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『 nine. ITS THE HOLIDAY SEASON 』
CHRISTMAS HAD COME. Hallie had missed Christmas Eve and most of Christmas morning, but at least there was snow in Tennessee. Harley especially looked forward to that every year. He has been disappointed she couldn't help him bake cookies the night before, but had been happy to settle for doing it on Christmas, both working in the kitchen and using their mother's old cookie cutters to cut little shapes into the dough they had rolled out, even though most of it would end up in their stomach as raw dough and not actual baked cookies.
"So you really talked to the Iron Patriot?" Harley asked excitedly, leaning against the marble counter and looking up at his sister seeing her nod of confirmation and a Tony smile on her lips hearing him so excited. "That is so cool!" He said in awe.
He had probably repeated that same phrase around eleven times now, and had continued questioning Hallie over the same things. Hallie wasn't too happy to share the experience, feeling nauseated at the fact that she could blow up any minute and because hours ago she had been shot, kidnapped, held against her will and had even killed someone. And now she was here, at home as though nothing had happened baking Christmas cookies with Harley as they did every year. It was as though it was a dream. She would've thought it to be if Harley wasn't going on and on about, or the constant feeling as though she were a furnace herself. It was shocking what had occurred in less than thirty six hours.
Tony had told her before she went back home to be with Harley that he would work on a solution for her and Pepper and that the minute he found one he would tell her. She felt on high alert since then, waiting for a call from the phone Tony had given her after she lost her old one somewhere along the way. Plus she was frequently worried she'd go too hot anytime she walked near the oven and often times Harley caught onto this and had put the cookies in for her. And when she felt herself feeling on edge and feeling overly warm she'd step outside and sit in the snow, without a need for a coat any longer.
But otherwise it seemed as though she was able to control it fairly well. And perhaps it was because she was too worried about Harley getting hurt or she was just paying attention to it more. Unlike what she had seen in the videos, for her at least, it felt easy to control. It felt like even within the few hours since Extremis had entered her that she knew what to do in order to control it. Which was a gift but also caused her to question why she wasn't going too hot. She knew Pepper had a good control over it too, so she guessed it was only certainly people who couldn't control it.
"Yeah," Hallie said, "And now I have the Iron Man's phone number. Just how I imagined life would be going." She joked, placing a finally sugar cookie dough in the shape of a man on the pan and like the first time, Harley took the pan from her and approached the oven causing her to smile.
