Merry Christmas, I blubber from the floor. Here's some Sirius Platoon babies, set sometime in early season 2.
Two months before, Louise looked me dead in the eye with the type of glare that made me take a step back. "Kilian," she warned. "We have a rule in this platoon. No Christmas presents. Presents are for birthdays."
At one point or another through the next two months, everyone in Sirius platoon backed her up.
"Yeah, we're not supposed to buy things for each other," Manabu said with a shrug.
"I'm not sure who decided on the rule," Yuki said. "But it has been in place for some time."
"Had that rule since I've been here," the captain muttered, eyes rolled up in thought.
"Oh sure," David snorted. "We're supposed to follow the rule."
Looking back, I felt like I should have caught the inconsistency sooner – "supposed to," they kept saying. On Christmas morning, when I walked into the lounge area our rooms filtered into, everyone sat on the U-shaped couch, spaced apart to make room for the piles of gifts sitting beside them. My stomach dropped. I glanced wide-eyed from one to the other. Everyone looked calm except Louise, whose arms were crossed. "Weren't supposed to get me presents," she huffed, despite the pile of gifts for everyone else beside her, each tied with a shimmering bow.
"What!?" I spluttered. "You said no presents!" I pointed accusingly at each of them. Manabu at least had the decency to look ashamed, but everyone else smiled my way.
"That's the rule," David said. "We haven't followed it as long as it's been in place, but don't feel bad. No one actually knows to get gifts the first time. Just give us the gift of friendship. That's what I did my first year."
"It's really okay, Kilian," Manabu offered with genuine empathy in his smile. "This is your freebie year. Just come sit down."
I bit my tongue to keep from mentioning how my training was over in a few more months. After that, my role in Sirius was over. At some point, I had to buy gifts for all of them to make up for this. But I followed orders, climbing over the back of the couch to sit beside Manabu's pile of gifts wrapped in wrinkled blue paper.
"Alright," the captain said once I took my seat. He grabbed a wrapped box from his pile and tossed it across the gap to Louise, who grabbed one of her gifts to throw at David. David threw to Manabu, who threw to Yuki. Yuki passed one to me. I couldn't imagine what gift anyone could give an android, or what an android could give me, but I had no room to talk. Before I finished looking over the pristine wrapping Yuki managed for my gift, another box, hit me in the chest. I looked up to find gifts passed back and forth with no concern they might collide in the air. It seemed like everyone had done this a hundred times before. I caught three more before they could hit me in the face. The trading ended with a lazy wave of the hand from the captain. "Alright, have at it," he said.
Everyone tore into one present seemingly at random, leaving me to follow suit. Sure, there was a method to all this madness, but it was madness all the same. They threw "thank you" back and forth just as easily as they'd thrown the presents. I did my best to keep up, earning a smile with every thanks.
I found myself with an odd assortment of gifts: new gloves from the captain because I still wore ripped ones since our last mission, a framed picture of us from Louise, a deck of playing cards from David with different trains on each card because he said "I needed to be familiar with all of them," an ear thermometer from Yuki, and a baseball mitt from Manabu. The last one seemed the strangest until I recalled the time I told him I'd never had one.
They were all too good at this, not just with me, but even more so with each other. Louise squealed over tickets to some play. Manabu rolled his eyes over a hairbrush, while David cackled. Yuki replaced her red hair bow with a new pink one she seemed to be in love with. The captain folded a scarf to sit beside him, right next to one more present left unopened.
Beside each of them, I found one last gift, but no one acknowledged it. The one beside Louise was wrapped in a bow, beside Manabu sat one in wrinkled blue paper. I had to ask. "Manabu?" I kept my voice low while everyone else gathered trashed paper. "What are the last ones?"
His eyes turned to the gift at his side, softening at the sight of it. "We'll go give them to him in a minute," he murmured.
It didn't answer my question, but true to his word, everyone stood after a minute with the last gift in their hands. The whole room sobered despite attempts from each of them to keep joking and smiling. It felt like a fog rolled in over them, and it followed them as they walked to the door. I trailed along a few feet back. Whatever this was, and I had a guess, I wasn't part of it.
We left the barracks, across the back of the station to the cliff at the edge. I couldn't quite call the grave there lonely when all of them gathered around it. The green of the surrounding grass complimented the light gray of the stone. I stayed a few paces back from the group until Manabu turned and motioned me over. Without a choice, I walked over to stand beside him in the half circle around the grave.
Each of them unwrapped their gift, all of them small, and placed it on the flat stone over the ground. A beer from David, a strawberry drink from Yuki, a card from the captain, and a picture from the Louise with all of them in it, along with him. Manabu placed a harmonica down, a smile on his face. "Sorry I broke yours," he said. "Merry Christmas, Bruce."
On the way back, David slung an arm around my neck. "Remember, you only get one freebie year," he said.
"I still don't really get why we have that rule," Manabu sighed, shaking his head.
The captain scratched a hand through his hair. "Tradition, I guess."
The fog left, just as suddenly as it came. They bickered back and forth on the merits of the rule until we reached the lounge again, and I spoke up. "You know I won't be in Sirius next year," I said.
David barked a laugh, Louise giggling with him. "Unfortunately for you, that's not true," the captain said.
Manabu sat on the back of the couch, grinning. "Once you've been a member of Sirius, you're stuck with us. You're getting presents next year too."
"Shh," Louise hissed as she tried to hide a smile worming on her lips. "We don't give presents. That's the rule."