Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ellie had been folded comfortably in Nathan's lap, Hadaya on her lap and a gaming controller in her hand. After months of watching him play this game and that, she'd finally gotten curious enough to want to give it go, and, after a somewhat embarrassing introduction, found she wasn't too awful at it, so long as she took her time, and so long as the difficulty setting was normal.

She had been working through the story mode on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. She'd missed the beginning of it, months ago when Nathan had played it, but mid way through the plot had caught her attention, and she'd enjoyed watching her boyfriend play through the end. He'd moved onto another game, but she'd asked to play through the story again herself.

At the moment she was attempting to take out a few snipers on a ledge, carefully creeping out around a corner, taking aim, and-

Kyndell's voice calling up to them had the immediate reaction of the ginger pausing the game. "Guess we better help, huh?" Her head tipped up to Nathan, lips brushing his chin. Glancing towards the clock she winced, slipping out of the young man's lap. "I thought it was earlier." She'd lost track of time. Oops.

Setting Haddy on the floor, she turned and caught Nathan's lips for a long, lingering kiss, the sort they didn't subject the rest of his family to, then she was flashing him a grin as she headed out of his room.

"Tony, do you need help with Sarah?" Ellie was always eager to help with the baby, but voices coming from downstairs had her hurrying down a few so she could lean over the banister to peer into the kitchen. "Hi Harmony!"

Harmony called hello to Elle and smiled at the ginger. She was happy Nathan found someone that he could get along with, or so she assumed. It was hard to tell with her brother. Her arms wrapped around Elle first, saying a bright hello. Despite his nod she hugged him anyway and made him suffer through her affection.

Sometimes she missed living with her family but with everything that had happened to her recently and all the changes she was going through it was hard not to crave the familiar.

"Everything smells so good, mom."

Kyndall was spooning food into dishes and handing them off to her children to set on the table. When Tony came in she beamed. The dress she bought fit like a dream and made her look angelic. She moved to kiss the little girl but she started making hands for her sister as she came toward her. Harm took the baby from her stepfather and kissed his cheek. Then Sarah spotted Elle, her usual playmate, and made hands for her instead, wanting affection from everyone.

Kyndall gestured to her husband and then to the turkey.

"You're carving, love. Will you take that monster to the table?"

The turkey she bought was perfectly done, but a gigantic bird, guaranteed to give them leftovers for weeks, days if Nathan got at it enough.

Nathan looked fittingly unhappy with the hug, keeping his arms firmly at his sides, hands stubbornly in his pockets. He endured, though, and nodded stiffly when she pulled away, offering her what might have been a smile if he weren't working so hard to be annoyed by the affection.

Hadaya purred at Elle's touch, rubbing against her affectionately. Of course, his mood was very high because he could smell all the incredible food that was in the house, and wanted to partake in every last piece of it. After all, there were so many different smells, he would have to take his time to figure out what food went to what scent, and taste each accordingly.

For record keeping purposes.

He took his seat on Elle's lap, eagerly lifting himself onto his back legs and putting his stumpy front paws on the edge of the table, straining as far as his little body would allow to sniff at the food that was being assembled. This was heaven. this had to be heaven.

Tony let the family gather around the table, taking their places, before he started cutting the turkey and distributing it to plates according to preference of meat and cut. Nate was sitting next to Elle, swatting at Hadaya, who was desperately trying to keep himself from hopping up on the table and running to the turkey and only just barely succeeding.

Dogby and Gizmo were shuffling around under the table, used to family dinners and knowing where to sit if they wanted to get treats snuck to them. Under the table was the magical zone of free food, either dropped or given to them furtively, and both Corgi's were well aware of that.

The elder Darrow smiled as he looked around at his family. There were quite a few of them, extended and not, and he loved them all. His wife, his son, his step daughter, his potential daughter in law, his baby, and of course all the animals that kept them laughing. This was what perfection looked like. The smile on his face said it all, though he kept his thoughts to himself for now and focused on the very important task of serving food.

The crowd might riot if they were not fed soon. Led by a small, tubby cat.