[Dated to Christmas]

[kingshit_lloyd]

Lloyd preferred New Year's to Christmas for a pretty simple reason -- Christmas was a family thing, and Lloyd had been a lone rider for a real long while now. His last two Christmases he's spent locked up in fucking Brownsville, and they had been bittersweet days; sweet on account of the screws at least pretending to give you a break, bitter

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[bennet_beauty]

Jane had been out for her daily walk with Lydia and that it was Christmas was a strange occasion, for she did not have enough gifts to give to her daughter (at least, not as many as she did wish to). Lady pranced alongside them, her golden and sleek coat shining in the sun and it was her that alerted her to company, sniffing until she arrived at Lloyd.

Jane followed at a brisk pace, calling a swift 'Lady! Behave!' to her as she hurried to join them, regarding curiously the little creature in Lloyd's hands. "A rabbit?" she clarified. "Where did it come from?"

[kingshit_lloyd]

Lloyd stopped to give Lady a quick pat on the head (he still got a kick out of the dog's name, thinking that if the island ever decided to drop a mutt on him, he'd have no choice but to name it Tramp) -- the rabbit was still just a baby, small and sleepy enough to hold in one hand for a little while.

"A rabbit," he confirmed with a somber tone, though by the time he looked up at Jane and Liddy, a grin was splitting his face. He'd left the cage behind, since he doubted he had it in him to keep anything caged up these days, regardless of whether it was the smart thing to do. "Figure it came out of thin air, just like everyone else 'round here."

[bennet_beauty]

Liddy was already making grabbing hands towards the rabbit, allowing a squeal of a sound. "Mama!" she announced with joy, and Jane bounced her gently, pleased to see the animal and her daughter's glee.

"She does seem pleased to see it," Jane observed, tipping her head to one side. "Don't you, darling?"

[kingshit_lloyd]

"She sure does," Lloyd agreed, his grin easily mirroring Liddy's enthusiasm. "Hey, honey -- this is Playboy, he's my bunny wabbit," he explained, doing his best Elmer Fudd impression; Jane wouldn't get it, but he didn't think it was too early to get the little girl started on her modern education. "Here, you want to pet him?" he asked, holding the rabbit out to her. Letting her hold it would probably be a bad idea, since Playboy was too small and fragile, but petting seemed all right.

[15_words]

Jaye was a LIIIIIIITTLE drunk. Not a LOT drunk, but a little. She could still walk on her own ... uh... one foot and two crutches. AND in a straight line. But walking back to her trailer after the party at the Officers' Club had just been too much for her, so she'd decided to head to the Compound instead for some central heating and a bed in the crash room.

Being a cripple was good for some things. No one could take a bed from a girl with crutches.

The problem was she didn't exactly remember where the crash room was. She kept to the top level of the Compound, and for all she knew the REAL Sasquatch was making his home in the caves underground and connected to the lower levels. So when she stuck her head into the Children's Office and found Lloyd, she's actually been looking for a bed.

"Huh," she noised, leaning against the door frame. "Was looking after Satan's number one rabbit part of your duties as executive assistant?"

[kingshit_lloyd]

At the sound of Jaye's voice, Lloyd quickly looked away, blinking rapidly to eliminate incriminating evidence, before he got stuck having to blame his current condition on something stuck in his eye or allergies or some shit.

Once he felt more or less okay, he turned to her, carefully holding the rabbit against his chest; the little guy seemed mostly stoned at the moment, which was probably a good thing. Jaye, on her part, looked a little tipsy, though it was kind of hard to tell for sure with the whole fancy crutches getup.

In response to her question, Lloyd tilted his head to give her a lingering, 'shows what you know' kind of look. "Rabbits don't do the devil's work, Jaye. Unless it's like, Bugs Bunny or something; he's one evil motherfucker, don't take a genius to know that. But Satan's got those cats -- you know, the Siamese, James Bond villain shit? Fits his image better," he said it all with great conviction, even though in reality, the thought of Flagg with any kind of pet was more than a little unsettling.

[15_words]

Jaye followed that train of words well enough, but when she tried to put together her own sarcastic rebuttal, she found that her brain just didn't want to work that hard. Lloyd cuddling a bunny was more interesting than bed, but verbally sparring over the Devil's choice of pet was not.

"Then why are you snuggling a bunny?" she asked bluntly.

[kingshit_lloyd]

It wasn't a very complicated question, but somehow Lloyd couldn't find the answer right away and just stared at Jaye for a couple of long seconds.

"It's mine, I guess," he admitted finally. "Used to be, when I was a kid." He wasn't sure he wanted to continue with any kind of elaboration on the subject; in fact, he was pretty sure he wanted to leave it just at that.

[poison_lipstick]

Saffron didn't much pay attention to the comings and goings of the Children's Office, on account of children didn't interest her in general. The sight of Lloyd inside with the most precious rabbit caught her eye, though, and she headed over, curious.

"What an adorable rabbit, sugar," she said by way of greeting, smiling sweetly up at Lloyd before reaching a gentle finger out to stroke the soft white fur. "Did it just show up?"

[kingshit_lloyd]

Lloyd held the rabbit close; it looked understandably jet-lagged, probably from its trip between worlds, but definitely alive. It took him a second to notice that somebody else had come into the room.

"Yeah, he's something else, ain't he?" Lloyd said in a near-whisper, smiling with a childish sort of enthusiasm as he glanced over to Helen. He had to clear his throat to make sure he didn't sound choked up or something. Fucking Hallmark moment, right? "Guess he just did. Didn't pop out of a magician's hat or anything, but still pulled a pretty neat trick."

[poison_lipstick]

"Then he must have been yours back home at some point. Am I right?" Saffron asked softly. It tended to happen to everyone at some point or another, it seemed. She'd been lucky in that it had only happened to her once, a long while back. "What's his name?"

[kingshit_lloyd]

"Yeah, that's right. Think I was about nine when I had him," Lloyd said, frowning faintly. He wasn't exactly sure -- his memories of that time were all faded and fuzzy, like an old film reel. All except for the rabbit's death, which he'd kept seeing over and over, almost like he was back in that shed again.

"You know, I don't think he's got one yet." That obviously needed fixing, and Lloyd began to construct a list of fictional rabbits, from Harvey to Bugs to the Energizer Bunny, but then an iconic image surface in his head, mirrored by a sudden grin on his face. "How's Playboy sound?"

[intrinsicworth]

"Too early indeed," Glen said dryly from the door. He'd been on that floor and seen Lloyd go into the children's rooom, so curiously, he'd followed. He wasn't aware of the current roster, and was surprised even after Lloyd's swearing up and down that he wanted to reform.

"Someone ought to tell that fellow that it's Christmas. Wrong holiday, and in some respects, the wrong religion if you get right down to it." It was unclear whether Glen meant Easter or Christmas or both, but for once it looked like he wasn't about to elaborate.

"Happy Christmas Lloyd," Glen said diplomatically, although he didn't smile.

[kingshit_lloyd]

Lloyd sent Glen a startled look, feeling - irrationally, for a change - like he'd been caught red-handed. It took him a few moments to reassure himself that there was nothing wrong with holding a rabbit. That he knew of.

He had no clue what the hell Glen was going on about, with the whole wrong religion thing, but he supposed it didn't matter all that much. "Naw, I think it was aiming for Christmas, actually," he decided, though he had a feeling the rabbit neither knew what holiday it was nor cared very much either way. "Short of appearing inside a stocking, it made a pretty spot on entrance."

Standing there talking to the guy he'd killed and cradling the rabbit he'd accidentally starved to death, Lloyd wondered how much weirder life could get.

"Merry Christmas, Glen," he echoed after a beat, pretty much meaning it.

[intrinsicworth]

"Strange thing to find in a Christmas stocking," Glen commented, still leaning against the door frame. "Thing for rabbits?" he asked curiously, looking for something to say that would make this less awkward.

He didn't know what he'd expected. He'd followed Lloyd with no plan at all.

[kingshit_lloyd]

A what? Lloyd stared at him for a pretty long moment, struggling to form a response to that. "Look man, I don't know what kind of guy you think I am, but I ain't into any weird shit like that. I got a thing for redheads, not rabbits," he stated rather proudly. Maybe it wasn't the sort of thing he was supposed to say to a respectable elderly gentleman (especially one he'd shot not two months ago), but Jesus, what had Glen expected, phrasing it like that?

"But no, it, uh," he started, then got stuck for a second; making dumb jokes was easy, but a genuine answer was a real fucking challenge. "It used to be mine, when I was a kid." There, simple enough, right?