Decorations

“Baba, can you help me put the decorations on the top of the tree?” The young five year old asked, arms stretched upwards towards the top of the tree. In his hands was a string of gold and silver shiny garland. A box was on the floor beside him that was half-full of ornaments, whereas the other half from the box was already decorating the lower half of the tree that he could reach.

Yifan picked up his son and held him up to place the garland around the tree, selecting branches to string the garland around, “Appa’s going to be so proud of his baby for decorating the whole tree himself.”

Sehun glanced back at his father, grinning, as he finished up placing the garland on the tree, “But you helped me, Baba!”

“I only helped, you decided where to put all the decorations. And even the lighting,” Yifan replied, letting the boy back down on the floor to pick through the decorations before grabbing which ones he wanted to hang up next. He picked up Sehun again when he filled his arms with the ornaments he wanted to place at the top of the tree. “Are you going to put the angel or the star at the top of the tree?” Yifan glanced down at the box of decorations to spot the large angel and the silver star that they’d used the year before on the tree.

The little boy looked down at the box too and frowned, “I don’t want to put either of them at the top of the tree… can we put a bunny at the top of the tree? Appa likes bunnies.”

Yifan hummed, they didn’t have a bunny to put at the top of the tree. But while it wasn’t an actual decoration for a tree, he did have an idea to satisfy his son. “Go get one of your favorite plushies and we’ll make something work to have a bunny at the top of the tree.” He put Sehun down and watched as the little boy ran off towards his direction of his room.

Yifan went to the kitchen and rummaged through one of the drawers to find some string before coming back to the living room where the tree was. Sehun was coming back into the room just as he stepped up to the tree, in his hands, his favorite baby blue bunny plushie. He held up the bunny to his father and watched as Yifan went about tying the bunny up to the top of the tree. The bunny sitting on top of it with the help of the string to keep it in place.

“Yay!” Sehun exclaimed with a grin once his father stepped back from the tree, “Now the tree is perfect, Baba, thank you!” He wrapped his arms around Yifan’s leg, hugging him.

Yifan ruffled Sehun’s hair, “You’re welcome. I bet Appa’s going to love it.”

“I hope so. I wish we had more bunny decorations to put on the tree.”

Yifan hummed, “We might be able to find more for the tree next year, yeah?” He glanced down at his watch, “How about we watch some Frosty the Snowman until Appa gets here? He’ll be coming home in another hour and a half.”

“Okay! Can we have hot cocoa too?”

“I don’t see why not.”

Later that evening when Junmyeon finally made it home after a long eight hours of chasing kids around the playground and trying to keep a handful of them from eating paste in class, he finally trudged through his front door, exhausted. He thought it was odd that he wasn’t greeted by the sound of running feet on the hardwood floor nor his husband’s voice coming from an area of the house. He toed off his shoes and left them in the shoe shelf, shedding off his coat and scarf to hang up before making his way through the house to find out where his family was. He could hear the television on, the noises being the only thing to fill the air.

When he made his way into the living room, he saw the television on, the credits scrolling while Frosty The Snowman’s song played in the background. The Christmas tree was lit up and all decorated, and on the couch beside the tree, cuddled up together was his husband and their son, snoozing away under the small throw that usually stayed splayed across the couch. A soft smile made its way across his face before he turned his gaze back to the tree, knowing who exactly decorated the tree. He couldn’t stop the grin spreading across his face when his gaze trailed up to the bunny that was seated on top of the tree.

It really was beginning to look a lot like Christmas.