Thanks everyone for the input on the question I asked last chapter! I didn't expect so many readers to chime in, and I'll be considering your opinions as the story goes on. At any rate, if there ends up being romance, we've still got a long ways to go.

Now, a warning: This chapter is a side story, and short, at that. You can skip it at your leisure.

I'd like to say that the next chapter of the main story is nearly done, but between the manga updates (hoo boy, did I miss a bullet not showing Penguin and Shachi fighting so far) making me rework a few things and my compulsive need to edit, it may still take a while to go up. On top of that, this plotbunny bit me a few weeks ago and wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it. It takes place in Asteria and there are only OCs in it, so you can skip it if it isn't your thing. It's only a bit of backstory, and you can see some people that don't appear in the story.

Besides, today is December 25th, so I can excuse this side chapter as a sort of present.

Merry Christmas!


Extra: Sixteen years ago

(We are so young now)

"I'm home, sweetie!" A rambunctious woman barged inside the small two-story building, carrying a straw basket filled to the brim with food. "Sweetie!" She repeated when no one replied. The main room was empty, so she left the basket on the table and went upstairs. "Mom's baaaack!" She looked in the bedrooms, the bathroom and the built-in wardrobe. Nothing.

Sighing dramatically, she went back downstairs and headed for the tattoo parlor next home, wavy blond hair fluttering behind her. The doorbell chimed with a crystal-clear sound as she pushed the door, and she dragged some of the snow outside inside the shop.

"Swee—Oh, there you are! Are you drawing?"

A little girl with mousy brown hair sat on a chair in the waiting room. She only looked up for a second, nodded and went back to her sketchbook. She had it propped up on her legs, and her feet were on the seat.

"Can I seeeee?"

"I haven't finished yet."

"Don't be like that, let mom see!"

The child shrugged and turned the sketchbook towards her mother.

"Aw, that's so—ARTHUR, WHY IS MY DAUGHTER DRAWING COMMISSIONS AGAIN?"

Alerted by the yelling, a young man with tightly curled hair came into the room, sporting a winning smile.

"Yo, Dubia! Back from the market already?"

"Don't 'yo!' me, you…" She snatched the sketchbook, eliciting a yelp from the girl, and held it up for him to see. "…vile, immoral, licentious…"

"Whoa, Saki, that's really good!" Arthur said, ignoring Dubia, and a grin spread on the girls face. "How did you get this angle right?"

"I saw it in one of those magazines you used to have under your bed before you married aunt Fern."

"…Ahaha…" Arthur's smile froze and he cast a nervous glance at the woman to his side, but fortunately she was too wrapped up in her tirade to pay attention.

"…ill-bred, indecorous, malodorous—"

"Have you been reading the thesaurus again, Du?"

"That was only once! And don't try to change the subject; why was my daughter drawing a naked lady with horns—"

"And a snake around her neck," said Arthur, satisfaction visible on his face.

"On a panther," Saki added.

Dubia was speechless for a moment. "Arthur!"

"Because she's good! And I mean really, really good. Can't you see it? It's like when she sees something she burns it in her mind and can put it down on paper like it's nothing. She's a natural! You've got a genius at home! Can I use this for the customer, Saki?" He shot the last question before Dubia had time to register his rant to avoid more complaints.

"Sure! Can I watch while you do it?"

"You know it! Know what, from now on I can teach you. How does that sound?"

Dubia watched, defeated, as her daughter beamed. She had hoped for something more intellectual as Saki's future profession, and she was little and still could change her mind, but…

As the woman leafed through the sketchbook, she couldn't deny that Arthur was right. Her girl had talent. What was the point of fighting against it? …On the other hand, this was free child labor, however she looked at it.

"Don't look at my things!"

Dubia glanced down for a moment to see Saki jumping to try to reach her sketchbook, but she held it up higher and smirked.

"Mom!"

"There, there," she said patting her daughter's head.

Just then, a customer came out from the next room and went to the counter with a curious walk. While Dubia was distracted, Saki took the chance to grab the sketchbook and run back to her seat.

"Done?" Arthur grinned at the man. "How was it?"

The customer merely nodded very slowly. He was white as a sheet, but Arthur laughed.

"Yeah, tends to happen with those places." He laughed, then yelled over his shoulder, "Hey, old man, how much is this one?"

A man in his sixties, with a missing arm and built like a wrestler, appeared from the same room the customer had come from. "Ten thousand," he said with undeniable satisfaction.

"Roger."

Arthur rang it up, and the customer paid and left still walking funny and in silence. The door was about to close when something came flying in, narrowly missing the man and hitting Dubia right on the middle of her forehead.

"SCORE!" Someone cheered outside.

"Who—"

Splat. Another snowball collided with her face.

"WOOHOO!"

A young woman with straight, long black hair, entered the shop, skipping happily. She was noticeably pregnant, but it didn't seem to have much effect on her movements. "Hiya, Du!"

"You're the best," Arthur said.

"I know I am! Saki, let's play outside! Where's your coat?"

"Fern, should you be moving so much?" Dubia asked distractedly, shaking snowflakes from her hair.

"Don't worry, if I go into labor Saki can call for help! Right?"

Saki made an affirmative noise from her spot.

"Careful, little girl, she'll turn you into a pancake if she falls on you," the old man said.

Arthur laughed at his wife's expense as she stuck out her tongue to him. "I don't think she could, the kid scurries away like mouse."

"I'll do my best! C'mon, Saki, we can give the kids down the street what they deserve. They were being little shits today at school."

"Is a teacher supposed to talk like that?"

But Fern shrugged the comment off, helped Saki put on her scarf and bodily dragged her out the studio.

Dubia picked up once again her daughter's sketchbook and sat down, passing pages. She stopped on one full of Saki's favorite flowers. Camellias, if she remembered correctly, but Dubia had never paid much attention to plants.

"Man, I wish I had half the talent your daughter has." Arthur said. "It took me like ten more years to get that good."

"Well, you were sort slow, Arthur," the other man admitted.

Arthur made a noise of dismissal. "The thing is, she's going to be amazing when she's twenty. If she wanted—"

"We don't even know if she's going to get to ten," Dubia said softly.

Arthur's face fell, but the old man had something to say.

"Bullshit. That kid isn't going to drop dead as long as one of us is still standing."

A knot formed in Dubia's throat, and could barely get out the words. "Thanks, Andrew."

"Don't start crying now, Du," the younger man said.

"That has an easy solution," Andrew walked behind the counter, pushing his Arthur to the side, and pulled out a bottle and three glasses from under it. "A drink?"

"Are you trying to kill her?" Arthur sounding alarmed was a rare occurrence.

"Bah. West Blue ladies can hold down their alcohol like nobody. Isn't that right?"

"Damn right." Dubia walked over to them and grabbed a glass. "Pour me one."

"No, Du, seriously, that's pure poison—"

"I have a policy to never refuse a free drink."

"Arthur," Andrew said solemnly. "When did I raise you to be such a chicken?"

"I'm not—"

"Then drink up!" He sentenced, filling the three glasses to the brim.

Dubia did cry, but for an entirely different reason than before. Still, she did much better than Arthur, who had to run up to the bathroom after the second gulp.

"What a wimp," Andrew said with a fond smile. "Just like your husband."

"That's why they are friends." Dubia finished her drink with a smile and a growing sensation of heartburn.