Tis the season, so be merry!

Ryan smirked as Ninjette hit him on the head with the poster "Charming my dear, goodbye." he simply said as she exited the room.

Now that Kozue had left, the next person was a woman named Lia Harrison. John's self proclaimed "Muse" She'd have received a letter from John and co to come to the apartment with the address included, with Mr Carnaby proclaiming that there would grand things for her.

"Oh I can't wait!" John said as he rubbed his hands with glee, Lucy snickered and shook her head while leaning against a wall. But Ms Grange was interested in seeing this woman, after all the British artist had gone on about her several times. Ryan meanwhile took a seat, figuring he could let John handle this one. Now it was time to wait till Lia arrived......

Lia was a bit tired.

Perfectly normal for her - her rather poor time-managing skills combined with her choice of biking around as much as she could meant that she often missed out on sleep when she needed it. In today's case, she had almost missed the train ride over to the apartment.

But she made it... after fumbling a few minutes with the map app at the station. The letter was pretty interesting, and she was excited at the idea of seeing John again. Sure, they were dating, but the logistics of their relationship was hard to work out, living in different cities and whatnot. And since he'd joined up with Ryan, they hadn't really seen each other all that much.

But that just meant this meeting would be all the more important. With a basket of stuff over one arm, Lia knocked on the door, ready to be surprised by whatever over-the-top presentation John had made this time.

As soon as the door was heard Ryan was about to get off his chair, only for John the Santa elf to rush towards it like Foxy the pirate. The young man swung it open and was greeted with those beautiful pink/red eyes that he knew so well, John grin was wide as he shouted "LIA! My muse!"

Mr Carnaby went forward and embraced Lia, it was near bearhug worthy as he somewhat lifted the girl off the ground. John would then set Lia down, giving her a brief kiss. Upon ending it he would say "Oh my dear, I have so missed your beautiful features and smile. My Eve, please come in! I have gifts for you!"

John would then grab Lia's hand and lead her into the apartment, it looked like a modern day Santa grotto. With a large xmas tree that seemed fit for a shopping mall, with presents adorning it. Lucy was wearing Rudolf head attire, with her hair it's natural colour of brown. "Oohhh, so this is the girl you have told us about John? Aw she's adorable, hi there my name's Lucy. The guy dressed as Santa is my Brother Ryan." Ms Grange said as she walked closer to look at Lia.

Ryan smiled and said "Charmed, Eliza's told me about you Ms Lia. She said you are a very nice and polite lady, John knows how to pick them."

John smiled and said "Lucy go get Lia's presents please." Ms Grange nodded and went back to the tree to find them.

With that Mr Carnaby would say to Lia while holding her hand "I'm sorry I've not been able to spend more time with you babe, I want to change that and make it a new years resolution. After all I can't be an artist without my muse." kissing the top of her hand after that.

Lia had to grin at John's overenthusiastic display, her pale face growing closer to the tinge of her eyes. "I've missed you too!" She laughed a little as he took her in his strong arms, literally lifting her off her feet. It was a little embarrassing, but over her stint as a performer, she'd gotten used to it... more or less.

Inside was a very nice - and expensive - looking Christmas scene, far more extravagant than the apartment room implied. The blonde girl popped up, looking quite in place with her reindeer horns. "Oh hey! I think I've seen some of your matches." Lia wondered which matches exactly... there were so many, it was hard to keep track!

And the man in the centre... Ryan, looking like the man in charge around here. "Eliza? Oh, so... Yeah, she's told me about you too. Nice to meet you!" She wasn't sure what to think of him, his presence was certainly something else.

"Oh... yeah. I'll try to clear up some more time too..." She blushed a little when John kissed her hand, just like a prince would. "I... yeah... I wanna see my artist more often too..." She said with an embarrassed smile, the basket swinging behind her, almost forgotten.

John would smile at Lia, if he was to be asked what he liked about her. The answer would be everything. Her albino features were something he'd consider exotic, a rare diamond in the desert of girls who would otherwise be considered normal. And Lia also had a heart of pure gold, with a hidden semi-nymph mode hidden under it. How you could dislike her John had no clue.

"You'll love the gifts Lia, made with you in mind. You found them yet Lucy?" John said, giving a brief kiss to Lia's cheek after it.

"Yeah I did, with the size they are how can I not?" Lucy said as she produced two large packages, covered in red paper. Ms Grange walked over to the two lovers, the gifts under her arms.

"The first one is a painting, done by our very own Mr Carnaby. He put hour after hour, going over it again and again. He said that 'My lovely muse deserves only the best, her smile that melts my heart will let me known I have done a job well done!'"

John lightly blushed, even more so considering how Lucy imitated his voice there. "Your sitting by a tree with a sunset, and there's all sorts of cute woodland critters around you. I call it 'The fair lady of the forest.' and there's also another gift for her isn't there?"

Lucy nodded and said "The other one here's a dress, given to us by a certain Eliza Harenwood. It's very good if I may say, just enough to create the mix of cute and sexy." Ms Grange motioned with her eyes to the longer package.

Spoiler:

Ryan then chimed in by saying "Yes a letter came with it Ms Lia, here you go." as he produced a letter from his Santa costume and handed it to her.

Spoiler:

John would look at the letter as well, and kiss Lia on the side of the head and say "Merry Christmas babe."

When Lucy stepped back with two big packages covered in red wrapping paper, Lia wondered exactly what they could be - but she knew that whatever it was, it'd be amazing.

The introduction Lucy gave sounded just a little scripted, but considering who was the artist... "A painting? Wow, thank you!" Lia hugged John, taking the smaller package in hand, removing the red covering.

It was amazingly detailed, Lucy wasn't exaggerating when she said hours after hour. "Wow! But... why aren't you in here?" Lia half-joked.

And then the bigger package. She opened it up... and found an amazing white dress. "Eliza sent this? H-how muc..." She bit her tongue, Eliza wasn't even here to answer the question, and the question was pretty rude either way. She had no idea how much money the dancer had, but it was clearly a LOT.

The dress looked gorgeous, better than the things she saw on TV, even. "Mmm... it's beautiful..." Lia wrapped her arms around John, kissing him back... and then feeling the basket of cookies swing into her.

"Oh, right. I brought these."

John smiled and said "Well I didn't want to ruin the painting, I used the power of love as my guide. Well you know what I mean by that, it was from the soul." muttering the last part into Lia's ear.

Mr Carnaby would take the basket off of Lia and take a look into it, his eyes went wide. The artist then saw that the icing on them had his face on them. Only they looked cute and chibi, even got the streak of red hair that John often had on.

"Oh these look lovely Lia! I bet I taste great! One second." John said as he took a bite out of one. "Hmhmm, brilliant my dear. Love was the main ingredient I'll bet." he said winking at his muse.

The master of creation would then look at his boss with a hopeful expression, Mr Knight had watched the entire situation with a bemused look. His Sister sharing in this by doing the same.
"Go on John, take the rest of the day off. Catch you later mate." Ryan said with a wave.

John's smile was beaming and he'd stand up with the basket and take the painting into his arms, saying "C'mon Lia, I'll help you get this stuff home. And then we can just relax, I've missed doing the simple things with you my dear. Now's a better time than any." making to move out of the apartment with the gifts.

"Farewell Ma'am, happy holidays." Ryan said waving goodbye.

"See ya, maybe we can hang out sometime." Lucy said waving also.

Lia giggled at John's always over-the-topness. "Love and flour. Well mostly flour." Lia said, still pink in the face, with the other two still watching.

Lucy seemed like a pretty nice girl, plenty of energy and all. Maybe she'd get along with Gail, if the two ever met. Lia wondered in her head, while Ryan kindly offered John the rest of the day off, which meant of course...

"Yeah, I could use the help, I don't think it'd be... smart to bring this stuff back to the train." She smiled gratefully as she moved with John, waving a goodbye to the remaining two. "See you! Yeah, come over whenever!" Well, her place probably wasn't going to quite meet Ryan's expectations, with how much money he had. She closed the door behind her, both arms around John.

"Nice costume."

John smirked at Lia's comment, for he was dressed as a Santa elf. He wasn't exactly willing to do that at first, but Mr Knight of course persuaded him to do so. Although now he was going to have to walk around in public with that on, Mr Carnaby seriously hoped the weather was at least alright. But hey he had Lia with him at least.

"Hrmm, next year I want you in nothing but gift wrap." John muttered to Lia, returning the hug as best he could with his arms as they were. With that he'd leave the building with her.

Now there was just one person left, and to Ryan it was one of the most important people in the world to him. Anampo Yatgra, his girlfriend. Mr Knight had spared no expense for her gift, only the best for the Knight's lady as he'd say. People found it odd that she walked about with rabbit ears, but Ryan only found it to be very cute. Ryan would await eagerly, Anampo had gotten his letter no doubt. Winter was her time of the year.

"This is gonna be sweet." Ryan thought to himself as he looked at the door.

It was late into the night. Anampo wanted to have her friend Nick Solem by her side while traveling to Ryan's but, he had been drinking since the day before and blacked out after taking a step outside his dorm room. So, she had to go herself to Ryan's.

This was her favorite season. The best one of all. Winter was weather for staying indoors and warming up by a fire. Relaxing... This was indeed her favorite time of the year.

Anampo had approached the door, giving it a few gentle knocks on it