Tis the season, so be merry!

Mr Knight gave a thumbs up to Bryan as he tried on the new coat, Ryan had to give the man credit. He knew how to show off outfits, of course Ryan himself went to the ring dressed like a regal aristocrat. Great minds think alike as the saying went.

"Very good Mr Bryan, we spared no expense of course." Ryan said with a nod of the head.

Mr Knight nodded upon hearing B-RY's words and snapped his fingers while saying "Kozue-san will be coming here later on, if you so wish I can pass your gift to her. You have my word as a gentleman."

Lucy's eyes widened a bit when Bryan handed the British waifu a shoebox, Ms Grange then eagerly opened it and gasped a little. She gave a beaming smile to him and said "Wow cheers B-RY! I'll be sure to put this to good use. I've got a match coming up in Avalanche, and it'll be in Switzerland I think. And I'll strap these on and win, might even give you a shout out if you want."

Then it was Ryan's turn to be surprised, he smiled eagerly upon accepting the wine bottle. Eyeing the label he looked to Bryan and said with a smile "A fine gift sir, when I'm not wrestling I'm a bit of a wine man. And I can tell this isn't easy to come by, rest assured I will raise a glass of it in your honour."

Mr Knight would then go on with "Tension can be a chaotic place, if you ever need an ally in the storm. Do not hesitate to inform us, you shall have the best that Britain has to offer in your corner good sir." moving to his wine rack to place Bryan's gift in a free slot.

“Hell yeah, Lucy!! A shout-out from that kind of stage would give me all types of publicity. Consider these boots your good luck charm then.” Bryan couldn’t help but get that warm, toasty feeling at seeing Lucy light up when she unwrapped her gift, totally worth the sizeable chunk out of his wallet. Especially if it gets his name hollered form the premier wrestling PPV of the year. Quite the investment…

“Aw, yeah? Thanks dude. Can’t believe I thought you guys were gonna go on some quest for vengeance after the match with Lucy, but you guys are all aces in my book!!” Bryan’s gift for Kozue would be swiftly pulled out of his bag and presented to Mr. Knight, a wrapped up cat encouragement poster with a red ribbon taped to the top. “It’s an inside joke…hopefully she’ll get it~…”

Spoiler:

Bryan took a little time to himself to soak in the whole Christmas atmosphere, the smell of eggnog, unwrapping of gifts, girls stabbing their fingers into your ribs...he wish he could’ve stayed and gotten to know them well enough to start borrowing money, but this wasn’t meant to be more than a quick drop by anyway.

“Alright, I’ll be hittin the old dusty trail then. Don't worry, I'll hit you up if I'm ever in a jam. Thanks again for the duds, everyone. Give’em hell at Avalanche Lucy. You owe me a shout-out now…” With that Bryan would take pick up all his belongings and be on his merry, waving so long and taking the elevator downstairs. It was chilly out but he’d be wearing his nationalistic jacket as much as possible...or for as long as he could take the cold.

"Quest for vengeance? Only if you'd attacked Lucy post match, but you didn't so there's no problem. Take care Mr Bryan." Ryan said with a small bow.

Upon further inspection of the present for Ninjette Ryan lifted an eyebrow in curiosity, but figured it wasn't worth asking. After all they were all friends here of course.

"I'll shout out to you when I hit a major move, if I can stand I'll even point to the camera. Bye dude!" Lucy said with a wave of the hand as Bryan left for his other things.

With that it was time for the next person, after a short break and a glass from the wine bottle that Mr Bryan had so kindly procured for Mr Knight. The next person was Ninjette, it had been a while since Ryan had last interacted with her. He battled her in the ring, and they shared some wine and a kiss after it.

The letter to her would have arrived this morning, asking for her presence in the apartment of Britain's paragon. Ryan had just finished his drink, and placed it in the fridge for later consumption. Now he'd wait for her to knock on the door.

Kozue Kaburagi had no legs.

Actually, no, her workout hadn't been quite that intense. But it was close. Way too close for her liking. Apparently, yesterday was Run Kozue Into the Ground Day at the Dojo, becuase that was exactly what Junko did to her, sunup to sundown. More drills than she could care to remember. Push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and everything in between. And the running...dear God, the running. Forget wrestling, Higurashi-san missed her calling as a drill sergeant.

When it was all over, Kozue hit the bed and settled in for a long winter's nap, entombing herself within the covers. Hoping for a nice, long day of playing dead in her bed.

So Kozue was a little surprised...and annoyed...when she was woken up for, of all things, snail mail. She couldn't even remember the last time she was sent a written letter, but things made a little more sense when she saw who it was from. Ryan Knight. Old-fashioned, all the way.

She'd honestly almost completely forgotten it was Christmas. Back home, she'd never celebrated with her family. She was pretty sure that Shinto didn't forbid celebrating the holiday, it just wasn't something they'd ever done. Sometimes they'd talked about it, thrown the idea around, but it never got off the ground, and she'd never bothered to do it after she left Jersey. Granted, being uneasy wasn't going to stop her from going to get a present. It was just a little bit odd all over, that was all.

She did a quick run by Wal-Mart to get him a gift so she wouldn't look like a thankless bitch, then headed over to Ryan's place. She didn't have anything festive to dress up with, so she had to make due with what she had - a dark blue turtleneck and light blue jeans, with her hair tied up in a bun to at least look proper. The best she could do on short notice, and she doubted Ryan would care much.

With a poorly wrapped present tucked under her armpit, Kozue gave Ryan's apartment door a few hard knocks.

Upon hearing the knocks Ryan would answer, his Santa beard having been removed a while back. He didn't want wine on it of course. But he still wore that jolly red outfit of course, important for the season of course. And upon seeing the ninja girl Ryan gave a beaming smile.

"Aha! Kozue-san, so glad you could make it. Please come in!" the paragon of Britain said as he opened the door fully to allow Ninjette to come in.

The apartment, which Kozue had visited awhile ago was just as well kept as before. Except this time it looked like a Santa's grotto of sorts, with a large xmas tree that one would expect to see in a mall. With several presents dotted around it.

Mr Knight being the gentleman that he was would kiss the top of Ninjette's hand and then point to the two other people in the room.

"Allow me to introduce my Sister, Lucy with the Rudolf gear. The guy in the elf costume is John Carnaby, my right hand man."

"Pleasure to meet you ma'am, the boss has told me great things about you." John said giving a small and polite bow.

Lucy waved and said "Nice to meet you, excuse me while I procure your gift. Know it's somewhere around here."

Ryan would then say to Ninjette "So, how has the year treated you Ninjette? I hope Damus hasn't been hounding since that match, stupid Russian."

Wow.

Kozue didn't impress easily - at least, she tried to keep from showing it outwardly. But as she stepped from reality into what could only be described as Jack Skellington's wet dream, she couldn't help but widen her eyes with some genuine awe. She had to give Ryan credit: the man did not halfass. Made her feel like she was making up for al those years of not celebrating Christmas in one day.

"Hey, yo." Kozue waved to Ryan's buddies as she made her way in with her eyes darting about, trying to take in all the splendor. "Man, you really, really got into the spirit this year. Damn."

She did a quick whistle before finally turning back to Ryan and handing him the present, crappy wrapping and all. She had the thought, so it counted.  "Pretty sure Damus is hounding somebody, but not me. Everything's good. You?"

Upon hearing the compliment that Kozue gave to him Mr Knight cracked a grin and said "Why thank you my dear, it is my favourite time of the year. And as the paragon of Britain it's my honour to do so."

Ryan would take the gift and say "You have my thanks Kozue-san, I shall place this at my study for later. Things have been alright for me, looking for my girlfriend's missing Brother in fact. I heard Damus bogged off back to Russia, his Father's not been too pleased with how he's been acting." moving to his desk, filled with several books. All either written in English or Latin of course.

"Oh by the way, a friend of ours popped by earlier. Model by the name of Bryan Daniels, wanted me to hand this to you. I'm not sure what he's trying to mean by this, but he said you'd understand. You found Kozue-san's gift yet Lucy?" Ryan would say as he took the present that B-RY gave to them, to hand to Ninjette.

"Yeah right here, we've heard you like old school games. So we got you Shadowrun for the SNES, based off the tabletop RPG that we've been playing." Lucy said, it was in a small box wrapped in red paper.

John nodded and said "Shadowrun is based in the future, the 2050's. Where corporations run the world, and there's machines like the matrix and robots that you can control with your mind. And at the same time there's fantasy elements like elves and orcs running about."

"And that's why it's better than DnD, although Shadowrun returns is better. But regardless that's a classic you've got there Kozue-san, enjoy it." Ryan said with his arms behind his back.

Kozue's new room was depressingly devoid of posters with random kittens on them and it was exceedingly rare for her to get a gift from a guy that she'd only known for about ten minutes...but the AFW wasn't a normal organization, Japan wasn't a normal country, and Bryan didn't seem to be anormal guy. Not that there was anything wrong with any of that.

"Huh." She held the poster out and gave it a long look over, before a smirk came over her face and a little laugh followed. "Pretty sure Bryan's just trying to cheer me up. Not trying to mean anything." She would have to thank him the next time they met, maybe get him a gift of her own the next time they met. It'd be a little weird, since she'd probably see him right before their upcoming match, but screw it. She could be friendly and beat the crap out of him at the same time.

Kozue actually knew what Shadowrun was, so she didn't require the explanation, but John seemed to get a kick out of so she just let him go on. She wasn't aware of the SNES game, though, that was new to her. RPGs weren't typically her thing, but she was down to give it a try.

"That's..." Her smile grew wider. Getting one gift? Rare. Getting two gifts? Much rarer. SNES games were getting harder to come by, too. "That's actually really thoughtful of you, man." She stuffed the game into her pocket, and gave the group a small bow. "Much respect, you guys brightened up my week."

Ryan had a feeling that it was a poster to cheer Ninjette up, Mr Knight had looked into her recent stuff. It pays to be in the know in this day and age. Being in that tension battle royale with his ex Eliza Harenwood. The paragon of Britain wished he could have been there, and proven his mettle. But alas he was busy searching for Anampo's missing Brother, those close to him came first.

Speaking of which Ryan would say "Your welcome my dear, enjoy the new year of course. And remember should you find yourself with your back against the wall, don't hesitate to let me know. You'll have Britain's finest standing right beside you."

"Right you are sir." John said with a nod of his head to Ryan.

"We shan't keep you any longer Kozue-san, take care and farewell." Ryan would give a small bow.

"Catch you later!" Lucy said with a wave of the hand.

"See ya." John said with a smile.

Kozue rolled to he picture up and stuffed the game in her pocket. It wasn't much, but it would keep her up all night and give her something to do in the extremely rare moments when she didn't have some sort of training to do. It was enough. It was more than enough.

"Dude, I'm a ninja. My back's never against the wall." She gave Ryan a bop on the head with the rolled up poster. "Later. Peace."

And with that and a quick wave, she stepped out. She would have loved to hang, but she had stuff to do. One more present...