Disclaimer – Yes, I do own the X-men, in my dreams.

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There was nothing. The pitch black was suffocating and their first instincts directed the X-men to the main room. First of all, they had to stumble about in the dark, trying to find the way. Suddenly all those powers seemed a little stupid.

"Right!" Scott panted, rubbing his shin after hitting it off a chair, or was it the table? "We're under attack! I blame the brotherhood!"

"Um, Scott?" Jeans voice resounded gently from somewhere about the room. "The storm just knocked the power out – the back up generator must be down too."

"All that money wasted." Rogue grumbled from somewhere near the fire.

Two bright yellow disks pierced the darkness above them. After a moment, when the screaming stopped, the eyes made themselves known.

"Ouch, vas zhat necessary?"

"Kurt!"

"Ja, ze vun and only." He looked at the assembled group with a fanged smile that caught the sparse light. "Vhy are you all valking into things?"

"There was a blackout and - you can see us?" Rogue made a note to steal a little of the blue fuzzy mutants powers.

He nodded, realised it was pointless and laughed. "Ja, vheres Herr Logan?"

"Here."

"Vheres here?"

"Down here." Logan appeared as if by magic from the kitchen doorway, beer in hand. "Cant let this go to waste, the refrigerator just went down."

"Sounds like a good idea!" There was a telltale port and then another, this time the eyes indicated Kurt to be on the table. A hiss resounded, a cheeky chuckle starting as he gulped down some beer.

Scott immediately tried to step in – unfortunately he stepped on an overturned chair and was himself overturned.

"Did you enjoy your trip, bub?" Logan growled with good humour, something it took an expert to differentiate between growling moodily, and walked over to the fallen teenager. "There you are, Cyke." He pulled Scott to his feet.

"Um, am I the only one who's getting a little cold?" Kitty's voice sounded, coming from near the window. She walked forward, purposefully phasing in case she walked into something.

"Your right, Kitty, we should really start the fire." Jean walked over to the fireplace and missed it by a foot. "Ow!"

"Are you hurt?" Cyclops miraculously managed to be by her side without falling over anything.

"I'm fine, Scott."

Rolling his eyes, Kurt teleported over to the fireplace. After a moment, small sparks appeared and the wood quickly caught. He stepped back; briefly his demonic appearance was lit by the flickering hellish flames before he slunk back into the concealing shadows.

"Kurt, get back where I can see you." Logan growled, this one more negative than the last and he jumped when his hat was taken off him. "Elf!"

"Ja, Herr Logan?" Kurt reappeared momentarily by the fire before laughing as he vanished again, the act suddenly easier now with the addition of light.

Rogue decided to take over the situation. "Why don't we all just sit down on the couches and wait for the power tah come back on?"

"But I'm still cold."

"Ya can get yer blanket, Kitty."

The valley girl looked around at the deep black shadows and tried to decide if she wanted to really go and get it. Her eyes strayed over to the bright yellow ones, something that was presumably Kurt's tail caught the light as it flicked.

"Kurt...?"

"Nien!"

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"You got the wrong one, bub; I wanted the light blue one, not a pink one!"

"Sorry, zhat vuns Rogues."

"What!" The Goth snatched it off the gaping Canadian with narrowed eyes. "This better not have a single paw print on it."

Everyone was looking at the girl.

Scott decided to speak. "I thought you'd have a black blanket..."

She chose to ignore the comment. "Kurt, could ya go and fetch some cards?"

The teleporter smiled darkly in the shadows as he caught the mischievous glint in the Goths eyes. "Ja."

There was a tense moment in which everyone waited for the blue mutant to return. It wasn't funny now that the only one who could see properly was gone, and they all tried not to look in Rogues direction, the thought of the pink blanket was enough to make them laugh. Seeing it would cause hysterics.

A thunder clap sounded and they all jumped, the resounding flash of light illuminating the room briefly. Another flash revealed Kurt crouched on the table and they all screamed again.

Logan shook his head. "If I let you have another beer, Elf, would you stop doing that? You're scaring the kids."

"If you wish, Herr Logan." The blue mutant vanished briefly then reappeared, his tail opening the beer bottle as he handed Rogue the cards.

A thought suddenly occurred through the group.

"How are we going to play cards when we can barely see?" Jean asked.

"And how come Kurt gets beer?" Evan folded his arms. "I-"

"You're not getting any beer, bub. I know the elf can handle himself."

Scott frowned. "How do you know that?"

There was a hesitant pause from the Canadian. "Alright, but I didn't tell you – Chuck is going to kill me – but, Kurt's been teaching me blade control."

The heavy silence was deafening.

Clearing his throat, Logan explained. "He sword fights, you know? And so do I. So, we practise, get in a few rounds, loser buys beer."

"Kurt? How on earth do you ever have money to spend?" Rogue grinned, shuffling the cards.

"Because I keep winning."

The solution to being able to play the cards was to move closer to the fire, a move which delighted everyone as the room was steadily growing colder. The actual game had taken a few moments to choose on the grounds that it was too cold for strip poker and no one had anything that they could bet on an ordinary game of poker.

So it was decided to play a round of Scabby Queen, the loser having to do a dare that was decided by the winner. The cards were to be put down in pairs of the same colour.

"Scott! That's a red six and a red eight!" Kitty declared and everyone sighed heavily.

"Bub, stop cheating." Logan growled, taking a quick glance at Jeans cards as he did so – she had the scabby queen! He indicated so to the blue furry elf who was sitting next to her.

"I can't help it – I wear red tinted glasses and the cards are red and the lights red!"

Kurt sighed softly. "You shouldn't play if you're a sore loser."

"I'm not a sore loser!"

"You've lost the last six games, I understand." The blue mutant teleported away from the badly aimed blow and laughed when it was Evan who received the punch. "Vhy don't you just watch?"

Scott happily passed his cards around and sat back comfortably, he didn't want to have to do another chicken walk across the room – he had fallen every time and no one could look at him with out clucking in laughter.

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After thoroughly exhausting card games, and charades proving stupid since no one could see Kurt and all Logan could do was 'angry Canadian', they settled down in a tighter circle. Before them marshmallows toasted on the fire above a crude black kettle which was slowly boiling.

They hoped to be drinking tea within the year.

Well, all except for Kurt and Logan who were now surrounded by empty bottles, both as sober as judges. Apparently this sword practise had been going on for quite a while now.

Scott spoke as his marshmallow tried to relight itself for the third time. "Why does it keep doing that?"

"You're holding it too close to the flame." Jean nipped into hers and wrinkled her nose at the taste. "Ew. Does anyone want this?"

"Makes mien fur sticky." Kurt tipped his bottle of beer in the direction of himself before his tail picked up another for Logan who had nudged him. The tail expertly removed the cap with its spade, everyone looked at it.

Evan eventually spoke. "Dude, how long have you been able to do that?"

In answer, the blue mutant spread one hand.

"Oh." The spike grower watched the fire for a moment. "Is it – five!"

There was a long pause in which the blue mutant counted his fingers slowly.

Evan blushed. "Err, three!"

"It vas a good party trick." Kurt grinned and refrained from commenting on the event a moment ago. "Who said I vas drinking then? No, Logan got me into bad habits."

"Says the fuzz ball who likes to trip people up with his tail so that he can stake them with his sword." Logan grumbled.

"Says the man who set up a trap so that when I entered the room I was bombarded with flying missiles."

"Says the elf that set a flour bomb in my hat so every time I put it on there was more and more flour."

"Says the Canadian who swapped my razor over because it was sharper than his."

"You have a razor?" Kitty interrupted. "Only, well, what with all the fur..."

The blue mutant sighed. "I have facial fur and facial fuzz." He nodded, taking another sip of his beer. "Logan? If we put all the beer in here, they'd cool down a bit more."

"Good idea. They'll also be easier to get."

"That's what I was thinking." He abruptly teleported, reappearing a moment later with a coinciding flash of lighting.

Kitty screamed.

"Ja, ja, I know I look good enough to be a horror extra." The beer was passed over. "But I vas too charming for the films." He sat down, stretching comfortably.

"Kurt?" Jean smiled.

"Ja?" He asked carefully.

"Well, since you have all that lovely fur, could you sort of...well...you might be cold and if you wanted..." She pushed Scott over and tapped the now vacant spot.

Evan was also abruptly pushed over, Rogue and Kitty patting the empty spot with evil grins spread across their faces.

Kurt felt as if he was an innocent victim trapped in some horrible B-rated horror movie. Then again, there were three ladies wanting to sit near him.

"If you even think about it, Kurt, you'll be getting no more beer." Logan smirked, then gaped as he was pushed over and the three girls made themselves comfortable instead of Kurt having to move.

"He's like a giant hot water bottle." Kitty declared. "And all warm and furry."

"Yeah." Jean nodded, battling for a space with Rogue. "Kurt?"

"Ja?"

"Could you move forward a little? Then Rogue could sit sort of...I don't know, near you?"

"You mean behind?" The Goth shrugged and did so, brandishing the tail for a moment to make the others glare at her. She stuck her tongue out before proceeding to cuddle the odd limb.

Taking a sip of beer, Kurt tipped the bottle to Logan. "Could ve get more black outs? Zhis is great."

"Only if the next one has Ororo for me to cuddle up with."

"Are yah joking?" Rogue laughed. "She'd be striking us with lightning if we didn't move away from Kurt fast enough."

This sent the Canadian into a gloomy glowering mood.

Evan spoke abruptly in the silence. "Is it just me or does anyone else actually quite like just sitting here, not worrying about saving the world or being discovered or fretting over some horrible essay?"

The others all nodded in agreement.

"Ve should rig up a veekly black out and declare it a holiday." The teleporter informed them seriously.

Jean cuddled up into a blue furry shoulder. "You know, I think your right. If the world had a special day every week to just sit back and relax, I'd bet there wouldn't be nearly half the problems there are now."

"You know, Red, I think your right." Wolverine nodded.

"Yeah." Evan agreed with his own idea. "It'd be great if this night just lasted for a few weeks, let us all relax and-"

The lights came on.

"No!"

Kurt rose to his feet, extracting his tail from Rogue and stretched slowly. "Herr Logan, do you know vhere the fuse box is kept?"

"I'll get it." The Canadian stood up and marched over to a small box. Flicking it open, he released his claws and just punched it. They were plunged back into complete darkness. "Now, were where we?"

"Beer?"

"That's a good start, Elf."

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Two weeks later, the professor began to wonder why every Sunday seemed to have a black out. He put it down to the dodgy electrician he had repair the fuse box. Shrugging, he picked up his papers and sighed as he was plunged in darkness.

Odd, he could swear that he heard cheering.