"Gadreel, why did you drag me to the store to pick out children's toys? It's nowhere near Evangeline's birthday. Gadreel! Come on, answer me. What the hell are we doing here? Evangeline can pick out her own toys, you know."

The man in question ignored his redheaded girlfriend of three years for the time being as he stood in front of an array of stuffed animals, trying to decide what his girlfriends three year-old daughter would want. He picked up an elephant and showed it to Askira. "Do you think she'd like this?" He asked.

Askira glanced at it, putting her hands on her hips. "Yes. But why are you getting it for her?"

The twenty-two year old Italian raised an eyebrow. "Am I not allowed to get gifts for my two favorite girls?"

"Not without reason," the redhead nineteen year old immediately answered.

"I have reason enough to be getting her this." He dropped the elephant into the shopping cart he had grabbed from the front of the shop. He pushed it forward a little ways down the aisle, the place where he had just been at immediately filled by another person with a shopping cart, who grabbed a bunch of stuffed animals, reading from a list before dropping one of the stuffed animals listed into their cart. Askira watched them for a little while, confused on why so many people were running around in the local mall picking up toys and wrapping paper.

"Is everybody celebrating early birthdays, today?" The demigod asked Gadreel as she looked away from the person grabbing down stuffed animals. She walked over to where he was looking at her incredulously.

"You seriously don't know what's happening this month, do you?"

Askira's red eyebrows furrowed. "No. What's happening this month?"

"Christmas, of course!" Gadreel exclaimed, grabbing a doll house and putting it into the cart, along with a few dolls. Askira quickly shook her head.

"No dolls. Absolutely no dolls," she told him. Gadreel raised an eyebrow and put the dolls and dollhouse back.

"Why not?" The Italian asked, grabbing out the last doll from the shopping cart.

Instead of answering her boyfriends question, Askira just asked him her own question. "Isn't that the day you got that red sled of yours that you've been refusing to get rid of, even though it doesn't snow here?"

Gadreel gave his girlfriend a lopsided grin and lumbered over to her, wrapping his arms around the smaller demigod, who never quite grew to her full potential height after giving birth two months premature when she was three months shy of turning sixteen. "You know you love the color."

Askira's lips quirked up, though she tried not to smile. "No," she said. "I know you like the color." She poked his well muscled chest pointedly. "You've always told me red is your favorite color. That's why you always want to brush my hair; because it's red. Dull, but it's still red."

Gadreel grinned even wider. "True... And Evangeline's hair is starting to turn red, too. I'm a little disappointed that it didn't stay brown, like my hair-"

"She's not even your daughter, Gadreel," Askira pointed out. "You know she's Cyril's."

His expression darkened at the name of the man who had raped his girlfriend. But he quickly changed his expression back to his neutrally happy one. "I know! But that doesn't mean that I can't see her as my daughter! It would be even more convincing if she looked less like you and more like me."

The daughter of Hephaestus couldn't help but to laugh at what the son of Ares had said. "Well, her eyes are kind of gray, like yours."

"Yeah, but they're also brown," he whined, pulling Askira closer to him. He turned around when he sensed someone trying to take something out of his shopping cart, and it only took a few seconds of murderous glaring to get them to scamper away, leaving the stuffed elephant in the demigod's cart. "She looks more like Ben. If you two weren't siblings, I'd swear she was the result of the two of you."

Askira rolled her eyes. "Neither of us have gray eyes, though."

"Yeah, well, neither did her biological fa-" Gadreel stiffened when he heard the cart move behind him. He turned around to see a seven year-old boy trying to get the elephant out of the shopping cart, and he immediately removed his arms from Askira, lumbering over to the boy. "Son, you better put that down right now, or the next place your head is going to be is back up your mothe-"

"Gadreel Samuel Black," Askira growled lowly, her arms crossed over her chest. The son of Ares turned away from the frightened child, who was frozen, blue eyes wide. Askira gave the child a small smile and knelt down in front of them, though she really didn't need to. "Sweetie," she said softly, pulling out her phone. She moved around on the screen, looking for something to show the boy. "Do you know why that man wants the elephant?"

"Because he's a meanie," the boy responded.

"Am not!"

Askira ignored Gadreel's childish pouting, chuckling softly at the little boy. "No, honey. That's not why the man wants it. He wants it to give to my daughter. She's three tears old, and absolutely loves elephants." She pulled up a picture of her daughter, and showed it to the little boy.

The boy looked at the picture and smiled. "She's cute," he said sweetly. "Momma says that she wanted a little girl, but she's only gotten boys."

"Oh? How many of there are you?"

The boy counted on his fingers before holding up a number. "Four," he told Askira.

"And they're all boys?"

"Yup!"

"Do you all share toys?"

The little boy nodded. "We do. We fight a lot, too. My big brothers always take my DS, even though I'm playing it most of the time."

That gave Askira an idea, and she looked at Gadreel, whose pale blue eyes immediately widened. "Oh no. No no no no no no no. I am not spending money on a little brat who tried to take Evangeline's elephant!"

"Gadree-"

"No, it's okay," the young boy said, clutching the elephant close to his chest before sighing. "I shouldn't have tried to take it." He put it back in the cart, and Askira's motherly instincts immediately kicked in when she saw his disappointed look.

Turning to Gadreel, she put her hands on her hips saucily. "Gadreel Samuel Black, you either get him the DS, or everything you have put in the cart for Evangeline, as well as everything else you're going to put in."

"But that's all for Ava!" He whined.

"Then get him the DS. Isn't that what Christmas is about? Giving to those in need? Pushing aside differences?"

Gadreel sighed. "You know more about Christmas than you've let on," he grumbled before letting out a heavy sigh. "Fine. I'll get him the damn DS."

Both the little boy and Askira grinned widely. The young boy hopped over to Gadreel and threw his arms around him. "Thank you so much, sir!" he exclaimed.

Gadreel took a small step back in surprise before smiling slightly. He gave the small boy a hug back. "You're welcome," he said. "Actually... as a matter of fact, I'll just give you mine." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a DS, a black one that had a game in the cartridge slot. "You can have the game in it, too. It's Pokémon, black version."

The boys eyes widened in shock at that. "Oh no, sir. I can't take that! I wouldn't be able to pay you back!"

"There's no need, boy. Just take it. Here's the charger, too." He reached into his other pocket and pulled out the charger. He didn't move to put them back into his pocket, and after awhile, the boy finally took them.

"Thank you, sir!" The boy exclaimed, making Gadreel and Askira both smile. "You should probably talk to my momma, though. She might think I stole it from you."

"Oh. Well, then, let's go talk to your mom, little man. What's your name, anyways? Maybe I can put a good word in for you at this amazing college for you to go to next year..."

-o-

Nyap. This is going to be a multiple-shot thingy... Yeah. :P