason needed?). As he finished creating the playlist, he also wondered to himself whether he could do something nice for Sasha.
He then began to look through his stuff, determined to figure out SOMETHING to give or do for Sasha. The first thing he saw was the crate of yuzu ramune that still held most of the bottles full of the drink. 'Possibly,' he thought, but he wasn't sure that Sasha would even like the drink. Plus it was cold, and this wasn't exactly the most desirable thing for cold weather (Daniel still liked it, but he knew he was unique on this). He put it aside as a possible last resort.
As he went through the various pockets of his knapsack, he finally came across a single bar of chocolate that he had bought off of Barkhorn just before leaving Britannia. The packaging was still intact, and, thanks to the Orussian cold weather – it was still solid. 'This will do,' Daniel thought. Heck, it was the only thing he had that would make for an appropriate gift.
He also wanted to put a personal touch on it, and he came up with the idea of writing a poem to go along with the chocolate. It didn't have to be something overly elaborate, as long it was from the heart. He got to work trying to think of something that Sasha would like, before writing out the following haiku:
A warm smile greets me
Ocean blue eyes soothe my soul
My heart leaps with joy
Looking over it and feeling satisfied, Daniel signed his name to it, folded it up, and placed it, along with the chocolate bar, in his desk drawer for safekeeping. 'Make sure you do better next year,' he thought to himself
Later that evening, as everyone else was trying to prepare something for the party, Daniel went to Hikari's room to check on her. With him, he had a dose of cold and fever medication from his personal medical kit, and a glass of cool water. He explained to Hikari what it was – saying that it would help he get better – and had her take the medication and get back to sleep. Before he left the room, he patted her head and whispered, "Get better soon, my young padawan."
The next morning, the rest of the 502nd continued their makeshift preparations for the improvised Saturnus festival, with Sasha and Kanno working on the matryoshka doll, Shimohara and Georgette trying to look for something in the kitchen to make other than suiton soup, and Krupinski out cutting down a fir tree for the occasion, apparently punishment from Meister Rossman.
Nipa then gave a heads up to everyone that Hikari was coming down the hall. Apparently, she was feeling somewhat better, but was still not quite feeling herself. Kanno and Sasha quickly hid what they were doing and tried to make it look like Kanno was receiving punishment from Sasha again. In the meantime, Daniel and Nipa tried to get Hikari to go back to bed, not only to keep the surprise intact, but also to make sure she would get better quickly. However, the surprise was somewhat ruined when Krupinski came from the outside with the fir tree she had cut down and immediately called out to Hikari saying that the tree was for her.
After Krupinski was given a new punishment – this time she was the one who had to gather mushrooms from a local park – Daniel and Nipa were able to get Hikari back in her room and into bed. Nipa explained why she had really wanted to put on the festival for Hikari, explaining that it had made her feel more at home the previous year when she was just starting out with the 502nd. Meanwhile, Daniel also provided stories of his own experiences with the holiday season, explaining that this was something that emphasized the importance of family and friendship.
After Hikari went back to sleep with dreams of the festival in her head, Daniel and Nipa went to the kitchen to check on the progress of the food. What they saw was…not encouraging, to say the least, as everyone in the kitchen was now laughing like an idiot. As the two asked what was going on, it was explained that they had cooked and tasted the mushrooms Krupinski and Rossman had picked.
Nipa – an expert on mushroom gathering herself – looked in horror as she saw what kind of mushrooms were in the bowl. "These are laughing mushrooms! Why did you pick these?" she exclaimed. "Oh, great," said Daniel sarcastically. "We're dealing with hallucinogenic mushrooms." "oh crap!Then he realized that Sasha and Kanno were probably trying the mushrooms as well. 'Oh crap!' he thought as he and Nipa went to try to warn Kanno and Sasha. However, it was too late, as they had already eaten some of the mushrooms and were laughing their heads off.
Just when Daniel and Nipa thought that things couldn't get worse, the universe once again proved them wrong when the Neuroi alarm sounded. "This is the absolute WORST timing!" Nipa shouted. As they scrambled to get to their fighters, Hikari appeared, having been woken up by the alarm. Nipa immediately ordered her not to suit up, as she was still sick. Hikari looked down, so Daniel said, "If you really want to help, you can be our eyes from the ground."
As they took off, a Neuroi beam hit close to the hangar door, striking the tree and setting it ablaze, ruining yet another part of their already makeshift Saturnus festivities. Reaching battle altitude, Daniel and Nipa were having a hard time seeing the Neuroi, despite Hikari claiming that she could clearly see it. They then flew a bit lower and saw that this Neuroi was only visible on one side before opening fire.
They engaged in a dogfight for several minutes trying to keep it from causing any more damage when Nipa shouted through the comm that her gun had jammed. 'This is bad,' Daniel thought. 'I can only do so much on my own. If I'm able to find the core, I'll need to use a torpedo to destroy it. I need to find the core and be ready to switch weapons FAST.'
He continued firing at the Neuroi to take some of its attention off Nipa, but was unable to find the core. As he came around for another attack, he suddenly saw several rockets come seemingly from nowhere and hit the Neuroi, exposing the core. Through the comm system, he heard a slightly garbled, but familiar voice. "Core sighted. Target confirmed." Daniel then saw a series of machine gun shots hit the core, shattering it and taking the Neuroi in the process.
Daniel then heard the voice again, this time clearer, "Hey, Nipa! Hey, Daniel!" He looked to where Nipa was looking, and there was Eila and Sanya – it was them who had saved the day! AT closer look, he also noticed that they were wearing bright red lady Santa suits for some reason. After also receiving a greeting from Sanya, the pair revealed that they had come bearing gifts, as a special sled was sliding down the river towards the base with what looked like several crates of food and supplies.
Later that evening, after everyone had recovered from the laughing mushrooms, the 502nd unpacked the food and other holiday goodies in the crates, and set up for the festival. The rows of candles – apparently a big tradition in these parts – was certainly a moving sight to see, as was Hikari's face when she was presented with the matryoshka doll. In addition, the mood lightened up even more when Daniel started playing the special playlist he had created. At this point, everyone was in the mood to party and rock out, and Daniel's music delivered on that.
While this was going on, Sanya came up to Daniel, with Eila right behind her, and said, "Here – we have something for you. Happy Saturnus!" Daniel thanked them, as Eila was explaining, "It was Sanya's idea, really." Sanya handed Daniel a decent-sized tin that was labeled as Suomus-style hot chocolate mix. Daniel chuckled as he thanked them again. Sasha had overheard the exchange and asked about it. Daniel then explained that it had been his beverage of choice with the 501st when he was on radio duty with Eila and Sanya on night patrol.
As Elia, Sanya, and the members of the 502nd were enjoying themselves, Daniel took the moment to take Sasha aside to a spot where they thought they would have a bit of privacy so as not to be overheard. Once they were by themselves, Daniel pulled the chocolate bar and a folded piece of paper from his pocket, and handed them to Sasha. "I know it isn't much," he said, "but I wanted to do something for you for Saturnus. I hope you like it."
Sasha smiled as she took the chocolate bar, and then unfolded the paper to read its contents. Once she read the poem Daniel had written, her eyes lit up even more as she said, "Thank you very much, Daniel! This is so sweet of you!" She then wrapped her arms around his neck as she drew him in for a kiss. After she drew back a bit, Daniel wrapped his arms around her waist and began to get lost in her ocean blue eyes.
Just as they were beginning to lean into each other again, they were interrupted by a familiar teasing voice saying, "Well, well. What's going on here?" Sure enough, there was Eila who had come up to them without their noticing and was grinning a mischievous grin. Sanya was right beside her, and she was showing a bright, genuine smile, as she exclaimed, "Congratulations to the both of you! You really look cute together."
As Daniel and Sasha thanked Sanya for the compliment, Eila pulled the couple with her as she led them to a spot by the railing. As they wondered what Eila was up to, she then pointed to the top of the railing and said, "You know what you have to do now." There, tied to the top of the railing above them, was a piece of mistletoe.
At seeing this, both Daniel and Sasha began to sport a blush. It was one thing to kiss when they thought nobody was watching, but to do so in front of everyone….Both of them were very new to this relationship thing and were still figuring out how comfortable they were with expressing their affections towards each other.
Eila then began to egg them on, and the members of the 502nd began to follow suit. Even Commander Rall seemed inclined to let Rule #2 slide here, seeing as it was Saturnus, and the other male personnel weren't around. Seeing as they were expected to do SOMETHING, Daniel began to look at Sasha to see what she wanted to do when he saw a glint and a very slight smile come to her eyes and face. Before he could react, Sasha cupped his face with her hands and kissed him, eliciting a cheer from their friends. As for Daniel, his brain pretty much shut down for a minute afterwards, as he could only smile and giggle like an idiot at what Sasha had just done.
So, there's Daniel's first holiday season without his family (well, maybe with family of a different kind in this case), and he's able to get through it well enough. A party, a gift, and even a kiss under the mistletoe! Not too shabby all things considered. Tune in for the next chapter…