Merry Christmas everyone! I've not been feeling very great, semester was tough, but thank you for being patient with me thus far. Have a really, really, really brief shot with ship babies for the holiday spirit!

Quick ref: Chryssa's the oldest at 19, Jordan and Jacen are 15-16, and Ladon's 9

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"CHRISTMAS!" erupted a muddled yell from beyond the bedroom, jolting Lance and Misty from their sleep. The yell repeated twice more, getting louder and louder as the source presumably advanced towards their space.

"I think Ladon's awake." Misty murmured through her pillow, her face buried into the pillow and covered by her hair. Lance made a noise from within his throat that was taken as an agreement. He was at least three words into saying "I wonder what makes you think so," when the bedroom door was burst open, filtering the hallway light into the dark room. Illuminated by the hall light, was a small nine year old boy with carmine hair and teal eyes, in Snover printed pajamas.

"DAD! MOM! WAKE UP! ITS CHRISTMAS!" he shouted, making his parents flinch at the sheer volume. Lance managed to lift up from the pillows to peer at the alarm clock by their bedside, and frowned at the clock glaring right back at him with a red lit 9:56.

"Mm...one more hour." he said, about to fall back into the warm sheets and pillows when Misty lightly slapped his arm.

"Nope. Up. Don't be rude."

"If I get up, I'm taking you with me." he told her matter-of-factly, earning a groan from her. At that point, Ladon jumped onto the bed, briefly dipping the bed and almost slipping. He crawled over the covers and their blanketed bodies, wrenching a sharp cry or two from his parents as hands and knees dug carelessly into bed and body alike.

"Daaaad, Mooooom," Ladon moaned, grabbing the appropriate parent by the shoulder to shake them, "It's Christmaaaas!"

"Did you come to wake us up first?" Lance asked while yawning. Two shadows interrupted the cast light of the hallway, and without needing to look Lance knew the twins were up.

"I wish." came a feminine voice by the doorway, Jordan.

"Twerp got us up first," elaborated a second, male voice, Jacen, who continued, "so that we could get coffee ready."

He felt, rather than saw, Misty perk up at the word coffee, "Is it?"

"Yep." Jordan and Jacen chorused at the same time.

Misty and Lance met each other's gaze, and after a moment to silently debate purely through eye contact and eyebrow signing, they conceded defeat. The two parents knew when they had been played. Once they began to lift up and extract themselves from the bed, Ladon squealed in joy and scrambled off the bed, again earning yelps of pain from careless hands, elbows, and knees, and disappeared through the legs of his older siblings.

Once dressed, Misty in jeggins and an off-shoulder shirt with snowflake print, and Lance in a maroon sweater and jeans, they left to find their children. Ladon was bouncing in place and sitting on the floor, wide eyes set on the ring of presents around the lit and dressed evergreen tree at the center, still in Snover pajamas. Jordan and Jacen were reclined on the couch behind Ladon. Jacen was in jeans, dancing Staryu printed socks and a black tshirt with a Meowth in a Santa hat and the words "Meowy Chirstmas" on the front, and a thin black headband pushing back his carrot orange hair while Jordan was in Clefairy house slippers, black capris and a red tshirt with a smarmy Purrloin surrounded in broken ornaments with the caption "Still on the Nice List" and her own orange hair in a small ponytail. The teen twins were trading snaps on their phone when Misty joined the group in the couch, sipping coffee.

"Presents?" Ladon asked eagerly. Misty shook her head, making him frown with disappointment and whine, "But Mom!"

"We're waiting on Crys, first." she declared from behind the rim of her E4 logo'd coffee mug, "and breakfast."

"She snapped us sometime this morning," Jacen offered, handing Misty his phone to see the replaying photo of her eldest daughter, carmine haired and blue eyed, grinning next to another girl with dark curly hair and dark skin, and their two partner pokemon, a Garchomp and a Toxicroak. It was captioned "otw, just left Mahogany! #cantwaittoseeyoudorks".

"Mooooom, can I open just one present? Just ooooone!" Ladon begged and pouted.

"Nope." Misty answered, unfazed.

"Breakfast's ready!" Lance announced from the kitchen. The presents were promptly forgotten as Ladon scrambled to his feet to beat Jordan and Jacen to breakfast. He ducked and slid through his father's legs while Jordan and Jacen had to take the bigger-people route and shuffle around. Lance chuckled at his children's antics while he brought a plate to Misty while balancing his own cup of coffee and breakfast in the other hand.

Ladon was going to be old enough to start his own pokemon trainer journey in the upcoming March, Lance mused while he scooped up eggs with his fork. Officially approved licenses to start Gym Leader apprenticeship were hiding among the presents for the twins, Misty knew. It was up to Jordan and Jacen, now, to decide what gym they wanted to shadow with their twin Kingdras. Chryssa would soon be knocking on their door with her girlfriend and fellow Ranger partner Alicia, fresh and full of tales of being a Pokemon Ranger in Almia.

Misty leaned onto Lance's shoulder, breathing in and out a contented sigh. He leaned into her without a thought, smiling back.

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