Jubilee's paff had started a free-for-all. Chaos and explosions were everywhere. Bobby had formed a ice shield around him that Amara was systematically breaking down with her fireballs. He stubbornly kept building it right back up. It was really only a question of who got tired first. Rahne was wrestling with Sam but the giggles and laughter coming from them showed the lack of seriousness the fight held for them. Jubilee was blinding Ray and Roberto with her fireworks so they couldn't get off any accurate shots. Kitty was sitting on Jamie keeping him from gaining reinforcements or helping any of the others. Scott was sitting on the side of the stairs, eyes closed and rubbing the bridge of his nose. Jean was deflecting Evan's spikes, much to his annoyance. The others were all occupied leaving Rogue and Remy to face off.

By this time, the Rogues had slowly dropped out of existence as she felt Jamie's power leave her. Remy had watched her from his position on the stairs, patiently waiting for it just to be her once again. He still held the card in his hand. It was on the brink of exploding from being charged so long. Carefully, he threw it away, not in the direction of Jamie. That would just ruin everything Kitty had going. Instead, it landed near Rahne and Sam with a BOOM, but their tickle attacks on each other didn't even falter.

Rogue's mouth curled into the semi-pout as the last of her duplicates faded. Then she saw Remy standing on the steps. She shrugged and mouthed "oops" to him under all the disorder. He shook his head and extended his hand towards her wordlessly. She nodded and walked in his direction, dodging a stray spike with ease. She took Remy's hand and he led her up the steps.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs they looked down on the damage. They both knew Xavier would have their heads later on, but it was going to have to wait after everyone came back. A fireball skimmed by, perilously close Rogue's head, and she glared down at Amara, who just shrugged and continued belting them out at Bobby.

Remy's eyes lit up. "Y' know, chere. I t'ink I just t'ought o' somet'in' fun f'r us t' do..." He snaked an arm around her waist.

"Oh really, Cajun? An' just what would that be?"

"I jus' remembered a wonderful place where I bet we can find some 'fun in a bot'le'. No idea why I didn' t'ink of it earlier."

She furrowed her eyebrows. "An' just where's that?"

"Logan's stash of goodies in the garage. Care t' join me f'r... I dunno, whatev'r I can grab?"

She grinned. "Aww, Ah bet ya say that ta all the gals. C'mon. Ah'm for it." She took his hand and they dodged the others on their way to the garage.



The teenagers were sprawled out in various positions all over the foyer, to all appearances, completely boneless. The professor and Logan appeared at the top of the stairs. "I trust you all enjoyed yourselves." Numerous groans and subhuman noises were his answer.

"Well, Charles, there's not as much damage as you thought there'd be," Logan commented, looking around.

Despite Kitty's best attempts, there were still a number of Jamie's lying around, all exhausted. Bobby and Amara had soon forgotten their mini-struggle and collapsed on the steps. Sam and Rahne were a sight as well. Rahne had fallen into Sam's arm in her wolf state and had since morphed back. With the way they were on top of each other, it looked like he'd been petting her before she'd morphed. Now she was cuddled up all cozy in his lap.

Xavier scanned the area visually again but didn't see Jean, Rogue, Scott or Remy. Assuming, well, not the worst, he left them to their privacy, especially for his star students since they would be separated the next day. As for Rogue and Remy, it just best to not interfere with them from what he'd overheard from Jubilee.

"Well, Drake, what have we learned from this little experience?" Logan questioned with amusement, noting Bobby's attire.

"Girls are scary." Jubilee, lying on the steps next to Roberto and Ray, sent a weak paff in his direction, not even bothering to lift her head.

"I expect this room to be clean by the time you leave tomorrow." Numerous protests were immediately heard. "Unless you'd rather extra Danger Room sessions for a month. At five in the morning. With Logan." There was immediate silence. "Good. It seems we understand each other. Good night, children."

"You know... I just realized something..." Amara spoke after a few mintues silence. "We never did get to open the rest of the presents..."

"So who gets the privilege of dragging the couples out of their love nests and finding Kurt?" Ray asked. No one spoke.



Speaking of Kurt, he was shivering, still on the rooftop of the Institute. But he figured the cold was better than anything the girls could do to him inside. After checking his watch for the fiftieth time and seeing that an hour had passed, he decided it might actually be safe to go in. Either that or have his poor tail fall off from frostbite.

Just to be safe, he walked over to the roof where the front of the house was, making sure no fights had spread to the outdoors. What Kurt saw instead was the... lovely display of Bobby in statue form, no doubt done by the girls for ultimate revenge. Gaining whatever strength he had in him before he threw up, he bamfed to someplace warm, not caring where.

Kurt's bad luck, however, had taken him to what was potentially the deadliest place in the mansion besides the Danger Room... Logan's bedroom. Now, as all the residents in the mansion knew, it was extremly unwise to enter Logan's room even when he was awake. When he was asleep all bets were off.

Kurt stood perfectly still, even though he knew the smell of his teleport would give him away. As expected, Logan shot up in bed, claws extended, not at all happy to have been woken up just as he had fallen asleep. He breathed in deeply. "Elf, give me one good reason not to dice you into four slices on why you're in my room."

"Umm... if I told you that I saw a naked ice sculpture of Bobby in ze main yard und I vasn't thinking straight, vould you believe me?"

Logan paused as he recalled everything else he'd seen that night. Yeah, he'd buy that. "Alright, now beat it." A second's pause and a slightly feral smile curled his lips. "Oh, and you can make yourself useful and check on the girls." Kurt, gulped, turned as pale as a blue furry boy could, and bamfed out of the room. Logan grunted, rolled over and went back to sleep muttering something that sounded an awful lot like, "Damned kids."



Meanwhile, Rogue was accepting her fourth drink from Remy. "Try dis one," he said, looking at the bottle.

With a giggle and a shrug, she took a nice swig of it. And then almost coughed it right back up. "Oh mah Gawd, what the hell is this?"

He showed her the label. "Everclear. Strongest shit I've ev'r seen."

She finished her glass absently and then dropped it, putting her hands up to her ears. "Ahh! Mah ears are burnin'!" She fell on her back on his bed and kicked her legs in the air.

"Chere... it's just a drink."

She sat up for a moment, burning ears forgotten. "Have you tried it yet?!"

He smiled sheepishly. "Non."

"Then shut up!" She then laid back down and kicked her legs around a bit for the hell of it.

Remy took a sip straight from the bottle and agreed that it was VERY strong. No doubt Logan had this for those hard days when a buzz just wouldn't be enough. It could most likely knock anyone with a healing factor out in no time. With that thought, he put the bottle down and went back to his beloved bottle of bourbon. He had found it with the rest just a couple shots left inside, but enough to satisfy him.

Before taking a sip, he checked on Rogue on the bed. She was lying half off of it, looking like she was counting the dust specks in the air. "Havin' fun?"

She grinned up to him. "Foh now Ah am." She forward rolled off the bed and giggled. "Ooh! That was fun!" She climbed on the bed again and repeated the same thing.

"Chere... dat might not be de best t'ing f'you t' be doin' right now."

She rolled off for the third time and looked up to him with a pout. "Why not?" The pout faded as she turned green. She held a hand up to her mouth as her eyes went wide. "Oh shit.."

"Dat's why."

Rogue managed not to heave, barely, and her skin gradually faded back to its normal pale shade. She then took another sip of the Everclear at which point Remy decided it would be prudent to take the bottle away. However, she was rather against the idea, holding onto the neck easily, and he wasn't going to win a tug of war with her anytime soon.

"Come on, chere... Give Remy de Everclear. Dere's a good girl..." he coaxed, using just a bit of his charm powers. She let go and and began giggling uncontrollable, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"Ya have an accent!"

He smirked. "So d' you."

"Ah do?" All joking faded from her face. "Mah. Name. Is. Rogue. Do. Ah. Have. An. Accent?" Then she fell over with laughter. "Ah do!" She squirmed a bit towards him and stuck her bottom lip out. "Can Ah have some more, Cajun?"

"Ohhhh, non." He stood up, taking the few bottles with liquid still in them with him. "Y' gotta come an' get 'em if y' want dem."

She licked her lips at the challenge and pushed herself up into the air. Then she gasped and flailed around. "Ah can fly?!"

"Oui, chere."

A giggle. "Great!" She managed to move slightly in the before falling like a rock halfway on his bed. Luckily, it was her head that landed on the bed. "Ah cain't fly that good," she moaned. "Mah tummy hurts again."

Remy just sighed and moved over to the bed. "Here," he pulled her other end, hands grazing unnoticeably over her butt, onto the bed. "Jus' lay on y're stomach an' relax. No more flyin' or flips, eh?"

She nodded against the sheets. "Ah don't know why Ah let ya talk me inta these thangs."

"Actually, I didn' do any talkin'. Y' gave full consent on dis one." He grinned.

She let out a sickening but quiet burp. "Whatevah." Then she moaned. "Ah need some food..."

"De ti'n's I do f'r y'," he muttered, shaking his head in resignation.

"Thank ya, Remy."



Back in the lobby silence reigned. No one had yet volunteered. "Oh, fine, I'll do it," Kitty finally said, sitting up and rolling her eyes. "Since obviously no one else is going to."

She heaved herself up and went to find the others. The first one she ran into was Remy who had his arms full of bottles.

"What the... Don't tell me."

Remy shrugged. "K. Den I won'." He tried pushing by her.

"No!! Tell me!" She smiled. "I thought Logan took your booze."

"An' I took his."

"And now it's gone?"

"Everyt'in' but dis," he nodded toward the barely touched bottle of Everclear, "an' a few o' de ot'er ones. Roguey be needin' food now. She 'bout passed out on m' bed."

Kitty's eyes went wide. "You got Rogue drunk!?" she squeaked.

He almost dropped the bottles with her voice piercing through his ears. "Would y' keep it down?! I'm jus' gon' get her some food, an' she'll be fine in... hell, I dunno. De last time we did dis she slept for over 10 hours..."

"But the rest of us will be, like, halfway across the country in ten hours! And we still have other presents to exchange!"

"Merde... okay... Here!" He piled the bottles over to her. "Take dese downstairs, tell someone t' have pretzels ready or some shit like dat. I'll bring her down an' we'll get de rest o' de gifts done!" He jetted down the other direction of the hall. Kitty was just left standing with the liquor bottles unsteady in her hands. She saw Ororo coming her way suddenly and panicked. Then with a quick mental 'duh' phased down into the floor before the older woman could notice.



"'Kay, chere, change o' plans," Remy anounced as he came back in the room.

"Hmm?" Rogue rolled over onto her back and gazed up at him. "Ya're all upside-down..."

"Dat would be you."

"Food?" she questioned with a drowsy smile.

"Kitty's gettin' it."

"Why?"

"Because I told her to."

"If ya told her ta walk off a bridge would she do it?" she asked, momentarily serious, as if the answer was vitally important.

"I doubt it," he snorted. "We're goin' downstairs now."

"But Ah wanna stay here with you," she pouted.

"Well, I'm goin' t' be down dere."

"Oh." She thought about that for a second. "It's okay, then."

"C'n y' walk?"

"Non!" she giggled. Remy smirked slightly. She was definately cute when she was drunk. Not that she wasn't cute all the time. He bent forward slid his arms under her legs and back, lifting her up and against him. She snuggled closer, putting her arms around his neck and resting her head against his chest. "Ya're hot," she giggled.

"In what way...?" He asked, his smirked growing larger. Hey, an ego boost never hurt anyone.

She looked up at him with doe eyes. "Ya hafta ask?" She puckered her lips together and kissed the air between them. Remy almost dropped her. He DEFINATELY wanted to have his wicked way with her since she was obviously in one of her more favorable moods for such things, but he'd told Kitty they'd be downstairs...

"Damn Christmas," he mumbled.

Rogue laughed and played along. "Bah humbug!" Then she giggled hysterically all the way down the steps. "Hi y'all!" She said excitedly when she saw the others STILL sprawled out on the floor. She glanced around. "Rem, where's mah food? Mah tummy's grumblin'."

Ray's eyes went wide. "What the fuck happened to HER?!"

"She hit her head an' now she's actually bein' nice t' y' li'l shits." Remy sighed. "She's drunk, o'course! Didn' Kitty come down here wit' all de bottles?"

Ray's eyes opened even more, if possible. "Alright, who's been holding out on me?!" He stared accusingly at Remy.

"Dis is de product of Logan's 'Everclear.' Y' wan' be as trashed as her, go find Kitty." He looked around. "Where is Kitty anyway?"

The others shrugged.



Kurt had bamfed into the hallway, as far from Logan as possible and was trying to get up the courage to "check on the girls" when he saw Kitty phase up through the floor. "Yaaah!!"

Kitty yelped and jumped back, almost losing the bottles still in her arms. "God, Kurt, don't DO that! You almost gave me a heart attack."

"I almost gave YOU a heart attack?! Vhat about ME?! Is zat alcohol?" He sniffed. "It is!"

"Um, like, I can explain-"

"Give me some!"

"Huh?"

"You have no idea vhat I've been through. Give it!" He lunged at her.

"Kurt!" She phased out of his jump so he ended up on the floor. "You're acting as crazy as Evan was last night! What's gotten into you?!"

"Give. Me. Ze. Drinks," he growled.

"Nooo way. I'm dropping out." She phased through the ground again, shuddering. Kurt just sat on the ground for a minute, eyes on the spot Kitty had vanished from, looking forlorn. He sighed and bamfed to the lobby, seeing everyone lying about. His gaze then drifted to his sister, who was lounging on the couch, looking slightly dazed.

"Hiya, elf!" She greeted cheerfully. Without a single word, he went up to her and put his hand to her face. He passed out. Rogue's eyes snapped open while everyone else watched Kurt fall limp on the floor. Remy was just coming out with Rogue's damn food to see him hit the floor. "What de fuck...?!"

She put a hand to her face. "Mein Gott. Ah mean, shit." She looked down to Kurt. "Poor elf... He went psycho... Bobby, Logan, needed drinks..." She poked his nose and giggled. Her giggling set off a series of her bamfing around the room. She finally stopped, the strong smell of brimstone getting to her. There was no holding back her stomach now. One more bamf and she was in the bathroom, worshipping at the porcelain alter, as many other poor souls had before her.



"Where'd she go?" Jamie asked. They all turned toward Remy.

"How in de hell would I know?" Everyone gave him gave him a look. He blew his bangs out of his face and rolled his eyes. "She's probably pukin' her guts out right 'bout now. If we're lucky she's in de bat'room. If not..." He trailed off and the teenagers winced. "I'll go find her."

"Hey, get Scott and Jean to come down here while you're at it," Roberto told him lazily.

"Wha' do I look like t' y'? Yer own personal slave? Get dem yerself," Remy snapped before stalking off to retrieve his girlfriend.

Jubilee giggled. "Meow!" That had apparently struck her as hysterically funny and she sank back against the steps, bent almost double with laughter. The others watched with raised eyebrows, expecting her to stop soon. She didn't.

"Wow. Whatever she's on, I want some," Evan commented.

"What I want some of that liquor Remy mentioned," Ray stated almost wistfully. Just then Kitty phased through the wall, arms still full of bottles and a slightly nervous look on her face. She was met by cheering.

"Okaaay..."

Ray strolled up to her, casually placing an arm around her shoulders. "Hey there, Kitkat. Whatcha planning to do with all those drinks?"

"I have no idea! Remy, like, literally dumped them on me and told me to get rid of them."

A spark came to Ray's eyes. "I'll take care of 'em for ya. I know where they go."

"Really? That'd be great!" She loaded the bottles over to him and a sinister smile came across his face.

"Sucker!" He ran off, dropping the few already empty bottles on the way.

She just rolled her eyes and turned to the rest of the group. "Since when is everyone so into getting drunk? First Rogue, then Kurt, like, all but attacked me..." As she mentioned Kurt, she noticed saw him lying on the couch. "Aww, he looks better now." Kitty smiled.

"Umm, he didn't look so 'better' when his eyes were filled with this psychotic glow," observed Jamie.

Kitty fell to the floor. "That's it. I can't wait to go home now. I need a break!" She sighed with frustration. The others just backed away, giving her room.



Remy was checking the bathrooms upstairs. First he checked the girls' room, figuring she would think to go there. Apparently, she wasn't thinking straight because she wasn't there. He tried the guys' next. He opened the door to it and the putrid smell of vomit smacked him in the face. Once he kept his own bile down, he saw Rogue with her head resting lazily on the toilet seat.

He grabbed a towel and knelt down next to her. "Chere? How y' feelin', girl?"

A small moan escaped her mouth and her eyes fluttered open. "Ah don't feel good."

"Obviously," he said with a warm smile. He dabbed the towel against her face to clean her up. She nuzzled slightly against the motion and lulled her head off the toilet and into Remy's lap.

"Jus' hold me." He gathered his arms around her and did as she asked.



"I say we get our liquor back!!" Bobby announced with a fist in the air.

"Don't ya remember the last time ya had an idea?" Sam asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Um... No..." Bobby smiled innocently.

"Then just look down."

Bobby did so, realized he was STILL in Jubilee's clothes, and turned an interesting shade of red.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but that's not exactly inspiring my loyalty," Amara snickered.

"Look, do you want to rescue the Everclear from Ray's evil clutches or not?" There was a resounding agreement from the majority.

Rahne got up. "Fine. If ye're all dead set, then I'll go get it," Rahne offered. She shifted into wolf form and ran off. Not five minutes later Ray appeared, slightly unsteady, pale as a ghost, and shooting Rahne wary looks. She shifted back and smiled, looking almost angelic. "Never send a man to do a woman's job..." She grinned impishly. "Though Bobby might be able to pass as one," she added teasingly.

"That's it. I'm going to change right now."

"Into what?" Jamie quipped.

"Shut up." Bobby glared at the offending boy and stomped up the stairs.

Meanwhile, despite the happenings around her, Jubilee was STILL giggling like a hyena. Kitty shot her a concerned look. "We need to stop her before she hurts herself."

"Aw, it's not like a little oxygen deprivation is gonna hurt her any," Roberto snorted.

"No, I think we should do something. She can't affort to loose anymore braincells," Amara contradicted. Jubilee just kept laughing, in between faint gasps for air.

"Any ideas?" Sam asked. There was a shaking of heads all around.

"Oh, wait, I know. Ahem. OH MY GOD! LOOK! IT'S THE BACKSTREET BOYS!!!" Kitty squealed.

Jubilee immediatly sat up, all laughter ceasing as her head whipped around. "Where?!? Where?!?"

Kitty dusted her hands off on her pants. "See? That easy." Jubilee pouted, seeing no boy band members in sight.

"So, we're back where we started, still missin' Remy, Rogue, Scott, and Jean," Sam observed.

"Kitty, why don't you go get them? You're used to walking into embarrassing situations," Bobby suggested.

She glared at the ice boy, who was downstairs again and finally back in his own clothing. "Ha ha ha. No way. I was sent up last time and all that I found was a Cajun with tons of booze, and Kurt, who is STILL unconscious by the way!" She looked to him once again. "Shouldn't he be back to normal by now?"

Evan went over and picked up the elf's wrist. After checking the pulse, he stated, "He's still alive. No worries, man."

"Evan, why don't you go? You were kinda MIA yesterday," Roberto said, remembering a very paranoid Evan.

Evan's eyes went wide. "No way! I'm not going to catch Jean and Scott in the act!" He popped some spikes. "You can't make me!"

"Hey, just kidding... heh heh... Umm, I'll go instead!" Roberto jetted up the steps.

Jubilee watched him go. "I don't think it's safe. You two should have gone." she said, looking pointedly between Kitty and Evan. "You know the others better."

Kitty shrugged while Evan, still a bit crazed, kept his spikes up. "He offered."



Roberto sauntered along the hall, whistling carelessly. It didn't bother him to get Scott and Jean. It wasn't like he was planning on barging in without knocking. This way he doubted he would see anything that would cause him to need therapy later in life. He passed by the guy's bathroom and frowned as he heard voices. He knocked.

"Remy? Rogue? You guys in there?"

"Oui."

"I'm getting Scott and Jean. We're gonna be opening presents soon, okay?"

"We'll be dere, mon ami."

Roberto knocked on Scott's door. Immediately Jean called for him to come in. He opened the door to find Jean and Scott sitting on a nearly immaculate bedspread, neither of them looking at all mussed. He snorted. "I should have known you two were too goody-goody to actually be DOING anything. I'm supposed to tell you we're opening presents in a few mintues." He turned and left without another word, closing the door behind him.

Jean turned to Scott. "We were just insulted, weren't we?"

He gave her an innocent look. "I'm up for opening presents. You're going to love what I got you." He got off the bed and then reached down to Jean to pull her up as well.

"You got me something?" She blushed.

"Of course." He smiled. "It's nothing too fancy... I bought it awhile ago..." He kept his eyes to the ground as he led her out of the room.

"Aww, Scott, are you blushing?" He didn't answer. "It's okay. I got you something to. I mean, it's going to seem pretty impersonal now because of where we're at with our relationship now, but I hope you like it."

"I'll like anything you'd give me, Jean." They continued walking to the steps, just having passed the bathroom. Rogue had just managed to get to her feet, but after hearing a bit of the mush going on outside, she was back on her knees with her head in the toilet.

"Merde." Remy growled towards the door.

"Ugh..." Rogue moaned.

"Here, chere. Wash yer mout' out wit' dis." He handed her some Listerine. "It'll make y' feel better." She took some and swished it around in her mouth for a bit. "Good girl. Now spit." She obeyed. He put one of her arms around his neck and helped her up. "Now, we're gonna go down and open de nice presents an' get y' a lit'le o' de hair o' de dog dat bit y'."

TBC...