@honeybeed liked this post for a holiday starter!
Everyone goes home for Christmas.
Lucius is in between tours of duty and, honestly, he’d rather be back overseas than back on the farm with his old man. But here he is. He spends most of his time shacked up with his girlfriend, making up for lost time, but he goes back to the farm daily to help his father and Marcus, even though they don’t do anything but drink beer and complain about how he’s doing everything wrong (what, too good to clean up cow shit anymore?)
In good news: Marcus has always managed to get his hands on damn good weed. Medicinal, he called it, for all the aches and pains that came along with farm work. So after a while, he rolls a joint and then walks a little ways away, top of a hill--the hill, gets the best sunlight, great place to sit out and get a good view. Here, he sits, lights up, and tries to numb his brain a little.
When he hears someone coming through the weeds, his bones automatically go rigid. Instinct. But then he sees who it is and...relaxes. All the farm kids around here...they all grew up knowing each other, one way or another. Small world, and even smaller world when all you knew how to talk about was cows. He always liked Rosie anyway; even Lucius, who wasn’t big on music, didn’t much mind hearing her sing.
“Hey,” he nods. Because he’s terrible at small talk--things like how are you? or good to see you! never leave his mouth. Instead, he offers the joint. “--Back home for Christmas?”