WHO? Lotus and Liv
WHAT? The two meet.
WHEN? Thursday night.
WHERE? The streets of NYC, in the vague area around Rockefeller Center
RATINGS! TBA, possibly mature if Lotus thinks about the hospitals...
STATUS! Open to Liv shaped.



Christmas was coming to the city. Santa would be coming, they told people. Santa was fake, Lotus knew that, but it was something they told little kids to make them excited. They said to buy things for the people you loved, but Lotus loved nobody and, he understood that no one loved him. Not because he was bad, or anything. He just didn't have anyone. Loneliness only depressed those that were used to something else, that understood that there could be more. He had accepted long ago that some things weren't for him. But he accepted the hospital and the pain and the smells and the fear to be part of his daily life, and that changed, so you never really knew. The problem was, though he'd never say it, Lotus knew hope was a dangerous thing. It made your chest hurt when the hope didn't turn into reality.

So instead of wishing to be a part of the crowd shuffling through the cold New York night, Lotus just accepted that he wouldn't be part of it, or any group. And he was happy, anyway, as he walked. He liked the lights. They were beautiful. He heard something about a big tree and asked someone about that a few blocks back. The person was a nice one –Lotus did have a bit of a gift for finding the truly gentle souls– and told him where to go to see.

His only Christmas memories were at the orphanage between the hospitals. There, there were too many kids, not enough money. But there was a tree there that made the whole room smell good and foresty and everyone woke up to one present. Once, Lotus got a coloring book and a box of eight crayons. Small, but he treasured that little book, cried when he filled in the last picture a month later, he had tried so hard to make it last. The crayons lasted until they took him away again, he used them so carefully, that they were the only thing Lotus lost that day, possession wise, that he missed. The following year, there wasn't a Christmas, not at the hospital

Thinking of Christmas at the orphanage reminded him about how there was hot coco, always on Christmas and Lotus liked that. It was warm candy in a cup. He was thinking about getting a hot coco, he hadn't had one since then, and looking in shops when he walked smack right into someone. He gasped in surprise, reaching out to steady the woman he walked into, feeling guilty.

“Oh! I'm so sorry!” He said quickly, managing through some major self control not to shrink back from this stranger.