Disclaimer: You know, so don't ask.

Authors note: Hey guys! I managed to use my grandmas new computer to get it up. This is the first part of the Christmas special, the second part will be up on Christmas eve, I just thought I'd give you a little preview since you've all been so patient. Sit back and enjoy! Merry Christmas!

Chapter 23 : Santa Clause has Dog Ears?: Part one

Kagome pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. She opened one eye, groaned, then closed it again. Kurt stood behind her rubbing soothing circles into the back of her neck with the pad of his thumb. He was doing a really poor job of hiding his obvious amusement at the current situation.

Sighing in frustration, she lowered her hand and stared at the scene in front of her.

Seated before her in a tangle of barbed wire and covered in soot, where two little boys. One obviously Shippo. The other was a little harder to identify being already of a black color naturally, the soot made him appear almost invisible. All that could be seen of him where his large blue eyes.

"Explain this to me one more time." Kagome said calmly.

Three voices all spoke up at once. Kagome raised a commanding hand for silence.

"Alright." She sighed. " Let me see if I've got this right. You…" she turned on the third soot covered member of the little trio who was currently laying face down on the carpet. "For some idiotic, asinine reason decided that you where going to prevent Santa Clause from coming down the chimney by shoving barbed wire down it!"

"Keh!" The figure answered, sitting up and crossing his arms.

Kagome grit her teeth and resisted the urge to slam him again. Instead turning back to the two boys. "And you two, in an effort to save Christmas, decided to pull out the wire, right?"

The boys nodded, but didn't say a word for fear of bringing their mother's wrath down upon their heads. Better the Hanyou than them, he deserved it after all.

Kagome turned back to the dog-eared boy, pointing a finger in his direction. "And you came up and tried to stop them, resulting in the three of you falling into the chimney, forcing all of the dust, three bodies, and about five yards of barbed wire into the living room."

Inuyasha just snorted.

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him, and opened her mouth to blast him good when her blue and fuzzy boyfriend decided to try and help the poor guy out.

"You know, it is kind of your fault liebes."

Kagome's narrowed gaze swung onto the blue elf. He flinched and backed up, holding his hands up as a pitiful form of defense.

"How is this in any way my fault?" She questioned calmly. Too calmly.

Kurt laughed nervously and quickly explained. "Remember how you explained Christmas to your friends?"

Kagome frowned in confusion. "Yeah, I said that it's a time when you buy gifts for your friends and family. A celebration."

Kurt leaned closer and whispered in her ear. "And vhat did you tell Shippo?"

Kagome blinked, her confusion mounting. "I told him that Santa Clause comes every Christmas Eve and leaves toys for all the good girls and boys, why?"

Kurt nodded. "Right, and do you remember who else was in the room at the time?"

Kagome thought back, trying to remember. She had been there, and so had K.J and Kurt. Jamie had been playing some Christmas song on the stereo, what had it been…… oh right, Santa Clause is coming to town. And Inuyasha had been sulking in a corner.

Come to think of it, he had started acting a little weird after that. It was about that time that strange traps had started appearing randomly around the mansion (Logan was still sulking in the garage because he fell into one of them), And Inuyasha had been looking over his shoulder an awful lot. It would also explain why he kept chasing away the mailman ever since he started showing up wearing a Santa suit.

Kagome gave Kurt an incredulous look. "Are you trying to tell me that Inuyasha has some weird phobia for fat, jolly men in red suits?! But, how could he have gotten that impression from what I said? I didn't make Santa sound like a bad guy! I mean, Shippo's not afraid of him."

Kurt shook his head. "I don't think it was your explanation Liebes. I think it was a combination of that and the song Jamie was playing." At her confused look, he sang the first few lines. "You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm telling you why, Santa Clause is coming to town. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake."

Dawning comprehension spread across her face. Oh, that probably would sound bad to someone who'd grown up in a violent time period like Inuyasha had.

Kagome sighed once more, then turned to the three still awaiting judgment. Man she didn't have time for this, she was supposed to be with the other girls in the kitchen. Storm was going to have them put together a gingerbread house.

"You two." She pointed at Shippo and K.J "Will clean up this entire living room." The two boys pouted, but didn't argue.

"And you." She turned on the Hanyou. Inuyasha didn't turn to look at her but his ears twitched in her direction. "Do something with that barbed wire, I don't care what, just get it out of the house. No more threatening Santa, or trying to stop Christmas. Got it." She pulled on one white dragon tail and forced him to meet her glare.

"Feh, whatever wench."

Kagome narrowed her eyes but decided to let that one go. "Aren't you both supposed to be helping Scott put up the lights?"

Kurt and Inuyasha both looked blank for a second.

"Oh right." They said in unison.

Kagome watched as they both bolted, and with a roll of her eyes, she turned and headed for the kitchen.

"KAZANNA!!"

'Now what?' She thought in frustration as she ran towards the source of the cry.

She found Miroku, standing in the middle of a room that had once been full of Christmas lights. Miroku's job had been to untangle them and make sure all the lights worked.

"Miroku….. Where did all the lights go?"

Miroku had his most innocent expression plastered all over his face. "I'm terribly sorry Lady Kagome, but I'm afraid that I was forced to destroy them, since they were very obviously possessed."

"Possessed?" Kagome raised a dubious eyebrow. "And what brought you to that conclusion?"

In a very serious, no nonsense tone he answered. "One of them wouldn't stop blinking."

Kagome sighed. Waving Miroku outside to go play with the other boys she made a mental note to send Pietro out to get more lights later.

Finally making it to the kitchen and joining the other girls around the table she listened carefully as Storm explained how to put together a gingerbread house.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Okay, Scott," Jamie called down from the roof of the mansion. "How do they look?"

Down at the ground level, Scott Summers studied the placement of the bright strings of colored lights. "They look fine." Scott called back. "One thing, though."

"Yeah?"

"How come every fourth light is missing?"

"Eh?" Jamie looked at the lights in confusion. They all seemed present and accounted for. Why would Scott think…….Oh.

"Scott," Jamie called. "Those are the red lights!"

Even from the roof Jamie could see the color creep into Scott's face. Kurt, perched on the roof gutter, snickered.

"Very good." Said Scott. "I was just testing you."

Jamie shrugged and grinned at him. "I guess I passed." He said.

Kurt's snickering turned into a volley of laughter.

A sudden and violent explosion form the direction of the kitchen cut the fuzzy ones laughter off abruptly. With a worried look he teleported himself directly to the source of the sound.

The laughter that had been lost a minute ago tried to force its way out once again, only to be held back by sheer force of will and self preservation instincts, at the site that met him upon his arrival.

Trying, really, really hard to not even let out so much of as a snicker, he asked as calmly as he was capable of at the time. "So…..Faulty gas line?"

Seven, angry, female eyes turned on the elf.

Kurt just couldn't hold it in any longer. Their glares just weren't as effective when they were all covered in bits of gingerbread and frosting. Add that to the smoking remains of what might have been a gingerbread house, sitting on the kitchen table in the middle of a charred circle.

Trying to breathe through his laughter and the intensified glares he managed to choke out his question. "How did you manage to blow up a gingerbread house?!" then collapsed in on himself in hysterics again.

His survival instincts kicked in abruptly, warning him of imminent danger. The fur on the back of his neck stood on end as he turned around slowly, coming face to face with a red-eyed Kagome.

"Ha, ha……..I love you?" He tried giving her his most dashing grin.

Her eyes narrowed. Sango came up behind her, carrying a chair, and Rogue stood on the other side of his demon-eyed girlfriend, arms crossed and growling.

Kurt ran a hand nervously through his hair, his tail twitching back and forth. He grinned again, then bolted. "Please don't kill me!"

Kagome growled and gave chase, followed by all the other females, still covered in their culinary disaster.

++++++++++++++++++

Inuyasha watched with great amusement as Kurt made circuits around the mansion, the entire female population of the institute on his tail….literally.

A shift in the wind diverted his attention to the front of the mansion. A male figure, hands stuffed into pockets, and carrying a large back pack, was walking up the driveway leading from the main street.

The dog-demon stood up, ears, nose and eyes all trained on the approaching stranger. He took a step forward in order to get a better look.

In retrospect, that probably wasn't the best thing to do while standing on an ice slicked roof.

The inevitable occurred and the unfortunate Hanyou was sent sliding into the youngest mutant at the Institute.

Poor Jamie. Getting pummeled by at least 160 pounds of pure, muscled, dog-demon.

Inuyasha irritably spat snow out of his mouth, cussing fate, ice, roofs, and just about everything else for putting him in a much detested, and very familiar position.

Jamie just sighed and helped himself up off the ground. All five of him.

The sound of some one clearing their throat drew the dog-boys attention away from his current sport of viciously kicking the crap out of the snow. He glanced up and into a pair of amused, and suspiciously familiar eyes.

The young man raised one hand up in a half wave. "Yo."

Inuyasha opened his mouth to demand to know just what this human thought he was doing walking into a dog-demons territory, when a blue streak slammed into his chest. He barely managed to keep his balance as the mass seemed to scramble over his head and hide behind him.

Inuyasha shook his head in confusion. "What the fuck?" His eyebrow twitched when it finally dawned on him. He reached behind himself and tried to grab at the elf currently attached to his back in annoyance. "Oy, get the fuck off me! I don't need those wenches coming after me now too!"

Inuyasha's attempts were futile, and the resulting image was reminiscent of a dog chasing his tail.

Both fell over into the snow just as the girls caught up with their blue quarry.

Inuyasha cursed a blue steak as he landed once more on his fluffy, white and cold nemesis, then with a growl he turned and gave chase to the already fleeing elf.

The young man raised an eyebrow in amusement, then glanced down at the imprint made in the snow by the two arguing males.

What should have been a snow angel, came out looking more like a snow devil. Inuyasha's ears looking like horns, and the blue boys spaded tail giving it that extra added touch.

The stranger blinked, "That's a bit disturbing." He commented offhandedly.

"Ranma?"

The boy looked up and smiled, his hand coming up to fiddle with his pigtail in an unconscious nervous gesture. "Hey cuz."

Kagome blinked, the red having faded from her eyes a while ago. " What are you doing here?"

Ranma shuffled his feet around in the snow. "Well…. Ya said I could come and visit ya, so,…… here I am." He grinned again.

Kagome tilted her head a bit. Her cousin was hiding something. But she would have to find out what later. Right now, she as just happy to see him.

She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight as he awkwardly patted her on the back, naturally uncomfortable with any physical shows of affection.

With a bright smile she motioned to the huge mansion behind her. "Welcome to Mutant Manor." She joked.

Ranma just smiled. An explosion sounding in the distance followed by the sounds of cursing drifted towards him on the air. "Feels like home already."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Kagome stumbled sleepily into her boyfriends room. The sound of the Professors mental voice telling all the older mutants to wake up and meet in his office still ringing in her head. With a tired sigh she pulled back the covers and slid into the warm bed, snuggling up next to her still sleeping fuzzy elf. Kurt lazily wrapped an arm around her and continued to snore.

"On the first day of Christmas my priestess gave to me!!!!!!! A Hanyou in the God tree!!!!!!"

Kurt groaned and buried his face in her hair. A few mumbled words in German, and what sounded like a curse were followed by one glowing gold eye slitting open. "Vhat time iz it? Shouldn't zey be in bed still?" His speech was garbled slightly from still being half asleep. Kagome patted him on the head in sympathy. "Just give it a minute and it'll stop."

"On the second day of Christmas my priestess gave to me!!!!!!!!! Two hyper kids and a Hanyou in the God tree!!!!!!!!!!!"

"On the third day of Christmas my priestess gave to me!!!!!!!! Three sound slaps, two hyper kids and a Hanyou in the God tree!!!!!!!!!!!"

"On the fourth day of Christmas my priestess gave to me!!!!!!!!!! Four groping hands, three sound slaps, two hyper kids, and a Hanyou in the God tree!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"On the fifth day of Christmas my Priestess gave to me!!!!!!!!!! FIVE SHIKON SHARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Four groping hands, three sound slaps, two hyper kids, and a Hanyou in the GOD TTTTTTTTRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"THAT'S IT!! DIE YOU LITTLE BRATS!!"

The sound of a squeal and running feet pounded down the hall, the snarling dog-demon right on the two serenading children's tails.

Kagome sighed as the more normal sounds of violence lulled her into a brief doze.

I say brief because the two boys decided to seek refuge in their fathers room and burst through the door, causing Kagome and Kurt to sit straight up in bed in shock. Kurt still bleary eyed with sleep.

The two boys skid to a halt just inside the doorway at the site of the young woman in the blue elf's bed.

Shippo wrinkled his nose a bit and tilted his head to the side. Then opened his mouth to deliver the most embarrassing question Kagome had ever been asked in her young life.

"Are you guys making K.J?"

Kagome's face went from white to red faster than a set of Christmas lights. Kurt started, and swung his now very awake gaze onto his fox tailed son. "Was?!"

The boy in question however blinked in none comprehension for a few minutes, then recoiled as if stung. Nose scrunched up in disgust, and eyes shut tight. Shaking his head viciously as if the action could dislodge the sudden, and horrifying concept he'd just been presented with."

"OH GROSS!!!"

Kagome covered her face in embarrassment, as Inuyasha finally caught up with the boys. He too slid to a stop in the door way. His ears flicked around, and he opened his mouth.

"Don't you even breath funny." Kagome growled at him. Peeking out from between her fingers to glare into his amused golden eyes.

Unfortunately, before anything else could be said, Miroku chose that moment to walk by the door. Only to stop and back up so that he was looking over Inuyasha's right shoulder.

With a raised eyebrow and a lecherous smirk on his face he gave Kagome a little piece of advice.

"You should really lock your door when planning to indulge in such a fine passed time Lady Kagome. Then with a wink, he began walking down the hallway whistling happily.

Kagome's growl began to intensify in volume and in a moment of sudden generosity and quick thought, Inuyasha grabbed the boys and hightailed it out of there.

Kagome blew out a breath and flopped back down onto the bed. The sound of quiet laughter drew her gaze up to her laughing boyfriends gold eyes.

She sighed again. At least one of them had found the whole thing funny.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Eventually, all of the older mutants of the institute where gathered in the Professor's office, rubbing their eyes and yawning, they waited to see what it was that could have been so important that they need to be awoken at the ungodly hour of seven in the morning.

The Professor steepled his hands above his desk and looked at each of his students. Then clearing his throat to draw their attention, he began. "Now then, as I'm sure that most of you are aware, Christmas is fast approaching."

This got him quite a few 'well-duh' looks.

"And as I'm sure most of you aren't aware, that, contrary to popular belief, my bank account is not infinite."

This got him some unbelieving stares. The Professor continued on as if he hadn't seen.

"So, since I know that you all would like to buy gifts for your friends I have taken the liberty of getting you all holiday jobs for the break." He finished with a grand smile, as if he'd just given them each a million dollars.

Jaws where hanging open. The students faces now a mix of disbelief and dawning horror.

The wheel chair bound man pointed at a piece of paper pinned to a tack board in his office. "Each of your jobs is listed over there."

Logan smirked at the youths. 'Finally, some peace and quiet around here.' he thought. What he said was "Be good kids." in a sugary sweet and obviously too fake voice.

The professor turned to him, a devious twinkle in his eye. "Oh don't worry about that Logan, after all….. Your going with them to make sure they are."

Logan's eyes widened. His arms falling out of their normal crossed form to hang limply at his sides and the candy cane he'd been sucking on in place of a cigar falling right out of his slackened mouth.

"What?!"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Authors note: Ok people here's the first part. The second part will be up on Christmas eve, it's my present to all of you. I know you'll like it. Happy Holidays everybody!