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X couldn’t help but feel marveled at old fashioned newspapers- that is, newspapers still in print and not digitalized. Online news outlets could post new reports as the event was happening. But the prints didn’t have this benefit. Barely 10 pages of what the newspaper’s editor found valuable to the public, and that was it. And not everything was even news! Weather, two or three syndicated comic strips, even a sudoku puzzle for good measure.
What tended to catch his eye the most were the zodiac predictions that were featured once a month. Every year they also listed the Chinese zodiacs and what the year lay ahead for the twelve animal personalities. X would look at each short description for the zodiacs and tried to gauge where he fell in them. He didn’t have a true ‘birth’ date, after all. The curiosity of date based fortune telling was a silent siren call for him.
“Anything interesting this morning?”
X looked up. Aero was coming out of her kitchen with a baked pretzel in hand. She took care to pull each knot out before munching on the salty mid-morning snack.
“Not really.” X admitted. He looked back at the zodiac listings. A thought came to him, and he returned his gaze to Aero. “Hey Aero, what was your Chinese zodiac?”
Aero clicked her tongue as she thought it over.
“Horse. I was born in the year of the horse.” A moment more and a smirk found its way onto her face. “Finding out if we’re compatible? I think being roommates for three years would already solve that one for you.”
X gave a soft scoff in return.
“No. I was just curious.”
Aero nodded as she chewed on her pretzel. She gave a good swallow but did not immediately take another bite.
“Zodiacs are dumb anyway.” she said, more as a thought. “They’re generalizations on what you ‘could’ be, and not the fact that every human is different. Nature, nurture, and all that. You’re better off using that section for kindling.”
“Noted.” X nodded.
Aero nodded back. She continued to snack in silence while X went back to looking over the paper. His eyes immediately zoned in to the section for the horse zodiac.
“Horse.” X read outloud. “Outgoing. Stubborn. Optimistic.”
“I am not stubborn!” Aero immediately refuted with a pouting whine. X stared at her before they both let out a short burst of laughter.
-
As years and wars bore on, humans and Reploids alike tried to cling to traditions that wouldn’t make sense after so many society collapses. And yet (or maybe because of this), the zodiac was one that persisted. As 12 year old Aile helped set up Giro Express for the Chinese New Year, her young mind kept drifting.
Aile and her twin Vent had never known their parents. Girouette certainly didn’t have stories to tell- only that he found them one day and took them in. While Aile knew Giro wouldn’t lie to them without good reason, she was smart enough to realize he was hiding things too. He did know something about their parents- even if he didn’t know them personally.
“What’s that face for?”
Aile suddenly looked up, noticing Vent glaring at her. Deciding to brush off his jerk face, she instead decided to answer him civilly.
“I’m thinking.”
“About what?”
“Our parents.”
Vent made a face. “Why?” he then asked. “We have Giro and Juno.”
“I know,” Aile shrugged. “I just… want a connection to them. You know?”
For this, Vent looked off to the side before shrinking a little.
“Yeah… Kinda.”
He quickly shook it off though.
“It doesn’t matter. They’re not here anymore, but Giro and the New Year party is.”
“Yeah…”
The twins remained where they were. The idea of their parents sunk between them in a way they never really considered missing. Now that it was apparent? It felt heavy.
“There’s my lucky twin horses!” Juno suddenly declared. Both Aile and Vent snapped out of the melancholy to watch their big sis-mother figure come toward them. “These decorations need to be up by the end of the day, so snap to it.”
“Yes ma’am.” the twins said in unison. Their lack of enthusiasm was not unnoticed.
“Okay,” Juno then decided, “What’s up with you two?”
Neither one of them answered at first.
It was Aile who let out a heavy sigh.
“Do you think one of our parents was also born in the Year of the Horse?” the little girl asked. She looked up at Juno with curious, almost hinting on pleading, eyes.
The sincerity of it caught Juno off guard.
“Well,” she tried to laugh off, “There’s certainly a one in twelfth chance.”
This did not assure anyone.
“One was.” Vent softly spoke up. “I can feel it.”
And no one dared to correct him.