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"I would have expected a black Christmas tree from her," Damian said, pointing to Rhea, "but not you, Liv. I thought you'd have one of those sparkly white ones. Or glitter pink or something."
"I do!" Liv sang. "This is just my living room tree. My craft room tree is pink. I had a white one before, but it got damaged in my move to the farm."
Rhea came up behind her and hugged her, kissing her neck. "I bought her the black tree last year." Then she pointed down to the set of silver ornaments beneath it. "And every year I'm going to get her a new set of ornaments."
"How... domestic of you," Damian replied. "So where's the topper and the lights and garland and shit?" He turned to look at the couple and groaned. "Of course. Here I thought you invited me down to chill out, meet the cows, but no."
"But you're so tall!" Liv pleaded. "You can practically put on the star without even raising your arm!"
"Pentagram," Rhea corrected.
Damian rolled his eyes. "Didn't you just win Money in the Bank last year? Did you develop an allergy to ladders since then or something?" Looking over Liv's shoulder at Rhea, he added, "You're tall. Why don't you do it?"
"We're trying to include you, Priest. Liv wants this to be her friend tree." Rhea sounded slightly dubious, but she was at least trying to get behind the concept. "Piper got her the pentagram topper, and Becky is bringing back some ornaments from Ireland."
"I didn't get the memo, so I didn't bring anything...." Damian shrugged.
"Relax, Little Drummer Boy," Rhea teased. "That's fine. We really just did invite you down to hang out. And maybe to put up the pentagram. We can work on the garland together."
"Lights first," Liv instructed. "Then the garland. Or else everything gets tangled."
"Tinsel or no tinsel?" Rhea stepped back to admire the tree. "The silver would really stand out against the black. Maybe I should have got you red ornaments instead...."
Liv shook her head. "I love these ones! And I haven't used tinsel in years. Mom stopped when we had a cat, because he kept eating it and... yeah, the vet bills weren't pretty. I kinda forgot about it, actually." Liv went to stand by Damian. "What do you think?"
Damian chuckled helplessly. "I don't fucking know! I had no idea what was going on. I mean, I can put on your pentagram for you if you want, but interior design is not my thing."
Rhea frowned at him. "C'mon, Priest. Holiday spirit or whatever." She grabbed a box from the table and lifted a stained-glass pentagram from layers of tissue paper. "There should be a cord somewhere...."
"Right here!" Liv ran over with an extension cord and attached it to the base of the star. "Damian, would you please do the honours?"
"Well, I guess you aren't putting it up right after Halloween," he allowed, "so I gotta give you credit for that." He gingerly took the star from Rhea and, just as Liv had predicted, he barely needed to raise his arm to be able to place it on the top of the tree. "That good?" He pushed the cord towards the back of the tree so it wasn't a distraction.
Rhea stepped to the centre of the room and tilted her head. "A little that way. To your left."
"You're leaning, Rips. Of course it looks off-kilter." Damian rolled his eyes.
"Come over here and say that, dipshit." Rhea waved him over and pointed. "See? Look!"
The pentagram did have a slight lean, so Damian went to the other side of the tree and tried to adjust it. "Is that better?"
"Perfect! Thank you!" Liv jumped up and hugged him, taking him by surprise. "Okay, lights next. I know I brought them down here...."
While Liv looked for her tree lights, Damian slung an arm around Rhea's shoulders. "So... buying your girl a tree and then ornaments every year? Like I said... domestic."
Rhea blushed a bit and she tried to hide it by hugging him, but he held her in place. "Shut it, Priest. She just really loves Christmas, so I thought...."
"So you got her something you knew she would love and use, and she'll look at it for days on end and think of you," Damian finished.
"Yeah, but the flip side of that is that after Christmas, she'll be sick of it and ready to put it back in the box and stow it away for another year," Rhea pointed out. She kept looking at Liv, though, and she couldn't stop herself from smiling. "Liv? Try under the entry table. There's a box there."
"Huh? Why would I put it there?" Liv went over anyway and jumped up in delight. "Yay! Thanks, babe. Maybe I had the box and went to get the mail or something...."
"Babe," Damian echoed softly, almost incredulous. "Can't imagine you let many people get away with that one."
"No," Rhea said crisply, "so don't try it." When Liv came back with the lights, she grabbed one end and started unwinding. "Go find whatever else you want on the tree. Damian and I got this."
"Thanks!" Liv kissed Rhea's cheek and, after a moment of hesitation and a little hop, Damian's in turn before heading down the hallway.
Once Liv was out of earshot, Rhea nudged Damian with her elbow. "Thanks for coming, man. I mean it. Some of the people backstage are still... weird about us, you know? They're not mean and they're not saying anything that could get them reported, but...." She shook out the strand of lights and handed it to Damian before starting to extract another one from the cluster. "It still gets to her sometimes, so it's nice to hang out with someone who's cool about it."
"Of course, Rips. If you're happy, I'm happy." Damian pulled her into a hug. "Unless your happiness comes from waking me up at three in the morning to tell me your rugby team won. That's the kind of happiness you can keep to yourself, or at least until breakfast."
"You love it." Rhea basked in the hug for a moment. She was used to being the taller one in an embrace, so it was somewhat comforting to be eclipsed on occasion. "And don't feel like you have to get her anything, okay? Or me, for that matter. This is just so we get a bit of time together before everything gets all crazy at the end of the month."
"Didn't Liv mention some sort of market this afternoon?" Damian asked. "Maybe I can find something for her there and be subtle about it."
Rhea shook her head. "Don't let her get started. She'll come back with fifty pounds of vegetables, a cat, four books, and a friendship bracelet."
Damian went over to the tree and connected the first strand of lights to the pentagram before he started winding it around the branches. "I don't know how she wants this...."
"Whatever you do is good." Rhea finally finished untangling a second set of lights and she set them on the floor for Damian. "As long as they light up, she'll be happy."
"Found the garland!" Liv ran back in with a heap of glittering gold strands. "I had silver and gold, but I thought the gold might go better? I don't want the silver garland to take away from your ornaments...."
"Whichever you want is fine," Rhea replied.
"You could probably mix and match," Damian noted as he stepped back from the tree to assess his work. "You know, one silver, one gold, one silver. Then you could just put the silver ornaments closer to the gold garland for contrast."
"And you said you knew nothing about interior design!" Rhea crowed, poking him in the side before handing him the second strand of lights.
"I love that idea. Let's try it! I'll go get the silver strands and then bring out more ornaments." Liv dashed back and forth from her storage room to the living room, stacking boxes along the wall. "Don't worry. I'm not using all of this. I just want to see what I have. Some of it was my mom's that she didn't want anymore, but I remembered it from when I was a kid, and some is new because I fell in love with Christmas llamas that one year and...."
Rhea watched with a mixture of affection and weariness as Liv went through the boxes and set some things under the tree and put others back in the bigger boxes. "I'm waiting until Christmas koalas become a thing," she declared. "Then I'll be more festive."
"I still have those koala socks you got me," Damian replied with a grin. "They're big enough that you could probably use them as a stocking."
"I've seen your laundry piles, Priest. Hell no." Rhea went over to where Liv was sorting through a box of random ornaments. Each one was different, and many looked handmade. It made her feel a bit guilty for getting her a store-bought set, but Liv seemed to love them when she first saw them in the shop. "Is the owl from when you worked at Hooters?" she asked, looking at the bird ornament Liv set by the tree.
Liv nodded. "Yeah. This girl named Camden usually worked the same shifts as me, and we both loved horror movies, so we talked a lot. She got me that as a remember your roots present."
"Nice. And the slice of pizza?" Rhea asked, pointing to the metallic triangle.
"That's from Sarah! I was such a brat on the road. If I was in a bad mood, I would only eat pizza," Liv admitted with a laugh, "so she started mapping out pizza places on the highway and would call ahead so my pizza would be ready when we got there."
Damian kept looping the lights around the tree, listening to story after story of ornament meanings: some were deep and profound, others were inside jokes, and some were simply random. "You're going to have one crazy-ass tree," he told Liv once he was done with the lights, "but it'll be fun. Are the lights where you want them?"
"I think so. Gimme a minute." Liv pulled a power bar out of another box and plugged it in, then plugged in the lights. "YES!" The lights shimmered against her hardwood floor like the aurora borealis, reflecting off some of the ornaments as well. "It's perfect!" Liv hugged Damian again. "Thank you for helping. You don't have to do anymore if you don't want to. Rhea and I can work on it tomorrow."
But Damian was already reaching for the garland. "Nah. It's kinda fun," he admitted. "Besides, this way you can keep the ladder in the garage." Then he laughed and winked at Rhea. "Rips should have got you a shorter tree."
"Never!" Liv's eyes went wide. "I want to get one of those ridiculously tall ones someday! Like nine feet or whatever."
"Only if I can get the twelve-foot skeleton from Home Depot," Rhea countered.
"Deal! They'll be besties. We could make a different scene every year!" Just like that, Liv was brainstorming again as she sorted out her garland strands and picked out the ones she wanted used on the tree. Once she handed those over to Damian, she started going through the ornaments again. "I bought this one when we were touring the UK I guess it doesn't technically count since I bought it for myself...."
Rhea took it from her and burst out laughing. The ornament featured a Santa Claus in a kilt reaching for his snack from the table. The back of his kilt could be lifted, revealing heart-print boxer shorts. "Does Piper know about this?" Rhea asked. "You know what they say about kilts...."
"And if you don't," Damian chimed in, "just ask Drew. He'll be more than happy to tell you... over and over and over. And don't get me started on how the claymore is a euphemism...."
They kept chatting and decorating, and soon the tree lights weren't just glittering against the hardwood floor but also the darkening sky beyond the window. The market would have to wait for another day as they made memories not unlike the ones that infused every ornament they hung from the tree.