Title: By the Chimney With Care
Rating: PG
Category: E/C fluff
Words: 866
Summary: Christmas at the school, and Erik, Charles, Jean, and Scott are decorating.

"This would be so much simpler if we could have used that aluminum tree," Erik half-heartedly grumbles.

Charles smiles, but Jean is serious. "You can't possibly think that, Dr. Lehnsherr. You can't have anything but a real tree at Christmas."

"I quite agree, Jean," Charles says.

Scott fidgets with his sleeves. "You know, Scott, I think Jean and I can handle putting up the tree. Why don't you go help Charles with the stockings?" Erik asks, and is rewarded with a smile from Scott, who had probably never had a real tree in his life.

Erik has to admit he enjoyed the smell of the fresh pine tree, though he knows from experience that he won't like it nearly so much when it falls to him to take the thing to the dump on December 27th, dried and dead. But he banishes such thoughts temporarily looking at Jean's flushed and smiling face. Such a change from her first Christmas here, when she was still a frightened wreck of a girl, who could only bear to speak with Charles. It was hard to believe that only two years had passed.

"Here," he says, "I'll steady the base, and you bring it up." He can only imagine what this would look like to an outsider, the tree carefully placing itself in its red metal base. Jean purses her lips and crouches down to give the tree a final straightening by hand. Her telekinesis has made vast improvements, but her fine motion could use some work.

He hears the faint sound of Charles's wheelchair on the wood floor, and turns to face him. The big living room certainly did look festive. Somehow it made the place feel more homey, although it was utterly different from any childhood home of his. Different wasn't always bad, and he was still thankful he had persuaded Charles not to buy a menorah. (Erik hadn't burned candles for any god in a long time; he was happy with this Christian-secular-pagan-commercial holiday, where everything smelled like pine and love. It was a holiday he had no real negative memories of, no family fights or disappointments, which he was sure helped.)

"Are we ready to decorate the tree?" Jean asks.

Erik catches Charles's eye and smiles.

"Yes," Charles says, "I think we're ready. Let me see... Erik, why don't you get a fire started? And Scott, why don't you and Jean go get the ornaments down from the attic? I'll go put some water on to boil for cocoa."

Erik starts the fire quickly, then heads over to check on Charles. He's at the counter, pulling tins of cocoa and tea out of a drawer. Erik slips behind him and rests a hand on his shoulder.

"Erik, don't you have something you should be doing?" he says, playfully.

"The fire in the living room is ready, but I thought I should check on the one in here."

"There is no fire in here, Erik."

"Good, good. Just thought I should check."

Charles shakes his head, once, and Erik knows he's rolling his eyes.

"Well, since you're here, you might as well grab some mugs." Erik does; they bring their treasures back to the living room and set them on the coffee table. A slightly dusty Jean and Scott are standing in front of the tree, a few wooden boxes resting behind them. Erik isn't sure, but he imagines most families use cardboard boxes for those.

Charles puts on an old Baroque Christmas record-- it's funny, Charles could easily afford a tape player or even one of those new CD players-- but Charles is old-fashioned about the most unexpected things.

Erik helps Charles out of his chair and onto the sofa, then sits down next to him. He fills Charles's mug, then his own, and they watch their students beautify the tree. Erik casually puts his arm around Charles's shoulders. "We're going to need more stockings, one day," Erik says.

"May that be the greatest of our problems," Charles murmurs.

"How does it look?" Jean asks.

Erik and Charles look up to see that the tree has been transformed. Tinsel, ornaments-- an interesting mix of Charles's antique heirloom ornaments, a box of generic red balls that had been purchased to fill up the tree, and a few cheap plastic ones Jean picked out, characters from something Erik doesn't recognize.

"I think it looks good," Charles says, and Erik nods.

"Wait," says Scott. "There's one more thing." And he produces a shining silver star. There's a collective chuckle.

"How could we forget that?" asks Charles, and Jean beams at Scott, which in turn makes Erik smile.

"Well, Scott, why don't you put it up?" Erik says.

"Couldn't you--"

"It's plastic."

"Oh. Well--"

"Nope," says Jean. "To get the tip of the tree up in that weird little hole? It'd be like building a model airplane wearing mittens. Just get the stepladder."

He nods, and they all "Ooh" and "Ah" appropriately when the tree is finally, completely decorated.

The four of them sit on the couch, and for awhile it's enough not to be silent and just look at the tree, at the fire, and each other.

-- fin