Merry Christmas, Scee-Kel

Jinny, the young Batarian girl, adopted by space-pirates and living on a spaceship (in space), woke up without necessarily knowing that that particular day (in relative terms, of course. There really isn't any 'day' or 'night' in space, as there is no light or sound) was Christmas.

She looked around her room, her four eyes rolling around in their sockets and coming to rest on the two-foot-tall Geth replica, which stood placidly over her like a watchful guardian.

She smiled, got up, did her morning routine, and headed into the living-room/lounge of the ship, only to find something a bit…confusing.

There was a scrap metal tree adorned with blinking lights and wires that Mili—the Quarian techy—was attending to, and everybody on the ship was gathered around a smile pile of brightly colored boxes. Oh, yes, and Kardek was wearing a floppy red hat, with a little white ball of fluff at the end.

And it also seemed that Jaxxris, the Turian captain of the ship, had donned a bright red and white set of armor. Though he didn't seem to enjoy it very well.

The group went on, not noticing her for a moment.

"Useless holiday, I tell you," Kardek grumbled, "just an excuse to waste effort and money on trinkets."

"Stop being a Grinch," Mili said flatly, "and if you want to blame anybody, blame Sissy and Hayden. They made us stay on Earth long enough to catch onto this idea."

"Hey!" Sissy, the Asari gunman, exclaimed, "Jinny's awake!"

Six sets of eyes turned to stare at Jinny, and she, not knowing what else to do, sat down next to her adoptive 'daddy,' Jaxxris, who made it very clear that she should call him 'Jaxxris, just Jaxxris.'

Hayden smiled at Jinny. "Hey…are you ready for your surprise?"

"I dun' like surprises."

"Sure you do," Jaxxris said, patting her on the head. "And even if you don't you'll like this one," he stood up, grabbing a tiny red box from the top of the small pile. "…Sissy, the one's for you. From Hayden," he handed the little thing over.

"Auh! Hayden, you shouldn't have!" she said, tearing into the box to find…a makeup set. And not just Asari skin tones to hide her freckles and make sure she went unnoticed, but mascara and blush and lipstick to. Y'know, stuff to make her look nice.

Hayden fidgeted and smiled for a moment, before a larger, but much flatter box was tossed onto his lap. "Who got me this?" he asked.

Kardek grumbled something unheard as Hayden gently opened the unwrapped box to pull out a…a something. It looked, for all intents and purposes, like a tube-top. "What is this?" he mumbled.

Jaxxris leaned in to get a look at it. "Well, it looks…like a binder."

"A what?"

"I'll explain later, but I suppose for you, it's a very nice present, don't worry. Kardek, I got you something, too," he set down a box—fairly gently, too—next to Kardek.

The Krogan medic stared at the box wordlessly for a moment, before gently ripping away a strip of wrapping paper, to see the logo of the shotgun. "An M-300 Claymore!" he shouted, in a sort of glee that was uncommon with the medic. "I always wanted one of these!" he tore open the box and the clunky gun landed on his lap. He then broke into a fit of low giggles, interspersed with mumbling about how he couldn't wait to try it out.

Jaedo, the ship's Salarian helmsman, who had been silent up until this point, grumbled a "Merry Christmas," and thrust his arm out to Jaxxris. In his hand was a little card. As Jaxxris took the card, he read the small print on it out loud.

"'…bother Jaedo one day, all day, for free, with no complaints. If Jaedo complains, he owes you twenty credits.' Well, this is a great gift, Jaedo. I'll be sure to use it someday."

"Speaking of Jaedo," Mili interjected, "I made you something. Let me just…" he fiddled around in the scrap metal for a second, and Jinny, dumbfounded at the events, wondered how he managed to hide something in there. "Ah! Here it is!" he exclaimed, pulling out a small, foot-long replica of their own ship and tossing it to Jaedo, who caught it and stared at it. "It's our ship, as you can see. We all pitched in a bit. Meaning, I went around and secretly recorded all of you speaking to be activated when certain voice commands are said. For example," he turned to the ship, which was being held by a Jaedo whose skin was turning several shades darker, "Fire the main cannons!"

The room was filled with the cackling laughter of Sissy, and a repetitive 'PEW-PEW-PEW!' Jinny giggled.

Jaedo quivered, and almost made the mistake of smiling, then stood, nodding a thank-you to Mili, and took off, practically skipping to his quarters, no doubt to play with his toy ships that he called 'models.'

"When do I get my surprise?" Jinny asked quietly. Everybody looked at each other, and then to the—still somewhat large—pile of presents. It was then that Jaxxris jerked his head toward it and said "Dig in."

And so Jinny did dig in to the pile of presents, and tested each of them out. She got another little robot toy from Mili—a tiny YMIR Mech this time—a makeup kit from Sissy, a curious little bracelet that beeped when she put it on from Kardek ("So that we always know where you are,") another "bother Jaedo for a day" card, a coloring book from Hayden (which prominently featured the trials and tribulations of Commander Sheppard and the Normandy,) and finally, from Jaxxris, a little replica of a Carnifex hand-cannon  that shot foam balls.

Needless to say, she was quite pleased as she rode around on the captain's shoulders shooting Jaedo, Mili, and Kardek in their heads for a little while, giggling triumphantly ever time Jaedo cringed and stopped himself from smacking her.

It was a good day for everybody. Mili even got to geek out over the random assortment of wires Sissy had gotten him, which she honestly just found lying around in a dumpster on Omega.

After a short while of everybody making good on their gifts (Sissy looked stunning, by the way,) Jaxxris' communicator rang, no doubt a message from some advertisement company. Normally he'd hit ignore, or even chuck it out the airlock, but he just couldn't stop himself from twisting the words of a very famous Turian…

"Can it wait a minute? I'm in the middle of some celebrations."

The End, and Merry Christmas.