White | Silver | Black
"Peace on Earth. Goodwill to Man," that's what they're all saying at the moment. I don't see what's so peaceful about this time of year. The countdown is on. It's three days to the one-day of the year where everyone stops and ponders Peace. Yes, That day. Her day. The day Ms Peace usurped from Santa Claus... or perhaps not.
Sitting here in a sidewalk café, watching parents fight over toys across the street, I wonder if the war is truly over. At least back in the old days, we knew who the enemy was - most of the time. Now, normally mild mannered parents fight over the remnants of this year's must-have toys with a Zero System intensity.
It makes me glad that neither Yuy nor I celebrate this day for gift giving reasons. Winner has started to, since he married her. We even got a card from him, though I suspect that his secretary sent it by mistake. He must have forgotten to erase us from his address book. The last I heard he was studiously ignoring us.
Barton, I've never known him to celebrate anything. When we first heard of Winner's engagement, Yuy and I went to see him. His sister hadn't seen or heard from him for six months. I wondered then who had actually left first. I wasn't as certain that it had been Winner, after that trip to the circus.
The little brat is going to fall out of that trolley, soon. Where's his mother? I might... No need. Yuy is close enough to catch the boy, should the need arise. Good. He can stay over there. I don't want to hear what he has to say. He has that look in his eyes again. Hasn't he realized, yet, that he won't find Maxwell until the imp decides he wants to be found?
It's always this time of year that Yuy gets the urge to go looking. He should have listened to me when Winner got married. "He'll be there," I said. "Go and talk to him or let him talk to you. If you explain what happened..." He cut me off then, with one of his best glares and mentioned something about our mission. The idiot! Yuy is truly the idiot everyone thinks Maxwell to be. The mission would still have been there after the wedding. It was.
Maxwell wasn't. He was the only one of the five of us who actually enjoys this time of year. No one has seen or heard from him since that day. No, that might not be true. The more likely truth is, probably, that no one will admit to Yuy that they have any contact with the imp. Somehow, I suspect that if he was really needed, the Winners could find him. I'm a firm believer in Relena's search capabilities but she is the last person Yuy would willingly ask about Maxwell. He just isn't that desperate, yet.
The only Christmases I remember enjoying were spent in Maxwell's company. He used to put so much effort into making this time of year fun. Perhaps that is why Yuy misses him especially in December. December, when parents ready themselves for battle and old soldiers, like us, hide in non-children infested areas of town.
There he goes! Good catch, Yuy. Better you than me. You have a much higher tolerance for pain than I do, and that brat is screaming his lungs out. The next time Sally & Noin want a baby, they can ask someone else. I don't regret doing them the favor, not really. At least, now, the Dragon Clan won't die with me.
"No, Yuy, don't bring the brat to me!"
I'll brave the war-zone and go get the women.
The End