Anna creaked the curtains open wide enough to watch the snow fall outside, or at least as far as she could reach from the comfort of her bed. The white moonlight reflecting off the fluffy powder gave her room an ethereal aura despite the time of night. To the sound of the wind lightly pelting her window with falling snow, she felt her leaden eyelids finally fall shut.
The nightmares had stopped, but that didn't make resting in her sheets much easier. Questions were still left unanswered. Questions about her abilities, why they were the way they were, why there was a stranger who was welcome to rent a room in her psyche, and what all that really meant. It all made her wish the Professor was still around. Almost.
Anna tossed from one side and then to the other. She'd check her phone, put it away, only to pick it back up a moment later. Some hope still desperately clung to the frayed ends of her heart strings that any moment she'd hear a response back from Kitty for the half-dozen texts Anna had sent. None of them had even been read.
Unlike Kitty's side of the room, which had a wall plastered with printed photos, Anna only had the one. And it wasn't on the wall, or even anywhere she could see. It was inside her nightstand under a few scattered hair ties, a pack of wintermint flavored gum, and the nail clipper she kept meaning to give back to Kitty. The only reason she even had the photo was because Kitty insisted on giving it to her for her birthday, and it was difficult to say no to Kitty when she was that excited.
However, as it lay there on the pillow next to her, Anna was glad she hadn't mustered the courage to turn it down. It was of her, Kurt, Evan, and Kitty dressed up moments before Anna's birthday bash. Kurt was dressed up as his D&D character, Zerzer the bloodless, Evan was a lizard man, Kitty was Cleopatra, and Anna dressed as the bride of Frankenstein.
It felt so stupid at the time, gathering to take a selfie when all Anna could think about was stealing Cerebro's information. A plan Kitty knew about at the time, and in retrospect, was likely just putting off as long as she could. This far out and looking back, Anna could hardly blame her. In a way, she couldn't help but thank her for forcing her to slow down if it was even for just a moment.
"WAKE UP!"
"What?!" Anna threw her arm across her chest like a swinging hammer and just missed her brother's face by centimeters before slamming her fist into the other side of her bed. "Brotherhood? Sentinals?" She shot up and, in her bleary haze, saw that the room around her was bathed in orange sunlight.
"No! More important than that." Kurt grabbed her by the shoulders and shook. "Presents!"
"Pres-" was all Anna could mutter before being thrown back into her bed by her brother.
"Downstairs! Now!" Kurt leaped off her in a blue blur and through the open door to her room.
Anna sat up once again in her bed with her hair disheveled and forehead sweaty. She'd been an only child her entire life until only a few months ago…and suddenly she was really starting to miss that life.
The mansion outside her door had transformed seemingly overnight. Long ribbons of gold and white lined the crown molding of the hallway, along with twinkling little stars. The red carpet somehow seemed more vibrant than she remembered, and it led to the foyer where a large tree lay heavy with crimson and gold garland, along with glittering crystal ornaments.
"Where… did all this come from?"
"Like it?" Jean appeared from the other side of the house-sized tree with a bright star tree topper levitating high above her head. She reached up and, with an invisible force, set it neatly on top. "I found a bunch of this stuff in the attic and in some storage in the basement."
"You did all this by yourself?"
"Not all by myself. I had some help from the Danger Room droids." Jean stood beside Anna, propped her hands on her hips, and sighed with a glittering smile that rivaled the star. She took a dust-covered rag from her back pocket and dabbed her sweaty forehead with it. "Couldn't sleep last night. Was just restless for some reason, so I did some digging around and found all," she waved a hand around the foyer, "of it."
Anna glanced around before lowering her voice. "Have you been struggling to sleep since helping me with, you know, the big angry bug in my head?"
"Oh, that?" Jean waved her rag and smiled, "No, no. Weirdly, I've been feeling pretty good since then. Like, I don't even need that much rest. I think I got maybe four hours of sleep last night and feel like I got ten."
"Huh…"
"Anyway, I think I should be the one asking you that. That thing in your head giving you any more trouble?"
"No, not a peep."
"Well, if he does, just let me know -"
"Are you two still talking?" A little more awake now, and with him not fully in her face, Anna could see that Kurt was in head-to-toe red and green reindeer pajamas complete with a little cap. "Gifts are in the library, not out here!"
Jean eclipsed a sly smile with her hand, "The man makes a good point…"
"Then let's go! We're waiting on you!" Kurt led Anna by the forearm out of the foyer and down the hall.
"Will you take it easy? You're stretching out my favorite top, Kurt!" Just outside the doors to the library now, Anna could smell vanilla in the air mixed with cinnamon. She could hear voices chattering and laughter. As they crossed the threshold into the room beyond, her eyes met a room filled wall to wall with cheer. The tree they'd assembled stood tall in the corner, and next to it rested the piano where two large speakers sat atop softly playing Christmas music. The walls and ceiling were decorated with individually crafted handmade paper snowflakes sprinkled with glitter. At the center of it all was the fireplace whose hearth was laid heavy with stockings and little knick-knacks. She could feel the heat radiating from the roaring fire all the way from the entrance, and it warmed her cheeks. The sofas were at capacity with Evan, Scott, Logan, and even Ororo, and any space in between was filled with snacks or gifts. On the coffee table was an emerald green teapot with several little tea cups arranged nicely next to it, and next to that was a dispenser full of hot chocolate that was half drained, and its few remaining cups were scattered and knocked over.
"Evan!" Kurt dropped Anna's forearm and appeared behind Evan's couch in a puff of smoke. "I told you I'd be right back!" He cleared the gifts off the couch next to Evan. "And where the heck were Anna and Jean supposed to sit when they got here?"
"You guys were taking so long, we already divvied out the gifts. Any longer and we would have started."
"Knock it off," Scott crossed one leg over the other in the armchair, "no, we wouldn't have." Anna couldn't help but notice the box with the great big red bow sitting lopsided in his lap.
"Enough yapping." Logan pointed with a hand weighed down with a mug of hot chocolate and the other around Ororo's shoulders, "and get to cracking open some gifts!"
A rain of glittering paper was soon to follow, and shrieks of surprise and thanks followed after that. Evan got an updated Monster Manual that Kurt was quick to steal and flip through. Jean got a matching pair of rose colored rings with light blue gem inlays. Scott got a new set of wrenches that he seemed pretty excited over, though Anna couldn't tell the difference between them and the old ones he had.
Among the treasure trove that Kurt got, the most excited he got over was a pair of socks. Anna had a hard time understanding why at first till she saw that they were toe socks with specifically two large toes at the end.
"No way!" He jammed them on the end of either foot. "These are so sick!" He wriggled his little toes, and it was then that Anna noticed that the top of the heel had a little blue ball on it.
"I'm glad you like them!" Jean smiled and lowered the Christmas card she was reading. "I've been working on them for a while."
"Like them! I love them!"
Anna had worked through a few gifts at that point. She'd gotten some nail polish, a couple of books she'd been interested in, and a little film camera from Kitty. When Anna opened the box, she saw a note attached to the lens along with a photo of the group standing in front of the mansion. The note read:
'To make and take those memories wherever you go!
- Love, Kitty'
Anna ran her thumb over the glossy surface of the photo, and Kitty, as well as the other students, stared back at her with smiling faces. Kurt gave Evan bunny ears, Jean did the same behind Scott, both victims looked stoic with crossed arms and chiseled grins. In the middle of it all was the broad smile of Kitty as she held the camera as high as she could above the gathered to snap the photo.
"You haven't opened your last gift yet." Anna was shocked back to reality by Evan, who'd unearthed a small package from beneath the ocean of debris at Anna's feet.
"Oh, thanks, Ev." Anna took the little package from his hand, and he returned a small smile.
Evan was quickly pulled back into his own orbit when Kurt said, "So the Elder Brain really is just a giant brain? That's SO mid, Ev. Zerzer could kick a brain's ass anytime."
"No dude, they kick so much more ass then that! Let me show you-"
Anna turned the little brown package over in her hands and saw it was bound in twine. The only distinguishing mark on it was a little note attached to the top that read "From Kurt, to Anna." Anna undid the twine with a tug at a loose string, and the packaging easily fell apart. She was soon presented with a little white box with big black font on the top that read "Thanks for your order!"
Anna gingerly pulled the top off and found two neatly folded black gloves inside on a bed of fine cloth. She took off her normal gloves and gave the new ones a try, and they felt like she was wearing nothing at all. Where there were strange spaces between fingers and areas where the seams of the fabric rubbed against her skin in the old gloves, the new gloves felt expertly crafted just for her. She flexed her fingers and knuckles and could feel the fabric breathe like a second skin.
She was so distracted that she almost didn't notice the note that blended in with the fabric bedding beneath. She unfolded it and read:
'Hey, Big Sis!
These past few months have been a lot, and in some ways, I feel like you've had it the worst. We all have crosses to bear, but yours seems especially heavy at times. For some reason, you're not even allowed to touch people, and when you do, something steals your mind away for a while.
I wish I could help. I wish and pray that I could somehow fix what you deal with and go through every day. And I figure until I come up with some sort of answer, I at least did my best to find the best gloves in the world for you to wear.
Love,
You're one and only little brother.'
Anna took a deep breath and clutched the note close to her chest. She smiled and felt tears well in her eyes. She looked in Kurt's direction and found him standing over the couch, holding Evan's book just out of reach.
"Kurt! I told you I'd explain the difference! Just give me the damn book!"
"You mean this book? You need THIS book?"
"Kurt!"
The morning eventually gave way to evening and the space between was filled with a snow man contest in the yard, an impromptu game of 'who can climb the biggest tree the fastest' which ended up being Logan, but not without a loud groawning effort where he, for one reason or another, lost his shirt half way through. It felt by little coincidence, however, that it was that very tree Anna found a notch made in the bark by a boy long ago. A part of her heart warmed at its touch.
"Did Logan make ribs?" Kitty asked from the phone Anna had propped up on a pillow at the end of her bed.
"Meat loaf," Anna sat cross-legged and fiddled with one of her new gloves between her hands.
"That's a bold choice."
"I'm not normally a fan of a giant wad of meat either, but it was weirdly good. I don't know how that guy can just pop anything in a slow cooker and make it edible."
"Did he put American cheese on it?"
"I don't think so… no?"
"Shame, could have made it even better." Kitty lay in a bed on her side of the camera and rolled over to her other side. The room she was in was dark, but Anna could see little dots of white light on the wall over Kitty's shoulder, like a still glowing rainfall. "Never doubt the power of process cheese product. That and salt."
"How's it been with the parents?"
"Same, more or less."
"Yeah?"
Yeah," Kitty closed her eyes and exhaled. "Mom's working hard, and Dad's picked up a few new projects since I left. He doesn't like to sit still for long; it makes him uncomfortable. So now he's gotten really into mountain trail biking."
"Really?"
"Well, sorta. He's got the bike and the equipment and knows where all the trails are, but he hasn't left the driveway with all of it yet."
"Sounds like me when I was learning to skateboard when I was six."
Kitty didn't respond; instead, her eyes scanned the phone before her in a way that looked like she was reading something.
"Kitty?"
"Sorry," she blinked her eyes a few times, and it was then Anna noticed a slight tear roll down a corner and quickly into her pillow.
"Are you okay, Kitty?"
She gave a sort of half-hearted look, and her eyes darted away like the weight of Anna's image was too much for them to bear. "No… not really." Before Anna could ask, Kitty continued. "Anna… my parents don't want me to come back."