What makes you laugh?
Her friends used to make her laugh; her colleagues, Chang, Churlstein, Razor, Favorito, and Scott. Razor and Favorito had been the jokesters of their group; silly little gags and obscure alien rituals.
She used to laugh at self-important, desperate Churlstein- quietly, because she considered him a friend, but she had laughed. She'd stopped laughing when he had gone to the Shadows.
He was the type, of course; she realized that now. Pompous old Churlstein, who had always been afraid that he would be forgotten...
He'd ended up forgotten anyway, after Donne shot him.
He had a better death than most of the others- better even than Donne's; amongst the horrors of her past, Donne's death scream still echoes back to her. No one deserved that.
She used to laugh at Liz, her best friend, and later her sister-in-law; Liz, who had introduced Anna to her brother, and Anna's future husband, John. Liz, who used to sit beside her in their undergraduate days, whispering sarcastic little comments about their professors, and their fellow classmates. She can still remember the things Liz said about one in particular, an overbearing history professor who carried his doctorate like a bludgeon.
That was such a long time ago... She hasn't seen Liz since just before they set out for Z'ha'dum.
And after, well... for the longest time there was nothing to laugh about, nor any way to do it. And then...
She would have laughed more, in joy for her freedom, if she had simply died with the world of Shadows. Instead she lingered, and there was no amusement in Lorien's open-ended Vorlon-esque questions.
And then there were the mages. Galen, dark and troubled, acidic wit to put Liz to shame. He used to laugh at himself in such a bitter, self-depreciating way, but now the jokes are good natured, and she can laugh at them.
The mages make her laugh now, more than anything else- Galen and Federico, and the stars know, Alwyn. Alwyn singing off-key, some horrid Centauri drinking song (or a Narn drinking song, or a Brakiri one... Alwyn had quite a store of vulgar drinking songs); Alwyn, swearing like a drunken sailor, then looking so embarrassed when he realizes she's heard every word. It takes her back, though, to the days when she'd roomed with a linguistics student who specialized in swear words...
Muse: Anna Sheridan
Fandom: Babylon 5
Word count: 392