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Rhys had been sleeping, not the most fitful sleep but sleep none the less, when the mental shout came into the room he flailed and fell over the side of his bed. As if anticipating that something was going on Tek fluttered across the floor, darting over toward the door. Muffled sounds of cursing in an alien language were heard for a moment before Rhys threw the offending blanket to the side finally freeing himself and his wings. Hearing a crash form the hall Rhys leaned slightly with enough time to see a flash of orange fur drop down from the small balcony and dash down the stairs. Peeps had been promised that he could help in the kitchen today, something that the priman had been waiting for with anticipation.

About as much of a morning person as his mother Rhys looked toward the window with a frown. Walking over toward his closet he pulled a robe from it to cover him a bit more then his boxers alone would. "Time to get up..." a smile escaped him as he looked down to the over excited wisp bobbing in the air next to the door. "Lets go see what this is all about then," stiffling another yawn Rhys ran his hand through his hair and walked toward the stairs, at least the house smelled good with the promise of sweets and food.


Cinder's hand went to the blaster on her bedside table as she was woken with a jolt. For a moment in the predawn light she held the gun tightly before slowly loosening her grip and sitting up. Smirking slightly she glanced over at Merci, then pushed herself over the oversized bed and offered the kitsune a hand up, "you know, the empire use to have a celebration on it's founding day...gifts were exchanged, use to have to get up obscenely early to fly your flag and sing ... always hated getting up. Likely why I ended up a pirate..."

Laughing slightly Cinder pulled Merci` to her feet before sliding off the bed. Cinder pulled on a pair of pajama pants and a tank top before taking a cigar from the side table and heading toward the door, "well we aren't going to get back to sleep now." Cinder followed along with Merci` letting the shorter woman spew out the profanities of her upset, which just amused Cinder more then anything.

Peeps dived down the stairs before darting into the kitchen, pushing a stool over he looked gleefully over the little jobs that Seraph had left for him.

Rhys paused and looked at the tree before looking over toward the Kitchen, the kitchen seemed to be where the action was. Mumbling slightly he headed toward it, Tek paused a moment as if not wanting to leave the living room, but after a moment dashed after his guardian. Rhys leaned slightly to look into the kitchen, "good morning..." glancing over to the food and then Seraph he stepped more into the kitchen, "food looks good...is there coffee?" He picked up the habit of drinking the bitter beverage already.

Hearing Merci` on the stairs Rhys glanced back, Tek clung to the edges of Rhys robe, small wisps of shadow darting to and fro as the wisp attempted to take in the scene and understand it.

Peeps beamed happily before happily moving over and starting on the toasting of the bagels. While the bagels toasted Peeps then started frosting the cinnamon buns, his tail flickered the little primen's eyes shown brightly. Whatever the day held, this moment in the kitchen was likely to be his highlight.

Rhys sighed and allowed Dio to steer him out of the kitchen, "alright...but the living room looks much too cheery for me to sit comfortably without something soon." Grumbling slightly Rhys looked over the area before falling into an over fluffed chair to the side, resting his head back he closed his eyes as he waited for the others.

Tek fluttered over toward the tree as Rhys settled, the little wisp brushed against packages making the ribbons flutter and the paper crinkle. Settling down near a package the little shadow peeked up and around to see if anyone was giving him notice.

Cinder chuckled on the stairs continuing following along, "well...any other morning I might have shot someone. But...today I can be lenient." Stretching slightly Cinder moved over toward the study and leaned against the door lighting her cigar - the pilot usually didn't smoke in the main areas of the house but the study was one of the places she made an exception for; the sweet smell of her smoke spread through the room but not overpoweringly so.

Rhys nodded slightly and filled a mug for himself, considering his current sleepiness he didn't wait long before adding a fair amount of sugar to his coffee as well. "Thank you," Rhys mumbled softly before curling his legs under himself and sinking back into the chair and closing his eyes.

Cinder finished her cigar before stepping out of the study and joining the rest. "I think your under estimating the joy we get out of making you grumpy." Grinning faintly Cinder leaned and kissed the top of Merci's head. "I can hand out the gifts if everyone likes..." Cinder glanced to the tree before striding over pausing long enough to snag a mug and bagel from Seraph.

Tek moved along the side of it's package, peering around the back of it to watch Cinder get settled. Once it was sure that no one was watching the little wisp darted toward the tree. Moving along under the bright decorations and lights the wisp curiously started searching about - this tree interested it as much as the larger one in the mall had.

Using her foot Cinder knocked the stool over toward the wall near the tree and took a seat. Stretching her legs out she took time to eat her bagel ... slowly and drink some of her coffee, "I'll hand them out, after I'm comfortable as well."

Rhys muttered and peered over his mug, he was hoping he might be able to just open a few gifts and slink off to his room to bundle up and hide for the rest of the day but it didn't look like that was going to happen. "At least it's warm down here..." Curling his wings more tightly around himself he pulled a nearby blanket over to rest on his shoulders.

As Tek searched he spotted the wall socket where the tree lights plugged into the wall. Darting over the little wisp put a few shadowy feelers toward the plug, as Tek latched on the tree lights flickered.

Tek paused with his tinkering as Merci's voice filled the air, if the little wisp could smile he would have. Curling his little tendrils of shadow around the light connection more he continued his fiddling but attempted to focus it more.

Rhys peeked an eye open and looked to the tree, there was something all too familiar about the current dilemma. Glancing over at Dio he smiled slightly and murmured, "better cut off the light gremlin before it gets worse." Tilting his head slightly he shifted his eyes toward the wall where the little wisp was barely visible. You better get out from there before Merci` eats you or something, Rhys sent the thought toward the wisp focusing on his bonded the best he knew how.

Cinder looked over at the tree with a frown, as the lights stabilized for the moment she shrugged, "dunno...damn finicky things if you ask me. And I agree ... lets get distracting with the presents." Leaning down Cinder started pulling gifts from under the tree, smirking slightly she passed Dio a very small thin envelope as his first gift from her. Then she passed a present to Rhys and one toward Merci`. "Even something for Tek under here...where did he get off to?" As Cinder asked her question the lights went out and then quickly blinking twice before stabilizing. Tek dashed under the tree before slowly appearing toward the front of it, Cinder narrowed her eyes at the little wisp before dropping his present near Rhys. "He might need help with that."

Cinder chuckled slightly glancing over at Merci, "let him diddle around with the paper if he wants - I don't have anywhere to be." The pilot smirked slightly, "though would figure he has more fun with the paper then with the actual gifts."

Dio would find once he ripped the paper open that inside was a small package with a dozen well made book labels with a galaxy theme. An envelope within also held a small gift card with a sizable amount on it for one of the nicer and more expensive book stores in the area. The card and labels were neatly stacked upon a small thin book, the book was a compilation of short poems and sonnets about stars. The gift was from Cinder.

Rhys stayed curled up for sometime before actually opening his eyes and stretching slightly. He'd never experianced a holiday like this and was still somewhat confused about it, the whole early morning wake up wasn't settling well with him either. But he was up and the coffee and food was pretty good, after a few moments he started opening his gift it was a decent sized box and had a bit of heft to it. Peeling the paper off Rhys blinked slightly, the box declared that inside was the most advanced gaming platform of the year. Turning the box over he looked at the various aspects of the game but it wasn't until he saw the games Cinder had included that he smiled, one was pretty straight forward a first person shooter, the next some sort of rpg, and the last a collection of 'classic' arcade games one of which was called Space Invader.

Tek bobbed up and down watching the others tear at the paper on their presents the little wisp waited patiently or as patiently as a wisp could before rustling the paper of it's package. Pausing from his curious inspection of the game Rhys leaned over chuckling softly, "alright, lets see what you got." Tek clung to Rhys arm as the boy tore the paper off it's present inside there was a large package of crayons and a thick coloring book. Rhys laughed slightly watching as Tek moved down his arm to curiously lift the top of the book and move over the first page. "Here...I think I have an idea of what you need to do." Rhys took a few crayons from the package and laid them on the book. After a moment of pushing the crayons around the little wisp got one righted and started making a meandering line over the page. Cinder laughed, "well at least it can get the crayons up - I wasn't sure it would be able."

"And don't think we are done yet, plenty more gifts down here," leaning down Cinder came up with more presents for each. Quickly the pilot passed the presents out until each had at least five different packages of various sizes in front of them. Once she'd passed out all of what was under the tree Cinder moved over toward Merci and without pomp or show simply leaned down and picked the smaller woman up, then sat in Merci's seat and set the Kitsune gently on her lap.

Rhys rolled his eyes slightly but then turned his attention to his other gifts, Tek wasn't really paying attention to the gifts at the moment but instead was having fun pushing around the various balls of colored wrap over the floor occasionally making them shoot into the air as the wisp pushed them.