dated to the morning of January 7

[island_anne]

Anne didn't expect the morning to bring anything special, no more than every morning was special when she got to wake up with Ariel beside her, but she turned out to be very, very wrong about that. The first thing she noticed was how warm she was, warm to the point of perspiration. She pushed the top quilt away and opened her eyes only to realise

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[sickof_swimming]

"Mmm?" Ariel replied, slowly opening her eyes. She rolled over to face Anne, clearly still half asleep. She absently rubbed at an eye and pushed some hair from his face. "Something wrong with the fireplace?"

[island_anne]

"There's no fireplace," Anne told her, pressing her lips nearly against Ariel's ear as she spoke, a little bit disappointed by the fact but a little bit excited, too. "There's no snow anymore."

[sickof_swimming]

Ariel looked a little puzzled at first, and then she smiled in surprise and sat up straight away. "We can go swimming again," she declared.

[island_anne]

Anne giggled softly, then sat up with her to give her a fond kiss. "That would be the first thing you thought of," she said. It was only when she was sitting up that she noticed there were a couple of additions to their household, right there at the end of the bed. "Oh! What could those be?"

[sickof_swimming]

Ariel followed Anne's gaze to two brightly papered packages. "I don't know," she said, scooting closer. "But they're pretty."

[island_anne]

Anne looked at Ariel, then back at the packages again. "Oh, they look like gifts!" she said, both elated and suspicious at once. "Do you think that perhaps someone came and left them while we were sleeping? We were sleeping rather soundly," she added with a bit of a pleased blush.

[sickof_swimming]

"Ooh, maybe!" Ariel replied, starting to sound excited. She looked closer but neither of the gifts were from anyone.

"This one is yours," she said, holding the larger package out to Anne.

[island_anne]

Anne's package, in fact, had to be shifted with some difficulty along the floor rather than lifted, and she found herself increasingly curious about what might be inside.

"I'm not at all certain I want to open it," she confessed. "Oh, I do want to know what's inside, but without knowing who it's from I cannot at all guess as to what I might find inside."