December 25, 2363
Having gone through my first Christmas experience last year, it was entertaining to watch Blue go through his this year. Outside of Human society, particularly what was called “western society” in centuries past, this Christmas thing is practically unheard of. I hadn't actually realized how obvious it was to everyone else that I found Christmas to be such an oddity, but when I'd comment to Travis about this and that reaction Blue made, and almost every time he had something to point out about my reactions last year, it quickly made the oddity of this holiday that much more clear.
Travis warned me that the family had been a little perplexed as to what Blue would enjoy for gifts, but they seemed to have done a good job. Wendy and Alice found a leather vest with blue tooled Celtic knot work on it, and Cindy had come up with a pair of knee high leather boots with a sheath for a knife on the side. Her gift had surprised me, given how she reacted to his weaponry upon arrival, but she'd even managed to figure out which piece of his collection was his favorite and had the sheath sized to it.
My gifts this year were awesome. Wendy found me a collection of history books, focusing on old Earth air and space craft, all actual books. I've kind of developed a fascination with actual books, instead of the digital things that are so common, the heft and smell of them as you read, the aesthetics of them on a shelf. Then factor in my love of flight, and being able to learn how it sprung forth on this planet, and I was grinning ear to ear once I realized what I'd opened.
Alice had found more music for Travis and I to add to our collection, more 20th century music. She had somehow come up with live recordings, even video, of some of the bands and artists that Travis had in his collection of Masters, but she also found bands we hadn't previously encountered. There was swing music, not really my thing but Blue seemed interested in it, and there was metal, which both of the boys kind of shied away from but I enjoyed the weight of it. She'd also found recordings of Earth Operas. Mama had mostly brought me and my brothers up on Klingon opera, but I'd gotten the chance here and there to experience the sound of the Human sort also.
Cindy's gift seemed a little odd until I had a chance to flip through the books that Wendy gave me. When I saw the pilots in the open cockpit airplanes sporting the same style scarf, hat and goggles, I understood why she'd given me the set. I plan to wear them when I get a chance to take Grace out flying again. I know Cindy will be happy to see that.
Travis and I had noticed how much Blue had enjoyed reading the Shakespeare my brother had loaned him, so we picked up copies of a couple of the plays. We'd found the nice editions that were the Human translations and the restored Klingon side by side, with the nice leather covers and everything. As for my gift to Travis, he'd been talking big about wanting to learn to cook, instead of having us live off of those replicated and prepackaged rations that the company provides. So I found him the basics to get him started; the utensils, a burner and a pan. To complement this gift, his mother and sisters had put together a spice collection of key Earth spices and not a few from other planets too.
Travis and Blue found me some new pens for my journal writing. I hadn't mentioned that I'd been noticing that my current pen was running low, but either they knew, or just felt that it couldn't hurt for me to have extras, given how much I write in my journal, but they found me some nice ones that I like the feel of.
Like last year, we went to visit the extended family for a dinner on Christmas day. Blue elected to wear his new leather vest, and his new boots, though with the sheath detached and the weapons mostly left behind. I managed to find something that would still allow me to conceal my d'k tahg. Blue and I ended up hiding off in a corner most of the time, Travis going back and forth between keeping us company and making the diplomatic pretense with his extended family.
Somehow over dinner, someone got Blue and I started telling stories of bar fights. It was actually quite accidental, as Blue overheard one of Travis' teen-aged cousins going on about some holo-drama he'd been working through, and talking about the combat in it. Blue spoke up and started picking apart the flaws he could tell just from the vague descriptions. Of course, the teen then challenged Blue as to what he could possibly know about combat.
At Blue's insistence that he'd injured more people using nothing more than his little finger, than this kid could have even faced in the holo-drama, there was an awed silence from the kid. Most everyone else hadn't been paying attention to this exchange yet, but Travis chuckled softly to himself, and explained that his cousin Jimmy was usually all talk anyways. When Jimmy finally got over his awed silence, he asked Blue to tell him about something he'd done.
Blue elected to start with the tale of the time he and I took on a pair of Nausicaans. This was actually one of our intentional bar fights, but the group of jackasses we intended to provoke into starting the fight instead dumped us onto the Nausicaan's table. Well, they'd dumped me, and Blue was too good of a friend to leave me to get pulverized on my own. I was actually surprised we he and I ended up being the ones to walk away from that, but not nearly as much as the people who'd watched and started making bets over the outcome. One little old Chinese human had taken all the bets in favor of me and Blue, and when everyone else was floored over the fact they had to pay up, Blue and I went to settle damages with the owner, the little old man followed right behind and threw half his winnings towards the damages settlement.
Even though Travis knew about the Nausicaans, and how the settlement cost less that time, somehow Blue and I hadn't mentioned the little old Chinese man to him. He was absolutely tickled pink about that aspect of it. The story also managed to draw in the attention of more of the younger cousins, and Travis suggested we talk about some of the Klingons we'd squared off with. The rest of dinner, and then in the den after dinner for a good portion of the remainder of the evening, Blue and I held court relating our tales of chaos and violence.
I suspected, and Travis confirmed for us, that the older generation mostly disliked it. To my surprise, Cindy was actually fascinated and lingered along the edge of our group. Wishy washy or not, I suppose she enjoyed a good story told as much as anyone else.
By the time we left, it was pretty clear I had new members of my fan club, and Blue had developed a fan club of his own. It was mostly split between the genders. Among the younger children, the girls mostly idolized me, and the boys mostly idolized Blue. With the older kids, they tended to drift towards whichever one of us they were inclined to crush upon. Some of the oldest cousins that fell in Blue's fan club whispered some offers to him that I could tell he was sorely tempted to take, especially since most of the ones so daring usually were above the age of consent according to the planet, but for some reason I failed to catch, he declined each and every one of them.
The funniest thing of the evening was Grace. When Cindy insisted it was time for the Foster clan to make their way out the door, and I scooped Grace up onto my shoulders, the look on her face made it clear that she felt she was the president of my fan club, and the younger cousins were clearly jealous. This was also when she gloated that her Aunt Dizi had not only taken her out flying, but let her do some of the flying. We left the house to a clamor of children insisting to their parents that they wanted to go flying with Cousin Dizi too!
After Wendy put Grace and Andrea to bed for the night, she cornered me and guided me to the kitchen for a late night chat. When Travis tried to follow, she playfully slugged her brother in the shoulder, and insisted it was girl chat, so he should go find Blue for company instead. Travis pouted, but when I whispered promises of good sex later if he'd let his sister have her way with me first, he made his way off with little more than a kiss and an ass smack.
Wendy opened up conversation simply, as she replicated some hot chocolate for us, by asking what the nature of my and Travis' relationship with Blue is. The first claim that he was a dear friend and a coworker failed to satisfy. She mentioned having been coworkers with a couple of Andorians before, and knowing of their culture's lack of concept of friendship. She also indicated there was an added level of comfort between he and I that she didn't see between him and Travis.
When I asked her if she was trying to imply something, she admitted she was just trying to understand the dynamic because she didn't want to see her little brother hurt again. Having such a bond with my siblings allowed me to take this at face value, especially since she was up front about it when asked. I told her about what the nature of my relationship with Blue had been before Travis and I had gotten involved, and how he'd stepped aside for Travis and I to get together. I also told her of the Harem quips when visiting Qo'noS, the quips about the three of us forming a bond when visiting Andor, and the conversation Travis and I had on the subject after he'd nosed through my journal. She was especially amused over the bonding thing, but promised not to say anything to Travis about it, agreeing with my and Blue's opinion that Travis wouldn't be as amused. She also suggested that with time, he might come around to accepting the idea... but not to push him on it. I'll have to ponder on that for a while, but I'm not sure if I should tell Blue, not even sure what he'd think of it.
At any rate, the concerns being addressed, she then admitted to having been fascinated by the Andorians she'd worked with, and the rumors about how casual their society was about sex. She blushed when I suggested she should have explored that interest before getting married, but she quickly admitted that she'd gotten pregnant and married entirely too young. I hadn't asked why her husband wasn't around this year, but she admitted to me that they had been fighting more. After last year's unfashionably late arrival, and the way he seemed to play his children off their mother, I can't say I was surprised by this development.
I quickly turned the subject back to Andorians and sex, having not intended to bring the conversation so down. She hadn't actually understood what it meant when being told Andorians were a quad-gendered species. Like most, she simply assumed that only the shen and chan genders were different from the bi-gender “norm” and that the thaan and zhen genders were fairly the same as the male and female genders respectively. She became absolutely fascinated as I went into some detail as to what the key differences between a thaan and a human male happened to be. I also happened to mention I'd gotten Blue off once, doing nothing but playing with his antennae. This was about the time we noticed we had a tiny eavesdropper lurking just outside the kitchen.
Wendy quickly scooped up Grace, and told me to go find Travis as we could talk more about this another time. When Grace fussed and insisted she wanted to stay up and talk with Aunt Dizi too, I told her to be a good girl if she wanted another flight. She was quick to listen to her mother's insistence it was bedtime, and Wendy directed a thankful smile at me as she headed down the hall to the room Grace and her sister were sharing.
When I made my way back to Travis' room, I found him and Blue deeply involved in a game of 3D chess. I watched at first, but as it looked like it was going to take a while to finish, I eventually elected to write in my journal instead. They're still going now, which is mildly annoying. Maybe they'll stop if I elect to masturbate while I'm waiting. Probably shouldn't though, poor Blue wouldn't be allowed to play and that wouldn't be fair to him.