Chapter Text
It’s Remus’s first Christmas with James, and everything has to be perfect. James is acutely aware of how miserable Christmases were for Remus when he was little, and he just wants to give his boyfriend some good Christmas memories.
Today is December 1st, and James has decided to make this month the month of holiday joy, all for his lovely boyfriend.
He starts by waking up early to make his boyfriend a wonderful breakfast in bed before their day of decorating. Now, everybody can attest to this, but James has never been the best cook. For Remus, however, he vows to try.
He decides to make it easy on himself by finding a recipe. He lands on french toast, and begins to look through the many cookbooks his mom has gifted him, eventually finding a relatively easy recipe and deciding to follow it to the letter.
This does not go according to plan.
. . . . .
Remus wakes to a beeping. His mind scrambles to come up with a reason for it, yet it comes up with only blanks. He slowly climbs out of bed to find that the beeping is coming from the kitchen, and his boyfriend’s side of the bed is suspiciously empty.
After quickly getting dressed and going out to the kitchen, he finds James trying (and failing) to fan smoke away from the fire alarm while something burnt is being run under the sink. He giggles a bit, rushing over to help him.
Once they get everything sorted and under control, Remus looks over to see James trying (and failing) to not cry.
“Hey, sunshine. What’s going on?”
James looks over at him, and Remus’s heart almost shatters under the weight of how sad he looks.
“This was supposed to be the start of your wonderful month of Christmas joy. I was supposed to make everything perfect, and instead I just screwed it up. I’m so sorry.”
Remus smiles pityingly and takes James’s hands in his own.
“Aww, Jamie. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just being here with you is already the greatest gift I could ask for. You don’t have to do everything all on your own. Why don’t we order some breakfast in and watch movies?”
James sniffles and takes Remus into a hug.
“Thank you, Moons, for being so understanding. Everything else will be wonderful, I promise.”
. . . . .
Later, they are decorating and Remus could swear he has almost never seen James happier. He smiles at every little object, clearly reminiscing on memories that Remus isn’t privy to. He sways to every single song that plays. Remus decides to just stand back and let him do his thing. It strikes Remus’s fancy that he seems to especially like the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Frank Sinatra.
After he unpacks all the little knick-knacks and assorted Christmas-themed objects, he finally begins to unpack the tree. He carefully finds the perfect spot in their living room and perfectly sets out every branch so it appears truly picturesque. Just before it appears he is about to start decorating it, he stops, turning to face Remus.
“I know you got out of every other part of decorating, but you won’t get out of this. You will be decorating this tree with me.”
Remus smirks and chuckles under his breath.
“Okay, okay. Why don’t you pause the music so we can go make some hot cocoa and then we’ll come back and decorate together, alright?”
James smiles his same sunny and unabashedly-his smile.
“That sounds perfect.”
He steps away from the tree, pauses the music, and pulls Remus up from the couch as they walk over to the kitchen hand in hand.
. . . . .
After a conversation in the kitchen that definitely took longer than it was supposed to, the two lovers finally walk back over towards the tree, empty mugs having long since been forgotten on the counter.
“Okay, first, we have to fluff out the branches and put the lights on the tree. I know your knee isn’t the greatest, so how about I get the bottom branches and you get the top ones?”
Remus smiles, kissing James’s cheek.
“Of course, darling.”
They both immediately get to work, though slowly as they can’t take their eyes off of each other. After a minute or two, Remus pulls back from the tree with a slight embarrassed flush on his cheeks.
“Um, hey babe?”
James smiles gently. “Yes, my love?”
“How do you fluff out tree branches?”
James fights to stifle a laugh before taking Remus’s hands into his own. “Don’t worry, my love. I’m happy to show you.”
He quickly finds a cluster of branches to demonstrate.
“Okay, so you see this cluster?” Remus nods. “Good. So, this doesn’t look very nice, does it?” Remus shakes his head. “This is because all the branches on this cluster are bunched together after being packed away in storage for so long. What we need to do to fix it is simply pull apart the branches to help the tree look more full, like this.”
He carefully pulls apart each branch, slowly showing the process. “Does that make sense?” Remus nods again, his cheeks now a distinct shade of pinky-crimson.
James smirks. “Why are you blushing?”
Remus immediately reaches up and covers his face with his hands. “I feel like I should know this. This is embarrassing.”
“It’s okay, my love. There’s no need to be embarrassed. You’re doing wonderfully.”
After a couple of minutes, they finish fluffing the branches and putting the lights on the tree (after a fight to untangle the cord that Remus lost).
When James pulls out the sheer amount of ornaments that he has kept, Remus falls back onto the couch marvelling at it all. They quickly decide that Remus will decide where the ornaments will go and James will place them, if only to be less harsh on his knee. The moment is adorable, and is absolutely them. Neither of them could at all be happier.
When it comes time to place the star on the tree, James even lifts Remus up on his shoulders to place the star himself. It is perfect. They are perfect.