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"Where are you taking me, Mom?!" One Anbu was being guided along by her pregnant mother, blindfold across her face and mask...tied in such a way where the Scent couldn't use her mask as a method of cheating.
"You will find out!" Suddenly Kyoko stopped and turned Anbu, shoved her through an open door (thanks to Kyoko keeping some of her reflexes), and pulled the blindfold off.

Kyoko had never seen her daughter pale so. The Scent tried to make a subtle escape, not noticing Kyoko's foot strategically placed in the way, causing her to trip and land on her face. Kyoko had a smug smile on her face (or as close as she could get), and quickly nudged Anbu. "Let's go. Time to deal with it."

Kyoko had finally gotten to the shop Anbu originated from...mostly due to Kyoko's determination to talk to the owner about Anbu GROWING so damned quickly. "Excuse m-CRYSTAL!"

Lucky for Anbu, Kyoko had spotted her friend across the room. She quickly waddled over to her, grin on her face. She was dressed in a winter-weight yukata of red with white fur lining the collar, cuffs, and bottom hem; a smaller pine green obi keeping the thing closed; pine green socks, and red zori sandals. She wore a red and pine green striped scarf around her neck, but it didn't hide her joy. "Crystal! I didn't know you'd be here!"

Unknown to her guardian, the owner of a dark blue eye spotted a familiar face, causing a mischievous grin to appear on her face. "Well well..." Anbu finished dusting herself off and making herself 'presentable'. And then she strode over to the pomegranate and peppermint children. "Good day, little ones." She would never get tired of being taller than others. She made a sweeping bow, then stood tall. She was dressed to catch the eye.

A sleeveless black velvet dress that hugged her torso and had darting in the places that gave the imagination something to work with without being immodest; a skirt that swayed and rippled with her steps, alluding to the 'twirl capacity' of it; and red 'stars' made of small diamond-shaped rhinestones scattered about her bust in an upward sweeping pattern, from left to right; and her arms were encased in elbow-length velvet black gloves with red fingers and hem. She didn't have her ball, but her long hair was done in a long braid with strands of hair framing her face and reaching her waist, topped off by a black fedora with a red ribbon wrapped just above the hat's brim. Her mask was still in place, covering nearly half of her face.

She was interested to see if Ment recognized her as well. Hard not to do with the mask and her stronger incense smell.

The woman looked over in surprise as her name was called, her face brightening as her eyes rested up on a very pregnant Kyoko. "Kyoko my dear! Oh goodness, look at you!" Crystal allowed a girlish squeal to escape her as she extended her arms to delicately embrace her friend, touching the white trim on the outfit. "You look positively delightful," she laughed, glancing down to the woman's belly, "both of you."

Kaoru was still smiling at the cinnamon boy when another, vague but strong scent filled that small nose. The child turned...and looked up. A faint gasp escaped parted lips, delight quickly filling wide ruby eyes. "A girl!" the Scent beamed with delight, "and such a grown, pretty one too!" The dainty hand moved from the Churro boy (assuming he had shaken it already) to the tall girl, mystifed by the smell and appearance of the lovely masked youth. "I'm Kaoru," came the unusually quiet introduction, smiling shyly.

"I've had my own addition to the family," Crystal chattered excitedly with Kyoko, "which is why I'm here." Grey-blue eyes swept over the scent-children, picking out her white-clad daughter with ease, pointing with a pale hand, "Her name is Kaoru. She's next to Ment and--" The flower girl actually jumped a little as her gaze settled on the tall form decked dark attire and an all-too-familiar mask. "...Anbu??"

Catching the nod at the edge of her vision, Han-Hui turned again, this time facing the other person straight on and smiling more broadly. "By the way, my name's Han-Hui, but if that tangles your tongue, feel free to call me Hanna," she offered along with her right hand, which was clean but still a little pink from coming in from the cold.

Kier shook Han-Hui's hand, smile more amused and toothier than before. One thing she could be grateful for, she supposed, was that it wasn't possible for her to say anyone's name wrong. Hopefully, Han-Hui was spelled as it sounded. Taking her pen, she scribbled her name on her right palm and held it up for Han-Hui to see.

Kier nodded twice, taking the card curiously. Looking it over, she made a slight face and chuckled silently, tugging her rattail sheepishly. So she had spelled it wrong, in her mind. But at least it was only off by a few letters. She wrote her response underneath the name as quickly as she could. Holding it up for Han-hui, it read: 'I see, I see. For a little while, I thought it was spelled Hanhwee or something...sorry about that. What language is it?'

Han-hui was even more startled as Kier handed back the card with more writing, still not having said a word. She took it and read it before looking back up at Kier, wondering what this was all about. A vow of silence, perhaps? Or perhaps... simply... unable to speak.

She tried to suppress the surprise that appeared on her face and smiled warmly so that her eyes narrowed, sparkling like candied almonds. "It's Chinese," she decided to explain vocally, handing back the card. "Pardon me, I wasn't aware you couldn't speak." Goodness, how surprising. Han-hui had never met a mute before. What should she be careful to avoid, and how should she properly behave?

She waited courteously as Kier finished writing. Reading the next response, the dark-haired girl relaxed a little. Kier was right, it wasn't as if muteness were some sort of debilitating disease. Fortunately for Han-hui's natural shyness, Kier wasn't deaf as well. That probably would have made things more awkward than the Chinese girl would have been willing to deal with at the moment.

"Me neither, actually," she replied to Kier's comment with a laugh. "In my family, we speak mostly English, so the Chinese I grew up with has become unbelievably rusty." She added, eyes twinkling, "Sometimes I wonder I can even say my own name properly."

Mother and daughter were a little behind, but it didn't look like there were too too many people already milling about that Kitten and Vanyel would need to apologize to for their delayed entrance. Kitten in her santa hat and Vanyel in mittens and a scarf to keep warm, the both of them far greater enjoying the time of the year where that thing called the sun dared to grace the skies and bring warmth to the people milling about down below. This was special though, for it had been something like a year ago that Kitten had recieved her little gal and there was certainly nothing more important to her than thanking the keeper of the store for such a wonderful year. Perhaps Thanksgiving would have been a better time for such activities, but the two of them had been away on vacation somewhere warmer, enjoying frosted drinks and playing in the water.

"I wonder who's here," Vanyel said excitedly, peering around Kitten in hopes of catching sight of any of the people she'd missed so dearly while she was gone, two black headed boys being the main target of those scanning eyes, but she certainly wasn't limiting herself only to Arius and Amahte for warm hugs. "I couldn't tell ya Van. We're a bit late, but that doesn't mean we're the only ones arriving in such a fashionable manner. And you never know, some might be spending the holidays with their loved ones instead of staying in town."

But Kitten's words fell on deaf ears, for Vanyel had already pushed her way into the store and disappeared into the collection of people and Kitten quickly lost sight of the orange haired gal. Hopefully she would find those she was searching for, but to be honest Kitten wasn't holding out much hope as a quick scan of the crowd did not produce an immediate reaction for her.

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Although he had not been quick enough to grab the door for the bottle of energy with orange hair, he had managed to catch it and hold it open for the woman in the santa hat, giving a smile and a nod of his head as he ushed her in and he recieved a smile in thanks in return. Orpheus stood a ways back with his arms over his chest and a scowl on his face. "I don't want to be here," he grunted, waiting for Qadir to enter the store so that he didn't look like some chick entering while his dad still held that gentlemanly pose. Lame. Why couldn't chicks open their own doors anyway?

The boy stood with his back to the store for some time before the cold simply got to be too much for him, and with a roll of his eyes he made for the door that lead to the warmth and happiness of all those inside. Try to enjoy yourself Qadir had said, but that was only because he was going to see his Crystal here. Orpheus would have to put up with Kaoru if he was unlucky, or he'd likely get saddled with another scent that he wanted nothing to do with. If Amahte was here then that would be just wonderful. The two of them could cause quite the commotion and fun!

Once inside he took off around the outskirts of the store, scanning everyone nearby with an inquitive but brooding glare before he took his stance in the corner and a bit away from everyone. Holidays were turning out to be not quite his cup of tea. Though Qadir had showered the boy with gifts upon gifts (that Orpheus was secretly preening over and just dying for someone to ask him about), his face remained stoic, if not more on the irritated side.

Qadir was praying someone would cheer the boy up, for nothing he'd done so far had managed to get more than the slightest of cheer into the boy, and of course any holiday that celebrated gift giving meant that it was Qadir's personal favorite, something he showed off by gifting something to anyone that approached him.