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"Cody, will you PLEASE stop it?!" Arytiss snapped, glaring at the spawn as he stood by the door, anxiously tapping his foot against the floor. If was a highly unusual sight to see; a spawn of patience being completely the opposite of patient. Then again, said patience side only seemed to be showing through in the form of stealing nowadays.

Cody merely glared at the white-haired female and stopped tapping his foot. "Fine," he growled, removing himself from the wall to release his pent up energy and excitement in the form of pacing.

Groaning, Ary stood and stormed off into the kitchen to help Shadai, Aenira, and Azrael with the dinner that was to come. God, that spawn could get on anyone's nerves. Especially now that he had grown and seemed even more eager to steal things. Hell, she had caught him trying to shoplift the last time they had taken him shopping.

Before anyone could react, Cody took the two steps to the door and flung it open. "EDES!" he gasped, nearly tackling the child as he enveloped his friend in a giant hug. "Cody! Release that child before you suffocate him! And let them in and close that damned door!" Ary snapped, sticking her head out of the kitchen.

Cody glared at the female and stood up, allowing the two to enter the home before gently shutting the door. "There, Mrs. Grumpy Butt," he replied coolly, returning the scowl Ary gave him as she slipped back into the kitchen. "Bring the pies in here, by the way!" Ary called out, voice somewhat muffled.

"Ooh, whatcha got, Edes?" Cody suddenly asked, noticing the small jar in his friend's hands.

Cody grinned, happily taking the jar in the shape of a turkey. A simple, and inexpensive gift that the spawn knew he would treasure for the rest of his life. Glancing inside, the greed spawn instantly noticed something shiny... CANDY! Ooh, his mom would regret it later, that was for sure.

"Thanks Edes, this is really awesome," Cody replied and frowned slightly. "But... I don't have any sort of gift for you. Unless..." he trailed off and reached up and into the depths of his hair, gently removing one of the many feathers that grew there. "Will this do? I believe you were also collecting feathers from friends," Cody continued, handing Edes the feather after gently setting the turkey-shaped jar onto the nearby coffee table. After all, if Edes hugged him and his grip slipped, the jar would shatter as soon as it hit the floor.

"It's been a while. What have you been up to?" the spawn asked, seating himself on the floor so they were closer in height. It was hard to even act remotely grumpy or irritable with Edes around. It was so strange, though, to have these odd feelings flowing through him every time Edes was merely mentioned.

Ary held out a hand to stop Noel from hugging her, growling lightly in warning. "Don't touch me. And I'm fine," she replied coolly, blinking as something suddenly latched itself onto her leg. "Oh... Hello Aenira," she muttered, smiling slightly at her daughter's presence. "Why yelling? No like yelling. Is you mad? Why you mad?" Aenira asked, gently rubbing her face into Ary's leg.

"Not mad or yelling. I thought you were baking cookies with Azrael?" "Azrael meany-butt. He eated da cookie dough!" Aenira replied, looking rather upset at the fact that someone had ate her precious cookie dough.

Cody frowned slightly at the mention of Melan and the incident that had occurred with him. He still didn't trust the kid, even if he had sort of saved their lives AFTER putting them in danger. "Maybe you could wear sandals?" he asked, gently hugging Edes back as the child plastered himself against him.

"Because sandals aren't exactly shoes anyways," he added, squeezing Edes a little tighter upon seeing the small scars on his feet. Damn it, he was going to hurt Melan for letting that happen and that was a promise he was going to keep.

Aenira grinned widely at Noel. "Hai! I Aenira! Wha's yer favowite color? Ooh! You wanna make cookies wiff me?" she asked, tail wagging excitedly at the prospect of having someone nice to help her bake cookies that WOULDN'T eat all the cookie dough.

"Yeah, she's mine. How she managed to come into existence still confuses me. Beware, she can talk your ear off if you let her," Ary replied, going back to mashing potatoes. Why make something from a box when the real thing was so much better? "Ya! Why you wook so sad? Is mummy being meany-butt tew?" Aenira asked, instantly picking up on Noel's sadness.

Cody blushed slightly and released his hold on his friend, still smiling happily. "Sorry, didn't mean to," the spawn replied, not actually meaning to practically crush Edes. The spawn was far to dear to him to be injured by his hand in any way, shape or form. It was so strange, being so possessive of someone and having it near impossible to resist that possessive nature that made up most of his being.

"So, what have you been up to?" he questioned, wondering vaguely if they would ever be the same age again. It was a little irritating that they couldn't be the same age for more than one or two run-ins here and there. Oh well, he would just have to live with it.

Aenira pouted, looking over at Ary with a sad look. "Mommy, why no want hug? You wike hugs from me..." she asked sadly, before instantly cheering up at Noel's words at how he would bake cookies with her. "Yay~! Over dere is da west of da cookie stuff. It gunna be fun! Jus' dun eat da cookie stuffs," she said, trying to look serious and failing miserably as a soft giggle escaped her lips.

"That's good, and I haven't been up to much either. Oh! You have to see what I found a while ago. It's really strange," Cody commented, pulling the white scale out of his pocket and holding it up so Edes could see.

"You can't see it, but it's glowing really brightly. Like magic or... something," he muttered, carefully holding it to avoid slicing his finger off from the edges. It was strange how it was so terribly sharp and the point itself was nowhere near dull. And why the spawn was thankful the edges were iced over a bit to dull them down so it wouldn't rip a massive hold in his pocket and then his pants.

"Oh, and I got to meet the angel of Patience a couple weeks ago. It was really awesome," he added, grinning happily. For some reason, just being with the younger spawn made him happy, just like Aenira.

Aenira giggled and washed her hands as well before toddling over to the table, easily climbing up onto it by first getting onto the chair and finally onto the table. "Yay! Cookie time!" she giggled, already pulling some of the dough out of the bowl to gently roll into a ball. Or in her case, really really quickly and nearly squish the poor thing flat. "TADA!"

Cody just grinned, gently slipping the scale back into his pocket, careful to not cut his hand or shred his pocket. It was a wonder how his pockets hadn't been shredded already from being in them so much.

"Yeah, I met him. It was... unusual," he replied, settling onto the couch and next to Edes. "Sounds like you had a fun meeting," he added, smiling and helping his friend with his coat and scarf. Once all the winter clothing had been removed and hung up, the spawn returned to the spot next to Edes.

"What do I wanna do now? I don't know... What about you? I'm up for anything," Cody answered, glancing around the room for possible inspiration.

Aenira giggled, watching for a moment as Noel made varying shapes out of the cookie dough. "Ooh! Me try!" she giggled, putting some dough on the tray and, after flattening it a bit, used one of the claws on her right hand to cut out the crude shape of a person. "See? Cookie man!" she said proudly, pointing to her cookie person as she returned the unused cookie dough to the bowl.

That was definitely NOT what Cody was expecting in terms of things Edes would say. A bright blush took hold of the pale skin on his face, turning most of his face and the tips of his ears bright red. Cody just stared at the child as he hugged his middle, eyes wide with surprise.

"Wh-wh-what?" he finally managed to ask, stuttering a bit and loosening his hold a bit on the sloth spawn. He wasn't sure whether Edes MEANT it to be a compliment on his appearance or if he was just really warm when compared to the bitter cold outside.

Aenira giggled and nodded, wagging her tail happily. "Yup, yup, yup! We put dem in da oven for... dis many minutes! I heard Mama and Sha-dee say so earwier," she said, holding up ten clawed and scaled fingers and grinning happily.

"You remember that? We said that over an hour ago," Shadai commented, drying her hands off on a towel. "Not to mention you were in the other room with Cody and Azrael," she continued before offering Noel a smile. "And thanks for helping her. It's been a long day..."