[Cookie]

Amor had found herself falling in and out of sleep as she layed on the couch. She staired at the small closet that was across the room that has something for Vino in it. "Oi~ mon Tazune, mon vin, mon Esper, Joyeux No?´l ?† vous partout o?? vous pouvez ?™tre. Voyez-moi bient?¥t mes amours." she said shifting now to her side as she layed there, the fan blew and her hand touched the floor. "H?¢te svp. J'ai quelque chose pour chacun."

[Essence]

{Human Form; Vino's, Esperanza's}

Shoes tapped against the wood stairs, echoing across the lively building. "Maybe she's not here..."

"Oh hush Anza, she said she would be."

The door clicked as a girl opened it, grinning large. "Mom?" she called out. The large room appeared to be empty until she walked in fully. "It's Vino and Anza." She beckoned the girl behind her with her hand to come into the upstairs room. Both had entered and Esperanza shut the door behind her quietly. The loud chatter from downstairs was muffled, and Vino put her hands on her hips with a smile. Esperanza let out a giggle and covered her mouth with her hand as they saw their drowsy mother laying on the couch. Vino walked over, trying not to drag her feet, and rested a hand on the soft shoulder of the figure laying on the couch. "Come on, we're here."

"Dads, not, her couldn't come." Esperanza added quickly with a frown, before crossing her arms and following her sister over the couch. She scanned the room. It was brightly colored, and there was a large tote bag with several buckets of paint inside. She titled her head, She must be re-painting it soon.. Other then that, black leather furniture was scatter about the room, including a small bar. Returning the attention back to her sister, and mother, she smiled. It wasn't often she'd come to the slums, it sort of frightened her, but they safely made it here.

<9><9>

[Cookie]

Amor smiled and sat up "Vino! Esper! I'm glad you made it!" she said now standing to kiss each one on of her daughters on the head and hug them tightly. "How have you two been? And your father.. how is he?" she asked half waiting for Tazune to come through the door but then hearing that he wasn't going to be here. "Oh! Vino I have something for you." she said now going to the closet, opening the door to show a guitar case, she took it over to Vino. "Sit" she said sitting on the couch and waiting for Vino and Esper to sit beside her. "Vino, This is your Christmas gift from me... My father gave me one exactly like this when I was your age.. I found one just like it and I'm giving it to you. And Esper.. I have your's too!" she said now sitting the guitar case in Vino's lap and the box in Esper's. "I still have to find your father a gift." she said smiling at her two daughters who had grown up to be so much like her.

[Essence]

"It's great to see you too mom!" The girls chimed in unison. They walked over to the couch and sat, as their mother instructed, and then Amor was up and off towards a closet on the opposite side of the room. "Oh, and dads fine. He sends his hellos." Esperanza mentioned, swaying a bit in their seats. The two exchanged a glance, and Esperanza giggled again. Then Amor came hustling back to the couch, and the two noticed a large grin on her face. The girls listened intently as they were spoken, then Amor rested a guitar case in Vino's lap...

Esperanza smiled, she had known how much Vino wanted a guitar, and she only wanted the best for her sister. "Go on, open it." She urged, resting her own hand on Vino's shoulder. Vino sent a glance to her mom, and then to her sister, and laid both hands squarely on the case. She bit her lip, hesitated, and opened the case. A muffled gasp sounded from her mouth, and she quickly covered it with her hand. "Mom... wow." Was all she said, blinking. "Vino, are you crying?" Esperanza smiled. "No.."  Vino retorted, quickly wiping her hand over her eyes.

"Thank you, so much." She murmured, and rested her hand on the guitar. It was almost the color of her in Lucain form, black to redish, wine like color. With a pink heart, and a gray one. Four strings crawled along the top, and she glided her hand over the different frets. "Amor" was signed at the bottom, in a pink color. It was shaped like a bass guitar, which is what she always wanted, to play bass. "This looks like it would be yours, mom." Vino said with a hint of humor. "Thank you so much."

"It's amazing Vino, you should be really happy." Esperanza chimed to her. "I am, this is amazing." She leaned over and gave her mom a tight hug, before lifting the guitar very carefully out of the case. Esperanza slid the case from her lap, and Vino nodded her thanks, resting the guitar upright in her lap, and plucked a string. A crystal clear sound came from the guitar, and she plucked a few more. It hummed it's happy rhythm, and Vino could feel happiness welling up in her chest. She just nodded, then looked up. "Awesome~"

<10><10>

[Cookie]

Amor smiled and hugged Vino, she then whiped a run-away tear from her cheack that she had missed "And for Esper.. This box has something for you.. I hope you like it!" she said now getting up to get a small box wraped in ribbon, inside you could hear a small meow as she moved it around.

Amor opened Esper's box to show a small kitten that happend to be a Myu Reaper.


"A friend that will follow you everwhere you go my dear." she said smiling as she lifted the kitten out of the box and handed it to Esper. "You can name her whatever you want." She said smiling as she hugged Vino and Esper both.

[Essence]

Vino paused from stroking her guitar protectively, and looked over at Esperanza, who instantaneously gasped and gently picked the Myuu Reaper from the box in her lap. It's yellow eyes blinked at her, and it squirmed a bit until she put it in her lap. It glanced around, up at her, her sister, and then Amor. It's tiny pink tongue licked it's paw, and swept it over it's ear. Esperanza laughed in delight. "What a wonderful early Christmas present! Thank you mom~" Esperanza pet the Myuu Reaper, and tilted her head. "What should I name you?" She pondered the question, and rested her hand on her head... "How about Chiquita, Spanish for Very Small." The Myuu blinked at her. "Vino?" She prodded her sister. "Hm?" Vino mumbled, her attention back to her guitar. "Does she look like a "Chiquita" to you?" Esperanza queried, petting the Myuu again. Vino looked up from her guitar, "Sure, she is very small."

Esperanza nodded, "I'll think about it a bit more." The Myuu hesitated, and placed a paw off the lap and onto the leather couch. It hopped off completely, and sniffed around, poking things with a tiny black paw, or letting a purr when pet. The Myuu walked about, then cautiously stepped back into Esperanza's lap. Vino looked up, "I dunno if dad wants anything." She shrugged, and bent over to pick up the guitar case, and resting the guitar in it before latching it shut. Esperanza started giggling as her new Myuu friend licked her arm. "You're unusually nice for a Myuu Reaper, a Halloween pet." She grinned and scratched the Myuu Reaper under the chin.

<11><11><1>

[Cookie]

"I want to get Tazune something... I just don't know what.. I do have an idea though.." she said now brushing the hair out of Vino's face. "Take good care of that guitar.. and you take care of that Myu." she said looking from Vino to Esper then to the black cat that was wandering around the room. "I also need to get Amadour something.. I got Cordial the sun glasses he wanted." Amor said now getting back up to get the Myu so it didn't knock over the open can of paint it was brushing against. "Don't get in that." she said picking it up and bringing it back to Esper. "I'm glad you like your gifts!" she said now sitting back down with Esper and Vino as she tapped the cat on the head softly.

[Essence]

"Dad doesn't need much, he says his family is the greatest gift." Esperanza said smoothly as the Myuu Reaper was returned to her lap. It promptly crawled up her arm and and sat on her shoulders, sending a sarcastic gaze over to Amor. Vino smiled, watching as Esperanza whispered to the Myuu Reaper on her shoulder. She then shook her head with a good-hearted smirk. "I'll take fantastic care of it mom, I promise. You'll have to give me some lessons sometime though. I can only play a few notes." Vino admitted, blinking at the case in her lap.

"And I'll take care of... Chiquita. Yes, I'll name you that." Esperanza concluded, Chiquita seemed happy to have a name. After a bit more of light chatter between the two sisters, Vino asked, "So, what's been going on here? I see you've sort of opened up the bar." She glanced toward the window, it's faint light filtered in and lit up the room, along with the sounds of cars rushing past on the streets. "And what are the paint cans for? I think dad mentioned something about helping you renovate....?" Esperanza asked, and Chiquita crawled back into her lap. She smiled promptly and pet her.

"Renovation? Can we help?" Vino piped up, suddenly interested. She felt very much at home here, down in the Slums at her mothers bar. There could be some irony to that, Vino smiled at the thought. "This is a nice location too, you picked a - nicer - part of town."

<12><12><2>

[Cookie]

"Of corse you may help.." Amor said now more chipper than she was. "There is two paint can's over there if you want to grab a brush. This whole room's walls will be that red and the top of the ceiling will be black. Leave that wall over there for me to do because I need to add some stuff to that." she said now pointing to the left wall. "So where is your father anyway? Oh. I have a new DJ now.. Cookie brought her in and she sound's oddly familier. Oh well. But lets get to work!" Amor said exclaiming now with a burst of joy. She kissed each of the girls on the forehead before turned to the work that needed to be done. "Vino, if you want to stay here after wards I'd be glad to give you a lesson. Esper, you can stay to if you want.. I'm sure Cordial will be back soon so he might be here to help. Amadour is in charge of the bar right now but I'm hopeful that the power wont go to his head." She trailed of talking before bringing her thoughts back together "Anyway.. what have you been doing since I've seen you last. You've both grown so much along with your brothers.. and what has been going on since we left? I want to hear all about it." She continued now picking up a paintbrush and stroking it against the wall leaving bright apple red trail behind as it glistend. "So have you met any boys yet?"

[Essence]

"Cool!" The two girls said in unison, and listened as their mother explained the instructions. Vino glanced around the room, finding the location of the brushes. "Come on Anza." She motioned with her arm toward the buckets on the opposite side of the room. Esperanza nodded, and stood. Chiquita hopped off her lap and followed intently behind her as she went to open a window. "Need some fresh air." She mentioned quickly, before gripping the windowsill tightly and pulling upward. It opened with a loud creak, and small remnants of dust fell from above. "Jeez, mom. You'd think these windows haven't ever been cleaned." Esperanza joked smiling and bending back a bit. Chiquita sneezed, and leaped up to the windowsill before laying down there and inhaling. Esperanza grinned, "You can just relax." She murmured, stroking her new friend softly.

Vino let out a humored sigh, and walked over to the paint cans. "This is a nice color." She concluded, "It looks a lot like my fur color in Lucain "form." Vino observed the paint can in the light, and shrugged, picking up a small brush. It was a very light brown at the handle, and it's bristles were a creamy pinkish-yellow. The girl rested the paint can on the floor, before spinning on her heels. "We need some newspaper... Do you have any up here?" She asked her mom, scanning the room for something they could use. "If we are going to paint a bit, then we need to have something to cover up some of the stuff we don't want paint on." She rubbed her hand against a table, then observed her clean finger with satisfaction. Esperanza walked over to them, her hands deep in her pockets. "Oh, and dad? He might be showing the new Lucain Boy in our pen around with one of Ess's friends." Anza shrugged, and continued what she was doing. Vino smiled, "So, DJ huh? Nice. I'd like to meet her."

<13><13><3>

[Cookie]

"Newspaper? Ah.. It should be somewhere around here.." Amor moved from the wall to around the room towards the closet. "Here you go." she said as she pulled the black and white paper from the closet before closing it. "Showing someone around? I see.. And yes a DJ.. she reminds me of well me.. not sure how though." Amor thought about it and then continued "And anouther new girl came to our pen.. she's nice.. I call her Aph." she said now returning to the wall to paint again. "So a new boy hmm...?" Amor said now turning to Vino and then to Esper "You know him well?" she asked winking before turning back to run the paint brush against the wall.

[Essence]

"Yeah, new boy. Nothing to amazing though." Vino mentioned with a twinge of humor, before grabbing the newpaper with her hand, and began to spread it around. "He's a bit strange, quiet, doesn't talk much. 'E says he's looking for his sister, Kyoko." She shrugged and dipped the paint brush in the cherry red paint. "Anza thinks he's creepy though." Vino continued to lather the walls with the thick paint, and she occasionally stood on her toes to reach somewhere higher.

"I do not think he's THAT creepy." Esperanza retorted, hands on hips. Chiquita let out a purr of amusement. "I think his name is Rykoda or something..." She gave Chiquit one more quick stroke and walked over toward Vino and her mother, then picked up a paint brush herself. "You do too think he's creepy. I think he's kind of cute." Vino winked at Esperanza with a bright yellow eye and contiued painting. "You think everyone is cute Vino." Anza muttered, sending long brush strokes up and down the walls. Vino just smirked, then let out a small shrug.

(Bringin' Tazune in here real quick.)



"What this about who being cute?" Tazune said, grinning as he walked into the room. "Dad~" The two girls said in unison, before dropping their paint brushes and rushing over to greet him. "I thought you were so showing Rykoda around?" Vino said, looking up with innocent eyes. "I was, but I have some free time." He ruffled Esperanza's hair, and smiled at the two. "Oh Amor? Are you here as well?" Tazune gave both Vino and Esperanza's shoulder's a quick squeeze before walking past the newpaper and paint buckets scattered around the room. "I see you've got started huh? Well I'll help you put up the black plank and put the lights behind it, so they shine through. But not now, I don't have to much time." He admitted before giving Amor a quick hug.

"Hey dad! Look at this~" Vino squealed, and grabbed her guitar case. "See see see?" She opened it, and carefully pulled out the guitar. She ran her fingers over the frets, "Isn't it wonderful?" Vino murmured, before hugging it tightly to her chest. "And me too~" Esperanza said, picking up Chiquita from the windowsill, and the Myuu Reaper let out a mew of frustration. "Sorry." She whispered quickly in it's ear, and rushed over to Tazune. "Isn't she adorable, yes she is~" Esperanza snuggled into it, and it climbed onto the girl's shoulder.

<14><14><4><51>

[Cookie]

[color=#FF80FF]

Amor hugged Tazune "Its great to see you." she said. "Oh~ Before I forget.. I have something for you.." she moved around him and down the stairs for a quick second. When she returned she brought up what looked to be a blanket but as she got closer it seemed to be a child of some sort.. a Serraptor to be exact.



"Damien from Castledown gave it to me.. he told me I could give it to you and for you to find someone who wants him or needs him... he's young though.." she admitted now brushing the Serraptor on the head. "Really cute though.." she layed the bundle in Tazunes arms like she did with her own children when they where born. [/co

lor]

[Essence]

(Font messed up a bit )

"Yes, those are both very wonderful." Tazune humored them, and shoved his hands in his pockets as Amor went to grab something. "So, I see you both made it here alright?" He said casually, glancing around the room. Vino rested the guitar back in it's case, and placed it safely on the black leather couch. "Yes, Dad. We both made it here fine." Esperanza cooed, scratching Chiquita under the chin. "Her name is Chiquita, spanish for very small." She explained. Chiquita nodded with a short purr, and hopped off Esperanza's shoulder to resume her place on the windowsill.

"Spanish huh? We seem to be on a role with those. Everyone in our family except me has some sort of spanish name. Esperanza, hope, Color del Vino, color of wine, Amor, love." He winked to the two girls as Amor returned, and handed him the baby Serraptor. "Isn't he the cutest?" He picked up the small lizard, and it chomped it mouth expectantly, he frowned. "I have no food." Tazune cooed in it's ear, petting it softly. "I think I know someone in our pen who would love to have this little boy as a friend, I'll make sure to tell her when I leave to go back to the pen." Esperanza and Vino rushed over. "Well isn't he cute~" Esperanza said, rubbing it, as did Vino. Tazune chuckled, and placed it on the couch, and it wrapped itself in a blanket. "Pretty well behaved too, that's a plus." He returned his attention to the others, "I guess I could help out for a little while." He murmured, picking up a paint brush in his hand, and grazing it over the wall.

<15><15><5><52><1>
EDIT; Are you going to notify Draiz, or should I...?

[Cookie]

Amor kissed Tazune's cheak "He doesn't have any teeth yet.. that's also a plus." she said jokingly as she wrapped her arms around Tazune in a hug "Merry early Christmas sweetheart." she cooed now leaning in the whisper something in his ear "Next time you get some free time.. meet me somewhere without the kids." she laughed as she leaned back and going back to the wall. She picked up a paintbrush and returned to Tazune, "Here" she said handing it to him before spinning back around to Vino "Yes your dad's the oddball of the family with no Spanish name.." she joked. "And its Amor-Leid for Cupids heart break" she leaned in to kiss Tazune once more "Don't you forget it." she winked before busting out laughing. The Serraptor seemed to join her and make a cackle. "See.. Even the Serraptor thought it was funny." Amor went back to her place at the wall and began to paint once more.

((Ooc: I see that now XD I'll let it be for now.. maybe when I'm less lazy I'll fix it. Edit: And I mailed Draiz already))