[ Deck The Halls ] by Todd Fan

Disclaimer: I own squat, which is a pity, because with those mutants, I could rule the world!. Whoa ha ha ha ha!

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Lance sighed as he dragged the huge log with branches on that Pietro had tried to call a Christmas tree across the Brotherhood's driveway. He'd been pulling the damn thing for almost half an hour, he could no longer feel his hands OR the thousands of splinters embedded into them. He sighed, at least they didn't have any problem with food, Freddy had already gone back to Texas to stay with his grandparents over the holidays. In fact, the Brotherhood found that with Freddy gone, they had more food than they realised, enough to last at least three nuclear winters. He looked up on the roof to see Todd precariously balanced, attempting to fix lights onto the edge of the roof. Lance looked down and noticed a few Todd-shaped holes in the snow, showing that Todd had fallen off the roof a couple of times already. He looked up and grinned, if he was going to be in pain, he was going to take Todd down with him.

"They're not on straight", he shouted up.

Todd gave a yelp of surprise and almost lost his footing, he stared down at Lance and frowned.

"Do YOU want ta come up here an' try this"?, he asked, "'cause it 'ain't my idea of 'fun' that's fer sure".

"Sure I'll help", said Lance with a smirk.

He rolled back his eyes and caused a tremor to run into the house. The snow on the roof that Todd was balancing on crumbled and headed towards the ground, as did Todd. Todd let off one of his trademark 'girly screams' as he headed for the ground. He closed his eyes and waited for impact. It didn't come. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself hovering a feet feet above the ground. He blinked and looked over at Lance.

"New power?", asked Lance, blinking in surprise.

"I don't think so", said Todd.

"Hey idiots, over here", said Wanda, walking up, moved her hand and Todd slowly floated back to the ground.

"You saved me", he said with a grin, "aww Cuddlebumps you DO care!".

Wanda pulled a face.

"Don't kid yourself frog boy", she said, "if you break your neck, no one will be able to put up the Christmas lights".

"Oh..", said Todd with a sigh, "darn".

Wanda turned her attention to the 'tree'.

"What is THAT?", she asked, pointing to it with a look of disgust on her face.

"According to your brother, it's a Christmas tree", said Lance with a frown, "a Christmas tree I've had to drag all around Bayville. I looked like a dork".

"What else is new?", Todd muttered.

"What?", said Lance, the ground starting to shake again.

"Will you guys stop it, I'm trying to watch my story's!", came the voice of Pietro, warm and snug inside the house.

"Yeah, well I don't see you doing any work", shouted Lance.

"I'm supervising you", said Pietro, "from inside, where it's nice and cosy and....argghhhh, fire! Firefirefirefire!".

"Ooopise", said Wanda with a grin, "did I make the fire explode on you, 'dear brother'?".

"Putitoutputitout!", screamed Pietro, running out of the house, his arm ablaze.

The speed demon leapt head first into a snowdrift, steam rose up from the Pietro shaped hole accompanied with a sigh of relief. A few seconds later, Pietro's head popped up, the snow making his hair even more white.

"That was uncalled for", he said to Wanda, "I didn't do anything to you".

"Since when did I need a reason to beat you up?", said Wanda with an innocent smile, "now if you guys don't mind. I'm going inside the nice warm house and putting my feet up".

"Do you want me to make you some cocoa Sweetums?", asked Todd hopefully.

"No!", said Wanda, "and if you call me Sweetums, Cuddlebumps or any other sickeningly sweet name again, I will make sure you walk with a limp for the rest of your life, which I assure you, won't be very long!"

With that, Wanda stormed into the house, slamming the door behind her.

"Sooooo", said Pietro, "who's up for decorating INSIDE the house?".

"I already did that", said Todd with a grin.

"TOAD!"

"Oh good", said Todd with a smile, "Wanda found all the mistletoe".

"IT'S ALL OVER THE CEILING!!!!....IN EVERY ROOM!".

"Am I a genius or what?", said Todd with a grin, "I'm coming in Sugarplum!"

"NO! TOAD, YOU STAY OUT. STAY OUT!"

Lance winced as the sound of crashing came from the house.

"It's at times like this, I wonder why I called this place 'low maintenance'", he said with a sigh.

THE END.