Work Text:
The bedroom was dark, covered in the inky veil of nightfall, soothing and quieting the city as heads rested on pillows, surrounded by warm blankets and possibly even snuggled up with a partner on the cold winter night. The only light in the room was the dull streetlamp outside, providing enough visibility to the outside world that it wasn’t completely dark on the cloudy night.
Inside the room, there was a simple bed covered in patterned quilts that shielded two bodies from the cool air seeping into the house. One lay softly on his side, quiet snores leaving his mouth every few seconds as his eyelids twitched from his dreams. The other lay with their back to him, but with open eyes that gazed at the clock on the wall, watching the seconds tick by until the grandfather clock in the living room chimed again at the new hour.
12am, December 1st.
Careful not to wake the sleeping male, Taeyong pushed back the quilt and sat up from the bed. Behind him, Yuta let out another snore, this one slightly louder as the bed jostled oddly around him. Taeyong stilled, head turned to watch his face before relaxing as he rolled over and let out another, quieter snore.
Taeyong slid his feet into the slippers waiting by the bed and stood up, pulling the quilt back up and around Yuta so he wouldn’t be disturbed by the cool air. His feet then padded softly across the floor to the door, carefully twisting the knob before letting himself out into the hallway, not bothering to close the door back.
The house was dark, but Taeyong managed to walk along the hallway until he found the pull cord to lower the retractable steps leading into the attic.
As he pulled the cord, the bottom of the step that had been resembling part of the ceiling came barreling out faster than he’d anticipated. If it hit the floor, it would most definitely wake Yuta, who was already a light sleeper. He jumped in front of the stair and caught it mid fall, the impact and weight hitting Taeyong in the chest, pulling a pained grunt from his throat that he tried to stifle.
Once he’d recovered, Taeyong lowered the step to the ground, letting it drop with a quiet thump, making a path into the top of the house.
Grabbing onto the flimsy rail, Taeyong hauled himself up onto the first step that was a significant way off the ground. He pulled himself up the other five steps, ducking his head past the ceiling and finally, making it into the dark, dusty, cobweb filled attic that was just spooky enough to almost deter his intentions. At least, until he pulled the cord that switched on the single fluorescent light bulb that barely lit the whole attic.
It was only slightly less disturbing to be in the attic after midnight with the light on. There were colorful boxes and totes stacked messily about the room, most covered in thick layers of dust or cobwebs after having not been touched in well over a year. He scanned the room searching for the things he’d been after that possessed him to venture up in the middle of the night without his boyfriend. He stepped fully into the attic to search, crouching down so as not to bump his head on the rafters as he stepped toward a few boxes, glancing at their labels before moving on, dissatisfied.
The attic really needed to be cleaned and organized, but neither Taeyong, nor Yuta, had ever made time to go through everything that had once been mindlessly thrown up here in an attempt to rid it from the main part of the house. Everything was a jumbled mess thrown together, making it nearly impossible to find what he were looking for, at least, until he spotted green, sparkly, slightly dusty garland peeking out of the red box with the green lid in the corner of the attic.
Quietly, he moved over to the box and lifted the lid, trying not to be too grossed out by the dust his fingers pressed into as he lifted the lid. Everything, however, was forgotten when his eyes landed on what was inside.
The first thing that caught his eye was the porcelain angel his mom had gifted him when he was eighteen and moving out on his own. A doll that had sat atop every tree he’d ever had since his first Christmas living on his own. His attention was then drawn to the several yards of garland (in various colors) that was covering the statues and figurines secured in the bottom of the plastic box. The Christmas box.
“What are you doing up here in the middle of the damn night?” a grumpy voice startled him. He practically jumped out of his skin as his head shot to the male standing on the top step of the stairs leading into the attic.
“Finding the Christmas box,” Taeyong answered, placing his hand over his heart in an attempt at calming the rapid racing.
“At nearly 1 in the morning?!”
He’d been searching for the box longer than he thought.
“I couldn’t wait any longer. It’s finally December! I want to start decorating!”
“Now?” he couldn’t tell if Yuta was shocked, annoyed, or just sleepy.
“Yes now! I want to wake up tomorrow morning and see it! So I’ve gotta start now!”
Yuta let out a groan, bringing a hand to his head and making a show of massaging his temples.
“Fine,” he groaned.
He wasn't really sure what Yuta was agreeing to, but either way, it would be nice to have help lugging the box down the stairs. It wouldn’t be very light or easy to carry, and with Yuta being awake, at least he wouldn’t have to worry about making too much noise on the way down.
Pushing the box off the wall, Taeyong shuffled it across the floor until Yuta grabbed both sides and lifted it off the floor with a grunt.
“Geez! I forgot how heavy this was!”
He tugged it down the attic stairs before letting it drop on the hallway floor, letting out a huff.
“There! Decorations retrieved! Can we go back to bed now?’ he asked as Taeyong walked down the steps.
“No,” Taeyong pouted. “Now we’ve got to decorate the house!”
Yuta let out a groan but didn’t argue as Taeyong opened the lid again and let it clatter to the floor and, on it, he placed the porcelain angel carefully out of danger. His hands dipped back inside and his fingers wrapped around the stringy garland, pulling it out and letting it fall near the discarded lid and angel, making a mess on the floor that Yuta was already making disgruntled noises at.
With the garland out of the way, Taeyong grabbed out the first mechanical decoration that brought an immediate grin to his lips.
It was a snowman with a red scarf sewn around its neck, a cloth carrot sticking from its nose and beady eyes set in the indented face. It had long, slender legs covered by a thin layer of fuzzy material leading down to two large black feet covered in the same fuzzy material. There were two arms stretched out from the snowman and on the left hand was a red and white button.
“Oh Lord,” Yuta complained.
He grinned and practically ran from the hallway into the living room, where he plopped the snowman down proudly beside the hearth below the television. He pressed the red and white button and immediately, the mechanical snowman began to stay it’s hips while “singing” “Holly Jolly Christmas.”
He waited for the snowman to finish before turning his attention to Yuta, who was dragging the box of Christmas decorations into the living room where Taeyong waited.
“Thank you babe!” Taeyong cheered.
Yuta grunted in response, obviously still half asleep as he reached inside the box and produced his favorite Christmas decoration. A large, glass reindeer Mark had gifted him with a few years ago. The color pigmentation was dulling, but it was still just as beautiful as it had been when he’d unwrapped the messily put-together box and the reindeer had fallen into his lap. It had brown hooves that led up to lighter brown legs that had specks of white for snow. The body of the deer was long and thick, a well-fed reindeer with sleigh bells looped over its neck. It’s head was raised proudly, eyes almost glistening as though it were proud to be a sleigh reindeer. It’s antlers were the same color as the hooves that were long and proud with several points that reared toward it’s back.
Yuta placed the reindeer delicately on the fireplace, a small smile creeping up on his face.
“See! Decorating after midnight is fun!”
He nodded, no longer making angry noises or responding in snippy remarks. He simply pulled decorations out of the box with Taeyong, hanging garland along the entryway leading from the living room to the hallway and kitchen. Placing Nutcracker and Santa figurines along the mantle. Replacing Taeyong’s fall flowers on the coffee table with square pots of fake Poinsettas. Together, they folded a Christmas tree blanket over the back of the couch, hiding the standard upholstery.
Yuta reached back into the rapidly emptying box and pulled out a smaller box of Christmas oven mitts, pot holders, dish towels, and the bakery sign Taeyong had bought the year before that read “Christmas Bakery open for business” amongst the holly. Without a word, Yuta took off for the kitchen and Taeyong let him be, finding more pressing matters to attend to as he pulled the last layer of tissue paper off the final stack of well-packaged decorations.
Hiding at the bottom were the Christmas photos. Documented and memorialized within glass frames were photo’s of countless Christmases spent with his wonderful and amazing boyfriend.
He grabbed the first one out of the box. From behind the glass, Taeyong and Yuta were smiling brightly at the camera, both wearing the ugliest Christmas sweater’s Taeyong had ever seen. Both green and red, Taeyong’s with shimmering tassels dangling from barely appropriately placed positions on the Christmas cat embroidered in. Yuta’s was better, but only slightly. His shirt was of a Christmas tree with bulbs of light rising from the shirt, all lights lightened, making the ugly tree come to life.
Taeyong took down the standard photo of the two on the wall and replaced it with the ugly sweater photo before reaching back into the box and finding Mr. and Mrs. Claus staring back at him. Mr. Claus resembled Yuta so completely, and Mrs. Claus, who he thought looked just like Taeyong, was kissing Yuta’s cheek with an arm thrown lovingly around his shoulders.
Taeyong placed the frame on the wall where another photo had been.
-------
As the sun slowly came up, Taeyong and Yuta found themselves settled on the couch, both glancing over their work. Christmas had found its way in the house. Memories hung on the walls. Nutcracker’s lined the mantle. Snowmen along the hearth. Garland in every doorway. Even a single stem of mistletoe hanging in the center of the hallway.
“Christmas time,” Taeyong breathed.
Yuta shifted beside Taeyong and Taeyong felt his arm wrap around his shoulders softly.
“I love you. Even when you drive me crazy with your obsession with Christmas.”
He pressed a soft kiss to his cheek before pulling himself off the couch.
“I’m going to go make some coffee. We have a long day of decorating the yard.”
Yuta disappeared into the kitchen and Taeyong fell back against the Christmas blanket thrown over the couch. His eyes trailed over the living room and a sleepy smile found its way to his face. As his eyes closed, head falling against the soft cushions, he couldn’t help but be excited for what this Christmas would bring for them both.