Yello! Yup, me again after waaaay too long! Can I help it if my job and my school work are taking up most of my time? Well… and I got the first 20 episodes of Evangelion and both movies. And the first four episodes of the Rurouni Kenshin OAV. Okay, I'm a flake. I admit it. –Lady PhoenixDagger *//.^*

I don't own Gundam or Christmas, but everything else is mine. Don't sue, don't steal.

*****

It was still pitch-black outside when Quatre groggily opened his eyes and found himself stretched out in the middle the kitchen floor like a huge starfish, if starfish wore flannel pyjama pants and sweaters that said "Niagara Falls, Canada" across the chest. It was pitch black, save for a small night-light Belle kept on for the safety of midnight snackers and the tile floor was absolutely freezing. Groaning, the Gentle Noble propped himself up on his elbows, only to find himself suddenly nose-to-nose with a hyperactive reaper.

"Hieeeee!!!!" Shinigami-kun squealed, waving cheerily. The little reaper was wearing a pair of fuzzy pyjamas Belle had made recently for him. Despite the early hour, he already had his scythe with him. "Santa's been here!!"

"That's nice." Quatre yawned blearily and stretched. His bare feet made squeaking noises against the kitchen floor. "How did I end up next to the refrigerator?"

Duo popped up out of the blackness, seemingly from nowhere. "Hiya!"

"Ah, I see. What time is it?"

"Last time I saw a clock, it was about two am, but it took some time to drag you down the stairs."

"Two am!?!?"

Shinigami-kun grabbed Quatre's lower lip. "Shhh!" He demonstrated the preferred mode of silence with a mitten-hand placed over his own mouth. "Everyone's still sleeping!"

"Sorry, sorry." Quatre stood and popped a crick in his back. "Uh, I'm probably going to regret asking this, but why exactly did you drag me down here?"

Shinigami-kun rolled his eyes. "Because Santa was here." His tone suggested that he was in the presence of a complete and utter moron. The sentence went on silently in the blond Arab's head to go "…duh."

"Right. Right, sorry." He shook away the last shreds of blessed, blessed sleep and smiled. As irritating as it was to be literally dragged from his nice, warm bed at two in the morning on a freezing cold night when the woodstove had apparently gone out again, Duo and Shinigami-kun's excitement was quickly contagious. "I'll go and wake Mira."

"That's the spirit!" Duo nodded cheerily and snatched a pot and wooden spoon from the counter. He grinned evilly. "I'll go wake up Wufei."

*****

"Miraaaaa…." Quatre gently nudged the lump slumbering away under the covers. Slow, overlapping rhythmic breathing around him told the tale of three other girls that were still asleep. "Wakie, wakie." He began to stroke her face.

"Nmph?" Mira rolled over, her hair in wild disarray. "Hrm?"

"Morning, Sunshine." Quatre dropped a kiss on her forehead, grinning all the while.

"Whassa time?"

"Somewhere around two-thirty in the morning."

"There's a two-thirty in the morning now?" the dark-haired telekinetic muttered and turned her face back into the pillow.

Rolling his eyes, Quatre plucked her from the bed and carried her to the TV room. Once there, he deposited her onto the couch. Mira sat up and glared at him.

"I said 'good morning, Sunshine'," he teased, and pecked her on the lips. "Eew. Morning breath."

"You suck."

"And I love you, too." The Gentle Noble grinned. Down the hall, he could hear the sounds of a wooden spoon hitting stainless steel and an enraged Chinese boy screaming before the abrupt sound of another pair of feet hitting the floor. More thumping narrated a chase followed by raucous giggling from one side. Quatre shook his head, smiling. Then he snapped his fingers. "Wait here a sec." And with that, he left the room, chuckling as Duo's laughter and Wufei's shouts of rage began waking up everyone else in the house. He came back quickly with an impish grin on his face and a small, immaculately wrapped gift in his hands. "I figured while you were up…."

Mira squealed and took the box before grabbing her boyfriend by the lapels and meshing his lips to hers. "I don't usually get gifts on Christmas," she admitted after finally coming up for air. "You really shouldn't have."

Quatre stared at her, still a little bit stunned. "Erm…but I did." Painfully aware of how red his face was becoming, regardless of how long they had been dating, he gestured at the gift. "Open it."

Excitedly, the dark-haired telekinetic pulled away the ribbon and ripped off the paper, revealing a small box of the sort jewellery usually comes in. "Oh, Quatre," she breathed.

"C'mon, Mira, open it." Aquamarine eyes sparkled with joy as the sounds of sleepy, shuffling feet and mumbles of "morning", "will you idiots stop all that yelling!?" and "merry Chr- uh…Festivus" filtered in from the surrounding rooms.

Carefully, Mira opened the box and breathlessly pulled out a small silver locket dangling on a fine silver chain. Speechless, she opened it to reveal a tiny black and white picture of the two of them taken in a tiny instant photo booth while they had been Christmas shopping two weeks back. It consisted of Mira, her face lit up with the excitement of the hustle and bustle of the mall outside and Quatre with one eye on the camera and his lips firmly planted on the side of her soft neck.

"Do you like it?" Quatre asked, his normally light voice tinged with worry. "I mean, if you don't, I can always get you another one. Or something else altogether, like a bracelet or a ring or something. No, no, wait, not a ring. We're too young for that. Not that I wouldn't like to someday, I mean-" He stopped short and replayed that last burst of speech in his head. "I'm babbling like an idiot aren't I?"

Mira's eyes were bright with tears as she reached up and hugged the blond Arab around the neck. "I absolutely love it," she assured him and laid a slim finger against his lips. Around them the sounds of footsteps were getting closer to the living room nearby. She kissed his lower lip deeply, making his ears go bright, flaming red. "We'll finish this little…ahem…interlude later."

The Gentle Noble breathed a sigh of relief. "Merry Christmas, love."

"Ah, ah, ah. Merry Festivus." The dark-haired telekinetic grinned impishly and pecked him on the nose.

"Right. Merry Festivus."

*****

This is so cool! Duo could hardly contain himself as he saw the tree, its lights like twinkling stars in some simplistically complicated galactic dance, its base totally hidden by brightly coloured boxes and bags. Shinigami-kun, who was sitting on his shoulder, trembling with pent-up excitement, suddenly shrieked with glee, nearly shattering Duo's right eardrum in the process. Like a caffeine-crazed dragonfly, he zipped to a brightly wrapped box topped with a huge red bow nearly twice his size. Still shrieking, he lunged for it and smartly rapped the nametag next to the bow with the butt of his scythe.

"This one's for me!" he exclaimed, soon-to-be owner's pride puffing up his tiny chest.

Duo grinned. What the hell. It's Christmas. "What, did you think the big man'd forget about you?"

"Welllll…."

From the hallway outside the door, Duo could hear the rest of the family stumbling over, Wufei being easiest to pick out. Although he had no expertise on the matter, Duo was sure that there was not one person out there who could swear better in Mandarin than him. As Duo raised his head, he caught a whiff of Belle's coffee gliding in from the coffeemaker in the kitchen. He smiled wryly.

Figures she'd pick through my mind and set the timer a few hours early today.

For some reason this failed to bother him like it would have a few months ago. It's amazing how quickly people get used to things. The smile became genuine as the voices came closer and the full realisation of the season hit him.

Christmas with a real family. Hot damn…. Who'da thought it would happen? As the Great Shinigami was reflecting on this enormous blessing, his greedy hand had somehow already made it deep into his stocking. Because Belle and Gil were trying to get one and all to "volunteer" their services in adding to the holiday cheer, (i.e., no participation, no presents.) they managed to goad Wufei into writing the placards for the stockings in kanji. Even Shinigami-kun was taken aback by the gruff young man's skill with a brush and ink stone. According to him, years of scholarly training tended to do that to a person. Duo had liked his so much that he carried it around the house, proud of how cool his name looked in calligraphy. At least until Gil took his aside and read the names on all the placards aloud to him.

"Heero, Trowa, Cathy, Shinigami-kun, Wufei, Mira, Assface, Kari, Quatre, Relena, Gil and Belle."

Needless to say, this little prank was quickly remedied, but not without a lot of snickers directed at Assface.

"Gaah…what time is it?" Trowa mumbled, walking in like he had just been resurrected. Duo was amused to see that the normally neat and tidy boy's hair was in complete disarray, making it look like a startled cat was sitting on his head. Feeling Duo's eyes, the Silencer tried to comb his wild tresses into place with his fingers.

"Close to three am." Quatre and Mira wandered in, looking all giggly and gooey-eyed. Duo sighed and sent a silent prayer that he and Misty would never look like that in public. He glanced back to see the other couple try to beat each other to the couch and end up falling in a giggling heap on the same cushion.

Strike that. Never ever.

The rest of the family meandered in, Belle clutching a cup of coffee, Wufei clutching his head as the last echoes of Duo's percussive interlude still bounced around inside. But it was the season, so, rather than risk the wrath of Belle, he simply sat on the floor by the couch and began pulling his loose hair into its customary tight ponytail.

"Well?" he said, letting the elastic go with a taut snap. "What are we waiting for. Let's get Christmas or Festivus or whatever started already." The Chinese boy's eyes were fastened to a long, low gift bearing his name nearby.

The others merely looked at him.

"Could it be?" Cathy teased in a voice of mock awe. "Could big, gruff Wufei actually be excited about something other than senseless violence?" She pressed her forearm to her forehead and struck a "woe is me" pose before mock-falling into Relena's arms. "The end of the world must truly be near!"

Wufei glared at her. "After what I'm sure you know of my past years, I think you'll agree that I can allow myself at least a small moment of immature anticipation for today." The words were said calmly, though no one could overlook the fact that his hands were balled tightly into fists.

Cathy looked supremely ashamed and bit her lip. "Sorry, Wufei," she mumbled.

Gil took this as his cue to step in. "Okay, okay. Enough hard feelings." He grinned suddenly. "I agree with Wufei. This place is far too calm for a bunch of people expecting a pile of presents. As of now it's every man for himself!"

The next ten minutes went by in a flurry of coloured paper, snapped ribbon, and breathless "thank you"s. The obligatory socks (AN: I got some of those… -_-;;), underwear and home made sweaters were found, exclaimed over, and surreptitiously pushed out of sight in record time, leaving full attention to be given to more interesting treasures. CDs, gift certificates, stuffed animals, a wooden tai chi sword, videos, boxes of chocolate and the like were scattered among the wads of paper and happy people when the first round was over with, leaving only the secret Santa gifts to consider.

"Mine first?" Shinigami-kun asked hopefully, hovering over the relatively huge gift he had staked claim on earlier.

Belle laughed richly. "Go ahead."

The tiny reaper took this as his cue and immediately flew madly around the present, slashing at the present like a berserker in heated battle until the paper, reduced to a few sad, tattered shreds, finally gave in to the inevitable and fell off. Rather than having to sit through the slashing of a poor, defenceless box, Relena risked losing a finger and opened it for him. Inside the box was a tiny bed, complete with carved head- and foot-boards and minuscule blankets and a mattress. The tag tied to the bedpost said "From Gil".

"I figured that old bowl you're sleeping in now looked a little plain, so I made you something nicer to sleep in," Gil explained shyly, obviously glad that his tiny friend was so delighted with his gift. "The sheets and mattress are from a toy store, though."

"Let Wufei open his next," Relena suggested. She gestured to a long, skinny package leaning against the wall by the tree. "I'm curious to know just what that thing is."

Wufei shrugged and ripped the paper off. The gift was merely a three-foot piece of doweling. The tag said "From Duo, Merry Festivus".

"Maxwell, what the hell is this?" Wufei said, looking pointedly at the doweling.

"It's a great big stick."

Mira rolled her eyes. "What a deduction! Way to go, Captain Obvious."

"Why a stick?" This from Heero. He and Relena were squeezed into an armchair and Duo was astonished to see Heero's hand resting easily on Relena's hip. Apparently the Perfect Soldier was about ready to let it be visible to the naked eye that he and Relena had been dating for the last two months.

Duo stood up. "Wellll, it's a replacement stick," he said, inching towards the door.

"Oh, really?" Wufei stood up now, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"Yeah, well, the one that's already up your ass probably should have been retired by now," Duo said this as he was in the act of turning around and bolting from the room. Wufei snarled, grabbed the doweling and bolted after him, the look in his eyes confirming that the stick was certainly going to end up jammed in someone, and he was going to do the jamming.

While Wufei and Duo were busy running around the house, their screams punctuated with muffled crashes and thuds as the stick missed its mark, the rest of the family took this opportunity to carry on without them. Belle got earrings from Relena, Quatre got sheet music from Cathy, Heero got a sweatshirt from Heero and so on. Then came Kari's gift.

Her slender, sensitive fingers explored the contours of the gift Gil handed her, searching for a clue. The scarred fighter's lower lip quickly pushed out into a pretty pout as she realised the gift was perfectly square and therefore non-guessable. She shook it next to her ear, listening to the contents rattle inside. Then, to the surprise of the others, she brought it to her face and sniffed it.

Mmm. The thought came out much like a self-satisfied purr. I thought it smelled good. With that, she stripped off the paper and closed her hand around the tag inside. Sensitive fingers felt their way over the card, reading the Braille letters punched into it.

Love, Trowa. Kari blushed slightly and opened the box. Reaching inside, she pulled out a small tube of lip gloss, its flavour printed in a Braille label glued to the side. "Cherry Berry Blast"? What the hell? Despite the choice of words, her tone was that of coy amusement.

"Flavoured lip stuff." Trowa bit his lower lip, his catlike eyes suddenly developing a saucy gleam to them. "I was thinking we could try them all out. Together."

The shade of red on Kari's face right then was so bright it rivalled the lights on the tree. She shook the box. That could take a while.

"We'll have try some a few times to get the desired effect." Trowa grinned. "Not to mention those we could end up forgetting the taste of. If we keep forgetting, we could be at it forever!"

Kari blushed harder. I'd like that, she admitted, smiling shyly.

Cathy pretended to throw up behind the couch.

"Okay, okay, enough of that," Gil chuckled and leaned out the living room door to call Wufei and Duo back in. The slightly winded two trooped in, Wufei first with a triumphant grin and then Duo, who alternated between rubbing the back of his head and glaring blackly at Wufei. Gil sighed and made them sit at opposite ends of the room. "My present is next," the old wizard grinned.

"What about mine?" Duo all but whined.

Mira tossed a small box at him. "We opened it without you. You got a watch. Merry Christmas."

"Oh."

"Ummm…." Cathy was tossing around wads of wrapping paper in search of Gil's gift. "Where-? Oh, wait." She handed him a manila envelope with "Gil" printed on it in neat block letters. "Here you go."

"Thanks." Flicking a small knife from his subspace pocket, Gil carefully slit the envelope and pulled out a sheaf of papers. Quickly his eyes scanned over the first few sheets of paper. Shinigami-kun was sitting on his shoulder, clinging to his neck. Suddenly Gil's eyes filled with tears.

"What is it?" Quatre asked, startled.

Shinigami-kun leaned over to peek at the paper. Then, reaching up, he tugged on Gil's ear. "What's 'otou-san' mean?"

Belle plucked the sheets from her husband's hands and quickly read the first few lines aloud: "Merry Festivus, Otou-san, Heero." A crystal tear of her own slipped furtively down her cheek. "They're adoption papers."

Heero simply watched them, his hand still on Relena's hip, an uncharacteristic small smile creeping onto his face. "What do you say?"

Gil grinned at him, tears now soaking into his beard. "Of course, child. Of course!"

"How did you manage to get these?" Belle shuffled quickly through the sheets. "They look almost complete."

"Watertight. Just sign and the process will be underway." Heero was grinning now, an unfamiliar show of emotion on the normally deadpan face. "I have my ways."

"Why Otou-san?" queried Gil.

Heero shrugged as best he could with Relena's head on his shoulder. " 'Daddy' always sounded stupid to me."

"Ah," Belle laughed suddenly. "I've never been an okaa-chan before."

The whole family sat back then, allowing themselves to bask in the warm afterglow of Chri –Festivus and to help themselves to a now-opened box of chocolates Mira had gotten. The warm silence was shattered, however, by Shinigami-kun launching himself from Gil's shoulder in a pint-sized panic, which almost caused his perch to choke on a cherry liqueur.

"I forgot!" Shinigami-kun squealed, "I got Wufei something!" With that, the tiny reaper zipped from the room, taking a hasty bite of Gil's chocolate as he went by.

Sighing gustily, Wufei threw himself on the one remaining spot of couch and put his head in his hands. "What are you willing to bet," he groaned, "that it's something to get me back for the flyswatter?"

"Why are you so mean to him?" Duo demanded, angry that his miniature was getting slammed.

"He's so annoying!" Wufei stood up and began pacing the length of the room. "He's always talking at me, he always wants me to play with him and he won't leave me the hell alone!!" He shot a pointed look at Duo. "Much like a travel-sized version of you, Maxwell."

"He loves you, Wufei," Quatre cut in. "You're his idol!"

"Bullshit." The Solitary Dragon picked an almond candy from the box, sat on the coffee table and moodily began sucking the chocolate off. "He jut wants to torment me."

"Can I have some help out here?" Shinigami-kun's voice came in from hallway through the closed door.

Kari stood and went to him, shutting the door behind herself.

The family sat in silence, waiting.

Awww, Kari's "voice" cooed in their collective minds. How cuuuute! "Ah, crap." Wufei crushed the almond between his teeth.

Kari entered then, Shinigami-kun perched proudly on her shoulder, a small grey kitten with a half-chewed ribbon around its neck yawning drowsily in her arms. A tiny tag attached to the ribbon said "To Wufei, Love Shi-kun."

"Ah, crap." The words "I'm screwed" seemed to have been suddenly etched on his forehead.

"I got him from a nice mama cat at the Keep." Shinigami-kun beamed at Wufei. "So you'd like me."

"Ah, crap." Wufei suddenly looked trapped.

Kari strode up to the stunned Chinese boy and deposited the sleepy kitten in his lap. The kitten mewed at him, padded over to his hand and promptly began gnawing on his thumb. Wufei didn't even wince.

"Ah, crap."

"Do you like me now?" Shinigami-kun winged anxiously until he was about a millimetre from the Solitary Dragon's nose. "Pleeeease?"

"Ahhhh, crap!!!" was all Wufei said, bowling the tiny reaper over in mid-air with the atomic force of morning breath. He stood up, unconsciously cradling the kitten against his chest much one would with a baby, and plucked the reaper out of Midori. "Fine!" he said. "I'll be more civil to you! Just stop pouting at me like that!"

The lower lip was sucked in in record time. "Yaaaay!!!!"

Wufei huffed and sat back down, idly petting his new companion. "Of all the dirty, underhanded little…" he groused under his breath. Underneath his hand, the tiny feline began to purr.

Stifling a laugh, Relena reached out to pet the furry little head. "I think he's cute." She began scratching behind a tiny ear. "What will you call him?"

This innocent question of course, sparked a huge argument over what to call the newest member of the family. Suggestions ranging from "Thor" to Mr. Bootsy, or else I'll pull off your arms ("Kari!" Belle scolded while Wufei sat horrified on the coffee table. "That's not funny!") were cast in, repeated back and quickly scrapped. Finally Wufei rolled his eyes and said the first name that came to mind, which ended up being the name of some distant relative, a cousin in fact.

"His name is Xiao. Period."

Belle stood up. "Well! That was fun," she said, briskly gathering up her coffee mug. "Now, how about a spot of breakfast?"

"Yeah!"

The psionicist shot a pointed look at the piles of paper, gifts and teenagers littering the room. "After this room is made spotless."

"Awwww!"

*****

"Hurry up, Duo!" Heero shouted, pounding on the bathroom door. "How long does it take to fix your hair?"

"Hey, hey, this braid, I'll have you know is a work of fine art!" Duo called from the other side of the door. "And fine art cannot be rushed."

"You have six seconds before I break down the door and kill you with your 'work of art'."

"I'm done." Duo said quickly, self-preservation kicking over all notions of vanity. He opened the door and did a quick turn to show off his outfit. "Whaddaya think?"

Heero flicked a glance at Duo's black-trousers-white-jacket combo and raised an eyebrow. "Very James Bond."

"Yeah, isn't it awesome?" He gave Heero's traditional black tux an appraising glance and flicked a bit of lint from his lapel. "You look good. Planning on picking up?"

"Shut up." Heero stalked into the bathroom and slammed the door.

"Wooo-ooo! Touchee!!!"

"You can't blame him," Trowa said, coming up behind Duo and scaring the living shit out of him. He was wearing a black tux much like Heero's, though the cut of the jacket was longer and he wore a gold wire pin borrowed from Gil in lieu of a tie. "It's New Year's Eve and Relena's got the flu. What could suck more than that?"

The braided boy raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Aww, you're just bitter because Kari's staying home with her."

Trowa shrugged. "So Heero and I are going to come home a little earlier. Big deal. It's better to give the first kiss of the year in private without being stared at by a bunch other people. It allows you to get creative." He quirked an eyebrow. "If you get my meaning?"

Throwing up his hands, the Great Shinigami sighed. "I give up."

"I said I'm not going!!"

"Wufei, darling, you hardly go out to begin with," Belle's voice pleaded after his retreating back. Clad in an evening gown of deep violet –there was a party about to go on at the Keep- she hurried after the Solitary Dragon. "Maybe you'll find a nice girl and-"

"No!" Wufei stomped down the hall. He wore a charcoal-black silk jacket and pants in his favourite traditional Chinese style. A silver pin not unlike Trowa's fastened it at the throat and a phoenix design brocaded at the hem of the jacket seemed to swirl like water at his knees as he stomped through the hall in the direction of his room. At his heels, Xiao was toddling after him.

Duo intercepted him, causing Xiao to bump into his master's feet with a cranky mew. "C'mon Wu-man, it'll be boring without you," he lied through his teeth. "You'll have a blast! Some food, maybe dancing, a nip of cham-" the Great Shinigami caught a dark glare from Belle, "-uh, ginger ale. Canada Dry ginger ale, in fact, which is the champagne of ginger ales! (AN: or at least that's what the advertisement says.) It'll be a blast! So what if you're a little nervous?"

Wufei glared at him and picked up Xiao. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

"Duo!" Gil's voice cut through the pair of dark glares directed in Duo's direction. "Misty's here!"

"Thanks!" Duo called, relieved to be let off the hook and hurried his way past the sulky Solitary Dragon to the kitchen downstairs. Misty was sitting at the table, nursing a glass of Diet Coke Gil must have gotten her –she always said the regular stuff was too sweet for her tastes. For a moment, Duo just stood there, drinking in how incredible she looked. The tiny bard's slender frame was wrapped in an off-the-shoulder dress in forest green. Her hair was bound back with what looked like a bronze headband and a matching choker circled her throat. The braided ex-pilot decided to make his entrance.

"Hellooooo, Sexy!"

The red-haired bard almost dropped her glass. "Don't do that!"

Grinning, he strode over and lay a kiss on her. "Mmm," he purred after. "Fizzy."

"Cute." Misty rolled her eyes. "Not funny, but cute."

A sketchy bow acknowledged her zinger, followed by a lopsided smile. "I try my best."

"Hey! You guys ready to party?" Duo and Misty looked up to see Quatre and Mira standing arm in arm in the doorway. Quatre, dashing in a pearl-grey suit and Mira, a vision in star-speckled black velvet, pulled out some chairs and sat down with the other couple. Duo noticed the locket she'd gotten from Quatre was hanging just above her breasts. It really was pretty. He leaned in to get a better look at it. At least until he felt Misty's foot jab hard into his shin.

"Hi. Is everyone ready to go yet?" Misty already had her keys in her hand. She shot a "don't you dare" look at him. It was creepy the way she could do that with her eyes and smile at him with her mouth at the same time.

"Well…." Quatre gave her a tolerant smile. "Belle is still threatening to kill Wufei with her evening bag if he doesn't 'get your butt out the door and enjoy yourself, dammit!' and Heero and Trowa are still saying goodbye to Relena and Kari, so this could take a while."

"Ready!" Trowa called from the upper level, and in a moment he, Heero and a sullen-looking Wufei were at the base of the stairs.

"Speak of the devil," Mira smiled.

"Good to see you!" Misty cried, throwing herself at Wufei for a hug, which he provided, if only out of shock.

Duo laughed silently at them. Only Misty could pull off something like that and live.

"Let's get going." Ever-punctual Heero was already shrugging on his coat.

"Sure." Duo grinned. Tonight was going to be like no other. He could feel it in his bones. "Bye, guys! See you next year!!"

"Bye, kids!" Belle and Gil called from their bedroom upstairs.

A chorus of "bye"s answered them back, accompanied with a flurry of coats.

"And no drinking, Duo!"

"But it's the champagne of ginger ales, Belle! The champagne of ginger ales!"

"I said no! Now go have fun with your friends!"

"Awwww…."

*****

Standing at the window of her bedroom, Belle watched Misty's grandfather's van pull away from the house, her hands occupied with the stubborn hasp of a necklace. Sneaking up behind her, Gil laid a hungry kiss at the nape of her neck. "Here," he said, taking the hasp from her. "Allow me."

"Thank you." The ageless woman's voice was faint.

Gil frowned. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"I…. I was looking around in the Prophecies this morning," Belle admitted.

"Oh?"

"They still aren't writing any more clues." The Prophecies were the greatest-kept secret in the entirety of the Keep. Only the most high-ranking officials were permitted to study and record their bounty before old words faded away to make room for the new and the most tight-lipped silence was kept concerning them. On a lectern in a tightly warded room in the deepest heart of the Keep away from the prying eyes of the rest of the inhabitants, the Prophecies lay; a single, leather-bound volume that wrote its own history according to tiny bends and dents that appeared in the Bond. For most times, periods lasting generations upon generations, they lay dormant, not a word being inked between the closed pages. But a few times within a ten-year span, an obscure line or two was inscribed and from there it was copied down, recorded and checked against every other line, theory, or idea those who studied the Prophecies had at their mercy. This phenomenon occurred very seldom; even achieving the tenuous understanding of a line once a year was cause for quiet celebration. But now there was smothered apprehension among those who read the Prophecies.

Since Belle's children had arrived, two full paragraphs had appeared between the yellowed pages.

"Not even half a sentence?"

Belle shook her head. "Nothing at all. Just the same ambiguous words as before. I did manage to figure something out tonight, though." Judging from her voice, she didn't seem happy about it.

"Mmm?" His gnarled hands finished with the hasp at the base of his wife's neck, Gil wrapped his arms around her waist for comfort. "What did you find out?"

"Something's going to happen tonight."

*****

The next chapter's going to be up faster (hopefully) so stay tuned!!!

--LPD *//.^*