Dealing with the low tier cabal was easy and within a day anyone who committed heinous acts was executed. Those that were useful like the Hydra and Hellfire members were replaced by ninjas who completely took over their identities. As for the other members, if they weren't guilty of heinous acts, Ezekiel had their minds altered so they would forget about the cabal.
He also stole the super yacht since the owner was one of the people he executed and used Tao's help to send it to Genosha. It would take a bit of modification, but he planned to use it to hang out with his friends sometimes and his family in the future. With the "fake" cabal sorted out, Ezekiel relaxed for a bit as he prepared for his normal Christmas escapades. The gifts were already wrapped and everything was set, he just wanted to confirm with Hulk that he was coming again. Once Hulk agreed, Ezekiel took it easy and split his time between hanging out with his family and Hela. He also visited Tony a couple times but it was mostly to check in about some projects and double check the testing information from the medical pods.
When Christmas Eve finally arrived, Ezekiel picked up Hulk and used a henge seal to turn him into a giant looking elf. While Ezekiel turned himself into Santa before they headed off for the night. They spent hours visiting all his normal stops like the main base, Xavier's mansion, Genosha and a handful of other places. He also dropped off some gifts at Hela's while she was asleep, along with some at Tao's and Agatha's home. They all probably knew he was there with how warded their homes were, but they also knew he liked to deliver presents so they "ignored" him and pretended he wasn't there.
The last place he visited was Tony's, where he dropped off a couple items each for Tony, Pepper, Happy, and Anna who was currently staying for the holiday along with Rhodey who would probably stop by for Christmas dinner. As for Morgan, Ezekiel left a large pile of presents for her to enjoy. Most of it was normal toys, but he also gave her some new clothing, educational toys and children's books. It also made the gifts Tony and Pepper planned to give Morgan look like a joke in comparison.
With everything finished, Ezekiel took Hulk out in their disguises and had a late night snack before he dropped off Hulk at his house. Ezekiel waited a little while after Hulk went to bed and dropped off Hulk's gifts before he headed home and called it a night himself.
Early the next morning as Theo was enjoying his perfectly good bed and sleeping peacefully. Two heavy weights landed on top of him as he heard two voices say, "Merry Christmas big brother!"
Theo slowly opened his eyes to find Milly and Isaac's smiling faces looming above him. He let out a tired sigh as he looked at his alarm, the time was half an hour before it was supposed to go off and asked, "Why did you wake me up before my alarm?"
"We wanna make mom and dad coffee!" Isaac said while Milly nodded in agreement before she added, "But we don't know how to do it."
Theo narrowed his eyes as he asked, "You know how to bake a cake alone and yet you don't know how to set up the coffee machine?"
Milly and Isaac shared a look and Theo knew exactly what they were gonna say, so he cut them off as he said, "I'll show you once, but after that you better not forget cause I won't do it again."
Milly and Isaac tried to hug Theo who was wrapped up in his blankets as they said, "You're the best!"
"Get off you gremlins, I can't get up like this!" Theo said and he tried to get out of their hug.
After a minute or so, Theo was able to get up and get dressed before he headed upstairs to the kitchen. Once there he went to the coffee pot and said, "Alright you two, pay attention to how I do this."
Theo opened up the machine and said, "This should be emptied and cleaned after it's used. This is where the filter and coffee goes."
"The coffee filters are stored in this cabinet here." Theo said as he pulled the box out and showed it to his siblings.
After he took one out and installed it, he moved towards the fridge as he said, "Mom likes to keep the coffee in the fridge. When you fill up the filter, only use two scoops."
Theo showed them a small measuring cup to use as he said, "Only use this one and don't over fill it. Mom doesn't like rich coffee and will remake the pot if it's too strong."
Theo put the two scoops in and showed it to Milly and Isaac as he asked, "See that line on the filter?"
"Yes." They both answered at the same time.
"If you ever fill it past that line, it's too much coffee. So try to remember that if you forgot what scoop to use."
Theo reinstalled the filter part into the coffee machine before he pulled out the pot and filled it with filtered water as he said, "As for the water, always use the filtered water, never tap water. Just like when you're baking and need water."
Theo filled up the pot almost to the top before he took it to the machine and said, "You pour the water in back here and once that's done. You place the pot back on the heating area here and turn on the machine."
After he was finished he turned back to his siblings and asked, "Did you get that?"
They both quickly nodded so Theo said, "Repeat it for me."
As the pot of coffee slowly filled up, Milly and Isaac repeated all the steps Theo listed which made him nod in approval before he said, "Good job."
By the time the pot was filled, Jacob entered the kitchen and once Theo saw him he said, "Don't even think about it."
Jacob looked at Theo for a moment before he asked, "Think about what?"
"I won't wear one of those sweaters this year." Theo said with narrowed eyes.
Jacob smiled and pointed at his own pretty normal sweater as he said, "I didn't buy any sweaters this year."
"Thank Stan Lee!" Theo said with a sigh of relief.
"Who's Stan Lee?" Everyone asked at the same time.
Theo waved it off as he said, "No one... Just a slip of the tongue."
"A slip of the tongue huh?" Jacob asked as he poured a cup of coffee.
"Yup." Theo said before he asked, "Who's house are we going to today?"
"May and Ben's. May should already be up making pancakes."
Theo, Milly and Isaac all looked at Jacob as they said at the same time, "Aunt May is making pancakes?!?"
Milly started to push Jacob towards the front door as she said, "Come on, come on, let's go dad!"
Jacob laughed as he said, "Settle down, we need to wait for your mom."
"Mom! Hurry up, aunt May is making pancakes!" Milly yelled as she kept pushing Jacob towards the door.
Jacob rubbed Milly's head as he said, "Don't worry, she's not gonna run out of pancakes."
It took about ten minutes before they left the house to go over to May's. When they arrived, Theo found Ben and May both in ugly Christmas sweaters and by the look on Jacob's face Theo started feeling uneasy. As they waited for everyone else to arrive, that feeling got worse as Ben brought out a pile of presents. All of which were shaped like clothes boxes and once everyone arrived Ben said, "Alright, there is one for everyone. Come find your name and open your pre breakfast gift."
Theo didn't move when everyone started pulling out ugly sweaters and putting them on. After a moment he quickly headed towards the bathroom without a word. Once he closed the door he created a shadow clone and started to open a portal as he said, "You handle it."
Before the portal even opened his shadow clone said, "Fuck that, I'm out." And dispelled itself.
Theo stared at where the clone was and frowned as he made another clone. That clone didn't even speak before it dispelled itself which caused Theo's right eye to start twitching. Theo made five more clones and every single one dispelled itself before someone knocked on the door and asked, "You alright in there?"
Theo closed the portal, splashed some water on his face before he opened the door and found his dad waiting there. He was wearing the same ugly sweaters as everyone else and held Theo's gift in his hand. He smiled at Theo and handed him the gift as he said, "Come on, it's not bad."
"You guys are worse than a cult." Theo said with a frown as he took the gift.
Jacob smirked and patted Theo on the shoulder as he said, "Of course we are, we're your family."
Theo shook his head but after a few minutes he was also wearing the sweater with everyone else. The rest of the day he spent with his family, playing games, eating food and just having a good time…
Except for the sweater, he still hated the stupid sweater trend his family seemed to love. Throughout the day as food was brought out, Theo stored some away for when he visited Hela. Hours later when Theo finally got back home, he quickly took off the new ugly sweater and stored it in the back of his closet next to the other ones.
Afterwards he created a clone and sent it to go sleep in his bed as he portaled to go meet up with Hela. As he stepped out of the portal, he pulled his cellphone out from his storage seal. The moment it recovered service, it started going off with missed calls and text messages. Most of them were from people like Gabby, Hulk and others wishing him a Merry Christmas and thanking him for the presents.
But over fifty of them were from Tony and they were all complaining about the amount of gifts he left for Morgan. As he knocked on Hela's door he decided to ignore Tony since it wasn't important. But as Hela opened the door, Ironman started to play as Tony called him again. Ezekiel smiled at Hela as he said, "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas to you too… Are you going to answer that?"
Ezekiel glanced at his phone that he just silenced and after a moment he let out a sigh as he said, "I probably should or he won't stop calling."
As they walked inside Hela asked, "It's Tony isn't it?"
Ezekiel hit the button to answer it in speaker mode as he said, "Unfortunately."
"Unfortunately what?" Tony asked in a confused tone.
"That you have no other friends and have to bug me all the time." Ezekiel said as he took a seat at the kitchen table while Hela nodded in agreement.
"Bullshit, I have more than enough friends."
Ezekiel rolled his eyes as he started to take plates of food out of his storage seal and place them on the table as he said, "Okay, name them."
"I have Happy." Tony said instantly.
"You pay him to be your private security. He basically has to be your friend."
"Anna?"
"She only tolerates you because she's in love with Happy." Ezekiel said.
"Rhodey! He's definitely my friend."
Ezekiel laughed for a moment before he said, "He is your military contact for the Air Force, even if you don't really pay him. I'm pretty sure the Air Force has some rule that he's supposed to stay your friend."
"What about Pepper?" Tony said hopefully.
"She was essentially your secretary until you knocked her up." Ezekiel said before he burst into laughter.
"What about Hulk? He's my friend…"
"I introduced you to Hulk and he's pretty much friends with anyone who wants to play video games and eat food." Ezekiel said as he took the root beer Hela handed him.
"What about Hela…" Tony started to say before Hela cut him off and said, "We're associates at best."
"I hate both of you."
Hela and Ezekiel shared a smile before Ezekiel finally asked, "Anyways, what did you call me for? Shouldn't you be busy with your family?"
"I called because you gave Morgan too many presents! What the hell am I supposed to do with all these toys?!?"
"You have like ten rooms in your house, turn one of them into a play room." Ezekiel said before he took a drink from his root beer.
"Why do you always give me so much work?"
"Because you're lazy unless it's something you find interesting… You should take some time to make a kids playroom with Pepper, I'm sure she would love it. She might even want to have another kid if you start acting like a proper dad." Ezekiel said with a chuckle.
"Morgan is already a handful, I don't know if I could handle another kid…" Tony said as his voice trailed off.
"You'll be fine, just do it. Worst case you just hire a nanny or something to help out. Plus don't you want a son? You could work on stuff together when he gets older."
"I could do that with Morgan." Tony said after a few moments of thought.
"And if she doesn't want to do stuff like that?"
"I'll think about it." Tony said before he quickly asked, "Also, why didn't you answer earlier? I've been trying to contact you all day and you ignored me. What if it was an emergency?"
"Because I was busy with my family, which is what you should have been doing. Not calling to complain about stuff that doesn't even matter."
"And if it was an actual emergency?" Tony asked.
"I have a system in place that screens my calls, if it's a true emergency I would have a team there in less than a minute. It's the same system I have in place for my employees and works as their health plan."
"Huh, I didn't know that… You really do care, don't you?" Tony asked in a surprised tone.
"It's out of pity more than anything else, since I'm your only real friend after all."
"...... Fuck you!"