Obsessions ⇢ Tony Stark

35 | We Can Burn Brighter Than The Sun

27th December 1988

Eleanora rocked up at Tony and Rhodey's apartment in a bit of a flustered state, gift bags hooked over one arm and a plate of brownies on the other. She tried to shimmie the gift bags she had in her hand down her arm so she had a hand free to knock on the door, but had no such luck, resulting in her using her forehead to bang against the wood a couple times.

A few moments later, Rhodey opened the door and looked her over with an amused smile. "Did you knock with you head?"

"Well I could've used my foot, but I was worried I'd accidentally kick the door down," she joked.

He playfully rolled his eyes, "Don't flatter yourself, Nora."

"Sorry I'm late! I made these this morning," she lifted up the brownies, "and they took longer in the oven than I thought... by which I mean that I just forgot to turn the oven on until I went to check on them halfway through."

"No problem," he snorted, stepping aside, "come on in."

"Hey, Nora!" Katie greeted, grabbing the plate and gift bags from her, freeing Eleanora's arms so she could take her coat off. "Oh, shit, they're still warm," she grinned, lifting the brownies closer to her face to sniff them and letting out a loud moan. Rhodey coughed.

As Eleanora moved to get herself a glass of water from the kitchen, there was an exclamation of "Lenny!" from the hallway, and Tony ran over to her to pull her in for a hug, colliding with her with so much force that she was almost knocked over. After getting over the initial shock, Eleanora beamed and melted into his embrace before kissing him sweetly.

There was a loud gagging noise and they looked across at Rhodey who was pretending to be grossed out by the scene, but then Katie elbowed him with a reproachful look and he cracked a smile.

"So how was everyone's Christmas?" Rhodey asked the group once they were all seated.

At this, both Eleanora and Tony snorted loudly.

"I'll start, shall I?" Katie said after a few moments of silence. "Mine was a bit boring, but overall pretty good. Mom made us go carolling around the neighbourhood but it turned out to actually be kinda fun.  Rhodey?"

"Um, yeah, it was nice. Had some extended family over and had a big lunch, a pretty chill afternoon and then just a quiet dinner... played some board games... that's about it." He looked between Eleanora and Tony apprehensively. "Which one of you wants to go first?"

The couple exchanged a look and Tony spoke first. "Well, I stayed in my room most of the day, listened to Mom and Dad fight. Then I got dragged back downstairs at dinner and Dad and I ended up screaming at each other until he shoved a plate off the table and stormed out. So then Mom and I had to clean it all up and I didn't see him again for the rest of the night," he concluded in a light tone and looked to Eleanora. "What about you?"

"Mine was.... eventful. I was hungover from the party at our place on Christmas Eve - Serena, too - so wasn't a great start. But the day wasn't actually too bad for the most part - went to my Aunt Moira's for lunch and that wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. But then at dinner, I ended up in a yelling match with my parents because I finally told them Tony and I are together and, uh, that didn't go down so well... I ended up walking out of the house. Then yesterday they barely talked to me and I mainly stayed in my room until Serena dragged me out to go shopping with her."

There was a pause. "Well..." Katie spoke up, "I'm very glad we're going this whole Christmas Take Two thing, then."

Eleanora smiled, "me too."