A/N: I am definitely still working on my lengthy ensemble piece post-Season 4, but in the spirit of the holidays I wanted to write a two-shot with Kitty and Lance (~ Season 2) celebrating Hanukkah. I hope you enjoy it! Comments are love. :) Happy holidays to you and yours, dear readers!

It was the first night of Hanukkah.

Kitty had an eight a.m. flight to Chicago, and a connection to Northbrook, tomorrow so she could spend most of the holidays with her parents. But she was happy to exchange gifts today with her friends – and with Lance. They had plans to hang out at his place after dinner (because there was no way he was stepping foot in the mansion as long as Scott was around), and Kitty had bought him a gift. She went with Jean to shop because one, she knew that Jean wouldn't lecture her and two, Jean had had a ton of boyfriends so she knew what kinds of things guys liked.

This was Kitty's favorite time of year because the mansion foyer was so decked out in Christmas lights and window decals, and Kurt strategically stuck mistletoe on all the doorframes. Mr. Logan carried in the Christmas tree – all the while grumbling like the Grinch - and everyone decorated it with ornaments from the store, or ones they'd made. There was a surplus of hot cocoa and gingerbread in the kitchen – and Kitty snuck a plateful of gingerbread men into a Ziploc bag. She didn't bake them, but she helped to decorate them with icing sleeves and buttons.

Her phone buzzed and she checked her texts. Here. Lance offered to pick her up (which was great, because there was no way her friends would willingly drop her off at the Brotherhood boarding house). Kitty put the cookies, the gift, and something else in her messenger bag and pulled on her coat. Luckily almost everyone was distracted by the holiday music and the egg nog – it was their last big get-together before most people went home for winter break – and Kitty promised she'd be back by curfew.

She let herself out and made her way down the slippery path to the driveway and she saw Lance's jeep through the gate and waved to him. She phased through it with her things and grinned when he leaned over to open the passenger's door.

"Hi," she said, a little out of breath from the walk across the Institute grounds. She got into the jeep and pulled the door shut.

"Hey Kitty." Lance smiled at her – and he hardly ever smiled at anyone – and switched the gears into 'drive'. "How's it going?"

"Good. Great. Things are crazy," everyone was really getting into the holidays now that final exams were over. She slid her bag off her shoulder and holding it in her lap. "How are you?"

"Good," he replied. Kitty had a feeling the Brotherhood boarding house was not nearly as festive a place to be during the holidays – which was why she wanted to do this before she left town. "Uh, happy Hanukkah."

Kitty grinned at him. He remembered. She asked him how he celebrated on the phone and he said he didn't. His parents died when he was really young and he never talked about his time in foster care. Kitty didn't ask because she didn't know what to say – and he acted like it wasn't a big deal, but she was sad for him. She couldn't imagine not spending the holidays with her family. She was really close to her parents. "Happy Hanukkah, Lance."

They talked about school and he asked about her plans in Northbrook, and they were both consciously avoiding bringing up their respective 'teams'. It was the only way they could hang out without it turning into a fight. She really liked him. He could be funny - but he hated getting laughed at – and he played the guitar, which she thought was really cool. He really loved his jeep – even though she didn't care about cars, she liked that he liked it – and it was kind of cute to get him to talk about it, because he could get pretty animated.

By far the thing she liked most about Lance was the fact that he was a good person. He was honest and he was brave, and selfless, and he'd risked his life to help her – and that meant a lot to her. It was way more important than fluff or flowers. Being with Lance made her realize what mattered to her and it didn't have be the Hallmark movie special because Lance wasn't really a flowers guy, he definitely wasn't a poetry guy, but she knew he cared about her. She thought he had potential, and he was already a hero to her in a lot of ways. Now his friends, on the other hand…

"So where is everybody?" she asked him as he pulled into the shadow of the boarding house. She tried to keep her tone light but honestly, she just didn't like those guys. And she didn't like the way Lance was around them.

"Pietro's got some dates," because apparently some girls did like dating huge jerks, "And I told Toad and Blob to get lost." He glanced at Kitty when he said it and she tried not to smile too openly. Since Tabby was at the mansion hanging with Amara, it would be just the two of them. In this whole big house.

"Great." She hoped she sounded 'cool'. "Because I have such a Hanukkah night planned for us since it is your first ever," enthusiasm curbed her nervous energy, and she could blame her blush on the cold air. "You have a working TV, right?" she asked him as she got out of the jeep and picked up her bag.

"You got that?" he asked her, when he saw the size of the bag, "You want me to carry it?"

"Lance, I'm not going to let you carry your own gift," besides, she had a surprise in here for him and she didn't want to ruin it by letting him see it early.

He held up his hands in a mock 'okay, you win' gesture and said, "Yeah, we got a TV. Again." Again? What happened to the first one? Maybe it was better not to ask. "Why?"

Kitty didn't answer but she followed him up to the house. "I don't know if I've ever been inside this place," she admitted as he opened the door – he didn't have to unlock it or anything – and she stepped into the foyer.

"I tried to clean it up a little," he said by way of apology, and the inside was… kind of a wreck. It was definitely not the mansion, and she could see where it had been nice once upon a time, but clearly they didn't have a chore schedule. And she thought she saw Toad slime on the ceiling. Ugh.

"It's… fine." She couldn't bring herself to lie and say 'great' because it definitely was not 'great' – but she could see when Lance showed her into the living room that there weren't any pizza boxes or beer bottles around. There was furniture that seemed… sturdy-ish. The TV was definitely the nicest thing in the room (she hoped they didn't steal it).

She sat down on the couch and so did he, and it didn't collapse (so it seemed pretty safe). She'd been looking forward to this all week, ever since she got his gift. "So, the first thing we have to do is light the candles." Kitty couldn't bring him a Christmas tree, but she did have a small aluminum menorah that she picked up at the store. It was not expensive at all, and it came with a pack of striped blue candles.

"All of 'em?"

Kitty smiled. "No. The way Hanukkah works is that you light one candle on the first night, two candles on the second, and then on the eighth night everything is lit." She opened up the package and she put the menorah on the coffee table in front of them. She set one candle in the rightmost holder.

"I got a lighter."

Kitty had just realized that she totally forgot to grab the matches from the kitchen – she smiled gratefully to Lance. "That'd be great." He sat back down and she took the lighter. Three tries later, she was able to light the middle candle, "This is called the shamash, and it's the one that you use to light the other candles." She recited the blessings – because she wasn't a good singer, like her mom – in Hebrew, the ones she'd memorized as a little girl, and then lit the first candle. She put the shamash in its holder and recited the haneirot hallalu.

"That's it?" Lance asked her when it was finished, and Kitty nodded.

"Yeah. We do that every night," she replied, "And we usually put the menorah in the window at home." The one that belonged to her parents was beautiful, it was super old. It was the one her dad had grown up with so it'd been in the family forever. "And there are dreidel games, which are fun." Kitty opened her bag again and pulled out a box wrapped in blue paper and tied with a silver ribbon. Instead of a bow, there was a little mesh bag of chocolate coins in gold foil. She gave the gift to Lance. "These are Hanukkah coins. It's what we play for at my house."

"Anybody ever play for real money?" he asked.

Kitty gave him a look. "That's not what Hanukkah is about, Lance." Maybe some people did, but not in her family. "I have another gift for you," she gave him the gingerbread cookies, "We made – I mean, I didn't make them but I helped decorate – these yesterday. They're really good." She wished she had some of those Hanukkah tins that her grandmother used to send brownies, but all she had were plastic bags. "Annnnd-"

"Kitty, hold on." She reached back into the bag for the heaviest item of all – but Lance stopped her. "I got you a gift too. Lemme grab it." He went upstairs and she saw bits of plaster flake off from the ceiling where his footsteps landed one floor above. This building was totally falling apart. She couldn't believe he was living here.

When he returned, he had a small gift but it was beautifully wrapped in blue with a big silver bow on it. "Did you wrap that yourself?" she asked him, impressed.

"What? No." He took one look at the box and shrugged, "There was this woman at the j-" he stopped himself short of giving it away, "They did it, uh, there," was all he said. "But I picked it out." Sort of. Actually, Pietro had to help him out (and he complained the whole time about having to go to the mall for the X-Cat). Lance didn't have a lot of experience getting gifts because the girls he used to… uh, not really 'date', sort of… look, they weren't like Kitty. He'd never gone with a girl like Kitty before, so this was… different. Not in a bad way, though.

"You didn't have to get me a gift." But she was excited that he did.

"You didn't have to get me one either," he replied.

Kitty dismissed that by picking up his gift and giving it to him. "You go first," she encouraged, "I want to see what you think." She held her present in her lap and watched as Lance tore through the paper – and the box – in a way that would have made her mom cringe. Kitty's mom always tried to save boxes during the holidays.

Lance opened the box, balled up the tissue paper, and pulled out her gifts. Kitty gave him a scarf, dark, olive green, so dark it was nearly black. And some new black gloves (these ones didn't have holes in the fingers like his old ones). She would have liked to get him a jacket but the good ones were really expensive and she didn't really know his size. She was a little nervous because, okay, she'd never seen Lance wear a scarf before in his life but maybe that was because he didn't have one. And New York was no joke in the winter.

"Do you like it?" she asked him anxiously, worried by his silence. "And the gloves? I wasn't sure if they'd fit," she bought them based on what Jean knew Scott's glove size to be – but she wasn't about to tell Lance that, "So if you need me to exchange them, I can totally do that. I saved all the receipts."

"Kitty, they're great," Lance said, practically cutting her off. He smiled at her. "Best gift I ever got." Really? Did he mean that? It made her wonder how many times no one ever got him anything… "Thanks."

Kitty couldn't stop smiling. She felt like such a dork. "You're welcome."

He put the scarf and the gloves on the table, and tossed the box on the floor. "Your turn."

"Okay." Kitty carefully slid her finger under the tape on the sides and unwrapped her gift without ripping the paper. It was habit, mostly. It was a jewelry box. She glanced at Lance and he was watching her – and if she didn't know better, she'd have thought he was nervous. She opened the box and saw a sterling silver bracelet with blue gemstones in it. It almost matched her eyes.

"Lance," Kitty gasped happily, tugging the bracelet free of its case, "It's beautiful. Will you put it on me?" She undid the clasp and held it out to him.

"Yeah, sure," he agreed, and it took him a few tries to get it on her wrist, "I'm glad you like it."

"I love it." It was just the right size too, she realized, once he'd gotten the clasp to snap back in place. She held up her wrist and it shone so prettily in the candlelight of the menorah. "Thank you so much." Kitty leaned forward and kissed him chastely on the cheek. She pulled away, a little, and he put one hand under her chin to turn her face towards him. Then he kissed her.

Kitty loved the way Lance kissed her. It made her heart beat so fast when his hand slid from her chin to her cheek, where he tucked her hair behind one ear. His fingers brushed her throat and she swore she was seeing stars. His other arm was around her waist, pulling her closer and she didn't resist. He deepened the kiss and she felt for his shoulders with her eyes closed, touched the roughness of his vest and wrapped her arms around his neck.

She ended up in his lap, straddling his tattered jeans with her own (from Old Navy), and it wasn't until he slid one hand under her shirt, cradling her lower back, that she… kind of came to her senses. The slight tremoring of the house helped, too. That was him, not her. "Lance," Kitty pulled away breathlessly, and said the name against his lips. He just kissed her again. She tried again, after a few seconds of god, he's such a good kisser which made it hard to concentrate. "Lance, seriously. I don't want your friends walking in on us."

His eyes looked so dark when they focused on her, and he just grinned. "Not gonna happen, Pretty Kitty," he assured her, kissing her jaw when she turned her face away to avoid his lips. "I told 'em I'd bury 'em if they showed up early."

"Really?"

"Yeah." He kissed her again, and she let him. She kept getting distracted.

"Lance." This time Kitty untangled her fingers from his hair and put them on his shoulders to push away, because she definitely needed some distance to think. "We should stop."

"Why?" He got his hand out from under her shirt and wrapped both arms around her back. "Man, I like you like this."

"Like what?" She couldn't handle the way he was looking at her, so she looked down between them.

"With me." That made her blush, and Lance took advantage of that to run one hand up her back and dig his fingers gently into her ponytail. He pulled it loose. Kitty never wore her hair down, but when Lance tossed the band aside it tumbled down a couple inches past her shoulders. "You are so hot."

"I am not hot." Kitty laughed a little. She was not 'hot'. She was 'cute', she thought, on a good day (like, a very good day). She wasn't Jean, or even Tabby. She felt like she was average.

"You are," he said roughly, "To me."

That totally got her. Not the words, exactly, but the way he said it. It was the truth. Kitty kissed him hard and forgot all about distance for the next five minutes. Then she remembered again, just barely, why she tried to pull away in the place. "Lance, we really should stop." He disagreed. Big surprise. "No, I just- Lance," she tried to get his attention, and took his face in her hands. "I brought something fun for us to do." To celebrate. It was the thing she was most excited about until he started kissing her.

"This is fun," he replied in a voice that made her squirm, and tried to kiss her again.

"No, I'm serious. Lance, I really want to play. Come on." She dropped her hands from his face and rested them on his forearms to encourage him to let her go. "I'll just phase if you don't," she warned him when he still seemed reluctant to switch gears.

"Alright," he caved, grumbling as he let her go, "I got a feeling whatever 'fun' you got planned is not as fun as that."

"Maybe not," Kitty acknowledged, climbing off his lap and patting his knee comfortingly, "But it's still pretty fun. Are you ready?"

Lance shifted in his seat. "Yeah. Wow me." She ignored the sarcasm.

Kitty reached into the bag and pulled out what she had on loan from the Institute. "So, I just borrowed this for tonight but…"

He leaned forward with actual interest. "Is that a Game Cube?"

"It is," Kitty replied with a big smile. Plus two controllers. And most importantly? She held up the game. "Mario Kart: Double Dash. Have you ever played?" Lance shook his head. He'd never had that kind of stuff - couldn't afford it. Bobby taught Kitty how to play, and now she really liked it. "Well, tonight's your lucky night. We are gonna race." It was a really popular game at the Institute, and entertaining for the spectators. Sometimes they had 'competitions', and there was a lot of popcorn involved.

"What does the winner get?" Lance wanted to know, taking the game from her and glancing at the back of the case.

"Good question," Kitty admitted – because she hadn't thought that far ahead, "How about…" she smiled at him, "… the winner gets to decide what we do next."

That really peaked Lance's interest, and she didn't need to be telepathic to know why. "I'm in," he said immediately, "Give me the console, I'll see what I can do." While he was trying to figure out the knot of wires behind the TV to hook everything up, he added belatedly, "You know I'm not gonna go easy on you, right?"

Kitty scoffed lightly, toying with her new bracelet. "Oh please. Like I need you to." She was an X-Man, thank you very much. She could handle any challenge. And this? It was going to be a piece of cake.