"Dashing through the snow, on a one horse open sleigh, over the hills we go, laughing all the way!"

I smiled as my children began to sing a familiar carol, whilst I finished digging into breakfast. Christmas, or Tennobaum, as the natives called it, had finally come, and my adorable bundles of joy couldn't wait to unwrap their gifts. Joining them was Cassidy and her adoptive siblings - evidently, my ROB had taken a page out of my book and decided to adopt some of those who were on the receiving end of misfortunate due to her actions. Right now, she was resting behind a corner.

As I finished the last of my breakfast, I opened a portal to the nearest bathroom, brushed my teeth, and returned to my family. Then, and only then, did I walk up to my ROB.

"So, are you looking forward to this day?"

"Yeah, I am. By the way, what happened to your hands."

Oh, so she saw all the marks on them. "I was up late last night working on one of my gifts to you."

"Oh, really? How sweet of you." The sarcasm practically dripped off her voice.

And I really did put a lot of work into that gift, too!

...Well, might as well get on with this.

Before I could turn away, though, Melissa grabbed me by the shoulder. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

I stared her blankly for a moment, before looking up. There, hanging on the ceiling, was a trio of poisonous berries belonging to the species Viscum album, otherwise known as the mistletoe. According to my cameras of the previous night, Rory had been the one to put it there. While I wouldn't put it past Melissa to ask him to do so, it was more likely that she simply took advantage of where the decoration was to put me in this situation.

Oh, and all of my subordinates and kids were watching, and if my emotion reading psychic powers weren't lying to me, they wanted me to kiss her. Traitors!

Melissa only responded by giving me a wide grin. "Well, pucker up my -mmph!"

Well, two can play at this game. Also, fun fact: my ROB has nice lips.

I held the kiss for about five seconds, before backing down. Idly, I wondered if I should have gone farther, but then put that aside - that would probably have been rude.

Plus I didn't want to go that far with my first kiss...what, is that really surprising? I'm not exactly a romantic.

Melissa, rather humorously, just stared at me, eyes wide, face red as a tomato. It took her ten seconds after the kiss was broken to finally regain her faculties.

"What, did you like that?" I wondered, smirking at her embarrassment.

"Uh..um...yes," she confirmed. "...But...well...that was my first kiss."

…. has ccrashed and needs to reboot.

…...Reboot complete. Time take: 3 seconds.

"...Seriously? You're seven hundred and thirteen, and you haven't kissed anyone...besides your family?"

Melissa just sheepishly gestured to the affirmative.

Now I felt bad for taking enjoyment in her embarrassment.

"Well, if its any consolation, that was my first kiss, too."

"oh...Did you like it?"

I thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Yes, actually."

"..Okay, then."

This was going nowhere, fast. "Onto unwrapping the gifts, then?"

"YES!" Shouted everyone in the room except me and my ROB.

Well, the people have spoken.

XXXXXXX

The tree I'd chosen for this year was actually still growing, though it had the room all to itself. It was also the size of a redwood and easily had room for several families worth of gifts. Considering how much I was giving to everyone, that was just barely enough room.

First to open fits were my children, who unwrapped their goodies with barely contained glee. Most of it was kid stuff - floofs, paitning kits, Legos, and games. That being said, the kids went nuts when I revealed I had bought them k-drives. Etran and Cyreesia had invited us to their Dojo after we were done exchanging gifts, and it apparently had a K-Drive skate-park. The joy on my children's faces was just priceless.

As for my machines-turned-people, I had discovered they were interested in machines like themselves, thus I had provided them with model kits for planes, tanks, soldiers, robots, and wet navy vessels. If their epxressions were anything to go by, they really liked them.

That being said, I still had one last set of gifts to give to my children. Carefully pulling in a large set of gifts, all of which were well ventilated, I offered them to my children. At first, they weren't sure how to react. Then one of the gifts howled. After freezing for a moment, Bianka and Rory walked up to the gift that had howled and pulled off its wrapping.

The box inside appeared empty. Then a red, fur-tufted head emerged and stared at the kids.

A moment later, and the red-crested vermink was mewling in surprise as my children started hugging it, followed by all of my charges tearing off the wrapping paper of the remaining gifts to see what new pets they would get. The reactions that followed were amusing: I never that a bear-sized stover would run away in fear from a horde of kids, but the ones I'd secured for my kids did just that.

It hadn't actually been hard to convince Biz to let me keep all of the animals I had rescued as pets, seeing how I essentially had a portable nature preserve aboard my ship. I wonder if he would have objected to this course of action if he saw my kids embracing their pets, though.

"My, my, you certainly trust your kids," intoned my ROB.

"I'm pretty sure that the same can be said of you."

"Touché. So, are you ready to unwrap my gifts to you? You already unwrapped the ones your children gave you."

Well, they wouldn't have opened their last gifts from me if I hadn't done that, but she had a point. "Might as well. But can you open the ones I gave you first?"

"Oh, so you want to savor me acting childish?"

"Maybe."

"Yeah, well, I don't think you'll be able...to..."

Yeah, you can eat your words, missy.

Though, I will admit, offering her a hand carved Marquis Thyst and Radian Sentirium was, well, quite a grand offering. Good god, those things were hard to find!

"I...I...I...WHY did you..give me this?"

"Because, despite everything you've done to me, and how annoying you are...I still enjoy your companionship."

….I think I broke her. As in, she made her emotions plain enough to see that I could blatantly examine them with my psychic powers without having to wonder if they were faked. Before you ask, no, she didn't have any romantic feelings toward me...but she did feel really touched by what I had said.

...Was she really that lonely? Did she truly not have anyone she could call a friend?

Eventually, though, she recovered. "Well, could you open my gifts to you now?"

I complied. I opened the first box...and found myself staring a Hearth Nyth and Radiant Zodian.

Huh. Guess strange minds think alike.

I examined it for a moment, then pulled out her other gifts: an ayatan, a strange shield shaped gemstone, and a piece of Tellerium. All rare resources that would help me quite a bit in the future.

"Well," I said, putting away the Tellerium, "I believe that is the last present you gave me."

"Actually, I have one more."

Then she pulled out some kind of handheld phone-device and punched in a few numbers and letters. A moment later, I received a notification from my Commander: 'Database Restrictions Relaxed'.

Suddenly, a lot of new designs popped up.

I seemed to make my shock readable. "Use it well," intoned Melissa.

...Um, wow. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Immediately following that, I got a notification from the Tenno, specifically Etran and Cyreesia. Focusing on it, I found that it was a blueprint...for a solar rail. 'We thought you might want that for future usage.'

Yes, I did.

XXXXXXXXX

That Christmas was a good day.

It was also the last good day I'd have for weeks to come.

XXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!