Since Fictionpress is being stupid:

[Fate]

Here you go. You can still read it and I'll post it on there tomorrow.


It’s The Holidays?


The hospital was decorated for Christmas. Was it really December already? We’d missed Thanksgiving. I couldn’t believe it. It was Christmas.

It was Christmas and we hadn’t noticed, because of everything going on.

Staring at all the décor; the trees, the wreaths, the Santas and the reindeer; I felt rather guilty for forgetting one of the most important holidays of the year, at least in most religions back in the states.

We decided to ask one of the nurses the date. Or rather, we had Lamp do it, as we were still feigning only French. It was interesting considering that most of us only knew how to swear in French and nothing else really. Thankfully, given the circumstances, the extreme swearing was reasonable, not that anyone knew what we were saying.

Lamp discovered that it was the twentieth, five days until Christmas. Whoa. Jesus, when had we actually managed to make it home for a holiday? It had been a while, that much was certain. I hoped our families weren’t too worried.

We checked on how much money we had. Twasn’t much, and the nearest casino was too far to walk.

We saved a twenty to use to gamble, divided up the remaining money, and decided on doing not-so-secret Santa’s, it being the only thing we could afford. Everyone got one person to buy a gift for, except one person who got two, accounting for Nathan’s being in the hospital.

Jeremy got me, Pyro got Lamp, I got Fishy and Jeremy, Lamp got Pyro, Fishy got the female Py, and Py got Nathan. Then we split up and went shopping for whatever the hell we could find, be it crappy gift shop chocolates or something from a nearby store.

It occurred to me splitting up maybe wasn’t the best idea, but clearly we weren’t thinking things through anymore.

I got Jeremy a cute stuffed bear, Lord knows why. It was cheap and at hand I guess.

I searched for nearby shops, but apparently the nearest ones were by the casino and I didn’t have the time to walk and like hell I’d hitchhike.

I got creative and bought a beaded bracelet off a nurse for Fishy. It had fish in the design, and it was totally perfect. I’m not sure how I managed to convince the nurse to sell it to me, but I did and I had five dollars left over, so I saved that to gamble with.

Then I went back over to where we’d split up from and waited for the others to show up or to receive news on Nathan.

Have I mentioned I despise hospitals? Yes? Ah, well I really do. Particularly after all the time we were spending in them.

Lamp was the first to arrive back. She got Pyro a copy of the Iliad and Odyssey she found one of the nurses reading. I showed her what I got for Fishy and she laughed.

Py came back next with chocolate and tea for Nathan. “It was all they had,” she told us, in way of explanation.

Fishy got back next, the Jeremy, then Pyro. We didn’t get to see what they got.

“So when do we want to exchange gifts?” I asked.

“How about when we hear how Nathan is?” Lamp suggested.

I nodded as did everyone else.

Then all that was left to do was wait. Swear. And wait.

And most of us were drop dead tired, and fell asleep.

***

It was technically the next day when the nurse woke us up. Two am.

I was leery of the news she was going to give us, but then I noticed she was smiling. I didn’t relax yet. I wanted to
hear she was okay before celebrating.

“You are the ones who came in with that girl, right?”

We nodded groggily.

“She’s alright for the most part. Aside from the knife wound, which was rather deep, her hand is broken and a few ribs
are cracked, but that’s it.”

I’m sure many people would have spazzed out over someone disclaiming that like it was nothing, but hell, I was just
glad she was alive.

The nurse told us where we could go see Nathan, and as soon as she was gone we celebrated amongst ourselves and then headed for Nathan’s room with all of the presents.

When we got there Nathan looked… better, but still… At least the knife was gone?

We exchanged gifts.

Jeremy got me a glass necklace, and I love those.

Pyro got Lamp a copy of the same book she got him. Which was proceed with them kissing. And yes, I went, “Awww,” out loud this time. I couldn’t help it.

Fishy got Py fuzzy slippers from the gift shop on the third floor, because apparently there was more than one gift shop.

Jeremy liked his bear. I told him I was tempted to buy him a skirt and laughed.

Fishy squealed when she saw the fishy bracelet and we all laughed.

Nathan was happy to be eating chocolate, because, well, hospital food sucks. The gift shop food is slightly better than the cafeteria food.

Not bad for a Christmas we almost forgot about and ended up spending in the hospital. We sang Christmas carols for most of the night. We pretty much sang until we passed out.

One of the best Christmases ever, minus the hospital.



Sorry if the fromat is funny. Hope you enjoy.

[o0_flying high_0o]

'Tis wonderful and cute and fluffy. Maybe slightly pointless, but there's nothing wrong with that, and last time there was a pointless chapter it ended up being... the opposite of pointless.

[Lamp Post]

*agrees with Flying*

Heh, now my ficverse character gets to carry around a copy of the Illiad/Odyssey, just like how we talked about the other day! :D *adores that book*

I loved this "When we got there Nathan looked… better, but still… At least the knife was gone?" and this " Or rather, we had Lamp do it, as we were still feigning only French. It was interesting considering that most of us only knew how to swear in French and nothing else really. Thankfully, given the circumstances, the extreme swearing was reasonable, not that anyone knew what we were saying."

[nathan_p]

I'll just leave a review here.

This Christmas is the best Christmas <3 I don't even know where to start -- but I want a Christmas like that.