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X. MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET

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DECEMBER 24TH

THE NEWS HAD included the Miser brothers for their heroic act that saved the life of "Santa". Their faces nor names hadn't been revealed as they'd left the accident before any news stations arrived so they weren't videotaped or interviewed, but young Phoebe had been shown and praised the two brothers for saving Santa Claus. It had slipped Sunny and Jack's minds when they were watching the news that same night, but then they showed footage of two large handprints completely burned into the car door, their eyes instantly snapped towards Blaise and Noel; even when they admitted to helping the man, Jack didn't believe it was them. However, his mind was quickly changed when Blaise popped an entire bag of popcorn within the palm of his hand, and surprisingly, Noel threw a snowball right at his face with a smug grin. They couldn't explain how their powers had suddenly been restored, but they were incredibly thankful. They didn't know how much they'd relied on them until they were stripped from them.

A few days had passed since then and the boys weren't using their powers very much. It almost felt odd being able to use them again after just a few weeks without them. But, with no reason to use them ━━━ except to possibly mess with one another or Jack ━━━ they were continuing to go about their days as if they still didn't have them.

Lien had taken a liking to them when they showed her, being compared to someone called Houdini when she saw what they could. It still felt strange for them not to want to use them as if they'd already gotten used to life without them. Almost every day of their lives they'd had a reason to use them, and if they didn't have one, they'd sometimes make up a reason if it would result in riling up a brother. It irritated their mother to no end, yet that was never enough to deter their nonstop antics. A break from having to get in between them was rather nice for Gaia, however, she was starting to miss her boys the longer they were away from home. But, considering she'd yet to hear of any natural disasters or receive a frantic call from Eira or Heimdall, she had a feeling that her boys were doing rather well ━━━ hopefully great even as their time on Earth was just about up.

And, as it was finally Christmas Eve ━━━ the night before millions of people who celebrated Christmas would find presents left from Santa under their decorative trees and in their dangling stockings and the brothers' last day on Earth ━━━ Sunny thought it was only fitting that they made some festive cookies. The brothers hadn't ever made any cookies before which gave them the perfect excuse to help out, but it wasn't going as easy as they thought it would.

"What the hell is that supposed to be? It looks more like a d━━━"

"Be nice, Jack," Sunny scolded, glancing over her shoulder as she set a tray of baked cookies on top of the stove to cool off until they were ready to be decorated. A sparkly red and green apron was tied around her neck and her waist, batter and icing caked on it from the hours of baking and decorating. Jack smugly snickered under his breath as he shook his head, looking across the counter towards Blaise and Noel who were doing their best to shape the dough into Christmas-themed shapes since Sunny hadn't been able to find her holiday cookie cutters. "You don't really have room to talk."

"What're you talkin' about? I worked my ass off on these damn cookies!" Jack defended, motioning towards the tray of sugar cookies beside him that he'd made all by himself; most of them had been turned into blobs rather than candy canes, gingerbread men, Christmas trees, and snowmen they'd all been trying to make. Blaise and Noel were sharing a tray, their cookies mangled and oddly shaped, but they were both gradually getting better and better the more they made.

Jack puffed out his cheeks and adjusted his posture, scooping out some more red icing to decorate the candy cane cookie he was attempting to make; he already had the white icing painted on the cookie, but as he started to spread the red icing in the empty spots he'd left for the color, the icing began to mix into the white and creating more of a pink-colored candy cane.

Blaise snickered along with Noel, grabbing some sprinkles from the bowl placed on the counter where colorful icing and sprinkles were placed for all of them to use. "I couldn't tell," he airily murmured, lopsidedly smirking at Jack. "Perhaps you need even more practice."

Jack sharply narrowed his eyes, going to make a snarky comment, but he was interrupted by a firm knock on the door. Seeing that Jack and Noel had icing on their hands and Sunny was busy shaping the dough, that left Blaise to answer the door with his hands being the cleanest. Just as Sunny started to ask him, he gave her a kind grin and headed towards the door around the corner. She brightly grinned and faced the dough once more, humming Deck the Halls with content as she shaped the dough into gingerbread figures.

Blaise then hurried over to the door, not caring to look out of the peephole to see who it was as he swung it open. As soon as he saw who it was, he playfully rolled his eyes as a coy grin danced on his lips. "I don't recall anyone inviting you here," he told the person, blocking the doorway.

"Very funny," Eira replied, the corners of her lips tweaking upwards. "But I'll have you know that Sunny did in fact invite me ━━━ something about having too much testosterone around, I believe?"

"Oh, yes!" Sunny exclaimed from the kitchen when she heard Eira's familiar voice. "Waaaay too much!"

Eira smugly smirked towards Blaise and brushed past him, easily making her way into the suite with a cheerful bounce in her steps. Sunny's face lit up at the sight of the woman, beckoning her over to a tray of cookies that had yet to be decorated. Blaise let out a content sigh as he sank back into his stool beside Noel, doing a double-take when he saw Jack giving him a suspicious look.

"What's wrong with you?" Blaise queried.

"What isn't wrong with him?" Noel snorted, his smile automatically wiping from his face when his sweater accidentally got red icing on it when he'd moved his arm.

Jack wickedly smirked, pointing the container of red and green sprinkles he'd been using towards Noel in a threatening manner. "That's what you get, Frozone."

"I still don't get that reference," Noel huffed in annoyance, giving Jack a stern glare. "If you're going to insult me, at least make sure I can understand it. Otherwise, you look like an absolute fool."

"Knock it off, boys," Sunny scolded once again, shooting them warning glares that were scarily similar to one Gaia was capable of mustering up. Eira giggled beside the taller woman, examining the dozens of cookies they'd already baked and decorated. Eira wouldn't have dared to ask, but she had a feeling she knew which ones were done by Sunny. "Here, Eira, you can help me with these sugar cookies, if you'd like."

"I'd love to, Sunny."

"Anyways," Jack cleared his throat, returning his attention to the brothers ━━━ specifically Blaise, "What's with you and Elsa over there?"

"Who's Elsa?" Blaise wanted to know.

Jack sighed as he momentarily closed his eyes, shaking his head. "She's━━━never mind. She's just from a movie," Jack dismissively said with irritation evident in his voice. "But there's something goin' on between you two."

Noel and Blaise raised their brows. "What?" Noel gaped, motioning from Blaise to Eira. "These two?" Jack nodded, breathing out a laugh as he continued to put the icing on his oddly shaped cookies. "They couldn't be more opposite."

"Exactly," Jack shrugged, a small smile on his lips. "They do say opposites attract."

"Who's they?" Blaise questioned.

Jack internally groaned. "That's not important. I may not be the brightest bulb in the shed, but I know women."

"I highly doubt that."

"How do you think I have a girlfriend?"

Blaise and Noel answered almost instantly.

"Bribery."

"Pity, perhaps?"

Jack's lips parted in surprise and offense, eyes growing wide. "You two are assholes."

"Where is Lien, by the way?"

"She's out shopping with her Mom for some last minute presents since her grandparents decided to drop in unannounced. She's supposed to stop by for a little bit once she's done, though."

Noel nodded his head at the boys' response, finally getting to the last row of cookies. Blaise faintly smiled, glancing up towards Jack. "Maybe then we can really figure out why she's with you."

"You think you're so funny, but you don't fool me," Jack said, giving Blaise a look that made him purse his lips together. "I see the way you look at her."

"Believe what you'd like, Jack," Blaise dismissively said, frowning at the insinuation that he might've actually liked Eira. "Only one of us is correct."

"Yeah, and it's not y━━━"

"Even I've had enough of this," Noel sternly cut in, feeling his heart beating a little faster than normal due to his annoyance. "It's a wonder Mother didn't send us down here sooner."

"I'll say," Jack grumbled.

Blaise rolled his eyes and resumed icing his cookies, adding sprinkles here and there in hopes it'd make the cookies look more appetizing. Eira came up beside him as Sunny went to the chair by Jack to sit on the empty stools. Blaise briefly smiled at Eira, seeing her do the same only moments later. Jack watched with a knowing grin, nodding his head towards the oldest Miser when he caught Noel's eye. He followed the boy's gaze, unable to hide his surprise when seeing his brother and Eira smiling at each other as they spoke like they weren't enemies.

"It's a Christmas miracle," Sunny happily sighed, adding Hershey kisses to the peanut butter cookies she'd pulled out of the oven a few minutes ago.

"What is?" Eira requested to know, eyes sparkling in the lights that were strung above the kitchen cabinets.

Sunny lightly chuckled, her grin widening as she popped a Hershey kiss into her mouth. "You'll see soon enough."