Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men.

A/N: I've just realized that this fic is at least 95 pointless fluff. I do, however, have a plan, so this pointless fluff is at least going somewhere. Well, I hope you like this chapter. As always, pretty please review. If you review, I'll give you a cookie. (They're chocolate chip!) And I'm terribly sorry, my formatting is still funky, so my chapter title is still messing up.

Oh, and does anybody like to draw? I keep wishing I could draw some of my characters, but I suck at drawing. So if anybody's interested, drop me a line and I'll send a character sketch along.

Chapter 10 – Snowstorms Past and Present

"Time to get up! It's a roaring blizzard outside, and we have to dig a path out the door."

"Ungh?" Chris said, opening his eyes and looking for the source of the voice. "Eve!" he yelled when he saw her standing in the doorway. "Aren't you supposed to knock?"

Eve shrugged and leaned against the doorframe. "I did. You didn't wake up." She grinned at him. "The X-Men are off on a mission, so Storm's not around to keep the weather at bay. So we have to dig out the doors."

Chris groaned and pulled his blanket over his head. "I don't want to get up. Why do we need to get outside into a blizzard anyway?" he mumbled.

"Come on," Eve said, walking in and sitting down on the end of his bed. "It'll be fun. We get to play in the snow like five-year-olds. I don't know about you, but it's been years since I've put on a snowsuit and gone out to play in the snow."

"It can be more years for me as far as I'm concerned," Chris grumbled, poking his head out from under his blanket. "And why are you taking over my bed?" he asked, staring at Eve, who was sprawled out across the end of the bed.

Eve shrugged. "Because your bed is comfy." She sat up again and poked him in the leg. "Come on. Get up." When Chris didn't respond, she stood up, grabbed the blankets, and yanked them off the bed.

"Hey!" Chris yelled, making a grab at them and missing. "It's cold!" He curled up into a little ball by his pillow, pulling his arms into his shirt to try to conserve his body heat.

"Well, you won't be cold if you get up!" Eve sat down beside him and shook his shoulder. "Come on! Clarise said we're all supposed to help."

"Second day on the team," Chris grumbled. Then he uncurled himself and sat up. "Now if you'll get out of my room, I'll get dressed so I can go help."

Eve jumped up. "Yay!" She walked out the door and shut it behind her. Chris could hear her footsteps running down the hall. He sighed, then stood up and found a sweater and some jeans in his dresser and pulled them on. Then he left.

"Do you need some help?" Eve asked, watching Chris trying to fight his way into his snowsuit.

"No," Chris grunted, doing his best to fight his way into it through sheer force of will, his wings a huge hinderance.

Andrew looked over at him in an amused manner. "It might help," he said calmly, with just a hint of humor, "if you were to not put it on backwards." He grinned. "Just a thought."

Chris looked down at his snowsuit. He stared at it for a moment, then withdrew his arms and stepped out of the legs. Then he turned it around and stepped into it again. "Thanks," he said grudgingly, pushing his arms through the sleeves and zipping up the front of the suit. Eve sniggered, and Chris elbowed her lightly.

"Alright team!" Clarise said, clapping her mittened hands together. "Let's get out and shovel!"

"You're too happy about this," Lynette protested, wrapping her rainbow scarf tighter around her neck. "How can you be so happy about shoveling?"

"Because I'm a happy person," Clarise said, opening the door and letting in a gust of cold air before stepping outside. "Come on! Let's go!" With much grumbling, the rest of her team followed her out into the snow with their shovels.

An hour later, Chris and Andrew were sitting on a snowbank taking a break. A few yards away, Clarise and Eve were continuing to shovel off the basketball court. Since the X-Men were gone, Clarise had decided that the hanger should at least be able to open without letting a huge amount of snow into the basement, so after they had cleared a path out the door, they had come here and set to clearing off the doors.

"Alright, your turn," Eve said, flopping down in the snowbank between Chris and Andrew. Lynette sat down on the other side of Andrew, letting her shovel fall beside her. Clarise remained standing, though she was pink-faced and leaning on her shovel.

Chris groaned, but pushed himself up and shuffled off behind Andrew to shovel off the next part of the court. "I hate shoveling," Chris muttered darkly.

Andrew smiled at him. "Don't we all?"

After a few minutes of shoveling, Chris looked at the girls on the snowbank. Then he looked at Andrew. "I just got this crazy idea," he said. Andrew nodded, and Chris scooped up a handful of snow.

"Hey!" Eve shouted, lying backwards in the snow to avoid the snowball that whizzed by where her head had been. "What are you doing?" Her only response was a snowball catching her in the stomach. Sitting up, she grabbed some snow and hurled it back. She missed both targets, but managed to grab her shovel in time to ward off another snowball, this one from Andrew.

"Guys," Clarise called halfheartedly, "we're supposed to be shoveling the court off, remember?" She had to duck quickly as Chris threw a snowball at her, missing her by inches. When she looked up again, Chris was hiding his face behind his shovel. She snarled, and he poked his head out from one side, then the other. Thwap! He shook his head and madly tried to get the snow off his face. Lynette fell backwards into the snow, giggling madly. A snowball came hurtling out of nowhere to hit her in the chin. "Hey!" she yelled, attempting to brush the snow off her neck without getting it down her shirt – something she failed to achieve. "Andrew Miller, you are going down!"

Across the cleared space, Andrew gave an uncharacteristic snort of laughter and threw another snowball, which Lynette managed to duck before throwing back one of her own. It hit Andrew in his chest, though it was clear that he had made no attempt to move.

Eve scooped up some snow, then thought better of it and simply hurled herself at Chris, catching him off guard and slamming him into the snowbank behind him. "Gotcha!" she said. Then she swore as Chris pushed her back and hurled two handfuls of snow at her.

Clarise shook her head as she watched the scene. She had to admire the maturity of her team. She admired it even more when four snowballs struck her and knocked her back into the snow.

From a second-story window, Basil watched the snowball fight. He massaged his temples, wishing that his headache would go away. He knew he was going to be thrown, and he had a good idea when. But he didn't want to go – he didn't want to remember that. But that didn't matter to his mind, which hurled him back regardless.

He knew what he would see through the window even before he opened his eyes to look outside. Theresa was hiding behind a small wall of snow with her brother, throwing snowballs across the open space at three people hiding behind another fort. As he watched, his past self slipped out the door, picked up some snow, and hurled it at Clarise, catching her off guard. He watched himself drop down behind the wall with Theresa and Chris and fire off another snowball.

He remembered the rest of the day – how he accidentally brought Theresa back in time, and how he had been so furious with her. He sighed and leaned his forehead against the window. Oh, Basil, he thought to himself, if only you knew.