Family: A Brotherhood Christmas Story
By: Kichara
Chapter Four: Pietro Displaying the Fine Art of Fruiti-ness and We Reach the Mushy Sweet Conclusion
~So Christmas Evening Started Happening
With dinner, some visitors, and the boys dancing funny
Lance got teased, and came dangerously close to snapping
But all turns out well on Christmas.~
~Whelp, this is the last chapter! I'd been hoping to actually have this story done by Christmas, but that didn't really work out. Damn work! Yeah, yeah, and there's my whining, as if anybody WANTS to hear it. O.o
Man, this is the last time I attempt to make little poem-song things at the beginning of every chapter. Bleh..~
Lance carefully hooked the last ornament on the tree, although the package of ramen noodles certainly strained the definition 'ornament'. They'd only had so many that had been in storage and, while brainstorming for ideas as to how they could fill the tree up more, Fred had come up with the idea that they put stuff on the tree that sort of represented things that made up their lives. Pietro had pointed out that Lance's spare tire had started that, as the Brotherhood couldn't survive without the sturdy vehicle. Besides that, they'd hung up one of Todd's CD's, as music was always something that was filling the house, one of Wanda's rings to celebrate her becoming part of the Brotherhood that year, and a package of ramen noodles, which, at only 11 cents a package, was the staple food around the house. The rapid flickering of the channels on the TV made Lance turn around to see Pietro and Todd on the couch, Todd channel surfing like there was no tomorrow.
"What're you doing? We've only got five channels!" Lance said in exasperation, watching the same channels go by over and over again.
"I know, but we're waiting for Rudolph to come on, so I'm all antsy!" Todd argued, finally settling on tossing Pietro the controller.
Pietro took up the antsy channel surfing with vigor, a little grin on his face. "C'mon, you. Start!"
"What time does it come on?" Lance glanced over at the clock, which said the time was about 3:28.
"3:30." They said in unison, eyes still glued onto the non-stop TV.
"Then quit it!" He scowled. "Aren't you two a little old to be watching that crap?' The remote controller squarely hit him on the head. "Ow!"
"Shut up." Pietro stuck his tongue out at the older boy.
"I think he's just in denial." Todd remarked, settling back onto the worn in cushions.
"Yeah, whatever." Lance headed out of the room, going to see what the rest of the Brotherhood was up to, rubbing his head.
"You'll be back!" Pietro shouted at his retreating figure as it left the room. "You can't resist!"
"What're you yelling about?" Wanda sauntered into the room, leaning against the doorframe.
"Lance is being a big stupid head and is making fun of us." Her twin said, lower lip pushed out in a definite pout.
"About what?" The Scarlet Witch raised one dark eyebrow, in reaction to both the situation and her brother's childish comments on it.
"Us watching Christmas specials." He folded his arms and sank into the couch, extending his legs to their full length and looking just like a five year old having a temper tantrum.
"Christmas specials." Her tone was skeptical as the other eyebrow lifted.
"Awww, c'mon sweetie, come and watch with us!" Todd scooted over so there was room for her on the couch.
"That's alright. I think I'll pass." She turned to leave, when a sudden wind blew her hair forward and before she knew what was happening, arms were around her and then she was deposited onto the couch, held there securely by her brother's slender arms. She struggled, "Pietro, if you don't let me go NOW, I'm going to decorate the walls with you."
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaase?" he whined. "Just for five minutes, okay? Then I'll let you go."
Her eye twitched a bit as she answered. "Promise?"
"Promise." He grinned, letting her go and sitting back just as the movie started.
So the five minutes passed, with the boys watching Wanda intently for any signs of her leaving and Wanda watching the TV intently. The guys exchanged glances and grinned in victory. About ten minutes later, Lance popped his head into the room, more than surprised to see Wanda sitting with Pietro and Todd on the couch, her eyes glued on Rudolph and Clarece.
"Wanda, what're you."
"Shhh!" She cut him off with one hand, eyes never leaving the screen.
Lance felt himself pulled over to the TV by some unknown force, suddenly mesmerized by the clay animation reindeer on the screen, then silently backed up to the couch, where room was made for him between Pietro and Wanda. Pietro flashed a thumbs up sign to Todd, who grinned back.
A commercial break eventually came up on the TV and Lance, realizing that somehow he'd been watching the movie for the past twenty minutes, moved to get up, when Pietro grabbed him by the waist. "YOU'RE not going anywhere." He commanded, piercing Lance's eyes with his own bright one's.
"NO WAY." Avalanche protested, pushing the white haired boy away.
"SIT." A voice on the other side of him made him pause in the motion of getting up, turning to stare at a stubborn Wanda.
"If I watch it, you watch it." She commanded, tugging on his arm with a rueful smile. "Now sit."
Grumbling, the mutant relaxed back into the sofa, although the complaints were forgotten as the movie came back on, and were completely gone by the time it was over, as everyone scrambled for the dog-eared TV Guide.
"Okay, turn it to channel five! Frosty's next!" Todd called out, then had the Guide snatched from him by Pietro, who flipped through the pages rapidly, concluding that they needed to watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" after that. The floppy book was grabbed by Wanda next, who scrutinizing looked over the pages, with Lance over her shoulder.
Fred strolled into the living room about three hours later, and was quite surprised to find Lance, Pietro, Todd and Wanda cuddling together on the couch, tearfully watching the end of "It's a Wonderful Life."
"Uh." He cleared his throat to get their attention. "Dinner's ready."
Wanda stood up quickly, swiping at her eyes to hide the tears that had started building there. Lance and Pietro half ran past her to get to the kitchen with Fred close behind. Todd, on the other hand, noticed her glassy eyes and stopped next to her, smiling as he reached up and brushed away one of the cute tears, a little smile on his face.
She scowled, ready to argue that she hadn't been crying, when he cut off her words. "Man, the fire getting to you too? It's nice, but makes you're eyes all watery, y'know?" The words weren't entirely true, and she knew they were only said to make her not feel stupid about getting teary eyed. She smiled in gratification, nodding. They walked to the kitchen together, each sporting their own secret smile.
The massive amounts of food had been set up on the counter, buffet-style, so that they could all sit at the table without searching for elbow room. Todd and Wanda grabbed plates to fill them up with everyone else, and they all sat down at the table. After a quick grace, they dug in, ravenous after fasting all day for dinner. The turkey was gone after one round, carefully rationed out between the five teenagers. There was ample amount of mashed potatoes, even for Fred, so the plates were piled high with those, with a decent amount of everything else to fill up the Brotherhood's bottomless stomachs. After dinner, the typical process of cleaning the kitchen was put into action. In other words, tossing everything into the sink and hoping it would magically go away.
It happened occasionally, when one of the guys had nothing better to do and were bored out of their minds enough to do dishes, but other than that, plates were pretty hard to come by as most of them were usually dirty and filling up the sink. After dumping the dishes, Pietro, Wanda, and Fred marched into the living room again, while Todd and Lance went outside to get more firewood for the dying fire, as the Maximoff Twins' supply wasn't exactly enough to last the night. Pietro turned the radio back on and he sat with his sister and Fred on the couch to listen to Christmas songs and wait for the other two to come back inside.
Lance and Todd came in, stomping snow from the feet. "Damn, it's cold out there!" A shiver ran up Lance's spine as he said the words and he hurriedly kicked off his soggy boots, half jogging to the living room to get the fire started back up, Todd close behind. Within a few minutes, they had the fire blazing again, with a grateful Brotherhood standing around it. With the sun going down outside, the temperature in the house had easily dropped about twenty degrees, and the fireplace going more than helped make the house livable. Todd headed upstairs to make a fire in the fireplace that was in Wanda's room, as they hoped it would help to keep the entire house warm with a fire going upstairs. He got back to the living room just as the George Michael song, "Last Christmas" came on the radio.
Pietro suddenly grabbed his sister, who was closest to him, by the shoulders, dancing around the room with her while he joyfully sang along with it. "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away."
She fell back onto the couch, and was shocked beyond all belief as the rest of the guys suddenly began. singing along with the chorus, dancing around quite. gay-like. Or maybe the most disturbing thing was that her brother knew ALL the lyrics. Not able to think much about it, she merely sat back on the couch, content with laughing her ass off as the male portion of the Brotherhood REALLY got into the song.
"This year, to save me from tears, I'll give it to someone special (Special.)"
"You're not nervous, are ya?" Rogue helped Kitty step over a slippery patch of ice on the road as they came around the bend that led to the Brotherhood's house.
"Not really, I just. Well, maybe a little bit." Her friend admitted with a little laugh, which was cut short as they rounded the bend and came in view of the house, lit up and completely covered with Christmas lights, and decked out with every Christmas decoration imaginable. "Wow." She said in awe, shocked by the usually dingy house's transformation.
"Yeah, wow." Rogue blinked in amazement, stopping for a moment to just take it all in, then led Kitty up the front yard. Music could be heard coming from the living room, so the girls headed over to one of it's windows, and stopped in astonishment, jaws dropping as they saw Lance, Todd, Fred, and of course, Pietro all singing along to "Last Christmas" and capering around the living room, looking as though they were auditioning for a dance club for extremely gay men.
A shiver ran up Lance's spine, the kind that comes from the feeling that someone is watching you, and he looked around frantically, stopping in shock when he saw Rogue and Kitty standing outside the window, peering inside with wide eyes. Todd accidentally bumped into the boy's stiff figure and he had to catch himself before he fell to the floor. "Yo, Lance, what's u." his words trailed off as he followed Lance's point of view and saw the two X-Men watching the show that was being put on display in the room. His mouth dropped in surprise, a bright crimson painting across his cheeks. Fred noticed the two, what they were gaping at, and stopped what he was doing, turning a lovely shade of red himself. The only oblivious person was Pietro, who danced past them happily.
Lance nudged him sharply, whispering loudly, "Pietro, quit it!"
"No! I don't wanna!" The speed demon protested, wriggling out of Lance's grip. He noticed the girls at the window but decided to ignore their presence as he finished off the song, prancing across the length of the room, with a bright red Lance walking past him to go open the door for the girls.
"Merry Christmas, Lance." An uncharacteristic grin was on Rogue's face as she greeted the rock tumbler. "Would you boys like some time to yourselves?"
"Oh shut up." He said to the floor, letting them in and shutting the door behind them.
"Awww, I thought you were cute!" Kitty protested, smiling at him. "A little strange and unexpected, but. yeah!"
"Um, thanks?"
"Merry Christmas, dork!" Kitty said as Pietro sauntered into the room, flicking him in the forehead and bringing him back to reality.
"What? I LIKE dancing!" He protested, pouting and swatting her hand away.
"Yes, and you're very pretty." Rogue commented nonchalantly, raising an eyebrow.
"Really?!" Pietro squealed fagishly, then stopped. "Wait." An awkward silence followed, before the entire room broke out into laughter.
"Have you guys opened presents yet?" Kitty asked, holding up the wrapped packages that were in her arms.
"Nope, we decided to save them for the end of the day. Y'know, save the best for last and all that." Lance explained, taking the presents from her and leading her into the living room, where he placed them under the tree with the others.
"Ya know, that tree looks AWFULLY familiar." Rogue said, placing a finger on her jaw as she thoughtfully looked over the ghetto pine.
"Really?" Lance said innocently as the rest of the Brotherhood snickered.
"Yeah, Scott fell into the hole from it this afternoon."
"YES!!" the guys exchanged high fives while Lance raised a fist in victory.
"Rock on!" Everyone but Kitty, who thought it was cute (although you would've thought she'd have gotten over the whole rock pun thing by now), groaned in unison.
"Don't you ever get tired of that?" Pietro asked wearily, tossing himself onto the couch.
"Bitch bitch." Lance made a face at the quickster, who stuck his tongue out in response.
"So are we ready to open presents then?" Wanda rolled her eyes at her brother, and breaking up the inevitable fight that was about the follow between the two.
"Alright!" Fred agreed, sitting down next to the tree to sort out the gifts. "This one's for Wanda, and this is for Pietro."
Everyone found spots to get comfortable, with Lance and Kitty sitting on the rug by the fireplace, Rogue taking up the unoccupied spot on the couch, and Todd and Wanda propped up against the side of the sofa.
Once the gifts were sorted, they looked at each other expectedly. "Lance, you go first." Wanda said after a moment's silence as everyone tried to figure out how to go about with the whole present thing.
"Okay.." He opened hers first, a set of guitar picks. Thanking her profusely, he moved onto Todd's, which was a bunch of blank sheet music pages and a pack of regular notebook paper. He looked at the teen questionably.
"The regular paper's for you to write your lyrics on." He explained.
"You write music?" Rogue was a bit surprised. She'd known that Lance played the guitar, but was unaware he actually created songs.
"You should hear the one's about Kitty." Pietro said, rolling his eyes, while said girl blushed.
"Pain in the ass." Lance opened the irritating Quickster's next, a simple white envelope. He opened the envelope, pulling out a gift certificate to a place called Faravilla's.
"What's this?" He wondered, raising an eyebrow at Quicksilver, who grinned widely, draping an arm over the couch side and looking like a Cheshire cat.
"Just go there. Bring Kitty, she'll love it." He said enigmatically, still grinning as he went through the possibilities when his housemate and his girlfriend walked into the store, which was devoted entirely to sex.
Knowing that the fast talking mutant wasn't going to say anything else, Lance merely rolled his eyes, moving onto the next present, from Rogue.
"Wait, I want you all of ya to open mine together, alright?" She drawled, nodding in satisfaction as he placed hers to the side, then unwrapped Fred's, which was. a fluffy pink bathroom set. He blushed brightly, avoiding his girlfriend's curious eyes.
"Hey, that's just like the bathroom set I want for." She narrowed her eyes, maybe more in embarrassment than anger, at him. "Did you tell them about the plans I have for the dream house for us?"
"Um, maybe." He blushed brighter, feeling his ears grow hot, while the rest of the guys burst out laughing.
"Don't worry Kitty, he was tired and babbling at the time." Todd said, grinning widely at Shadowcat, who blushed, smiling good-naturedly.
"Okay, like, give it a rest!" She said to the dying down snickers, handing her own presents to Lance, two wrapped up packages. He opened the biggest one first, surprised to find it to be a souped-up Super Soaker.
"I had Hank fix it up for me." She added, motioning to the toy in his hands. "You can directly hook it up to the hose and all sorts of other stuff." Lance grinned, imagining the possibilities for summer, then moved onto the other one from her, which was a simple black T-Shirt that said, "You Rock My World." in white letters across the front. If he was going to say anything, it was drowned out by the instant howl of laughter that filled the room, courtesy of all his male housemates.
"Here, open mine." The rock tumbler said to Kitty, holding out a lumpy little package.
She took a moment to narrow an eye in confusion at it, then carefully opened the present. It was a smooth stone that just fit into the palm of her hand, painted pink with her name written across it in white, surrounded by a pain-stakingly painted red heart.
"Um, it's a paperweight." Lance rubbed the back of his neck, blushing deeply.
"It's so cute! Thank you!" She wrapped her arms around his neck in a quick hug, kissing him on the cheek.
Pietro leaned down to his sister and Todd. "All that trouble yesterday and he doesn't even wind up buying her anything." He said scrutinizing, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh shut up. It's sweet." Wanda said, pushing her brother back. "Fred, you go now." She lifted her voice to talk to the giant, who grinned, grabbing something that looked suspiciously like a book,(not that it was all that easy to hide what books were when you wrapped them), from Todd.
It was in fact a book, "Being Martha Stewart on a Low Budget", and Fred grinned, thanking the amphibious mutant and looking forward to the chance to use it.
Pietro had given him an envelope too, and it turned out to be a $50 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse, Fred's favorite restaurant. Next was Wanda's, which was a pair of new overalls.
"I know you've only got two pairs." The Scarlet Witch explained with a smile.
The last one was from Lance. "Wait for that, I got you guys stuff I want you to open at the same time, like Rogies." He said, winking at the Goth, who scowled at the old nickname the boys had annoyed her with when she'd been living at the Brotherhood Boarding House.
"So who opens their presents next?" Fred asked, looking around the room.
"Ooo, oo! Me!" Pietro said, waving his arm.
"Go on." Lance rolled his eyes.
Pietro tore into them gleefully, first going for the biggest one, which was a new shirt from Todd. Tight-fitting, like he liked his shirts, short- sleeved, and dark purple. He grinned like the clothes hog he was, looking forward to when the weather would heat up and he could wear the shirt comfortably. Hell, he might even try it out before then. Who cares if you're cold when you look good?
He opened Wanda's next, which, surprisingly, was in a plain white envelope. He opened it, and found it to be a plain piece of notebook paper that was a note saying that his sister wouldn't kill him for thirty days. "YAY!!!" He grinned, folding up the note and putting it into his pocket, in case he needed to bring it out later to remind her of it's existence.
"I have a feeling I'm going to regret that." Wanda said with a sigh.
Pietro set Lance's aside, then ripped the paper off his last one, from Fred. It was... a shower set, all in the scent of Field o' Strawberries. He blinked at the present for a few minutes, then at Fred, who grinned proudly. "Um, thanks..." He looked questionably at Lance, who shrugged in response.
"Uh, okay... Todd, you next." He said, nudging the teen.
Todd grabbed Wanda's first, opened it and finding it was a nice drawing pencil and charcoal set, all in a nice wood box. He blinked in amazement. "Wow, thanks." He said in awe, looking over it. "I really needed one of these. They're expensive." He smiled at her and Wanda blinked several times in shock, both from him not grabbing her in an embarrassing hug and from the way that her stomach flipped at the sight of his rather cute smile.
"You're welcome." She said simply, trying to figure out if she needed a cat scan for actually associating Todd with the word 'cute' for.... the umpteenth time that day.
Pietro's was next, a book titled "Men Who Love Women Who Hate Men". Todd was looking forward to reading it.
He opened Fred's last, waiting for Lance's, and found it was... a CD of Gregorian Chants. "Um, thanks, Freddy." He narrowed his eyes in bewilderment at the CD.
"The wonders of last minute Christmas shopping." Pietro mumbled, looking at his shower set.
Todd nodded in agreement. "It's the thought that counts, right?" He whispered back, then motioned to Wanda.
"C'mon sweetums, you next."
Deciding against frying him in the name of it being Christmas, and zapping your annoying (but still cute) housemates that were calling you annoying nicknames was bad, she moved on. Then stopped, blinking and going back over her previous thoughts. 'Wait a minute...'
"Waaanda..." Pietro sing-songed, poking his sibling. She growled, swatting his hand away, then grabbed Fred's present, opening it. A package of beef jerky. Yep, the wonders of last minute Christmas shopping...
For the sake of being nice, she smiled at Fred, who beamed in response, then opened her brother's next. It was a plain black shirt, girl fitted, with the phrase, "It's Not That I Don't Like You, I'm Just Antisocial", written across the front in white letters. She smiled, thanking her brother.
There was a small present from Rogue, who Wanda had made friends with quite easily recently, when the two had seen each other at the local Hot Topic. The Scarlet Witch opened it curiously. It was a lock for her door, a he steel one and the girl looked at the other Goth in amazement. "How did you know I needed..."
"Ah used to live here too, remembah?" Rogue smiled in amusement, while the male part of the room blushed sheepishly.
Nodding in agreement, Wanda set aside Lance's present. From Todd, there were two presents. Half cringing, she opened the first one, which was a beautiful necklace, a red jewel on a silver chain and stunningly gorgeous in its simplicity. The light from the fire made it sparkle and Wanda almost dropped it in shock. How the hell had he managed to get this?
As if reading her mind, Todd said, "I didn't steal it, promise. Remember all that time I wasn't around the house? You wouldn't believe how many people wanted odd jobs done. And man, they put a whole new meaning to the word, 'Odd'. I can't believe people actually want their ferrets taken for a walk." She nodded, thinking of the past two months, when the teen would be gone for the entire day, only to come home and drag himself into his room, where he'd crawl into bed in exhaustion. 'So THAT'S what he was doing.'
"Thank you." She said softly, suddenly wishing in the back of her mind for some more privacy. She blinked, wondering to herself why she would want... 'Oh never mind.' She opened his other present, not cringing this time. It was a framed portrait of herself, in charcoal and drawn in such detail it was like looking at a photograph. Two T's were scrawled in the corner, Todd's simple signature. Left at a loss of words, she could only blink in astonishment. There was so much detail, he must have spent so much time on it... "Thank you." Her voice was still soft and for some reason, her eyes were stinging. She blinked rapidly, raising her voice fill the disturbingly quiet room. "So are we going to open these present from you now, Lance?"
"Okay." He smiled knowingly, not saying anything else as he looked at the normally inflamed mutant, who was looking very quiet and thoughtful at the moment.
"Mine too!" Rogue said, musingly studying Wanda.
Lance had gotten everyone helmets, a black one for Fred, light blue for Pietro, red for Wanda, and green for Todd. "Uh, so that you guys don't wind up eventually getting a concussion from...me." He blushed, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
"This is going to come in VERY handy." Todd said, thinking back to all those times when the house seemed to choose HIM to drop it's ceiling on, from when Lance was pissed off.
Rogue's was next, proving to be terry cloth bathrobes. Lance's was black, Fred's maroon, Todd's deep green and Pietro's dark purple. "I was remembering all those laundry days." She said with a smile, shaking her head at the memories of when the guys would run out of clothes and have to walk around the house in sheets, toga-style, while the laundry was done.
"Awww, but the togas are fun!" Pietro protested, grinning at Rogue.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Kitty pulled out a big dish from behind her, holding it out. "I made you guys cookies!" She held the plate out to Lance, who forced a grin out and took a cookie, passing the plate on.
The dish made a full round through the room, last with Todd, who carefully held up the unnaturally heavy pastry. They all looked at Lance expectedly, who bit into his, grinning at his girlfriend. Exchanging glances, the rest of the Brotherhood and Rouge, who'd been pushed into getting a cookie by Pietro, held up their lumpy "cookies" and bit into them. And froze. Kitty looked at them expectedly. Pietro led them out of the room to run into the kitchen, where they spit them out into the trash.
"Were they really that bad?" Her face fell.
Lance retrieved the plate and set it down, sitting back down next to her. "No way. They're just wimps." He took up another cookie and bit into it. Everyone else returned then, watching in shock as Avalanche happily munched on Kitty's "food".
"Man, if that's not love, I don't know what is." Todd said. Everyone else nodded in agreement.
"He's going to have to get his stomach pumped." Pietro commented, placing a tentative hand on his own delicate one, which he wasn't sure was going to survive all that torture. He settled back onto the couch, while everyone else got comfortable in his or her former spot.
"Hey, can we steal the couch for now?" Lance asked.
Rogue shrugged, not really caring. Pietro opened his mouth to argue, but she grabbed him and pulled him off forcefully before he could. "Heyyyy!" He expressed his disapproval to her back as she walked over to where Lance and Kitty were getting up. Seeing he wasn't going to win this, he got up, sitting next to Rogue on the rug by the fireplace. 'Oh well, it was warmer here anyway.' He thought smugly, pulling his knees up and hugging them.
Lance leaned over the back of the couch, grabbing his guitar case. He took his beloved instrument out, putting the case down, and played his fingertips across the strings, then tightened several. He took out a pick and strummed it, making sure it was in tune. "What song first?" He'd first learned how to play Christmas songs, and they were infinitely simple, so he could still remember every one.
"Everyone's gotta sing along." Fred said, looking at Rogue and Wanda, who blushed.
"NO way!" They exclaimed together.
"YES way!" The boys argued back.
"It's tradition." Todd said happily.
"You only started it last year!" Wanda protested.
"More the reason to continue on with it." He grinned widely and she shook her head, smiling a bit.
"Alright." She cast her blue eyes over to Rogue. "C'mon, you too. They won't leave you alone anyway."
"Fine. Ah'm not guaranteeing that Ah'll know th' words, though." She said.
"That's okay, you can learn them." Lance said, strumming the guitar and starting into a faster version of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer", inspired the punk version of it.
Next was Silent Night, the Twelve Redneck Days of Christmas, All I Want For Christmas is You (which seemed to mostly be sung by Lance and Kitty, who were giving each other what Fred had officially named 'The Googly-Eyes"), Walking 'Round in Women's Underwear, Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, I Won't Be Home for Christmas (by Blink 182, requested by Todd), Oi to the World (by No Doubt, requested by both Rogue and Wanda), Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime, Last Christmas (which was asked for by Pietro), Santa Clause is Coming to Town, and they finished off with The Hanukkah Song, which they'd sung for Kitty and partially for Pietro and Wanda, who were half-Jewish (although they didn't really celebrate it).
"See, that wasn't so bad!" Pietro said to Rogue, nudging her.
She blushed. "Maybe not too painful." She admitted. She'd really started getting into it, especially when she and Wanda had led the singing in 'Oi to the World".
Lance carefully put his guitar back in its case, taking the time to put the guitar picks he'd gotten from Wanda. He felt the couch rock a tiny bit and he turned his head in surprise to see Todd crouched on the back of the sofa, holding up a piece of mistletoe above Lance and Kitty's head. The two looked at each other in surprise for a moment, then she leaned forward to gently kiss him on the lips. Once they'd finished, Todd was sent flying to the other side of the room, courtesy of Lance. "You guys are such a pain in the ass." He growled, putting his guitar back behind the couch. Todd grinned at him, upside down from where he was propped up against the wall, feet in the air.
"But it's sooooo kyoooooot!!" Pietro crooned, catching the pillow that was thrown at his head.
"Yeah, but nothing compares to you singing Last Christmas." Fred said, starting to pick up all the left over wrapping paper strewn all over the floor.
"Oh shut up, you were singing too!" Quicksilver snapped, then got a huge wad of paper thrown at his head.
"At least I didn't look as stupid as you did." The big mutant grinned, then got the ball of paper thrown back at him. Pietro scrambled to get more paper, packing it into a ball, and throwing it at Fred, dodging the ball that was thrown at him, which bounced off of Rogue's head instead.
"Hey!" She started to get into the fight, grabbing a sheet of paper before Pietro could and balling it up, pitching it at Freddy.
Unnoticed, Lance and Kitty slid off the couch and slipped outside.
Kitty wrapped her slender arms around herself, warding off the cold. Lance tucked an arm around her waist, pulling her close as they walked through the back yard, heading a little bit into the woods that were on the outskirts of the lawn. He stopped, facing the girl who melted against him, comforted by his warmth and sturdy body.
After a moment of standing there, she spoke. "So why did you want to come out here?"
"I wanted to give you the rest of your present."
She blinked in surprise. "The rest of..."
He nodded, reaching into his pocket and fishing out something. He motioned for her hand, which she held out. His hand still closed around the item, he held it over own tiny white one, dropping it onto the smooth palm. She felt cool metal and held her hand up to her face to see what was in it. There, nestled against the porcelain skin, was Lance's class ring on a delicate gold chain. She raised wide baby blue eyes to his warm chocolate one's.
"I.I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to graduate, but I'm sure as hell gonna try, and I. want you to hang onto it." His tone was somewhat nervous as he carefully searched her eyes.
Kitty was still, quietly digesting the sweet and heart-felt words. Then she threw her arms around his strong neck, balancing on one foot so that she could neatly bury her head in the juncture between his neck and shoulder. "Thank you." Shadowcat whispered.
He held her close, relishing in the sweet smell of her hair, the closeness of her slender body against his, her warm breath against his neck. "Merry Christmas." Avalanche whispered.
"Happy Holidays." She kissed him.
* * *
Todd was sitting with his back to the wall, thoroughly enjoying the show before him, as Pietro, Fred and Rogue (very uncharacteristically), had a full-fledged paper war. A sudden tap on his shoulder made him look up, surprised to see Wanda standing next to him, and even more surprised when she motioned for him to follow her. He stood up without question, following her into the foyer, where they both put on their coats, and then outside.
The silence between the two was almost comfortable as they walked down the front lawn, the only sounds being the crunching of snow under their shoes. He walked with her, wondering silently where they were going, and even more so as to why she wanted to take him there. She looked like she was in too much of a good mood to take him somewhere to quietly kill and bury his body.
They walked down the street, finally turning into a tiny park that was completely devoid of any other people on that crisp Christmas night. The Scarlet Witch stopped in the center of the park, a small clearing, and looked up at the sky, where the stars were especially bright, as they always were in such cold weather.
"Wanda?" He finally ventured, standing next to her and watching her peaceful and thoughtful face in wonder.
"Thank you." She said, face still turned upwards.
"Huh?" His brow furrowed in confusion. "For what?"
She looked at him. "For the presents. I know I already said thank you, but. it felt like I should be saying it in private. And. I guess I just wanted to thank you for helping to make this such a wonderful Christmas for me."
He smiled softly. "Oh. You're welcome." He could feel his cheeks starting to heat up, especially when her blue eyes met his own. Unconsciously, he took several steps closer, so that he was standing right in front of her, astonished, somewhere in the back of his mind, that she was letting him get so close to her. "You're a surprising person, you know that?"
"Why's that?" She wondered, not at all bothered by their closeness. If anything, it was comforting.
"Well, for someone that can act like such a hard ass all the time, you can be really sweet when you get down to it."
She blinked thoughtfully. "I'll take that as a compliment."
He blushed a little brighter, smiling shyly. "It was supposed to be one."
"Oh." Not even thinking about it, letting her emotions and some part of her that she usually kept tied down in a little box guide her, she leaned closer to him, and gently kissed him.
As his warm lips brushed against hers, a million thoughts and emotions rushed through her in a single moment, feelings of warmth and acceptance, and, as she felt strong arms tenderly wrap around her body and hold her, a rising warmth that came from her belly and spread through the rest of her.
The kiss was gentle, neither of them going beyond any real boundaries, and was all the more sweeter for that fact. How long they stayed like that was impossible to tell, but when both broke away from it, they were starry eyes and very quiet, their breath even seeming muted. He reached out to take her hands, giving her that shy smile again, which she found herself returning.
"Merry Christmas." She whispered, her hands warm in his.
"Merry Christmas."
* * *
YAYYYYYYY! FINALLY DONE!!! Whelp, I had really wanted this story done by X- mas, but that didn't happen for a number of reasons. The main one being that I didn't want this chapter to turn out to be shit. :P I'll hopefully be writing another X-Men story soon, once I finish my Invader Zim one. One of my New Year's Resolutions was to get my lazy ass writing more, or else I'll have to eat live hamsters. I'm hoping it'll work. ^^
*Notes: You REALLY have to listen to last Christmas, because you can just REALLLLLLY get the mental image of the guys singing it. ^^ Also, I really don't know many Jewish people, so I'm not too clear as to how they take Christmas, and if they celebrate it or not. I certainly hope I didn't offend anyone with it, I just felt the need to put Kitty in this story. ( Oh yeah, and I dun know if it's only a Florida thing, but there really is store called Faravilla's, and it's. quite interesting. ^^
By: Kichara
Chapter Four: Pietro Displaying the Fine Art of Fruiti-ness and We Reach the Mushy Sweet Conclusion
~So Christmas Evening Started Happening
With dinner, some visitors, and the boys dancing funny
Lance got teased, and came dangerously close to snapping
But all turns out well on Christmas.~
~Whelp, this is the last chapter! I'd been hoping to actually have this story done by Christmas, but that didn't really work out. Damn work! Yeah, yeah, and there's my whining, as if anybody WANTS to hear it. O.o
Man, this is the last time I attempt to make little poem-song things at the beginning of every chapter. Bleh..~
Lance carefully hooked the last ornament on the tree, although the package of ramen noodles certainly strained the definition 'ornament'. They'd only had so many that had been in storage and, while brainstorming for ideas as to how they could fill the tree up more, Fred had come up with the idea that they put stuff on the tree that sort of represented things that made up their lives. Pietro had pointed out that Lance's spare tire had started that, as the Brotherhood couldn't survive without the sturdy vehicle. Besides that, they'd hung up one of Todd's CD's, as music was always something that was filling the house, one of Wanda's rings to celebrate her becoming part of the Brotherhood that year, and a package of ramen noodles, which, at only 11 cents a package, was the staple food around the house. The rapid flickering of the channels on the TV made Lance turn around to see Pietro and Todd on the couch, Todd channel surfing like there was no tomorrow.
"What're you doing? We've only got five channels!" Lance said in exasperation, watching the same channels go by over and over again.
"I know, but we're waiting for Rudolph to come on, so I'm all antsy!" Todd argued, finally settling on tossing Pietro the controller.
Pietro took up the antsy channel surfing with vigor, a little grin on his face. "C'mon, you. Start!"
"What time does it come on?" Lance glanced over at the clock, which said the time was about 3:28.
"3:30." They said in unison, eyes still glued onto the non-stop TV.
"Then quit it!" He scowled. "Aren't you two a little old to be watching that crap?' The remote controller squarely hit him on the head. "Ow!"
"Shut up." Pietro stuck his tongue out at the older boy.
"I think he's just in denial." Todd remarked, settling back onto the worn in cushions.
"Yeah, whatever." Lance headed out of the room, going to see what the rest of the Brotherhood was up to, rubbing his head.
"You'll be back!" Pietro shouted at his retreating figure as it left the room. "You can't resist!"
"What're you yelling about?" Wanda sauntered into the room, leaning against the doorframe.
"Lance is being a big stupid head and is making fun of us." Her twin said, lower lip pushed out in a definite pout.
"About what?" The Scarlet Witch raised one dark eyebrow, in reaction to both the situation and her brother's childish comments on it.
"Us watching Christmas specials." He folded his arms and sank into the couch, extending his legs to their full length and looking just like a five year old having a temper tantrum.
"Christmas specials." Her tone was skeptical as the other eyebrow lifted.
"Awww, c'mon sweetie, come and watch with us!" Todd scooted over so there was room for her on the couch.
"That's alright. I think I'll pass." She turned to leave, when a sudden wind blew her hair forward and before she knew what was happening, arms were around her and then she was deposited onto the couch, held there securely by her brother's slender arms. She struggled, "Pietro, if you don't let me go NOW, I'm going to decorate the walls with you."
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaase?" he whined. "Just for five minutes, okay? Then I'll let you go."
Her eye twitched a bit as she answered. "Promise?"
"Promise." He grinned, letting her go and sitting back just as the movie started.
So the five minutes passed, with the boys watching Wanda intently for any signs of her leaving and Wanda watching the TV intently. The guys exchanged glances and grinned in victory. About ten minutes later, Lance popped his head into the room, more than surprised to see Wanda sitting with Pietro and Todd on the couch, her eyes glued on Rudolph and Clarece.
"Wanda, what're you."
"Shhh!" She cut him off with one hand, eyes never leaving the screen.
Lance felt himself pulled over to the TV by some unknown force, suddenly mesmerized by the clay animation reindeer on the screen, then silently backed up to the couch, where room was made for him between Pietro and Wanda. Pietro flashed a thumbs up sign to Todd, who grinned back.
A commercial break eventually came up on the TV and Lance, realizing that somehow he'd been watching the movie for the past twenty minutes, moved to get up, when Pietro grabbed him by the waist. "YOU'RE not going anywhere." He commanded, piercing Lance's eyes with his own bright one's.
"NO WAY." Avalanche protested, pushing the white haired boy away.
"SIT." A voice on the other side of him made him pause in the motion of getting up, turning to stare at a stubborn Wanda.
"If I watch it, you watch it." She commanded, tugging on his arm with a rueful smile. "Now sit."
Grumbling, the mutant relaxed back into the sofa, although the complaints were forgotten as the movie came back on, and were completely gone by the time it was over, as everyone scrambled for the dog-eared TV Guide.
"Okay, turn it to channel five! Frosty's next!" Todd called out, then had the Guide snatched from him by Pietro, who flipped through the pages rapidly, concluding that they needed to watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" after that. The floppy book was grabbed by Wanda next, who scrutinizing looked over the pages, with Lance over her shoulder.
Fred strolled into the living room about three hours later, and was quite surprised to find Lance, Pietro, Todd and Wanda cuddling together on the couch, tearfully watching the end of "It's a Wonderful Life."
"Uh." He cleared his throat to get their attention. "Dinner's ready."
Wanda stood up quickly, swiping at her eyes to hide the tears that had started building there. Lance and Pietro half ran past her to get to the kitchen with Fred close behind. Todd, on the other hand, noticed her glassy eyes and stopped next to her, smiling as he reached up and brushed away one of the cute tears, a little smile on his face.
She scowled, ready to argue that she hadn't been crying, when he cut off her words. "Man, the fire getting to you too? It's nice, but makes you're eyes all watery, y'know?" The words weren't entirely true, and she knew they were only said to make her not feel stupid about getting teary eyed. She smiled in gratification, nodding. They walked to the kitchen together, each sporting their own secret smile.
The massive amounts of food had been set up on the counter, buffet-style, so that they could all sit at the table without searching for elbow room. Todd and Wanda grabbed plates to fill them up with everyone else, and they all sat down at the table. After a quick grace, they dug in, ravenous after fasting all day for dinner. The turkey was gone after one round, carefully rationed out between the five teenagers. There was ample amount of mashed potatoes, even for Fred, so the plates were piled high with those, with a decent amount of everything else to fill up the Brotherhood's bottomless stomachs. After dinner, the typical process of cleaning the kitchen was put into action. In other words, tossing everything into the sink and hoping it would magically go away.
It happened occasionally, when one of the guys had nothing better to do and were bored out of their minds enough to do dishes, but other than that, plates were pretty hard to come by as most of them were usually dirty and filling up the sink. After dumping the dishes, Pietro, Wanda, and Fred marched into the living room again, while Todd and Lance went outside to get more firewood for the dying fire, as the Maximoff Twins' supply wasn't exactly enough to last the night. Pietro turned the radio back on and he sat with his sister and Fred on the couch to listen to Christmas songs and wait for the other two to come back inside.
Lance and Todd came in, stomping snow from the feet. "Damn, it's cold out there!" A shiver ran up Lance's spine as he said the words and he hurriedly kicked off his soggy boots, half jogging to the living room to get the fire started back up, Todd close behind. Within a few minutes, they had the fire blazing again, with a grateful Brotherhood standing around it. With the sun going down outside, the temperature in the house had easily dropped about twenty degrees, and the fireplace going more than helped make the house livable. Todd headed upstairs to make a fire in the fireplace that was in Wanda's room, as they hoped it would help to keep the entire house warm with a fire going upstairs. He got back to the living room just as the George Michael song, "Last Christmas" came on the radio.
Pietro suddenly grabbed his sister, who was closest to him, by the shoulders, dancing around the room with her while he joyfully sang along with it. "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away."
She fell back onto the couch, and was shocked beyond all belief as the rest of the guys suddenly began. singing along with the chorus, dancing around quite. gay-like. Or maybe the most disturbing thing was that her brother knew ALL the lyrics. Not able to think much about it, she merely sat back on the couch, content with laughing her ass off as the male portion of the Brotherhood REALLY got into the song.
"This year, to save me from tears, I'll give it to someone special (Special.)"
"You're not nervous, are ya?" Rogue helped Kitty step over a slippery patch of ice on the road as they came around the bend that led to the Brotherhood's house.
"Not really, I just. Well, maybe a little bit." Her friend admitted with a little laugh, which was cut short as they rounded the bend and came in view of the house, lit up and completely covered with Christmas lights, and decked out with every Christmas decoration imaginable. "Wow." She said in awe, shocked by the usually dingy house's transformation.
"Yeah, wow." Rogue blinked in amazement, stopping for a moment to just take it all in, then led Kitty up the front yard. Music could be heard coming from the living room, so the girls headed over to one of it's windows, and stopped in astonishment, jaws dropping as they saw Lance, Todd, Fred, and of course, Pietro all singing along to "Last Christmas" and capering around the living room, looking as though they were auditioning for a dance club for extremely gay men.
A shiver ran up Lance's spine, the kind that comes from the feeling that someone is watching you, and he looked around frantically, stopping in shock when he saw Rogue and Kitty standing outside the window, peering inside with wide eyes. Todd accidentally bumped into the boy's stiff figure and he had to catch himself before he fell to the floor. "Yo, Lance, what's u." his words trailed off as he followed Lance's point of view and saw the two X-Men watching the show that was being put on display in the room. His mouth dropped in surprise, a bright crimson painting across his cheeks. Fred noticed the two, what they were gaping at, and stopped what he was doing, turning a lovely shade of red himself. The only oblivious person was Pietro, who danced past them happily.
Lance nudged him sharply, whispering loudly, "Pietro, quit it!"
"No! I don't wanna!" The speed demon protested, wriggling out of Lance's grip. He noticed the girls at the window but decided to ignore their presence as he finished off the song, prancing across the length of the room, with a bright red Lance walking past him to go open the door for the girls.
"Merry Christmas, Lance." An uncharacteristic grin was on Rogue's face as she greeted the rock tumbler. "Would you boys like some time to yourselves?"
"Oh shut up." He said to the floor, letting them in and shutting the door behind them.
"Awww, I thought you were cute!" Kitty protested, smiling at him. "A little strange and unexpected, but. yeah!"
"Um, thanks?"
"Merry Christmas, dork!" Kitty said as Pietro sauntered into the room, flicking him in the forehead and bringing him back to reality.
"What? I LIKE dancing!" He protested, pouting and swatting her hand away.
"Yes, and you're very pretty." Rogue commented nonchalantly, raising an eyebrow.
"Really?!" Pietro squealed fagishly, then stopped. "Wait." An awkward silence followed, before the entire room broke out into laughter.
"Have you guys opened presents yet?" Kitty asked, holding up the wrapped packages that were in her arms.
"Nope, we decided to save them for the end of the day. Y'know, save the best for last and all that." Lance explained, taking the presents from her and leading her into the living room, where he placed them under the tree with the others.
"Ya know, that tree looks AWFULLY familiar." Rogue said, placing a finger on her jaw as she thoughtfully looked over the ghetto pine.
"Really?" Lance said innocently as the rest of the Brotherhood snickered.
"Yeah, Scott fell into the hole from it this afternoon."
"YES!!" the guys exchanged high fives while Lance raised a fist in victory.
"Rock on!" Everyone but Kitty, who thought it was cute (although you would've thought she'd have gotten over the whole rock pun thing by now), groaned in unison.
"Don't you ever get tired of that?" Pietro asked wearily, tossing himself onto the couch.
"Bitch bitch." Lance made a face at the quickster, who stuck his tongue out in response.
"So are we ready to open presents then?" Wanda rolled her eyes at her brother, and breaking up the inevitable fight that was about the follow between the two.
"Alright!" Fred agreed, sitting down next to the tree to sort out the gifts. "This one's for Wanda, and this is for Pietro."
Everyone found spots to get comfortable, with Lance and Kitty sitting on the rug by the fireplace, Rogue taking up the unoccupied spot on the couch, and Todd and Wanda propped up against the side of the sofa.
Once the gifts were sorted, they looked at each other expectedly. "Lance, you go first." Wanda said after a moment's silence as everyone tried to figure out how to go about with the whole present thing.
"Okay.." He opened hers first, a set of guitar picks. Thanking her profusely, he moved onto Todd's, which was a bunch of blank sheet music pages and a pack of regular notebook paper. He looked at the teen questionably.
"The regular paper's for you to write your lyrics on." He explained.
"You write music?" Rogue was a bit surprised. She'd known that Lance played the guitar, but was unaware he actually created songs.
"You should hear the one's about Kitty." Pietro said, rolling his eyes, while said girl blushed.
"Pain in the ass." Lance opened the irritating Quickster's next, a simple white envelope. He opened the envelope, pulling out a gift certificate to a place called Faravilla's.
"What's this?" He wondered, raising an eyebrow at Quicksilver, who grinned widely, draping an arm over the couch side and looking like a Cheshire cat.
"Just go there. Bring Kitty, she'll love it." He said enigmatically, still grinning as he went through the possibilities when his housemate and his girlfriend walked into the store, which was devoted entirely to sex.
Knowing that the fast talking mutant wasn't going to say anything else, Lance merely rolled his eyes, moving onto the next present, from Rogue.
"Wait, I want you all of ya to open mine together, alright?" She drawled, nodding in satisfaction as he placed hers to the side, then unwrapped Fred's, which was. a fluffy pink bathroom set. He blushed brightly, avoiding his girlfriend's curious eyes.
"Hey, that's just like the bathroom set I want for." She narrowed her eyes, maybe more in embarrassment than anger, at him. "Did you tell them about the plans I have for the dream house for us?"
"Um, maybe." He blushed brighter, feeling his ears grow hot, while the rest of the guys burst out laughing.
"Don't worry Kitty, he was tired and babbling at the time." Todd said, grinning widely at Shadowcat, who blushed, smiling good-naturedly.
"Okay, like, give it a rest!" She said to the dying down snickers, handing her own presents to Lance, two wrapped up packages. He opened the biggest one first, surprised to find it to be a souped-up Super Soaker.
"I had Hank fix it up for me." She added, motioning to the toy in his hands. "You can directly hook it up to the hose and all sorts of other stuff." Lance grinned, imagining the possibilities for summer, then moved onto the other one from her, which was a simple black T-Shirt that said, "You Rock My World." in white letters across the front. If he was going to say anything, it was drowned out by the instant howl of laughter that filled the room, courtesy of all his male housemates.
"Here, open mine." The rock tumbler said to Kitty, holding out a lumpy little package.
She took a moment to narrow an eye in confusion at it, then carefully opened the present. It was a smooth stone that just fit into the palm of her hand, painted pink with her name written across it in white, surrounded by a pain-stakingly painted red heart.
"Um, it's a paperweight." Lance rubbed the back of his neck, blushing deeply.
"It's so cute! Thank you!" She wrapped her arms around his neck in a quick hug, kissing him on the cheek.
Pietro leaned down to his sister and Todd. "All that trouble yesterday and he doesn't even wind up buying her anything." He said scrutinizing, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh shut up. It's sweet." Wanda said, pushing her brother back. "Fred, you go now." She lifted her voice to talk to the giant, who grinned, grabbing something that looked suspiciously like a book,(not that it was all that easy to hide what books were when you wrapped them), from Todd.
It was in fact a book, "Being Martha Stewart on a Low Budget", and Fred grinned, thanking the amphibious mutant and looking forward to the chance to use it.
Pietro had given him an envelope too, and it turned out to be a $50 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse, Fred's favorite restaurant. Next was Wanda's, which was a pair of new overalls.
"I know you've only got two pairs." The Scarlet Witch explained with a smile.
The last one was from Lance. "Wait for that, I got you guys stuff I want you to open at the same time, like Rogies." He said, winking at the Goth, who scowled at the old nickname the boys had annoyed her with when she'd been living at the Brotherhood Boarding House.
"So who opens their presents next?" Fred asked, looking around the room.
"Ooo, oo! Me!" Pietro said, waving his arm.
"Go on." Lance rolled his eyes.
Pietro tore into them gleefully, first going for the biggest one, which was a new shirt from Todd. Tight-fitting, like he liked his shirts, short- sleeved, and dark purple. He grinned like the clothes hog he was, looking forward to when the weather would heat up and he could wear the shirt comfortably. Hell, he might even try it out before then. Who cares if you're cold when you look good?
He opened Wanda's next, which, surprisingly, was in a plain white envelope. He opened it, and found it to be a plain piece of notebook paper that was a note saying that his sister wouldn't kill him for thirty days. "YAY!!!" He grinned, folding up the note and putting it into his pocket, in case he needed to bring it out later to remind her of it's existence.
"I have a feeling I'm going to regret that." Wanda said with a sigh.
Pietro set Lance's aside, then ripped the paper off his last one, from Fred. It was... a shower set, all in the scent of Field o' Strawberries. He blinked at the present for a few minutes, then at Fred, who grinned proudly. "Um, thanks..." He looked questionably at Lance, who shrugged in response.
"Uh, okay... Todd, you next." He said, nudging the teen.
Todd grabbed Wanda's first, opened it and finding it was a nice drawing pencil and charcoal set, all in a nice wood box. He blinked in amazement. "Wow, thanks." He said in awe, looking over it. "I really needed one of these. They're expensive." He smiled at her and Wanda blinked several times in shock, both from him not grabbing her in an embarrassing hug and from the way that her stomach flipped at the sight of his rather cute smile.
"You're welcome." She said simply, trying to figure out if she needed a cat scan for actually associating Todd with the word 'cute' for.... the umpteenth time that day.
Pietro's was next, a book titled "Men Who Love Women Who Hate Men". Todd was looking forward to reading it.
He opened Fred's last, waiting for Lance's, and found it was... a CD of Gregorian Chants. "Um, thanks, Freddy." He narrowed his eyes in bewilderment at the CD.
"The wonders of last minute Christmas shopping." Pietro mumbled, looking at his shower set.
Todd nodded in agreement. "It's the thought that counts, right?" He whispered back, then motioned to Wanda.
"C'mon sweetums, you next."
Deciding against frying him in the name of it being Christmas, and zapping your annoying (but still cute) housemates that were calling you annoying nicknames was bad, she moved on. Then stopped, blinking and going back over her previous thoughts. 'Wait a minute...'
"Waaanda..." Pietro sing-songed, poking his sibling. She growled, swatting his hand away, then grabbed Fred's present, opening it. A package of beef jerky. Yep, the wonders of last minute Christmas shopping...
For the sake of being nice, she smiled at Fred, who beamed in response, then opened her brother's next. It was a plain black shirt, girl fitted, with the phrase, "It's Not That I Don't Like You, I'm Just Antisocial", written across the front in white letters. She smiled, thanking her brother.
There was a small present from Rogue, who Wanda had made friends with quite easily recently, when the two had seen each other at the local Hot Topic. The Scarlet Witch opened it curiously. It was a lock for her door, a he steel one and the girl looked at the other Goth in amazement. "How did you know I needed..."
"Ah used to live here too, remembah?" Rogue smiled in amusement, while the male part of the room blushed sheepishly.
Nodding in agreement, Wanda set aside Lance's present. From Todd, there were two presents. Half cringing, she opened the first one, which was a beautiful necklace, a red jewel on a silver chain and stunningly gorgeous in its simplicity. The light from the fire made it sparkle and Wanda almost dropped it in shock. How the hell had he managed to get this?
As if reading her mind, Todd said, "I didn't steal it, promise. Remember all that time I wasn't around the house? You wouldn't believe how many people wanted odd jobs done. And man, they put a whole new meaning to the word, 'Odd'. I can't believe people actually want their ferrets taken for a walk." She nodded, thinking of the past two months, when the teen would be gone for the entire day, only to come home and drag himself into his room, where he'd crawl into bed in exhaustion. 'So THAT'S what he was doing.'
"Thank you." She said softly, suddenly wishing in the back of her mind for some more privacy. She blinked, wondering to herself why she would want... 'Oh never mind.' She opened his other present, not cringing this time. It was a framed portrait of herself, in charcoal and drawn in such detail it was like looking at a photograph. Two T's were scrawled in the corner, Todd's simple signature. Left at a loss of words, she could only blink in astonishment. There was so much detail, he must have spent so much time on it... "Thank you." Her voice was still soft and for some reason, her eyes were stinging. She blinked rapidly, raising her voice fill the disturbingly quiet room. "So are we going to open these present from you now, Lance?"
"Okay." He smiled knowingly, not saying anything else as he looked at the normally inflamed mutant, who was looking very quiet and thoughtful at the moment.
"Mine too!" Rogue said, musingly studying Wanda.
Lance had gotten everyone helmets, a black one for Fred, light blue for Pietro, red for Wanda, and green for Todd. "Uh, so that you guys don't wind up eventually getting a concussion from...me." He blushed, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
"This is going to come in VERY handy." Todd said, thinking back to all those times when the house seemed to choose HIM to drop it's ceiling on, from when Lance was pissed off.
Rogue's was next, proving to be terry cloth bathrobes. Lance's was black, Fred's maroon, Todd's deep green and Pietro's dark purple. "I was remembering all those laundry days." She said with a smile, shaking her head at the memories of when the guys would run out of clothes and have to walk around the house in sheets, toga-style, while the laundry was done.
"Awww, but the togas are fun!" Pietro protested, grinning at Rogue.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Kitty pulled out a big dish from behind her, holding it out. "I made you guys cookies!" She held the plate out to Lance, who forced a grin out and took a cookie, passing the plate on.
The dish made a full round through the room, last with Todd, who carefully held up the unnaturally heavy pastry. They all looked at Lance expectedly, who bit into his, grinning at his girlfriend. Exchanging glances, the rest of the Brotherhood and Rouge, who'd been pushed into getting a cookie by Pietro, held up their lumpy "cookies" and bit into them. And froze. Kitty looked at them expectedly. Pietro led them out of the room to run into the kitchen, where they spit them out into the trash.
"Were they really that bad?" Her face fell.
Lance retrieved the plate and set it down, sitting back down next to her. "No way. They're just wimps." He took up another cookie and bit into it. Everyone else returned then, watching in shock as Avalanche happily munched on Kitty's "food".
"Man, if that's not love, I don't know what is." Todd said. Everyone else nodded in agreement.
"He's going to have to get his stomach pumped." Pietro commented, placing a tentative hand on his own delicate one, which he wasn't sure was going to survive all that torture. He settled back onto the couch, while everyone else got comfortable in his or her former spot.
"Hey, can we steal the couch for now?" Lance asked.
Rogue shrugged, not really caring. Pietro opened his mouth to argue, but she grabbed him and pulled him off forcefully before he could. "Heyyyy!" He expressed his disapproval to her back as she walked over to where Lance and Kitty were getting up. Seeing he wasn't going to win this, he got up, sitting next to Rogue on the rug by the fireplace. 'Oh well, it was warmer here anyway.' He thought smugly, pulling his knees up and hugging them.
Lance leaned over the back of the couch, grabbing his guitar case. He took his beloved instrument out, putting the case down, and played his fingertips across the strings, then tightened several. He took out a pick and strummed it, making sure it was in tune. "What song first?" He'd first learned how to play Christmas songs, and they were infinitely simple, so he could still remember every one.
"Everyone's gotta sing along." Fred said, looking at Rogue and Wanda, who blushed.
"NO way!" They exclaimed together.
"YES way!" The boys argued back.
"It's tradition." Todd said happily.
"You only started it last year!" Wanda protested.
"More the reason to continue on with it." He grinned widely and she shook her head, smiling a bit.
"Alright." She cast her blue eyes over to Rogue. "C'mon, you too. They won't leave you alone anyway."
"Fine. Ah'm not guaranteeing that Ah'll know th' words, though." She said.
"That's okay, you can learn them." Lance said, strumming the guitar and starting into a faster version of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer", inspired the punk version of it.
Next was Silent Night, the Twelve Redneck Days of Christmas, All I Want For Christmas is You (which seemed to mostly be sung by Lance and Kitty, who were giving each other what Fred had officially named 'The Googly-Eyes"), Walking 'Round in Women's Underwear, Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, I Won't Be Home for Christmas (by Blink 182, requested by Todd), Oi to the World (by No Doubt, requested by both Rogue and Wanda), Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime, Last Christmas (which was asked for by Pietro), Santa Clause is Coming to Town, and they finished off with The Hanukkah Song, which they'd sung for Kitty and partially for Pietro and Wanda, who were half-Jewish (although they didn't really celebrate it).
"See, that wasn't so bad!" Pietro said to Rogue, nudging her.
She blushed. "Maybe not too painful." She admitted. She'd really started getting into it, especially when she and Wanda had led the singing in 'Oi to the World".
Lance carefully put his guitar back in its case, taking the time to put the guitar picks he'd gotten from Wanda. He felt the couch rock a tiny bit and he turned his head in surprise to see Todd crouched on the back of the sofa, holding up a piece of mistletoe above Lance and Kitty's head. The two looked at each other in surprise for a moment, then she leaned forward to gently kiss him on the lips. Once they'd finished, Todd was sent flying to the other side of the room, courtesy of Lance. "You guys are such a pain in the ass." He growled, putting his guitar back behind the couch. Todd grinned at him, upside down from where he was propped up against the wall, feet in the air.
"But it's sooooo kyoooooot!!" Pietro crooned, catching the pillow that was thrown at his head.
"Yeah, but nothing compares to you singing Last Christmas." Fred said, starting to pick up all the left over wrapping paper strewn all over the floor.
"Oh shut up, you were singing too!" Quicksilver snapped, then got a huge wad of paper thrown at his head.
"At least I didn't look as stupid as you did." The big mutant grinned, then got the ball of paper thrown back at him. Pietro scrambled to get more paper, packing it into a ball, and throwing it at Fred, dodging the ball that was thrown at him, which bounced off of Rogue's head instead.
"Hey!" She started to get into the fight, grabbing a sheet of paper before Pietro could and balling it up, pitching it at Freddy.
Unnoticed, Lance and Kitty slid off the couch and slipped outside.
Kitty wrapped her slender arms around herself, warding off the cold. Lance tucked an arm around her waist, pulling her close as they walked through the back yard, heading a little bit into the woods that were on the outskirts of the lawn. He stopped, facing the girl who melted against him, comforted by his warmth and sturdy body.
After a moment of standing there, she spoke. "So why did you want to come out here?"
"I wanted to give you the rest of your present."
She blinked in surprise. "The rest of..."
He nodded, reaching into his pocket and fishing out something. He motioned for her hand, which she held out. His hand still closed around the item, he held it over own tiny white one, dropping it onto the smooth palm. She felt cool metal and held her hand up to her face to see what was in it. There, nestled against the porcelain skin, was Lance's class ring on a delicate gold chain. She raised wide baby blue eyes to his warm chocolate one's.
"I.I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to graduate, but I'm sure as hell gonna try, and I. want you to hang onto it." His tone was somewhat nervous as he carefully searched her eyes.
Kitty was still, quietly digesting the sweet and heart-felt words. Then she threw her arms around his strong neck, balancing on one foot so that she could neatly bury her head in the juncture between his neck and shoulder. "Thank you." Shadowcat whispered.
He held her close, relishing in the sweet smell of her hair, the closeness of her slender body against his, her warm breath against his neck. "Merry Christmas." Avalanche whispered.
"Happy Holidays." She kissed him.
* * *
Todd was sitting with his back to the wall, thoroughly enjoying the show before him, as Pietro, Fred and Rogue (very uncharacteristically), had a full-fledged paper war. A sudden tap on his shoulder made him look up, surprised to see Wanda standing next to him, and even more surprised when she motioned for him to follow her. He stood up without question, following her into the foyer, where they both put on their coats, and then outside.
The silence between the two was almost comfortable as they walked down the front lawn, the only sounds being the crunching of snow under their shoes. He walked with her, wondering silently where they were going, and even more so as to why she wanted to take him there. She looked like she was in too much of a good mood to take him somewhere to quietly kill and bury his body.
They walked down the street, finally turning into a tiny park that was completely devoid of any other people on that crisp Christmas night. The Scarlet Witch stopped in the center of the park, a small clearing, and looked up at the sky, where the stars were especially bright, as they always were in such cold weather.
"Wanda?" He finally ventured, standing next to her and watching her peaceful and thoughtful face in wonder.
"Thank you." She said, face still turned upwards.
"Huh?" His brow furrowed in confusion. "For what?"
She looked at him. "For the presents. I know I already said thank you, but. it felt like I should be saying it in private. And. I guess I just wanted to thank you for helping to make this such a wonderful Christmas for me."
He smiled softly. "Oh. You're welcome." He could feel his cheeks starting to heat up, especially when her blue eyes met his own. Unconsciously, he took several steps closer, so that he was standing right in front of her, astonished, somewhere in the back of his mind, that she was letting him get so close to her. "You're a surprising person, you know that?"
"Why's that?" She wondered, not at all bothered by their closeness. If anything, it was comforting.
"Well, for someone that can act like such a hard ass all the time, you can be really sweet when you get down to it."
She blinked thoughtfully. "I'll take that as a compliment."
He blushed a little brighter, smiling shyly. "It was supposed to be one."
"Oh." Not even thinking about it, letting her emotions and some part of her that she usually kept tied down in a little box guide her, she leaned closer to him, and gently kissed him.
As his warm lips brushed against hers, a million thoughts and emotions rushed through her in a single moment, feelings of warmth and acceptance, and, as she felt strong arms tenderly wrap around her body and hold her, a rising warmth that came from her belly and spread through the rest of her.
The kiss was gentle, neither of them going beyond any real boundaries, and was all the more sweeter for that fact. How long they stayed like that was impossible to tell, but when both broke away from it, they were starry eyes and very quiet, their breath even seeming muted. He reached out to take her hands, giving her that shy smile again, which she found herself returning.
"Merry Christmas." She whispered, her hands warm in his.
"Merry Christmas."
* * *
YAYYYYYYY! FINALLY DONE!!! Whelp, I had really wanted this story done by X- mas, but that didn't happen for a number of reasons. The main one being that I didn't want this chapter to turn out to be shit. :P I'll hopefully be writing another X-Men story soon, once I finish my Invader Zim one. One of my New Year's Resolutions was to get my lazy ass writing more, or else I'll have to eat live hamsters. I'm hoping it'll work. ^^
*Notes: You REALLY have to listen to last Christmas, because you can just REALLLLLLY get the mental image of the guys singing it. ^^ Also, I really don't know many Jewish people, so I'm not too clear as to how they take Christmas, and if they celebrate it or not. I certainly hope I didn't offend anyone with it, I just felt the need to put Kitty in this story. ( Oh yeah, and I dun know if it's only a Florida thing, but there really is store called Faravilla's, and it's. quite interesting. ^^