Audrey had learned early on that a starship was never fully silent. She could always hear the faint whirring of the engines as the Viridian made its way through the stars, like a sound halfway between a hum and a whisper. Like most passengers, she stopped noticing it much after awhile, though she always found it comforting to have it in the background.
More recently, she'd gotten used to spending her nights listening to not only the sound of the ship, but also the steady, even breathing coming from the bunk beneath hers. And before long, she'd realized that the sound made it much easier to fall asleep, and it had become a lot less frequent for her to be woken in the middle of the night by horrible dreams of seedy nightclubs or the sharp-tempered boyfriend she'd left behind. She could sleep easy knowing that she was in a safe place, and Seymour was resting peacefully only a short distance away.
The first time she did jolt awake from a nightmare in her new room, it took a few moments to remember where she was and reassure herself that she wasn't in danger. And as soon as her mind was clear enough to notice it, she realized that the sound of the engines was present as always, but she couldn't hear Seymour.
After making her way down the ladder, she fumbled for the control panel and turned the lights up just enough to be able to faintly see the room. As soon as her eyes adjusted, it quickly became clear that Seymour wasn't in his bed. She checked the time to make sure she hadn't accidentally slept in, and saw that it had only been about a hour since they turned the lights off and fell asleep.
Pushing back a wave of unease, she told herself that surely there was a simple, no-cause-for-alarm reason why he had left. Maybe he was hungry and had gone to get a snack, or perhaps he just couldn't sleep and had decided to go for a walk. She should probably just climb back into bed and try to drift off again. But even as she thought about it, she already knew that she would never be able to get any rest knowing that Seymour was gone and she didn't have any idea where he was. And to make matters worse, his communicator was still sitting on the bed, which meant she couldn't use it to contact him.
After taking another moment to settle her nerves, she decided that she would go look for him. She knew all the places where he spent most of his time on the ship. Surely it wouldn't be too difficult to find him, and then she would know that nothing was wrong. She didn't want to waste time changing all the way into her uniform, but also didn't want any of the people who were still up and about enjoying their vacations to see her wandering around in only her nightgown, so she compromised by throwing the green shirt over what she was wearing before heading out the door.
The xenobotany lab seemed like the best place to look first. She knew that if Seymour wasn't in their room, that was the other most likely place to find him. And apparently, she knew him very well by that point, because her first guess proved to be correct. As soon as she stepped into the lab, she spotted him cross-legged on the floor, sitting next to a box, a plate of some food she hadn't seen before, and a candlestick with nine branches.
After a moment of being relieved that she'd found him, she started to worry she might be interrupting some private ritual, and she wondered if she should try to back out of the room unnoticed. But Seymour had already heard her, and thankfully, he looked perfectly happy to see her there. After he motioned that it was alright for her to come join him, Audrey went over to sit next to him.
"Latke?" He offered, pushing the plate where she could reach.
Though it didn't taste quite like any of the meals he had shown her before, Audrey had learned enough about Earth foods to know that it was made of potatoes once she had tasted it.
"I'm sorry I left without telling you. I had almost forgotten it was a holiday back home, and then I had to come here 'cause we're not supposed to have fire in the living quarters."
"Is it alright that I'm here? I could leave if it's supposed to be something you do by yourself."
"No, I'm glad you came." He assured her. "It's meant to be a time you spend with your loved ones. I just didn't wanna wake you while you were already asleep."
Audrey smiled, feeling a warm glow inside at the idea that he considered her a loved one. She thought that was such a beautiful phrase.
She realized it hadn't yet occurred to her to ask much about his holidays, and she was quickly starting to grow curious. Looking at the candles, she saw that only a small number of them were currently glowing, and she asked, "Are you going to light the rest of them?"
"I will eventually. You light one a day."
"Oh, I see."
"Usually you do it at sunset, but… I guess just about any time is alright out here."
He hadn't spent a lot of time feeling homesick in the past, but there was something he had found a bit disconcerting when the holiday came around and he remembered they didn't have a sun to reliably count on out here. Just a designated time when the hallways dimmed to the nighttime setting. He supposed that really, they didn't even have a night and day, aside from whatever schedule they all agreed on. And even though he'd already known how many lightyears away he was, the thought had suddenly made him feel very far from home.
But while he was thinking of home, he did remember something that made his spirits brighten a bit, and he reached for the package he had already torn the tape off of. Pulling out two pouches, he handed Audrey the one with a tag that had her name printed on it.
"It looks like Mr. Mushnik sent over something for you too." He explained. Audrey looked surprised, probably wondering how his boss back on his homeworld even knew she existed, and he sheepishly added, "I may have written a lot of messages about how I'd made a friend."
The notification about a package arriving was what had woken him and reminded him about the holiday. There was still no actual message from Mr. Mushnik, but he was happy to at least get some confirmation that his boss hadn't completely forgotten about him.
Audrey opened the bag to peer inside, and her eyes widened when she was greeted by the sight of a glimmering pile of coins. She wasn't sure what the units of currency were on Earth, but she didn't know of any planet where a bagful of gold wouldn't be worth a small fortune. And from what Seymour had told her, people on Skid Row certainly didn't have that sort of money to go throwing around. She wasn't sure what to make of all this, and she shifted uncomfortably as she fidgeted with the bag in her hands.
"Seymour, I couldn't possibly accept all this."
He looked over, his brow furrowing in confusion for a second before he realized what she was thinking.
"Oh, no, don't worry. It's chocolate." He pulled a coin from his own bag to show her, demonstrating how the gold was a layer of foil that could be peeled back to find the candy beneath. "Sorry, I should'a thought to mention. It's a novelty thing people do around this time of year."
Audrey let out a breath of relief, and unwrapped one of her own pieces to eat. She could already get chocolate when she wanted to on the ship, but there was something that felt special about knowing this hadn't been assembled in a replicator, but shipped all the way from Seymour's planet.
"There's a game that goes with this stuff, but we'd need a dreidel, and I don't have one on the ship. I'll try to show you another time." His voice wobbled, and he tried to force it back to a cheerful tone as he continued, "There's a lot of traditions around this time of year I think you'd like. Some people hang up lights and decorations all over, and there's these big red flowers we'd sell in the shop..."
He had never been very skilled at hiding his feelings, but Audrey was the first person he knew who paid enough attention to care about them, and she scooted closer to wrap an arm around his shoulders.
"Is it hard being away while all that's going on?"
He shrugged, his face showing a few conflicting emotions. "I dunno… no one I knew really bothered to do much anyway. I don't know why it feels strange being away. Maybe I'm just missing the idea of what it could be, like they way it always looks on the television. I know that probably doesn't make sense."
"I think it does." Audrey assured him.
He leaned closer against her side, letting his head rest against her shoulder as she ran a comforting hand against his back. His eyes started to grow heavy, and he let them drift shut as his mind started to wander.
To be honest, he wasn't even sure where his boss was anymore. He hoped Mr. Mushnik had taken the money he was sending and moved to a better place to run a business, and possibly that was the reason why messages didn't seem to be coming through. It would be nice to know he'd been able to help in that way, seeing as Mr. Mushnik was the closest thing to family he'd ever known. Though the thought did remind him that the shop was also the only home he'd ever known, and it was a bit disconcerting to not know whether or not his room in the basement was waiting for him. He hadn't exactly been planning to move back there again. Or maybe he had. He didn't really think that far ahead when he was packing up his things and trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was about to be setting off for unfamiliar galaxies. But he wouldn't mind at least being able to know what was going on back home. He just felt very adrift.
He decided he didn't want to think about all of that any more for the night. This should be a time for happier thoughts. It was a holiday, and even if there was no letter, he'd still gotten a gift. And most importantly, it was the first time he'd get to spend this season with Audrey. Leaning against her, her hand still tracing a soothing pattern against his back, things didn't feel so alone. Maybe this was what home was supposed to be like. Finding someone you wanted to hold onto, no matter what far corners of the universe the two of you had come from.
"I'm glad I'm here with you." He said, though the words were nearly cut off at the end by the beginning of a yawn. This was later than he usually stayed up, and now that he'd finished putting together his small acknowledgement of the day, sleep was rabidly catching up with him again.
"I'm glad too." Audrey had already forgotten what had happened in the dream that had woken her. Listening to the sound of that steady breathing seemed to have a way of chasing all of those thoughts away until everything was alright again. "I love you."
Seymour didn't answer. Careful not to disturb him, Audrey turned her head enough to get a better look at him, and she could tell that he had fallen asleep. Even without him saying anything, seeing just how peaceful and content he looked was enough to tell her that he felt the same.
She decided it wouldn't hurt to give him a few more minutes before she nudged him awake enough to get him back into his bed.