Typical London drab draped the weathered alley outside the small coffee shop's front window; perfect weather for wrapping damp, cold fingers around a cup of coffee.  The interior of Alohomocha was properly warmed but the damp cold had not yet been driven from Sasha's bones so the Ravenclaw had not, yet, removed his wool coat.  In light of his previous and initial conversation with Kohaku, Sasha had attempted to dress casually. 

After an unpleasantly attorney- and paperwork-filled holiday weekend, Sasha had been happy to meet with someone closer to his age over a casual cup of coffee.  The triple espresso was, definitely, hitting the spot.  The scone he'd ordered after Kohaku had ordered food remained untouched on its plate.  Despite the gravity of the weekend's events and the plethora of questions, Sasha felt more relieved than anything.  There was the usual relief of Christmas simply being behind him rather than in front of him.  But, beyond that he felt lighter.  Ready to rebuild, both literally and figuratively.  But, not quite as ready to go back to school.  These last few days of freedom were bound to fly by far too quickly. 

Now, to practice casual conversation.  "Does your family have any particular family holiday traditions?"  Sasha asked.  "Seems every family has their, you know, goofiness.  Or rituals.  Get drunk and watch Peanuts or go to mass?"  Those represented the range of his family's traditions where Jacoba had represented the former and his parents the later. 

---

Threat Title Source

Kohaku loved chilly, cold weather. He loved being able to bundle up in layers. He loved the feeling of going into a warm building after being numbed by the chilly weather. Most of all, he loved warming himself from the inside out with a nice hot beverage. The outside of the coffee cup warmed his hands as he took a sip. Lattes were his go-to drink. Pure espresso was too harsh, and milk balanced it out pleasantly.

His jacket hung on his chair. He dressed much more casually than Sasha-- though Kohaku was beginning to suspect that Sasha didn't know how to be casual. It seemed that loosening up and relaxing didn't come easily to the wizard. How pitiable. Without learning how to relax, it was easy to burn out.

He glanced down at the scone on Sasha's plate. Why order food if you weren't going to eat it? That was wasteful. There had been plenty of times in his life when money was tight. Even though the Yukawas were more financially stable now, the idea of having enough money to waste food was not a comfortable one.

"Holiday traditions? Other than gift giving?" He raised his eyebrows, "Christmas eve, Mai and I order take out and watch movies. Sometimes we play drunk Mario Kart. Sometimes her grandparents visit, sometimes not." They visited this year, briefly. It was thoroughly uncomfortable. "She cooks a big meal, invites friends over. The family we get to choose, you know. It's not always on Christmas, but always around then."

He looked down at his nicoise salad and speared a piece with his fork. "Do you have any holiday traditions?"

It took a sip or two of espresso for the collaborative warmth of the coffee and shop to chase the chill away.  Finally, the Ravenclaw shrugged free from his wool coat and draped it over his chair. 

"Drunk Mario Kart," Sasha repeated with a grin.  "I assume it's you doing the drinking rather than a tipsy Yoshi, courtesy of some off-label modification of the game."  The later sounded like it could be amusing in its own right.  While he didn't have personal experience with either approach, his gillyweed-influence game of hide-and-seek in his old house with Johann gave him some material from which to extrapolate.  "I imagine that involves a lot of flying off mushrooms into abysses."  At least, that had always been the result of his sister's attempts to Mario Kart-drive under the influence. 

Carefully, the Ravenclaw picked a hard round current from the top of the scone and ate it, before taking another a sip of espresso.  "That sounds pleasantly relaxing," though Sasha knew the other young man wasn't looking for assessment.  It sounded both relaxing and remarkably similar to his previous holiday.  Though, in his case, that had been the exception rather than the rule. 

Now...The Ravenclaw shook his head as he considered his options for answering the counter question.  He didn't want to spoil things by going too much into unpleasant details.  And, the past lay in ashes; quite literally, he could only look forward.  Now seemed as good a time as any to practice. 

Again, Sasha shook his head, but with a grin.  "Not really.  I used to spend most of my holiday trucking around from show to show to catch up on points..."  Glancing up at Kohaku to check if any of that made sense, Sasha quickly added: "...horse shows.  But, with graduation around the corner and becoming an 'official adult,' I'll be finding new traditions next year.  I still attend midnight mass and visit with my Oma, when I can.  She has advanced Alzheimer's, but it's just us, now."  Not really but that, again, was somewhat complicated.  "That's really the only thing that qualifies as tradition.  I'm looking forward to leaving all the other formalities behind me and finding new ones." 

"Take out and movies sounds like a good suggestion, though.  Do you restrict yourself to holiday-themed movies?"  They didn't exactly seem like the self-imposed rules types, but you never knew. 

It seemed like Sasha not only approved of drunk Mario Karting, but he was also amused by it. Perhaps he'd invite him over to join in sometime. Mai would probably not join-- he suspected it was against her moral code to get drunk, or even drink, around the students she worked with. Well, that didn't mean Kohaku couldn't. After all, the 7th years were close to his age. Wouldn't Abby have been in her last year of Hogwarts if she had been allowed to go?

"It's fun, not always relaxing-- but fun. What's even more exciting is when karaoke gets involved and the neighbors get angry."  Kohaku fancied himself to be a good singer, but he couldn't say the same about Mai, or any of his friends. He listened as Sasha began to explain his holiday traditions.

How sad. And lonely. Although the family that was his family was small, they loved each other. During the holidays, Sasha spent time with his horses. Or with his grandma who could barely remember him. Alzheimers was an ugly disease, he wouldn't wish that on anyone.

"We don't usually watch holiday-themed movies." Kohaku admitted, "I bought Fantastic Mr. Fox on DVD, and we watched that this year. Last year, we watched Brice de Nice." Now that was a movie he wished he could unsee.

"So." He paused as he pushed the hard boiled egg around his plate with his fork before he cut it to pieces, "You don't have family you care to spend Christmas with? Blood family's not the only type of family out there, you know."

"Karaoke?" Sasha repeated, with equal parts amusement and trepidation.  "Involved with drunken Mario Kart or the holidays in general?"  Unless singing in the choir during mass counted, Sasha didn't think anything the remotely qualified as karaoke had ever graced his holidays.  Come to think of it, he couldn't remember engaging in such activities outside of the holidays, either.  "That sounds very ... carefree." 

"So.  You don't have family you care to spend Christmas with? Blood family's not the only type of family out there, you know."

Sasha blinked and glanced down at the inky blackness in his cup, unsure how to answer the question without compounding what he assumed was an already peculiar impression.  "I spent my last holidays with a professor and his family, but he's no longer teaching.   It was really only the first year I was left to my own devices during the holidays.  Who knows what the future will bring, once I'm out of Hogwarts."  Sasha shrugged and offered a lopsided grin.   "It'll be a choose-my-own-adventure holiday next year." 

"You mentioned you were a second year medical student," Sasha asked, hoping to shift the conversation away from any directly family-related topics.  "Do you know What's your plan is for after school?  Are you hoping to do clinical work or more research?  I imagine clinical oncology can be a pretty emotionally charged field.  I'm not sure I could do it."  Sasha could see the appeal of the mystery-solving aspect of clinical diagnostics but the thought of having to navigate all the panicked, desperate strangers was almost panic-inducing.  He'd much rather help them from the relative comfort of a research lab.  "That's pretty impressive."

Kohaku paused, "Kareoke happens especially on the holidays, but that's not the only time." In fact, he went out and sang kareoke from time to time. He wasn't shy when it came to his singing voice. Neither of the Yukawas were-- though he had more of a right to be proud about his singing than his sister.

The fact that Sasha spent his holidays with his teacher struck Kohaku as sad. Pathetic. Lonely. Also, what kind of creep was this teacher, inviting his students over the holidays?

He did his best to keep a stoic expression, and was grateful that Sasha directed the conversation elsewhere, stroking his ego while he did it. Kohaku straightened up his posture. "Clinical work, ideally. I wouldn't say no to research but... I'd rather work with people." Even if he wasn't the greatest people person. Being around people socially was different than a patient-doctor relationship, wasn't it? "You'd be surprised what you can handle. Can you be calm when it's necessary?"