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Levi finally walks through the front door to his home after a long day at work. He loves his job, he really does. Just some days has him questioning why he ever decided to be a teacher to high schoolers of all things.
Thank god it's Friday.
He hangs his jacket on the hooks next to the door and sets his keys and wallet on the small table, thankful that another set of keys are right next to his own. With a deep sigh, he takes his shoes off his aching feet and puts them in the cubby. He is so ready to get a glass of wine, cuddle on the couch with his big oaf of a husband, and watch cheesy old Christmas movies till he passes out. The perfect night after such a long day.
Levi walks into the living room and stops dead in his tracks at the scene in front of him. Erwin standing next to a lump of tree laying on the ground. His brow wrinkled as he stares down at the mass of tree, his hands on his hips. Levi just stares at him, a million questions running through his mind.
"Erwin," Levi's frustration seeping into his voice already with just one word. His husband's head whips up to him, his face switching between many different emotions. He looked happy he was home, shock at his appearance, then looking like Levi already scolded him over the obvious mess he has caused. "What is all of this?"
"Well you see," Erwin starts, looking back down to the tree for a second, his eyes flicking back to Levi who crosses his arms, his brow knocked up just waiting for the excuses he is sure to hear. "I was hoping to have this at least standing up before you got home." He lets out a nervous chuckle and makes his way over to Levi. He leans down and kisses the top of Levi's head, a smile blooming on his face.
"Welcome home Levi." Levi can't help but to smile back, truly not one to hold on to his anger, especially when he is properly welcomed back home. Levi reaches up to pull the big man down to plant a proper kiss on his lips.
"I'm going to shower," Levi says and takes a step back, pointing to the mass of tree laying on its side. "Make sure you have all of this cleaned up by the time I'm finished." Levi gives Erwin a pat on his chest as he walks by, refusing to look at the damage the tree has caused to the living room.
After a quick shower and a change to loose sweat pants, Levi skips past the living room and makes his way into the kitchen. The sound of Erwin working the vacuum cleaner masks the noises he makes from taking out a bottle of wine, the glasses and throwing leftover Chinese food into the microwave. He pours himself a glass of the wine while waiting on the microwave to finish heating his food.
With perfect timing, the microwave chimes out just a moment before the vacuum shuts off. Levi settles onto one of the stools surrounding the kitchen island and starts to eat, listening to the ruckus Erwin is doing in the other room. He makes sure to eat slowly, giving Erwin plenty of time to set up whatever he wanted to set up.
Levi wasn't necessarily mad at his husband. He would just rather come home the same way he left it. He isn't big on surprises and a big ass tree laying in the middle of his living room is a sure reason to not be the happiest person. He sighs after taking a generous gulp of his wine. He will go along with whatever Erwin wanted for tonight as long as he still gets his wine and movie cuddles.
Levi is finished with his dinner and already cleaned up by the time Erwin walks in to see him with a half empty bottle of wine and playing a game on his phone. Erwin walks over and wraps his arms around Levi's waist, his head resting on Levi's shoulder to look down at his game.
"Everything is cleaned up and ready for us." Erwin presses his face against Levi's own, making every word rub the stubble he has across his face making Levi squirm. He closes out of his game and turns in his seat to face Erwin.
"And what exactly is ready for us?" Erwin smiles brightly at him.
"To decorate the tree of course." Erwin connects their lips for a brief moment then starts to insistently pull on Levi towards the living room. Levi quickly grabs his glass and the bottle of wine and goes along with his husband's tugging.
Levi is surprised by the transformed tree in the living room. The tree is not only upright but also has a rainbow array of lights twinkling through it. Levi sets the bottle on the coffee table after topping off his glass and gives an appreciative hum at the sight. It truly is impressive. It towers over him, easily double his height and even easily taller than Erwin. Levi's eyes flicker over to Erwin who is standing next to the massive tree, looking at him hopefully and just begging for his opinion.
"You know I usually don't decorate, let alone celebrate Christmas." Levi swirls the wine in his glass, watching the hopeful expression decay to disappointment. "But," Levi pauses dramatically, not being able to help the smile that spreads across his face at Erwin's changing expression. "I don't think it's bad." Erwin smiles at him, seemingly vibrate with his giddiness.
"I know it's a little big," Erwin says. He looks up to the top of the tree a few feet above him, thank goodness for high ceilings. "I wanted to go all out with the new house, and we have so much room for it." Levi chuckles, their new house is absurdly large, they have a lot more empty space than their last place even after the shopping spree they did to try to fill it up.
"Well, what are you wanting to do since you already did the lights?" Levi asks, setting his glass down and walking right up to Erwin who instantly wraps his arms around his waist.
"Well, I did it because it’s a real tree and I didn’t want you to scratch up your arms to help. The little needles hurt even when you are trying to be careful." Levi gives him a squeezing hug for the thoughtful action, always so caring for him. It still makes those insistent butterflies flutter in his stomach no matter how long they have been together.
"I'll start a movie playing and we can start decorating it then," Levi stretches up on his toes to kiss the underside of Erwin's jaw. He pulls away to turn the tv on a random Christmas movie he has seen a hundred times before for background noise. Erwin pulls two large boxes that have an assortment of ornaments closer to the tree. Levi watches as he rummages around them a little then pulls out a large star for the top of the tree and sets it to the side.
"There isn't a specific color scheme we have, but there is mostly silver and gold." Erwin holds up two spiral icicle looking ornaments that are very sparkly gold and silver. Levi moves closer to look into the boxes, seeing lots of the gold and silver but also a rainbow mix of other shapes and sizes.
"Let's do the silver and gold ones first, see how much of it will fill out the tree." Levi picks out a few gold ones, picks random places on the tree to set them on.
"That’s a great plan love." Erwin smiles and places the two he already has high up in the tree.
It takes a while to pick through the boxes for the silver and gold ornaments and put them all up on the tree. They work together to get it all out, Levi working on the lower part of the tree that is easy for him to reach, and Erwin stretching to get all of the top. Levi makes sure to step back every few ornaments that are put up to make sure they were evenly spaced out and the same colors and shapes weren’t clumped together too much.
When they got through all of the silver and gold Levi looks up at the tree. There was too much empty space on the tree with just the two colors on it. Levi was a little disappointed, having a color theme would be ideal but not super necessary.
"Should we just do one specific color at a time until the tree is full enough? Try to keep with some sort of theme?" Erwin asks, noticing the look Levi is giving the still seemingly bare tree even after more than half a box of ornaments decorating it. Levi looks to the boxes on the floor with a sigh.
"It's a good idea. Preferred but there isn't enough of any of the other colors to fill the empty space." Levi looks to Erwin who is staring down at the last two boxes in concentration, probably calculating about how many colors there are and how many will need to be used to get the tree looking good.
"Let's just do random until the tree looks full," Levi says, bending down to grab at the top ornaments to set on the tree. Erwin just smiles and gets back to work.
The movie is almost over by the time Levi is satisfied. He steps back and takes a full look at the mix of colors, the metal shapes, crystals, and wooden ornaments decorating the tree. He looks over to Erwin who is just looking at him with a soft smile.
"It's not too bad," Levi says, he can't exactly keep the smile from his face at the adoring look he receives.
"So put the star on and I'll grab you a glass of wine and we can finally watch a movie." Levi starts to turn around but is quickly jerked back to Erwin's chest.
"You need to help me put it up." Levi tilts his head back against Erwin's chest to look at him in question. Erwin grins down at him and quickly kneels behind him with his hands wrapped around Levi's thin waist. Levi lets out a shriek when he is pulled up and over Erwin's head and onto his shoulders.
"What the Fuck Erwin!?" Levi yells when his lungs decide to work with him again. He has Erwin's bright blond hair fisted in his hands and his legs wrapped in a lock around the other's throat.
Levi receives a few rapid taps against his thigh in response. He forced his body to relax enough to not choke his husband out and receives a choked laugh in response.
"This would be the best way to put the tree topper up, and I know you wouldn't have done it willingly." Erwin laughs and gives Levi's legs a gentle squeeze where he is holding him secure.
"Damn right I wouldn’t have," Levi grumbles out and gives the fists full of hair a harsh tug. He can feel Erwin's twitch of pain and goes to gently rub his fingers throughout his hair and rub at his scalp as an apology.
"Might as well hand me the star since I'm already up here." Levi can feel the shift of Erwin's shoulders at his quiet laugh. When Erwin bends down to retrieve the star Levi adjusts himself accordingly, in complete trust the big oaf wouldn't let him fall.
It takes some maneuvering, but Erwin is able to get close enough to the tree that Levi can reach the top without knocking down a bunch of ornaments on the way. It’s a game of patience and gentle maneuvering to get the complicated-for-no-reason clamp to be not only attached to the tree, but for the star to actually stay up straight and even.
Erwin steps back so they can both admire the finished piece. Levi can just feel the happiness radiating off of Erwin at their accomplishment. Levi feels a little bad he has never let him decorate for Christmas before, but he is happy he finally gave in this year. Even when it was forced on him.
"Alright pony, let's go get you a glass and help me kill off this bottle." Levi grabs a fist full of Erwin's hair again, much softer this time around, and digs his heels into Erwin's sides. "Hiya." Erwin laughs and goes into the direction Levi has his hair pulled, always willing to play along with whatever Levi felt like doing.
A few minutes later Levi is off of Erwin's shoulders and cuddled into his lap. He has a fresh glass of wine in his hands and a nice cheesy Christmas movie on their tv. Erwin's chin is resting on Levi's head and his arms wrapped around Levi's waist. Levi sighs in content, happy to finally have what he wanted when he came back home.