I feel like writing a Christmas sidestory. I do believe a five-year old Hikari is in order.

Mika

The moment I woke up, I couldn't help but look at the alarm clock. 6 in the morning. Because Sora was on break, we didn't bother with setting the alarm. He probably would have woken up by now, but he got into reading an article on the latest advances in synthesizing organs for transplants late last night. However, I couldn't help but notice a very sneaky child trying to go down the stairs. I decided to grab her before she could proceed any further.

"Hikari, where do you think you're going?" I asked our daughter.

Hikari looked up at me hopefully with her different colored eyes (how in the world did she inherit her father's eyes?). "Christmas presents?"

Leave it to children to get up earlier than any college student would ever be willing to on Christmas just for the sake of presents. Unfortunately for said child, we have a very specific rule regarding opening presents.

"Remember Hikari, everyone has to be down there also. So no opening presents yet." I said sternly.

Hikari pouted before seeming to come up with an idea. "So if papa is awake, we can open presents?"

I sighed. There was no getting her out of this. "If you can wake him up, then yes."

"Ok!"

"No shouting though." I said.

Hikari approached Sora, completely undeterred by my restriction on her. Since the bed was taller than her, she had to tiptoe to look over the bed. Once she did though, she proceeded to poke her father in the cheek until he woke up.

Obviously, this didn't work for her. I've actually done this myself tons of times when he's been asleep (his cheeks are really stretchy. How could I not?), so I knew that it wasn't going to be enough to wake him up.

I completely underestimated our daughter's determination to open Christmas presents though. Hikari narrowed her eyes when the poking didn't work, and then proceeded climb onto the bed before jumping on top of Sora.

"Ow!"

Well, that woke him up. I picked up Hikari before she could jump again. "Hikari, don't do that again. Jumping on people isn't healthy for them."

"Why couldn't you give her that lesson before she jumped on me, Mika?" My husband groaned, slowly getting up. "And Hikari, why are you up at" he glanced at the clock "six in the morning?"

"Because Mama said that I needed to wake you up before we could open Christmas presents!" Hikari chirped.

Sora looked at the clock. "Right… today's Christmas. Give me a moment and then we can go downstairs to open gifts, alright?"

"Yes!" Hikari pumped her hand up in the air from where I was holding her.

As I let her down, she ran downstairs, probably to start inspecting gifts and figure out which one she should open first.

"You know, I wonder where she gets all of this energy from. I certainly wasn't this energetic when I was her age, and I don't think you were either." Sora said, getting up.

I could only smile. "I think she actually gets it from Seiichi. Believe it or not, he was literally the biggest troublemaker in the family back when we were in elementary school. He mellowed out when he got to middle school, but he was such a troublemaker before then."

As we started walking downstairs, Sora's brain seemed to start working. "Alright, I got every present on the list, Kaneki's family is in town for dinner… is Seiichi a no-show again?"

I shook my head. "Apparently he and his girlfriend have this event going on tonight."

"I swear, he might as well propose. They've been together for what, three years now?"

"Four. You didn't get too many presents, right?" I asked.

Sora shook his head. "There were four presents that Hikari really wanted. I got those and then picked three out of the twenty she had on her list."

"And I thought you were going to get everything on the list. You do love spoiling our daughter." I sighed in relief.

"Hey, I know how to show restraint… sometimes. But honestly, I'm just glad she didn't ask for dolls. I was not going to get caught walking into one of those shops."

"Oho! So even my husband has his moments where he can be restrained." I teased.

"Give me a break, won't you?" Said husband complained.

"Nope. Not a chance. You're stuck with me for the rest of your life, you know." I said with a wink.

"And I wouldn't trade it for the world." Sora replied, kissing me before we finally got to the living room where our daughter was looking through her gifts, trying to decide which one to open up first.

She finally decided on one and looked up at us. "Can I open them now?"

I couldn't help but smile. "Go for it."

And just like that, Hikari tore into the gifts. The moment she opened her first present, a stuffed penguin, she squealed in delight. Sora couldn't help but smile.

"Come on, Hikari. You know that's not your only gift, right?" He asked.

She needed no more prompting as she began opening her next gift, which turned out to be a picture book that guided the reader through the human body.

I looked wryly at my husband. "Really? That was on her list?"

He held his hands up in surrender. "Hey, I just read it off the list. Besides, she asked. And you know how I act when Hikari asks."

"Fair enough." I conceded as I went to grab my present for Sora. Sora did the same and grabbed his present for me. Hikari, on the other hand, continued to murder the wrapping paper to get to her presents (We shall hold a funeral for the wrapping paper later). I think Sora might have went a little overkill this time around when he got presents for our daughter.

As I opened Sora's present for me, I couldn't help but smile. Leave it to him to frame the family picture that we took and make it look good. Ironically enough, I got a similar present for him.

"A photo album?" My husband asked, a slight smile on his face as he finished unwrapping his present.

I shrugged. "Well, we can't leave our photos everywhere now, can we?"

"Can't disagree with you there." Sora said, as he went upstairs to grab all our photos.

Once he came back down with them, we started sorting them out.

"Oh look, here's the one from the school formal!"

"Hey, I found the one from when we first started our operations in Tokyo."

"Aww, Look at this! Touka looks so beautiful in her wedding photo."

"Kaneki looks downright awkward in his suit though."

"Oh come on, it's all part of the charm."

After we finished sorting them, Sora turned to Hikari, who was busy digging herself into the book on the human body. "Hey Hikari, want to go flying for a bit?"

Hikari looked up, excitement in her eyes. "Flying?"

Sora smiled. "Let me get your safety harness and then we can go, alright?"

"Ok!"

A few moments later, father and daughter were out in the yard, with said daughter securely strapped on to Sora's back.

"Alright, ready to fly, Hikari?"

"Yeah!" Hikari pumped her little first in the air.

"Hold on tight!"

With that, Sora unfurled his wings and started flying. I could only smile as I listened to Hikari's squeals of delight.

It's been years since we've last had to fight for our lives or cause, but I couldn't help but feel happy every time.

Peace is a beautiful thing.

All hail the Christmas chapters. I felt like getting this one out, so I spent all night working on it. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.