Author Notes

NG: *sitting next to a lit fireplace with a still fully decorated tree behind us* Merry Christmas dear readers!

Sara: *sitting on my lap looking at a chocolate chip cookie in my hand then looks up at me* Isn't Christmas over? *turned to the paper under the tree*

NG: *an embarrassed look on my face* True and I am very sorry for that. I gave my reasons in my last ending note and if you didn't read it, go back. As a repayment I have a surprise for you guys at the end of the story.

Sara: * jumps up on my leg for a moment* Yayy! I love surprises!

NG: *Sara sits back down, leaving a bruise on my leg* Ow. anyway, can you do the disclaimers for me please?

Sara: *nods her head excitedly and turns to the audience* NG does not own the Sly Cooper franchise, including characters, plot, or places. She does however have clame to me , mommy and daddy, as well as the many OC's that she has planed.

NG: *a shocked look on my face* Have you gotten a hold of my notebook?

Sara: Maybe… *snages my cookie and runs off* Thanks for the cookie!

NG: *sad face* My cookie. Anyway, I have mentioned a notebook many times and some of you may be wondering what it is. Well, I have been handwriting each of these chapters before typing them. All except for this chapter and chapter five later on. I also type the beginning AN's before I finish typing the story (which is what happened in the last AN. I had it typed before it was late. Again, so sorry for that)

Joseph: *off screen* Sara, where did you get that cookie? I told you you were still grounded for the 'flying raccoon doll' incident last night.

NG: * gives a small snicker and continues* Thank you to everyone who has liked, favorited, and reviewed. A huge thanks still to TheClockworkStarling for editing (and later on co-writing) my story. Again, I am open to any and all creative criticism but any flamers will get nothing but a ten gallon bucket of water on top of you and your computer. *waves and presses a button under the fireplace mantel. the screen goes black with a green Cooper signal with a santa hat*

*off screen*

Joseph: NG! I told you not to mess with my logo!

NG: No, you said it bugged you. I will be changing it many other times in the future.

*Joseph gives a loud grown

One year later- 9:00 Christmas Day Sara's POV

"Santa's been here Santa's been here! Wake up, wake up wake up!" I jumped up and down on Sly's sleeping form, thinking about the colorful gifts that lay trapped under the tree. Each one in their own paper prison.

"Sara, go back to bed." I looked at my lazy brother, thinking of how exactly I would get him up, when a truly naughty plan came to mind. It was after Christmas, and New Year's hasn't come yet, so any bad things I do won't count for the Naughty List. I gave a slight snicker as I tiptoed to my side of the room, searching for my small sand bucket. My plan is quite simple; fill it with warm water and dump it on him. I know it was mean, especially considering the fact that Sly has an intense fear of drowning and water. I'll make it up to him sometime.

When the water hit his face, I pinkie swear to you, he screamed like me, most likely due to the water fear thing. Now, this may make me an even worse sister than before, but I laughed so hard, I was rolling on the floor.

When I could breath again, Sly was giving me his best death glare, and Mamma and Pappa were standing at the door, probably wondering what Sly's scream was for. The water dripping down his face ruined the fierceness of the stair, and I barely held back another fit of laughter. Sly then proceeded to get out of bed, and chase me around the house. Even though I do have 'enhanced senses' is what I think said, Sly definitely got better agility and moving ability. He caught me within a few minutes and dragged me back to the room. Because this was Christmas, my only punishment was not being able to open my presents first.

We all ran to the tree (after Sly changed pajamas) to find all the presents waiting for us. Is seemed as though only four kind of wrapping papers.

"Ok guys," mamma said getting all of us to look at her. "I have planned something fun for this year. Everyone has a specific paper for their presents, you have to guess who's is who." Mamma had a very mean look on her face, but I knew that today was going to be fun.

Sly ran up to the presents and looked at all the different wrappings. One kind was filled with tiny forms of Link on a dark blue background, another was filled with the crest of the Hylian royal family on a royal purple background, yet another was a white paper filled with green holly and decorated christmas trees, and the last kind was a simple white wrapping with light blue snowflakes and pink ribbons. It wasn't very hard to tell whose was whose. Sly grabbed one of the tiny Link packages, tail swishing with excitement, and began shredding said paper. what he saw was fully unexpected and very hilarious; a pack of girls undies with pink, purple, and green patterns on it.

For a moment, everything was silent. I even heard a pin dron from a few miles away. Then, all of the sudden, I laughed. I don't know why it was so funny, but it was. Soon everyone (including Sly) burst into a chorus of laughing. We laughed and laughed for about thirty minutes ( or at least thats what Mamma said).

After we all calmed down, Mamma explained what happened. "As I was boxing the presents I forgot to write your names on the two boxes. I didn't realise my mistake until I returned from a call and couldn't remember whose was whose." At this she got up and handed me a bow that was the same size. "Here Sara. Since Sly opened your present by accident, you can open his." I didn't. I stood up and gave it to Sly.

"To make up for this morning," I said, picking up the unwrapped undies and heading back to my seat next to Mamma. If there is anything I love during the holidays, it's tearing up the wrappings to get to the gifts. It is just so much fun to fight for the gift (and to see Dad scrambling to catch the scraps to throw them away). Mamma gave me a beaming smile and we turned back to Sly, who had already destroyed the paper; it was a boy's pair of undies. Other than that everything went normally. Sly and I got a NES system to share, and we each got "training canes" (Sly's looking like Dad's and mine had a purple "C" curve). In all, Sly got three shirts, all having Nintendo characters on them, specifically Mario and Luigi on one, Link standing in front of Hyrule Castle, and the last one had the Nintendo logo with all well known characters around it. He also got a Link bed set (though I thought it was weird) and a hot wheels car that looked like Papa's car. I got a stuffed doll that looked like Daddy. It even wore the outfit I once saw Pappa wear. I also got a victorian style dollhouse,at least according to Mamma. I honestly didn't pay attention to what Mamma and Pappa got. After about one second, Sly and I realised something, we had no games for the NES system.

"Hay," said Sly, thinking aloud. "Where are the games?" Pappa left the room and left Mamma to explain.

"Well, Pappa and I gave an idea." Pappa then returned with tons of things in his arms. "Whoever wins a game of hide and sneek gets to choose first. After that we will let Sara pick and go with the pattern. Sara, you hide first." I immediately dashed to my one special hiding spot, one no one has been able to find.

I was just crawling around in the vents one day (like I have grown a habit of doing lately) and I fell down a vertical part. When I straightened myself up I found a totally empty room. In the past year or so, I've moved a few toys and books in here and now it's my little play room. Another advantage to this room was the fact that tons of sounds filter in, so I wasn't surprised when I could hear Mom clearly.

"Ok Sly, you have an hour to find Sara. If you can't, she gets to pick the first game." I can only guess he nodded bacause Mamma said, "On your mark, get set, GO!" a few seconds later. I just sat around and waited, and waited, and waited. When I thought is was close to an hour, I climbed out and began crawling back to the living room. I should have waited for Mom to call out, because as soon as I turned a corner, I was face to face with Sly.

"Huh huh, um hi." Sly gave me a look that I now call Sly's Smirk.

"You know what this means, right?"

"Yea,yea. let's get back and start playing the new games."

As we crawled back, with me in front as 'prisoner', he continued talking. "Excited, are you?"

" Yea! How are you not?"

"I am, just one last question though." I looked around and saw the exit right in front of me. "Did you let yourself get caught?"

"NO! You know I never give up. You know how competitive I am." He gave a nod and we left the vents right in front of Mom (who gave a frightened squeak).

"Wow. I honestly thought it would take all day." Mom looked kind of relieved and called dad over. "Go ahead and pick Sly"

He began to sort through the...carriages... I think that's what dad called them, and grabbed one from the middle. He let me see his choice and I instantly wished I could have gone first. It was a Super Mario Bros 2 game. I walked over to the pile and began digging. At the bottom of the pile, a part Sly didn't get to, I found Legend of Zelda II: Adventure of Link.

"WHAT!?" I had to laugh at my brother's shout.

"Guess you should have looked through the whole pile," I said, making the Sly Smirk. Sly himself just sulked a moment before picking his next one.

In all, Sly got Super Mario Bros 1,2, and 3, Balloon Fight, Battleships, Battletoads,Excitebike, and Duck Hunt. I got Aladdin, BomberMan, Zelda ll, Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, and Kirby's Adventure.

Before we could start playing, Pappa came up to us, holding something behind his back. "Before you two go off and start playing your games, I have one last gift mom couldn't wrap." With that he brought two stick like things. After a few seconds, we realized what they truly were; tiny, child-sized Cooper Canes both of slightly different styles. One was a perfect replica of Pappa's; a medium brown staff with a gold colored "C" on the top, and the other had a dark brown staff with a violet purple "C". He quickly handed Sly the golden one and I got the purple. "You start training with them tomorrow, but for today, play that NES we got you." We ran off, with ear to ear smiles, and played games for the rest of the day.

AN:

NG: *surrounded by many canon characters, her OCs (some not introduced and some form other stories) and fans, all of them are angry* Ok guys, let's calm down…

Joseph: Calm down, you haven't updated in, what, four months!

NG: I'm sorrrrrrry! I fully planned for this to at least come out around winter but life got in the way. I've had an Academic Decathlon (AcaDec) competition and High School is out to get me. I have also been waiting for any ideas for this story, which was my first free wright, except for one. Lord lava 123, Thank you so much for giving me some ideas.

*Fans and OCs from other stories start leaving*

NG:*waiving*Now for all my fans I have some secrets, references, and ideas that didn't make it into the story. *Cooper Beginnings OCs and characters sit in bean bag chairs that just suddenly appeared* This is going to get a bit long, sorry, but it will be cool… I hope. Let's go!

1) This story is straight from my mom's past and my christmas this year (w/o the undies)

2) The spider story is from a family friend, except with poisonous spiders

3) Sly was about to have a different full name, my top choices where; Slyavin (this one won out)

Slyvester (I really wanted a pun in his name)

Slylock

and Joseph Sly Cooper (This then turned into his father's name)

4) Sara is basically me, she acts and will respond like I would

and finally

5) Ideas for Sahara's name (I did it to Sly, it's her turn now)

Sarah (this led to her nickname)

Serina

Siara

Saria (Legend of Zelda reference)

and Scarlet (who will become a character later on)

6)The outfit the doll Sara gets is her father's thieving uniform (the dark green one from the last chapter

7)One of the designs on Sly's shirt is from the last part of Brawl in the Family, History of Nintendo on Youtube.

8)Some of the games they got weren't invented yet in real life, but this is My fanfic so My Rules

And that's it. Wow, that was a lot. Well hope you liked my first free write chapter, because there will be more in the future. But not the next one.

*everyone in the room* BYE!

*Off screen* Update faster next time.

NG: I thought you left with the others