Disclaimer: I don't own any of the girls that starred in the X-men film and sadly, none of the guys. :( Then again, I'd never hold any hottie against their will.......cough*I'm a liar*cough

Btw, thanks to Holly and her bro, I am now officially a nube. :7, I am very sorry that this took so long. L

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Two weeks had passed and as far as Psych and Pyro knew, no one knew about them, and with Christmas just around the corner most people were too busy to notice. One by one the kids whose parents still wanted them home, were leaving for the holidays. So, under the circumstances, the teachers, Psych, Pyro, Rogue, Samari, and a few other kids were left at the school.



Three days prior to the holidays , Rogue and Psych sat in their dorm busy. Jean knocked on the door, "Rogue, Tamara? Storm, Scott, and I are about to take some of the kids caroling, would you like to come along?" "No, we're still wrapping gifts!," they both yelled at the same time, "Go without us!" Jean said Oh, then they heard the sound of footsteps descending the stairs.



"Gosh, these things really are heavy," said Tamara, holding up a now wrapped hockey puck. "Well try wrapping those then," said Rogue who gestured toward a pair of brand new hockey skates. "Good point," said Tamara, then she watched as Rogue scribbled her name on a card, kissed it, and threw it in a box. They put everything in the box and then wrapped it.



Rogue picked it up, "Well, I gotta go mail it now." Before she walked out the door, Tamara caught a glimpse of the return address. "Why's it say from Aunt Peggy?" Rogue looked at the label then said, "Oh, see Bobby's parents think he goes to an all boys prep school and since it'd look pretty weird that he was receiving a gift from someone named Marie, Bobby told me to label it Aunt Peggy."



Tamara simply said, "Oh," then Rogue left. Psych had no idea Bobby's parents didn't know, and it kind of shocked her realizing that she didn't know much about any of her friends. It hit her ever harder when she realized that she didn't know much about her own boyfriend. By now she was freaking out and thinking to herself, "What am I? Some type of whore who only dates guys she doesn't know?" Not wanting to make that mistake again, she ran out of her room and hurried down the stairs. It didn't take long before she found Pyro watching TV.

He didn't even get the chance to say hi before she started rambling on, "What's your favorite color? What's your favorite food? Do you like cheese? OOO, I see you're watching Spiderman, is that your favorite movie? Anyways--" "Whoo," he stopped her, "what's with the 20 questions here?" She stopped to breath, then said, "Crap, I'm sorry. I was sitting upstairs and it occurred to me that I don't really know much about you, and vice versa."

With this he just leaned back and said, "Well, it hasn't bothered you till now. Besides, I like women who are mysterious." She rolled her eyes, "That's exactly my point! I feel like some mystery girl of the week." They sat there or a minute then he said, "Fine, ask me anything you want to," in a kind of sarcastic tone. Not wanting things to be that easy, she replied, "Nope, I wanna learn things gradually," then walked off. As she headed toward the door, she could've swore she heard Pyro say, "Women."

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Christmas Eve had finally arrived and it seemed like the world had changed it rotation. Professor X was spending most of his time in his lab, Jean had came down with a sort of flu, and Scott was helping her get better, leaving Storm in charge of the kids. With so much peace and quiet, the hours seemed to drone on. Tamara even resorted to putting people she knew in the places of Lord of The Rings characters. She was trying hard to think of who could be Aragorn when a loud thud surprised her. Tamara looked over and noticed that something had crashed into her window. Curious to know what was going on, she opened up her window and peeked out.

Some of the kids were having a snowball fight downstairs, and a stray one had hit her window. Thinking nothing of it, she closed her window and sat back down on her bed. Not more than 10 seconds later, another snowball collided with the window. Irritated, Psych jumped up and opened up her window, but before she could yell, someone called out her name. It was Rogue. "Psych, come out! You've been sitting in that room all day, and I know you're dying of boredom by now!" Tamara looked around and shivered, "Nah, I'd rather not!" Rogue yelled back, "You could just hang out, get some fresh air, you know?!" Psych considered for a moment, then said, "I'll be down in a min!"

As soon as she opened the front doors, a surprising and undesirable cold rushed at her, and sent a chill down her spine. The sight of the front yard looked completely different then it's scenery in the Summer. The trees looked like sugar-coated cookies, the lawn was covered in knee deep snow as far as the eye could see, the mansion was decorated in lights, there were small tunnels and dunes dug so that the kids had ways of hiding, and the sky looked as if the heavens had opened up and snowflakes were falling down. Not wanting to interrupt the game, Psych sat down and watched in amazement.



A few minutes later, Rogue came running out of one of the tunnels, covering her face, and didn't stop till she reached the steps. "Come on, I need help out there." "Oh, I didn't go out there earlier cause I thought--" "No, you can pretty much join whenever you want, because there aren't any rules. Well, unless you count the no using your powers one." "Okay."

They stood up then ran behind a mound. Rogue peeked over then picked up a snowball and threw it. Feeling slightly childish, Tamara, reluctantly, threw one also. The response was a squeal and this somehow motivated her to throw more. Feeling courageous, she ran out from behind the mound and started chunking snow balls. Rogue caught up with her and commented, "Dang girl, they're just kids, not soldiers." But Tamara knew that she had reason to act this way considering this kind of thing was never allowed at the Centrex.

For hours and hours, snowballs were flying back and forth, everyone was freezing and no one really cared, but it was while Rogue and Psych was resting that the past started to come back. They had their backs up against a snow wall and were armed and ready to run, but Tamara looked up and saw something or rather someone.

They stood in the top window, a woman, about early 30's in a nurses uniform, smiling down at her. Psych stared right back and for a moment, time seemed to stop. They stood there staring at each other, with Tamara not knowing whether to be scared or not. Suddenly a cold chill went down her spine and it came at such a shock that she wanted to scream. The snowball continued to roll down her back as Rain sniggered and said sarcastically, "Oops." Psych wanted nothing more than to hit her when Storm came outside, "It's time for you kids to get to bed."

Many moans and groans were heard as, one-by-one, the kids started dropping their snowballs and stomped inside. "Aww, don't be so sad, the sooner you get to bed, the sooner Christmas will come." This seemed to cheer them up, and soon the mansion doors were closing. Psych stared up at where the woman had been, gone. Rogue spoke up, "We should probably get upstairs too, I think my hands and feet have gone numb." Tamara silently agreed, and walked back up to the dorm.

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Christmas morning came quickly. By the time she awoke, Rogue's bed was vacant, and she heard voices downstairs. Throwing on a robe and house shoes, she ran downstairs and found just about everyone admiring their new things. Rogue was sitting on the couch. "Your stuff is over there (she pointed to a pile of gifts) and it looks like Santa left you a little something in your stocking." Curious, Psych walked over to her stocking and found stuffed in there a $100 gift certificate for any store at the mall. She smiled because even though it didn't have a signature on it, she knew who it was from. Going through her gifts, she found a blue care bear from Rogue, Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers from Bobby, and the usual small gifts from each teacher.

The day consisted of helping Storm nurse kids who'd gotten into fights over toys, and looking for Pyro. She didn't actually find him until dinner. Even then she didn't get to sit by him but at least he was wearing the new leather jacket she'd bought him. After dinner, he disappeared once again and she was so upset that she volunteered to put up the dishes. The kitchen had cleared and all was quiet before she heard footsteps again, it was Pyro.

"Hey, thanks for the gift certificate." "Yeah, I like the jacket." "Well, I figured you needed one." There was an eerie silence after this, then they kissed for the longest time. She pulled away and said, "Look, I've been thinking, and I think that we should tell Rogue." "Tell Rogue what?" "About us, you know?" "Whatever, I say go ahead." At this, she walked over toward the stairs and he walked over toward the couch. "Well?" she scoffed. "Huh?" "I kinda figured we'd tell her now." He seemed to consider this for a minute, then got up and walked up the stairs.

They walked in on Rogue putting on a necklace. Tamara asked her what it was and got a closer look. It was a small, clear tube with an ice angel in it. "It's from Bobby," said Rogue before she turned around and asked what Pyro was doing in their room. "Umm let's all sit down first," suggested Psych and they all sat on her bed. The clinking of Pyro's lighter echoed throughout the room as Psych started to explain. "Umm about three weeks ago--. Well, you remember when we were both fighting and it just all kinda resolved itself overnight?" Rogue nodded. "Well, ummm. Well, see---"



Rogue interrupted her failing attempt, "Wait, are you trying to tell me that you two are-----together?" She gestured toward both of them. Tamara deliberately stared at a stack of book on the floor, "Yeah." There was, once again, an ackward silence and then Rogue started to laugh. A genuine, eye watering laugh. In between laughs, "You're kidding me! I mean, that'd be crazy." She laughed, Psych continued to stare at the books, and Pyro finally looked up, "Do you have a problem with that?" Rogue suddenly stopped laughing and stared at them, "Oh my go-- you two aren't kidding." "No, Rogue, we just prefer to act like we're a couple in order to make Bennifer jeaolous."

She got up off of the bed and started pacing, "I gotta tell Bobby. Or wait, can I tell him?" Psych looked up now, "Of course you can tell Bobby, just make sure no one else finds out." Rogue was mid-sentence when a knock at the door alarmed them. It was Storm. "Girls!?" Psych jumped up and threw Pyro under her bed, right before Rogue opened the door. "Hey, Storm." "I thought I heard a guy's voice, and you girls know that's against after hour policy." "Yea, that probably was my stereo," said Tamara. Ororo gave her a suuuuuuurrrrrrrreeeeeee look, then said, "Well, you two should really be getting to bed. Goodnight girls," then left.

Pyro was sliding out from under the bed when a loud thud was heard followed by a curse. "Storm was right, I think it's time we all went to bed." Not agreeing, but not objecting, Pyro walked out the door still rubbing his head. Rogue didn't speak until the door was closed, "Okay, tomorrow you have to tell me about everything." "Fine," agreed Psych, finally glad she had someone to talk to about it. Ten minutes later, she was asleep, and dreaming. Better yet, having a nightmare because sometime during the night Psych popped up, panting. Something bad was coming and it was coming soon.