Chapter Twenty-Two;

Ah, Christmas day. Audrey, of course, was the first one awake. Dragging Deidara with her to the kitchen, the brunette set about making breakfast. Itachi and Gina stirred next, the smell of bacon, sausage, and french toast reaching their noses. Next to wake up was Sasori, who was rudely awakened by Deidara trying to blow him up. How lovely. Everyone left the task of waking Evelynn up to Sasori. Again, aren't they such lovely people?

Sasori trudged into the red-headed females room, and sat on the edge of her bed. Peering down at her, he had to admit she was a lot cuter asleep than she was awake. Ah, time to get this over with.

"Evelynn," Sasori whispered. Shaking the sleeping girl gently. "Come on. Get up. Audrey's cooking breakfast."

"Egahd." Was the response he received. Sasori rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Evelynn. Everyone's waiting for us."

"Ugh, you go down, I'll be down in a minute."

"Want me to make sure the coffee is on?"

"I'll love you forever." The half-asleep female muttered.

"I'll hold you to that." With that Sasori went to the kitchen, making sure Evelynn's coffee was ready for when she finally got out of bed.

The young woman let out a soft groan and sat up. She looked agitatedly over at the outfit Audrey had picked out. It was more of a costume, really. Audrey had said she wanted them to match, and dress up for Christmas. Why the hell did she and Gina agree to this? Sighing, Evelynn grabbed her brush and ran it through her hair quickly. Then, she slipped on the absurd costume Audrey picked out, and walked down into the kitchen.

Yes, Audrey had picked them out costumes. Gina had been neutral on the whole thing. It didn't matter to her. She was more excited that they were all spending Christmas together. Even more excited that they got to share the missing-nin's first Christmas with them. Ah, how exciting indeed. Gina looked up from the newspaper as Evelynn walked in the kitchen. The red-head muttered a 'thank you' as Sasori handed her a cup of coffee. Then, said red-head also blinked in surprise when the male affectionately touched his forehead to hers. She quickly regained her composure, and turned to Gina.

"Ah, so you did decide to wear it?" Evelynn asked, taking in Gina's outfit. It was a red-felt strapless Santa dress that reached just above her knees, and there was white fur sewn around the bottom, and across the chest. Gina just nodded.

"Awh, Evelynn! You look so cute!" Audrey was dressed most modestly. Her dress, though looking exactly like Gina's and Evelynn's, fell to her knees, and hand long off-the-shoulder sleeves. Evelynn herself had a spaghetti strap v-neck dress that went to her mid-thigh. Itachi and Sasori had insisted she wear shorts under it. What kill-joys.

Currently, Audrey was flipping the last few slices of french toast. Across the counter there were piles of toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage, and french toast. There was also orange juice, milk, and coffee set out. Evelynn shook her head, and threw the milk back in the refrigerator. The last thing they needed was for it to spoil.

"You made quite the feast, Audrey." Evelynn mused, turning to her brunette friend.

Said brunette nodded, "and this is just breakfast! Wait until you see what I make for dinner!"

With that, Audrey put the last of the french toast on a plate, and everyone started to dig in. Audrey sat in Deidara's lap while they ate. Both talking excitedly to everyone about gifts, and Audrey exclaiming that everyone 'is going to love what I got them!' This made Evelynn, who was sitting sideways against the table, her legs propped up on Sasori, laugh and tell Audrey that if she didn't live up to what she was claiming she would shave her bald. This caused Audrey to wail, and Gina(who was sitting like a normal person next to Itachi) had to calm her down. Evelynn apologized(damn that soft spot for Audrey!), and everyone went back to eating. Once they were finished Evelynn offered to do dishes. To make up for startling Audrey.

Since it was only ten in the morning, and Audrey had insisted they can't open gifts until after dinner, everyone went about the house to do their own thing. Evelynn finished up dishes, Audrey stayed in the kitchen with her, and started to prepare for their dinner. This made Evelynn finish the dishes rather quickly. She did not want to get stuck helping Audrey cook. Once she was finished with the dishes, she took off to her room. Deidara, Itachi, and Gina had decided to go outside. Deidara was 'making his art,' and Itachi and Gina were having a snowball fight. Gina couldn't help but laugh the whole time. Have you ever seen an Uchiha have a snowball fight? It was rather hilarious.

About a month ago, when Gina had remembered Itachi's illness from the show, she had asked him about he. He had admitted that he'd been sick for some time now. Gina then convinced him to go to a modern doctor. He eventually agreed, and was given medication. A month later, he was in perfect health. Well, as perfect as one could be after having been sick for so long. He still often had a nasty cough, but nothing too serious. Suddenly Gina was tackled into the snow. Letting out a yelp of surprise she looked up into the dark eyes of the Uchiha prodigy.. And then she blushed. He was staring at her so warmly.

"I love you," he murmured softly. Gina blinked, then smiled.

"I love you, too." Then, just as he was about to kiss her, a snowball connected with the side of his face. The Uchiha sat up quickly, and glared at the culprit.

"Get a room you two, yeah!" Deidara hollered, laughing at finally having managed to hit Itachi with something. Even though the men got along quite better in this world than they ever did their own, Deidara still had a bit of a grudge on Itachi for forcing him into the Akatsuki.

The Uchiha rolled his eyes, stood up slowly, helped Gina up, then started throwing snowballs as fast as he could at Deidara. The blonde bomber yelped, and started throwing them back just as fast. Gina stood off to the side, and howled with laughter. Have you ever seen a ninja snowball fight? She had. It was probably the most memorable snowball fights in the history of snowball fights.

-With Audrey!-

The young brunette hummed as she worked. Evelynn had zipped off to her room a few minutes ago. Not that Audrey minded. She knew Evelynn hated working in the kitchen. Not that should could blame her. Evelynn was, in short, kitcheningly challenged. It wasn't her fault, but the red-head could burn a pot of boiling water. So, Audrey prepared dinner alone.

She had decided on ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, baked carrots, green beans, and sweet corn. She had used toothpicks to stake pineapple slices onto the ham, tossed the cut up carrots in around it, covered it in foil, and then placed it in the oven. It would cook for three hours. While that cooked, she could prepare everything else.

Audrey liked fresh ingredients. For the desserts, since no one in the house liked gingerbread, Audrey would make sugar-cookie-men. Little to everyone else's knowledge Audrey had also taken it upon herself to volunteer them all to read stories to orphaned kids. So, she made sure to make extra cookies to take with them. She looked at the time. It was eleven. Good. they didn't have to be at the orphanage until two.

The brunette hummed happily as she took the gingerbread man-shaped cookie cutter across the newly made cookie-dough. She would just throw these cookies onto the bottom rack in the oven, and if she timed it right, the ham and cookies would be done at the came time. After all, it only took about thirty minutes to bake the cookies. She giggled. Surely her friends wouldn't turn away the chance to make little orphans happy, right?

-With Evelynn!-

The red-headed woman sat on her balcony smoking a cigarette. She had a blanket thrown across her lap. Since it was winter Evelynn had invested in getting plastic window-like things put up on her balcony to keep the wind and snow out. She also kept a small space heater on the balcony, so it was rather cozy. Lazily she turned as Sasori stepped out onto the balcony.

"Can I have one?" He nodded towards her pack of cigarettes.

She nodded, "I didn't know you smoke."

"I don't make it a habit," he drawled, pulling one out and lighting it. He sat across from her at the little table she had invested in for her balcony, and they sat in comfortable silence. Evelynn's room was at the back of the house, so it over looked the backyard. The two watched in amusement as Itachi and Deidara suddenly started a "ninja snowball fight."

"They can be such idiots," Sasori stated with amusement.

"Ah, but they're our idiots." Evelynn stated. Her companion nodded.

Sasori studied Evelynn then. Really studied her. She was a female that constantly sent his mind in a whirl. Not something that happened often. She was strikingly independent, and he often wondered exactly how to make a move. He didn't want to do anything too romantic. Surely she would turn her nose up at it, and Sasori wasn't exactly an expert in romance anyways. He had watched intently at how easily the others relationships blossomed, and often wondered why his and Evelynn's didn't do the same.

'Because she's too stubborn,' he mused to himself. Evelynn caught him staring.

"What?" She asked, raising and eyebrow. Well, it was now or never.

"You're interesting," he remarked calmly.

"Yeah.. And?" The red-headed woman pressed. In truth, ever since she gave in on their birthday argument she had been waiting for him to make their relationship official. For someone who hated waiting, he sure was taking his sweet damn time.

"We could date." He stated bluntly.

"Yeah."

"It's official then."

"Yep."

And that was the 'romantic' start to Evelynn's and Sasori's relationship. Well, what did you expect from two stubborn, romantically-challenged people?

(A/N; I don't know shit about cooking, so I completely guessed how things would work out in the kitchen with Audrey. Also, Fairly soon this part of the story is going to come to an end, and I'm going to make a second part to it. Mostly because I don't want to make a 50 chapter story. I feel it gets boring. Before this story is over; Next chapter I will be introducing an orphan boy named Adrian. Evelynn ends up adopting him as a 'brother.' Then, once Christmas is over I'll be introducing one more OC named Shoto, whom someone requested I add into the story, and pair with Sasuke. So, look forward to seeing our favourite little brother Uchiha! Anyways, reviews are welcome! If you have an OC you want paired with someone, let me know! There's an application type thing in the Disclaimer/warning section. I'll only accept a few, because I don't want too many OC's in the story. I feel it gets confusing. Anyways, I hope you're all enjoying the story, and I'll have the next chapter up soon! Have a nice day!)