[Open] It's the season of possible miracle cures

[crimson_sugar]

It was Sophie who made Sugar notice that yes, indeed, Michaelmas had come and gone. In fact, Christmas is coming godspeed, and oh! nothing has been done to celebrate, and when you are a parent, you should celebrate, and and and!

That's why, on impulse without consulting her co-parent, or anyone, for that matter, Sugar bundled up, made her way to the

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[mal_badinlatin]

Mal has a love-hate thing for Christmas: he likes the festivities, but the reason for the season has lost much of its meaning to him, and there are times when it reminds him of people he's lost along the way. But he's not about to be a gorram Scrooge, thus he's been out much of the day cutting berried holly and winter berry branches to tuck behind pictures on the walls and along the tops of the windows and the mantelpieces. It's very likely that he might pass by Sugar on one of his trips with an armload of greenery and long twigs with red berries on them.

"Hoy there, need a hand, Miss?"

He and Sugar should get along famously...

[crimson_sugar]

The shawl which Sugar had tied around her head to cover her ears is sliding a little, and she's in fact having a pretty hard time with both dragging the tree and seeing anything at all.

That's why she has to drop the whole gorram thing and twist around to see who's talking.

The vapor slips out of her mouth when she replies, "If you won't mind helping me take this back to the Mansion, sir," she replies, "that would be very kind to my little girl."

^^ This is spifzors!

[mal_badinlatin]

"Nothin' doin'," Mal says, setting down the armload of holly and approaching to reach through the branches carefully to take the middle of the trunk in one hand before taking a second grip on the trunk, closer to the butt end. "Ain't Christmas without a nice pine tree. How old's yer little girl?"

[crimson_sugar]

"Here, let me --" and unless he objects, Sugar might hesitate - should she stick to the tree, or pick up the holly instead? She's confused, now - kindness has that effect on her.

"-- she's just turned nine," she replies distractedly. "-- should I take the tree, or?"

[mal_badinlatin]

"I got it, don't you worry yer pretty head over it," he says, preparatory to lugging the tree toward the house. "Y' wanna get that holly, y'd best be careful with it: the leaves bite somethin' awful."

[crimson_sugar]

"I'll be careful," she replies, and is drawling more than usual under Mal's influence. Her cockney is showing - by force of habit, likely.

[mal_badinlatin]

He rather likes that Cockney a bit, much as it might remind him a bit of Badger, the wannabe crime lord of the Eavesdown Docks. "Wouldn't want it said I let some lil' girl's ma get her pretty hands all prickled up," he says, grunting a bit as he hefts the tree a bit higher in his arms. "I'm Malcolm Reynolds, jus' Mal f'r short. And you 're?"

[crimson_sugar]

Ahahaha, pretty hands - Sugar smirks privately - she has a terrible case of psoriasis which she has been able to fend off with varying degrees of success depending on the time of the year. The winter is particularly bad, though.

"Sugar," she replies, "and you're quite the gent," she informs him.

In other times and other places, he might have been able to weasel a rebate on her services, very likely. He looks like a good guy.

[mal_badinlatin]

"Jus' treatin' y' the way a lady deserves t' treated," he says, with as much of a shrug as he can manage while lugging a tannenbaum. "B'sides, it's almost Christmas, time when folks oughta help each other."

[crimson_sugar]

"It is," Sugar replies, and she sounds a little bit like Mal, though her accent is of course not the same. "It's nice to see that kindness still exists, even here."

[mal_badinlatin]

Mal doesn't think of himself as a kind sort, by any stretch of the imagination, and he has to restrain himself from snerking. "Jus' doin' m' best t' make m'self useful aroun' here," he says. "Hate seein' a lady wrasslin' with somethin' this big."

[crimson_sugar]

And she isn't anything like a lady, she insists. "-- well, thank you anyway," Sugar replies. "It's mighty sweet of you, seeing as my gent isn't about tonight."

[mal_badinlatin]

"Sorry t' hear that," he says, though he really isn't. "He's missin' out on one a' th' best parts a' the season. Y' need help riggin' the lights, or y' got that covered?"

[crimson_sugar]

"Any assistance would be welcome," Sugar replies easily, though she doesn't know what Mal means by 'riggin' the lights'. "I'm sure he'll be about momentarily, but he won't mind having a competent stand-in."

She smiles a little - Mal looks like a nice man, though he's old enough to be her father.

[mal_badinlatin]

He pauses a moment to hitch the tree a bit higher in his grip. "Been years since I decorated a real tree, might be a bit rusty, but it ain't rocket science," he says, looking up and down its length. "But m' crew likes t' deck out th' inside of m' boat."

[crimson_sugar]

"You do sound like a docker," Sugar notes. "What boat was that?"

She doesn't go on about decorating the tree - it's implicit that she'll help and he's welcome to it, of course.