“They can talk!?"

“Yeah, you'll hear start to hear them eventually. It's getting them to shut up that's the problem. Prancer's got a real motor mouth. Dasher's cool though, and Vixen is nice. Oh, and don't play poker with Donner.”

“What about Rudolph?"

“Ugh, everyone always wants to know about him. Total nerd. Has a crush on Vixen, but always falls on his face before he gets close to her. I'm at least 90% sure that's how his nose got so red.”

“There's a soft spot in my heart for nerds and goofballs." He gave her a pointed look with that last word.

“Hey! Careful who you're calling a goofball, buddy." She playfully hit him on the arm.

“Just calling it Like I see it."

"Oh right, so what's your story then?" she challenged, Leaning in closer again whilst seemingly remaining consistently perky.

“You know my story." His eyes grew somewhat distant with that.

“Not the divorce. Nice, well-meaning human being gets heart broken by complete asshole. Sorry to tell you this, boss, but that's not a new story. I meant what did you do? Who were you?"

Seemingly having no other option, he offered her a smile of resignation as they waited and then thought about it for a while before replying.

“I was a nerd in school. A big nerd. I loved toys, I loved stories, I loved games. People? I could kind of take them or leave them. Then, before I know it I'm 18 and it feels Like I finally look up and see the world isn't all it's cracked up to be. So I take a couple of years out and tried to help out by volunteering at charities, mostly for the homeless or the sick. I liked the work, but I didn't see it really going anywhere. Kinda Like slapping a band-aid on a broken water-main.

Not really all that effective in the long run. So I went and decided to make some money so I could maybe do something bigger. Got into computers and development. Turns out that computers got to be pretty popular, and I managed to wrangle a good job at a big company. That's when I met Amelia.

“For a guy in his mid-twenties who was pretty late in cashing out his

V-Card she pretty much ate me alive when she found me. I thought I'd gotten Lucky. Hit the jackpot even. She was gorgeous, funny, nice. It's a hell of a curtain to pull over someone's eyes, and then when it's pulled back and you see how much you're being used it's-"

“Hey! Shhh with the ex-wife already. Stick to the you bits. She sucks.

You're awesome.”

"Thanks." He Laughed somewhat self-consciously. "Well, I rose up the company and started with my own development team. We made and upgraded computer parts, microchips and such. Whatever the company needed. I made a lot of money, and started up with the plan of giving plenty of it back. Amelia didn't like that so much. Told me I was being silly and that there was probably a reason the homeless didn't have homes. I didn't really get that, so I kept my donations quiet. Finally cashed out for a pretty tidy settlement when the company was bought out a few years back. Then I went back to work for a charity and my marriage went down the toilet once the money stopped coming in Like it had been."

“Wow. That sounds really cool!”

He raised a brow, wondering what she was talking about.