M'gann M'orzz, Megan Morse, high school student, cheerleader, and devoted girlfriend to Conner Kent, had only been around for a few months when her first Earth Christmas rolled around. To say she was excited was an major understatement.
Christmas wasn't a national holiday on Mars, and was only really acknowledged because of the amount of 'Christmas episodes' people's favourite earth shows made around that time of year. Sure, some Martians celebrated it, but it wasn't a widely recognised holiday or ever really a big deal to anyone on Mars.
But here on Earth, well, that was a different story entirely. Here everybody took it so seriously, and everyone was happy and spreading Christmas cheer, singing songs, putting sparkly decorations on trees and then topping them with a star or an angel (she wasn't sure she fully understood why humans enjoyed dressing up their trees this time of year, but she liked the happiness it brought anyway), and of course, the Christmas food that the humans would make to celebrate.
M'gann loved cooking, and she found that at Christmas everyone is so happy and so full of cheer that the humans let that reflect in their cooking. Happy cupcakes, happy cookies, happy cakes, happy pies, everything was so happy. It was so nice for a telepath this time of year- all the people gave off such happy vibes, it was just a wonderful feeling.
But Conner didn't seem to see that. He just saw all the happy families, and it brought back all the sad thoughts about Superman neglecting him. All he saw was what he didn't have, which upset him, which in turn then upset M'gann. She just wanted him to be happy, and yes that was hard at this time of year for him, but she was determined to at least try everything she could for him.
The Team was on a mission on Christmas Eve, so M'gann didn't get as much time as she would have liked to try and cheer up Superboy. But after the debrief, once everyone had left the cave, she got to work. Wally was going to his aunt and uncles house for Christmas, Artemis was spending it with her mom, no one really knew where Robin went at the end of the day, and Red Arrow (along with Black Canary) were being rushed away by Green Arrow to have a "big family Christmas" ("But Roy, it's going to be the best Christmas ever!" "Don't say my name when were in costume!"), and everyone leaving the cave to go and spent Christmas with their respective families made Superboy really upset. Zatanna lived at the cave now too, and she seemed a little better at hiding her feelings about spending Christmas without her family better than Conner did, but from the way Artemis hugged her a little tighter for a little longer and promised to call everyday, even Christmas (especially Christmas), M'gann would guess that Zatanna had voiced her upset to Artemis before. Artemis, despite her harsh attitude, was actually a great friend and trusted confidant for pretty much all the girls in the cave, and M'gann was glad that at least Zatanna had talked to someone about her feelings.
Maybe she could use a little holiday cheer too.
That only strengthened M'gann's resolve, and pretty soon all the Team had left, some more eagerly than others (Wally was practically dragging the Flash through the zeta beams so that they could go home, and Green Arrow was practically dragging Red Arrow). Eventually they were alone with Red Tornado, who said his good nights and ascended to his room. M'gann tried wishing him merry Christmas, but apparently human customs eluded him.
Zatanna and Conner said goodnight as well, both wishing M'gann a merry Christmas before they did (if somewhat less enthusiastic than M'gann had been), and she put her plan into action. She rushed to the kitchen, levitating to make sure she was completely silent, and mentally checking that Conner and Zatanna were still in their rooms.
Using her telekinesis, she silently removed all the ingredients needed for the most delicious Christmas cookies ever from the fridge and various cupboards in the cave kitchen. She left the lights off, since she was using her telekinesis and therefore didn't need much light, and figured that turning on the lights would pretty much just draw attention to herself. So, she gathered all her ingredients in the dark, and then started making her cookies.
She was following Grandma's recipe from episode eighteen of 'Hello, Megan!', which she had committed to memory from watching the episode so many times, so she didn't need to bother with a cookbook. The real problem was when she tried to open and pour the flour, since there was pretty much no way she could do it silently. She had to focus all of her mental energy on the task at hand and therefore couldn't check if Conner had woken up or not, but she just had to hope that he hadn't. That would ruin the surprise.
Cracking the eggs was by far the worst part. She tried to do it as carefully as she could to avoid making sound, but it was pretty impossible to break an egg silently. She just hoped that Conner was too fast asleep to hear her. She was mixing what she had so far in a bowl, the sugar, butter, flour and eggs, blending into a mixture that she could work with, when there were footsteps behind her and the light flicked on.
M'gann was so surprised she almost dropped the bowl she was holding telepathically in the air, and twirled around as fast as she could to meet the person she had woken up.
"Oh my gosh, Conner, I am so sorry!" She yelped as she turned around, only to come face to face with a tired but smirky Zatanna.
"Sorry, I'm not Conner. The guy may have super hearing, but he still sleeps like the dead." She replied with a smirk, walking giver to M'gann and looking over her shoulder. "So, what are you doing?"
M'gann blushed. "Well, I was going to make a batch of Christmas cookies, since I heard that Christmas cookies make people happy, and the atmosphere around here could use a little happy." She responded, carring on the mixing of her cookie dough. "It was supposed to be a surprise."
"Oh." Zatanna said with a sigh, feeling slightly bad for ruining M'gann's cookie surprise. "I don't like surprises anyway. Can I help?" She asked with a smile.
"Oh, of course!" M'gann answered right away, moving out of the way slightly to let Zatanna grab the hovering bowl and start mixing. "Whatever you want. Aren't you tired?" She asked out of genuine curiousity, not because she was trying to make Zatanna leave.
The raven haired girl just shrugged. "Couldn't sleep."
M'gann left it at that, since she could feel the girls sadness at this being her first Christmas without her father. She just let Zatanna stir the mixture, until it was ready for rolling.
"Hey, M'gann?" Zatanna asked, just as she was finishing up the mixing.
"Yeah?" M'gann replied quickly, watching Zatanna stir.
"Why don't we make more cookies?" M'gann had a confused look on her face, so Zatanna just continued. "We could make a whole batch and give some to everyone we know, and there would be plenty for all of us, and the team, and possibly the league..."
"I think that's a great idea!" M'gann squealed, just as Zatanna was finishing. "What a nice way to spread some Christmas cheer to our fellow heroes!" M'gann got to work using her telepathy to get more ingredients and a few more bowls, and Zatanna smiled. M'gann knew what was wrong with Zee- she just didn't want to be alone. So, if she wanted to stay up all night making cookies shaped like snowmen and Christmas trees, then they would.
Zatanna got to work rolling out the dough and started cutting out Christmas shapes with the cookie cutters M'gann had found, while the Martian started mixing a batch of her own, adding the ingredients as they were needed.
"This is fun!" Zatanna smiled at M'gann, who carried on. "We've not cooked together since thanksgiving. We should do this more."
"I've never been very good at baking." Zatanna confessed, trying to cut a gingerbread man shape out of the scraps of the first batch of cookie dough. "I always used to cheat with magic, so I never got to do the whole making cookies with friends thing. I never really had that many people to hand Christmas cookies out to." She smiled.
"Well, we can give these cookies to everyone!" M'gann beamed. "Conner can have some to cheer him up, and Wally can have his own pile, and Artemis and Kaldur and Robin can all have some, and we can give some to Batman and Black Canary and the Flash and the whole league."
"You do know it's the middle of the night, right?"
Both girls turned towards the new voice in the room, and standing in the door was Superboy himself, dressed in pyjamas and looking as broody as ever. M'gann looked embarrassed, like she'd been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to, and Zatanna just smiled.
"Want to help us make Christmas cookies?" She asked, waving a wooden spoon at him in a tempting way.
Conner just shrugged. "Okay."
M'gann was still blushing as he came over and took the wooden spoon from Zatanna, taking over the bowl she was mixing and prompting her to move on to the new bowl M'gann had just finished adding ingredients to.
"Conner! I'm sorry did we wake you?" M'gann asked, looking very apologetic.
"Yes." Conner grunted, but even through the tiredness and the broodiness, there was still a small smile on his face.
"Good. We needed an extra pair of mixing hands." Zatanna added from next to M'gann, holding up her own bowl to demonstrate.
Conner grunted in response, but the smile was still there. M'gann moved to put the first two batches of cookies in the oven, and Zatanna watched Conner mix his cookie dough.
"You need to roll that out now." Zatanna instructed, taking Conner's bowl and tipping out the solid lump of dough onto the counter. She handed him a rolling pin and he started rolling out the mixture, grabbing the tree shaped cookie cutter when he was done.
M'gann came back to stand next to Zatanna and make another bowl of cookie mixture, having set the oven up and put the first batch of cookies in.they worked in a happy silence for the next few batches, much like a well oiled cookie baking machine, only interrupted by the sound of a familiar robotic voice making them all jump.
"It is a bit late for baking cookies, isn't it?"
All three of the teenagers turned around to see Red Tornado standing in the cave living room, watching them all with his unreadable expression. M'gann flew over to him.
"Sorry, Tornado! We were just making Christmas cookies to give to our friends and the league. Would you like one?" She asked, sweeter than the cookies.
Red Tornado remained stoic. "I shall not. And it is a bit too late for you to be up making cookies."
"But Red Tornado!" Zatanna moaned, running from the kitchen to him and M'gann. "It's Christmas! We were just trying to-"
"I understand what you were trying to do." Red Tornado interrupted. "I just think that it is late and you do not want to be tired tomorrow."
"I want cookies." Came a deep mumble from the kitchen, which Red Tornado either didn't hear or elected to ignore.
"I would request that once you finish mixing you current bowls, out them in the oven and I will remove them when they are cooked."
The three shared a look and then got to work on finishing their last batch. They quickly got the remaining cookies in the oven and turned back to Red Tornado.
"Thank you. Good night." Tornado said, heading towards the kitchen.
He was met by a half hearted chorus of "goodnight red"s and a very enthusiastic "Merry Chirstmas!" from M'gann, and then they teens departed to their own rooms.
Christmas morning rolled around quicker than either Zatanna or Conner would have wanted it to, but they still reluctantly pulled themselves out of bed and towards the main room. They met each other on the way, and then came across a very happy M'gann, who hugged them both on sight.
"Merry Christmas!" She squealed, her eyes lit up with joy. Conner just grunted in response.
"Yeah, merry Christmas to you too." Zatanna answered half heartedly, heading towards the kitchen. She just wanted some breakfast honestly, and a part of her wanted to see how those Christmas cookies turned out. Maybe she could have Christmas cookies for breakfast. Yeah, that sounded like a plan. They did make a truckload for a reason.
Zatanna's breakfast plans came to a screeching halt when she entered the cave kitchen. Cookies covered every surface, piled on top of each other and crowding the working surface. She looked around in confusion, pretty sure they didn't make that many cookies, and that's when she noticed the decorations.
Wally had put up a few Christmas decorations here and there, mostly just to please M'gann, but now the cave was fully decorated and the halls properly decked. In the living room she could see a huge tree, with no decorations on it, but with presents underneath, all colourfully wrapped with bows and ribbon. She was too busy taking in all the amazing decorations that she didn't notice Red Tornado silently approaching.
"Tornado!" It was M'gann's voice that drew attention to his presence. "Where did all this come from?"
"It occurred to me last night that the cave has not properly been embracing the 'Christmas spirit', as Kid Flash so eloquently put it. I consulted the Batman before I acted and he agreed that bringing Christmas to the cave was a good idea." Red Tornado announced in his regular monotone voice.
"Thank you so much!" M'gann beamed, throwing her arms around his robotic form.
"Human customs elude me." He answered, not reacting to her contact. "But I still understand that this holiday means a lot and brings happiness to people. I think you have all earned a little happiness today."
"Why is the tree not decorated?" Conner asked, still gazing around at the thousands of cookies.
"I thought that might be an enjoyable experience for you three to partake in." He answered, turning to leave.
Just as he was pretty much out the door, he turned slightly. "Merry Christmas, I believe the saying is."
And Zatanna, Conner and M'gann had a very, very merry Christmas.