(A little bit of Christmas-themed Kyro fluff.

I hate the holidays. Hmmph.

Jeanette, if you're reading this, stop it! Stop it right now!)

Mistletoe

"Would you stop kissing me?!"

Kitty Pryde glowered at John Allerdyce like she was ready to suckerpunch him at any moment. Her face was flushed and her lips were swollen from his kisses. For the past few days, everywhere she turned, the jerk seemed to just jump out of nowhere at her and kiss her till she was dizzy. It was driving her insane!

"Hey!" He smirked at her. "I'm not the one who keeps hanging around mistletoe! What kind of guy would I be if I ignored such a blatant invitation as that?"

"Blatant in - !" She hissed in fury. "No way would I ever do something like that just to get someone to kiss me! And certainly not you! You're disgusting!"

He raised his eyebrows in mock outrage. "Disgusting? Really? Do you always do that little thing with your tongue that you do when you're kissing someone who's disgusting?"

"Oh, my God!" She covered her suddenly flaming face with her hands and groaned in complete mortification. "You – never tell anyone about that!" She glared at him through the gaps between her fingers. "This has got to stop!"

He only grinned at her. "You stop it," he challenged.

"Oh!" She growled. "You - " Bereft of words, she turned her back on him and stalked off angrily.

"That asshole!" she ranted to herself. "Thinks he's so irresistible with just a few lousy kisses. The nerve! The conceit! He is so not a good kisser! Other guys kiss better than he does, like – like, - other guys! Stupid John Allerdyce!"

She walked past and through her schoolmates, blindly phasing through anything in her way. Everyone gave her startled and curious looks when they heard her muttering to herself. She made her way to the library, where she was sure she could find some sort of refuge from John Allerdyce and his damnable kisses. Not that she was still thinking about his kisses. Absolutely not!

She practically kicked the doors open when she got to the library. Then her eyes widened at the sight that greeted her.

Jones was inside, along with another kid named Elmer. The little insomniac was holding a box half-full of mistletoe. He would pick one and hand it to his friend who then stuck it to the ceiling. The boy was using his mutant power to accomplish this task. He would secrete an adhesive substance from his pores and, with an excellent aim, fling it to the ceiling along with the piece of mistletoe.

When they saw Kitty, looks of such guilt quickly passed over both their faces. A sneaking suspicion then came into her mind.

"What are you doing?" she asked them in a carefully calm voice.

"Uh. Hanging mistletoe," Jones replied. Elmer just looked like a trapped rodent.

"Really? Who told you guys to do that?" Kitty's voice was still very controlled.

"We were hired!" Elmer squeaked out.

"Shut up! We're not supposed to tell, you moron!" Jones hit Elmer on the head in annoyance.

"You – were hired." She spoke very slowly. "I see. The two of you come with me, please."

She led them out of the library. A student was walking by and she grabbed him. "Have you seen John Allerdyce?" she demanded.

"Jesus!" He looked at her like she had gone nuts. "I just saw him go to the rec room with Bobby Drake. Could you let go of my shirt now?"

She let him go. Fixing the two nervous boys with an evil eye, she had them march in front of her as they headed for the rec room.

"John Allerdyce!" She immediately shouted his name once she saw him.

"What the hell!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"You low, shameless, conniving jerk!"

He scowled. "What the hell did I do?"

"What did you do? You set me up, you asshole! I found out about your pathetic little plan! You hired these two gremlins to hang mistletoe all over the place so you would have an excuse to kiss me!"

John burst out laughing. He laughed long and hard. Kitty was thoroughly confused. Everyone else in the rec room couldn't wait to see what happened next.

"Pryde," he said in between guffaws, "you're a riot! I hired those two to hang mistletoe just so I could kiss you? Please! If I wanted to kiss you, I'd kiss you. I don't need any stupid mistletoe to give me a reason."

"But – but they said you hired them to do it!" she protested.

"Did they?" he scoffed. "They really said that?"

"Well - " She tried to remember exactly what the two boys had said.

"Actually," Jones chirped up, "he hired us." He pointed to the real mastermind.

Kitty's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Kitty, I swear I had nothing to do with any of this," Bobby Drake said. "Honest!"

"Bobby."

"You little - !" Before Kitty could get her hands on him, Bobby sprang from the couch and rushed toward Jones and Elmer. The two boys yelped in fright then scampered for their lives.

John Allerdyce looked at Kitty Pryde. His face was smug. He was really enjoying this. "I believe a certain person owes me an apology."

She pretended not to have heard him. "What do you mean that if you really wanted to kiss me, you don't need mistletoe as an excuse? So you mean you didn't really want to kiss me all those times that you did kiss me?"

"Oh, for God's sake!" Suddenly, he couldn't meet her eyes. "Will you just let it go, Pryde?"

"No!" She shook her head vigorously.

He glared at her. She glared back.

His gaze was caught by something. He suddenly surprised her by pointing to the ceiling. "Mistletoe," he said. She looked up, and there it was. She was standing right under it.

He took out his lighter and, using his power to control fire, he sent a tongue of flame to consume and burn up the little sprig. It fell on his outstretched hand as ash. He then met her eyes. She knew what he was going to do even before he moved to hold her close.

They kissed. And they kept kissing, completely lost in each other until the loud cheers of their schoolmates reminded them that they were not alone. They ended the kiss then, but very reluctantly.

John grinned as he rested his forehead against hers. "See? Didn't need mistletoe."

She couldn't help grinning, too. "Yeah. Definitely no mistletoe."

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"I'm only ten, but I do know that there are easier ways to get a girl," Elmer grumbled later on. Jones, who was standing beside him, nodded in agreement.

"Whatever, Short Round. You boys did your part well. Here you go then. Payday." They were each handed a fifty dollar bill. The two of them smiled up at their employer.

"Sweet!" Jones exclaimed.

John Allerdyce smirked. "Good work."

The End