The X-Project

On Christmas Day, Amara and Layla are amongst those helping out at the soup kitchen. Amara is a little concerned about the younger girl, who seems to be working herself to the bone.

[BACKDATED]

Christmas was generally a day Layla would have loved to ignore. Every year it came, people got excited, celebrated with their families, bitched about their families and spent the day surrounded by people who cared about them. Every year Layla went over Christmas day from eight years ago, the last one her parents were alive for. It was a sweet sort of torture. At least being at the soup kitchen gave her a distraction. And the people here were just happy someone bothered to take time out of their day to come down here and help out. They just wanted to be treated like human beings for a change. Having people so screwed over by life in front of her made it easier to fake it than it was the rest of the time lately. That meant she got fewer looks like she had four heads or had been abducted by aliens recently, at least. Layla smiled at the guy in front of her and laid a few slices of ham on his plate.

Amara hadn't particularly celebrated Christmas before she came to America - Nova Roma being based on the worship of Selene, they hadn't celebrated the birth of Christ. So while she'd come to enjoy celebrating it, it wasn't a holiday she felt particularly attached to, nor had any particular sentimentality in regards to it. But Americans did, which is how she'd ended up here today. She'd so far enjoyed her time volunteering at the soup kitchen, and had been trying to work out if she would have time to do it on a regular basis. So far she hadn't been able to rearrange her schedule enough, but she was determined to make it work.

"Hi Layla," she said warmly as she joined the younger girl at the serving bench, carrying a plate of freshly carved meat to add to the serving plates. "Have you had a break yet?"

"Huh? Oh, no. It's okay, though, I don't really need a break." She smiled at another guy who came up for ham and waited to see if Amara had any new ham for her own serving plate before laying a few slices down for the guy. "It's not like the shift's that long or like I'm like working in a mine or something, you know? So it's cool."

Amara emptied her plate onto Layla's, also smiling to the guy she'd just served.

"Maybe not, but you should still make sure you have something to eat. There are some sandwiches in the fridge that we brought along." Amara hadn't wanted to take food away from the homeless, and there would be plenty of leftovers back at the mansion.

"I can eat later," Layla replied offhandedly. She was, admittedly, sort of trying to get Amara to just sort of leave her alone. Nothing against Amara, she seemed nice, but people talking to her was harder to keep up than people moving through a line for food. It was easy to smile at the strangers. Attempting to be in good cheer for more than thirty seconds was a bitch and a half though.

"Okay," Amara replied mildly. "Just don't forget." Amara knew how easy it was to lose track of time, and she didn't want Layla to work herself too hard. She left Layla to continue serving the meat, going to check to make sure no one else was running out of food.

* * * * *

Everyone who had shown up for lunch had their plate of food now, which meant the servers had a little time to rest before it was time to start cleaning up. Amara had taken a seat in the kitchen, nibbling on a sandwich as she glanced around to make sure everyone else was doing okay.

Layla had opted not to sit down and rest. Instead she was carrying a stack of serving platters and associated utensils into the kitchen. There was no point in waiting for other people to clean up when she could just do it herself. Besides, if she was moving no one would bother to ask why she wasn't chipper on Christmas.

"Layla," Amara said as the younger girl went passed. "Have you had a sandwich yet?" She'd noticed the girl had stayed busy despite the opportunity to take a rest. She wasn't going to ask her about it, but she did think Layla should at least have something to eat.

The teenager paused, platters still in her arms, and turned to look back at Amara. "Not yet. I'll eat when I'm done. I ate breakfast, it's no big deal." She tried to brush it off casually but there was a hint of impatience in her voice all the same.

"Alright," Amara replied, not pushing her, though she was worried. "Make sure you do stop and have something to eat before we start serving dessert. You can leave some of the cleaning up to the others to do."

"If they need the break and I don't then it's not a problem. Why make someone else do something I'm totally capable of doing when they're tired or were up late or have stress or whatever? That's just fucking stupid. I'll eat. It's fine. I'm not like, anorexic or something. I'm just scrawny 'cause I am." Irritation had leeched into her tone more and more as she spoke. Layla didn't like the attention. She ate like all the time anyway and mostly she just wanted to be left the fuck alone today. She wanted the focus to be on the people who were coming here for help, for food they wouldn't be able to have otherwise.

Layla's defensive made Amara pause, looking at her closer for a moment. Her years in America had taught her that sometimes Christmas wasn't the happiest time for everyone, and she was wondering whether that was the case for Layla. But she also didn't want to pry, so she didn't ask the questions that sprang to her mind.

"That's very thoughtful of you," she said instead. She didn't continue to press Layla about eating, hoping instead that the girl would do what she said she would. "I think we'll start serving dessert in about twenty minutes, depending on when everyone stops eating."

* * * * *

Dessert was everyone's favorite part, it seemed. They had lined up all at once when the pies had been brought out and unwrapped. Who could blame, them, though? It wasn't a holiday without awesome fucking pie. Layla was dousing a slice of apple pie with whipped cream for a kid, covering the thing as much as possible per request. A couple people had volunteered their share of the whipped cream to make the kid's day. Hey, it was the small things. "That's it, kid, you're cut off. We can't have you developing a habit here," Layla joked and sent the kid on his way. She then used the brief pause in the flow of people to grab half a turkey sandwich and shove most of it into her mouth. She hadn't even bitten down when she spotted Amara. So what did Layla do? She grinned around the mouthful of bread and meat and pointed to the sandwich sticking out of her mouth proudly. Because, hey, if you were gonna be pestered about eating shouldn't it be like an event when you did? You know, like the first time little Johnny actually uses the potty on his own or something?

Amara couldn't help but grin when she spotted Layla, sandwich half-way shoved into her mouth. She was in the middle of sorting out enough spoons for everyone when she'd met Layla's gaze, and she was now doing her best not to start laughing out of nowhere. The grin still on her face, she inclined her head to Layla, acknowledging her actually - and finally! - eating.