Disclaimers: All characters belong to rightful owners.
Story concieved by Lee.


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Somewhere on the way to the diner, a tinny, electronic version of "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" began playing in the vicinity of Lukas' coat pocket. Rolling his eyes, the Cajun fished his cell phone out of his pocket and snapped it open, cutting off the sappy melody. Of course he knew who had reprogrammed the cell-phone's ring... The same person who was probably on the other end of the line right now. What he couldn't figure out was *when* it had happened. During his long friendship with one Yumeomiru Samezameto, Lukas had long-since learned to never - repeat, NEVER - leave any of his belongings unprotected.

With an apologetic glance at Sophia, he raised the cellphone to his ear, "Very funny, Sammy..." he growled, "You know how much I hate Burl - fucking - Ives..."

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"Tch. C'mon, Lukie!" Sam giggled cutely as his friend's voice growled in his ear. Of course, that'd just been _one_ of his fun little pranks from when Lukas'd left his cell phone all alone; who knew when the other shoe'd drop. "How can you hate our song? Where's the romantic in you?"

"Besides...." He grinned and, tilting his head back, he crooned softly into the phone. "I just called... to say... I looove yoouu..."

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Alexei was certain that They would proliferate during the Christmas holidays and had determined to bite to death any of Them he came into contact with. He had brought Erik along with him, naturally. Erik told him who They were. And, of course, he had been right in his assessment. They were everywhere. And Erik pointed out the first one right away. And so, out of the middle of nowhere, Alexei attached himself to some poor soul and began an attempt to bite him to death.

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"Pfft!" Kisoku shouted, clearly not caring about the other patrons of the pizza place. "Why would he want your love, when he can have some good ol' TLC from meeeeee? Love you, Lukie honey! I'm carrying your baby! Now will you marry me???"

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Sigh. One minute, someone could be having a perfectly civil conversation, but add a friend into the mix and suddenly obscentities were simply popping out of thin air. And really, didn't it often happen with the teenage age group?

That did it. For once, Sophia indulged in the sort of fantasy children routinely proclaimed, the worn-to-shreds 'when I grow up...' *When I grow up-- or as Lukas says, when I am overtaken by the inevitable flood of hormones-- I will at least _try_ to maintain my dignity.*

But in the meanwhile, she waited politely-- and, err, for the most part with benign expression, save for that very _little_ bit of eye- rolling, really-- for Lukas to finish.

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"Our song, my ass," Lukas snorted, grinning in spite of himself, "If we *had* a song - which we *don't* - it'd prob'ly be somethin' more along the lines of...uh..." he floundered a moment, trying to think of an appropriately silly, unromantic song, "...er... Basket Case..."

Shaking his head, Lukas chuckled as Sam's voice crooned to him over the phone. "Yeah, yeah..." he said softly, barely suppressing a sigh, "Me 'n every other person between 18 and 25 in New Eden..." Shaking himself slightly, his voice once again took on its usual cheerful timbre, "So... what can I do you for, budreau?"

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"Oi! You told me that was _my_ baby!" Sam screeched brokenly at Kisoku as he bit his lip to keep from laughing. Yea. That had to sound great at the other end of the line. "Admit it! You were just after my Tiddly Winks, you Monopoly whore!"

"Anyway..." With a grin in his voice, he turned his attention back to the Cajun on the other end of the line. "Kisoku and I are over at our favorite pizza haunt and we're just languishing in dispair without the love of our lives--besides, Willy's been asking for ya. So, what d'you say to a pie? We even got olives!"

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"Tell Kiso I'll marry him if - an' *only* if - the DNA tests come out positive," Lukas replied, grinning. "His Yahtzee cup's been around the block more times than my Cobra."

"We----ell..." he drawled, smiling over at Sophia, "I was just 'bout to buy a milkshake for a pretty young lady - who just saved my life, by the way... But if she's agreeable, we may wander over there in a bit... After all, I *really* don't want to disappoint Willy."

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"Oh yeah, baby. Me and the Tiddlywinks were doing it all night long on Park Place! And the thimble was there watching!" Kisoku grinned, running a hand through his hair as he chuckled. "I may be a dice roller, but that baby is definately Lukie Poo's!"

He drummed his fingers against the table. "I think our pizza is done! Want me to go get it, hun?"

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"Well, he's absolutely _convinced_ that the cribbage pin is his, so I'll take his word on it." Sam sighed mock-brokenly as he stretched a bit in his seat. "Besides, he, like you, is apparently into voyeurism, sooooo..."

"Oi! Bring your cute little date along! We won't mind." Grinning, she shook his head. "We could always order her up a milkshake here...or even let her have some of our pizza..."

"Ne, sempai, you don't mind if Lukie brings a date?" He called to Kisoku as he quirked an eyebrow, before nodding to the other's question about getting the pizza. "Yea, sure. If you don't mind? I can't leave Lukie hanging in the middle of one of our little....chats, ne?"

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"A date? Well, that sounds okay...just as long as I get to glare jealously at him or her!" Kisoku rose to his feet, striding over to the counter to pick up their pizza. Catching a peak of Willy in the back, he took the chance to wink and whistle at the boy before turning around and returning to the table.

"Now this is a serious pie!"

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Lem eyed the massive crowd as a normal man would eye a hungry tiger and, hunching in even further on himself, he edged over toward an area that was at least somewhat less crowded. He didn't mean to complain, but why couldn't he have picked a better place to look for clients? It was so crowded here and everyone was already so complacent in their groups.

Lifting a graceful hand, he started to restlessly toy with a single curl of his strawberry blond hair as his eyes combed the masses. Too many people. Too many people. Nothing comforting in sight and--

His thoughts were utterly banished, though, as he suddenly found that he'd jostled another warm body and, his face going crimson, he found himself glancing into the bespectacled face of a young woman. For a moment, he only stuttered, but soon enough, he found his voice.

"I... I'm so sorry..." Lemuel murmured quietly as he quickly inclined his head. "You aren't hurt, are you? Are you okay?"

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Of course, Nevan had spotted the kind smile giving him by the passing redhead and, shaking away his thoughts, he returned it in kind. After all, such a kindness should not be snubbed. Deciding not to dwell on such dark things when all around him was light, he turned to walk off down the street, but it was only shortly thereafter that the same redhead from before came barreling toward him.

A concerned frown at his features, he reached to detain the boy before he could hurt himself, but,unfortunately, Nev was a rather clumsy man. Tangling his feet as he moved to catch Arvel, he ended up crumpling to the sidewalk and, most likely, pulling Arvel with him.

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Arvel yelped in surprise as someone grabbed him and pulled him to the ground. He rubbed the back of one hand against his face and looked down at the person he was sitting on.

"I'm sorry!" He apologized, bolting to his feet at once and helping the man to his feet, "I wasn't watching where I was going. Are you alright?"

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"No, it was entirely my fault..." Nevan shook his head and, getting to his feet, he offered the boy a soft yet concerned smile. For appearances, the redhead seemed alright, but, of course, those could always be deceiving. "I really am sorry. I only meant to stop you, but I guess that didn't work so well."

"Are you alright, though?" He asked quietly as he tipped his head on side. "You looked so upset, just now...."

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Lukas blinked at the reference to bringing his 'date', and was about to explain... but suddenly thought better of it. "Okay, Sammy," he replied, grinning, "I'll see if the lady's amenable, an' if so, then we'll be 'round directly - an' *no flirtin'*, okay? I happen to like this one."

After a few more minutes of BSing - and probably enough profanity to keep Sophia's eyes rolling for a good hour and a half, Lukas rang off. After switching his cellphone from 'ring' to 'vibrate', he stuffed it back into his pocket and turned to Sophia with a wide grin. "Hey, petite... mind if we get your milkshake at the pizza place, instead? I'd like you to help me play a joke on a couple friends of mine..."

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"Hey! What the FUCK are you doing to Stubby!?!" Tesu and Stubby were still sitting on the bench near the meat pie concession. Just a boy and his dog, minding their own business, listening to the Christmas music and watching the crowd - when all of a sudden some crazy kid holding a cactus comes hurtling out of the New Eden night and chomps onto poor Stubby's tail. The startled pup gave a loud, pained yelp and leapt onto Tesu's lap, thereby dragging Cactus boy halfway up onto the bench.

"Stop it!" Tesu cried, punctuating his words with feeble slaps to the crazy boy's head, "Let go! Let. Him. Go!" Neither the words or blows seemed to have any effect on the kid, so Tesu grabbed Stubby's tail with one hand and placed the palm of the other against Pirhana boy's forehead and tried to pry the two apart. Stubby, for his part, was yelping steadily, and doing his best to climb onto Tesu's head...and, of course, still dragging the kid latched onto his tail almost into Tesu's lap.

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Already, this sounded ominous. Sophia raised an eyebrow at Lukas and asked suspiciously, "What kind of joke? And where are they?" After all, she could go to a diner near her house but could hardly traipse halfway across New Eden. And come to think of it, why had he said 'I like this one,' anyway? Had he been trying to make his friend think...

Oh my. No one would be that ridiculous, right?

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A person! Talking to her? "I-I-I'm fine..." Immediately the young woamn looked down, shocked at being noticed and her defensive barriers up. A soft blush from embarrassment at being noticed crept along her cheeks, "I'm...I'm not hurt..." her eyes slowly looked up, seeing the young man, and quickly went back down, "I-I-I was...just walking...gomen-nasai, demo...I-I usualy don't...like crowds," Bowing lightly, she wondered if he really cared if she was hurt, her corners of her lips twitching since she was not used to being spoken too.

The hand in her pocket gently storked her precious mouse as he poke his nose out to look, squeaking lightly still, despite the hand and his friend's obvious nervousness for the stranger.

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"Well, he's bringing his cute little date!" Sammy sing-songed as he stashed his cell back from whence it'd come. Tipping his head on side, he picked a random olive from his slice of pizza and, nibbling thoughtfully on this, he chuckled. "Think we should get another pizza, then, or something? I'm absolutely starved, so...."

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