Noiz shifted uncomfortably, tightening his grip on the sappy branches. “Is this where you want it, Aoba?” he huffed, nodding his head towards the corner of his apartment. Receiving an affirmative grunt from behind, he set the tree down into its holder and stretched laboriously. Noiz could feel where pine needles had settled under his shirt and scratched absentmindedly before dusting them off to join the rest of the needles on the floor. He looked around for Aoba, but saw nothing except the fresh trail of green from the entrance to his feet. He was about to call out when he heard the telltale sound of boxes crashing down in the storage room.

Aoba sat slumped on the floor, half-open boxes and bright red bows surrounding him, and a box gripped in his hands. He looked up when Noiz came in, laughing when he saw the mess Aoba had gotten himself into. They repacked the boxes haphazardly before bringing them to the living room where the tree was set up. Aoba had insisted for weeks that they decorate the apartment for the holidays and Noiz couldn’t find any reason to argue. He had questioned Aoba’s insistence on getting a real, freshly-cut tree, but was simply told that fake trees were “Christmas lies”. So here they were, decorating the apartment together, for their first Christmas together.

Aoba had selected holiday movies and music for them to enjoy while they worked away, making a wreath to hang on the front door, decked out with tiny bells and red berries. They moved on to string garlands around picture frames and bannisters, sprinkling fake white snow on windowsills, and setting up snow globes on the mantle. Noiz adored how enthused Aoba was about the holidays, the way he laughed and sang along to the songs, the way his cheeks pinked and eyes sparkled out in the snow, and how happy he seemed to be decorating the apartment with him.

They had finally finished setting up the apartment in all of its holiday cheer, and were ready to move on to the main event of tree decorating. Aoba had a small box with him that he set on the table near the tree. Peering in, Noiz could distinguish a couple ornaments that seemed to have been made by a child - from Aoba’s childhood, he assumed. Sensing his curiosity, Aoba turned to Noiz while preparing the lights. “Granny kept those for me. I didn’t even know until I moved here with you; she gave me the box and said I should display them… Honestly I don’t remember making most of them.” He trailed off, sifting through the box of handmade ornaments with a dazed sort of look. He shook his head as though to clear it, and went back to dealing with the lights. “We can’t put anything on the tree until the lights are done properly, so bear with me.”

Putting the lights on, it turned out, was a task that would take them well into the night. Aoba had them plugged in to an extension cord so they would be lit as he strung them among the branches of the tree, to make sure they were evenly distributed. He looped the excess strings of lights around his neck carefully to avoid entanglement, and it was this that was his undoing. Noiz sat on the edge of the table as he watched Aoba work. He started at the top of the tree, quickly working the lights around the tree, revealing swathes of skin every time he reached up. Whenever he had difficulty deciding where to go next, he stuck his tongue out pensively. These, paired with the glow of colourful lights against Aoba’s pale skin, drove Noiz to frustration.

He got up slowly and stepped closer to him, placing a hand just under the hem of Aoba’s christmas sweater, rubbing small circles into his hip. The other hand reached for one of the strings of lights around Aoba’s neck, tugging on it to pull him in for a kiss. Noiz flicked his tongue out, licking along the seam of Aoba’s lips. He drew back momentarily, before pulling Aoba back in, this time to nip and suck along his jaw, planting a kiss under his ear. Noiz let go of the lights and grasped Aoba’s hand, which was gripping his shirt, gently. He placed another kiss to the back of Aoba’s hand, to each of his knuckles, to the palm. Noiz pulled him close again, this time for an embrace, before helping him finish the lighting of the tree.

“Merry Christmas, Aoba.”