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Gabby hangs fairy lights from the Treehouse for Laura in the dead of night, using her claws as her footholds and Mindee as her lookout.
They’re red and green and blue, and she grins like a lunatic. They light up Seneca Gardens, and she feels proud enough of her handiwork to pump her clawed fist in the air.
“Gabby,” Mindee calls, shivering in her cape, “I think Jean’s noticed us.” It takes Gabby a minute to realise Mindee’s voice is in her head.
Unfazed, she begins her descent, unsurprised when she is telekinetically extracted from the tree. Floating in midair, she flashes Jean a grin, as the redhead flies up from the gate to join her, dressed in a nightdress.
“Hi, Gabby,” Jean says, “I think Mindee’s a bit worried about you.”
Gabby tucks her limbs into a ball and rolls backwards in a full circle. “It’s okay. She knows I’m very hard to kill.”
“Mhm,” Jean manages, with a telepathic chuckle. “Mindee’s a bit easier to kill. Why don’t you come inside?”
—
“I just want Laura to have a good Christmas,” Gabby says through a mouthful of mince pie, sitting on a stool in the Treehouse kitchen. “Because, y’know…” She taps her temple and projects a jumbled packet of happy memories in their direction.
Mindee picks at her mince pie with her ungloved hand, colour returning to her cheeks. “She’s a good kid, Jean.”
“Trust me, I know,” Jean replies, picking up pie crumbs off her plate with her finger. “But, Gabby, it’s the little things. You don’t have to climb the Treehouse at midnight to make Laura smile.”
Gabby picks up her plate and licks the crumbs. “She probably won’t smile. She’s really frowny. But there’s been so much going on recently with me dying,” Gabby counts on her fingers, “her and the vault, all the Shadow King stuff, her joining the X-Men, us not living together anymore-“
“Hey, kid. Breathe.” Jean and Mindee don’t blink at Lorna unfurling from the shadows. Lorna snatches a coffee mug from the draining board and waves her hand at the machine. “You’ve come to the right place for advice on managing the superhero lifestyle.”
Mindee snorts. “Because you have it all so much together.”
“Ah,” Lorna bites back, using her powers to open the fridge, “but only one of us dated kid Nathan Summers. That was so weird.”
Jean bites her lip, Mindee sags against her chair. “Shut up, Polaris.”
“Call me Lorna,” she says, and the coffee machine finishes with a beep. “Takes one to know one. Dating Alex Summers was not a good decision.”
Jean furrows her brow, and Mindee rolls her eyes. “She’s dampening this conversation out of the minds of everyone upstairs so they don’t wake up,” she tells Gabby, “in case you were confused.”
“You know I was confused,” Gabby responds, putting her plate down loudly, “you’re a telepath.”
Smiling fondly, Mindee stands up. “Thanks for the advice, Jean. Gabby, let’s go.”
Obediently, Gabby climbs off the chair. “What advice?” A second later, Mindee imprints it into her head and Gabby goes, “Oh, that advice! Thanks, Jean! Thanks, Lorna!”
Swigging her coffee, Lorna half-smirks. “Don’t turn into us, Gabby.”
—
Morning breaks, and Gabby barges into the Treehouse armed to the teeth with glittery Christmas cards. She feels Jean’s mind brush against hers, then Everett’s, and she has to wait about a minute for Laura to find her.
“Morning, Gabby,” her sister says, and Gabby dumps her pile on the floor.
“Hi!” She ambushes Laura with a hug. “I love you!”
Laura looks around suspiciously. “What did you do?”
“Nothing! Seriously!” She folds her arms. “Jean said the best way to show you how much I love you and miss you is to be subtle and simple. It was that or become a coffee addict. That was Lorna’s recommendation for dealing with life. But she doesn’t have a super metabolism.”
Laura bends down and picks up the top envelope emblazoned with her name. “So you made cards?”
Gabby grins like a wolf. “For everyone! And if that doesn’t work, Jean told me about our alternate universe brother and his symbiote.”
Glitter on her nose, Laura frowns. “Who?”
—
His name is Jimmy Hudson. Poison has more manners than him. He likes cards, and mince pies, and midnight adventures.
Laura takes one look at him, and tells him she knows a murderer when she sees one. They get along well. Jimmy tells them about the time Akihiro tried to kill him.
He joins them in the Treehouse for turkey, and agrees to wear reindeer antlers to match Gabby’s Santa hat.
There’s no such thing as a simple mutant holiday, but Gabby likes to think it’s something like this.