A/N: There's nothing to say but Happy Thanksgiving, y'all who are reading this!

Disclaimer: Don't own the X-Men, but danged if I didn't wish I did.

Two Days Later

"Kurt – you're asleep again." Storm nudged her friend as he slumped over the table. He woke with a start.

"Sorry," he muttered, rubbing his eyes and breathing out slowly. "I just keeping waking up in the middle of the night. I think I've gotten about six hours total since last weekend."

Storm winced sympathetically. "Do you want some more coffee?"

Kurt shook his head. "I've had three cups this morning..."

It was just before breakfast, and most of the students were still coming into the hall. The teachers had come early, as was custom, to watch over the children and make sure nothing indecent occurred. Kurt, however, couldn't seem to hold his head up for very long. Storm tried a couple times to keep him moving, before finally giving up and letting him rest.

As more of the kids began walking in, chattering loudly, she caught sight of Gwen Wagner, who happened to be coming over to the two adults at the moment.

"Morning," she said brightly, before patting her uncle on the shoulder. "Kurt, you're in high school now. I think you're going to need to learn how to balance your studies and sleep habits if you want to do well-" She was reciting the speech given to children who stayed up all night on homework, in a rather sarcastic tone.

"What do you want, Gwen?" Kurt mumbled, cutting her off.

"Homework was pages 87 to 94, right?"

He nodded groggily.

"Okay, I'll do that at study, then."

"That's not really resp-" Storm began, but Gwen waved her off.

"Like no one does it." To Kurt: "You look kinda tired."

"I am."

"That sucks. I got a lot of rest last night. It feels like twenty-five hours worth, actually."

He snapped up. "I'm not giving it to you, Gwen...By the way, you wouldn't happen to be playing nightmares over and over through my mind at night, would you?" His eyes narrowed in accusation. She looked offended.

"Kurt, what are you saying? I think you're just in a bad mood because you can't sleep, and you're taking it out on me. But it's alright, I totally forgive you, cuz I know you'd do the same for me." She shook her straightened hair away from her face and walked over to the muffin tray on the other side of the room. Kurt sighed.

"She's probably right," he said, resting his head on his chin. Storm patted his back.

"Go to bed early."

Logan growled in the back of his throat. Chasing mice was really getting tiresome. They weren't taking the poison he had set out, and the traps Storm had bought were completely useless. However, they were the only methods he knew of for rectifying this problem.

He kicked at the untouched toxin and felt his pockets for another cigar, the fourth one since six that morning. He'd run out of beer too, despite the fact that it was ten AM. Hell, if he had been given this godforsaken job, he might as well try to enjoy himself as he could.

He lit the cigar on the stove, sighing. If he couldn't solve this problem with the more mundane traps and poison, then he would just rip open their nest and slice them up with his claws. Cruel, yes, but a lot quicker.

Logan considered this, and decided to try the traps one last time. The Institute had probably softened him.

He marched out of the kitchen, taking a deep drag on his cigar, and grabbed the keys to Summers' best bike on the way outside. He was going to need a lot more alcohol to put up with the rodents for any longer period of time.

The Next Day

"Dammit!" Logan screamed, stomping his boot on the ground at the sight of yet another empty trap.

"You didn't shut your hand again, did you?" Storm said behind him. Logan snarled and turned on her.

"No, I didn't. I just wish it wasn't the only thing to get caught in it!"

Storm nodded patiently. "Right. Maybe the mice are just smart."

"Yeah, maybe...you know, I don't value comments like that," he said angrily as he realized she was teasing him. "These traps you got ain't doing anything."

She shrugged and stirred her tea. "I'm sorry for that. But I think you're scaring them."

Logan continued with his tantrum for a moment, extracting his claws and punching them through his empty beer before hearing her. "Whaddya mean?"

"Noise frightens them. They hide. If you stop screaming threats at the kids who bother you and crunching your cans-" she nudged a flattened one by her foot – "they'd come back out. It's late, which is when they like to move around. If they're not out, then they're clearly scared of you."

"I guess so...why are you up, then?"

Storm grinned. "Kurt. He thinks Gwen's been depriving him of sleep to wrangle some money out of him, so he asked me to stand guard so he could get some rest. We're camping out in the rec room."

"Sounds cozy. So how long do I have to keep quiet?"

She shrugged. "Depends. Good luck, Logan."

He grunted in response as she left the room.

Two Days Later

"Mouse...traps..." Kitty muttered as she typed the words into the computer database. "All right, here we go. 'SnapTrap!' 'Tom Kat!' Jubilee, which sounds good?"

"Click on the second one, like, the cat one. Cats are s'posed to hate mice, yeah?"

"Mmyeah...this looks good. Don't even have to touch them."

"Print it out, then." Jubilee shifted from foot to still-aching foot. "This was Gwen's idea. Why do we have to, like, do it for her?"

"She said something about having found a way to get the lipstick. You know how obsessed she is with it."

Kitty collected the information from the printer, and then led her friend out of the computer room into the hallway. "Did she say how?"

"I think she's just taking it out of Kurt's wallet."

"Oh, all right." Jubilee shuffled alongside Kitty, lagging behind her a teensy bit. As they walked to the bedroom Gwen and Rogue shared, they began discussing Joe for the thousandth time in the past week. He still hadn't called.

"...maybe he's, like, on vacation. Maybe he's just got a lot of work at school. I think you should, like, call already! It's not the 1800's anymore..."

"You're right. You're completely right." Kitty stiffened as they arrived and opened the door. "If I don't call in the next two days, call for me."

"Deal!"

Rogue and Gwen were lying on their separate beds, but the latter was curled in a ball with her eyes were screwed up in concentration. The previous girl was flipping through a magazine, studying it as though it was test material she had to cram for.

"Hey, y'all," Rogue said, not looking up. "Got the trap stuff?"

"Yeah, I think these might actually work," Kitty told her. "Err...what's Gwen doing?"

"I don't know. Don't interrupt her; this is the longest she's gone without talking about money for days." Rogue shook her head. "It's beginning to make me a little scared."

"Did it!" Gwen shrieked suddenly, springing up from her ball.

"Did what?" Kitty asked.

She held up her hand. "Nothing. Inner peace. Find anything good?"

"It's called the Tom Kat. The website said it was the best."

Gwen nodded enthusiastically. "Great. We can give it to Logan in the morning."

Meanwhile, in the rec room, Storm was peacefully reading a book and sipping at her lukewarm tea. Kurt was lying next to her under a blanket, his eyes shut tightly in deep slumber. They had been doing this for the past few days, but every night, the same thing happened-

"Oh!" he started, breathing hard as he woke up, looking confused and alarmed. Looking around the room, he remembered where he was and ran his three-fingered hands through his hair. "Gott in Himmel..."

"Bad dream?" Storm asked him, groaning. "That's the second time tonight...what is wrong with you?"

A/N: All right, either next chapter or the one after that will be the end of this story. Hope you all enjoyed it!

Cookies to whoever can figure out what Gwen's doing (it's evil).