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Janus stood up straight once he and Remy had gotten the tree pulled closer to the middle of the living area, so that it could be decorated. Janus had given in to Remy’s insistence that they get a real tree, and he was actually glad he did. The house smelled faintly of pine, and Janus had apparently forgotten how much he loved that smell.
There were a few boxes of decorations on the sofa, containing lights, beaded garland, and ornaments. Most of the decorations had belonged to Remy and Virgil, though there was a small box of ornaments that Janus had brought along when he’d moved in with them. Janus’ original little artificial tree was actually sitting on top of the dresser in Virgil’s room, since he’d given it to the teen so he could have a decoration of his own.
“Hey, Virge! We’re about to start out here!” Remy called down the hall, towards Virgil’s room.
Janus couldn’t help but softly chuckle, before pulling out his phone and connecting it to the blue-tooth speaker Remy had set up on one of the small end tables. He put on a soft, jazzy holiday playlist, filling the silence with pleasant music. Soon, Virgil was coming into the living area, looking fairly excited. Janus had learned quickly that although Virgil did prefer Halloween, he had a soft-spot for Christmas.
“Lights first?” Virgil asked, looking more towards Remy than Janus.
“Like always,” Remy chuckled, nodding.
Virgil grabbed the first spool of lights and started to unravel them, enough to get the end free and have enough slack to plug them in after. The three of them worked to get the lights wrapped around the tree, and Virgil had to go get the step stool from the closet so that they could reach the very top, though the lights went on without incident.
The beaded garland came next, which didn’t go quite as smoothly. The beads had a habit of catching on themselves, and were tricky to keep a handle on. But, eventually the gold and silver strands were in place among the branches. Finally, the trio got to the ornaments.
There were a number of fairly standard ornaments; Santa-shaped ones, simple red and white spheres, snowflakes, and the like. Some were more amusing, such as Remy’s coffee cup shaped one, a spider with a Santa hat that Virgil had apparently made a couple of years back, and one Janus had brought that was shaped like a snake with two heads.
Stories about some ornaments were exchanged, as well, seeing as this was the first year Janus was celebrating the holidays as part of Remy and Virgil’s household. Some ornaments were projects Virgil had made in school as a child, one was a small motorcycle which was apparently the same model as Remy’s first bike, and Janus had one that had been seemingly broken and repaired.
“Is there a story for this one?” Remy asked, holding up the repaired ornament.
“A story of survival,” Janus replied. “I got that one the day I got into my accident,” he said. Janus had informed Remy and Virgil that he’d been in a car accident at some point, which had caused the scarring on the left side of his face. He hadn’t said much other than that. “It was broken in the crash, but not entirely destroyed. I kept it after, originally as a morbid reminder, I guess. Eventually, once I had recovered enough, I decided to fix it. It was one of my first projects following the crash, and took longer than I’d care to admit, between my shaking hands, the mobility problems I had in my fingers at that point, and the frustration of remembering that I used to have such a steady hand at one point. But, I got it done, and kept it to remind myself that the accident did change me, but I’ve come back from it.”
“I’m glad you did,” Remy smiled, stepping closer and giving Janus a quick kiss. He handed Janus the ornament and Janus hung it up on the tree.
Once it seemed like all the ornaments were hung, Remy stepped aside and grabbed a small box out of a drawer in the kitchen, before returning.
“Virge, I picked something up for you,” Remy stated, holding the box out to the teen.
“What is it?” Virgil asked, taking the box from his father.
“Open it and find out, babe,” Remy chuckled.
Virgil cocked an eyebrow, but opened the box in his hands. “Is this my old first Christmas ornament?” he questioned, pulling the ornament out of the box with care.
“One of them. We had two, one was supposed to be used every year, and the other kept in the memory box. I took one in the divorce, and your mom got the other,” Remy stated. “But look a little closer, bud.”
Janus watched as Virgil looked closer at the ornament, turning it over to where the writing was, which stated his birthday, name, and the date of his first Christmas. The teen had a look of shock when he read the information he’d probably seen countless times.
“You changed my name…” Virgil breathed.
“Of course I did,” Remy chuckled. “I’m not an asshole like your mother,” he said, lightly ruffling Virgil’s hair.
Virgil smiled and turned to his father, giving him a tight hug. Remy returned the gesture, smiling a bit, himself. There was clearly something Janus wasn’t being outright told, though he could make a pretty good guess as to what it was. He didn’t say anything, though, as he watched Virgil pull away from Remy and hang the final ornament on the tree.
Finally, all that was left was to put the star-shaped topper on the tree. Janus watched as Remy picked up the decoration, inspecting it for any potential damage, before surprisingly turning to Janus.
“You wanna put it up, Babe?” Remy asked.
“Are you sure?” Janus replied with his own question.
“You’re the newest member of the family, it’s kind of a thing,” Virgil shrugged.
Janus smiled a little bit and carefully took the star from Remy’s hands. The step stool was moved over beside the tree, and Janus climbed up onto it, resting a hand on Remy for balance as he reached and settled the star on top of the tree. He climbed down and helped Remy slide the tree back into place, while Virgil put the stool away. Virgil crawled under the tree and plugged in the lights, and the colored strands came on, completing the look of the tree. The three stood and admired their work for a moment, before starting to clean up. All the while, the tree stood in the corner, lights on, adding to the festive spirit that was filling the house.