Post T.A.A.H
Siegfried was not a kid person.
It wasn't as though he didn't like kids. It was just that they usually did not like him. Not even when he himself was a child. They were always afraid, confused, unsure of, freaked out by, something about him. He had yet to discover what it was exactly, but he knew for a fact that it was there. He knew because, as he must have said a dozen times before, nine times out of ten they would run off and cry when they saw him.
By the time he hit 20 he figured it was normal for any and all children to act that way around him. Though, as time went on, he realized that it wasn't that every child on the face of the planet was allergic to his existence. It was just that most of them were not nearly crazy enough to be attracted to his presence.
His lot in life, it seemed, was to weed out the sanest of the bunch, leaving him with a wild group of young offspring that, for some reason or another, liked having him around. The list kept growing too. First it was Pyrrha and Patroklos. Then it was Amy. Talim wormed her way in there eventually, and Siegfried started wondering when he had gotten so popular with kids. He figured it was some kind of fluke.
Then he met the children at the Smash Manor. Mini was the first to claim rights to the knight as his new best friend. Windwaker, not to be outdone, was the second. Nana and Popo were a close third and fourth, followed almost immediately by Ness. Diddy followed suit, and a reluctant Lucas was the final child to warm up to him. These days they met him with smiles and kind hellos, and they begged for his attention almost as much as they did Link's.
Siegfried honestly could not understand what was wrong with these children.
"Yo, Sigi!" Siegfried broke free from his musings and turned to look for the one who had called out to him.
The knight narrowed his eyes when he saw it was Samus. "Don't call me that."
The bounty hunter liked teasing Siegfried. She liked teasing, testing, and giving him ridiculous nicknames. She was like Cassandra in a sense. Only, instead of being seen as the younger sister, most considered her as a sort of older sibling to Siegfried. It was normally fine, but he had been having a bad week, and did not appreciate her antics right at the moment. He would have at least liked his breakfast to run smoothly.
She kept on smiling and handed him a red envelope.
Blinking, the knight turned to Link sitting beside him at the breakfast table.
The Hylian shrugged. "A fan letter maybe?"
Siegfried opened the envelope, took out the brightly colored card inside, and carefully pried it open. He was met with the familiar scrawl of all the children in the manor. Little drawings and good wishes were sprawled all over the inside of the card. There were music notes, pictures of sports equipment, funny faces, suns, and dancing animals all smiling happily. One message stood out amongst the rest. In green cursive, sloppy, but cursive nonetheless, were the words, "Feel better Siegfried! Love, all your little fans!"
He heard Link chuckle from beside him. "Guess they noticed you were feeling a little down lately."
Siegfried shook his head. "These kids," His tone was fond, his expression pleasant. "I think they deserve an ice-cream after this."
Post T.A.A.H
The Smash mansion had an interesting way of celebrating any given holiday. It seemed to Siegfried that the members of the household took conventional methods used to celebrate the occasions, and then added their own twists to create an array of unusual traditions.
On Halloween, costumes were selected from a hat full of suggestions. There was always one person cross-dressing, and that would be the person to take the young ones out trick or treating. If someone had been particularly nasty or rude the weeks leading up to Halloween, it was almost a guarantee that they would be the one dressing up as a female counterpart. There had been one year when Link had gotten the suggestion meant for Ganondorf, and had ended up taking the kids out dressed as Zelda.
Valentine's Day was a competition of which couple could bake the best sweet concoction. The women were usually the most competitive out of anyone, and it was common knowledge that you paid attention to what your significant other said. Otherwise you would end up in a pool full of carnivorous fish. It was not surprising. Master Hand usually sent the winning couple out on a vacation to a location of their choice for an entire week. Naturally, it was prize most desired. Peach was apparently a shoe in to win every time, though she thought Sophitia would give her a run for her money in the upcoming year.
Thanksgiving was when everyone brought a dish from their homeland to the table. It was the one time of year when absolutely everyone had to have some kind of cooking ability. There had to be, absolutely had to be, something with everyone's name on the table come mealtime or someone was not going to eat at all that day. Everything also had to be eaten lest no one would leave the table. It was further incentive to actually try hard in making a dish. If someone got sick, the one who put them in misery would hear about it very quickly.
Veteran's Day called for a remembrance of the fallen comrades everyone remembered from their worlds. Rather than make it a somber event, the Smashers treated it like a celebration. To them it was a chorus of rejoices of loved ones lives rather than a sadness at their departure. It took a lot of effort in order for it to go off without a hitch. The day was painful more often than not, and everyone in the mansion had to rewrite the rules for the day in order to make sure they were smiling instead of frowning. Tears were just fine, as the day was indeed recalling the dead and all the memories associated with them, but it had been decided long ago that fallen comrades would want to be remembered in happiness instead of sorrow.
New Years was an interesting one to witness. It was basically a talent show that ended ten minutes to midnight, when everyone would rush outside to see the final sky shows as the New Year rang in. The winner of that talent show got to rearrange the entire mansion for the coming year. They also got to add a room to it. In a sense, it was like making everything new for the New Year. Marth had been the winner last year. He had made it so that all the swordsman were on one floor, the villains in one wing in the lower levels, and had made the children closer to whoever was watching them. He had also created the fan greeting room in the center of all the stadiums. It was a place where their fans could gather to ask for pictures, autographs, and other such special meetings with their favorite Smashers. So far it had been a hit.
Siegfried's favorite by far was Christmas. The holiday was celebrated like most he had ever experienced, but with one key difference. After the children had gone to bed, all the normal gifts having been ripped open that morning, and after the large Christmas dinner had been served, the adults stayed up and exchanged mock gifts. The purpose was to poke a bit of fun at the other members of the mansion, and have a good laugh as they downed the rest of the eggnog. Who you presented your joke gift to was dependent on a random drawing, like the costumes on Halloween. What you came up with was dependent on you alone. Most of the participants knew each other very well, and all those amusing shared secrets sure came in handy on the 25'Th of December. So did the secrets you thought you had kept from everybody, only to find that someone had discovered it and was now laughing at your expense. It was amusing to see the gifts people could get offended at…and how much time would pass before people started wrestling on the floor in the name of their wounded honor.
Fang: I know one of these has to be a tradition in your crazy family, I just know it.
MistressOfTime: Psshh, no…yeah okay, one of them is. But the rest I made up on my own. I swear.
Fang: You have way too much fun writing about celebrations.
MistressOfTime: I think that's kind of the point, Fang.
Fang: Just saying. R&R please.