Once upon a time, there was a house. Well, if you could call it that. It was a boarding home, made for high school students with no home for their own. But inside it lived the strangest high school students you would ever meet. Today seemed to be one of their more peaceful days, since the group of poorly taken care of teenagers were huddled around a large table filled with large assortments of steaming food. This was a common occurrence as of late, thanks to their newest and oldest recruitment.
She was from down South.
"Mmm, smells great, yo. Lets dig in." The smallest... and greenest one licked his lips with a large green-tinged tongue, looking at his meal in delight.
"Not until we all say what we're thankful for." A voice rang out slowly, coming from the biggest boy in the house. He glared at Todd, the green man, who immediately set down his fork.
"The Blob? Denying food? What is the world coming too!" Todd laughed at his own joke.
The Brotherhood were placed around a long extravagant table created from when Pietro decided to take up a new hobby that only lasted three days. They couldn't find a lathe that worked fast enough for him.
"No, it's just that," Fred played with his unnaturally large digits, looking a bit shy, "Back home, ma wouldn't let us eat until we all said what we were thankful for. She said it was a Thanksgiving tradition." He blushed and stared down at his food before glancing at Lance at the head of the table.
Rogue and Lance, being the natural leaders in the house, sat at the heads of the table. Or the head and the butt. But since they considered themselves equal in power (even though everyone knew Rogue could wipe the floor with Lance) they called both sides of the table heads.
"How about you start, Rocky?" Rogue raised an eyebrow, implying that he had to make Fred happy. Or die.
It was an unspoken rule that whenever someone spoke of family traditions, the rest of the Brotherhood had to do anything in their power to uphold it. Even if it meant saying what they were thankful for on Thanksgiving.
"Well," Lance said, sitting at the head of the table with Rogue at the opposite side. They were the natural parents of the group, "I guess I'm thankful that Roguey is back with the Brotherhood."
There was a collective cheer at the table.
"And that we haven't killed each other," He glared at Pietro playfully, "Yet. Wanda?"
The woman flanking his right side frowned a little bit, thinking of what on Earth she could be thankful for, "I'm thankful for all the things my father has done for us," Everyone at the table hid their cringe, "Pietro? What are you thankful for?"
"I'm-thankful-that-I'm-the-twin-with-the-looks," He said automatically with a smirk.
"Please, yo' thankful fo' blue hair and brown eyes." Rogue teased.
"Shut-up, Roguey." The albino, for once in his life, blushed.
"Don't you mean brown hair and blue eyes, yo?" Toad asked from across the table.
"No, Ah'm talking about a certain mutant who recently dyed her hair blue." Rogue said, somehow knowing every mutant in existence.
"What are you talking about?" Pietro's eyes were shifty and his face was steadily growing red as the table looked at Rogue in question.
"Wolvie, one of the few X-Men who still talk tah meh," She wasn't very well-liked since her departure from Xaviers', "Brought a girl ovah to the house yesterday-"
"How come we didn't see her?" Lance frowned.
"Cause y'all were buggin' the rest of the X-Men or somethin' and Pie was keepin' meh company. Anyway, she somehow already him and they got intah this big fight. Or atleast she tried tah kill him and he dodged, flirtin' with her like the idiot he was."
"Sounds fun." Wanda shrugged, talking about the killing part. Not the flirting. No twincest here.
"She's Logan's clone."
A look of disgust graced every face of the room except for the two with the white hair. Rogue and Pietro.
"And has recently decided to come out of her angry, hurt look and get a personality. Still doesn't know anythin' about how the world works," Rogue mused, not noticing all the looks everyone was giving Pietro, "She's actually comin' over tomorrow. Not that anyone other than Logan knows. He probably thinks of the both of us as his daughters, therefore we have tah bond. She actually doesn't look anythin' like him, othah then the animal face and the claws."
"Um, so what are you thankful for?" Fred asked, wondering if she was done talking to herself.
"Oh, yeah. Ah'm thankful fo' the fact that ya'll finally talked meh into comin' back to mah family, the five-finger discount used tah make this wonderful meal, and that even with all the mutant protesters and creeps in the world, we can still be happy, love, and live."
Fred sniffed, always finding Hallmark-like sentiments able to bring him to tears.
"I'm just thankful for my pudding bear." Wanda's eyes twitched, trying oh-so hard not to hex anything sharp and pointy, say the turkey carving knife, into his face.
"What are you thankful fo', Fred?" Rogue asked in a kind manner that would've scared any X-Men who happened to see her.
"Well, um, I'm thankful that Mystique recruited me, even though she scares me, and I'm really glad that we have food."
"Great, yo, now let's eat."
"Wait," Fred protested, "We have to say grace!"
"Doesn't that come before we say what we're thankful for?" Lance asked, not used to the traditional American ways.
"Uh, I dunno. But we still got to say it."
"How do you say it then?"
"I don't know! My ma always said it for me!"
"Then how do we say it if we don't know it!"
Both of the temperamental mutants were close to losing their tempers. Rogue could sense that in five seconds, either bits of plaster were going to fall in her culinary masterpiece or Fred's fist would make it impossible to tell the mashed potato from the turkey.
"How about ya both stop actin' lahke idiots and Ah'll say grace?" She yelled out, wondering if she actually knew how to say it.
"Oh, okay." Fred smiled.
"Join hands." She ordered, grabbing Fred and Pietro's hands with her gloved ones.
"Fine, fine. No need to be so pushy, woman." Pietro sniffed.
"Okay. Thank you God for all the wonderful blessings," She frowned, trying to remember what came after that, "Jesus, thank you for loving us," Was that even part of it? Is she starting off a new prayer now? "And providing food, shelter, and each other." Time to draw from the Hallmark cards, "Every moment of our lives is a gift, and we appreciate all the time you have given us. Thank you for all our good fortune. Amen."
"Amen." The table murmured. Not the table, but the people sitting in it.
"That sounded a little different. Do they say a different Grace in Mississippi then they do in the West?"
"Ah don't know, Ah never lived there," And she never said grace when she lived with Irene.
"Now can we eat?" Todd whimpered.
"Yeah. What are you waiting for?" Fred ripped a turkey leg from Rogue's masterpiece and started eating like the overweight mutant he normally was.
"Happy Thanksgiving." Wanda sighed sarcastically to herself before she dug in and ate like an animal with the rest of her family.
Author's Note: Happy Day After Thanksgiving! It's a little weird, and maybe a little OOC, but who cares!