Disclaimer: I don't own Paige or Jono, or even X-Men for that matter. Marvel does. So don't sue me.

A/N: Christmas present for TheLostMaximoff. Enjoy.

Back to You

"Jubilee! Ya'll mind turnin' that crap down?" An annoyed southerm drawl said. Rogue fisted a hand onto her hip, glaring at the youngest X-Man as she put the bag of flour down onto a chair beside the table.

"Yeah, Jubes, do you mind?" Paige added in quickly, wincing as the techno music blasting through the kitchen hit a very hard beat. "Not everyone shares your taste in music, you know." Paige put the metal trays onto the table, shooting her room-mate a glare that almost matched Rogue's.

"Hey, you rock out to Garth Brooks and I suffer," Jubilee shot back at her room-mate, sticking her tongue out before turning the volume up on the stereo. "Now it's payback time," she snickered and picked up a wooden spoon and a mixing bowl.

"Garth Brooks doesn't make the windows rattle..." Annie added in after a moment, chuckling. "Anyway ladies, we're not here to get into a musical debate. We're here to bake, remember?" The school nurse rolled up her sleeves and opened up a cookbook.

Rogue shook her head a little as she tore open the bag of flour. "But can't we bake in silence? Like normal human bein's?"

Jubilee smirked wickedly as she bounced around the kitchen now, collecting what ingredients they needed from cupboards and the fridge. "Rogue... we ain't normal human beings."

"Thanks for the reality check, Sparks." Rogue mumbled and looked over Annie's shoulder to find out how much flour they needed.

"No problem!" Jubilee chirped and made her way back over to Paige, arms full of cookie cutters now. "These are, like, the only ones I could find. The Prof really needs to stock up on new cutters, dude."

Paige eased the cutters from her room-mate's arms and onto the table. She picked up a candy-cane shapped one and shrugged, "these are fine. I don't think it really matters what the cookies look like, anyway. As long as they're not burned or turn out to look like something the Phalanx made."

Rogue grinned and cracked an egg, "an' we should be fine s'long as we don' let Kitty in here."

"Her cooking can't be that bad, can it?" Annie questioned, already kneading a batch of dough with her hands. The other three women stared at her in silence. "Oh... Alright then," she chuckled a little, then passed the blob of ready dough to Paige.

Paige took the batch of dough and laid it out onto the rolling board. She picked up a rolling pin and flattened the dough out under it. "So, Annie, why are you in here with us? Why aren't you out and about with Alex?" Paige teased, watching the pin roll over the dough all the while.

"Oh, he said he was going to help with decorating the ball room with Scott and Bobby." Annie smiled a little as she helped Jubilee out with her batch of dough. "Jubilee, sweetie, you don't need that much sugar." Annie quickly added after that, taking the measurinf cup from the sixteen year old's hands.

"But they're sugar cookies, aren't they?" Jubilee almost frowned while she watched more than half of the cup of sugar be poured back into the bag.

"Yes, but they only taste sweet. They're not supposed to be made out of sugar." Annie chuckled, teasing. "There, this should do it."

"Jubes, who letcha into the kitchen anyway?" Rogue asked, kneading her batch of dough, smirking.

Paige smirked too and glanced in Jubilee's direction. "She let herself in, as usual."

"With the intention of causing chaos and havoc, of course!" Jubilee added happily as she started to stir the contents of her bowl.

"No doubt," Rogue and Paige said at the same time, grinning.

Paige looked down at the flat sheet of dough now, happy with it's size. She picked up a random cookie cutter and pressed it down, leaving a flawless imprint and perfect cut of the dough. She positioned it to make a second cut-out, but stopped when another song with a hard beat came on. "Jubes! That music's un-nerving!" She glared at her room-mate once again.

"Oh give it some time, you'll learn to love it. Look, even Annie's learning to love it!" Jubilee pointed to Annie across the table who was now bobbing her head slightly with the beat of the music. Annie quickly stopped when Rogue nudged her.

"Quit doin' that. Yer incouragin' her." Rogue pointed to Jubilee who was grinning like a lunatic.

Annie chuckled a little, then went back to rolling out her batch of dough. "Didn't we agree this wasn't a musical debate? Who cares what's playing as long as we get the baking done?"

"Yeah, girls, be one with the dough." Jubilee added in a mystical voice then recieved an elbow in the side from Paige. Rogue snickered, Annie shook her head.

While Jubilee and Rogue started to bicker over the music, Paige and Annie tuned them both out and focused on their dough and cutting out cookies.

Remember the feelings

Remember the day

My stone heart was breaking

My love ran away

This moment I knew I would be someone else

My love turned around and I fell

Paige sighed, thought she wasn't completely sure why. She brushed it off as the song annoying her, the hard beat behind the words would probably even drive Bobby insane.

"So, Paige, how are things with Warren?" Annie asked, glancing up from across the table to look at the younger woman.

"Hmm? Oh," Paige brushed her hand off on her apron and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, "things are... alright. He's been really busy lately, though. Hasn't had much time for anything except himself." She shrugged, sighing inwardly.

"And here I heard dating a Summers was a bad idea," Annie mumbled to herself, then cleared her throat. "Maybe after the holidays he won't be as busy." Annie offered some hope.

Paige looked up at her with dull blue eyes, "yeah, maybe. And during the holidays, I'll have to wait around for a spare moment of his time. I think I should have just gone home, even if Mom wanted me to stay here and watch over Jay and Melody," she spoke dully, putting the cookies she had cut out onto a tray, ready to put them into an oven.

Annie frowned as she walked over to Paige, taking the ready tray and heading to the oven.

"Don't frown over me, Annie," Paige chuckled dryly. "If I survived Jono, I can survive Warren."

Be my bad boy, be my man

Be my week-end lover

But don't be my friend

You can be my bad boy

But understand

That I don't need you in my life again

When Annie didn't reply to what Paige said, the young Husk found her attention drawn to the song blasting on the radio. 'Jono...,' she absently though and quickly shook any thoughts of Chamber from her mind. The song didn't help one bit, though really. It reminded her of Jono, reminded her their rocky relationship that seemed to be over with, dead and gone. He didn't seem to care anymore, and she still found herself angry with him from time to time.

Won't you be my bad boy, be my man

Be my week-end lover

But don't be my friend

You can be my bad boy

But understand

That I don't need you again

No I don't need you again

As she started on her second batch of cut-outs she nodded her head to the song, as though agreeing with it. She didn't need Jono again. At least that was what she liked to believe. Jono may have never made an actual commitment or made actual promises, but he gave her what she had needed. He gave her just enough to make her come back for more every time. And that was more than what Warren was giving her at the moment. For the last few weeks, since the Christmas season started, Warren was constantly busy. He barely had time for himself, nevermind time for Paige. And so she didn't expect anything from him, when he had time, they'd spend it together.

'Would it kill him to make time for us?' Paige wondered as she cut out another cookie. She almost laughed out loud when she realized what she thought. Warren make time for something other than work? He might have been an Angel, but he was no miracle worker.

You once made this promise

To stay by my side

But after some time

You just pushed me aside

You never thought that a girl could be strong

Now I'll show you how to go on

Jono didn't make promises. He had never promised to always stay by Paige's side, though he did string her along just enough to keep her by his. It was fun while it lasted, Paige would be the first to tell you that. It was like a constant game of courtship between her and Jono. One would play hard to get, the other would chase like a love-sick puppy. And then the tables would turn, and turn, and turn. Until finally it stopped. Paige had enough of the game and she stopped playing it.

Everything was fine for a little while. She kept his picture in her room, leaving a little note beside it, one that reminded her just why she could never try to make it work again. 'Men don't need a mouth to lie', she made sure to remind herself every time she felt those feelings coming back. And then finally she didn't have remind herself anymore; she met Warren.

But as usual, what she had didn't last. Now Warren didn't even have time for her.

Be my bad boy, be my man

Be my week-end lover

But don't be my friend

You can be my bad boy

But understand

That I don't need you in my life again

"Jubes, this song is driving me insane!" Paige said suddenly, stepping into Rogue and Jubilee's arguement. Only, unlike Rogue, it wasn't the type of music that was driving her mad now. It was what it made her think of.

"Glad someone shares mah oppinion," Rogue mumbled then stuck her tongue out at Jubilee who returned the favor.

"You guys can stop whinin'," the youngest X-Woman mumbled, "s'over anyway."

"Thank God." Rogue breathed a sigh of relief and quickly walked over to the stereo, turning it off. "Ah can't take no more of that techno crap."

"It's trance!" Jubilee retorted.

"Whatever," Rogue huffed and quickly went back to work on her cookies.

Paige sighed a sigh of relief as well, now she could focus on the dough and not on her love life. Or lack-there-of. 'Stupid song and its stupid words... Stupid Jono, stupid Warren... Stupid men! Oh god I sound like Mom.'

Finally the night of the mansion's Christmas party arrived. As always it was a busy night. Last minute decorations were put up, last minute shopping had to be done. But when the official start of the party rolled around, every thing was set and fine. Students danced and had fun, exchanging gifts and what not. Faculty exchanged their own gifts, dancing occasionally. Though anyone would tell you the highlight of the party was Jean-Paul in a Santa suit, all thanks to Jubilee.

By midnight Paige had grown bored and annoyed. The music was loud. Warren wasn't even at the party, he had left early that morning to go out on another business trip. And in general Paige's mood wasn't a very happy one. She was really starting to regret not going back home. Oh how she wished she were home right now. Back in the stillness of Kentucky with nothing except childish arguing and low country Christmas songs playing in the background.

Paige found herself outside, walking along the grounds silently. It was cold out, but she didn't bother going to her room to get a coat, she would only be ten minutes away. She just needed some air and silence to refresh her. A few students were outside on the grounds as well, taking full advantage of the 'no curfew on party nights' policy. It wasn't too long ago she would have jumped at the chance to be out here, playing with her team-mates.

But that was back when she was in Generation X... Back when everything was alright, and everyone was still together. She almost laughed out loud when she realized how much she missed being a child and how much she missed some of the childish antics some of the others pulled. At the same time she wondered if the others would have liked spending Christmas like this, in such a crowded place. Everett wouldn't have minded. Angelo would have hated it, more than likely. Monet would have flaunted more so than usual; more people, more reason to show off. Jono wouldn't have bothered to show up.

Like tonight. She had noticed the brooding Brit hadn't shown up for the party. She wasn't surprised really. Jono wasn't a people person, and people didn't seem to have 'Jono-social-skills'. Jono not being at that party was probably a good thing and no loss on anyone's part.

Paige sighed and stopped to lean against the wall of the mansion. She was doing it again, thinking about Jono. He didn't deserve a second thought, she was sure she told herself that a million and one times. But as usual, the young Guthrie was stubborn. So what choice did she have but to think about Jonothan Starsmore if she, somewhere inside, actually wanted to.

"I'm sleeping my way out of this one

With anyone who will lie down

I'll be stuck, fixated on one star

When the world is crashing down"

Paige was snapped out of her reverie by a voice that seemed to creep its way into her mind. It started as a whisper, then grew into a low, lulled voice. She knew that voice, and damned it once it settled into her skull. Someone out there was spiting her, she swore it. With the voice she could hear the constant strum of guitar strings, mixing into a melody all their own.

Curious she made her way back inside and past the party. She headed to the entrance of the basement and quietly started down the stairs. She knew she shouldn't have done that the moment she laid her eyes on Jono and her heart skipped a beat.

"I keep telling myself

I keep telling myself

I'm not the desperate type

But you've got me looking in through blinds

I keep telling myself

I keep telling myself

I'm not the desperate type"

Paige sat down onto the stairs that led into the basement and watched as Jono played his guitar and sang along. She smiled a little, watching as his uncaged plasma seemed to move with the beat of the music. It swayed back and forth, sparked and rose with every note; it was mesmerizing.

"Sitting out dances on the wall

Trying to forget everything that isn't you

I'm not going home alone

'Cause I don't do too well

Sitting out dances on the wall

Trying to forget everything that isn't you

I'm not going home alone

'Cause I don't do too well on my own"

She had let her eyes close as she listened to the voice ringing throughout her head, raging against her eardrums. Jono was a sensational singer, it was a shame flatscans wouldn't accept him and hear him anymore. They were missing out on something truly amazing.

It took a moment before her mind wandered through the words. She almost gasped, almost hopeful this song was about her. But then again, Jono was a musician, he could probably make up any kind of song for no reason without any attachment to something real. Though that didn't stop her from dreaming it was about her for a moment.

Again, Jonothan Starsmore was leading her on, stringing her along and giving her just enough to keep her interested. Except this time she didn't resist it. With Warren gone for who-knows-how-long, she let herself fell for Jono for a moment. Only while the song played, she reminded herself.

"Can I help ya, gel?" Jono's voice asked, snapping Paige out of her trance. She instantly blushed at being caught invading his personal space.

"Ah um... I mean, I heard you singing down here, even above all the music upstairs and well... I was just wondering why you weren't up there. That's all." She said, nodding as she stood up and headed down the stairs.

Jono put the guitar down and leaned back onto the couch he had. "I'm touched, luv, but really, ya should know me better'n that by now." He cocked an eyebrow at her, "so gowon, tell me why you're really down here."

Paige eyed him for a moment then sighed. "I'm only down here because I heard you singing. I was curious, invaded your personal space, and now I should go."

"Do whatcha want," Jono replied, shrugging. He couldn't change her mind, and he wasn't about to try.

Paige didn't move. He did it again. He had her wrapped around his finger and again she'd come back for more. She felt lonely, he looked lonely. Jono was being anti-social, Paige didn't want to socialize. He was on his own at the moment, Warren was gone and Paige needed the company. Sighing, Paige walked over to him and say down beside him.

"I thought ya were leavin', gel." Jono would have smirked had he had a mouth. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, especially not to Paige, but he did enjoy having her suddenly sit with him..

"I changed my mind." She shrugged.

"Ya sure?"

"I'm sure, Jono." Paige assured him. "So why don't you finish that song?"

-End