Archive of Our Own

The link to my Phainon/Cyrene playlist WIP

The playlist is not done yet, I'm still adding to it⋆

My work on Hoyolab for Irene, finally finished it, even though it was lazy🥲

<< — –   ~..tell your baby that I'm your baby..~   – — >>

By Kephale...just look at her.

She's huddled up next to him, buried in blankets —

And their daughter is curled up between them, also under the blankets.

They are his whole world.

Irene, their daughter, was asleep at the moment.

Cyrene was falling asleep while playing with Irene's soft white hair.

Phainon is doing his best to play his part as "comfortable pillow" for them, but he can't feel his left arm, his toes, or anything in his shoulders. Something in his back is twisted uncomfortably, but he doesn't dare move.

If he was in a position that they were comfortable in, then he would be uncomfortable for hours so they could sleep.

He was going to try to fall asleep to pass the time so he wouldn't be so uncomfortable, however he happened to catch a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of Irene blinking her eyes open, rubbing them and shifting slightly.

“...Dada?” She mumbles softly, still groggy from sleep.

He pats her head, smiling slightly. She was so cute, her violet eyes seeming to droop with her sleepiness.

“Already awake, little miss?”

he kisses her forehead, brushing her hair out of her face.

The whispering wakes Cyrene up. She sits up slowly, propping herself up on her arm.

Irene notices and nuzzles into her mother's chest.

“Good afternoon, little love. Was that a nice nap?” She kisses the top of Irene's head a few times. “Maybe now you won't be too fussy to go play in the snow with me and Daddy.”

Irene seems to light up at the mention of snow. She looks back at Phainon, almost like she needed to know that he was hearing this as well.

“Let's eat lunch first, then we'll get you all bundled up.” He says as he stands up carefully, his back tightening and pinching painfully from the elongated period of time that he was in that uncomfortable position.

After lunch, which was mashed baby food for Irene, they get her dressed in a bunch of warm clothes and a snowsuit so the clothes keeping her warm don't get wet from the snow.

Nothing was visible but her eyes.

Cyrene checks Irene quickly, talking mostly to herself. “Okay, she has warm socks, snow boots, a scarf, gloves, a warm jacket and coat, and two layers of pants on top of thermal pants, right?”

“Yes, she's all ready, but hearing you say all of that out loud makes me wonder if we put too much on her...” He trails off, looking Irene up and down, then looking outside.

“Ehh...maybe not.”

He adjusts the collar on his sweater, then he grabs his coat and throws it over his shoulders.

Cyrene walks with Irene, who is quietly walking with her mother. Irene's little hand grips Cyrene's finger tightly for support, while she walks clumsily toward the door.

Irene looks back at Phainon, pausing her little steps to wait for him.

“Dadaaa...”

“I'll be right there, baby girl.”

He grabs Cyrene's coat, since he noticed she didn't have it. He knew too well that only a sweater would not keep her warm for long, and he is not about to give her his own coat and freeze to death, if he can help it by grabbing her coat for her.

He walks on the other side of Irene, holding her other little gloved hand and walking with her and Cyrene outside. Opening the door, he saw snow piled up almost to Irene's hip level like a ledge, so he helped lift her over to set her in the snow that only reached her knees.

She squeals with delight, trying to pat the snow after seeing how soft it is, falling onto her hands and knees in the process, getting snow on her face.

Stunned as she was, she blinked a few times before giggling uncontrollably, standing back up on wobbly legs to continue playing in the snow.

Phainon is standing next to Cyrene, watching their little girl play with snow for the first time. Irene had been so excited to play in the snow after they told her all about it.

He tosses Cyrene's coat over her shoulders, noticing how the cold slowly got under her sweater.

She gladly takes it, putting her arms through the sleeves and zipping it up.

He slides his hand down to hers slowly, then suddenly lifts her arm up and spins her carefully, like a dance.

She lets out a quiet sound of surprise, helpless but to go along with the movement and twirl, only for him to pull her into his chest while she was on flimsy balance.

He hugs her tightly from behind, kissing all over the top of her head.

He spins her again, now that she's expecting it.

She laughs softly, dancing with him now.

The dance was carefree and imperfect, but they were happy.

Irene sees them and stands up slowly, watching for a moment with wonder, before she wobbles closer on unsteady little legs. She giggles happily, looking up at Phainon when she gets close enough.

She reaches her hands up towards him, chatting nonsense to herself.

He kisses Cyrene's cheek gently before he turns to Irene, bending his knees to offer his hands to her.

She smiles excitedly, moving around while holding his hands, like she was trying to dance with him.

He smiles and gently moves her side to side, making her giggle even more.

After almost a half hour of playing in the snow, Irene decided that she wanted to see this fabled “snowman” that her parents had told her about before.

She babbles and walks around clumsily while Phainon rolls snow into a large ball for the bottom part of the snowman.

Cyrene works on finding things to make its face while Phainon does most of the shaping of its body. 

Irene was very helpful in making sure they didn't have to work in silence.

Once the snowman was done, Irene wanted to put a wheat crop into its coal smile of a mouth to finish it off.

And it had wheat for arms too, since they couldn't find any sticks readily available.

After almost an hour and a half of playing in the snow, Irene was completely exhausted. She fell asleep almost instantly after she was carried inside.

Her little nose was slightly red, but she didn't seem to have caught a cold, so all the extra layers must've come in handy.

The next day, Phainon and Cyrene lie awake in their bed, her face nuzzled into his chest while they talk about nothing in particular. Irene is still sound asleep in her room.

He was so warm, even as snow falls outside. She is plenty warm in his arms.

They chat idly about things that don't matter for a while before they settle on the topic of Christmas gifts.

“It's our year to get gifts for the Heirs, and I wanna get something that they wouldn't just be able to buy locally...and I think we could get some toys and some snacks for Irene too while we're out.”

Her voice is muffled slightly, since her face is still sort of buried in his chest. She continues, though. “She'll be more interested in tearing up wrapping paper anyhow.”

“So, we're going to go out of town to get a few gifts?” His eyes were closed the whole time she was talking, but he opened one eye to look down at her after she said that.

“I mean...we could do that, but...the other Heirs would have to babysit Irene, and should we really trouble them with a one year old? We can't just leave Irene with one of them for the whole trip...”

Irene starts making noise from the other room, though it's unclear whether she's fussing or just chatting jibberish to herself.

Phainon kisses Cyrene's head gently before he slowly gets out of bed to take care of Irene.

At some point later in the day, Irene had asked to play in the snow again.

Who were they to deny her little request?

She had asked so nicely.

After they got her bundled up again, applying a bit on ointment her nose and lips so they don't dry out or chap, they go to fetch a sled from behind the house.

“So, Cyrene, you'll sit on the sled and hold her so she stays on?”

“Yes, yes. Do not worry about her, I'll make sure she stays on.”

He puts the sled down flat on the snow, holding the rope attached to the front.

“Let's just stick to me pulling you two along. Even if you're holding her, I would prefer to not send the both of you down a snowy hill.”

Such a paranoid father.

After Cyrene gets settled in the sled, he holds Irene's hands to help her to sit in front of her mother on the sled. Cyrene holds her little girl close.

Phainon starts very cautious and slow, but eventually he gets to a comfortable pace, not too slow, but more of a leisurely drag.

He pulled them along the snow covered fields with little effort.

Until time took its toll.

It's been forever, or so it feels to Phainon.

If he didn't already know what it felt like to bear the world, he would say that this is what it feels like.

Though, of course, the world he is bearing at the moment is only his wife and child.

Somehow, Irene is still thoroughly entertained by this whole activity, giggling and grabbing snow from off the side of the sled as he pulls them.

Eventually, he pulls them back to the house, falling to his hands and knees in the snow.

Cyrene helps Irene out of the sled first. Irene wobbles over to Phainon, laughing and patting his back excitedly.

Cyrene stands up and moves the sled before she makes her way back to where Phainon was with Irene. She kneels down to kiss the side of his head.

His cheeks were light pink from the cold and from the kiss.

“You did a good job, love.” She says with a soft tone, kissing his temple again.

After they went inside, Irene had lunch and fell asleep. Phainon and Cyrene decided they would use the rest of the day to go out and visit the other Chrysos Heirs to ask if they would be available to babysit Irene for a day or two while they went out of town.

The first place they went was the Grove of Epiphany. Phainon trusts his professor, even if his experiments and whatnot are arguably not kid-safe.

They enter his office to see him standing, focused, mixing some kind of liquids that likely shouldn't be mixed.

Hyacine was also there, presumably there to ask him a question.

Anaxa barely looked up from whatever he was doing.

Hyacine and Little Ica noticed them first. “Lord Phainon, Cyrie! It's so nice to see you guys again, and the little one too!” “Doot doot!”

“It's nice to see you too, Miss Hyacine. Are you and Professor Anaxa busy?” Phainon readjusts Irene in his arms, smiling like a happy puppy.

“It's Anaxagoras,” chimes in Anaxa. Of course, he pays enough attention to say that.

“Oh, not at all! I was just visiting him to ask a question, but we're not busy at all,” she says happily, with Little Ica nodding along in agreement with her words. Anaxa was definitely busy, but that didn't seem to alter her statement at all.

“I'm so happy to see Irene again, it's been forever! You two must have some special reason for being here, right? It's gotta be that you need us to babysit, like I keep asking...are you finally going to let us babysit this little ray of sunshine? If so, then—!”

Cyrene cuts her off, not wanting her to get so excited that she accidentally wakes Irene up. “We're going out of town for maybe two or three days, and...we do need someone to babysit her. We're going to ask all the Heirs to see if they're available to do so, and go from there. So?”

Hyacine is beaming.

Anaxa still doesn't look to be paying attention.

“Of course we'll babysit her!”

“Absolutely not.”

And despite his input, no one even seemed to notice that Anaxa had said anything at all.

So it was agreed upon that they would both be taking their turns babysitting Irene. Delightful.

As they leave, they wave to Hyacine, who had followed them to say goodbye.

They were on their way to Okhema, almost there.

Back at the Grove, though, something Anaxa had mixed had blown up, completely destroying the place. Phainon and Cyrene would have no idea.

But you know.

privilege.

They ride a dromas to Okhema to visit the bathhouse to find Aglaea next.

They get there in good time, the dromas was slightly faster than most, it seemed.

They walk inside and go up the elevator to the Chrysos Heir baths, finding Aglaea and Tribbie already there.

Aglaea already knew they were here.

“Well, come over you two. There it's plenty room in these baths.” She gesture to the bath she was currently sitting in.

“Snowy, Reney! And little Reney two!” Tribbie claps her hands and smiles widely.

Phainon sighs and sits down next to Aglaea while Cyrene kneels down with Irene in her arms for Tribbie to play with her gently, since Irene had slowly started to wake up a few moments ago.

“We would be delighted to babysit her. Do not worry, she will be in good hands. I'll need the information of what day, and what her daily schedule is, and among other things—” Aglaea muses out loud, speaking words with nearly no thought behind them as she sinks lower into the bath.

Getting Tribbie and Aglaea to agree was the easy part of this trip.

The next part is getting Phainon to leave the comfort of the warm, steaming bath.

The next stop after this, should they even consider asking Castorice? Irene is only a year old, and it's a hands-on job to babysit...

And now they're here, at Mydei's house. Unbeknownst to them, they'd be hitting two birds with one stone with this visit. Like the previous two.

They get past the gate to the door. Phainon gets a grip on the door knocker, hitting it a few good times, effectively getting no ones attention, and making Irene cry because the loud noise startled her.

Eventually, Mydei opens the door, looking at them, then at behind him at Castorice, then back to them.

“Come in.” He says shortly, stepping back and gesturing for then to enter.

“Come in yes, yes. Is something the matter?” Castorice asks almost nervously, as though trying to lead them away from asking why there was a giant pillow fort in the living room. “What? Pillow fort?..no, I don't see a pillow fort...”

Phainon admires the pillow fort, then he looks back at Mydei with a silent "you made this?" Kind of look. “My apologies, I had no idea we were interrupting anything.”

Cyrene bounces Irene gently, holding the fussing baby and trying to calm her down. She looks the fort up and down, a concerning mix between awe and confusion crossing her face, before she looks back at Castorice.

“Phainon and I are going out of town, and we need someone to watch Irene while we're gone. We're going around and asking the other Heirs, but it felt almost insensitive to not include you, Cas. So, do you think you could?”

Castorice opens her mouth to answer, but she hesitates, so Mydei speaks up. “I'll help her. She can't exactly touch the little one, so I'll be here for the hands-on part of it.”

Phainon high-fives Mydei for some reason.

So, that's settled.

Hysilens and Cerydra?

They're definitely not available.

And Cipher—

...no.

They get home in good time.

They feed Irene once they get inside, but somehow the little potato is tired after a day of sleeping, so they get her to bed. 

Phainon cuddles up to Cyrene as soon as they get to their own bed, one of his arms around her waist while he holds her close.

“I'm really glad so many of them were willing to accept with such short notice.”

“I didn't expect some of them to accept, like Professor Anaxa and Lady Castorice.”

“Phainon, those two are literally the only two who were roped into it without accepting.”

His eyes are closed, almost like he's using sleep as an excuse to not hear her.

She doesn't bother getting him to cooperate. She was already tired, so she would just go to sleep as well.

After a few days, they take Irene to Okhema where Hyacine might be, so they could leave for out of town.

They find her by the chimeras, naturally. However, as they approach, they pass Anaxa at a distance. He didn't notice them, or maybe he was just deliberately not looking over at them.

Regardless, they don't bother asking him.

They approach Hyacine, Phainon holds Irene in one arm while Cyrene holds a bag with things they will need to take care of Irene for about three days.

When they pass Irene to the next person, they'll need to pass the bag along as well.

Hyacine looks like she's ecstatic to be babysitting. After Phainon and Cyrene finish showering Irene in kisses and affection, Hyacine takes the sleepy little one into her arms and waves to Phainon and Cyrene as they leave.

After they've packed their little bit of luggage onto a dromas and they climbed into the saddle and they're on their way, Hyacine looks down at Irene and her heart squeezes. If she had any less self control, she might’ve squealed from happiness.

However, she settles for carrying the little girl happily to where the dromas stable is, so she could show Anaxa.

What is there to show him?

That doesn't matter, she's just really excited.

He's sitting and watching the dromases do nothing. He's shivering slightly from the cold, it seems, but he doesn't care.

He looks over to see Hyacine coming towards him, so he straightens up and acts like he wasn't shivering. “I told you, I want no part in taking care of this child—”

And now he's here, and Hyacine is showing Irene the chimeras.

Hyacine puts Irene's hand in her own and offers it to the chimeras to sniff. They warm up quickly to the little one.

At some point, Irene, in her bundle of warm clothes, is sitting in the snow next to Hyacine. The chimeras all gather around and sniff the little girl, nuzzling up to her and trying to all pile up on her little lap.

She giggles delightedly, gently grabbing and ruffling the soft, warm fur of the chimeras. They seem to enjoy the attention.

After a while, Irene points to a white chimera with blue eyes and horns further away, nearly blending into the snow. The little thing seemed uninterested in her.

She crawls out of Hyacine's lap to try to toddle over to the creature, who yawns and looks up at her sleepily. She plops down next to it and hugs it gently, burying her face into it's warm fur. It seems indifferent to what is happening to it.

She later told Hyacine (the best she could) that she named the little chimera "fluffy," since she learned that word recently, and her little toddler brain decided it was fitting.

Irene had gotten slightly fussy after that, though, and Hyacine got some little puff snacks for her to eat.

Don't worry, she shared plenty with the chimeras.

 She munches happily on the snack for some time, playing in the snow with the chimeras still. Hyacine watches her closely to make sure she's safe, and while she's doing so, she has a wonderful idea.

Now Irene claps happily while a chimera pulls her along slowly on a little sleigh through the thin layer of fluffy white snow.

Hyacine claps along with her, walking slowly beside the sleigh, encouraging her and hyping her up.

“Look at you go! Aren't you just having so much fun, little sunshine?”

Irene squeals happily, kicking her legs. Hyacine had put little Christmas bells along the sleigh for Irene to play with, and it was likely the best idea she had. The little one claps and laughs and squeals with excitement the whole way.

The chimeras doesn't seem too troubled, since this is lighter than what they usually lug along on the sleigh, but Hyacine still momentarily swaps out the chimera pulling the sleigh along to make sure they don't get worn out.

Cipher is in the background, trying to gather an army of chimeras for unknown purposes, it seems.

After...not that long, actually, Irene gets fussy. She is only a year old, after all.

Hyacine picks her up and takes her to a spot semi-inside to change her diaper and to feed her some baby food.

Irene falls asleep quickly in Hyacine's arms after she finishes her mashed carrots and plums.

Hyacine checks the time, not expecting it to be as late as it was. It was basically midday, which means Irene was kept entertained by the chimeras for almost 6 hours. How did she stay awake that long?

No one will ever know.

Hyacine holds the sleeping little one for a while, rocking her gently while she helps around with people and their chimeras, but eventually she gets to a point where she needs both arms and hands to help out.

She comes back to Anaxa, not elaborating on anything, but placing the sleeping child into his arms.

“Wait waitwaitwait, Hyacine, do not leave me with this—”

She has already left again. She either ignored him, or she didn't hear him.

“— child...oh, nevermind.” He looks down at the sleeping bundle, sighing softly. She was cute, sure. But he had no idea what to do with her.

Perhaps he wasn't clueless, but he didn't want to take care of a child at the moment.

He makes sure Irene's bundled properly before he nestles her into the crook of his arm comfortably so he could then continue doing what he was doing before:

Watching the dromases.

He didn't notice when he subconsciously felt guilty when she wakes up crying for Kephale knows why.

and he doesn't pay any mind to how he convinced himself that it couldn't hurt to hold her up to help her feed a dromas.

He thinks nothing of it when he inevitably doesn't mind rocking the little one gently in his arms while they ride peacefully on the back of a dromas.

He didn't hate the idea of taking care of the little girl as much as he did before, but if anyone asked, then he definitely did not enjoy spending time with her.

Though,  he was definitely upset to see Hyacine eventually come back to take her back into her arms. Irene would have to sleep at her house that night.

Irene was sleepy again, as most children her age usually are.

Hyacine's heart almost burst when the sleepy little potato leaned her head in and fell asleep with her chin on her shoulder.

 Irene sleeps at Hyacine's house that night, but at the ripe hour of 5 AM, a sharp knock comes at the door.

Luckily, she had already been awake. She didn't know Irene was awake yet, but the little girl has this thing she always does where she wakes up and doesn't do or say anything to let anyone know that she is indeed awake. She simply lies there doing nothing.

Back to the knock, Hyacine opens the door with eyes slightly bleary from sleep. She had been awake, but she was still tired.

Anaxa stands there, looking away and adjusting the collar on his shirt.

“I'm here to take the child to the next person for today.” He says almost quickly, eventually looking up at her.

Hyacine paused...

“Oh no, I didn't get her ready!”

She runs back into the house, finding Irene already awake, and henceforth almost having a mini heart attack. That's not what she had expected to see.

Regardless, she then proceeds to fuss over Irene like a mother hen, getting her dressed in warm clothes, and grabbing the bag full of her stuff to give to the next person.

She makes sure everything is ready, then the reality sets in and she realizes that she has to say goodbye to the little girl. She is completely distraught now.

After Hyacine is done hugging Irene, Anaxa takes the little potato into his arms with a barely concealed grin, bouncing her softly on his hip.

He gets to Okhema with her on the back of a dromas. Near the stable for the dromases, he gets off and goes the rest of the way on foot while carrying the bundle of a child in his arms.

As soon as he gets inside the bathhouse, he looks up at the second floor, his face twisting up in disdain. That woman was definitely up there, and he didn't feel like dealing with her at the moment. But he has to give Irene to her, and he hasn't been to the baths in quite some time, so he wants to soak for a while.

Too, they had installed a ice bath of sorts into a more secluded part of the Chrysos Heirs bath section, and he was curious to try it.

He sighs and goes up the lift to the second floor. Sure enough, Aglaea is there in the steaming baths with Tribbie sitting on the edge, talking to her and giggling about something. Irene was already asleep again in his arms.

Aglaea had already felt his presence with her threads, she knew he was there, but she seemed to be ignoring him. How audacious.

However, she clearly wasn't ignoring him fully, because he definitely just felt one of her invisible threads tighten around him.

He sighs again and walks closer. Tribbie squeals happily, clapping her hands when she sees him holding Irene.

“little Reney two!” Tribbie says with an excited smile, giggling and clapping her hands.

Aglaea at least spares him a glance.

He steps closer, begrudgingly, kneeling by the edge of the bath to wait for her to take the child in his arms. Tribbie can't take her from him, since she's so small.

Aglaea seems to be teasing him, or maybe just purposely pushing him to see how far he'll go.

“Come a bit closer, I cannot seem to reach.”

“Perhaps you should try to use your fully capable limbs to come closer.”

She seems to mockingly ponder that for a second or two before she shakes her head, still holding her arms out to take Irene from him.

He grits his teeth and shuffles closer, his knees getting slightly wet from the water lapping at the edge.

Aglaea takes the still sleeping baby from his arms gently, smiling as though she hadn't done anything.

This time, she really hadn't. But it still irked him just enough for him to be in a sour mood again.

He stands up, looking away from her and walking to the corner where they had the ice bath.

He minds his own business while he freezes himself in the bath, mostly because he wants no more interaction with Aglaea, who is holding Irene and leaning her head back to relax.

Tribbie had disappeared — soon to come back, it seemed.

After a couple hours of simply relaxing in the baths, Aglaea is already lightheaded as all get out, her brain cloudy from the heat.

Irene wakes up fussing, hungry.

Aglaea had been holding the little one above the water for safety. Don't worry, she's not a boiled potato now.

Aglaea reaches to try to find the bag of Irene's belongings, her hand tapping gently along the side of the bath. She eventually gets fed up after not finding it, so she uses her threads to find where it is.

Of course, Anaxa had placed it well out of reach.

She stands up slowly, her body steaming slightly. The hot water clinging on her skin evaporated in the slightly cooler air quickly.

Slightly wobbly, she makes her way to the bag, grabbing some food for Irene.

Tribbie had returned a little earlier, so she helped out by taking the food and sitting down, wanting Irene to be sat in front of her.

“Don't worry, Agy. We will feed her, so you can go sit down and rest!” Tribbie says with a smile, pulling out a little plastic spoon to feed Irene.

Aglaea sighs softly, not focusing on anything in particular as she gently places Irene next to Tribbie. “You are too kind, Teacher.”

Tribbie had a different bag of something with her, set off to the side.

“Sweet potatoes are the best baby food..~ They're vegetables, so they're good for the baby — but they're sweet, so the babies love them.” Tribbie says absently, trying to open the little container. 

Irene isn't fussing anymore, babbling happily while waiting for her sweet potatoes. She claps her hands, looking up at Aglaea like she wanted her to join in on clapping for no reason.

Tribbie scoops a bit of sweet potatoes into the little spoon, making the sound of an airplane as she "flies" it to Irene's mouth.

She didn't know this, but she didn't need to try so hard to make Irene eat her food. The little girl was very willing to devour the food like she hadn't eaten a day in her life.

She didn't seem tired after eating, unusually.

However, it was perfect for what Tribbie had planned. She had gone out earlier to go get simple, little Christmas crafts to do with Irene, ones that didn't have too many small pieces or anything that could potentially be harmful to a small child.

The first craft was little wooden gingerbread men that came with thin red, green, and blue markers that barely even color like they should. If you know crafts, you know these horrible things. The ones with the clear caps.

Tribbie helps Irene color on the wooden gingerbread man for a bit, until the little one gets the hang of it. There's no saving this gingerbread man from his fate now.

It is now an (arguably) artistic mess of scribbles that combine in a way that makes a color no one even knew existed.

It was beautiful to the eyes of Tribbie, who crooned soft praises to Irene for making something so amazing.

Aglaea had returned to the bath she was previously in, and she was now relaxing with her head back and cucumber slices over her eyes.

“Agy, look at how amazing this looks!” Tribbie says with a higher tone than usual, holding the scribbled on gingerbread man up for her to see.

Aglaea lifts one of the cucumber slices to open an eye to look, as useless as the action was, considering she is blind.

“I see, how wonderful. Quite the little artist...” She trails off, her head lolling back again as the cucumber is now placed back over her eye.

Tribbie sighs, but returns to Irene to continue keeping the child entertained.

While they're crafting, near silent footsteps approach from behind.

Cipher crouches down between them, looking at what they were doing curiously.

“Ohh, lookie what we have here...don't mind me..~” she says in a playful tone, not wasting any time in grabbing a craft like the one they were currently doing and lying down on her stomach and kick her feet behind her while doing her own craft.

While they sit there, oblivious, Anaxa tries to get up and leave from the ice bath while Aglaea was seemingly passed out and he wouldn't have to interact with her.

He stands up slowly, already freezing from the icy water, now even more cold from the winter breeze slipping in through the open sides of the bathhouse.

He is now a frozen block of ice that Aglaea senses with her threads. She gets up, begrudgingly, and picks him up to toss him into the hot bath that she was just in.

Tribbie, Irene, and Cipher all continue to craft happily, unaware of what happened.

After 2 and a half crafts is about when Irene gets tired and fussy. Cipher wants nothing to do with a fussy child, so she snags a few more craft to do later, and she leaves quickly.

Aglaea gets up yet again to scoop Irene into her arms to hold her and rock her to sleep. She returns to the bath again, holding Irene above the water so she wouldn't fuss about the hot water.

The little potato curls up quite comfortably in Aglaea's arms, falling asleep without any trouble.

She remains asleep while Aglaea gets out and dries off with a towel in one arm, child in the other.

Aglaea takes her back to her own home for the night. Night? Day? It's sleeping hours. Irene is at Aglaea's house for sleeping hours.

In the morning, Aglaea returns to the bathhouse with Irene to get the bag of the little one's belongings and to pass her to Trianne, who was going to take the child to the next person's house.

Trianne meets them there, ready with the bag and all. Tribbie and Trinnon are not present at the moment.

Trianne opens a century gate to Mydei's house, and she wraps the little girl in a fluffy, warm coat before she takes her hands and helps her walk through the little passage.

It's snowing, less than it was in Okhema, but a little bit more than Aedes Elysiae.

“De, open uppp!” Trianne cheers as she knocks on the door. Irene laughs uncontrollably at how silly she thought the situation was.

Mydei opens the door and looks down, immediately reaching down to scoop Irene into his warm embrace, grabbing the bag of Irene's belongings in the process. “No one told me I'd be babysitting today.” He huffed, almost like he was trying to cover up the joy he felt when holding the little potato in his arms.

Trianne just giggles and waves to Castorice, who was behind him, looking out the door almost cautiously.

“Goodbye little Reney two, goodbye De, goodbye Cassie!” she says as she skips back through the century gate, not wanting to stay too long because of the cold.

Mydei wastes no time in closing the door after Trianne left.

“Did you remember we would be babysitting today?” He asks absently as he walks to the kitchen to place the bag on the counter somewhere.

She didn't hear his mumbled question as he walked away, but she smiled anyway, a soft sound similar to a short laugh escaping her.

They soon find out why Trianne had thought it was so funny when she dropped Irene off.

They knew children needed to have their diapers changed, but sweet baby Kephale. The smell had Castorice looking a little green around the gills.

Mydei's facial expression looked almost offended instead of disgusted.

“...A true warrior would never back down from a challenge. You can't do this anyway.” He says, mostly to himself. It was almost like he was hyping himself up to just do it and get it over with.

He was thoroughly convinced that the only thing that could've resulted in this was that Irene had eaten cement.

After it was all over, Castorice had gagged nearly 12 times. It was her fault for staying in the room with him when he changed Irene's diaper, but since he would be the only one to do it for the whole day, she didn't want him to feel like she was just jumping ship on him.

She was emotional support for him, even though she seemed worse off than him.

Later, Mydei carries Irene out to the kitchen again to feed her. She hadn't even started fussing yet from hunger, he just knew.

While he fed her, he had Castorice helping with writing a list of Christmas cookies that they would be baking for the holiday.

Her handwriting was neat across the paper, and she even added his little comments on the different types next to the names of them.

• Chocolate chunk cookies, because normal chips are not nearly enough

• Peanut butter cookies, a classic

• Mint chocolate chip cookies are questionable, we may or may not make them

• Kremnoan chocolate cookies

• Gooey butter cookies

• Lemon glaze cookies

• Tiramisu cookies (?)

• Spritz cookies

• Ginger molasses cookies

• Candy cane cookies too are a possible one to not make

Castorice continues writing mindlessly before she suddenly shifts slightly, glancing up at him. “Wait, why are we only questioning the minty ones?”

“Because people act like they like them, then when I end up making the cookies, they don't eat them.”

The spoon of Irene's food stops halfway to her mouth on the third bite, since he was so caught up in thinking of the different cookies they would be baking.

Irene is sure to alert him to this by fussing and trying to word it the best she could. “Food..?” she whines softly, making Mydei's head snap up to look at her.

She rarely even tried to speak actual words, usually just making noise, laughing, or babbling nonsense.

He had never heard her speak before.

“I did not know she could do that.” He mumbles as he continues feeding her, much to her delight.

After she's done eating, he holds her on his hip with one arm, grabbing things around the kitchen to cook with his other arm. Occasionally, he would hold Irene up to grab something for him, making her feel like she's helping.

When he actually gets to baking, he lets her hold the whisk, his larger hand on top of hers gently as he helps her stir ingredients together.

She eats little yogurt melts while she "helps," dropping them everywhere on the floor and down his clothes on occasion.

He doesn't seem to mind.

She gets to push the buttons to preheat the oven, and he slides trays of cookies into it once it's hot enough.

He decided to also make a single dozen batch of sugar cookies along with a few food safe dye colors for Irene to paint on them.

Splashes of food coloring are everywhere, on everyone's clothes and a multitude of the ovens in his unnecessarily large kitchen.

She's an artist at work, however, he can't tell if it's a tree stump or a dog. Or something else entirely...

Castorice tilted her head, the outside edges of her eyes crinkling slightly as she tries to smile. “It looks alright, it's...got its own charm...it's alright.”

“There is no word for "alright" in the Kremnoan dictionary.” He says with a slightly more insistent tone, sliding the cookie away to push the next one for Irene to paint to be in front of her.

Later, while they watch her paint on the cookies, silent footsteps sneak in through a window to swipe away a cookie or two.

Mydei got back to baking more cookies on his list, and Irene helps by eating some after they're baked and cooled.

The little potato gets sleepy after a batch or two, and he takes her back to the living room to lie her down on a blanket by the seemingly glittering Christmas tree that Castorice was decorating. Where Irene was, Cas could watch to make sure she was alright when she glanced up.

Mydei continues baking in the kitchen. He places little tables out to put cooling racks onto for the cookies to be placed on once they were done baking. He successfully finished all batches of cookies for 5 different cookie types before Irene woke up again.

Castorice had finished decorating the tree earlier and she was sitting on the couch a good distance away from the child, reading a book.

She saw Irene waking up, fussing quietly as she flipped a page. “She's crying, what does she need..?”

She stands up to watch the timer on the baking cookies while he swaps places with her to tend to Irene.

He picks up the squirming child, holding her to his chest. “From the looks of it, she just wants to be held. I'll change her diaper again, wait there with the cookies.”

He comes back a minute or two later, a happy, cooing baby now playing with his hair as he returns to the kitchen.

“We can play with her for a while as the cookies are baking.” He says, checking the cookies again briefly before he carries Irene to the living room. He tosses her into the air gently, catching her again, making her laugh happily.

Castorice watches with a gentle gaze as he plays with the little one.

They play and have fun, all three of them. Mydei helps Irene stand, making sure she's balanced on her feet before he slowly takes his hands away so she would be standing on her own.

They clap and cheer her on while she bends her knees slightly to bounce up and down, laughing and squealing as she dances.

Irene is thoroughly worn out after all of the dancing and playing and having fun. After the rest of the cookies are out of the oven and cooled down, placed in little cookie jars, Mydei cleans up the kitchen before he carries the little potato to bed. She sleeps on the same bed Castorice. Mydei was on the couch to let Cas have the bed.

Castorice lets Irene pick out a bedtime story from the shelves of books in the room. She guided her to the section with Christmas stories, mostly for children.

After Irene picks one, Mydei helps her back onto the bed. Castorice sits down in the edge of the bed, lighting a small candle for a little bit of light.

Irene seems interested in the story at first, watching Castorice's face intently for a while, giving occasional commentary — when prompted.

Eventually she gets sleepy while listening to Castorice's soft voice, lulling her to sleep.

Mydei was already dead asleep, but he's not deep enough sleep to be snoring like a lion.

Yet.

In due time, he will be shaking the walls with his snores, because the lion does not concern himself with sleeping with his mouth closed in the presence of company, be it a child, or someone older. Or both.

At the buttcrack of dawn, Phainon shakes Cyrene awake gently, already having been up to gather bags of gifts they'd bought for the other Chrysos Heirs and Irene. The little cabin they'd been staying in was so comfortable, apparently Cyrene hadn't slept that well in almost a year.

It's probably because she didn't have to worry about taking care of a child, but he didn't say anything about that.

She is barely awake, nearly asleep on her feet as Phainon tries to help her to the back of a dromas while also carrying personal luggage and everything else that they bought on the trip.

As soon as they're settled on the back of the dromas, she leans her head on his shoulder and she doses off instantly. 

As soon as they get back to Aedes Elysiae, they put everything inside the house, finding the house just the way they left it.

After they put everything away, they leave again to go get Irene. They ride on the back of a dromas again, to Okhema. Phainon asks Tribbie to open a century gate for them so they didn't have to travel the whole way, to which his request was granted.

Phainon is carrying Cyrene on his back with his arms under her thighs to keep her close while she sleeps on his back.

Mydei helps Phainon get Irene strapped onto his chest, along with her bag. Luckily, Irene had just eaten, and she was back asleep again on her father's chest.

They go back through the same century gate back to Okhema, then they ride on the back of another dromas to get back home.

Phainon carried them both back to their house, and when he gently put Cyrene onto their bed, he felt like he was no longer bearing the weight of the world on his back. He didn't even remember to put Irene in her bed, he simply crashed on the couch with her sleeping peacefully on his chest.

It was midday, and all three of them were asleep.

They woke up a few hours later to eat something and to take care of Irene, but after dinner, they all three crashed again, and they slept until the next morning.

“They say...if suffering has an end...

Then I..

Will crash on the couch.”

When Phainon wakes up again in the morning, Irene is still on his chest, sleeping.

He gets up slowly off of the couch, finding a little note with Cyrene's bubbly looking handwriting in small, neat words.

She said she was at Marmoreal Market, out to buy something. She'll be back soon, it said, and under it was written with a heart that she loves them both.

Phainon sighs and holds Irene in one arm against his chest. He looks down at her and nearly jumps when she's already staring up at him with round, vibrant eyes.

“Jeez, when did you wake up, baby girl? You need to quit scaring me like that...”

She pokes his face, her chubby little finger squishing his cheek. “Dada.”

“In the flesh.”

She continues poking him, then breaking into a smile. It's just the way Cyrene does, how she tries to stay serious before inevitably cracking a smile.

He showers her face in kisses, making her laugh and squirm.

He walks to the pantry, looking through the baby food for Irene. He can't decide, so he asks her which one she wants.

He moves the little jars aside, looking through them. “Okay, we can go with...let's see. Carrots? Plums? Sweet potatoes? Hm. What even is this one, 'apples and chicken'?”

She doesn't seem to care, since she isn't really listening to him. She does, however, point to the banana baby food. “Baba-na.”

He sighs, looking from her to the banana. Bananas are sweet too, so babies love them, but they're not nearly as healthy.

“Alright, alright. But no cookie bits that Mydei sent over, okay?”

Irene remains firm, it seems, since she is still reaching for the mashed banana. “Ba...na.” She opens and closes her little fist, trying to grab at the jar. She lets out a soft grunt with the effort of reaching.

He grabs it for her, putting her in her highchair so he could open the jar.

He grabs her pink plastic spoon, scooping a bit of banana into the spoon to feed her.

After half of the banana was on her face and not in her mouth, he wiped her hands and face before he placed her down on the floor, on her feet.

“You gonna go sit on the rug by the tree?” He holds her hands and lifts her slightly so she's standing on his feet. He walks with her to the tree, where lights shine softly, but ornaments, garland, and tinsel are missing still.

“Daddy's gotta decorate the tree. You wanna help, little monster?”

He lets her hold ornaments in her arms while he holds her on his hip. It makes it much more efficient than hanging one, going to get one from the table, hanging it, and repeating.

Irene gets tired after the ornaments are half done, so he holds her with one arm, letting her rest against his chest while he hangs the other half of the ornaments.

Cyrene gets home not long after he finishes hanging all of the ornaments.

He's sitting on the couch holding Irene cradled close, but his head is leaned on the back of the couch, his mouth slightly open and his eyes closed.

He was still tired?

she smiled widely before going back to their bedroom to the bags she had in her hands down in there, somewhere mostly hidden.

She sneaks around the house to get rolls of wrapping paper and tape, then she went back to sit on the floor in the bedroom, her dress fanned out around her while she wraps gifts.

While she and Phainon had been out of town, they bought a gift for each of the Heirs along with all the gifts for Irene, so she was wrapping those, putting a little bow on top of each that has the color correlating to that Heir.

Yellow for Aglaea, green for Anaxa, purple for Castorice, maroon for Mydei, red with white stripes for Tribbie, Trianne, and Trinnon, grey for Cipher, and so on.

After wrapping the gifts for the others, Cyrene gets up to stretch before wrapping a few things for Irene.

Baby food, noise making toys like rattles and such, baby food, blocks for her to play with, little toy cars, a lot more baby food, little puffs that she likes to snack on, little yogurt melts, and a few toys to help her with teething.

It counts at souvenirs, since they were all bought from different places that were out of town.

She didn't wrap them all, she would ask Phainon if he could finish the rest of them later on.

She puts away the wrapping paper, tape, and the presents — wrapped and not.

Though, she hides away a special gift, one she'd gotten for Phainon while she was out. It gets tucked away into a drawer of her clothes.

She comes back out to the living room to find her husband still asleep, and their child awake and staring at nothing, not making any noise.

She carefully takes Irene into her own arms, letting Phainon stay asleep. Irene giggles and grips at her mother's chest, nuzzling in closer to her. “Mumma..” she says like loud whisper, looking up at her.

Cyrene combs her fingers through Irene's little bit of soft, white hair, then she kisses her daughter's forehead.

“Did daddy fall asleep while holding you again, little love?” She says in a sweet tone, her voice almost a gentle purr.

Irene doesn't fully understand, but she tries chewing on Cyrene's dress top.

Phainon wakes up a little while after that, looking at Cyrene, then the tree, then back to Cyrene.

He stands up slowly, one arm finding its way around her waist to pull her closer for him to kiss her temple. “Sorry I fell asleep again, honey...when did you get back? And do you need help with anything?”

She just shakes her head and laughs softly under her breath. Irene is now trying to chew on her own fist.

The next day, Cyrene stayed home with Irene while Phainon went out to get last minute things for Christmas. Cyrene made quick work of putting garland on the tree, then putting the tinsel on the tree with the help of Irene. The little girl was delighted to help her mother putting shiny, silver strands of tinsel onto the tree.

There was no technique to how Irene was throwing handfuls of tinsel onto the tree, unlike Cyrene's specific way of putting it. However, Cyrene found it cute how messy the bottom of the tree looked from Irene's handiwork, so she didn't mess with it too much.

While they wait for Phainon, they start on cooking food for tomorrow.

Phainon returns a little after the tinsel is done, and Cyrene is feeding Irene. He kisses his wife on the top of her head before he takes his bags of purchases back to their room.

He wraps a gift he secretly got for Cyrene, then he wraps the rest of the presents that Irene would be given tomorrow morning.

It was a calm, albeit boring and uneventful day.

It's snowy outside, no less than a few inches.

The sun is clear, not too hot or bright. 

Phainon and Cyrene are cuddled up in each other's arms, still sleepy, but trying to wake up for the day. They both were wearing matching Christmas pajamas — Irene had her own little matching set, don't worry. All three match for Christmas.

He doesn't say anything, he's just playing with her hair gently while he listens to her soft breathing, in and out

She doesn't make a sound, she's just nuzzled into his chest with his chin over the top of her head comfortably.

Irene is still sleep, luckily.

Phainon isn't the best at staying quiet when he's up and moving around and someone else is sleeping, so when he was filling the stockings and putting the presents under the tree with Cyrene, he made a significant amount of noise.

Irene sleeps like a rock though, so she wasn't woken up by the ruckus.

Phainon slides out of bed, stretching his arms above his head before he leans back over the bed, kissing Cyrene's face all over, his hands tickling her sides to wake her up the rest of the way.

She squirms and giggles, writhing to try to escape his tickling, to no avail. He eventually lets up, offering his hand out to help her out of bed.

She takes his hand, letting him help her up. He twirls her gently, then he hugs her from behind, kissing the back and sides of her neck and on her cheeks.

“Merry Christmas, dear.” He murmurs softly with his lips pressed most of the way to her neck, making his words slightly muffled.

She snakes her hand up behind her head to the back of his, running her fingers through his hair while discreetly keeping him close to whisper softly to him. “Merry Christmas.”

They stay like that for some time, his hands on her hips and one of her hands over the top of his while her other hand tousled his hair playfully.

He must've fallen asleep again.

After a while, he peels himself away from her so they could get ready for the day. They were already in matching Christmas pajamas, so they didn't need to change clothes.

They stand at the bathroom sink together, brushing their teeth with sleep still in their eyes.

He ruffled his hair and he was ready for the day. Cyrene was not.

he sat down and he watched with stars in his eyes as Cyrene got ready. She did her skincare first, and she did her hair after she was done with that. Last was her makeup, which took longer than usual since she wanted to have a little bit extra for the special occasion.

He watched like a lovesick puppy the entire time, incredibly appreciative of any kisses she paused to give him. 14 kisses, he counted.

After she was done, she checked her reflection one more time before she stood up and looked up at him, waiting for approval that she knew he would give.

“You're beautiful...” He says with an almost dreamy tone of voice, his eyes barely needing to glance over her to know for sure that what he had said was true. If he had a tail, it would definitely be wagging right now.

He follows her to Irene's room, the little one lying in her crib and slowly waking up already.

Predictable.

Cyrene leans down to gently scoop her daughter into her arms, kissing her chubby little cheeks and whispering softly, getting her excited for opening presents and having fun.

Irene was just old enough to understand the concept of Christmas, Santa, and presents — so she was ecstatic.

Phainon takes the squirming little potato into his own arms, placing her on her feet on the floor. He holds both of her hands to help her balance as he guides her out to the living room.

Cyrene went ahead of them to take pictures of Irene as she came out to see the presents.

Irene squeals happily, looking up at Phainon, then at Cyrene. Her little smile made them both melt.

Phainon carefully let her walk on her own to the presents, her little legs wobbling slightly. She plops down by one of the gifts, sitting with her legs out so she could hold the present in her lap.

She looks up at Cyrene with round, pleading eyes as if she was asking for the go ahead to open it. “Open?” She manages to ask sweetly, barely slurring it at all, somehow.

How could they deny such an adorable request?

Cyrene smiles softly, nodding, and then sitting down next to her by her own little pile of gifts.

Both Phainon and Cyrene had presents of their own that they wrapped and put in a pile for themselves. It was random things they found around the house to wrap and open. Irene wouldn't care at all for that they got in their presents, but if they didn't have any, she would likely make the safe assumption that her parents had been naughty and they didn't get any presents.

So, they wrapped things like a couple cans of soup and old t-shirts, things that could be played off as presents.

As expected, Irene didn't care at all, so it didn't matter.

With every present she opened, she would look at one of them and ask if she could open it, just like she did with the first one. Every time, they said yes.

After she would finish opening a present, Phainon would be the one she gave it to do he could put it neatly her little pile of opened presents.

She giggled and squealed excitedly with every gift she opened, whether it was a toy, a small jar of baby food, more little puff snacks, mini yogurt melts, or anything else.

After that was all over, she clapped happily. “All done?” she asked as she looked up at them.

“Not quite, little one. do you wanna go see if Santa left anything in your stocking?” Phainon asked, glancing at the fireplace where three stockings were hung.

Irene was ecstatic to see more toys inside the stocking.

More snacks,

More food,

More toys,

More stuff,

More more more...

What would they do with all of this? they clearly hadn't thought about that when they were buying it all.

Irene had never been happier, smiling ear to ear and clapping every time she pulled something else out.

After she was done opening presents, she hands one of the jars baby food to Phainon.

“Dada, food...please.” She says softly, adding the last word on like a last minute thought.

He takes the jar from her little hands gently, looking at the label. Who keeps buying these weird combos? “Sweet potato pumpkin apples..? And blueberry too?” He looks up at Cyrene, an unreadable but slightly skeptical expression.

Cyrene giggles almost sheepishly, shrugging and gesturing to Irene, who was basically begging for it without even saying anything. Her eyes said it all.

He helps her into her highchair to feed her while Cyrene presumably went to get dressed in something other than pajamas. He wasn't paying attention.

 After Irene was done eating, he got her down to help her go get her changed.

“I know I didn't tell you guys where we'd be going today, but I scheduled something for us earlier, and you'll need to pack on a few layers to stay warm.” He says without looking up from picking out Irene's snow clothes.

Cyrene gets herself bundled up as well, taking the little one from Phainon so he could get dressed as well. 

Cyrene carries Irene outside while they wait for Phainon. After he closes the house up, he guides them as they walk through the little town of Aedes Elysiae. Phainon giggles to himself like a gremlin the whole way.

The wheat fields are all covered in snow. The wheat had been harvested for the year before the first snow, packed into bundles that were here and there in the fields. Since it snowed, it looked like lumps almost the size of a person in the smooth snowy plains.

Irene nuzzles her little face into her mother's chest, seeking warmth and comfort. To that, Cyrene holds her closer.

As they get further towards the outskirts of town to the biggest field, Cyrene sees little dots sprinkling across the field, people it seemed.

The closer they got, th—

Oh no...

All of the Chrysos Heirs in the field.

She looks a bit longer and sees the Astral Express trio also here. Great.

Mydei was looking right at them as they approached, holding a snowball in his gloved hand.

He was looking at Phainon for the most part, almost looking ready to deck him in the face with the snowball, but his eyes trailed over to Cyrene, who was holding Irene. “You brought your one year old? To a snowball fight with all adults?” He looks back at Phainon, bewildered.

Phainon just shrugs. “What, how could I not include her in this? She needs to see me beat you! Besides, who was I supposed to leave her with? All of the Heirs are here.”

Phainon daps up the Trailblazer when he sees them approach. “Been a while, Partner.”

Irene looks between Phainon and Mydei as they continue to talk, not understanding anything they were saying.

When Cyrene starts talking, she cranes her little neck to look at her instead.

Cyrene looks mostly confused. “Phainon, what is this? You thought Irene should be here for an adult snowball fight..?”

He shakes his head and tries to explain, but while he's talking, neither of them notice Irene squirming to get down. Mindlessly, Cyrene puts her down.

The little potato toddles over to an empty spot on the snow, her fuzzy hat falling off. She plops down, sitting in the soft, white snow that comes up almost to her neck.

Her hair is also white.

When Cyrene was done talking with the other two and she wanted to look for Irene, she couldn't find her.

Castorice had seen her sit down, so she knew where she was, much to Cyrene's relief.

Cyrene sits down behind her daughter, putting her little hat back on her head. “Daddy and the others are going to have a snowball fight, okay? See how they're making snowballs to get ready? We're gonna sit here. We can throw snowballs at them, but they can't throw them at us~”

Irene listened and tried to understand the best she could, which was clearly enough, since she started giggling and clapping. She tried to make a snowball of her own, but it came out oddly shaped and somehow really small.

While Cyrene is helping her make a snowball, the Chrysos Heirs split up into teams, half behind Phainon on the right, and half behind Mydei on the left.

Phainon's Team has:

Phainon •

Aglaea •

Tribbie •

Cipher •

Cerydra •

Hysilens •

Trailblazer •

Mydei's team has:

• Mydei

• Castorice

• Anaxa

• Trianne

• Hyacine

• March 7th

• Dan Heng

And Trinnon is the referee.

Cyrene and Irene sit off to the side.

After a bit too much smack talk between teams (mostly Aglaea and Anaxa), they are given a moment to get ready before Trinnon starts the countdown.

3

2

1

...

And all hell breaks loose. Snowballs are everywhere, people are ducking down behind the piles of snow made by the wheat bundles under it.

At some point Phainon threw a snowball so hard that it hit Mydei in the chest and made him stumble back, almost losing his balance. Castorice caught him.

While Phainon was busy laughing, Mydei's body was lying flat in snow, now lifeless. He would be back in a few second, but while that was happening, Cyrene pointed at Phainon for Irene to throw a snowball at him.

“Here, baby girl...throw it at daddy!” she said with a mischievous grin, handing her a snowball. She knew Irene wouldn't be able to to throw it and hit him, so secretly, right when Irene threw hers, she threw one of her own that hit Phainon on his back.

Irene was delighted when she saw him turn around, looking mockingly betrayed. However, as soon as he wasn't looking, Mydei had come back and he threw a particularly compact snowball to the back of Phainon's head.

Irene fell backwards into Cyrene because she was laughing so hard.

At some point, Trinnon stopped the fight because Cipher threw a snowball with a rock in it. Aglaea scolded her, but she whispered secret praise for hitting Anaxa.

The fight continues, and before Trinnon even said to start, Trailblazer knocked March flat with a snowball to the face. She whines and complains to Dan Heng, but he just sighs and helps her get behind a snow pile. She decided it was Evernight's turn to take part in the fight, her features shifting into Evernight's.

Anaxa is throwing snowballs only at Aglaea, who has vertical threads all around her to split any snowballs before they can hit her.

Cerydra is pointing and telling Hysilens who to hit for her while she sits behind a pile of snow for safety.

Tribbie and Trianne are throwing snowballs at everyone but each other, giggling and having fun.

Someone threw a snowball at Hyacine, but little Ica ate it out of the air somehow, so she didn't get hit. It should be considered cheating to have that fat fuq on the team, eating all the snowballs.

Castorice is in charge of making the snowballs for everyone. Cipher was on the other team, doing the same. She had her snowball throwing privileges revoked since the rock incident.

After they're all mostly worn out and there's not as much snow to make snowballs with, they call it a draw, and they all just recoup and chat idly with each other.

Cyrene carries Irene over to the others, joining the conversation.

Phainon daps Mydei up, and as he's looking at the field, catching his breath, he suddenly pauses as he remembers...

Their house is a wreck. There's baby toys everywhere, wrapping paper strewn about, nothing cleaned up.

He freaks out and bolts for the house, and a few of them saw. it was inhuman how fast he ran to the house.

Tribbie and Trianne saw him and thought that they might as well go to the house as well.

Phainon was almost there, he just had to open the door and get inside to clean up and—

A century gate opens right behind him as soon as he opens the door to the house. Everyone piles in, looking at him as he's halfway keeled over, catching his breath, leaning on the doorframe.

He looks at them, then he slowly looks inside at the huge mess— wait, there's no mess?

Cyrene walks inside, gesturing happily for the others to come in as well. “What's wrong, dear? I cleaned up before we left.” She says with a soft smile, looking up at him.

Oh...

And now he feels horrible, because he didn't help at all. That must have been what she was doing while he fed Irene.

He follows the others inside, hanging his head sheepishly.

Irene reaches for him from Cyrene's arms, fussing slightly. He takes her into his arms, holding her close as she nestles in comfortably to take a nap.

The others are either sitting on the couches or sitting at the dining table with drinks in hand. Cyrene had gotten out the food they cooked yesterday, along with some wine glasses and some drinks.

Within minutes, Aglaea is tipsy while sitting on the couch, leaning on Anaxa without even noticing as she talks absently about nothing and everything.

He had downed a little more than she had, but he wasn't even feeling the burn yet, unfortunately. So he had to listen to her tipsy rambling.

Castorice is standing in a further end of the room, not wanting to get too close to anyone. Without her even noticing, though, Mydei managed to come up next to her, offering her one of the two glasses of wine in his hands.

Tribbie and the other two hand out the crafts she and Irene did a few days ago as little ornaments for the Heirs.

They all sit around and talk together listening to Christmas music, drinking eggnog and wine, and eating a little bit of food. Little Ica had to be held back from eating everything.

Once Irene starts to wake up slowly is when they start handing out gifts to each other.

The Heirs all have about one or two from each other, little things that have meaning without convenient use. A little dream catcher, something like that where it might have meaning, but no practical use.

The gifts they gave each other were overwhelmingly underwhelming.

But then they give Irene the gifts they brought for her.

Toys on toys on toys, Irene was swimming in them by the time the presents were all opened.

No one had ever seen her happier. She was giggling, smiling, squealing with delight. After all of that, she holds one of her new plushies close to her chest while Phainon holds her on his hip. Cyrene was busy laughing and drinking with the others.

Cerydra is on Hysilens' shoulders when she approaches them, holding something behind her back inconspicuously.

“Dux Solaris, I happened to notice the star atop your decorative tree is rather...shabby. I have taken it upon myself to recruit the assistance of the other Heirs to create a more suitable top piece for you. Accept this gift, on this day of great importance.” She offers to him a tree star. It had a fragile design like glass, each fragment carefully designed to represent each of the Heirs.

With Irene in one arm, he takes the star in his free hand carefully. He looks up at the old star — one of little importance, then he looks down at Irene.

“Thank you, Imperator. This will be perfect for or tree.” He says with a happy ( and possibly mischievous) smile.

He gently lifts Irene to take the old star off of the top to replace it with the new one carefully.

It looks perfect.

While Irene was up there, she looked at the lights with awe, not a thought behind her violet eyes. Once she was put down, Cipher scoops her up without anyone noticing. Phainon was busy talking to Cerydra, thanking her and whatnot.

Cipher gave her a little mistletoe branch and told her to give it to her mama and daddy when they were together. A one year old can only understand so well, so Cipher put her down and said to wait while they watch Phainon call Cyrene over to see the new star. Once they're standing together by the Christmas tree while talking to Hysilens and Cerydra, Phainon's arm around Cyrene's waist, Cipher told Irene to go give them the mistletoe.

A moment later, Hysilens walks away with Cerydra on her shoulders still. Irene wobbles over and reaches up to give them the little branch, babbling the word "kiss" to herself over and over, like Cipher told her to tell them.

They glance down and see their little one holding the mistletoe for them, making them both smile. They kneel down on either side of her, gently taking the little branch to hold it above Irene's head as they both kiss her chubby little cheeks, one on the left and one on the right. Irene laughs happily as her parents kiss her face.

Cipher snapped a perfect picture when it happened, giggling mischievously to herself as she scampered away.

After everyone had their fun and it started getting late, they all said goodbye to each other, giving Irene special attention when they did so.

They all waved as they left one or two at a time, eventually leaving just Phainon, Cyrene, and Irene.

Phainon helps clean up this time, letting Cyrene sit by the fireplace with Irene. After everything was put away and cleaned up, he grabbed a blanket and a little snack to give to Cyrene. 

He sat down next to them, draping the blanket over Cyrene's shoulders, and then his own.

They cuddle up close to each other, Irene already sound asleep in her mother's arms, warm and comfortable.

Phainon offers the small snack to Cyrene, and she takes it gratefully.

She munches on it quietly, smiling softly to herself. “This reminds me of how we used to always sit here together in front of the fire when I was pregnant with this little one...you would always bring me snacks to keep me happy.”

He nods along absently, resting his head on hers. “I remember that very well...like it was just yesterday, actually.” He mumbles into her hair sleepily, smiling at the memory.

She sighed softly, looking down at their sleeping daughter. “I love you both so much...”

His smile turns into a full grin, his face still buried in her hair.

“...Funny,”

“I love you two more.”