Holiday Cheer

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… Seriously, December should just be designated “Nap Month”. InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, Dracena and Greywolf are loverly and wondermous for archiving/hosting. J ProPhile: *insert witticism here * Morgan: *stalk? * Readers/Reviewers: NOW it’s the last chapter! Really! ;)

Mark’s brows shot up towards the stratosphere. “Oh. Well. Um, I think that’s…”

“I think that’s something to discuss later,” Professor Xavier said smoothly. “Logan, down.” *snicker*

Logan growled low in his throat, sinking back into the dining room chair he had recently abandoned. “Jubilee, what the Hell are you thinking?” he demanded, his eyes narrowed on the young woman. “Mark is old enough to be your father!”

“I’m not fu…doing anything with him! I just… oh, Christ,” she breathed, shoving herself away from the table. “I just sort of blew up the cake and that’s it! I’m sorry! I’ll clean up the dining room!”

Kurt laid a friendly hand on her shoulder, patting her gently. “I added all the alcohol. I’ll help.”

“Everyone,” Professor Xavier ordered, his voice calm and reasonable but definitely paternal and tired, “will help. It seems everyone had a hand in this. Jubilee, you also have an extra session with me this evening. Learning to control your powers is extremely important and it seems that you need a refresher on some of the finer points.” He shot Logan a significant look. “And Logan, please supervise the clean up.”

“Just a moment,” Mark broke in, standing up and smoothing his expression into one less surprised and more calm, cool and collected. “Jubilee… was it an accident? The, ah, sparklies?”

Jubilee sniffed imperiously, drawing herself up to her full, if diminutive, height. “Of course it was. I was gonna just scare Rogue and Todd a little.” She tilted her chin at Professor Xavier, adding, “I KNOW how to control my powers. If I didn’t, this whole room would be rubble, wouldn’t it?”

“That,” the Professor responded lightly, “is something we can discuss later. In my office. After,” he added with emphasis, “you help clean up Mark’s pudding.”

“Still sounds dirty,” Todd muttered, his voice more clear than he expected in the silent dining room.

Kurt cleared his throat and shifted uneasily from foot to foot, not quite meeting anyone’s eyes. “I really feel that it’s all of our faults and you shouldn’t be too hard on Jubes…”

“Oh, you’re just saying that because you fucked her!” Rogue snapped, tired of it all.

“ROGUE!” a chorus of voices, led by Jean, went up.

“Well, he DID!”

Jubilee groaned and slid under the table as the voices around her exploded into a fight. She eased to the center of the table’s cover and began a slow and laborious crawl towards the far end, where she hoped to slip out the door. She made it almost all the way to the end, only crunching two sets of toes—Kurt’s and Lance’s—before screaming.

“Sorry,” Kitty whispered. “Want out?”

“How the HELL are you doing this?” Jubilee hissed, clutching her chest where it felt as if her heart was going to pound through her ribs. “And wear a freakin’ BELL!”

Kitty rolled her eyes. “Come on,” she sighed, grabbing her friend’s elbow and pulling her down through the floor. “I used a ladder,” she pointed out, nodding in the direction of said device propped against the wall of the basement room directly below the dining room. “And try not to look so upset,” she added, padding quietly over to the door. “I just sprang you from the annual Christmas fight.” She grinned, opening the door.

“Kitty, all hell is breaking loose upstairs, everyone knows I have a…a…”

“Crush on Mark? I know… I could hear the screaming.”

“Oh, god. How am I gonna live this down?” Jubilee groaned, burying her face in Kitty’s neck.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kitty counseled. “We’re a family here. And families do this.” She took Jubilee by the elbow and began tugging her into the hall. “Come on with me and we can hide out in the library. Just us and my menorah,” she added.

“Kitty,” Jubilee whined, dragging her feet.

“Look at it this way,” Kitty said with a smile, “some people drink their holiday cheer, you blow yours up.”

Jubilee rolled her eyes. “Remind me to hide for New Years