Family: A Brotherhood Christmas Story
Chapter 2
By: Kichara
Geez, I realized that I shoulda said this story wasn't a stand-alone and that I was going to write more! All you poor readers that are used to crap writers that write only one chapter and leave their story for you to agonize over. I feel sorry for you. *pats you all on the head and gives you chocolate covered cherries* Fear not though, for I am a deranged fangirl that will write, even when she should be studying! O.o
~*~*~*~ ~So the guys came home, and Pulled out the decorations And surprisingly enough, Wanda was starting to feel like a relation~
"Home at last!" Pietro crowed in triumph as they walked through the front door, stomping the snow from their shoes.
"Man, it's chilly in here, huh?" Todd mentioned as they put away the groceries in the kitchen.
"Yeah, the heater must've died again. I gotta go take another look at it." Lance frowned thoughtfully. He opened the junk drawer, retrieving a flashlight, and opened the basement door. The lights didn't work all that well in the winter, so flashlights and candles had to do the trick, he mused as he headed down into the dark cellar to check out the heater.
"Hey, we gonna go get the rest of the Christmas stuff outta the attic?" Fred asked, watching Lance disappear down the steps.
"Sounds like a plan!" Todd grinned, jumping past him. "C'mon, hurry up!" With unnaturally happy bounds, he led the larger mutant up the stairs.
"He's just like a little kid." Wanda realized after watching the grinning teen eagerly jump up the stairs. Her brother shrugged good-naturedly.
"Pretty much." His face grew a bit wistful. "We didn't really get to celebrate Christmas last year, we got called on a mission to go scout this city for some mutant that we never found. I think he really missed the whole thing." He took in Wanda's look of surprise. "He's hasn't had all that great of a life, but I'd be damned if I didn't say he isn't what started the Christmas spirit around here." He leaned against the counter, long legs crossing over one another and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling, a little smile on his face. "Y'know, he made us all sing Christmas carols all day long, while we were walking through the dirty slush of that city, cold as hell and not finding a damned thing. I couldn't believe he could be so damned chipper, it was almost irritating. But not really." A crash high above their heads sounded, followed by a triumphant yell. "Sounds like they're having fun. Listen, Wanda, I know you haven't been here all that long, but. this is home, if you let it be." His smile grew and he dropped his head back down from watching the ceiling, gaining eye contact with her.
"You guys are just like a family, aren't you?" Her voice was soft, the words sounding very small, and she suddenly felt colder than ever in that big kitchen, wrapping her arms around her torso as she cut off eye contact with him to stare intently at the floor.
His warm smile didn't falter as he considered the words. "Yeah, I guess so. Crazy, dysfunctional, messed-up family made up of a bunch of rag-tag maniac teens that nobody wants." He paused thoughtfully. "So we've got each other." Another jubilant cry sounded from the attic and he turned to go, stopping at the doorway. "I'm going to see how much damage they're making up there. Wanna join?"
Knowing instinctively that going up those steps was a lot more than just going to check on the guys, she surprised both herself and her brother when she nodded and following her silvery-haired sibling up the staircase, her head swimming. It was amazing how such a simple word could have such a big effect on someone who was usually too stoic to care. Family.
They'd just found the Christmas stuff that morning, when Lance had gone up to the attic to look for a light bulb. The boxes had been stacked haphazardly in the corner, probably left there by whoever had owned the house before. Todd had been the most enthusiastic about the discovery, and had started bringing some of the cartons down to the living room for them to go through. He hadn't had a chance to fully inspect them, however, as they'd had to go out shopping right after that.
The Maximoff twins opened the door to the attic to find the teen carefully shifting through the contents of a box. The almost child-like expression on his open face as he did so made Wanda stop, peering at him intently. He looked up, his face breaking into a grin. "We found lights!"
"Lots of 'em!" Fred added proudly, holding out a big box towards Pietro. "We're gonna hang 'em up outside. You guys wanna help?"
Pietro's lips pursed, musing. "That's more Lance's thing than."
"Awww, c'mon! It'll be fun!" Todd broke off whatever he was going to say, picking up the box he was holding. "We'll all do it, yo!"
Fred, who was still standing in front of the thin boy, peered at him almost pleadingly. "Please?"
Pietro laughed, "AlrightAlright!! Geeeeez, I didn't say I WOULDN'T. Are there any more boxes?"
"This one." Todd nudged the said box with his foot, scooting it towards the older boy, who picked it up.
"C'mon, let's see how Mr. Fix-It's doing." Shifting the box so that he could hold it more comfortably, he led them downstairs, where they dumped the boxes in the foyer, then , after fishing out another flashlight from the junk drawer, wandered down the basement, where they found Lance fiddling with the monstrous-looking heater. The piece of machinery was ancient, resembling a gaping monster in the darkness, and a finicky thing to try to get to work.
"Any luck?" Wanda asked, watching as he thoughtfully tapped a pipe with a wretch, then tightened a bolt with the tool. A loud hum and clank sounded from the hulking machine and he grinned triumphantly.
"Yep!"
"Hey rock tumbler, wanna hang lights?" Pietro questioned, extending a slender hand to help the built teen off of the floor.
"Lights?" Lance's dark brows drew together in incomprehension as he took the offered hand, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet.
"Todd and Freddie found a ton of Christmas lights in the attic with all that Christmas stuff. If we hurry up and get it done now, we could get it finished before the sun goes down!"
Lance pointed his flashlight at the watch on his wrist, squinting at the time. "Pie, it's winter. That'll be in about half an hour!"
"Then you better hurry up, slowpoke!" The other caroled, grabbing his arm and pulling him up the stairs, everyone else in tow.
The five bundled back up once they got to the foyer and headed out into the crisp evening air, lights in hand.
*~*~*~*~*
A knock on the door surprised Kitty out of her post-dinner daydream. "Come in!" She called out, sitting up on her bed. The door opened to reveal Rogue, who had a thoughtful expression on her pale face. "Hah, Kitty." She drawled, closing the door behind her. "Ah wanted to talk to yah about somethin'."
The other girl smiled, scooting back on the bed and motioning for her friend to sit in front of her. "Okay, shoot!"
The redhead took the offered spot, smiling. "Thanks. Listen, KitKat." She paused for a long moment, thinking. "You want to take a trip with me tomorrow, aftah dinner and everything is done over here?"
Kitty propped her head up with her hand, her elbow resting on her knee. "Sure! Where?"
"Well. ta go see the Brotherhood."
The other's eyes widened significantly and she leaned closer, her voice lowered. "Really? You want to go see the guys?"
"Don't you?" Rogue countered, eyes warm.
"Well, yeah. I mean, if you really want to go then. YES!" She squealed, falling back onto her pillows. " Man, I TOTALLY wanted to go see Lance, but I wasn't sure about going, you know? Thanks Rogue!" She threw her arms around the other girl in a spontaneous hug.
The girl shook her auburn head of hair, smiling, carefully returning the hug. "Believe me, it's not a problem. Ah really don't mind seeing everyone, at least for Christmas."
*~*~*~
"Okay! Plug it in!" Todd called out from the roof as he connected the last two strands.
"Alright, here goes!" Lance plugged in the extension cord, the lights coming on in response.
Todd let out a whoop, jumping from the roof and landing on the soft snow in the front yard. He hopped back to where everyone else was standing, admiring their handiwork.
"It looks really good, huh?" Fred smiled, looking over the old Victorian house, which had been decorated with EVERY outside decoration they'd found, including, but not limited to a set of three foot candles, a family of Christmas lawn flamingos, an inflatable Santa and snowman, and a nativity, which had been missing the baby Jesus. Unable to find it, they'd improvised, and the manger now hosted a head of lettuce wrapped in a pillowcase with one of Wanda's black crosses around it's. neck. To make sure that all of the lights were used, the roof, windows and porch were lined in the lights, a bright potpourri of multi-colored stands, white, blue, red, green and hot pink. They'd also made about a dozen little light trees on the lawn, and had laid out line after line of lights on the roof, with a huge hot pink arrow pointing to the chimney. It all certainly gave the house that certain. something.
The project had been one where everyone had participated, with Lance up on Fred's shoulders to hold the lights up, Wanda passing them up to him, with Todd following behind them with a staple gun, jumping up every few.inches to pound another staple in. Pietro had been in charge of cleaning out the shed to find all of the extension cords, and had found a ton more Christmas stuff in the barely used shed, like the illuminated flamingos.
"Awesome." Todd answered, stepping back several feet and flopping down in the snow to look over the colorful house in full, a little smile playing on his lips.
"Hey dreamy!" A gigantic "snowball" fell onto the punked-out teenager with the words, both courtesy of Fred.
Todd yelped in surprise, falling back as he was half buried by the huge bunch of snow. He sat up, shaking the snow from his sandy hair, and cast a murderous glare in his offender's direction. Acting quickly, he scooped up some of the crystallized water, compacting it into a ball, and threw it at Fred, connecting solidly with his face.
The big mutant sputtered, not bothering to wipe his face off as he gathered together more snow for a giant snowball. Due to the fact that snow was half obscuring his vision, however, the snowball didn't quite hit its intended target, smashing into Wanda instead, who fell onto the ground. Fred gasped, stumbling verbally for an explanation. "Sorry, Wanda, I didn't mean to hit you, it was an accident." His words were cut off as another snowball came in contact with his face, hitting solidly like the last one made by Todd, then by another, thrown by a smirking Wanda.
Pietro took the opportunity, while his sister was gloating, to quickly scoop up a ball of snow and hurl it at her. She noticed at the last moment, however, and it solidly thumped into Lance instead, who was standing behind her. The boy glared fiercely at the other, bending down to pack together a snowball. "That's." another snowball from Pietro made contact with him, exploding upon impact on his shoulder. "it.." another on his shoulder, "PIETRO!!!" he roared as another ball hit him in the head, and a round was thrown at the other members of the Brotherhood in a split second. A tremor, courtesy of Lance, caught the quickster off guard, however, and he tumbled to the ground, immediately getting pelted by snowballs from all sides.
"Hey! No fair!" He protested, holding his hands up and ducking his head.
"That's what you think, speedy!" Todd proclaimed, tossing a snowball at the slender boy.
"Alright, you guys asked for it." He began scooping up snow and throwing it at rapid speed, looking almost as if he were using automatic fire. Fred, Lance, Wanda and Todd spread out, running in all directions, laughing like crazy and occasionally kneeling down to grab a handful of snow and hurl it at Pietro. The battle lasted for a good half-hour, before all the members of the Brotherhood ran out of energy and collapsed to the snow, exhausted.
"That was fun, huh?" Pietro called out from where he was sprawled out on the snow, gasping and watching his smoky breath rise up into the air.
"You could call it that." Lance said with a laugh, rolling over on his side, exhausted.
"Who won?" Fred wondered, somehow finding the energy to sit up.
"Does it matter?" Wanda pointed out, smiling and sitting up, arms draped across her knees. It was a newfound discovery for her to realize that there was nothing quite exhausting. or satisfying as a good snow ball fight.
"Hey Lance, you're gonna get our tree, right?" Todd, who had flopped down next to him, asked.
"First thing in the morning, I promise." He pushed himself to stand up with a groan. "I gotta go wrap all my present."
"Oh yeah, me too." Fred realized, standing up as well.
"I knew I was forgetting about SOMETHING." Pietro muttered.
"At least I'm not the only one that didn't yet." Todd grinned, relieved.
"Man, we need to be given the 'Official Procrastinators of the Year' Award." Lance told Wanda, abashed.
Her face, already rosy from being outside and going through so much physical exertion, grew a few shades darker, as she admitted, "Well, I haven't either, so I guess I can be one too."
"Hey, you really are one of us now." He grinned, holding out his hand to help her up. She took it almost sheepishly, but smiling as well.
"Maybe." She agreed, much to everyone's surprise. "Now let's go get those presents wrapped, alright?"
"Procrastinators unite!" Pietro yelled triumphantly, raising his fists in the air.
*~*~*~
"Hey Lance!" Pietro called out loudly, briskly and quite irritatingly knocking on Lance's closed door. "C'mon, I need the tape!"
"You're not the only one!" The young man argued from the other side of the door.
"That's true, yo." Todd said, poking his head out of his room to get some more tape.
"I need some too." Fred said, coming up the stairs.
"Well, it'll be a lot easier to distribute it if Lance would stop hogging it!" The bedroom door opened, revealing said person in its frame, looking pretty, for lack of a better word. pissed.
"Actually, it'd be a lot easier if SOMEONE who can move really FAST would run out and get us more." He said through gritted teeth, glaring at Pietro.
"Hey, I don't have to go out and."
"Pietro, get your ass moving and go get some tape." A voice growled from behind, and they all turned to see an irritated Wanda standing in the hallway. "I need some."
"Alright, fine!" Noticing the telltale warning signs from a would-be irate sister, he backed away from them. "ButYouGuysOweMe!" He said in one breath, then dashed down the stairs and out of the house.
The remaining four made do with the tape for the time being before Pietro came back, about twenty minutes later, looking out of breath with a five pack of scotch tape in one hand. "I hadda wrestle this from an old lady, so you guys better appreciate it." He looked wounded, closely inspecting his arm. "She hit me with her umbrella."
"Thanks Pie!" Todd said, grabbing the pack from him and pulling out a roll, hurrying off before he got caught in the middle of a typical Pietro a sob story.
The other Brotherhood members obviously had the same idea, as they each grabbed a roll that was too quick for the exhausted speed demon, retreating to their rooms, treasured tape in tow. Pietro, disappointed that there wasn't anyone for him to complain to about his pain-filled journey to the Dollar Store, headed for his own room, where he finished wrapping his presents and headed to bed, still tired. 'Little old ladies can wear you down. Good thing the X-Geeks haven't figured that out yet.' He realized sleepily just before he drifted off.
~*~*~*
Erg, this was a pain to try to figure out how to end this chapter. Hmmm, this chapter was a lot more sweet and serious than my first. I'm hoping to create a nice balance between the two for later chapter. Whelp, I'm all done with school now, and should have more writing done, it's just gonna be a pain to fit it into my work schedule. Oh well, review and tell me what you think, and don't forget: *deep dramatic voice* this WILL be continued. I wonder if that's good or bad. O.o
Geez, I realized that I shoulda said this story wasn't a stand-alone and that I was going to write more! All you poor readers that are used to crap writers that write only one chapter and leave their story for you to agonize over. I feel sorry for you. *pats you all on the head and gives you chocolate covered cherries* Fear not though, for I am a deranged fangirl that will write, even when she should be studying! O.o
~*~*~*~ ~So the guys came home, and Pulled out the decorations And surprisingly enough, Wanda was starting to feel like a relation~
"Home at last!" Pietro crowed in triumph as they walked through the front door, stomping the snow from their shoes.
"Man, it's chilly in here, huh?" Todd mentioned as they put away the groceries in the kitchen.
"Yeah, the heater must've died again. I gotta go take another look at it." Lance frowned thoughtfully. He opened the junk drawer, retrieving a flashlight, and opened the basement door. The lights didn't work all that well in the winter, so flashlights and candles had to do the trick, he mused as he headed down into the dark cellar to check out the heater.
"Hey, we gonna go get the rest of the Christmas stuff outta the attic?" Fred asked, watching Lance disappear down the steps.
"Sounds like a plan!" Todd grinned, jumping past him. "C'mon, hurry up!" With unnaturally happy bounds, he led the larger mutant up the stairs.
"He's just like a little kid." Wanda realized after watching the grinning teen eagerly jump up the stairs. Her brother shrugged good-naturedly.
"Pretty much." His face grew a bit wistful. "We didn't really get to celebrate Christmas last year, we got called on a mission to go scout this city for some mutant that we never found. I think he really missed the whole thing." He took in Wanda's look of surprise. "He's hasn't had all that great of a life, but I'd be damned if I didn't say he isn't what started the Christmas spirit around here." He leaned against the counter, long legs crossing over one another and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling, a little smile on his face. "Y'know, he made us all sing Christmas carols all day long, while we were walking through the dirty slush of that city, cold as hell and not finding a damned thing. I couldn't believe he could be so damned chipper, it was almost irritating. But not really." A crash high above their heads sounded, followed by a triumphant yell. "Sounds like they're having fun. Listen, Wanda, I know you haven't been here all that long, but. this is home, if you let it be." His smile grew and he dropped his head back down from watching the ceiling, gaining eye contact with her.
"You guys are just like a family, aren't you?" Her voice was soft, the words sounding very small, and she suddenly felt colder than ever in that big kitchen, wrapping her arms around her torso as she cut off eye contact with him to stare intently at the floor.
His warm smile didn't falter as he considered the words. "Yeah, I guess so. Crazy, dysfunctional, messed-up family made up of a bunch of rag-tag maniac teens that nobody wants." He paused thoughtfully. "So we've got each other." Another jubilant cry sounded from the attic and he turned to go, stopping at the doorway. "I'm going to see how much damage they're making up there. Wanna join?"
Knowing instinctively that going up those steps was a lot more than just going to check on the guys, she surprised both herself and her brother when she nodded and following her silvery-haired sibling up the staircase, her head swimming. It was amazing how such a simple word could have such a big effect on someone who was usually too stoic to care. Family.
They'd just found the Christmas stuff that morning, when Lance had gone up to the attic to look for a light bulb. The boxes had been stacked haphazardly in the corner, probably left there by whoever had owned the house before. Todd had been the most enthusiastic about the discovery, and had started bringing some of the cartons down to the living room for them to go through. He hadn't had a chance to fully inspect them, however, as they'd had to go out shopping right after that.
The Maximoff twins opened the door to the attic to find the teen carefully shifting through the contents of a box. The almost child-like expression on his open face as he did so made Wanda stop, peering at him intently. He looked up, his face breaking into a grin. "We found lights!"
"Lots of 'em!" Fred added proudly, holding out a big box towards Pietro. "We're gonna hang 'em up outside. You guys wanna help?"
Pietro's lips pursed, musing. "That's more Lance's thing than."
"Awww, c'mon! It'll be fun!" Todd broke off whatever he was going to say, picking up the box he was holding. "We'll all do it, yo!"
Fred, who was still standing in front of the thin boy, peered at him almost pleadingly. "Please?"
Pietro laughed, "AlrightAlright!! Geeeeez, I didn't say I WOULDN'T. Are there any more boxes?"
"This one." Todd nudged the said box with his foot, scooting it towards the older boy, who picked it up.
"C'mon, let's see how Mr. Fix-It's doing." Shifting the box so that he could hold it more comfortably, he led them downstairs, where they dumped the boxes in the foyer, then , after fishing out another flashlight from the junk drawer, wandered down the basement, where they found Lance fiddling with the monstrous-looking heater. The piece of machinery was ancient, resembling a gaping monster in the darkness, and a finicky thing to try to get to work.
"Any luck?" Wanda asked, watching as he thoughtfully tapped a pipe with a wretch, then tightened a bolt with the tool. A loud hum and clank sounded from the hulking machine and he grinned triumphantly.
"Yep!"
"Hey rock tumbler, wanna hang lights?" Pietro questioned, extending a slender hand to help the built teen off of the floor.
"Lights?" Lance's dark brows drew together in incomprehension as he took the offered hand, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet.
"Todd and Freddie found a ton of Christmas lights in the attic with all that Christmas stuff. If we hurry up and get it done now, we could get it finished before the sun goes down!"
Lance pointed his flashlight at the watch on his wrist, squinting at the time. "Pie, it's winter. That'll be in about half an hour!"
"Then you better hurry up, slowpoke!" The other caroled, grabbing his arm and pulling him up the stairs, everyone else in tow.
The five bundled back up once they got to the foyer and headed out into the crisp evening air, lights in hand.
*~*~*~*~*
A knock on the door surprised Kitty out of her post-dinner daydream. "Come in!" She called out, sitting up on her bed. The door opened to reveal Rogue, who had a thoughtful expression on her pale face. "Hah, Kitty." She drawled, closing the door behind her. "Ah wanted to talk to yah about somethin'."
The other girl smiled, scooting back on the bed and motioning for her friend to sit in front of her. "Okay, shoot!"
The redhead took the offered spot, smiling. "Thanks. Listen, KitKat." She paused for a long moment, thinking. "You want to take a trip with me tomorrow, aftah dinner and everything is done over here?"
Kitty propped her head up with her hand, her elbow resting on her knee. "Sure! Where?"
"Well. ta go see the Brotherhood."
The other's eyes widened significantly and she leaned closer, her voice lowered. "Really? You want to go see the guys?"
"Don't you?" Rogue countered, eyes warm.
"Well, yeah. I mean, if you really want to go then. YES!" She squealed, falling back onto her pillows. " Man, I TOTALLY wanted to go see Lance, but I wasn't sure about going, you know? Thanks Rogue!" She threw her arms around the other girl in a spontaneous hug.
The girl shook her auburn head of hair, smiling, carefully returning the hug. "Believe me, it's not a problem. Ah really don't mind seeing everyone, at least for Christmas."
*~*~*~
"Okay! Plug it in!" Todd called out from the roof as he connected the last two strands.
"Alright, here goes!" Lance plugged in the extension cord, the lights coming on in response.
Todd let out a whoop, jumping from the roof and landing on the soft snow in the front yard. He hopped back to where everyone else was standing, admiring their handiwork.
"It looks really good, huh?" Fred smiled, looking over the old Victorian house, which had been decorated with EVERY outside decoration they'd found, including, but not limited to a set of three foot candles, a family of Christmas lawn flamingos, an inflatable Santa and snowman, and a nativity, which had been missing the baby Jesus. Unable to find it, they'd improvised, and the manger now hosted a head of lettuce wrapped in a pillowcase with one of Wanda's black crosses around it's. neck. To make sure that all of the lights were used, the roof, windows and porch were lined in the lights, a bright potpourri of multi-colored stands, white, blue, red, green and hot pink. They'd also made about a dozen little light trees on the lawn, and had laid out line after line of lights on the roof, with a huge hot pink arrow pointing to the chimney. It all certainly gave the house that certain. something.
The project had been one where everyone had participated, with Lance up on Fred's shoulders to hold the lights up, Wanda passing them up to him, with Todd following behind them with a staple gun, jumping up every few.inches to pound another staple in. Pietro had been in charge of cleaning out the shed to find all of the extension cords, and had found a ton more Christmas stuff in the barely used shed, like the illuminated flamingos.
"Awesome." Todd answered, stepping back several feet and flopping down in the snow to look over the colorful house in full, a little smile playing on his lips.
"Hey dreamy!" A gigantic "snowball" fell onto the punked-out teenager with the words, both courtesy of Fred.
Todd yelped in surprise, falling back as he was half buried by the huge bunch of snow. He sat up, shaking the snow from his sandy hair, and cast a murderous glare in his offender's direction. Acting quickly, he scooped up some of the crystallized water, compacting it into a ball, and threw it at Fred, connecting solidly with his face.
The big mutant sputtered, not bothering to wipe his face off as he gathered together more snow for a giant snowball. Due to the fact that snow was half obscuring his vision, however, the snowball didn't quite hit its intended target, smashing into Wanda instead, who fell onto the ground. Fred gasped, stumbling verbally for an explanation. "Sorry, Wanda, I didn't mean to hit you, it was an accident." His words were cut off as another snowball came in contact with his face, hitting solidly like the last one made by Todd, then by another, thrown by a smirking Wanda.
Pietro took the opportunity, while his sister was gloating, to quickly scoop up a ball of snow and hurl it at her. She noticed at the last moment, however, and it solidly thumped into Lance instead, who was standing behind her. The boy glared fiercely at the other, bending down to pack together a snowball. "That's." another snowball from Pietro made contact with him, exploding upon impact on his shoulder. "it.." another on his shoulder, "PIETRO!!!" he roared as another ball hit him in the head, and a round was thrown at the other members of the Brotherhood in a split second. A tremor, courtesy of Lance, caught the quickster off guard, however, and he tumbled to the ground, immediately getting pelted by snowballs from all sides.
"Hey! No fair!" He protested, holding his hands up and ducking his head.
"That's what you think, speedy!" Todd proclaimed, tossing a snowball at the slender boy.
"Alright, you guys asked for it." He began scooping up snow and throwing it at rapid speed, looking almost as if he were using automatic fire. Fred, Lance, Wanda and Todd spread out, running in all directions, laughing like crazy and occasionally kneeling down to grab a handful of snow and hurl it at Pietro. The battle lasted for a good half-hour, before all the members of the Brotherhood ran out of energy and collapsed to the snow, exhausted.
"That was fun, huh?" Pietro called out from where he was sprawled out on the snow, gasping and watching his smoky breath rise up into the air.
"You could call it that." Lance said with a laugh, rolling over on his side, exhausted.
"Who won?" Fred wondered, somehow finding the energy to sit up.
"Does it matter?" Wanda pointed out, smiling and sitting up, arms draped across her knees. It was a newfound discovery for her to realize that there was nothing quite exhausting. or satisfying as a good snow ball fight.
"Hey Lance, you're gonna get our tree, right?" Todd, who had flopped down next to him, asked.
"First thing in the morning, I promise." He pushed himself to stand up with a groan. "I gotta go wrap all my present."
"Oh yeah, me too." Fred realized, standing up as well.
"I knew I was forgetting about SOMETHING." Pietro muttered.
"At least I'm not the only one that didn't yet." Todd grinned, relieved.
"Man, we need to be given the 'Official Procrastinators of the Year' Award." Lance told Wanda, abashed.
Her face, already rosy from being outside and going through so much physical exertion, grew a few shades darker, as she admitted, "Well, I haven't either, so I guess I can be one too."
"Hey, you really are one of us now." He grinned, holding out his hand to help her up. She took it almost sheepishly, but smiling as well.
"Maybe." She agreed, much to everyone's surprise. "Now let's go get those presents wrapped, alright?"
"Procrastinators unite!" Pietro yelled triumphantly, raising his fists in the air.
*~*~*~
"Hey Lance!" Pietro called out loudly, briskly and quite irritatingly knocking on Lance's closed door. "C'mon, I need the tape!"
"You're not the only one!" The young man argued from the other side of the door.
"That's true, yo." Todd said, poking his head out of his room to get some more tape.
"I need some too." Fred said, coming up the stairs.
"Well, it'll be a lot easier to distribute it if Lance would stop hogging it!" The bedroom door opened, revealing said person in its frame, looking pretty, for lack of a better word. pissed.
"Actually, it'd be a lot easier if SOMEONE who can move really FAST would run out and get us more." He said through gritted teeth, glaring at Pietro.
"Hey, I don't have to go out and."
"Pietro, get your ass moving and go get some tape." A voice growled from behind, and they all turned to see an irritated Wanda standing in the hallway. "I need some."
"Alright, fine!" Noticing the telltale warning signs from a would-be irate sister, he backed away from them. "ButYouGuysOweMe!" He said in one breath, then dashed down the stairs and out of the house.
The remaining four made do with the tape for the time being before Pietro came back, about twenty minutes later, looking out of breath with a five pack of scotch tape in one hand. "I hadda wrestle this from an old lady, so you guys better appreciate it." He looked wounded, closely inspecting his arm. "She hit me with her umbrella."
"Thanks Pie!" Todd said, grabbing the pack from him and pulling out a roll, hurrying off before he got caught in the middle of a typical Pietro a sob story.
The other Brotherhood members obviously had the same idea, as they each grabbed a roll that was too quick for the exhausted speed demon, retreating to their rooms, treasured tape in tow. Pietro, disappointed that there wasn't anyone for him to complain to about his pain-filled journey to the Dollar Store, headed for his own room, where he finished wrapping his presents and headed to bed, still tired. 'Little old ladies can wear you down. Good thing the X-Geeks haven't figured that out yet.' He realized sleepily just before he drifted off.
~*~*~*
Erg, this was a pain to try to figure out how to end this chapter. Hmmm, this chapter was a lot more sweet and serious than my first. I'm hoping to create a nice balance between the two for later chapter. Whelp, I'm all done with school now, and should have more writing done, it's just gonna be a pain to fit it into my work schedule. Oh well, review and tell me what you think, and don't forget: *deep dramatic voice* this WILL be continued. I wonder if that's good or bad. O.o