Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Snow drifted lazily outside of the Axiom, piling up on top of the inches of snow already having settled on the hard earth. It had been almost a millennium since the Earth had last seen snow, but with the arrival of the star-liner Axiom and with it the plant, the once barren world was beginning to shift back to its old self. Already after a few hours of the frozen rain there were a few inches of the soft white fluff on the ground.

Most of the Earth's slowly growing population were in their own homes due to the cold, trying to stay warm by a fire or making last minute preparations for their new found holiday. 'Christmas' is was called, and after hearing about it from the Axiom's main computer Captain McCrea had convinced everyone that it might be fun to celebrate the upcoming holiday. Of course, it really wasn't that hard to convince everyone in participating, the idea of a holiday sounding rather good to everyone. So everyone had made or found gifts, prepared food, and began celebrating early morning on December 25th, 2825. By midday the group celebration had died down and everyone moved back into their homes, to either snuggle in the warmth of their houses or continue celebrating with their families.

Everyone except the occupants of the old ship that is.

Luis sat in the old Captain's chair, sipping boiled custard delicately from a washed out B&L cup. His close friend Christy had a similar idea, sitting atop one of the old computer terminals while munching on a tree shaped cookie. The two had decorated for the holidays, and with the entire command room of the Axiom covered in lights, wreaths and even a small tree with ornaments they decided they had earned a break.

A few of the of the Axiom's robots had decided to get in on the action as well. Auto has a string of red and green lights wrapped around his wheel appendage and GO-4 had a wreath placed carefully on his head.

They had been planning all month since Captain McCrea had announced that they were going to bring the old holiday back to have a celebration aboard the old ship to keep the few robots that did not ever leave it's hull company. Despite it so far lacking the 'celebration' part they were having a pretty good time. They had laughed, talked, and of course, eaten until they were beyond full.

Luis was the first to speak up, breaking the comfortable silence. "Not to interrupt the silence or anything, but apparently you're supposed to give gifts today so-" He paused as he pulled a large bag out from under the chair. "I got you all something."

"Aw, you didn't have to go and do that!" Christy said as he turned her body to face him, smiling.

"Yes," Auto said, agreeing with the young woman to his right. "You really did not..."

He dug through the bag, pulling out boxes. "Ah, but I did." He tossed a wrapped box towards where Christy sat. "Here you go!"

She caught it easily, sacrificing her cookie to the pitfalls of her lap in favor of grabbing the present. Swiftly tearing open the thin paper that served as Luis's wrapping for the gift, she removed the box with a smile spread across her face. She glanced at him with a smile and popped open the box, gasping when she reaching inside if it. "Oooh, thanks Luis!" She said with a laugh as she pulled the wind chime out of the box, holding it up so the lights of the Axiom hit it and reflected a rainbow of colors across the once white interior.

"You're welcome. I figured you'd like that." He replied with a grin. "And for GO-4." He said placing another, slightly larger box on the floor in front of the smaller robot. Perking up at the fact that the young man would even think to give him something he moves forward and lifted the package into the air with his anti-gravity ray, splashing the area around him in red. Using his somewhat arm-like appendages, he carefully unwrapped the gift. Luis leaned forward and lifted the lid from the rest of the box as GO-4 paused in his wrapping and he leaned over the now open box as carefully as he could, extracting what was inside with great care. "T-they are supposed to be headphones. Like, the noise cancelling kind. I found a pair while searching through some boxes. They're sort of old, but they still work! I figured with all the running around you do... you could use a break, you know?"

GO-4 did not respond verbally in is usual way, be he made a motion that made Luis smile and nod. "You're welcome." He slipped his hand into his bag one last time, pulling out a final box. "And one for you, Auto."

There was a pause before Auto moved forward and, almost shyly, began unwrapping the crudely covered box. Luis watched as Auto opened the box from where he held it for him. Reaching into it with his claw hand he pulled out a small gray box.

"What is it?" He asked, his glowing eye zooming in and out on the box, trying to figure out its purpose before Luis could even answer.

"It's.. it's a communications device." Luis replied with a small blush. "I know that the Axiom's been having some maintenance problems here lately so I figured... that if anything serious happened that you could just call me I could come over and fix it." He smiled and shrugged.

Auto looked from the mechanism in his hand to Luis. "That...is very kind. Thank you."

He smiled. "You're welcome."

There was another pause as Auto stared down at the small device he held in his claw before he looked back up at the boy. "I have something for you as well." He said slowly, before moving towards the large computer terminal.

Luis' eyebrows rose in surprise. "Oh, well that was nice of you. You didn't really have too though..."

"No," Auto insisted, turning on the terminal and began pressing buttons. "It is fine. I should have given you this a long time ago." He pressed a couple more buttons until another small machine suddenly came to life. It made a soft grinding noise before suddenly spitting out a piece of paper, letting it swoop through the air. It only had the change to fall for a second though before Auto grabbed it. He held it out towards Luis. "Merry Christmas."

He took the paper from the robot gently, as if afraid he might tear whatever it was. Holding it so he could look over it he felt his jaw drop a bit and his eyes widen. "This-" He stuttered out as he stared down at the picture. "I though this was deleted?"

"No." Auto answered as Luis continued to stare down at the drawing he and the boy had created so long ago. "I kept it." There was another long pause before he continued. "I'm sorry I have kept it to myself all this time..."

"Oh no!" Luis interrupted, looking up to Auto. "No, don't be sorry! You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm just glad you still had it" He looked back down to the paper, dragging a finger over the inked colors of him and a crudely drawn Auto in a field. "I love it. Thank you Auto." He said finally, smiling brightly.

"You are welcome, Luis." He said, wishing that he was capably of smiling back.