AN: More Chritmas fluff. Get your toothbrushes ready, this sugar is going to stick to your teeth like glue.

The four of them were able to celebrate their own little Christmas morning before the other X-students came downstairs. Any of them would tell you it was a picturesque moment, something out of a holiday special.

"So, I'm not Picasso or anything but… here," Quinn mumbled as she passed Kitchie, Mark, and Caim each a medium sized, flat, badly wrapped present.

"Why are you talking about Picasso?" Mark asked as he started to tear the wrapping paper off. Then he stopped and stared at the present in his hands. Caim and Kitchie did likewise. "Who knew you could paint," Mark commented. Quinn blushed and stared at the floor. "I can't," she replied. "But I hope these are ok…"

She had painted them each a picture in art class, since she had no other idea of what to give them and she had to do three paintings for a class assignment anyways. She painted a picture of the Rocky Mountains for Mark, a picture of a forest for Caim, and a picture of a garden with lots of bright flowers for Kitchie. Of course she had done all the pictures from reference…

"I love it!" Kitchie exclaimed, reaching across the circle and pulling Quinn into a bear hug. She tried to push him off at first but then hesitantly hugged him back. "I love it!" he shouted again into her ear. He released her, smiling, and she gave a slight smile in response. "Thanks…" she replied. Mark wrapped an arm around her shoulders in his own hug. "It rocks," he told her. Caim looked up from staring at the picture and smiled. "This is really nice," he told her. Quinn blushed slightly and looked away. "Yeah whatever," she muttered. "They're ok."

Mark's turn next. He handed each of his friends a forearm long stuffed bag. "What the hell? Did you steal these from a museum warehouse or something?" Quinn asked, untying the drawstring at the top. Caim was the first to open his bag and he slid a knife out of the bag. His eyes widened as he turned the blade over in his hands. Quinn looked up and her jaw dropped. "You made us knives!"

Mark motioned with his hands for her to quiet down. "Yeah, I did." Quinn looked up at him with something like appraising shock on her features. "Wicked," was all she said.

"It's… engraved…" Caim mumbled, still turning it over, seemingly mesmerizing.

"Nothing fancy, just some lines and swirls here and there. Took me a while to make them…" He scratched the back of his head. Kitchie and Quinn each slid their own blades out of the material sheaths and the living room was silent for several moments.

"This… is… so… cool," Kitchie said, being the first to speak. For once he didn't shout his approval, but as he dropped the knife and hugged Mark tightly you could tell that he loved it. Caim didn't speak, and Quinn had said all she could say. After a couple more minutes of staring, they each put the weaponry gift away.

Kitchie suddenly beamed, and pulled his gifts from under the tree. "My turn!" he proclaimed. He set square packages in front of his friends. "Now, since you guys sometimes have problems being happy, except for Mark-" He swept his hand out to gesture to the weapon master. "-I made you these!" Quinn and Caim glanced at each other before slowly unwrapping the gift. Mark pulled the paper off and laughed. It was a small, handmade book with a yellow cover and a large smiley face on the cover. Across the top in red letters the title spelt: "The Happy Book". "Only you could come up with this Kitchie," Mark said, laughing.

"It's full of stories and jokes and comics and such that I thought would make you happy. Everyone needs a pick me up once in a while…" He glanced at Quinn and Caim. "…so I thought that having a personal, friend-made one would be perfect. There are extra pages in the back for more, so you can include your own or others could put stuff in."

Quinn and Caim finished unwrapping their own and Quinn flipped through it. She smiled at a page and Kitchie beamed. "See! I knew it would work!" Quinn laughed quietly and closed the book. She paused, then reached over and gave her tall friend a slightly awkward one armed hug. Pulling back she set the book in front of her. Mark hugged his friend tightly and sat back, smiling. Caim didn't move for a moment, but then he gave a small laugh and, like Quinn, gave his friend a one armed hug. "Thanks," he said. He thumbed through the book. "Really." Then he set the book down and coughed once. "Uh, my turn I guess…"

He let his voice trail off as he reached under the tree and pulled out three small, slim packages. "They aren't handmade. Well kind of but-"

"Just let us open them," Mark told him quietly, not meaning to sound harsh. "We'll love them no matter what." Caim shrugged a shoulder and didn't look up at any of them as they opened the gifts. Inside each wrapping was a CD with a decorated cover.

"Holy shit," Quinn said.

Caim looked at her. "What?"

"The art. It's… it's…" She stumbled over her words but her speechlessness conveyed what she was failing to say. A blush coloured Caim's pale cheeks and he played with the threads of the carpet. "Thanks…" he replied.

"It's really good," Mark agreed. "You should be an artist." Caim shrugged.

"You've always been great but this is phenomenal!" Kitchie shouted, hugging his friend tightly. Caim shrugged again and Kitchie playfully smacked his shoulder. "Don't do that! You should be proud of this!" Caim blew a piece of hair out of his face. "You haven't even seen the actual gift," he said.

So all of them opened the case and found a CD inside.

"They're mixed CDs of music I thought you'd like," Caim explained. "There are real songs on there, but a couple are my own, if you don't mind. I hope you guys like them."

"Why would be mind your own work?" Mark asked. "This is amazing." He smiled at his friend, sensing that a hug would make him uncomfortable. But of course Kitchie, who took every chance to try and make his antisocial friend even slightly happy, hugged him tight enough that it could have counted as Mark's hug as well. "This is fantastic!" he exclaimed. "Absolutely rocks!"

Quinn laughed quietly as she turned the CD in her hands. "This is really cool," she agreed. She met Caim's green-eyed gaze. "Really, this is great."

Their gift giving party ended on that good note, and soon they were all just chatting until Mark and Caim requested to make breakfast. So they all migrated to the kitchen and hung out together as the rest of the mansion woke up and made their way down to the living room. Christmas day continued with lots of snow balls, lots of hot chocolate, and lots of smiles. Despite the small number of people still present, the holiday dinner went smoothly without a hitch or upset. No one could ask for a better day.

AN: One more fluff chapter, then the drama starts again. Then one more fluff after that... and then everything goes downhill from there until the end. Enjoy!