In celebration of the holiday season, and me having made an OC (or three...maybe five) for my abandoned universe, here's a one-shot for the fic that started everything, because I missed my original daughter and her dumb mess of a family

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CHRISTMAS EVE WAS A WEIRD TIME AT THE MANSION.

Leona woke to the sound of screaming and cheering, immediately jumping to her feet, preparing for whatever attack was being waged. After she felt no shift, nor did she hear any shouts for stations, she looked out of her window towards the source of the shouting, only to see a few of the students setting up a very large Christmas tree right in front, some already beginning to decorate, their wings fluttering about.

She grinned and changed into more acceptable clothes—her father wasn't overly fond of her running around the mansion in her nightclothes—and raced into the hallway, immediately bumping into another body who had been walking at an even pace down the hall.

"Sorry, Ollie," she groaned, lifting herself and the younger boy to their feet, brushing him off, "What's going on?"

"The festivities are beginning," he replied, shrugging, "At least, if you celebrate Christmas. Which neither I nor my father do."

"Peter does," she pointed out, walking beside him as they made their way towards the kitchen.

"He was raised to celebrate Christmas, and we're completely different people," Oliver replied shortly, sounding very mature for a boy of thirteen, three years younger than Leona herself.

They found their way downstairs where the kitchen had expanded greatly since before she was born. She had heard stories of how it had been much smaller before, yet larger than an average table; there was an entire room in the mansion dedicated for the majority to all eat together, something that took a long time to figure out.

"I made cake!" a voice sang, causing the two, and the others in the room, to turn.

They all smiled when they saw the brightly dressed girl bounding towards them, her dyed blonde hair bouncing behind her, streaks of brown showing through. By far the most lovable person in Leona's age group, Ruby brought a smile to everyone's faces.

"Hey, Leona, try my cake!" the girl chirped, and Leona had to take a minute to compose herself, clearly shocked that the girl was even speaking to her; they didn't have much time to interact considering their curriculum.

"Okay," she said, taking the knife floating above her head, cutting a piece of cake and sliding it onto a floating plate that was on the other side of her head.

Ollie took the knife and a plate as well, giving Ruby a strained, but grateful smile as she grinned down at him, brighter than the sun.

Leona took a bite, unable to keep from smiling at the sugary sweet taste of the cake, the frosting light and fluffy. She glanced over to Oliver, reaching out with a finger and tapping his cheek, watching as he slowly smiled, mimicking her own, laughing as he shuddered.

"Don't do that," he said, trying to keep from smiling, eyebrows trying to pull into a frown. He motioned towards Ruby who was giving cake to the other students, sighing slightly. "She thinks very loudly."

"She's really excitable, huh?" Leona said, shaking her head in a tired sort of endearment, "Her energy's pretty contagious."

Oliver snorted softly. "You would know a lot about that, wouldn't you?"

She rolled her eyes and shoved him slightly, making her way outside to survey the raising of the large Christmas tree. She grinned when she saw a the familiar faces that were monitoring the students, helping them.

"What's up, kiddo?"

She smiled up at Bobby Drake, one of the teachers at the mansion, who was up in the air, balancing precariously on an icicle structure, helping two of their teachers, Ororo Munroe—or Storm, as she liked to be called—and Warren Worthington III who were airing out the tree, blowing cold air.

"Need any help?" she asked, not needing to shield her face from the sun as the clouds above had solved that problem for her.

"Nah," he called down, shaking his head, "But go call The Professor and Erik, would ya, we need their input."

She raised her eyebrows, shocked by the task she was just given. "M-me? Really?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, why not, you're here, aren't you? Besides, you got the little Charles, they have a bond or something, so you'll get through the door a lot quicker."

Scoffing, she turned to Oliver and the two made their way back into the mansion, searching for the headmasters of the school. While she was miffed at only being sent due to her connection with Oliver, Leona wasn't surprised; she tended not to be included in basically anything having to do with being an X-Man, as her powers weren't helpful in a fight.

"Raven is much better than how she was before we were born," Oliver said conversationally, having just read her mind as they continued to search for the other telepath.

"I didn't say anything," Leona grumbled, but she couldn't help how she felt; Raven—or Mystique, as she preferred to be called—didn't do anything to actively make her feel excluded, but it was her lack of action that brought about the feeling.

"There are a lot of us here, she can't give special treatment to everyone," Oliver said, once again delving into her private thoughts and speaking about them as if they were having a conversation, "You're not the only one with a less than useful power when it comes to fighting."

"Everyone else has something, though," she argued, "Even if it's not a completely offensive mutation, there are some that are defensive, some that can be used to manipulate surroundings enough that they can be either. Mine literally does nothing."

"There are other people in the mansion who have that exact same problem," Oliver repeated, tugging her along another corridor, assuming that Charles would be there, or at the very least Erik.

"But they don't mind," she scoffed, "Or they're planning on leaving, since they can get formal education somewhere else ever since they passed the law that prohibits the exclusion of mutants in both private and public schools."

Oliver frowned. "Then why don't you leave?"

She nearly whacked him upside the head. "Why do you think, genius?"

She refrained from touching him, however, as she didn't want to accidentally have an angry telepath on her hands; those were the scariest kinds. They always did know too much at the wrong times. She spoke from experience, but the effects had been rectified, thankfully.

"What're we doing?"

The two turned to find Ruby skipping over towards them. Her feet weren't always touching the ground, floating just above it for a few moments at a time. She was practicing. Leona smiled at the girl as she stopped in front of them, hands on her hips.

"We're looking for The Professor and Erik," she explained, "Have you seen them?"

"Nope, but I can help," the girl chirped, her smile never leaving her face. Leona could feel the warmth radiating from her, the pure joy, not even needing to touch her to know.

If she had touched her, she would have felt the underlying feeling of pure pain, a pain that just wouldn't go away no matter how hard she tried. A pain that ate away at her every day, trying to keep her from jumping out of bed and grinning at all the people around her.

But Leona didn't, so that wasn't anything to worry about, at least not for the time being. Instead, she just motioned for the girl to follow along, the three now walking together on their search for the elusive bald headmaster and his partner whose hair was beginning to thin.

"I think Erik looks lovely," Ruby huffed, and Leona cast a betrayed look over to Oliver who shrugged, not doing much to hide his "little shit smile," as Peter so eloquently put it.

"I think it's so cool that you can get us to hear each other's thoughts," Ruby gushed to Oliver, smiling down at him brightly, "Can the Professor even do that?"

Oliver shrugged, blushing at the compliment. "I don't know, I have yet to ask. I learned this on my own. Here, think something to Leona for a moment, I'll see if I can do it again, I usually need some rest."

Ruby nodded and furrowed her brow in concentration, Oliver's pace slowly slightly as he focused.

"Leona looks really pretty today!"

The girl in question reeled back, falling into the wall at the sheer force of the thought, her head aching as the scream echoed not in her ears, but in her mind, where there was no escape. She groaned, rubbing her temples, crawling over to Oliver who had collapsed on the ground, the mix of the thought and the focus draining him.

"Here, kid, let me try to help," she mumbled, forcing herself into a sitting position.

"You affect emotions, not energy, don't waste it, then we'll both be like this," he grumbled, his glasses falling to the side as he rubbed his eyes, clearly still in pain, "I'm not mad, Ruby, it's not your fault. But next time, just in general, please don't think so loudly when trying to speak to me, I can hear you just fine as is."

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, much less exaggerated than Leona was expecting. She looked up to see the girl staring down at them, utterly dejected. She tried to give her a smile, but it wasn't returned.

Rising to her feet, Leona placed her hands on Ruby's arms, shifting her fingers as they wrapped around her bare skin. Closing her eyes, she focused on the feeling of happiness. No, not happiness, that wasn't right. She tried something new.

She focused on the memory of how she felt when she forgave her father for yelling her mother when she returned from a mission. It had frightened her to see them fighting, and had avoided him for a few days after, but when she learned he had screamed because he was afraid of losing her, she forgave him, the feeling of understanding flooding her. She forgave Raven after the woman had barked at her once for trying to sneak into the Danger Room, understanding why she wasn't allowed to go in.

When she opened her eyes, Ruby was already staring at her, eyes glassy, but surprise clearly evident past the self-forgiveness and understanding that had been fabricated into her.

"I didn't know you could do that," Ruby whispered, "It was like you made me forgive myself and you made me feel like you forgave me. Oliver too."

Leona smiled, pulling her hands away, still feeling the odd sensation in her palms from the contact and use of her mutation. "I didn't know I could either. The thing with your mutation stemming from emotion is that it's hard to know what you can and can't do. Just ask my mom."

"If often takes a surge in emotion for us to develop our mutations, if they're physiological," Oliver said, still on the ground, "At least, in most cases, like your father's. Charles and I believe that there's a possibility that the mutant gene lies dormant in many, if not all, but only a select few unlock it. Even if some are more likely to, there's still a factor of being truly susceptible to it. Some mutants never unlock their mutation for certain reasons that I can't explain now because my head is hurting, can we please find Charles?"

"Sure," Ruby said, reaching out and levitating Oliver, gasping as she struggled to hold him up as he squirmed. "Please stay still, you're gonna psyche me out and I don't wanna drop you."

With a sigh, Oliver leaned back, as if he were lying down, and allowed himself to be levitated around as the two teenage girls continued their search for the two headmasters, the telepath in particular. They all continued to chat idly, even Oliver, though he had to speak louder and refrained from reading any thoughts, which Leona was thankful for.

It wasn't until they searched for the entire mansion that Leona came to a conclusion that infuriated her.

"They're in their office."

There was a pause. Then Oliver spoke, "You didn't know that?"

Leona groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. "No! No, I didn't even think of that."

"I thought you just wanted to walk around for a bit, I was wondering why you weren't just immediately thinking of the office, why are you like this?" Oliver complained, yelping when Leona smacked his feet, jostling him in Ruby's hold which had loosened ever so slightly.

"Don't do that," Ruby hissed, fear evident in her tone and eyes, "I could have dropped him!"

Leona held up her hands placatingly, taken aback by the reaction. "I'm sorry. Hey, it's okay." She reached out and tapped the girl's shoulder with one finger, watching as the feeling spread throughout her, relaxing her muscles and calming her down.

"You can't just do that whenever you don't want to deal with confrontation, it's unhealthy," Ruby mumbled, floating Oliver over in the direction of Charles' office.

"There's really no other time when I could use them," Leona pointed out, "At least you get to fight."

Ruby frowned. "You think I want to fight? It's terrifying, Leona, no one should want to."

"Well, we have to be prepared," she argued, "That's why we train, I don't want to be the one who can't help when it's needed."

"Yeah, well, I don't want to be the one to attack when it's not. We're kids, not soldiers," Ruby pressed, her usual smile missing.

"Where have I heard this before..." Oliver drawled, breaking up the argument, "Seriously, if you want to have this chat, have it with the people on the other side of this door."

The two girls turned to find themselves standing in front of the doors to Charles' office. With one last glance at each other, Ruby flicked her wrist, the doors opened wide open, the three tentatively walking in.

Inside, they found none other than the original X-Men, sans Ororo, Warren and, to some degree, Bobby, who were outside helping set up the tree. There was one of Ruby's mothers, Jubilee, standing next to none other than Leona's own parents. Raven, Alex Summers, and Hank McCoy on the other side of the room, chatting easily, laughing at something Raven had just said. Jean Grey was sitting next to Kurt Wagner, the two looking just about ready to fall asleep, though seemingly still attentive to the whole situation, Warren Worthington III already fast asleep behind the chair, by his husband's head.

"How's the weather up there, kid?" Peter joked, coming to stand by Oliver's head, smirking at him. Oliver just scowled, flipping him off.

"Can we help you?" Charles asked, smiling from his position behind his desk.

Leona looked around at the room, sighing. "I guess so."

º º º

Christmas dinner was an even stranger time.

It had become customary throughout the years that everyone open their presents at exactly midnight, meaning most of the celebration took place during Christmas Eve, particularly during the evening.

While there already weren't many students to begin with, there was an even smaller portion that stayed at the mansion. But even with the small group of people, the students were still exiled to the mansion's equivalent of "the kid's table."

"Hey, Teddy," Leona mumbled, taking a seat next to Hank McCoy and Alex Summer's son.

"Hey, kid," he greeted, running a hand through his brown hair, setting down what she figured was champagne.

Older than the general group of children, Teddy was already out in the world, working in the government in some way, similar to the way one of his fathers had before he had joined the X-Men. He was also the only person in the mansion who wasn't a mutant.

"Surprised you came home."

Teddy and Leona looked up to see Jean Grey's son, Rudy, walking over, sitting across from them. Out of all of them, he was the one sent on the most missions, much to Leona's disdain. The reason how and why he was adopted was a very interesting one, but he was here, and that was all that mattered.

"Just 'cause I'm a flatscan doesn't mean I hate my dads," Teddy said, frowning. The boys tended to be at odds with one another, for no other reason than they just didn't think the other was worth his time.

Leona reached out and tapped Teddy lightly on the arm, reaching out with her foot and brushing her ankle against Rudy's. Sitting up straight, she watched them carefully, nodding in satisfaction when she saw the tension disappear from their shoulders, looking much more calm.

"Don't do that," Rudy sighed, looking at her with a tired frown.

Leona ignored him in favor of smiling at the rest of the students who had piled into the room, one being the reserved Kellen—Warren and Kurt Wagner's son—taking their seats at the large rectangular table, the other adults at their own table, already talking.

"I heard that Mr. Allerdyce might propose today," Ruby mentioned, her voice a hushed whisper.

"That'll never happen," Leona scoffed.

"Yeah," Teddy chimed in, "He and Bobby have been dating since before any of us were born, that was back in the 80's."

"And they're still not married?" she exclaimed, "Why not?"

Leona shrugged. "I dunno. I think it's kinda like how Teddy's dads were, my mom's told me some stories."

"Wait, tell me," Teddy said, turning to her suddenly, "Seriously, my dads never talk about it."

"Because they don't want to," Oliver interrupted, "They don't want to give you the impression that you need to punish yourself and wait years before admitted your love, just to be sure it's real. They regret they didn't spend more of their lives together, they don't want you to follow the same path."

Teddy tapped the side of his glass. "Seriously?"

Oliver nodded. "Yes. Now be quiet, my father is going to make a speech."

Suddenly, perfectly on cue, there was the sound of a spoon clinking against a glass. They all turned to see a spoon floating and tapping against a glass, Erik not even looking at it, focused on Charles who couldn't help but laugh, amused by the small display.

He cleared his throat, his voice soft, but forceful, filling the room with his authority alone. "I just want to say how grateful I am to be able to spend yet another holiday season with all of you. You are light in my life, and if it were not for all of you, I don't know where I would be. So let us have a wonderful time, shall we?"

Everyone clapped for the Professor, never one for perfect speeches, but one for trying to make ones with heart. Oliver clapped proudly, though he avoided making eye contact with either headmaster, choosing to just look in the general direction.

"Okay, look, let's try not to make a mess in the kitchen and stay as orderly as possible," Hank instructed, calling out, walking towards the student table. He was dressed in a Christmas sweater, no doubt knit by either Kurt or Jubilee, an apron tied around his waist. "And save some dessert for the cake Ms. Munroe made."

"Yeah, mom!" Ruby cheered, causing everyone to laugh. Hank smiled and motioned for them to get their food first, everyone rushing at once to get first dibs.

Teddy didn't stand right away. Instead, he just sat, staring at his father who had yet to move. "Hey, Dad," he greeted, because Hank was dad and Alex was pops, "How's it?"

Hank walked over and pulled his son to his feet, giving him a hug which still had some perfecting, but had long since become familiar to the young man. "We're glad you're home, Teddy."

"Thanks," he mumbled, "I'm gonna go get my food."

As Hank walked back to his own table, all of them waiting for the students to get their fill, he sighed, practically falling into his seat. He ran a hand through his thinning hair, groaning. "I'm too old for this."

Alex nudged him, motioning towards the rest of the adults, the majority much younger than them. "We were always too old for this." He motioned towards Raven, Charles, and Erik. "But we were also too young for that."

Hank squeezed his hand, smiling. "Well, at least we lived long enough."

Dinner went by smoothly enough, Ruby demanding to be the one to pass out the initial first slice of cake, floating it into the room to display her mother's work to everyone, laughing when her other mother shot off small fireworks to celebrate.

"Now that's a cute family," Rudy commented, pointing towards Ruby who was just smiling with her parents.

"You and your mom are like the dynamic duo," Leona commented, eating from her slice of cake, eyes rolling back as she was hit with a wave of flavor.

"She used to have someone else," he mumbled softly, but no one heard him. It was for the best really.

When it was time to open presents, everyone braced theirselves; there was a tradition in place, but a difficult one to deal with.

Leona yelped as she suddenly found herself outside of the mansion, deposited with her parents onto a few bean bags, watching as, in a blink of an eye, everyone else appeared, placed haphazardly on whatever surface was available, all still as shocked as they had been when it first occurred.

"Forever young," Jean joked as Peter slowed to a stop, dropping down next to her, nudging Rudy slightly, the boy smiling. They were an interesting group, all of them pushed together by proximity and circumstance, an eclectic trio everyone was sure would crash and burn.

"I heard he was proposing today," her father murmured to her mother.

"They were never together," her mother pointed out, voice just as quiet.

"Yeah, but they had had that weird agreement. It's a few years too late, but it might as well be now. 'Sides, heard John's finally gonna propose, so there's a race."

"Are you kidding me? Bobby doesn't deserve that—"

Before her mother could finish bad mouthing her fellow teacher, there was a loud shout coming from the various fire pits set up around everyone to warm them up against the cold air that was biting at their skin.

"Hey, Icarus! Get over here!"

Leona looked at her mother who scowled at John Allerdyce, a man who, according to almost everyone she had asked, had taken her mother's codename after being brought to the mansion by Bobby, leaving her mother to come up with something knew.

While her mother did agree that "Allerdyce is a thieving rat," she did not agree with the statements made that she struggled with coming up with a codename to the point where she had to go to Raven for assistance.

Nevertheless, she stood up and walked over, helping the man light the fire pits, seemingly threatening him as they went about it, which was a staple of her mother's.

"Okay! Presents!" Charles announced.

Jean and Ruby glanced at each other, then over at Oliver, who was sitting closest to the tree. Everyone watched as the trio worked together to float everyone's gifts to them, never verbally communicating.

It was what non-mutants would call a miracle. It was what everyone else called showing off.

But it didn't stop them from being amazed.

Leona smiled at the presents dropped into her lap and waited patiently for everyone to receive their presents. Looking at Charles, the man smiled and nodded, everyone immediately tearing into their gifts, some with more force than others.

Leona grinned at the scarf from Ruby. It wasn't perfect, but it was warm and soft and had lopsided hearts, which was perfect enough for her. Teddy had gotten her a personalized letterman jacket, something that she had been gushing about for years on end, by that point, and she nearly cried. Rudy, who had seen that, took away his gift, refusing to give it to her on account that he'd never be able to live up to it.

"What is it?" she whined, jumping to try and reach the gift, but unable to.

"It's a necklace with pieces of a volcano in it," Oliver called out, now sitting with Charles and Erik, blushing happily as he opened up a sweater from Kurt which was decorated with images of books and mathematical equations, "He got the pieces after one of his missions and thought you'd like it."

He yelped when Rudy threw his shoe at him, jumping behind Charles' chair, grabbing onto Erik's arm. He peered out and scowled at the equally unhappy boy.

"That's amazing!" Leona gasped, snatching the box out of the distracted boy's hand, opening it to reveal a beautifully made necklace made of glass, the pieces able to be seen from inside.

"It can't break, I asked Hank for the best stuff he had," Rudy mumbled, bright red and moving to sit back down with his mother and Peter, avoiding her gaze.

"Jean!" her father called out, "Tell your son to stay in his lane!"

Leona shuddered, crinkled her nose. "Never use slang ever again. Please."

"Aw, c'mon," her mother drawled, laughing, "We gotta keep up with the times. Besides, your slang is lit."

Leona gagged. "I'm gonna be sick."

As she put on her necklace, choosing not to make a big fuss so as not to upset Rudy, she heard a loud shriek coming from that very direction.

Everyone turned, on guard, to see Jean on her feet, staring at her hand like it hand just been burned clean off. No one knew what to do, until they saw something glimmering on her left ring finger.

"God damn it, Maximoff!" John shouted, throwing up his arms, in his hand being his own engagement ring box, "Are you kidding me?"

"Bite me, the ring's been on her finger since dinner!" Peter shot back, laughing when she pulled him into a hug, kissing his cheek.

"I dunno if they're in love, or if they love each other," Leona heard Warren whisper to Kurt.

"Can't it not be both?" Kurt asked, motioning towards Charles and Erik, "Their's began a similar way, if I remember correctly."

"They didn't get married because they were old and single, they had already been old and single. But whatever, it's Christmas."

Leona found her way back to her parents after the ruckus of two non-conventional marriage proposals took place—her mother had nearly singed John's hair off as she threatened him lest he hurt her cousin and her father had done a mix between a hug and a punch when congratulating Jean and Peter—wondering just how she had wound up in this situation.

"Our family is weird," she commented, settling between her parents as they surveyed everyone else in their large, strange, wonderful family.

"It's always been weird, always will be," her mother said, patting her shoulders, "But it's great."

As she pretended to fiddle with a game Peter had gotten her, Leona listened in on her parents' hushed conversation.

"How's it going, Ruth Dakin?"

"That's Ruth Dakin-Summers, if you don't mind."

"Did you seriously quote It's a Wonderful Life?"

"My name is literally in it, Scott Dakin-Summers, and we watch it every year, if everyone else can quote it at me, I deserve the chance to myself."

There was a pause and Leona had to fight the urge to turn and see what her parents were doing. But she already knew what they were doing. They were just looking at her. Looking at her while her mother clutched onto the necklace that she never took off because Leona was just a reminder of someone she had lost.

Without looking, she leaned back, holding out her hands. Her mother took her right and her father took her left and she focused on the feeling of nostalgia, but the kind that was the least painful. She focused on the warm, fuzzy feeling of Christmas.

As she did, she felt from her mother a feeling of pure joy. She felt a happiness from opening presents in the morning with two families and jumping on a bed to wake up her best friend and making a gingerbread house and telling an entire story with the family, no longer wanting to eat them.

"Gotta say," her father sighed, leaning back into his bean bag, pulling his wife and his daughter close, "This is the kind of family I always wanted to be with for the holidays. The warm and fuzzy kind."

"If you wanted that, should've just gone to Hank," Ruth joked, and the three laughed, even if it wasn't that funny, because it was Christmas and family and things were okay.

As they looked around the people—at Jubilee, Ororo, and Ruby all drinking hot chocolate wrapped in matching scarves and sweaters; at Hank, Alex, and Teddy all talking softly, smiling widely; at Jean, Rudy, and Peter eating gingerbread men, talking to John and Bobby; at Kurt and Warren talking to Oliver who was seating between a silent Charles and Erik, the two having a conversation all to themselves; at Raven who was happily talking to all the mutant students who weren't able to go home for the holidays, or had no home but the mansion to go to—they came to the wonderful conclusion that things were okay.

Things were actually better than okay. Things were good.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Do we like how I ended it with everything was better than okay which is a callback to when Ruth said that she would be okay at the end of Dexter?

This was a wild mess of ~4900 words, but it was my mess, and I'm not really content with it, but I'm happy. It wasn't the best one shot, but it wasn't the worst, and I just want to point out that MY KIDS HAVE KIDS DO YOU SEE THIS? (While I didn't shove up the faceclaims for Teddy and Rudy—mostly because they didn't have ones—I imagine Rudy as Ryan Potter.)

And Scott is asexual, but he can have a kid with Ruth, and that kid is named Leona, after Lionel Jones, Ruth's late best friend, and she is the sole reason that I even wrote a one-shot in the first place, listen. Listen.

Also, I never really wanted Jean and Peter to get together because they were ten years apart, but theirs is that agreement where it's like "if neither of us are married by the time we reach 40, let's get married" except they're fifty. Can you believe that they're super old in this, I can't, I don't wanna talk about it moving on.

I have nothing else really to say except that I've kinda missed this universe. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!