milliways_bar | (no subject)

There's off-key humming coming from one of the booths; a humming that might sound something like "Deck the Halls" in its more tuneful moments. The sound isn't coming from the seats, but from the end of the booth, as Jack's standing next to the booth's table, the table covered in Christmasy items--snarled balls of lights, molting tinsel garlands, and layers of tissue paper with ornaments laid neatly on top.

He's sorting through the Christmas things he'd got from his apartment yesterday, looking for a couple items in particular, and there wasn't any space to do so in his apartment. At least unless you count the floor or the bed, neither of which was much of an option with a rather bouncy chihuahua running around.

"A-ha!" he says, pulling out a small, lidded box, from the very bottom of the larger box. Inside are two ornaments, nestled in cotton batting. Their paint is chipped but they're stil recogniseable as a small, blonde-haired angel and a small star.

He carefully puts the lid back on the box, then pokes through the tissue paper, looking through four generations' worth of Bauer Christmas memories.

[ooc: Must flee for bed, but feel free to tag if you want to slowtime!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"My apartment. I took a peek out the door yesterday and it led right into my apartment so I grabbed a few things I wanted. It's all stuff I got from my parents, or collected over the years," he says, taking a sip of the hot chocolate.

Elaine smiles. "That's nice. It's good to have things like this."

Elaine doesn't have much from home, anymore. Most of her jewelry went towards her tab in the first few months of her stay here at Milliways.

"Yeah, it is. Kim has quite a bit of stuff to, but I wanted to keep some of it," he says, placing the mug on a bare spot and picking up one of the ornaments--a small, wooden nutcracker.

Elaine looks at the small item curiously. "What is that?"

"A nutcracker," he says, moving the lever that operates the jaws. "Not a useable one--the ones that were actually used for cracking the shells of nuts are larger, more sturdy. There's a ballet called 'The Nutcracker'--we got this as a souvenir the year we took Kim to see it."

Elaine nods. She's only heard of ballet from Meg, really. "Things to remember the event by."

She had little trouble picturing Kim younger. "How old was Kim?"

"Eight, I think. She wanted to be a ballerina for the next month and a half.," he says grinning as he remembers her doing wobbly pirouettes in her sock feet.

She smiles. "I can believe that. Do you have any plans for Christmas?"

"Not yet--I hardly realized until today how close it is. It still feels like it's a few weeks away, not four days. What are your and Ryan's plans?"

Elaine sighs happily. "We're just going to have a quiet Christmas at home, I think." Her gaze drifts to the ring on her left hand as she rubs it idly.

"But it did sneak up on us, this holiday, didn't it?"

She's been thinking more of the solstice, since it's tomorrow.

"Yeah, it seems to come faster every year. And it doesn't help that you can never keep track of the days in here."

He smiles wryly. "I sure hope this Christmas will be quiet. You never can tell in here."

Elaine laughs quietly. "Unfortunately, no you can't. I think it will be quiet. Last year, it was, as I remember."

"Good. Let's hope that stays as an unbroken record."

He winces. "Oh, hell. You know what this means? Four days left and I haven't even started my Christmas shopping."

Elaine laughs. "I'm sure you'll think of something. You are quite resourceful."

"In other words, I'll wait until five in the afternoon on Christmas Eve before finally asking Bar for everything wrapped and labelled already."