The next evening, Liu Kang, Kitana, Liana, Kung Lao, and Rebecca arrived at the Cage house at six, except for Raiden who was late.
"Where's Raiden?" Sonya asked. "He's the only one who can arrive here in a second and he's late."
"Maybe he's just pacing himself." Johnny said.
"I highly doubt it, Johnny." Sonya said.
"Well who knows? He is a thunder god after all. Maybe he's caught up in something." Johnny said.
"What could possibly be more important than this?" Sonya asked. "He's always late and he's never around when you need him."
Suddenly Raiden appeared looking quite flustered with his hair a little messy and a few food stains on his clothes.
"Raiden, what happened to you? You're a mess!" Johnny said.
"You're late!" Sonya said frustrated.
"My apologies for making you all wait but I had other important matters to deal with." Raiden said.
"What was so important that couldn't wait? You knew ahead of time we were going to have a get together dinner four weeks before Christmas because we don't get to see each other as often!" Sonya said.
"Well if you give me a minute to explain myself you'll know why." Raiden said.
Sonya crossed her arms and sat heavily next to Johnny who quickly moved a few inches closer to Kitana.
"Ahem," He said clearing his throat. "Right before I left to attend to this dinner I was urgently summoned to the Wu Shi academy by one of the monks. Some boy named Kealen had thrown some of his art all over the walls and some of the monks robe's. Not only that, but he was spraying silly string everywhere."
Liu Kang smacked his forehead with his hand in embarrassment. Kitana patted his back in comfort.
"But you see that was only half of what I was told. When I arrived, not only did I find silly string and graffiti everywhere, I also found that all the incense had been knocked over. But if you look on the bright side of things, at least the academy smells nice."
"So what did you do with Kealen?" Kitana asked.
"Well I found him eventually and as punishment, I tied him around the tree in his shorts." Raiden said.
"Raiden, how could you?" Rebecca said appalled.
"It isn't me you should be angry at, it's the boy." Raiden said. "Besides, I untied him after a few hours…" He mumbled to himself.
"Well now that everyone's here I suppose we should start eating." Sonya said walking towards the kitchen.
"Aren't you still upset at me?" Raiden asked cautiously.
"You're off the hook for now." Sonya said.
Johnny followed behind. "Don't look at me, Raiden. I'm not going to interfere after what happened last time. I don't make the same mistakes twice."
Raiden scuffed the floor with his foot in disappointment.
"Oh by the way Raiden," Kitana said hitting him hard in the back of the head.
"Ow!" He said in pain.
"That's for dying Liana's shirts! It took me three hours and five washes to get it out!"
He rubbed the back of his head painfully over the now forming lump.
"You had it coming to you, you know." Liu Kang said walking by.
Kung Lao and Rebecca only shrugged as they passed him.
Sebastian and Liana were already seated and watched as the adults set the table. Kitana began to scoop food on Liana's plate for her while Sebastian made a point of filling his plate before anyone else.
"Are you sure you can eat that all, buddy?" Johnny asked to his son.
"Of course I will!" He said.
"Good. We don't' want mom getting mat at us now do we?" He said winking.
Sebastian nodded his head quickly looking at his mother. Liu help but grin. He knew exactly how they felt. In fact, he did the very same thing with Liana.
"So where's Bo' Rai Cho? Anyone know how he's doing these days?" Raiden asked.
"Master Bo' Rai Cho has other plans for the evening, but I talked with him a few weeks ago and he said he's busy training and visiting old friends." Liu Kang said.
"So, Liu, are you and Kung Lao on Christmas holidays yet?" Johnny asked.
"Yeah it started two weeks ago." Liu Kang said.
"And it's just what Kung Lao needed too." Rebecca said.
"I haven't needed it badly; I've just been under a little stress." Kung Lao said.
"So are you going to tell everyone the good news?" Rebecca asked Kung Lao.
"Why should I be to the one to tell them? Kung Lao protested.
"What good news?" Sonya asked looking at Kitana and Liu.
Liu Kang shook his head while Kitana shrugged.
"Why don't you tell them, Rebecca?" Kung Lao said softly taking her hand.
"Tell us what?" Johnny asked confused.
Raiden sat more upright in his chair and leaned closer as a wide grin began to spread across his face.
"I'm pregnant." Rebecca said.
Johnny and Liu stared in awe as Raiden began to laugh.
"Ha, I was right! Ah I know you mortals all too well." He said.
"Well that makes sense. Raiden probably saw it coming. No wonder I lost twenty dollars to him." Johnny said.
"You two bet against each other in a contest?" Sonya said annoyed.
"Well yeah. We made a bet that if she was pregnant I'd win twenty bucks. If she wasn't, I'd pay him twenty dollars-ow! What did you hit me for?" Johnny said.
"That's for agreeing to a stupid bet against something like this!" Sonya said.
"Ha-ha I saw that coming! Ow! That's twice you've hit me today, Sonya. I thought you said I was off the hook?" Raiden said
"Correction, you were off the hook, but that was for making the stupid bet, now pay Raiden, Johnny, please." Sonya said.
Johnny shakily threw the twenty dollar bill over the table to Raiden who put it in his pocket. Kung Lao chuckled slightly.
"So are we going to eat dinner in peace or show the children another fine example of how to hit your spouse?" Kitana said.
The room went silent as everyone turned their attention to Liana and Sebastian who were grinning from ear to ear and suddenly burst out laughing. Soon everyone joined in on the laughter, and even shed a few tears from laughing so hard.
"That was awesome!" Sebastian said.
"Don't ever do it, Seb." Johnny said.
"Why? Is it because girls are scary?" Sebastian asked.
"That and it's not nice." Johnny said looking at Sonya who was too busy wiping her eyes to notice.