Multicolored (Ling)

Prompt: Multicolored.

A/N: Wow two publications in one day?! This has been sitting around for a few months so have this and today's Flash Fic Feb prompt piece that will come later today. I hope everyone celebrating the Spring Festival has a good year ahead and may all your wishes be fulfilled :) Xin Nian Kuai Le!

 Seeing such bright colors during a festival can be a bit of a shock when so much of the world seems dull or red-tinged the rest of the time. The spring festival however allows for a multicolored series of festivities. I had decided to drag Lin out of the lab and away from her research to come along with me and my partner from work to see the lion dance and get some food. “Lin, this is Xiran Yu, you’ve at the very least seen her before. Xiran, this is Lin- you already know enough about her from what I’ve told you.” the two shake hands and exchange greetings, having heard about the other through me. Having exchanged pleasantries we set off into the multicolored chaos in search of good food and even better performances. It being a saturday means there are significant crowds, though there are always crowds, and people being off work for the week to celebrate and spend time with family.

First we stop at a stand that makes animals out of sugar. I decide to get a dragon while Lin gets a rabbit and Xiran gets a crab. The golden sugar is slightly transparent allowing light to shine through. People pass by in multicolored clothing and costumes. We then find a lion dance performance to watch with their colorful costumes, whoever is under there must have a lot of upper body strength to be able to do what they do, especially the ones who sometimes have to lift others on their shoulders. Lin at one point reminds me she used to do something similar when she still danced, poking me in the shoulder and whispering “I did that.” before we move on.  We pass the rest of the afternoon wandering our way through the festival, stopping to eat a treat or two every so often, and watching the various events going on. We briefly spot Valan and Sammie among the crowds from afar, unfortunately they’re too far to say hello to. That doesn’t matter much though, they’ll be coming to dinner tomorrow along with Eno and Yuuri.

As dusk falls the crowds begin to disperse a bit as people head home for dinner with family. Lin, Xiran and I however decide to stay awhile longer as once the sun goes down comes my favorite part- the fireworks. How fireworks are exactly made I’m not sure, I should probably ask Fyr one day, he would probably know. I do know however that the multicolored explosions of light, while loud and sometimes disorienting, are beautiful and I look forward to them every time. The fireworks go on for close to half an hour before dissipating as the event ends for the day. “Time to go home?” Lin asks as we walk toward the entrance to the area and I nod in confirmation. Home is not in fact actually home, as much as it is where Eno lives, but it’s close enough. Lin does spend a majority of her time there anyways, hence the reason she refers to it as home. She had a bed there, and her lab, and food, it’s a home away from home. I manage to convince Xiran to come along with the promise of free food and potentially other goodies that come along with the spring festival. “Before we go in you need to promise you will never tell anyone about this place or its inhabitants.” Lin makes Xiran swear before we enter the room that holds the trapdoor to the Morag Tong’s headquarters under the Arena. “I swear on my life I will never tell another soul.” Xiran replies with a hand over her heart. “She will hold you to that you know.” I tell Xiran when she mentions swearing on her life, Lin nods seriously at my statement. There are detective kinds of top secret and then there are Morag Tong kinds of top secret, I don’t even want to think about the Dark Brotherhood or the Blades and how they do things. With that settled we head down into the headquarters and find Eno waiting, and with Valan, Sammie, and Yuuri also there, as is Qin with Xu on her knee. We wish them all a happy spring festival and mention we saw Valan and Sammie earlier. The floor is as clean as I’ve ever seen it, whoever swept it in preparation did an excellent job. “Who swept the floor?” I whisper to Lin in between saying hello to and catching up with everybody. “I did.” she responds and so I give her a quick pat on the back and tell her she did a good job.

 Now that enough time has passed and everyone has caught up, dinner comes and as always is delicious. There are a variety of traditional foods including some from specific regions that had been prepared like those from Valan’s region in the coastal southeast including fish, Lin’s in the central northern region that are mostly meat based and which have a bit of a kick to them, and Yuuri’s from the mainland. In the end there are eight unique dishes including meats, rice, various kinds of dumplings and noodles, and fruit. During dinner also comes Valan’s favorite part of the holiday, red envelopes. Unusually we would be the ones giving them out to the younger generation but considering the only child here is Xu the rest of us also get envelopes from Eno due to him being the elder and in return there is a chorus of wishes for a good and healthy new year for him. With dinner eventually ending and everyone sleepy from a good meal we begin to go our separate ways, reminding each other we will reconvene tomorrow for more festivities, break out the multicolored lanterns, watch the lions and dragons dance, and eat delicious food until the festival is over.