Work Text:
“Yondu?” asked Athena, sticking her head around the door to the control room, where Yondu was sitting as he worked out some details about his next job.
“Yeah, darlin’?”
“Can we go get a Christmas tree?”
He turned around to look at her. “A Christmas tree?”
Athena smiled. “Yeah.”
“Where we gonna get one a those?”
“Terra.”
“Ya wanna go all tha way ta Terra ta get a tree? Them Christmas trees don’t grow nowhere else?” He didn’t give her a chance to answer. “Nah, guess they don’t. Ain’t never seen any trees with them shiny things on ‘em, ‘cept on Terra.”
Athena stifled a laugh. “They don’t grow with the decorations already on them!”
Yondu’s eyes widened slightly for just a moment. “I’m gonna kill Quill! He always said they grow that way!”
She couldn’t help her laughter at his indignation. “He was just teasing you, they don’t grow that way. You get a tree and then decorate it yourself.” She walked into the room and sat in the co-pilot’s chair. “So, what do you say?”
“Yeah, reckon we can go down an’ get’cha a Christmas tree tomorrow.”
Athena leaned over and kissed him. “Thank you!”
Yondu grinned. “’Course, darlin’.”
“Ya sure we need all these dec’rations fer one tree?” Yondu asked as he brought in the last box of decorations they’d purchased on Terra.
“Yes!” Athena was sitting cross-legged on the floor next to the tree, already opening one of the boxes.
Yondu shook his head slightly. “Seems like an awful lot fer one tree.”
“It’s going to look great, trust me.”
Yondu set the box with the others, then sat next to Athena as she looked through the decorations.
“Aren’t these gorgeous?” She held up two ornaments for him to see.
“Yeah, reckon so. Ain’t as gorgeous as you, though.”
She blushed and leaned over to kiss his cheek, then placed the ornaments back in the box. “Flattery won’t get you out of helping me decorate.”
“Wouldn’t dream of tryin’ ta get out of it.”
“Good.” Smiling, she stood and held out a hand to help him up, then picked up some tinsel, which she loosely wrapped around his neck so she could pull him down to kiss his lips. “I’ve already put the lights on the tree, so you can wrap the tinsel around it.”
“Got it.”
He tossed the tinsel onto the tree then turned back to face Athena, who had her back to him as she picked up a couple of ornaments out of a box.
“Wha’dya think, darlin’?”
She turned and stared, wide-eyed, at the tinsel bunched up and hanging off one side of the tree. “What is that?”
He shrugged. “Tinsel?”
“You have to drape it gracefully all around the tree, not just in one spot.”
“Oh.”
She took the tinsel off the tree and began to drape it around the front. “Like this, see?”
“Oh, yeah. That looks much better. Yer good at this stuff.”
“Thank you!” She beamed and kissed his cheek as she passed him on her way back to the box of decorations. “Now we just need to hang the ornaments.”
Yondu picked one up and examined it. “Any particular spot on tha tree where ya want ‘em?”
“Nope, just wherever you think it looks nice.”
They spent a happy hour decorating the tree, laughing and, occasionally, kissing. Finally, Athena stood back to admire their handiwork.
“It looks beautiful!”
“Sure does.”
She missed the soft look he gave her as she turned back to the almost-empty boxes. “Oh! I almost forgot to put the star on top!”
She removed it from the box, then practically skipped back to the tree, beaming at Yondu as she passed him. She reached up as high as she could, standing on her tip-toes, almost tipping into the tree in her struggle. Yondu grabbed her around the waist to keep her from knocking the tree over.
“I can’t reach to put the star on top of the tree!”
“I got it, darlin’.”
But instead of taking the star from her, he picked her up and lifted her so she could reach the top herself.
After she placed the star, he gently lowered her back to the floor, but didn’t remove his arms. She turned in his arms and wrapped her own around his neck.
“Thanks,” she told him, smiling softly.
“My pleasure, darlin’.”
She kissed him, briefly, then said, “I love you, Yondu.”
“I love ya, too, ‘Thena.”
Their next kiss was not so brief, and it was quite a while before they remembered to admire the effect of the star on top of the tree.