Work Text:
"What are you doing to that tree?" Aphibia asked narrowing her eyes, Imagined looked over at the deer, "We're hanging decorations on it? What else would we be doing?" She replied.
The Ancients ears flickered, "Thats dangerous!" She yelled stomping her hoof on the floor, Order looked over from where she was sat on Hinlirs back, "Calm down Aphibia, it's completely safe" She called over.
"If I may ask" Hinlir said after letting Order down to the floor, "Have you two ever been able to hang one of these...Christmas trees before?" She asked, Imagined shook her head, "No, we've never been able to, even with the other Seven, we've always been caught up in some massive thing when Christmas rolls around" She huffed crossing her arms.
Origin and Athena then walked in carrying boxes, Hinlir walked over and shoved her head inside, "What are these?" She asked pulling out a string of lights.
"Those are lights" Athena explained taking them from the foxes mouth, She blinked tilting her head, "Lights....I've never seen such a thing, are they powered by ice? Some unknown magic?"
Athena chuckled, "They are powered by electricity, its not magic or anything" Hinlir noticed Order walk out of the door and followed.
She found her sitting in the snow that had fallen on the Island overnight, "Let me guess" Hinlir started laying down, "Your...childhood Christmas wasn't like this?" She asked, Order nodded, "Spot on, it really wasn't like any of this" She sighed, "It really really wasnt"
-----------------------
"Hey! Look what I found!" The small orange haired girl walked up to her sister holding a string of lights. "What is that?" She asked, "Its lights! Do you think we can ask dad if we can put them up!" The other girl said.
At that moment he walked into the room and sighed taking the lights, "Now we don't have time for this you two, Arya you shouldn't have picked those up this is a place of work not a kindergarten" He huffed and walked to the door, "Elia keep an eye on your sister so she doesn't mess with any other unneeded objects" He left the room.
Alya sat down, "We never get to have Christmas anymore" Elia sat down next to her sister who leaned into her side, The door opened again and another person walked in, Alya perked up, "Miss Slone!" She walked over and hugged the other woman's legs who chuckled and smiled picking up the small girl.
"Hello again you two" She looked at the discarded decorations and sighed, "Did he take away the decorations in here?" She asked, Elia nodded without saying anything.
Slone sighed and held out a hand for Elia who walked over and took it, "I'll take you for a walk around, if he won't do it then I will instead, he can't keep leaving you two in here all the time" She walked out of the room slowly making sure Elia could keep up.
A few of the Guards gave the two girls a wave as they walked through, "Jones?" Slone called and a blonde man stuck his head out of the door, "Yeah?"
"Make sure nobody disturbs me while I'm in here can you please?" She called, He nodded, "Sure thing boss" He ducked back into his office and Slone walked into hers.
Slone grunted putting Alya down who stared in awe at the small Christmas tree on her desk, The older woman chuckled typing at her computer, "I knew you'd like it in here" Elia meanwhile stared at the tinsel wrapped around her desk.
Slone noticed and ducked down into a box before pulling out a wreath and a hat, she gave the wreath to Elia and the hat to Alya, "Ooh! What is this?" Alya asked staring at it.
"Its a santa hat- didn't he do any Christmas with you?" Slone asked, Elia shook her head, "No....the last one we did was with mom" the older woman sighed and looked up when the door opened and Jones walked in with a box.
"Hi- uh sorry for intruding or- you know but I figured they'd want this?" He said, "Mr Jones!" Alya ran over and collided into his legs in the form of a hug, "Woah! Hey there! I didn't expect this, wow" He patted her back and she giggled staring at the box as he opened it.
"These, are called Christmas jumpers" He explained handing one to them each, "You wear them during this time of year"
Alya put hers on straight away and stared at the reindeer picture on the front, "Thank you Mr Jones!" She hugged his legs again and he laughed, "Just trying to help, Right anyways I uh- better get back to my work and everything" Jones turned to leave.
"Actually" Slone interrupted stopping him in his tracks, "You can stay here for a while" He blinked in surprise, "Wha- seriously?" He asked, She nodded to him, "It is usually the holiday season, and I'm sure nobody will mind if your not in your office for a few hours"
Jones blinked and chuckled before walking back in and sitting down next to Elia who smiled slightly, Alya walked over and put a wreath over his head, "You can wear this!" She said giggling, Jones smiled, "Why thank you" He picked up a hat and held it to Elia who blinked and slowly took it.
"Thanks..." She whispered, Jones smiled slightly, "Its alright, I know your not much of a talker" He watched her put it on and she smiled again.
-------------------------------------------
"Ah" Hinlir said flicking her tail in the snow, "I then presume it...didn't go well for the next few years?" Order shook her head, Imagined, Origin and Athena had now sat down next to them, "A lot of years after that, Slone changed, became the angry frustrated person that we were fighting against all those centuries ago" She replied.
"I feel bad that Para had to...you know, do what she had to do, Slone was a nice person once, like Jones said, The IO just...changed her" Order sighed, "I think they changed a lot of people" Origin added on standing up, "Now, how about we go back home, I think the others might need some help with the decorations"
-------------------
"Look, I told you I'm too tall!" Scientist yelled, Paradigm was sat on his shoulders and her head was hitting the roof trying to put the star ontop of the tree.
Remedy sighed shaking her head, "I told you it wasn't going to work" She was sat on the sofa, Qui and Iu were also sat nearby, at least until Qui sprung up and scrambled up the tree, "I'll do it!" She grabbed the star from Paradigms hand and shoved it onto the top.
"yay! All done!" She skidded down and hopped onto the floor again, "UGHHHH Qui did it for us!" Paradigm smacked her head onto Scientists head, "We've literally fought demons from an omniverse but we can't hang A STAR ONTOP OF A TREE?!" She yelled.
Torin rolled her eyes from where she was stood with Foundation in the kitchen, "You know sometimes I have faith in you all, your lucky I know how to cook or this whole place would be up in flames right now" She muttered.
"Oh leave them alone Torin" Haven said from the carpet, She passed Horus a piece of chicken and he flew away chirping, "Its not a complete disaster, well it might be but you know" Visitor rolled his eyes after helping Paradigm off, "Its not as bad as Panther and Spire sneaking through the window" He pointed to where the two were indeed....sneaking through the window.
"HEY! It's meant to be sneaky!" Panther snapped, her suits tail flicking in annoyance, Spire snorted and walked to the living room, "I said use the door not the window for the record" She nodded to Visitor who nodded back.
Remedy looked around, "Wheres 8 Ball?" She asked, He then walked out of the hallway holding Ash who was stating at the giant 8 on his face, "8 Ball! She's supposed to be asleep!" Paradigm yelled at him.
He groaned, "All I did was walk by the room and she had escaped her cot! I keep saying your baby is crazy!" He replied, Paradigm facepalmed, "How?! There's nothing in there she can use! Ugh hold on I'm going to look" She walked by and to the room Ash slept in.
"Just a question" Zuri asked from the floor, "Are our pals from the other Realities coming? Or...." Foundation shook his head, "They are having their own celebrations, but I did invite Ray and some of the others from Homebase" He replied.
Paradigm meanwhile had gone into Ash's room and turned on the light, "Alright...what did she use....WHAT THE-" She yelled seeing a small white and red Kitsune in the cot, "Para what's wro- OH HOHOHO!" Scientist laughed and picked it up.
"Look at YOU! Your a cute little guy aren't you!" Scientist rubbed it's belly and it yipped in response, "Its a baby Para!" He laughed again, Paradigm meanwhile blinked several times, "Bu- How did it-" She looked down when Ash crawled into the room, the Kitsune leapt down and trotted over to Ash before nuzzling her head.
"AW MAN! this just keeps getting better and better, Ash made a friend! With a KITSUNE!" Scientist knelt down watching the two.
Meanwhile outside most of the others had now arrived, "Psst" Ray whispered to Visitor, "Have you installed security on this place?" He shook his head, "No...why would we-" She edged closer to his face, "I'd suggest beaaannnssss"
"Woah! Okay Ray, come on let's get you fixed up, Sorry! She's still getting used to be outside of Homebase!" Dennis grabbed her and walked off, Paradigm and Scientist then walked out...with the Kitsune who smacked right into Boneheads face, "OW! What the heck!" He yelled, Imagined started laughing when the Kitsune nibbled at his shoe.
"Awww she's cute" Ocean smiled from the table she and Imagined were leaned on, Ronin glanced over, "You can tell the gender?" He asked, She nodded, "Yep, it's easy"
"Hey just a question" Lars asked, "Where are those what do you call them...Ancients?" He then jumped when Amber appeared next to him with a smirk, "Right here" She laughed and whipped her tail around, "Sorry we're late" Aphibia said stepping inside, "Despite you now living on a hill it's ten times more difficult to find you" Her ear flicked in annoyance.
"What are these?" Bloomer asked staring at some boxes, "Those are presents Bloomer" Order explained, "You open them and there's gifts inside" The Salamander blinked and nodded, "Interesting...." Her tail swished back and forth nearly tripping up Panther in the process.
"You know I still can't believe this place is big enough to have all of us Ancients in here" Bloom pointed out, Visitor shrugged, "Well, we figured our old base was too low down for you guys, so we made this one high enough for you all to fit in" He explained to the Plant who nodded.
"OKAY!" Qui skidded up the tree knocking down several decorations in the process, "I think we should get this started!" She yelled, Iu groaned, "Qui...." He muttered, "No no! She has a point" Imagined chuckled staring at Paradigm, Scientist, Panther and Order, "Uhhhhh, why is she looking at us like that?" Scientist asked nervously.
"Good time to start running" Order mumbled in response. "ENOUGH CHITCHAT!" Qui jumped off the tree and strutted over to the sofa, "I think we should eat!" Remedy groaned as everyone got up, "Can't we wait a few minutes before rushing up" She mumbled.
Zuri chuckled standing next to her, Everyone suddenly stopped suddenly, "What?" Zuri looked up and saw Imagined in Fox form with a huge smirk on her face holding a mistletoe in her mouth above them.
Both Zuri and Remedy immediately blushed and looked away, "Uhhh, no! We are not, your not- how did you-" Remedy stuttered out, Night took the mistletoe from Imagined and landed on Visitors shoulder and dropping it in his hand.
"You can have your fun later Imag, let's leave them alone for now" Foundation called over from the table, Imagined groaned and reverted back.
----------------------------------------
Hours later, Origin watched everyone talk and eat the food Torin made, He then noticed Imagined and Order weren't in the room anymore.
Walking outside he looked around and soon saw them both talking nearby, "Hey you two" He said walking over, the two looked up, "Oh, hey Orig, we were just about to head somewhere" Imagined said.
Origin tilted his head, the others had come up behind him, "You guys can come if you want" Order added on.
After walking for a while they approached a heavily wooded area which was rather small, "What did you guys put here?" Scientist asked, But that was soon shown as they approached a grey stone in the ground, Origin tilted his head when he saw Imagined and Order approach it.
The four of them watched in silence when they placed one of the Christmas wreaths from the house on it.
After waiting a few minutes they all walked up next to the two sisters, "So" Origin said quietly, "Who's it for?" Imagined hummed, "Its for Slone, I know its...odd to you guys" She stopped for a moment, "But back when we were young kids in the IO she was sort of like our temporary mom"
"Believe it or not she wasn't the crazy woman you guys always saw her as" Order added on, "At least until the Loop became a thing, that wreath was the one she gave us during the one Christmas that she gave to us" She folded her arms.
Paradigm cringed slightly, "Now I kinda feel bad about crushing her with the mech" She rubbed the back of her head, "No its fine Para" Imagined sighed, "She was too far gone anyways, words couldn't have brought her back" Foundation noticed everyone going quiet and pulled them all together.
"Well, I'm glad we could all spend Christmas together" He said, Everyone else all slowly wrapped their arms around each other.
Soon enough they were all now sat on a small hill overlooking the Island, "Oh! That reminds me" Paradigm took off her bag and dug through it before bringing out Six different coloured scarfs all with the Seven logo ontop.
"I spent a week making these for you guys, figured now was the best time to hand them out" She added on, "And you made them all our favourite colors! That's adorable!" Imagined said laughing afterwards.
Paradigm nodded zipping up her bag and placing it to the side, Imagined flopped backwards onto the grass, "When was the last time we could actually relax like this?" The others followed, also leaning back onto the grass and looking at the night sky above.
"A long while ago, probably" Visitor replied, "Most of our lives have been fight and death" Scientist then sighed tapping his hands on his chest, "Its actually kind of nice, you know the peace and quiet" He muttered.
Foundation hummed, "We'll probably be back at it again at some point" He moved his arms around all of the others and pulled them in slightly in which they all moved in as well, "But let's just enjoy the peace and quiet for now"