The Earth After Rebirth

"I don\'t think I can build this myself." He muttered to himself, although he understood the instructions, he soon realised that theory wasn\'t so easily turned into practical.

He didn\'t waste time and called Hiro who helped without asking too many questions. Building things from scratch was his forte, even in the real world.

"I personally don\'t understand why you want us to build a very ancient model of a computer, this thing won\'t run most of the software we have now." He complained, but he was excited to be a part of this.

"Just help me out, you\'re my best friend aren\'t you and I can hear the excitement in your voice, you aren\'t fooling anyone." Kiro commented and helped out here and there.

He was watching intently, he was more than willing to learn to do things his grandfather was able to do. And another thing was that, this was part of his course, he needed to know not just how a machine functions, he also needed to be able to create one from scratch.

They were holed up in his room for days. Hiro made a couple of mistakes along the way, but only a couple. Which Kiro commanded because the tech they were putting together was outdated, something that was used by humans before them.

It was by sheer luck that they didn\'t burn the room down, considering the occasional explosions that occurred in there. Freya would occasionally go check on them, giving them an earful, but they never stopped.

"This is it, it should turn on this time." Hiro said as he punched the start up button.

It did, it had \'Hiro and Kiro\' at the start up screen, a detail Hiro decided to add just for fun. He was too excited and jumping for joy, both of them were.

Kiro decided to let it run without inserting the padlock, he wanted to make sure it was working well, he didn\'t want it to fry the only information he had. He decided to deal with it after Christmas day.

The day they\'d been excited for finally came. There was even a tree in their living room, the presents were put there after Alora went to sleep.

"Don\'t scare santa away!" Was the last thing she said before going to bed.

She urged everyone to go to bed early, so that santa would visit her first. She was too excited to finally get presents from father Christmas himself.

She was always an early bird. She woke up around five am, tossing and turning in her bed until she couldn\'t anymore. She went to wake up Kiro, then her parents.

She ran around the house yelling, "santa came, he came, he came!"

Kiro was recording all this, intending to show her when she was around Loki\'s age. He reckoned that, this would embarrass her to the core, and what were siblings for if not to embarrass each other at every chance they got.

Their father had gotten back the day before with Philip and Wilfred. Philip looked more chipper than usual, which made Kiro question whether he really did witness Wilfred torturing people.

Kiro knocked and opened his father\'s study.

"Are you okay? You seem beat." He entered without being told to.

"Haha, well, I am, but it\'ll be worth it in a couple of months."

Kiro didn\'t know how to bring up the padlock or how safe it was here to bring it up. His troubles seemed to be endless.

"I had a dream last night about grandpa, he told me to tell you, he loves you."

Sekani looked at him confused, and nodded as a thank for relaying the message. They were never raised religious, so Kiro didn\'t know exactly what his father believed in.

"I got great news this morning." He told his son changing the subject.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, Blakeson is dropping the lawsuit. He was likely trying to scare us, or something he believed in disappointed him."

Kiro gave a knowing smirk. He didn\'t know what changed Saanvi\'s father\'s mind but it was blissful. The best Christmas gift they could have ever received.

"That\'s indeed great news dad, take it easy, I don\'t want you dying on us."

"I\'m sturdier than I look." He said pinching his arms to show him he had quite the muscles.

Kiro laughed, shaking his head. Wilfred was standing by the door, laughing at his master too. He didn\'t think Kiro needed to worry about him, he would carry half the weight if he had to.

"Ki, I\'m not going to tell you how to live your life. That girl you were with the other day, is she trustworthy?"

"Yes, sir." He said stiffly.

"Good then, have fun."

Kiro quickly dismissed himself. He didn\'t know what he would say after that awkward question his father asked him.

He sat in the lounge, watching Alora blow through many presents. She\'d really forgotten about them, she was ecstatic with every reveal.

His phone rang, "Bel, hi."

"Wanna hang?"

"Aren\'t you spending today with your family?" He asked confused.

"Why?"

As it turned out, rich people never cared about this holiday. So, to her, this was just a regular day. None of her family members stopped their busy days, to spend it together.

"Come over, you\'ll see just how this day should be celebrated." Kiro told her.

She didn\'t hesitate, she wanted to hang with him after all. She had no idea it\'d be a family hang out session though. When she got there they played all sorts of games, opened up presents.

Kiro had bought her a beautiful necklace, he intended to give it to her the next day. Giving it to her today was the most embarrassing thing, but she didn\'t want her feeling left out as no one knew she\'d be coming.

"Ki buying her girlfriend a gift but not me." Freya shook her head and sighed.

Kiro didn\'t think it were necessary, they had everything they ever needed and wanted after all. He made a mental note to not forget it next time, maybe they wanted just anything from their kids.

The meal was great, the day was even better. Everything was going well for this estate, even the lawsuit was dropped. At that moment, nothing could deter anyone\'s mood. As they ate and laughed together.