Black and White Feathers

Once Lily looked inside, she'd see a DIY Picture Frame. The border was a completely white flat piece of wood, Lia had coloured in half of it with a bunch of flowery designs, but the other half was blank for Lily and Layla to fill however. "It's not much, I'd like to have gotten something better for you guys, but I just settled down here in Japan and money's only just started coming in... sorry about that..."

Layla poking out and asking the question made Lia turn around in mild surprise before she thought about it. "Eh... I'm probably spending a few nights with John I guess, he's my boyfriend so it's pretty much a given. His college is taking a break after exams for the New Year so he'll be there, but it's not going to be anything fancy."

Lily picked up the picture frame and examined all around. Slowly a smile and twinkle in her eyes came as she said, "I love it...I LOVE IT!" She rushed to Lia and gave her a warm hug before adding, "Oh, thank you so much, Lia. I can use this to get a picture of us three in it!"

Layla nodded before saying, "I see. Well, it's great to have a loved one spend time with you on Christmas. Can Lily and I join also?"

Lia wasn't expecting such a positive reaction from Lily, it seemed like a rather silly thing for kids that she picked up in a last-minute panic after all the stores were cleared in the holiday rush, but seeing her face and her hug brought a childlike grin to her face. "Oouf! I'm uh... glad you like it. Sure, you can put any picture you want in it, that's the whole point of a picture frame right?"

Layla's question caught her a little off-guard, but it should've been expected Lia guessed. "Oh uh... sure why not! I mean, if you two are open to me, it's only right for me to be open to you, right?" The tenseness was gone from her face already, and coming here made Lia feel really happy; she felt a bit like a middle schooler at a friend's place.

Putting the picture frame down for later, Lily would sniff the air a little bit when something caught her scent. "Hmm! Do you smell that Lia?" She sniffed the air again and sighed with a smile as she knows what it is.

Layla giggled before saying to the two, "Guess what kind of cookies I'm making, girls! It's yummy and delicious!"

"Yeah, it sure smells good! You know, I've been wondering, you were so serious back in our match, but here you're like... a little kid almost!" Lia giggled a bit, the difference between Lily now and the Lily she met in the ring was so stark that it was hard to believe they were the same.

Lia sniffed the air a few more times before giving a guess. "Mmm... is it... chocolate chip?" She had no idea what she was supposed to be smelling for, but chocolate chip was the most common, so it was probably a safe guess.

Lily blushed as she shrugged her shoulders and giggled, "What? I can't be serious all the time, you know. I'm still a girl in the midst of being a female fighter."

Layla nodded and said, "Yup! A batch of red velvet chocolate chip cookies."

"Seeing you like this, it's hard to imagine you saying stuff like... what was it you said back then... uhm... something like 'I need to win or else'" Exaggerating the gruffness of her voice so that it was a fairly reasonable approximation of whatever Lia remembered that she heard. She laughed before you could say anything more, taking her time to smell the air some more.

"Wow... that sounds real fancy Layla, I hope I didn't make you go through much trouble for them." Even so, Lia really enjoyed the buttery smell that was filling the sisters' home, it was already making her hungry.

Lily would laugh along with her friend as she nods before saying, "Yeah, but that's me. I am tough as nails, but I still wanna have fun!"

"Not at all!" said Layla as she turned off the over and used her pot holders to carry the piping hot tray of cookies. She put them on the kitchen counter to cool for a little while. "You want some juice while waiting for the cookies to cool down?"

"Yeah, I can believe that! I know exactly how tough you are after that night." Wow, her neck hurt after turning around so much between the two sisters. Lia had no idea how her brain was following the two conversations so well, but the albino was glad that she could.

"Oh, sure!" Juice and cookies, it was just like how she remembered her family used to treat Gail with. She was always the one making the cookies but she'd rarely get a chance to take a bite for herself. Ah well, that's not for here, now's the time to enjoy with her two new friends.

"Let's all sit down back at the table and we can enjoy ourselves before Christmas!" Lily cheered as she went out to get cups for the girls. Layla would head to the fridge and get some juice in order to pour into those cups. It didn't take long before the cookies cooled down and Layla would place the cookies on a medium sized plate to bring to the table while Lily brought the drinks.

The sisters set their snack down as they invited Lia over.