As a thick layer of snow slowly descended over the small town of Bayville, it seemed as if the entire town had been frozen in place in the night. On every street, the houses were dark and silent; they could almost have been mistaken for empty. In some homes, small fires blazed in the hearths, and heating systems pumped the house full of warm air to keep out the early winter chill. In the Xavier Institute, a dozen young mutants could be found snuggled warmly in their beds, fast asleep. The entire town seemed to be trapped in an idyllic picture, almost something off of a postcard- it was a winter paradise.

However, in the Brotherhood Boarding House, a very different scene was playing out. The Brotherhood, incidentally, had neglected to pay their heating bills that month; thus, their heat had been shut off. Being without heat in a drafty house in the middle of a major snowstorm was a precarious situation for all involved, to be sure. None of the teens living in the house could seem to find a single effective way to stay consistently warm, especially overnight.

So this is why, on the night of this snowfall, if one had entered the living room of the Brotherhood Borading House they would have found five teenagers, bundled up in several layers of their warmest clothes, huddled in the middle of the room in a large puppy pile to stay warm. Draped over and around each other in a hectic fashion, they looked almost comical- but all was not content with the Brotherhood that night. For, you see, some of the young mutants were simply finding it impossible to sleep.

"Do you think they're awake in Tokyo right now?" Todd asked quietly, his eyes fixed on an unidentified stain decorating the living room ceiling. Next to him, he felt Pietro shift slightly.

"I could go check," the speed mutant offered, clearly having as much trouble finding sleep as Todd himself. For the past few minutes he had been entertaining himself with running his fingers through his hair numerous times, something that did little for his short attention span and seemingly constant restlessness. His antics were beginning to grow tiresome- not only for he himself, but for the other Brotherhood members as well, especially those who were actually putting in an effort to get to sleep.

"Please don't," groaned Lance from under the both of them. "You guys might be content with staying up all night, but I actually want to get some sleep before school tomorrow."

"Relax," Pietro said dismissively, shifting to look at his friend. "School's gonna be cancelled anyway. It's snowing too hard."

"And since when did you care about school?" asked Toad, causing Lance to roll his eyes.

"Ever since he started talking to Kitty everyday," Pietro replied with a wicked smirk, ignoring the sharp kick in the leg Lance sent his way.

"If you two don't watch it, you'll find yourselves tossed out in the cold before you can even blink."

"Hey, come on, yo!" grumbled Toad, pouting at the irritated Lance. "It's freezing out there! You wouldn't do that to us!"

"Not to lose valuable body heat, he wouldn't," Pietro said flatly, finally electing to give up sleep altogether and pushing himself into a sitting position from where he and Todd were draped across the slumbering Fred's stomach. Next to Todd, Tabitha groaned groggily and covered her head with her arms in an attempt to block out the racket that her housemates were making.

"You guys, come on," she moaned. "'M tired."

"See?" said Lance. "Tabby wants to sleep too!" The mutant in question merely turned on to her stomach, and without warning draped an arm around Todd's neck and pulled him nearer to her. The younger boy let out an alarmed gurgle.

"Tabby's also on my neck-" he pointed out before his statement turned into an troubling choking sound as the blonde girl's hold began to cut off his air supply. At his alarming noises, Tabitha loosened her hold slightly.

"Sorry Toddles," she murmured. "You're just so warm."

Pietro frowned petulantly, shifting over so that he was near Tabitha as well. "Hey, what about me?"

"You have next to no body heat, Pietro," Lance snorted, well beyond the point of irritation- and consciousness- now. "Why are you even here?"

"I'm here because it's cold Alvers, just like you," retorted Pietro, glaring, as Lance raised his hands to his heart in a gesture of mock-astonishment.

"I'm cold? Why, that hurts me deeply. How will I ever recover?"

"Shut uuuup," groaned Tabitha, shoving Pietro off of Fred's stomach- and directly on top of Lance, who was lying on the floor. Two simultaneous yelps sounded from both boys as their bodies made sharp impact with each other, and they both ended up sprawled painfully on the floor as Todd quietly snickered on from the safety of Freddy's hefty stomach.

"Ow," Lance groaned, rubbing the place in his ribs where Pietro's bony knee had dug into. Pietro managed to recover a bit quicker, and shook off to impact with an annoyed grunt.

"Forget it!" he announced, rising to his feet and throwing his hands in the air in- a rare gesture from Pietro Maximoff- defeat. "I am outta here. This so isn't worth not freezing to death."

"Where are you going?" questioned Lance as Pietro strode confidently towards the front door.

"Hawaii! Don't worry losers, I'll bring back souvenirs-" Pietro cast a wicked smirk over his shoulder- "if you all aren't popsicles by then."

Ignoring the irritated glances from the rest of his housemates, Pietro yanked open the front door. The flood of cold air that poured into the room for a moment shocked him; but he forced himself to get past his surprise, and without wasting another minute he sped out of the house, leaving the door swinging open behind him.

And it was a good thing he did, for not even fiver seconds later Pietro came zipping back into the room, covered from head to toe in snow and looking for all the world like the abominable snow monster. Eyes wide, he slammed the door shut, pressing his back to it in order to keep it sealed, and panted.

"And the king has returned," commented Lance dryly. "Where are our hula skirts, Kamehameha?"

"T-t-too c-cold," Pietro shivered, his teeth rattling loudly. "Way too c-c-cold." Staggering slightly, he made his way back over to the Brotherhood puppy pile, drawn by the small amount of warmth the group seemed to radiate, but was quickly blocked by Lance.

"Uh-uh-uh," he scolded, shaking his finger in the speedster's face. "What was that thing you said a few seconds ago- about popsicles?"

"And losers?" added Toad, crossing his arms and glowering down at Pietro from where he was still perched on Fred's stomach.

"Oh, come on guys!" whined Pietro. "I'm freezing my legs off here!"

Toad shook his head. "You gotta say you're sorry first."

"I- I-" An odd, contorted look came over Pietro's face as he tried to force the words out, and he trailed off with a wince.

"Come on Speedy," goaded Todd. "It ain't that hard. Two words: I'm sorry..."

"Okay, okay, fine, I'm sorry!" exclaimed Pietro, hugging his arms in an attempt to preserve any remaining body heat. "There! Is that good enough for you sadists?"

"Hmm..." Lance took a moment to ponder the question. "I don't know. Toad, what's your verdict?"

"I think we should make him-" Toad began, an evil glint shining in his yellow eyes, but he was cut off by none other than Pietro himself when the speed demon noticed something strange; Toad's breathing was no longer being restricted by an unwelcome set of arms around his neck.

"Uhh- hold on. Where's Boom-Boom?"

This was the moment that Lance, too, realized that the Brotherhood puppy pile was currently down one member- and as the entire room fell silent, a large explosion could suddenly be heard from nowhere else but outside of the house. His expression slowly shifted into one of dread. "Ohh no."

Todd, Pietro, and Lance all reached the front door around the same time. What they saw was nothing short of alarming- several large craters had been blasted into the newly fallen snow, the imprints of snow angels were already on the ground, and Tabitha was outside rolling the head for what appeared to be a tiny snowman sitting on the Brotherhood's front lawn. She continued on even after the boys opened up the door, blissfully unaware of both her housemates stares and the blistering cold.

"Are you crazy?" Pietro exclaimed. "Get back in here before you freeze to death!"

"It's not so bad once you get out here!" called back Tabby, gesturing for the boys to join her. "Come out!"

"No thanks. Jumping into an oven sounds a lot more appealing right now, honestly."

"Come on!" Tabitha rolled her eyes before sending the snowball she had been rolling directly towards Pietro's head. The speedster in question immediately dodged it, but Lance wasn't so lucky- the snow splattered all over his face, leaving him sputtering and shivering in the cold.

Pietro, remembering how Lance had mocked him only minutes ago, now crossed his arms and smirked at his friend. "Problem, Lance?"

"Why you little-" Lance snarled, and, reaching down, heaved another handful of snow at Pietro's head, thus initiating an all out snow fight between the three frolicking mutants.

"Hey, no, wait a sec!"

"Cold!"

"Watch the hair, watch the hair, watch the- Lance!"

"Whoa!"

Slowly, shaking his head and muttering to himself all the while, Toad allowed the front door to close on his own and walked back to where Fred still lay sleeping, hopping up onto his stomach and curling himself up comfortably. "Freddy," he murmured, squeezing his eyes shut as the sounds of his housemates shouting still filled his ears, "are we the only sane ones around here?"