Hello! Thank you so much if you are still reading this, and have not already removed this book from your libary! I love all of you for supporting me! You make my every day better! Now, without any more delay, here is your surprise one shot...
Hope you enjoy! Any feedback is welcome!

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Third POV

The man clad in his sixteen year old mint conditioned coat sat stiffly in his plain wooden chair in front of the desk, going through the files piled up in front of him. He was concentrating on the report of a new textile mill he had bought, for nearly half its original price, of course, when the door of his office opened and two small heads peeked in.

He looked up to glare at the person who dared to disturb him, but it turned out not nearly as icy as it was a few years ago. The five year old boy, stepped in with a solemn expression on his face, and his twin sister followed him in. The man silently continued his work as the twins stationed themselves on either sides of his chair and looked at the pile of files on the desk with awe.

Hardly a couple of seconds had passed when the girl spoke up. "What are you doing, daddy?"

"Working."

"Oh! Can I also help? Momma says that I am also very smart."

The boy, who had been looking at the files in the cabinet beside him, turned to his sister and announced gravely, "No, mother said that I am more integelint than you, so only I can help daddy. You don't even know that M comes before N, and not after."

The girl pulled out her tiny tongue at her brother and turned to the man, who was quietly ignoring their daily banter and continuing his work.

"Daddy! He is lying! Tell Chris that I am more smart, so only I will help you!" She looked at him with her big sea green eyes, like his own, and pulled her lips into a pout.

The boy pushed his thick black hair out of his brown eyes and narrowed them at his sister. He knew that whenever she would look at her parents like that, they were most likely to take her side. Not fair!

The man looked up from his file and almost sighed. Keyword being almost. His usually icy expression, or rather lack of expression wavered for 0.00638 second as he considered telling both of them to not disturb him and go and play outside, but another part of him, which had surfaced when he had taken both of them in his arms for the first time, told him to answer his daughter and end their banter already. It had the added benefit of not being disturbed and saving his time. After all, knowledge is power is time is money.

"Both of you are equally smart, no matter what your mother told you. And, Christopher, the word is intelligent, not integelint."

The boy nodded his head at his father's words with the most grave expression on his face, his sharp mind already filing away the piece of information for later use.

Turning to his daughter, he spoke,"Annabeth, as I am currently able to manage my work adequately, there will be no need for you to help me." He looked at the girl, whose expression had turned sullen, from a hopeful one, and added,"Perhaps you can help me when you are older."

The girl looked up her father, tears already forming in her eyes, collecting faster than a debtor running from Mr. Ambrose, and a single tear slid down her chubby cheek. The man panicked at the sight of tears in his daughter's eyes, and pulled her close to him.

"But I wantyu to help you now! I am also big girl! Mommy said that I have to grow up and work hard like you, and become rish! I wantyu work now!"

The man silently wiped her tears with his nine year old handkerchief and patted her back awkwardly to console her.

Christopher scowled at the sight of his father consoling his sister, again. She is such a crybaby.

Turning towards the shelves, he looked in awe at the rows and rows of books of all sizes and colours in front of him. His curiousity was aroused looking at those mysterious books. He promised himself to learn how to read soon, so that he could start knowing what was there inside on the pages and start turning them slowly like he had seen his parents do.

Meanwhile, the man contemplated giving his daughter a pen and a paper to keep her busy while he worked, and weighed the pros and cons of the situation, like any economical man would do. Weighing the cost of the paper, pen and ink against the silence required for him to work and the ceasing of his daughter's eyes leaking, somehow the latter seemed more profitable to him.

Soon Annabeth was happily scribbling random letters of the alphabet on the back of an invitation to a charity ball, trying to make it look like the paper her father was reading.

Another quarter of an hour had passed in silence, when a chubby finger poked Mr. Ambrose in his arm. His left finger twitched as he unwillingly teared his eyes from the file and glared at the culprit.

Christopher looked at him, already tired of looking at the books he could not read yet. "Daddy, I am bored."

"Indeed?"

Pointing his chubby finger at the single window behind the desk, he stated his observation,"It is snowing outside."

Glancing once at the window where pure white snowflakes dance in the air and covered the backyard in a white sheet, Mr. Ambrose turned his eyes back to the file.

"Indeed."

"So can we go and play outside? Please?" Christopher looked hopefully at his father, already excited at the prospect of making snow angels and snowballs.

At the word play, Annabeth looked up at her brother, who was pointing to the snow outside. Delighted at the sight of snow, she ran to the window and pressed her tiny nose against the chilling glass, her eyes wide at the wonderful white things dancing in the air.

"No." Mr. Ambrose punctuated his negation with his usual cold disapproving glare, but it started thawing at the pleading faces of the siblings.

"Pretty please?" Chris seemed quite determined to play with his father.

Mr. Ambrose sighed mentally and cursed himself for agreeing to let his wife go to meet her dear sister Ella, and leave the twins at home, in his care. Even with Karim present, they were always upto some or the other mischief, or meaninglessly bantering with each other. Only their mother could handle them when they went at it, and truth be told, he already missed her.

"The appearance of please does not change my opinion or increase its value. No remains a no." Even though the words were cold and icy, the signs of his resolve thawing were definitely there.

"Please? I will make you a nice snowman if you come, please?"

Ten minutes later, the twins were all bundled up in bulky sweaters and gloves, which were a gift from their favourite aunt, making them seem nearly double their size, yet Annabeth was bobbing with excitement to play in the snow. As soon as uncle Karim had put on their shoes, Anna shot off towards the backyard, unable to wait any longer, while Chris put his tiny gloved hand in his father's and gave him a cheeky smile.

He gently squeezed his small hand in his big one, and wondered when had he got so lucky, going from cold, lonely and indifferent to having his own family. He, of course knew the answer: since he had met his ifrit outside that polling station.

Turning to Karim, Mr. Ambrose gave him a curt nod and Karim nodded back. "Yes, Sahib."

Assured that the house would be taken care of by his most trusted and loyal bodyguard, and the godfather of the twins, he and Chris went towards the backyard. As soon as he had reached the door, Chris left his side and lay on the snow, making a snow angel while an excitedly grinning Annabeth pulled him towards a weirdly contorted lump of snow in a corner, which had a few twigs sticking out from it at the sides and suspiciously looked like snowman.

"Daddy, see I have made a snowman for you! Isn't he looking spiffing?"

"Indeed." A rare hint of amusement glinted in his blue green eyes as he observed the snowman in front of him.

"See these are its hands, this is its nose, this is its face, and this is its stomach. So now what shall we name him? Peter, or Jack, or...or Chris?! Yes!" A muscle in his cheek twitched at the idea, while she chuckled at the thought of naming the snowman after her brother and ran to him. Mr. Ambrose got up and followed her to make sure she didn't fall down and hurt herself, after all she was his daughter, and no one hurt her, not even she herself.

"Chris...!"

He looked at his children spraying each other with snow and rolling in the ground, a very imperceptive and miniscule smile on his face as he joined them.

------------------Two hours later---------------

Mr. Ambrose tucked in the sheets tightly under Annabeth as she closed her eyes and smiled at him. "Goodnight, daddy."

"Goodnight." Hidden in the darkness, he allowed himself a small smile as he pulled the covers over an already asleep Christopher and closed the door behind him.

Stepping in the hallway shrouded in semi darkness, he took one look at his pocketwatch and his finger gave a twitch. 'She should have already reached home upto now. Whay was she late? Was she in trou-'

His train of thoughts abruptly came to a stop at the sound of light footsteps sneaking up behind him and he instinctively whirled around and grabbed hold of the figure, one hand on its mouth and the other on its neck. He pushed it against the wall, pressing himself against it, just in case he decided to try and escape, but removed his hand immediately when the intruder licked it.

"Let go of me." The familiar voice of his ifrit rang out in the hallway, and he removed his hands, realising his mistake, and placing them on her shoulders. Relief filled his face, replacing the worry which he did not even know was there.

"You are late by 7 minutes and 43 seconds."

She grinned mischieviously at him, turned around in his arms, keeping her hands at the back. "I know."

"Of course you do."

She rose on her toes and pecked his nose, and he relaxed infinitesmally.

"Why, were you late?"

"I got you a present. Do you want to see it?" He glared at her. Presents were an absolute waste of time and money, and most of the time were of no use.

She countered his cold glare with her fiery grin. "It's free, you stingy granite statue."

That would solve his major problem. Stepping back from his embrace, she waggled her brows at him. When he still stood there silently, she spoke up,"Well, do you?"

"Fine."

There was a wet splat and she turned on her heels and sped down the stairs, as he stood there in silent fury. Silence ensued as he wiped the slushy ice from his face.

"Lillian!"

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Dear ladies and gentlemen,

I am sorry for the tiny delay. Ahem. *dodges rotten tomatoes and onions* I know this chapter was due four days ago, but due to an encounter with an absolute @$$hole, I was totally thrown out of my authory(I know that's not a mood, but anyways) mood, and stuck to reading only. Also this loooonnnggg chapter took too loooonnnggg to write and plus came out sort of boring. So, if you are reading this, thank you so so so much! Here, I have a free hug and lots of vitual cookies for you. * hands out the cookies to the mob, and sheepishly smiles at their glares*

I can't give the exact date of the next update( I am crappy at actually doing it), but hopefully it will be soon, as I have already started it.

Your procrastinating author,
Ifrit5789.