Family: A Brotherhood Christmas Story
By: Kichara
Howdy peoples and all the Christmas-laden ferrets out there! My first X-Men Evolution story, about the Brotherhood (um, duh... O.o), because I love those guys! ^^ And I stalk them happily to show my looooove... Whelp, enough of my noize, it's too late too be coming up with an actual interesting intro (gasp!). Enjoy or I'll... trout you!!! Fear the trout!! *is hit by said fish* See? O.o
~'Twas the day before Christmas,
And the Brotherhood was out
'Cuz the guys had procrastinated,
And were now listening to Wanda pout~
"Can we leave yet?"
"Awww, c'mon Wanda! Where's your Christmas spirit?" Lance asked with a grin, then regarded her with a solemn look. "Now, seriously, tell me what you think. You think Kitty'll like it?"
The Goth raised an eyebrow skeptically at the object that Lance was holding out to her, her nose wrinkled in disgust. "Lance, girls grow out of Barbies when they hit they age of, oh…eight or so."
He looked down at the box in his hands, face crestfallen. "Really?" He questioned, voice small.
"Yes, really. Now can we leave this aisle? I'm sick of being surrounded by nauseating colors."
Todd entered the aisle at that moment, looking at the aforementioned nauseating colors in surprise. "Geeeez, what're you guys doin' in HERE?" He leaned over, closely inspecting the Barbies on the shelf. "Man, you ever notice how racially diverse all Barbie's friends are? Look, there's a Korean friend, and a black cousin, and this guy looks kinda German…"
Wanda picked up one and scowled irritably at the box, then scanned over the rest. "How come there isn't a mutant Barbie?"
"Good point." Lance said thoughtfully, looking back at the Scarlet Witch. "Soooo… that's a definite 'no' for the Barbie thing, right?"
"Oh c'mon, Lance. I KNOW you care about Kitty more to get her something better than this crap." She tossed the boxed Barbie onto the shelf, planting her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, like a pair of underwear!" Pietro called out suddenly. "Jesus, you guys gotta come look at this shit!"
The three exchanged looks and swam through the mass confusion of the wannabe Wal-mart that they were in and over to Pietro, who was shuffling through the lingerie. He pulled out a lacey see-through dress thing, skeptically studying the cheesy purple color, and held it out for them to see. "Whadda ya think?"
"Hideous." Wanda wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Could be worse." He objected, tossing the piece of cheap lingerie back and shuffling through the rack again to pull out a Christmas set that came with a Santa hat and a pair of matching underwear that had a big Santa puffball on it. "Might look good on you, Wanda." He grinned.
She growled, clenching her fists. Todd carefully looked at the horrendously cheesy outfit, then at Wanda, then back. "No way, yo. Not even Wanda could make that look good. Man, that puffball looks like a bunny tail!" He walked over to Pietro, taking the underwear from him and holding them up, one eyebrow raised. He shook his head, tossing them in the general direction of the rack.
Lance, who'd walked over to them, was looking though the selection of cheaply-priced underwear and was now holding up a pair of satin Granny underwear. "What do you guys think?" He grinned.
"Man, any higher and that thing could be a bathing suit!" Todd swatted at it, grinning at the mutant holding them.
"Why the heck are they satin? For old ladies that 'get in the mood'?" Pietro asked, a lewd grin crossing his face.
Lance tossed them down, a twisted smile on his face, as if he were torn between laughing and cringing at the same time. "Guess so."
Wanda was still standing off to the side, and found a light smile trying to force its way onto her face. She shook her head, batting at her offending mouth. A crazed woman rapidly pushing a full cart in her direction forced Wanda out of the woman's way and she was obliged to step closer to the guys, who were having a great time making fun of all the bad underwear in the bin, to avoid injury from being run over by a shopping cart. "Aren't you guys done yet? And why are we out again?" She was cut off when she noticed a frantic guy run by, his arms full. He looked over in their direction, stopped, and quickly walked over. Without a word, he grabbed the Santa lingerie outfit and then ran off again.
The guys watched his laden-down figure disappear behind an aisle and then looked at each other, eyes wide. Then they burst out laughing. Todd looked over at Wanda, surprised to see a little smile on her lips, and found his heart melting at the sight. She was so pretty when she smiled. Why couldn't she do it more often? She seemed to feel the weight of his gaze and turned to look at him, glaring. He gave her a lopsided smile, feeling nervous.
"You guys didn't answer me." She commanded, fixing them all with her deadly glare.
"Uh…we're here because we're major procrastinators and need to get Christmas stuff?" Lance answered for all of them sheepishly.
"Awww, c'mon sweetums… You just aren't in the Christmas mood, are ya?" Todd asked, pouting.
"No, I'm not. We're out here, stuck in this stupid discount store on Christmas Eve so you guys can rummage through bad underwear and I have to watch you and worry about not get run over by other slacker people doing last-minute shopping."
Pietro shrugged, brushing by her. "Guess it's your fault if you can't have loosen up and have fun." His tone was almost snappish as he walked off.
She glared at him until he was out of sight, then exchanged it to the two boys still there. They cringed, exchanging glances, then carefully walked past her, avoiding further eye contact. Lance disappeared into a nearby aisle and Todd, who was behind him, dared to look back at Wanda, who hadn't cut off her fierce glare. His face fell and then he shuffled after Lance. The sight of the almost-pained look on his face made Wanda blink in confusion. 'Why did he look so hurt?'
'Maybe it's because you're being a super-bitch.' An inner voce taunted her and she frowned, thoughtful as she gazed at the underwear section that the boys had been having so much fun in. And she'd refused to join in with them, laughing and having a good time. 'Maybe… and maybe it wouldn't hurt to stop.' She reluctantly admitted to herself, slipping out of the underwear section and walking in the direction that the guys had gone in. She found them, quite surprisingly, in the little girls section with Fred and Pietro...trying on dress-up feather boa's.
A loud burst of laughter made the boys turn around in surprise, gaping as they saw Wanda standing behind them, laughing her ass off.
"Uh...Hey Wanda, uh..." Lance, who had two boa's in his hands, one green and the other blue, looked at Pietro's sister with a bright blush on his face. "Uh, you see... I was looking at these and wondering if Kitty would like one and then Pietro and Fred came by and we sorta started trying them on and..."
Still laughing, she walked over, taking the blue one and draping it over his shoulders. "Looks good on you." She remarked, looking over the rest of the guys.
"Hey Wanda, check it out!" She turned at the sound of he brother's voice to see him holding up a black and red feather boa. Her eyes widened and he grinned, waving it back and forth. "C'mon, I knowwwww you want it!"
She snatched it from her brother, almost lovingly examining it, then looked back up, studying each of the guys in turn. "Fine, I'll wear it. But only if you guys do too."
They exchanged looks, the same basic thought running through all their heads: Wanda is lightening up. Wanda lightening up= Good, Sacrificing our manliness for about half an hour= Wanda lightening up. "Okay." They agreed unanimously. She grinned and wrapped the black and crimson boa around her neck, stalking out the aisle with the guys close behind. They all headed over to the Christmas ornaments section and, after close deliberation, chose some after sorting through the very few that were left, most of which consisted of extremely cheesy ornaments like hot pink bows and singing elves that strangely resembled lawn gnomes, as Pietro pointed out. As they were heading out, Fred suddenly grabbed Lance and pulled him to the side.
"Okay, here's the big question, "Fred pulled two objects from behind his back, holding them up to the rock tumbler's nose. "What do you think is better for Wanda? The beef jerky or the hair set?"
"Uhhh...I GUESS the beef jerky, since Wanda's hair isn't even long enough for that stuff, plus I don't think she'll be all that enthusiastic about wearing..." He squinted, reading the box, "Bright...fuchsia..."
Fred grinned, tossing the offending box onto the shelf. "Thanks man, I really wasn't sure." As he walked off, Lance picked up the box off the floor, studying the bows inside with interest. 'Hmmm, fuchsia...'
"Hey Lance, you ready to go?" Todd called out.
"Yeah, yeah... I'm ready!" With a shake of his head, Lance set the box down and headed towards where the others were standing in the long line at the cash register.
Fred came up behind him, his arms full of unidentifiable...stuff. "Hey, just have everybody give me their stuff and money, okay? I got stuff for you guys and I don't want you to see it." He explained. The other Brotherhood members, glad to get out of waiting in line for half an hour, gladly dumped their stuff into a cart and each gave him money.
"We'll be next door at the Food Store, okay Freddie?" Lance called out, leading his teammates past the people waiting in line, out the store doors and into the little food mart next door.
"Okay, so what first?" Pietro asked, taking in all the frantic people that had filled up the store.
"How 'bout we split up, and everybody goes and fights off someone for the stuff?" Wanda suggested, watching as two women quite aggressively pulled at a bag of potatoes. "Because that's how it looks like it's going to be."
"Good idea." Lance pulled out a crumbled piece of paper out of his back pocket, looking it over. "Alright...Wanda, you go get the stuffing, Pietro, get some potatoes, Todd, you get the turkey, and I'll get the other stuff, since I got the list, alright?"
With odd enthusiasm for getting groceries that could only be spawned from the holiday spirit, he was surprisingly answered with an energetic, "Okay!" from all sides before they took off.
"Dun dun dun dun… dun dun dun dun dun dun…" Pietro carefully crept along the aisle, hugging the side as he hummed the Mission Impossible theme to himself. "Da nun nuh! Nuh nuh nuh… nuh nuh!!!" He continued on his way, eyes shifting in every direction as he took in his "threatening" surroundings, the produce section and the grocery-crazy shoppers that were milling about it hurriedly. Continuing to hum the song to himself, he dashed from one section of fruits and vegetables to the next, giving everyone wary looks as he oddly made his way over to the potatoes, getting more than one person to give the overly hyper speed demon a very funny look, which he happily ignored. He finally got to the potatoes, where the selection was getting pretty slim, and grabbed a sack, tossing it over his shoulder and taking a ready stance in the middle of all the people, his posture defensive over the potatoes. He looked them all over again, still merrily humming the song to himself, then slipped from food section to food section in search of the other Brotherhood members.
Todd rubbed his hands over his upper arms as he bent over the side of the meat freezer, thoughtfully looking through the selection. He hummed 'Joy to the World' as he picked through the meager amount of food, then suddenly grabbed one. "Perfect!" He nearly yelled, tucking the turkey under his arm. Pietro zipped around the corner then and spotted him.
"Hey, YouGotTheTurkey?" He asked in one breath.
Todd blinked, taking a moment to sort out the words, then nodded, holding it up happily.
Pietro's eyes narrowed in suspicion at the object, then trained themselves onto his friend's face. "You SURE that's a turkey?"
"Yeah!" He juggled the cold bird, which had to weigh about 6 and a half pounds, from one hand to the next. "I kinda felt sorry for it, no one else wanted it. Anyway, we can't afford a bigger one. And even if we wanted to, they're all gone."
Pietro looked over at the meat freezer to check it, and nodded in affirmation. "You're right. Oh well, we'll think of something, right?" He grinned at the younger teen.
"Right." He grinned back. "Let's go find everyone else and go home."
Wanda was found stalking the aisles in search of them, several boxes of generic brand stuffing in her arms. Pietro picked one up and happily danced around with it, making up a strange song about how they always bought store brand products and how they were just as good as the real thing, they were just 40 cents cheaper, didn't have that good-food guarantee so you couldn't sue the company, and always tasted a bit salty. His sister smiled, shaking her head and they walked on, weaving their way in and out of the human body-traffic inside the store. Near the entrance, they bumped into Fred, who was carrying all the bags from the store next door. He held them up, grinning triumphantly.
"All done! We almost ready to go?" He asked, looking over the three of them. "Where's Lance?"
"We're looking for the slow poke." Pietro explained, shrugging. He suddenly yelped as something cool came in contact with his neck and spun around to see Lance holding up a can of cranberry sauce, a wide grin plastered on his face. The speedster frowned, paused for a second as he tried to come up with an appropriate insult, then stuck his tongue out in what could only be described as the most mature raspberry he could conjure.
Wanda, whose very-unlike-her-usual-self mood hadn't faded, smiled and brushed past the two, hurriedly heading for a line that had just opened up. The boys saw what she was doing and Pietro hurried up to get there before any of the other shoppers, who were making a mad rush for the line. He did so, just in time, and triumphantly dumped the potatoes on the counter. The rest of the Brotherhood pushed past all the other people in line and the guys exchanged high fives once they'd set their groceries down, next to the potatoes.
The cashier's face lit up at the sight of the boys' triumphant gesture, a soft smile crossing her tired face as she rung them up. Lance fished his wallet out of his jeans pocket, paid her and they grabbed the bags, heading out into the snowy winter evening. Wanda walked a little closer to them than she'd been earlier that day, unable to keep the little smile off her face as the guys began singing "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" and danced around in the snow, mostly because they were trying to keep warm. The snow was too high on all the roads for them to risk taking Lance's Jeep out, which was a sensitive vehicle when it came to the cold, anyway. The male portion of the team started up on "The Twelve Redneck Days of Christmas", desperately trying to teach her the lyrics so she could join in, and she laughed again. She couldn't remember the last time she'd done it so much in one day.
As the Brotherhood walked through the snowy street, a figure left a shop behind them and stared, almost in disbelief. She watched the group as they loudly sang the disgruntle Christmas song, good naturedly pushing each other back and forth, laughing, then the young spectator smiled. Rogue brushed back a lock of hair the same color as the snow falling on it and shook her head, maybe out of endearment than anything else, watching until they were out of sight, then headed home. She had to talk to someone there.
By: Kichara
Howdy peoples and all the Christmas-laden ferrets out there! My first X-Men Evolution story, about the Brotherhood (um, duh... O.o), because I love those guys! ^^ And I stalk them happily to show my looooove... Whelp, enough of my noize, it's too late too be coming up with an actual interesting intro (gasp!). Enjoy or I'll... trout you!!! Fear the trout!! *is hit by said fish* See? O.o
~'Twas the day before Christmas,
And the Brotherhood was out
'Cuz the guys had procrastinated,
And were now listening to Wanda pout~
"Can we leave yet?"
"Awww, c'mon Wanda! Where's your Christmas spirit?" Lance asked with a grin, then regarded her with a solemn look. "Now, seriously, tell me what you think. You think Kitty'll like it?"
The Goth raised an eyebrow skeptically at the object that Lance was holding out to her, her nose wrinkled in disgust. "Lance, girls grow out of Barbies when they hit they age of, oh…eight or so."
He looked down at the box in his hands, face crestfallen. "Really?" He questioned, voice small.
"Yes, really. Now can we leave this aisle? I'm sick of being surrounded by nauseating colors."
Todd entered the aisle at that moment, looking at the aforementioned nauseating colors in surprise. "Geeeez, what're you guys doin' in HERE?" He leaned over, closely inspecting the Barbies on the shelf. "Man, you ever notice how racially diverse all Barbie's friends are? Look, there's a Korean friend, and a black cousin, and this guy looks kinda German…"
Wanda picked up one and scowled irritably at the box, then scanned over the rest. "How come there isn't a mutant Barbie?"
"Good point." Lance said thoughtfully, looking back at the Scarlet Witch. "Soooo… that's a definite 'no' for the Barbie thing, right?"
"Oh c'mon, Lance. I KNOW you care about Kitty more to get her something better than this crap." She tossed the boxed Barbie onto the shelf, planting her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, like a pair of underwear!" Pietro called out suddenly. "Jesus, you guys gotta come look at this shit!"
The three exchanged looks and swam through the mass confusion of the wannabe Wal-mart that they were in and over to Pietro, who was shuffling through the lingerie. He pulled out a lacey see-through dress thing, skeptically studying the cheesy purple color, and held it out for them to see. "Whadda ya think?"
"Hideous." Wanda wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"Could be worse." He objected, tossing the piece of cheap lingerie back and shuffling through the rack again to pull out a Christmas set that came with a Santa hat and a pair of matching underwear that had a big Santa puffball on it. "Might look good on you, Wanda." He grinned.
She growled, clenching her fists. Todd carefully looked at the horrendously cheesy outfit, then at Wanda, then back. "No way, yo. Not even Wanda could make that look good. Man, that puffball looks like a bunny tail!" He walked over to Pietro, taking the underwear from him and holding them up, one eyebrow raised. He shook his head, tossing them in the general direction of the rack.
Lance, who'd walked over to them, was looking though the selection of cheaply-priced underwear and was now holding up a pair of satin Granny underwear. "What do you guys think?" He grinned.
"Man, any higher and that thing could be a bathing suit!" Todd swatted at it, grinning at the mutant holding them.
"Why the heck are they satin? For old ladies that 'get in the mood'?" Pietro asked, a lewd grin crossing his face.
Lance tossed them down, a twisted smile on his face, as if he were torn between laughing and cringing at the same time. "Guess so."
Wanda was still standing off to the side, and found a light smile trying to force its way onto her face. She shook her head, batting at her offending mouth. A crazed woman rapidly pushing a full cart in her direction forced Wanda out of the woman's way and she was obliged to step closer to the guys, who were having a great time making fun of all the bad underwear in the bin, to avoid injury from being run over by a shopping cart. "Aren't you guys done yet? And why are we out again?" She was cut off when she noticed a frantic guy run by, his arms full. He looked over in their direction, stopped, and quickly walked over. Without a word, he grabbed the Santa lingerie outfit and then ran off again.
The guys watched his laden-down figure disappear behind an aisle and then looked at each other, eyes wide. Then they burst out laughing. Todd looked over at Wanda, surprised to see a little smile on her lips, and found his heart melting at the sight. She was so pretty when she smiled. Why couldn't she do it more often? She seemed to feel the weight of his gaze and turned to look at him, glaring. He gave her a lopsided smile, feeling nervous.
"You guys didn't answer me." She commanded, fixing them all with her deadly glare.
"Uh…we're here because we're major procrastinators and need to get Christmas stuff?" Lance answered for all of them sheepishly.
"Awww, c'mon sweetums… You just aren't in the Christmas mood, are ya?" Todd asked, pouting.
"No, I'm not. We're out here, stuck in this stupid discount store on Christmas Eve so you guys can rummage through bad underwear and I have to watch you and worry about not get run over by other slacker people doing last-minute shopping."
Pietro shrugged, brushing by her. "Guess it's your fault if you can't have loosen up and have fun." His tone was almost snappish as he walked off.
She glared at him until he was out of sight, then exchanged it to the two boys still there. They cringed, exchanging glances, then carefully walked past her, avoiding further eye contact. Lance disappeared into a nearby aisle and Todd, who was behind him, dared to look back at Wanda, who hadn't cut off her fierce glare. His face fell and then he shuffled after Lance. The sight of the almost-pained look on his face made Wanda blink in confusion. 'Why did he look so hurt?'
'Maybe it's because you're being a super-bitch.' An inner voce taunted her and she frowned, thoughtful as she gazed at the underwear section that the boys had been having so much fun in. And she'd refused to join in with them, laughing and having a good time. 'Maybe… and maybe it wouldn't hurt to stop.' She reluctantly admitted to herself, slipping out of the underwear section and walking in the direction that the guys had gone in. She found them, quite surprisingly, in the little girls section with Fred and Pietro...trying on dress-up feather boa's.
A loud burst of laughter made the boys turn around in surprise, gaping as they saw Wanda standing behind them, laughing her ass off.
"Uh...Hey Wanda, uh..." Lance, who had two boa's in his hands, one green and the other blue, looked at Pietro's sister with a bright blush on his face. "Uh, you see... I was looking at these and wondering if Kitty would like one and then Pietro and Fred came by and we sorta started trying them on and..."
Still laughing, she walked over, taking the blue one and draping it over his shoulders. "Looks good on you." She remarked, looking over the rest of the guys.
"Hey Wanda, check it out!" She turned at the sound of he brother's voice to see him holding up a black and red feather boa. Her eyes widened and he grinned, waving it back and forth. "C'mon, I knowwwww you want it!"
She snatched it from her brother, almost lovingly examining it, then looked back up, studying each of the guys in turn. "Fine, I'll wear it. But only if you guys do too."
They exchanged looks, the same basic thought running through all their heads: Wanda is lightening up. Wanda lightening up= Good, Sacrificing our manliness for about half an hour= Wanda lightening up. "Okay." They agreed unanimously. She grinned and wrapped the black and crimson boa around her neck, stalking out the aisle with the guys close behind. They all headed over to the Christmas ornaments section and, after close deliberation, chose some after sorting through the very few that were left, most of which consisted of extremely cheesy ornaments like hot pink bows and singing elves that strangely resembled lawn gnomes, as Pietro pointed out. As they were heading out, Fred suddenly grabbed Lance and pulled him to the side.
"Okay, here's the big question, "Fred pulled two objects from behind his back, holding them up to the rock tumbler's nose. "What do you think is better for Wanda? The beef jerky or the hair set?"
"Uhhh...I GUESS the beef jerky, since Wanda's hair isn't even long enough for that stuff, plus I don't think she'll be all that enthusiastic about wearing..." He squinted, reading the box, "Bright...fuchsia..."
Fred grinned, tossing the offending box onto the shelf. "Thanks man, I really wasn't sure." As he walked off, Lance picked up the box off the floor, studying the bows inside with interest. 'Hmmm, fuchsia...'
"Hey Lance, you ready to go?" Todd called out.
"Yeah, yeah... I'm ready!" With a shake of his head, Lance set the box down and headed towards where the others were standing in the long line at the cash register.
Fred came up behind him, his arms full of unidentifiable...stuff. "Hey, just have everybody give me their stuff and money, okay? I got stuff for you guys and I don't want you to see it." He explained. The other Brotherhood members, glad to get out of waiting in line for half an hour, gladly dumped their stuff into a cart and each gave him money.
"We'll be next door at the Food Store, okay Freddie?" Lance called out, leading his teammates past the people waiting in line, out the store doors and into the little food mart next door.
"Okay, so what first?" Pietro asked, taking in all the frantic people that had filled up the store.
"How 'bout we split up, and everybody goes and fights off someone for the stuff?" Wanda suggested, watching as two women quite aggressively pulled at a bag of potatoes. "Because that's how it looks like it's going to be."
"Good idea." Lance pulled out a crumbled piece of paper out of his back pocket, looking it over. "Alright...Wanda, you go get the stuffing, Pietro, get some potatoes, Todd, you get the turkey, and I'll get the other stuff, since I got the list, alright?"
With odd enthusiasm for getting groceries that could only be spawned from the holiday spirit, he was surprisingly answered with an energetic, "Okay!" from all sides before they took off.
"Dun dun dun dun… dun dun dun dun dun dun…" Pietro carefully crept along the aisle, hugging the side as he hummed the Mission Impossible theme to himself. "Da nun nuh! Nuh nuh nuh… nuh nuh!!!" He continued on his way, eyes shifting in every direction as he took in his "threatening" surroundings, the produce section and the grocery-crazy shoppers that were milling about it hurriedly. Continuing to hum the song to himself, he dashed from one section of fruits and vegetables to the next, giving everyone wary looks as he oddly made his way over to the potatoes, getting more than one person to give the overly hyper speed demon a very funny look, which he happily ignored. He finally got to the potatoes, where the selection was getting pretty slim, and grabbed a sack, tossing it over his shoulder and taking a ready stance in the middle of all the people, his posture defensive over the potatoes. He looked them all over again, still merrily humming the song to himself, then slipped from food section to food section in search of the other Brotherhood members.
Todd rubbed his hands over his upper arms as he bent over the side of the meat freezer, thoughtfully looking through the selection. He hummed 'Joy to the World' as he picked through the meager amount of food, then suddenly grabbed one. "Perfect!" He nearly yelled, tucking the turkey under his arm. Pietro zipped around the corner then and spotted him.
"Hey, YouGotTheTurkey?" He asked in one breath.
Todd blinked, taking a moment to sort out the words, then nodded, holding it up happily.
Pietro's eyes narrowed in suspicion at the object, then trained themselves onto his friend's face. "You SURE that's a turkey?"
"Yeah!" He juggled the cold bird, which had to weigh about 6 and a half pounds, from one hand to the next. "I kinda felt sorry for it, no one else wanted it. Anyway, we can't afford a bigger one. And even if we wanted to, they're all gone."
Pietro looked over at the meat freezer to check it, and nodded in affirmation. "You're right. Oh well, we'll think of something, right?" He grinned at the younger teen.
"Right." He grinned back. "Let's go find everyone else and go home."
Wanda was found stalking the aisles in search of them, several boxes of generic brand stuffing in her arms. Pietro picked one up and happily danced around with it, making up a strange song about how they always bought store brand products and how they were just as good as the real thing, they were just 40 cents cheaper, didn't have that good-food guarantee so you couldn't sue the company, and always tasted a bit salty. His sister smiled, shaking her head and they walked on, weaving their way in and out of the human body-traffic inside the store. Near the entrance, they bumped into Fred, who was carrying all the bags from the store next door. He held them up, grinning triumphantly.
"All done! We almost ready to go?" He asked, looking over the three of them. "Where's Lance?"
"We're looking for the slow poke." Pietro explained, shrugging. He suddenly yelped as something cool came in contact with his neck and spun around to see Lance holding up a can of cranberry sauce, a wide grin plastered on his face. The speedster frowned, paused for a second as he tried to come up with an appropriate insult, then stuck his tongue out in what could only be described as the most mature raspberry he could conjure.
Wanda, whose very-unlike-her-usual-self mood hadn't faded, smiled and brushed past the two, hurriedly heading for a line that had just opened up. The boys saw what she was doing and Pietro hurried up to get there before any of the other shoppers, who were making a mad rush for the line. He did so, just in time, and triumphantly dumped the potatoes on the counter. The rest of the Brotherhood pushed past all the other people in line and the guys exchanged high fives once they'd set their groceries down, next to the potatoes.
The cashier's face lit up at the sight of the boys' triumphant gesture, a soft smile crossing her tired face as she rung them up. Lance fished his wallet out of his jeans pocket, paid her and they grabbed the bags, heading out into the snowy winter evening. Wanda walked a little closer to them than she'd been earlier that day, unable to keep the little smile off her face as the guys began singing "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" and danced around in the snow, mostly because they were trying to keep warm. The snow was too high on all the roads for them to risk taking Lance's Jeep out, which was a sensitive vehicle when it came to the cold, anyway. The male portion of the team started up on "The Twelve Redneck Days of Christmas", desperately trying to teach her the lyrics so she could join in, and she laughed again. She couldn't remember the last time she'd done it so much in one day.
As the Brotherhood walked through the snowy street, a figure left a shop behind them and stared, almost in disbelief. She watched the group as they loudly sang the disgruntle Christmas song, good naturedly pushing each other back and forth, laughing, then the young spectator smiled. Rogue brushed back a lock of hair the same color as the snow falling on it and shook her head, maybe out of endearment than anything else, watching until they were out of sight, then headed home. She had to talk to someone there.