Welcome to Gaia! ::

"MOM!! Where do you want the cookies again?!?"

"For the last time, Cody, they go right back into the kitchen, and if you sneak any more, I might use you as the pinyanta." Rune brushed a lock of dark blue hair from her forehead with the back of one wrist and looked wryly up at her son. A paper-mache horse, done in bright colors and with big eyes, was held between her knees as she threaded some strong twine through the ring in its back. The front room of the new Temporal Ninjutsu Adoption Center looked like the final stages of hurricane clean-up; scattered across the floor were various party-making debris, from half a lace table-cloth and bottles of lemon and rose-scented water to a thick stack of papers perched haphazardly on the desk at the back of the room.

Golden-haired Cody grinned and saluted, a half-eaten bow-shaped cookie covered in red crunchy sprinkles caught in one hand. "Riiiiiight. And where should I put the brownies?"

A stack of paper plates, still in their plastic store wrapper, flew through the air and cracked the Tenjutsu 'cross the head. "Stay away from the munchies, birdbrain." Chloe advised as she and Mirelle manuvered a large table down the front hall. "I'll help Mom staple you to the wall."

"Aeris is the birdbrain, Red - or did you get too many whacks on the head to remember?" Cody grinned and ducked as his sister shot a murderous look his way, her hands full of table end. Mirelle - passing through the doorway behind him with an armload of wrapped packages - rapped the back of his skull with an expertly-placed knuckle. "If you touched Kirika's cookies, I'll murder you." She warned. Rune raised an eyebrow at her, and the blond sighed. "Okay, he'd recover. Eventually."

In the driveway, a tall teenager with spiky auburn hair - cropped short on all sides and ponytailed in the back - stood up from where she'd been crouched, stretching her back with a wince and spreading dragon wings. "I think that's the last of it. You finished, Kiri?"

A familiar Japanese teenager was stationed at the opposite side of the driveway, though she'd paused in whatever she was doing as she caught sight of a familiar triangular shape. That was Hiraikotsu, she was sure of it. "Sango? Aunt Noyama?"

Kirika's face split into a bright grin, and she nearly flew down the driveway, throwing her arms happily around Noyama and then Sango. "I knew it was you!" She beamed, then blushed slightly. "Um, I mean - hi Sango, hi Noya."

"We were on 'enforced vacation' in Illuzen." The spiky-headed teen with Kirika grinned blithely, waving. "Mom didn't want to leave us here by ourselves, but she had to go get a bunch of stuff done and straightened out. She missed you a lot, you and Aunt Tenshi and Aunt Korini and Aunt Jeane and - oh, yeah, I don't think you met me before. I'm Dray. Mom and Mirelle are inside."

(*cracks up* Dray's such a nerd - she's partly intuitive, but once she gets started, she rattles on for a bit. xd )

"The Temporal Ninjutsu Adoption Center." Dray didn't even raise an eyebrow at Noyama's whisper, simply gesturing cheerfully for the two to follow her - and a grinning Kirika - inside. She was used to people speaking in other languages by now. It was usually about her if she didn't understand it, but she'd given up caring; as a teenager, she certainly wasn't going t change her habits now. Though now when she spoke, it was at a normal speed. "It's one of the reasons Mom left - she had to straighten out what we were, and how to get us cared for in Gaia. I'm a Tenjutsu, and so're most of Mom's other kids. Hey, Mom! Miss Noyama's here!"

"Noyama?!" There was a loud thunk as Rune let go of one end of the twine, sending the pinyanta she'd been hanging to the ground almost hard enough to break it open. The Water Slider not-quite-ran across the room to greet her friend, grinning from ear to ear. "Noyama, it's you! How are you? And Sango!"

"Sango?!" Came a nearly identical yell from the kitchen, where Mirelle had disappeared. Kirika and Dray both laughed as the blond slid out into the living room, hugging her friend tightly. "I missed you."

"Boring after the first little bit." Mirelle rolled her eyes, grinning all the same. She had missed her friends quite a bit, especially Sango. "The places where we went usually had too much magic for guns, so we ended up with swords and lances and stuff instead." She snorted. "So how're you? Things okay at your house?"

"Rune is opening a new Center tomorrow." The Water Slider grinned, motioning toward the activity around them. "Now that I've got all the information and such straightened out, I can finally get things done. I got back as fast as I could." Then she snapped her fingers. "Oh! And I brought you an - unusual present, if you'd like one."

"Oy, Mom! The Fangster's crying again." Tex stuck his head out from the hall, a sniffling bundle wrapped in a blue blanket squirming slightly in his arms. "I think she's hungry, but I'm not gonna - oh, hi, Noyama." He grinned. "Yay, no more bloodsucking!"

Dray sighed, striding over to pluck the blanket from her brother and whacked him across the head. "Don't be a jerk. It was your fault, you dropped her."

"She bit me!" Tex retorted, rubbing the side of his head, though he was looking slightly sheepish. "You'd'a dropped her too if she sunk a fang into you!"

Rune put her palm to her head for a moment, then glanced wryly at Noyama. "Erm - this little one is sort of a present. Probably not the best introduction."

"Gee, ya think?" Mirelle muttered under her breath. Then, registering what Sango had said, she hissed, "WHAT? Where are you guys living now?"



(I'll PM the Cert in just a sec. xd )

The baby sniffled, tears hanging like diamonds from her long lashes, and turned violet eyes to Noyama. Dray grinned. "We've been calling her Violet 'cause of her eyes. Aren't they pretty? But I guess you could give her another name." Gently, she held the baby out to Noyama.

"She's a halfling vampire." Rune explained, brushing the baby's bangs from her face. "She can transform into a vampire at will. Right now she mostly does it when she's scared."

"Or she wants to take a bite out of you." Tex muttered under his breath. Kirika gave him a narrow look. "You scared her, and she was already scared. It's not her fault."

Mirelle's eyes widened, and she stared at Sango. "You're kidding." She whispered. "That's nuts. Why? Don't you have anyplace else?"