#1

With the sun reaching it's peak over the sky of Vanhoover, the city was beginning to come alive in full swing. Everybody is winding down from Mandy's party the day before, with many nursing the worst hangover they've ever had. Despite this, the city is still plastered with Attack on Mango merch, and decor. Seems the city's going to milk their cash-cow for as long as possible. As Nar skates through the streets, he looks around at his face plastered all over, alongside those of his friends. On the side of one of the tallest buildings in the city, he can see a banner hanging, calling Vanhoover "Home of #1!" With one of the band's album covers pictured beneath it. Their faces are plastered all over the city, and while Nar's bandmates are getting the full celebrity treatment, nobody even seems to recognize him. All fine by Nar. He'd rather not get swarmed during his frequent skate sessions. Nar turns onto a much more secluded street to take a shortcut to his favorite breakfast spot. As he does so, he spots what looks to be a group of stallions/men surrounding someone against a wall. They're too tall, and large for him to see who they're accosting at first, so he removes his earbuds, and drops them into his shirt pocket. "What's the matter babe? Never seen this much man before?" Nar nearly gags at the first words he hears from the stallions. As he gets closer, he begins to see what looks to be a head of black hair in the middle of the three men. Looks like a woman/mare, a good head or more shorter than the guys accosting her. Upon closer inspection, Nar notices that she actually has her head turned away, and has shrunken up against the wall. "Hey!" Nar shouts as he approaches. "Knock it off, assholes!" The group turns to face him, with two of the men stepping forward, while the third places an arm beside the woman's head to keep her from running. Nar lifts his arms as he prepares for a fight. "Hey, hold on a sec." The man next to the woman calls out. "Ain't that they guy who kicked the shit out of that gryphon on TV?" One of the two men approaching Nar leans forward, squinting. His eyes then go wide, and he stands up straight. "Oh shit, it is!" He then turns, motioning for the others to follow him. "C'mon! This ain't worth it!" The three men quickly slink off down the street. Nar skates up to place himself between them, and the woman, watching them until they retreat around a corner a block down. He then turns back to look over their victim. She looks to be a young adult, earth pony, around his age. She has a VERY long, messy, black mane/hair that goes down nearly past her hips, and covers her eyes completely. The black sweater she's wearing is a little too big on her, and her hands don't even poke out of the sleeves. Her jeans seem a little dirty, and her sneakers are old, and worn. All in all, it honestly looks like she's been wearing this outfit for a few days now. Doesn't smell like it though. "Hey." Nar offers her a warm smile, but makes sure to stay a comfortable distance away. "Are you alright?" The only response he gets is quiet mumbling he can barely hear. He leans in a little closer, and thinks he can just about make out her words. It sounds like she's speaking neighpanese. Nar shifts from Equestrian, to Neighpanese as he asks "Oh, you can speak Neighpanese? That's cool. I'm fluent. We can use it if you're more comfortable with it." At this, the woman raises her head just enough, and she brushes some of the hair out of her face, revealing one of her eyes. There are... quite a few bags under it. In a quiet voice she squeaks out a "Sorry", in neighpanese. "Hey! Don't be! Those guys were accosting you! I wasn't just gonna sit by and let them do that!" Her head begins to fall, and she goes silent, leading Nar to break the silence. "What's your name? I haven't seen you around her before." The response he gets is a quiet "Aki." "Well, it's nice to meet you Aki! I'm Nar! Are you from here?" She shakes her head, slowly. "Oh? Just visiting, or did you just move here?" "I... Just moved here..." Jeez, she's frozen stiff. She can't even seem to look him in the eyes when she talks. Must be pretty shy. "Hey! Vanhoover's a great city! Did you move here from Neighpan?" Nar continues to exude energy, while Aki only nods in response. "That's awesome! My dad moved her from Neighpan a long time ago! He lives in Ponyville though." Nar pauses, hoping for a response. It doesn't come. "So, what are you doing out and about?" "Groceries... I got lost..." "Well, would you like some help? I know the city like the back of my hand! I know a grocery store close by, and I could go with you so you don't get accosted again!" Aki gives a nod, and a hopeful "Y-yes please." Nar motions for Aki to follow him, then waits for her to walk beside him before he begins to skate down the street. For the rest of the afternoon, Nar helps Aki as she shops for groceries. At first, the sheer size of the store he takes her to overwhelms her, but eventually, she starts to get the hang of things. By the end of the trip, Nar notices that she's bought a suspiciously large amount of cup noodles. Like, enough to eat for every meal for at least 2 weeks. Afterwards, he manages to convince her to go get lunch with him, where he takes her to the band's old stomping grounds. Shifty Sais. Turns out, she's a pretty picky eater, but she really seemed to like the cheese nachos, so Nar's happy with that. The two converse the whole while, with Aki growing more, and more talkative as they do so. She seems to warm up to him fairly quickly. By the time Nar gets Aki back to her apartment, she seems hesitant to go inside. Nar stands behind her as she fumbles with her keys. She seems to drop a piece of paper from her purse, just before she manages to get inside, and slams the door shut behind her. Nar picks up the paper, and goes to knock on the door. "Hey! Aki! You dropped-" He stops when he catches a glimpse of what's on the paper. "Thank you for showing me around the city. I had a great time. Please text me at some point. I'd like to be friends." Followed by a phone number. Ooooh! Sly! She dropped that paper on purpose! Probably just too shy to actually ask him in person. Oh well. He'll shoot her a text after he gets home later. Nar begins to descend down the stairs of the apartment complex with a big, goofy smile on his face. It felt good to make a new friend!

Tiny hands push on Nar's arm until he begins to rouse. His eyes begin to open, and his ears pick up a voice, but his brain doesn't quite process the words being said. The bed shakes slightly, and Nar finally turns to see who keeps pushing his arm. There, the excited face of Cookie bounces up, and down, just barely peeking above the bed. "Papa! Santa! Santa!" Instantly, Nar is wide awake. He begins to shuffle out of bed, only for Cookie to take off out of the room. Nar slips his slippers on, and follows after her, calling out for her to wait before she goes down the stairs. He supervises to make sure she descends them properly, following right behind her. When the father and daughter exit the stairs, they turn right to look into the living room. The rest of the family has already gathered, and oh my! Presents galore! There isn't an empty space of floor within 3 feet of the Hearth's Warming tree! Cookie hurries over to the tree to sort through the gifts, while Nar plops down on the couch next to Asuka. He looks at the coffee cup in her hand, and scratches his chin. "Third cup." Asuka rolls her eyes, with a stupid smile on her face. "Shove off." He guessed correctly. Kisho helps his Granddaughter pile all of her gifts from Santa into one pile. By the time they're done, the pile is taller than she is. Beside Nar, Asuka leans in to whisper. "You spoil her." Nar simply smiles, and nods. For the next 20 minutes, the family watches as Cookie opens her gifts from Santa. LOADS of toys, a fancy pink toy chest to put them in, and a fluffy pajama onesie that she DEMANDS her papa help her put on right away. One visit to the bathroom later, and Cookie emerges, twice as fluffy as she was before. After Cookie finishes opening all of her presents from Santa, the family shares a breakfast. As Kisho takes a seat at the table, he places a carton of eggnog in front of Nar. "This time, it's not expired. I checked." He lets out a little chuckle, as Nar unscrews the cap. "C'mon! It was only 2 days out of date that one time!" Asuka shakes her head. "And yet you spent half of that Hearth's Warming in the bathroom." Betty quickly shuts her children down. "Let's not talk about this at breakfast." After breakfast, the family reconvenes in the living room to exchange gifts. They're a little sad Hiari couldn't be home for Hearth's Warming this year, but she did send them a letter! Cookie gets even MORE toys, Juno gets Asuka a deluxe coffee maker, and Kisho gets Nar, Asuka, and Juno matching lounge pants. The three stand together for a picture, only for Asuka's smile to fade to a grouchy frown afterwards. "What's with the face?" Asks Juno. "She's just jealous I look better in these than she does." Answers Nar. The room shares a laugh. Afterwards, Asuka finally speaks up. "The tag is stabbing my behind. It's REALLY uncomfortable." After all of the presents have been opened, Nar announces that he has one last gift for his father. He then uses his phone to display a picture on the living room's TV. There, it displays the front window of Shifty Sai's showing the cardboard cutouts of Attack on Mango with a new addition. Now, between Asuka, and Nar, stands a cutout of Kisho, decked out in his Mango Merch. Below him, a sign points upwards stating "Our #1 Fan." With breakfast over, and presents gifted, the family cleans up, and prepares for the usual holiday tradition. It was time to open up the restaurant, and give the needy, and lonely a family to celebrate Hearth's Warming with!