Right, here we are again! Welcome to Christmas Time! Just so you know, this story is taking place about fall – Not Christmas. Please Read and Review!

The red Toyota cruised down the quiet road bathed in sunset peacefully. Peacefully, it found the drive it was looking for and turned down the gravel path. Peacefully, it pulled up to the serene wooden house with stained glass in the windows. Peacefully, it slowed to a stop and turned off, joining the quiet of the world around it.

And then the doors opened.

The peacefulness was shattered with the excited cries of 2 young girls, who jumped out of the car and started running toward the house. Well, one of them did at least. The other one took two steps and slowed to an immediate halt, a look of shock on her face. The quiet resumed, Peacefulness reigned again. The one who ran made it to the door and turned around to see the other still standing. She walked toward her, wondering what brought about the halt.

"Leia?"

"This..this house. It's the one I told you about earlier. The one I stayed in when I was little."

"Oh, yeah..I forgot about that."

The driver of the car had gotten out a few seconds ago, and now walked over to the pair. "Why don't we go inside, we can explain there."

(Alright, I'll quite the no-naming game. I like to introduce chapters this way.)

Inside, Hana put some water in a pot on the oven and started heating it. Leaving it to warm, she walked out to the Living Room, where Leia and Yuki were sitting. "Okay, so you wanted to know about our house?"

Leia shifted just a bit, back to her shy state. "Yes. I think it's the same, but it seems different."

Hana responded, "I'm not surprised. When we bought the property, it was in shambles, hardly livable. It took a lot of work, but we were able to restore it. Now, it's a very comfortable home."

Yuki grinned. "That was a few years ago. I remember once finding a snake in the floorboards before we got new ones. I think I showed it who was boss."

Hana shot a subtle look at Yuki. She blinked before realizing her error. She had shown it who was boss alright - pinned it down with her paws before dropping it outside. Not hands, paws.

Leia was feeling a little calmer now, and now had another question: "But why did you come here to begin with?"

Now it was Hana's turn to feel uneasy. "Well.. we used to live in the city, but we left because..It became too stressful. Yuki and Ame were such a handful-"

"Who's Ame?"

Yuki took over from her mother, but not without giving her a subtle look of her own. "Ame is my younger brother. He..er…went to live somewhere else awhile ago."

Now Leia was really curious. "Why did he leave?"

Hana decided to respond first. "That's a bit more complicated. Maybe we can tell you some other time."

Leia would have liked to ask more questions, but took the hint and decided not to. As Hana got up to check on the water, Yuki took Leia on a tour of the house, from living room to kitchen to bathroom to schoolroom and finally to her (And now Leia's) room.

"Here's where we'll be sleeping. I'm on the right, you're on the left. We both have a dresser and some shelves too, over here." Yuki motioned to the other side of the room. The room looked a little like a wide corridor. Toward the door on either side was a sleeping bag and an air mattress, both made neatly. At the heads of both, down the corridor, were two dressers, continuing the mirror-image theme. Also in the room was a basket for clothes, a small table and two chairs, and a few shelves for knick-knacks, or whatever was wanted. The right side of the room's furniture was all generally colored shades of red, while the left had more of a blue theme.

"It looks really nice! But you sleep on sleeping bags?"

"Yeah, kind of a habit. We had to use them when we were fixing this house, and for lack of money we kept using them. Now they're just comfortable, a blanket feels a little weird."

"Okay! …So I guess I should hope to like blue?"

"Oh, that! Yeah..uh.. Ame really liked blue, and I like red, so that's kinda how our rooms ended up." The two kept talking, both now in great spirits.

Meanwhile, Hana had walked over to the oven; the water was boiling now. She shut off the heat and got out 3 glasses. Pouring the water out equally into the cups, the stream of steam became three. She then went to the cabinet where she took out two small jars. She poured a certain amount into each glasses before stirring in the mixture. The brown and white powders dissolved into the water, brown dominating the liquid. Hana then called the children into the kitchen. Handing them each a cup, she said, "Have some Hot Chocolate!"

The three sat around the table, talking happily. When the cocoa drink began to run low, Leia got up the nerve to say something.

"Thank you for adopting me. I think now I can have a Family again!"

Well, I think I managed to do an orphan thank-you that wasn't clichéd!-I hope. Right, so, I wanted to say thank you for the attention this has got – more views than any of my other stories! But a new chapter may be a long time coming, me with a few other ideas and things to do – Not least of which being Christmas. To those among you who think yourselves sophisticated, a review would be appreciated! I want to know what 'm doing right and wrong!

See you later, -Construct Master.