'Twas two nights before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring... except for two curious, energetic, impatient, mischievous robots.

Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo were crawling around under the very large and eccentrically decorated Christmas tree in the living room. The two bots were anxiously looking for their presents while trying to keep quiet and not alert Joel to their secret deed.

"Servo, did you find anything yet?" Crow whispered inconspicuously as he poked his up through the green plastic tree branches; a round blue ornament was unintentionally hooked onto his net.

"Not yet." Tom answered as he proceeded to push the large gift boxes around, checking each name tag as he moved stealthily.

"Man, where did Joel hide our presents? We've looked everywhere!"

Joel Robinson, who was not at all surprised to see what the bots were doing, approached the tree quietly as he took off his black rimmed glasses and wiped the lenses on his shirt. Once again, Joel caught the robots red handed. "Not everywhere my naughty robot friends..."

"Gah!" Crow pulled his head back down through the branches, knocking several ornaments loose in the process as he tried to hide from Joel.

"Guys, what're you doing?" Joel remarked as he watched several loose ornaments rolling around on the floor and the lower branches of the tree shaking rapidly.

Neither robot gave away their 'hiding place' as Servo answered nonchalantly for the both of them. "Nothing... What're you doing?"

"Watching two robots who are up way past their curfew looking for presents they aren't even supposed to have for another two days; and they think they're getting away with something!"

"Aw, c'mon!" Crow finally climbed out from under the tree, his net now littered with various ornaments and threads of tinsel of many different colors. "Can't we open just one present early? Please?!"

"Nope." Joel stood firm, his arms crossed and his head tilted to the side. "We have to wait for Mike to get back home. Now, please go to bed."

Tom finally emerged from beneath the tree, a half eaten candy cane stuck was to the side of his dome. "Why do we have to wait for Mike?"

"Because Mike is family. We celebrate Christmas as a family."

"Stupid Mike... Why'd he have to go to back to stupid Wisconsin anyway?" Crow snarked bitterly as he noticed the candy cane stuck on Tom's dome. He promptly tried to pull the delicious treat off. "Hey! That's mine!"

"Ouch! Watch it!"

Joel sat down on the couch heavily, one hand pressed against his left ear. "Look, Mike still wants to see his parents during the holidays. Ever since his brother suddenly and tragically passed away Mike became the Nelson family's only son."

"Tragic?" Crow bluntly commented. "He was drunk! Eddie rolled his truck while drag racing with some teenagers!"

"Crow..." Joel hated it when Crow was ostensibly honest. "Listen, Mike feels like he now has double the responsibility to take care of his mother and father. He's just being a good son."

Crow put his foot against Tom's dome as he continued to try and pry the sticky candy free. "Why? They didn't exactly seem to care when Mike disappeared, and they seemed to care even less when he came home!"

Joel shook his head slightly, regretting the motion a little as his head began to swim. "It's complicated. Sometimes families aren't as close as others, but even then you still love your family, and continue to do so even when they don't exactly show it."

"OUCH!" Tom complained as Crow continued to slowly and painfully pull the candy from the plastic dome. "Quit it! Joel... help!"

With a mild chuckle Joel bent down from the couch pulled Crow away from Tom as he picked Tom up from the floor. "I'll get it. You know, this is exactly why you don't fall asleep while chewing gum. It gets stuck in your hair."

"I don't have any hair."

"And I don't have any gum."

"Good one." Tom remarked as Joel finally removed the sticky candy from his dome. "Ow! Thank you..." A smudge of red and white dye stained the side of his dome where the candy had once been.

Crow climbed up onto the couch and sat next to Joel. "Hey Joel, if we celebrate Christmas as a family, then how come Gypsy and Cambot aren't here, too?"

"Because Gypsy has a huge corporation to run and Cambot is helping her."

Tom scoffed. "She owns the company, why couldn't she give herself a day off?"

Joel put Tom on the couch, on his opposite side from of Crow so the two bots are sitting beside him just like when they sat in the theater on the Satellite of Love, so long ago. "Because if she gives herself the day off then her employees couldn't have the day off to be with their families. Someone has to keep 'ConGypsCo.' running during the holidays and Gypsy took the responsibility herself."

"Oh."

"Besides we mailed her and Cambot their gifts last week, and she sent us ours the day before Mike left."

"WHAT?!" The two bots whined in unison at this revelation.

"Gypsy sent us gifts?!" Crow gave Joel a dirty look as he stared at the clever human.

"And you didn't tell us?!"

"Relax you two..." Joel leaned back on the couch and pressed his hand back against his left ear. "You'll get all your presents in two days. You just need to be patient."

"Fine..." Crow agreed begrudgingly. "But I'm going to be bitter tomorrow."

"Whatever!" Tom answered under his breath. "But I won't wait quietly!"

Joel patted the two pouting bots and laughed to himself. "C'mon. Let's get you guys cleaned up and into bed, alright? It's been a long, cold, snowy day. You guys went sledding for the very first time and you finally got to build a snowman-"

"Ah-hem." Tom cleared his throat. "SnowBOT."

"Right, snowbot." Joel corrected himself as removed the ornaments and tinsel from Crow's net. "You guys are overtired and fighting sleep, so go on, upstairs."

The two robots did as they were told and marched upstairs in a dramatic fashion, much like two angsty teenagers. Joel re-decorated the tree before heading upstairs himself.

Standing outside the bathroom door Joel listened to his two robots arguing and splashing around in the sink. "Servo stop hogging the sink!"

"I'm not hogging the sink, you're blocking the mirror!"

"Am not, lard-butt!"

"Are too, pin-beak!"

Joel stepped into the bathroom, more specifically stepped onto a wet bathroom floor. "That's enough, you two are clean. Now get to bed."

Tom hovered out of the bathroom past Joel. "Goodnight Joel."

"Goodnight Tom."

Crow splashed his way across the bathroom floor and into the hallway. "Hey Joel, when's Mike getting back?"

"What?" Joel turned his attention from the wet floor to the gold robot. "What's did you say?" Joel didn't hear the question.

"I said: 'When's Mike getting back?'" Crow repeated louder.

Joel somehow learned to read his robots' lips and figured out what Crow wanted. "Oh, I think late tomorrow night or early the following morning."

"Aw, geez..."

"Goodnight, Crow!"

"Goodnight, Joel..." Crow stomped off down the hall to his bedroom, pouting the whole way.

Joel grabbed a towel and kneeled down to mop up the water on the floor. He felt a little dizzy as he put his hand on his ear again. "Ouch..." He tilted his head to the side and slowly stood up. "Hope you get back sooner than later, Mike."

With the bathroom clean, Joel went to check on the bots before her went to bed himself. Despite the angry and energetic protests the two childlike bots were already in their beds and sound asleep. Quietly Joel walked into their bedroom and made sure they were actually asleep and not playing dead.

Crow's eyes were shut, the small molybdenum visor that shielded his eyes were down and the gold bot was snoring. Joel pulled the blanket up and tucked it around Crow.

Tom was also asleep, snoring softly and muttering in his sleep. Joel tucked him in as well.

Joel walked into his bedroom and collapsed face first onto his fluffy pillow. He was feeling terrible but didn't want to worry the bots or do anything to diminish the vibrant holiday cheer. Too tired to get up again Joel elected to sleep in his jeans and black Metallica t-shirt, rather than change into more comfortable pajamas.

Turning his head slightly against the pillow he slipped off his glasses and put them on the table next to his bed and sighed. "I don't want to be sick... Not now."

...to be continued...