Work Text:
December 13th, 1965
Ponyboy had one wish, just one. For this Christmas to be perfect. He knew that was a lot to ask, considering his parent's deaths and the church fire a few months ago. But he was going to try his best.
He wished Sodapop or Darry were there, maybe he should get employed too. He thought for a few seconds, nah.
"Decorate the tree? How hard could that possibly be?" Ponyboy said. It didn't seem too hard, before realizing he'd have to take out the tree, get out the ornaments, put the ornaments on the tree, get out the Christmas lights, put the lights on the tree, and finally, find an outlet to plug in the lights. Suddenly it felt a little more difficult than he'd thought.
Soda and Darry were at work, and he didn't think the latter would be up to do all that right after work. Sodapop might, but he also had plans to go with Steve to watch the hockey game that night.
He wished Sodapop or Darry were there, maybe he should get employed too instead of staying home. He thought for a few seconds, nah.
"I guess I'll need some help." He mumbled, stating the obvious. He went to the landline, punching in the numbers and listening to it ring for a few seconds. "Who is it?" Said Tim Shepard as he picked up the phone.
"This is Ponyboy, Is Curly there?" Pony replied, twirling the line around his fingers. He heard Tim shout Curly's name before handing over the phone. 'Pony? What is it?" Curly said, shifting the phone around.
"You're not busy right now right?"
"Well I kinda a-"
"Okay, come over in like ten minutes, I need your help."
Curly rolled his eyes. "What exactly do you need my help for?" He said suspiciously.
"Uh, with my tree?" Ponyboy responded as if it was obvious, looking at the clock to see how much longer till either Darrell or Sodapop returned home. He heard Curly mumble something before sighing.
"Fine, but you owe me." Curly promptly hung up. Ponyboy put the phone back before opening the attic to try and get the tree down himself. Climbing up the ladder he sneezed from the amount of dust that had built up.
They didn't have a real tree, they had a fake green one that his father had bought for a whole $19.95, which his mother hadn't been so happy about, but they had kept it anyway since they could use the same tree every year. Ponyboy didn't like the fake tree when they first got it, thought it looked weird, but It had grown on him.
He heard knocking at the door as he was halfway done with dragging it out the attic, making his way to the door he wondered if he should have enlisted Johnny for help instead of Curly. Whatever, how hard could it be to have Curly help instead of Johnny?
"Curly, hey." Ponyboy greeted, moving to the side to let him in. "So, what about you needing my help with your tree?" Curly said, looking around as he walked in.
Pony closed the door behind him and pointed to the tree leaning on the sofa. "That tree, I need your help decorating."
Curly made a face as he looked at it. "Why does it look so...uh, weird?" he asked bluntly. 'Okay, you know what? Leave my tree alone, that just means it's been very loved." Ponyboy said defensively, slightly offended that he would say the tree looked odd.
"Whatever." Curly shrugged. Following Ponyboy as he tried to get the tree to stand up straight. "Just lean it against the wall." He suggested.
Ponyboy stared at him like he'd just said the moon was made of cheese. "Or..don't." Curly muttered. "I think a part is missing." Pony stated, looking around on the floor.
"Then find a replacement." Curly said slowly, grabbing a conveniently thin book and using it to hold the tree up instead of tipping over. Ponyboy blinked for a few seconds before shrugging. "I mean...it works."
Next was the ornaments, Curly took them down from the attic. "These look pretty nice." He commented, taking one out. It was a clear ornament painted yellow and blue but smeared green where the paint mixed. "Except this one, looks real ugly." he inspected it with a critical eye.
Ponyboy snatched it from him. "I made that one!" He said. He hung it on the tree, little by little they managed to get most of them on. Curly topped on the couch as he groaned. "Finally!" He exclaimed. "What? What's with that face?" he asked as Ponyboy winced.
"We might of..sorta...uh, forgot to do the back." Ponyboy admitted, gesturing the bare undecorated part of the tree. He stumbled back as Curly tossed the Christas lights towards him. "Who's gonna look at the back!?" Curly asked, standing up with his hands on his hips. "I guess your right.." Pony mumbled.
It took a while to untangle knots of wires and lights, finally, they got it mostly untangled. Curly wrapped the lights around the bottom half while Pony worked on the top. "Ok, I'm tired." Curly said ten minutes in.
"I guess a little break wouldn't hurt." Pony hummed, his arms were getting pretty tired...they still had hours left till anybody got home anyways. 'We've got some chocolate cake left in the freezer."
Curly perked up. "Cake? I mean, if you insist." He said. "It'll only take a minute, we can get back to work in no time!" Ponyboy nodded in agreement as he took out two plates. He was sure Darry wouldn't notice if a little bit of cake was missing. Besides, like Curly said, It'll only take a minute.
"I think that's good." Ponyboy said an hour and a half later. Curly grabbed the plug, searching for an outlet. "You know Curly, If I'm not mistaken, you look awfully excited for the Christmas lights." he stated.
Curly smiled "Me? Excited for Christmas lights? I think you ar mistaken, Ponyboy." he said, plugging the lights into an outlet.
Nothing happened.
"Put it on the other outlet." Ponyboy said, Curly switched outlets.
Nothing happened.
Again.
Curly paused. "Seriously? The lights don't work? We spent an hour on that and they don't even light up?" He said, standing up.
Both of them stood staring at the tree for a minute, Ponyboy turned to look at him.
"Maybe decorating the Christmas tree is about the friends you made along the way?"
"Don't ever say that again."