Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sun was a very excitable woman, it was true. She was well aware of this fact and she tried her best not to go too over the top with her excitement. However today she was having a bit of trouble. She was just too thrilled that her dearest friend Shiny was coming over and bringing Ask to meet her kids properly for the first time. She had Edmund come home from school for the night for the occasion and was having him watch his younger siblings while she worked on crafting her dinner which was sure to turn out a masterpiece. All four of them were in the family room busy with their own activities and for the moment, the four of them were getting along splendidly. She glanced at them and grinned before returning to her cooking and glancing at the clock. Shiny and Ask could be here annnny second.

Edmund was keeping a look out on the time and reading over a book of plants. He had heard many stories about "Aunt Shiny" but had yet to actually meet her. She sounded nice enough, but as usual Edmund was always wary of new people so he would have to see what her and her son Ask were actually like.

Gavin was, as per usual, thrilled to meet new people. He could barely concentrate on his puzzle he was so thrilled. "Will they be here soon?" He asked , waving a over sized puzzle piece in the process.

Keiran was about equally excited to meet Shiny and Ask. He was coloring on a large pad of paper and he was drawing a picture for Ask. So far he had drawn Sun and himself, and was working on Edmund next. He figred it would be nice for Ask to have a picture of their family to take home and keep. "I hope so Gavin!"

Willow on the other hand was sitting indian style on the floor watching her brothers. She was mostly quiet but occasionally she'd emit an excited noise of some sort. Currently she was doing her bestest to make the sound of a doorbell because she wanted the doorbell to ring so badly. As soon as Willow made her noise, everyone burst into action to answer the door. She laughed delightedly, clapping her hands. Willow was even more delighted when everyone else decided they thought it was funny too. "Ding dong! Diiing doooong" she repeated for their amusement.

Gavin had managed to make it first to the door since Edmund wasn't running, or in fact had not even moved from his spot, Kei had tripped halfway over and fallen on his face, and Willow was just slower then he was. He flung the door open and beamed. "Hi!" he chirped. "M'Gavin." He flung the door open the rest of the way so they could come in grinning excitedly.

Keiran had fallen flat on his face. He was not a happy camper. HE wanted to be the first to greet Aunt Shiny and Ask. He'd been the one to draw a picture for them after all. Plus Gavin was ALWAYS first. He wanted a turn for once.

Edmund, upon seeing Kei's face decided to go over and pick him up and make sure he was stable before taking his hand and leading him over to the door too. He shuffled his feet a bit and stood next to the door and peered at the ground and waited for Kei to introduce himself first and was half hoping Kei would just introduce him so he wouldn't have to talk.

Kei gave Edmund a thankful smile as Edmund picked him up and then walked hand in hand with him to the door. "Hi Ask." He smiled. "My name's Keiran, but! Call me Kei." He pointed to Edmund. "That's Edmund."

Willow took her time getting to the door, making noises like the wind as she made her way over. She stood in between Gavin and Kei and chirped at Ask and Shiny before making her wind noise again and trying to make a sound that was a bit like the wind through tree branches. Then she smiled broadly at them both.

Sun had bustled out of the kitchen towards the tail end of this. She wiped her hands on her apron and then stopped behind her kids and grinned. "I think Willow is trying to say 'Hi I'm Willow'" she translated. Her eyes then feel on Ask and she did indeed coo. "Hello there Ask. I'm Aunt Sun! You are just way too cute." Then she started herding her kids out of the way. "Kids you have to get out of the doorway so they can actually come in you know."

Sun beamed watching her kids gather around Ask excitedly. "Help in the kitchen would be wonderful. Now kids, don't all talk at Ask at once. Take turns." She didn't want him to feel overwhelmed by her little gang of toddlers and one child. She made her way back into the kitchen.

"Come on Ask! I drawed a picture for you!" Keiran motioned for Ask to come into the family room where they had all previously been assembled. "Oh and Edmund wanted to show you his garden." Since Edmund had yet to speak, he decided he'd just be Edmund's translator type person. He looked at Gavin and Willow then. "I don't know what those guys wanna show you. But I guess we'll find out." Once they had made it back to the family room Keiran held up his picture that he'd been working on and handed it to Ask. "That's for you! It's all of us, that way you can think of us when you're home, cause we're almost cousins."

Gavin had decided it didn't bother him that Kei had taken charge of welcoming Ask in. He had gotten to answer the door after all, while Kei had fallen flat on his face. He would wait his turn to show Ask some of his treasures until Kei was done with giving Ask his present. He also supposed, upon reflection that it was best for Ask to be welcomed with some sort of present, so it had been good Kei had taken charge after all. He continued grinning while watching.

Edmund stayed silent as Kei lead him around by the hand. If Kei wanted to talk for him, that was just fine by him. It saved him the trouble of stumbling over his words or saying anything weird. He gave Kei's hand a small squeeze as he presented the picture. It made him happy that Kei was thoughtful enough to give Ask something. In fact Edmund was planning to let Ask pick something from his garden to take him, whether it be a flower or a vegetable.

Willow had yet to say anything yet. She just followed along behind the boys making questioning noises happily. She didn't really have any plans to show Ask anything like her brothers did. She was just excited to be meeting him and maybe play with him.

Once in the kitchen Sun resumed chopping up vegetables. "You know where the aprons are if you want one. If you could just turn the potatoes over in the pan for me." She continued to chop with much focus but then she glanced over at Shiny with a little smile. "So how has it been having Ask?"

Kei was really happy that Ask liked his picture. He beamed back at him. "I'm glad you like it!" It made him happy too how Ask had taken Edmund's hand since they both seemed a bit shy. He let Edmund take the lead to the garden.

Edmund looked down a little surprised as Ask took his hand. He gave him a soft smile and squeezed it a little. When he opened his mouth and spoke his voice came out soft too. "Yes. I have flowers and also vegetables too..." He lead the way outside holding both Ask's and Keiran's hands. "If you want...you can take something home from the garden..." he informed Ask. When he opened the door a rather pretty garden appeared. To one side there was an assortment of different colored flowers. Despite the fact Edmund was color blind, he'd seemed to do just fine putting the different types of flowers together. To the other side there were an assortment of vegetables. In between the two there was an open stretch of grass.

And it was that stretch of grass that set the wheels in Gavin's head turning. "Hey Ask! When you're done looking at the flowers, d'you wanna play a game?" He grinned at him. "We could play tag or something...or you can pick a game, since you're the guest." He plopped down to sit on the ground and watched as Edmund started leading Ask and Keiran around and showing them the things he'd grown.

Willow thought Gavin's idea was great and her face lit up at the idea of a game. She ran, in the way that toddlers run, in a circle around Gavin making buzzing noises with her arms stretched out like wings. Then she continued pretending to be what seemed to be a bee and ran along the flowers and around Edmund, Ask and Kei.

Sun smiled again as Shiny talked about Ask. "I'm glad you're enjoying having him. And thanks!" She was ever so pleased to be complemented on her parenting. "I'm sure he'll make friends with them. Mine are a friendly bunch, Edmund is pretty shy, that hasn't changed. But neither has his good naturedness."

Edmund smiled when Ask said he didn't want to kill the flowers. "Well I could dig one up and put it in a pot for you to keep at home. Or you don't have to take one...and you can just visit them here when you want." Upon being asked if he'd play with them too he nodded with a smile and released both Ask and Kei's hand so they could play.

Kei was also pleased at the mention of a game and once his hand was released from Edmund's hold he started distancing himself from everyone. "Not it!" he shouted heading towards the far side of the yard.

Gavin grinned at Kei not wanting to be it. "I call being it! I'll count to 10 and then I'm going to getcha." He closed his eyes and counted. "1....2....3....4...5...6...7...8...9....10!" He opened his eyes and dashed for the first person in sight.

Willow began running around in zig zag patterns as soon as Gavin started counting. She weaved around erratically with seemingly no pattern. This was all of course at toddler speed, but it seemed to be somewhat effective due to the lack of a pattern.

Emund smiled at the wiggling Ask. "Of course you can. It won't be lonely if you take care of it." And then he was off too. Despite the fact that he was older then the rest of the participants with longer legs, he didn't seem to be that much faster. He didn't seem to notice and if he did, he didn't really mind, he was just happy to be playing.

Sun got her meal to the point where it was fine cooking on its own and then went over to join Shiny at the window. "Yes, he does adore his garden so." She let out a chuckle at watching the kids run all around the yard.

Willow had heard Shiny through the window and paused to give her a puzzled look with wide purple eyes. Serpentine? Like a snake? Would being like a snake help her in tag? She hit the ground and began making movements like a snake, hissing all the while.

Gavin took his own pause to stare at Willow. Why was she pretending to be a snake? Who knew, Willow had her odd moments. He was very tempted to dash over and make her it, but he couldn't say with certainty that Willow was actually playing anymore. So he went after Kei who was recovering from another fall he caught up and reached out and planted his hand firmly on Keiran's back. "You're it!" he called gleefully before making a beeline away from him.

Kei was only mildly displeased at being tagged. Mainly because Ask was passing right in front of him. He tried to reach out and grab him but missed by a hair. So off he went, chasing after Ask as fast as he could manage to go. Then he tripped, yet again, seemingly over nothing and went flying forward into Ask, ending up on top of him.

Kei was completely horrified. He'd gotten mud alll over his clothes. His awesome clothes that he had spent all morning picking out. He was no longer running and playing tag, oh no he was staring at his clothes looking like he might cry. He dashed into the house and stood in the door. "MOOOM get the mud off!" his voice came out almost panicked.

Sun blinked a moment at Kei before leaping into action. "Ok Kei, take off your shoes and then go into the bathroom and take off your muddy clothes, I'll bring you some fresh ones." As he took off she turned to Shiny. "Can you get all the kids in and have them take their shoes off at the door? Ask can borrow something of Kei's or Gavin's. Make sure they don't touch anything. Oh and dinner will hold." She bustled off to get Kei a change of clothes and "rescue" the muddy ones.

Upon being tagged Willow jumped up and started after the other kids. She barely noticed either the mud she had all down her front or the fact Kei had gone in. She wanted to catch Edmund, he had yet to be it. She charged after him, resuming her buzzing like a bee noise.

Edmund ran from Willow as best he could. It wasn't that he disliked mud and dirt like Kei. On the contrary, sometimes he loved nothing more. Usually though when he was dealing with mud and dirt he wasn't in his good clothes, and he knew well enough not to dirty them.

Gavin had noticed Kei running inside. Ugh, he could be such a GIRL sometimes. Even Willow was just enjoying being dirty. He had been amused by Kei falling on top of Ask. It reminded him of those pictures he'd seen in Mom's room. He planned to tease Kei about it later, but for now he just continued to evade Willow.

Kei had peeled off his clothes hurriedly. When Sun appeared with the new clothes he was washing off the mud in the tub still looking distressed. "I hate mud...."

"I know cutie-pie." Sun bent down to help him wash off and then she dried him and put him in his new clothes. "Now can I depend on you to take these clothes out to the others while I start yours in the wash?" Once she received a pleased nod from Kei, she made her way off to the laundry room.

Gavin made his way inside with the others and started taking his shoes off like a good boy. He had wanted to keep playing, but he didn't know what Aunt Shiny would do if he didn't listen. He didn't really want to find out though. "Aunt Shiny? Are we going to have dinner after this?" Now that he was inside smelling the food, he was kinda hungry.

Willow also made her way inside. Though instead of just taking off her shoes she started taking her muddy clothes off as well. She didn't see why she shouldn't since Sun had changed her in the same room as Gavin and Kei before.

Edmund on the other hand had gone off looking for Sun. He wasn't muddy, so he figured it would be best if he helped her get the ones who were in clean clothes. Instead he came across Kei with a bit pile of clothes. He took a few off the top so Kei wasn't struggling so much and gave him a smile before heading back with him.