Christmas

Peter and Rogue were getting their house ready for Pipers first Christmas; Peter had gotten a tree while Rogue and May decorated the house. They had a big turkey in the freezer and May was looking to teach Rogue how to prepare some of Peter's favorite Christmas delights.

"Let's start with the Cranberries Anna."

May never Called Rogue anything but Anna, normally she would hate it but Rogue wasn't so bothered when May called her that

"Why are you teaching Meh all this May?"

"Oh My dear Anna it is tradition in my family that a woman teaches her daughter the proper way to her man's heart."

"But Ah'm not your daughter"

"Yes you are dear, you have been for a long time now" May smiles and turned back to watching May prepare the food.

Inside the mansion Peter was helping Scott and the Professor load up the van for the students who were leaving for the holidays. Normally Scott would leave to go see his brother, but he was away at a surfing competition in California, and Jean decided to invite her parents to the institute to tell them that she and Scott were not only engaged but also Pregnant. Scott lamented at that conversation.

Kurt was getting ready to leave to go Germany to visit his Parents and couldn't wait to see them but before he left he had to say goodbye to Amanda and he teleported to her Parents place. Recently Kurt had told her parents that he was a mutant and showed them what he looked like. They were very welcoming right from the start being that they were of a minority; they sympathised with Kurt and were happy to let them date their daughter.

Kitty Decided to stay this year. Her father was busy working on a new project for Stark industries, it wasn't easy letting go of his position at Lockheed but when the reveal of mutants came out his superiors wanted him to work on creating a means to police and capture mutants. Her father refused and was forced to quit. Kitty called up Tony and got him to offer her dad a job within the Stark propulsion labs. Since then things couldn't have been better for the Pryde family until her mom passed away in a car crash. The roads were icy and some dumb kid with his two best friends decided to party hard and drive home they ran a red light and T-boned Kitty`s mom killing her on impact. Since then Kitty`s father had been burying himself in his work. Kitty tried to help her father but he just wouldn`t accept it. The two of them barely talk these days. So this year she decided to stay with her boyfriend Piotr and his sister for Christmas this year. Kitty was also interested in the food Illyana was making though they weren't religious Piotr and Illyana do love what Christmas was all about and for this being their first Christmas with friends at a place they could call home they decided to share a Russian traditional dinner which had no meat and had lots of honey which Kitty loved.

Amara as usual decided to go home to Nova Roma. Tabby didn`t want to be a bother at Christmas as she had no family to speak of and was going to go to New York for a while but Amara invited her to come to Nova Roma with her. After a couple hours and a few threats to burn her clothes to cinders Tabby finally agreed. Sam went back to Kentucky he couldn't leave fast enough apparently his sister was sick and he needed to get home quickly. They loaded up the van and left for the airport."

They all went inside and got the dinner ready, a few hours' later Jeans parents had arrived, Jean and Scott went to go and greet them. Dr. John and Elaine grey got out of their car and grabbed their bags they got to the door where the young couple was waiting for them. Elaine grabbed her daughter and gave her a hug while Dr. Grey shook Scott's hand.

"Jean, Scott it is so good to see you" Elaine said

"Mom, Dad I am so happy to see you I have much to tell you but I think we should go inside its freezing"

As she turned to go inside Jeans engagement ring that Scott gave her glinted and caught Elaine's eye she quickly grabbed her daughter's hand.

"Jean what is this?" her mother asked

"Inside please I'm too cold to talk out here" they walked inside and before her parents even take their coats off the pressure her for an answer.

"Now what's going on Jean" Elaine pushes

"Well I was going to tell you over dinner but if you insist Scott has asked me to marry him."

Elaine's eyes go to the size of saucers with joy and pride she grabs her daughter and begins to hug her tightly.

"Mom, need air." Jean squeaks out

"Oh sorry honey." She was beaming and Dr. Grey just stood there glaring daggers at his daughter's fiancée.

"There is something else" Jean said nervously

"What you're not pregnant are you?" Elaine said jokingly and begins to laugh but quickly stop when she noticed Jean wasn't going along with it "Tell me please are you pregnant."

"Uh….yeah…kinda" Jean said sounding like a little girl with her hand stuck in a cookie jar.

The daggers that Dr. Grey was shooting at Scott quickly turned to bazookas he was not happy Scott had taken his child's innocence.

"What were you thinking Jean your barely out of college you haven't even found a job yet." Elaine said in a panic

"Mom, relax, breathe this wasn't something we planned for but it has happened yes the timing could have been better but we can't undo it now and we wouldn't even if we could, I love Scott and this is our daughter. If you don't like it then you can leave."

Dr. Grey who was silent this whole time walked up to Scott and tried to stare him down. If he had a shot-gun right now he would have either used it or found a priest to conduct the ceremony right there.

"Do you love my daughter Scott?"

"Yes sir I do." Scott wasn't backing down, he would prefer it if the man accepted the situation gladly but he wasn't about to leave Jean to the wolves either.

"Are you willing to take care of her protect her and her child." Dr. Grey pushed back

"Willing? Yes but we will take care and protect each other that much I can promise you" Scott replied

"Then I guess I am…glad to welcome you to the family"

Scott let out a very nervous breath that he never realised he had held

"Scott I am glad my daughter has found someone like you I know you will do just fine. Now let's go eat I'm starving" Dr. Grey gave Scott a quick smile and took of his jacket and then went to go eat.

The rest of the evening went without incident and everyone enjoyed the atmosphere. Piper was having a blast with Elaine. She really enjoyed playing with her preparing herself for when Jean had her child.

They all went to bed excited for tomorrow as it was Christmas.

Christmas day

Everyone woke up and went down stairs to the tree in main living area Peter and Scott took it upon themselves to distribute the gifts to everyone. Piper was the big winner as she took most of the gifts since it was her first Christmas. She mostly got clothes that she would probably grow out of in a month. Scott handed his gifts to Jeans and her family. He gave Jeans dad a nice bottle of scotch for her mom Scott gave her a metal cover photo album with some pictures taken from Jean and Scott's time at the institute and to Jean he gave her a beautiful diamond necklace.

MJ and Gambit received gifts from each other. MJ received a nice English style wool duffel coat in navy blue.

"Thank you Remy I really needed this."

"Gambit Knows Cherie but you did not have to get Gambit anything."

"Come on Remy just open it."

Remy opened his gift and found 2 metal cases one was a personalized Poker set and the other was a case full of decks of playing cards.

"The one box is for when you're out with the team the other is for when you want to just hang around with the guys."

"Thank you Mary Jane"

Everyone just smiled and for MJ a small tear formed at the side of her eye. Gambit never called her by her full name that was the greatest present she has ever gotten.

The Professor was next he got a new designer suit and in the breast pocket was a business card he looked at it and there was a phone number from a woman who went by the name Lilandra.

"Who is Lilandra?"

"She is the dancer you had hired for my bachelor party she was working at the suit store where we bought that suit for you. She said she was quite impressed." Peter teased and Charles just went red.

Everyone had a chuckle at that.

"I'm sorry I missed it sounds like it was fun" Piotr said as he was eating some of the leftovers from dinner

"Trust me the day after was not worth it." Peter replied

Illyana opened her gift from Kitty and was surprised at what she was given. Kitty had done some research and found a Russian nesting doll she ordered it and it arrived just in time for Christmas. Illyana began to tear up she had always wanted one but her parents could never afford one.

"Spasibo Sestra Katya, Spasibo" she grabbed Kitty and hugged her tightly

"Uh what did she like say" she asked Piotr

"She said thank you sister, Katya, she has always wanted one but our parents could never afford one and when they died and we came out as mutants we were always on the run so we never had any personal possessions aside from our clothes" Piotr picked up his gift he unwrapped it though not as emotional as Illyana's gift it was well received.

"Valenki boots, Spasibo Katya I needed a new pair."

"Vash privetstvuyetsya (your welcome), I have been learning some phrases." Kitty responds to the look that the Russians were giving her.

Rogue went next and opened her gift from Peter. It was a pair of flannel pajamas which she took with great pleasure since she loved the feel of flannel on cold nights. Peter opened his gift next from Rogue she had gotten him a bottle of very pleasant smelling cologne. He thanked her and offered May her gift from the both of them. She opened it inside was a series of pictures one was of Peter Rogue and Piper which was framed in a nice silver frame. The next picture was of the entire student body along the outside of the frame was the signatures of all the X-men and staff at the bottom was a small engraving that read "to the woman who has everything with love the students of the Xavier institute." and the last picture was of Ben Parker when he was a young man. It was her favorite one of him. The original frame was damaged some time ago during the move to the facility Peter took and had it fixed. May held the picture of Ben then tears began to fall on her face she got up from her seat and began to cry as she hugged her family.

"Thank you so much this is very kind of you truly." May said as she left for the bathroom the pain in her side was really starting to hurt. She took her medication and looked at herself in the mirror she knew she was on borrowed time but she didn't want to ruin Christmas. She splashed some water on her face put on her best face and went to the kitchen to start on breakfast. A few hours later everyone was fed and having a good time. It was one of the best Christmases that the parkers ever had.