Author's Note: This one isn't particularly religious, just kind of a sweet one shot to get us started. I own nothing but Mallory. Enjoy.
What The Future Holds
Mallory Banes felt a smile hook up the corners of her mouth when the door to her apartment in Chicago, Illinois opened and then slammed briskly shut. An old Christmas carol, Oh Holy Night, played on the staticky radio as snowflakes drifted down from the grey sky to paint the grey streets with a fresh coating of white. Her fingers deftly taped up the last few paper snowflakes on her kitchen window and she brushed a strand of hair that had escaped from her ponytail out of her face before turning to face the welcome intruder.
"It's cold out there," Barricade mumbled, melting snowflakes still stuck in his holoform's hair. Mallory laughed lightly and walked over to hug him, grinning.
"Oh course," she replied. "It's winter. And to add to that it's almost Christmas." She kissed him lightly and then pulled back, turning back to her decorations. A carousel with fake snow painted on the delicate horses was sitting on the side of her kitchen counter, an old gift from her mother. Paper snowflakes were taped across cabinets and on the very center of the window in shimmery silver paper was a four pointed star.
"I understand the snowflakes but what's the purpose of the carousel and the star," he asked, knocking snow off his shoes and making his way into the kitchen.
"The carousel is an old gift from my mother before she passed away," Mallory explained, carefully plugging it in and watching the horses, each intricately detailed, slowly move around in the carousel.
"And that star," he asked.
"Well our family isn't particularly religious but it's hard to go through Christmas stateside without knowing some of the story," Mallory explained. "As the Christian faith tells it God came down as a child and a brilliant star was ignited above the place where he was born. Wise men and shepherds followed the star to see the baby that was God personified."
"Odd," Barricade said, mumbling something about the oddities of humans under his breath but Mallory was amused to find that he watched the star with an almost curious look in his eyes for the rest of the winter.