milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

Val bounces into the bar, normal. Perfectly normal for once. Well, other than the huge conspiratorial smile on her face. She's up to something. Perhaps it's just the bounciness of the season, perhaps there's more to it than that. She puts her coat on a coat tree that seems to have appeared by the bar, and shakes the snow out of her hair. Picking up her tray and a mug of tea from behind the bar, she plops down on a stool and sings to herself.

Last Christmas
I gave you my heart
But the very next day
you gave it away
This year
To save me from tears
I'll give it to someone special

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She crosses her arms. "Do you forget the books I took back two nights ago?"

"No, I know they're there, but I have no clue what's in them." She shrugs. "Besides, that's not my future, really. I'm staying in the bar. I'm writing my own story. Whoever that guy was who wrote about Ender and I, he didn't know the first -thing- about us." She wrinkles hernose. He was more accurate than she was going to admit.

She raises her eyebrow. "Was he? Fascinatingly enough, everything he wrote about Demosthenes matches what you told me ..."

She's bluffing. The books remain unread in the bottom of one of her trunks. But you couldn't tell from her face.

"I don't know. Perhaps he's a bit more accurate than I thought, but I maintain that whatever is in those books isn't my future. I'm going to write my own future." She sighs. "I guess I'm not as bad as I think I am."

She hugs Val. "You are a heroine. How many times do I have to tell you this?"

Val chuckles, hugging Mina back tightly. "I guess even heroines ahve a bad day, neh?"

She laughs. "You are allowed the occasional day of self-doubt. Not too often, or I will slap you silly ..." She smiles, joking.

Val pulls up her apron, and covers her face, miraculously not dropping anything out of it. "Eeek. I think I shall be good, because I do not want to face the wrath of the great and terrible Mina." Her tone is joking.

She grins, shaking her head. "Silly ..."

Her eyes twinkle. "Hey, I think that's part of my job description around here."

She laughs again. "That may be."

She grins for a moment. "Yes. It is. That, and hospitality committee, and decorating committe." She points around the bar, where there are now wreathes, and garlands. "Thought that it could use something."

She nods. "It smells wonderful in here, now."

Val grins. "That's what people have been telling me. It really does bring some cheer to the bar. Now all I need is to find some mistletoe."

She giggles. "You would probably need to include instructions ..."

Val's eyes twinkle. "Oh, don't worry. I will. Wouldn't that be a riot to see people in the bar under the mistletoe?"

She smiles. "It would remind me of home.

"Every christmas, everywhere you went, there were trees with candles ... people were happier, even though it was cold and some were starving.

"It is a time of charity and of thanks."

She nods, seriously. "It was similar in my time. We had trees as well, but electric lights. It was a time of giving, of love, and of caring. Well, at least that's what most people liked to think. It was also a time of selfishness, of commercialism, and of frustration for some."

She sighs. "No offense - but I will work to keep your world from happening ..."

She chuckles. "I would love to be able to work to keep my world from happening too. It's a hopeless society, in many ways. So many people don't have much to work for. Granted, the colony planets are a bit better. People have to work to stay alive, and keep going, but yeah." She shrugs. "There are so many times I wish I could go live in the worlds of some of the other people here."

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