"TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY! FALALALALALALA!" sang a group of Christmas carolers outside of the Gundam pilots home a few days before Christmas Eve, well until they were bombboarded with snowballs, courtesy of three girls all bundled up on the balcony above.
The carolers ran trying not to be hit by the balls of snow, as the three children giggled in delight, their breaths coming out in puffs of steam in the December air.
"What are you three up to now?" came an amused voice from behind them.
They turned to come face to face with Trowa who was grinning at them.
"Busted," said Crystal.
"No, I'm just curious why you, Yume and Mariemaia are dumping snow balls on carolers."
"They're too loud, Uncle Duo's trying to take a nap and we don't want them to wake him up," said Yume.
"Eh, I just wanted to throw some snowballs," said the eldest of the three shrugging.
Trowa chuckled and said, "Either way, Duo's up and Quatre has some fresh baked cookies and some hot coco ready."
He had to use his acrobatic skill to dodge the three excited girls as they ran into the house, shaking his head as he followed them in and gathered their discarded winter gear. When he got down stairs he smiled when he saw the trio sitting around the coffee table, munching on Christmas theme cookies, drinking coco and talking to Duo who was also snacking. It had been a good idea to have Relena, Dorothy and Mariemaia over for the holidays. Recently, Lady Une had turned guardianship of Mariemaia over to the princess and her lover because she didn't have time to properly care for her. The two had been more then happy to accept and now they were a happy family like Trowa, Quatre and Crystal and Zechs, Heero and Yume.
"Look, they're showing the Peanuts Christmas special," said Duo turning on the TV.
Heero, Trowa noticed, was in the left corner of the room typing away at his laptop, but he kept deleting what he typed. The other brunette also kept switching from one window to another on said computer but Trowa just shrugged and figured Heero was looking up something for one of his gardens or trying to enter a contest for some sort of rare plant.
"Poppa, please tell Yume our Christmas tree won't be that puny or made out of metal!" called Crystal drawing Trowa's attention.
"Don't worry Yume, Zechs and Relena are out getting a living tree that we'll replant in the back yard after New Years," said Trowa patting both the children's heads.
The two Peacecraft siblings had decided to spend some time together at day getting the family Christmas tree. Dorothy was out picking up the custom made keepsake ornaments they had ordered and Wufei was at the crafts shop getting some paint-able ornament craft kits for the girls.
Heero smiled when he heard Yume laughing along with the others at Snoopy's nutty antics. He guessed he could save his little 'mission' for after the holidays. About a half hour later the tree arrived. It was rather funny seeing Zechs covered in pine needles from the tree while Relena was clean. That night they all admired their work the tree, which was now covered in ornaments the children had painted as well as a few the adults had (They couldn't resist), some were from their own collections, there were also stain glass one-of-a-kind Gundam ornaments, some basic bulbs and of course, lights and tinsel.
"Oh Caterpie, oh Caterpie, will you become my Butterfree! Oh Caterpie it's very odd, first you must be a Metapod! Oh Caterpie, oh Caterpie, I hope you'll be my Butterfree!" the three girls sang along with their Pokemon Christmas Bash CD on Christmas eve as they watched for the Christmas Party guests, and Wufei who was out getting eggnog (Never leave both Peacecraft siblings in the same house during Christmas with out plenty of Eggnog), with a pile of snowballs they had turned black using food coloring.
"Lookie! There's Hildie... Halt Naughty or Nice?" asked Crystal asked the former Oz volunteer when she was close enough.
"Huh?"
"Have you been Naughty or Nice?" said Mariemaia, a snowball in her mitten-covered hands.
"Nice..." said Hildie an eyebrow raised at the children.
All three pouted and Yume said, "Go on in."
After a while, all the guests were there and the girls still had all their snowballs.
"Aw man! If this keeps up we'll never get rid of these black snowballs," sighed Yume.
"Why don't we dump them all on Uncle Wufei when he finally comes back?" said Crystal.
"That could work," said Mariemaia, "Look here he comes!"
And once he was in range the girls dumped the whole load of black snowballs on him. He managed to dodge most but a few did hit their mark.
"You three are in so much trouble!" the China man yelled.
"Abort mission!" yelled Mariemaia running inside.
"Retreat!" Crystal added following the older girl.
"Run away!" Yume finished doing the same.
Wufei sighed as he went in bushing off the colored snow as he went.
"Wu, why do you have black snow on you?" asked Duo who greeted him at the coat rack.
"The girls decided to dump a bunch of colored snow on me. I have no idea why,"
"You were naughty! You made Uncle Duo cry earlier in the year!" said the trio who were hiding behind their adoptive father figures (Zechs, Trowa, and Dorothy).
Duo started to chuckle at the trio's antics, he should of known.
"Enough of that," said Heero, "It's nearly 10:00 pm, you girls have to get ready for bed or else we might not let you sleep down stairs and see Santa."
"Santa!" cried the trio of kids as their way upstairs to get changed making the adults chuckle at their innocence.
A while later the girls came down in their Pajamas, dragging along their blankets and stuffed toys, Mariemaia had brought her angel teddy bear, Crystal had her Heavyarms plush toy with her and Yume had a stuffed white cat. The trio was put to bed on the couches for the night.
"Don't forget to leave milk and cookies out for Santa," said Mariemaia before Relena and Dorothy kissed her good night.
"I got it covered," said Duo bringing out a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk.
"Thanks you Uncle Duo," said the blond child, snuggling into her own blankets.
"Good night girls, sweet dreams," said Wufei who was the last one to leave the room before he turned out the light.
TBC
AN: Sorry I haven't updated any of my stories lately, my dad died in August so my mom and I have been really busy cleaning the house and sorting through stuff as well as my lacking in inspiration. Oh, and that I lost the flash drive I was writing this chapter on.