“You heading home early, Jongdae?” Emily pops her head around his door, watching curiously as he shoves an indiscriminate folder with something he should have done today into his bag. “Lucky!”

He manages the barest of smiles because he’s so tired he can’t really think straight; Sunhwa spent the entirety of last night coughing up a storm, which meant Yixing was hovering over her in parental panic while he convinced Jongseok that no, his little sister was not dying. To say that he needs an early night is the understatement of the century.

But that’s not actually why he’s leaving so early. “It’s tree day,” he says, shaking his head ruefully. “Jongseok won’t forgive me if I don’t get home in time to help decorate.”

There’s a flicker of confusion in Emily’s eyes; she’s quite a bit younger than Jongdae, and has no children of her own. The complexities of a child’s psyche escape her. If only they escaped him. “Oh. Um, why?”

Jongdae scratches the back of his head, because it’s just awkward to talk about this stuff with someone he doesn’t know all that well. “We have to do it as a family. He gets upset if we don’t all do it together.” Oh . Is he blushing?

“That’s sweet!” She says enthusiastically. “I was a bit like that as a kid.” A time that wasn’t really all that long ago, Jongdae thinks wryly.

“Yeah,” he zips up his messenger bag, patting it down for good measure. “Try not to work too hard once I’m gone.” He winks, trying not wince at the thought of being on the Tube at rush hour.

Emily laughs, moving out of the way of the door. “Have fun with the decorating!”

Ha. Fun isn’t really going to be on the menu tonight. Not with pine needles everywhere and a sick child who throws up her medicine.

***

Yixing sighs, arms crossed. “Jongseok, sweetheart, maybe we could get started on the tree now –“

“No!” Jongseok’s mouth tightens into a straight line, tiny little brows furrowing. Yixing tries not to whimper. “Daddy needs to be here so we can do it together –“ Sunhwa is wailing in the background, coughs ripping through her. She sounds sort of like a seal, and he knows it’s only a cold, but still – is this normal? Never mind the fact that all three of the kids have had similar afflictions, and he over-reacted with each one of them – this could be the one time one of them is actually sick.

“Jongseok, you’re being an idiot.” Shang scoffs, advancing towards the tree, scissors in hand – Yixing gulps – with a determined look on his face. “The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can eat, and I – “

“No!” Jongseok shrieks, throwing himself in front of the tree with open arms. He’s so small that he barely even covers it with outstretched arms, but the ferocious look on his face is enough to make his older brother take a shaky step back. Maybe it’s best not to anger the little fireball. No one enjoys Jongseok’s screamy fits.  “We have to do it as a family.”

As if to reiterate his point, Sunhwa gives a sad little cough at the end; Yixing eyes her worriedly. He’s been feeding her all the right medicines, and he’s been with her all day, why is she not getting better? He’s going to have to take her to the doctor’s if this doesn’t clear up, this is it –

“Hey, I’m home!” There’s the sound of the door unlocking, and the shuffling of Jongdae removing his shoes. “Hello?” He calls, confused by the silence. “Is anyone home?”

Yixing’s torn between greeting Jongdae, or grabbing the baby and taking her to the doctors, but it turns out he needs to do neither; Sunhwa – who previously had been lying on the sofa in the most piteous fashion – toddles off as fast as she can in the direction of her other father’s voice. What the actual ?

“Oh, at least one of you cares.” Jongdae appears in the doorway, bending down to pick up his little girl. He rests her on his hip, looking down at her in concern when she immediately lays her head on his shoulder and closes her eyes. “Er, is she okay? Shouldn’t she be…biting me right now or something?” His children are never this subdued.

It’s then that he notices Jongseok’s position in front of the tree. He sighs. Clearly someone tried to get started without him, and by the scissors held limply in one of Shang’s hands, he’s pretty sure it was him.

Yixing clears his throat. Well, seeing as there’s apparently no need to go to the doctor’s as – once again – his children have fooled him into thinking they’re sicker than they are, maybe it’s time to get on with things. “Should we get started, then?”

Jongdae stares around the room, noting the tree still in its protective netting, the several boxes of ornaments and the tinsel tied around Shang’s forehead. “I think we’d better, before this gets out of hand.”

Jongseok grins victoriously. “Yes,” he says fervently, sounding a little like he’s been possessed by some sort of Christmas demon. “Family time now.” He grins at them all, the look in his eyes just begging them to disagree, or he’ll start screaming.

Everyone nods nervously in response.

***

Of course, it doesn’t go smoothly. For starters, the net gets stuck on the tree and they have to cut off several branches in order to detangle it, so it ends up looking a bit…bare, but once Yixing throws tinsel over the mutilated bits it looks a bit better. A bit. But it’s not like anyone’s going to be able to tell.

And then there’s the argument about who gets to put the star on the top of the tree – even before they’ve started putting on any of the other ornaments – but Jongdae manages to smooth that one over by telling Shang he can put the star on his mother’s tree (because the idea of Kyungmi being organised and decorating her house before them is laughable).

Sunhwa’s still unusually subdued, clinging to Jongdae in a way that worries him because it’s not normal for her to want to be close to him. Every time he tries to put her down, she coughs in the most heart-wrenching way and gives him the trembling lower lip, so he’s basically one arm down. Which is fine, because hanging shiny gold things on the tree doesn’t really require much coordination.

Unless you’re Yixing, who’s already managed to smash about three baubles and snap the thread on about four others, but that’s par for the course. Shang’s taken to rolling his eyes patronisingly every time it happens, and Jongseok – now a very happy bunny because he’s gotten what he wanted – is helpfully picking up all the broken pieces and making what looks like a collage with them in a corner.

Jongdae sighs. He’s probably going to have to find the dinosaur plasters for when Jongseok inevitably cuts his fingers on all the sharp pieces, but he looks so pleased with himself that he doesn’t have the heart to take them away from him. Or a spare hand with which to do so.

“Where are the fairy lights?” Shang demands, hands on hips because fairy lights are his job, even if it’s actually Yixing who untangles them and fixes all the broken ones. He puts them on the tree, for crying out loud, that’s his thing.

Yixing casts about for them, scanning the various boxes of they keep Christmas decorations in. Never let it be said that they’re tidy. “Er. Well. I can’t see them, but they must be somewhere –“ He trails off,  oh comprehension dawning in his eyes, when he remembers they threw them out last year, after Jongseok wound them around himself in an attempt to be sparkly. The resulting trip to the emergency room had been frantic, to say the least.

“.” Jongdae whispers as quietly as he can, shushing Sunhwa when she repeats the word into his neck. “Darling, I don’t think we have any at the moment, so what we’ll do is get some tomorrow and then you can put them on the tree – “

“That’s not fair!” Shang is incensed, looking far angrier than a ten year old has any right to be. “We always have Christmas lights, you can’t decorate the tree without them because that’s just wrong.”

Jongseok’s head shoots up, mouth falling open in shock. “No lights?” His expression begins to tighten, and Yixing tenses because he knows the signs of an oncoming screamy fit, . “B-but it’s a tradition! We have to have fairy lights, otherwise Santa won’t be able to see our tree and put presents underneath it!” His logic isn’t really sound, but they’ve long learnt never to question Jongseok’s beliefs. They rarely make any sort of sense.

“No, baby, it’s fine.” Yixing says hurriedly. “We’re going to get the lights, see, we just don’t have them right now, okay?” He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose in order to stave off the tension headache. “Santa will be able to see the tree, don’t worry.”

Shang and Jongseok exchange looks, unimpressed by the fact that the lights aren’t here when they should be. With creepy synchronicity, they shake their heads. “No.” Jongseok is adamant.

“That’s not acceptable,” Shang agrees, which is odd because Shang and Jongseok never usually agree on anything. “We need fairy lights now.”

Yixing holds back yet another sigh, because there’s no arguing with his obsessive little Christmas gremlins. It’s just lucky that supermarkets sell everything, because it means he only needs to shop in one place for the fairy lights, and the alcohol he’s pretty sure they’re going to need by the end of the night.

And he used to think that Christmas was fun. Ha. If only.

Christmas drabble number one, because I've done two of the essays and I should be going home by Tuesday. Celebration time, indeed. Even if my family are buying the Christmas tree without me! ;-; This one isn't a request, but I will try to incorporate everything people ask for in later ones. ^^