December 4th

Star - Baekhyun/Chanyeol - 1336 words

Baekhyun and Chanyeol decorate a Christmas Tree.

Who knew that decorating a Christmas tree would be so difficult? Baekhyun swore it hadn't been this bad last year. But then again... all six of them had put it up and decorated it together. This year it was just him and Chanyeol. So maybe that was where the problem led. Less hands makes for more difficult work?

It had all started when Chanyeol had dragged the box with their artificial tree out from the cupboard. It had been heavier than he remembered and he had ended up dropping it on his own foot. That immediately put a halt in their actions as Baekhyun had to hurriedly grab some ice from the freezer for the taller's toe.

So no more progress was made on the tree for two hours after that as Chanyeol had whimpered, and Baekhyun's heart had broke for him. They had ended up snuggling on the sofa for that time, the rapper nursing his sore toe and Baekhyun fussing over him. Once the swelling had gone down enough though, they were straight back onto task, and the tree was quickly assembled in the corner of the dorm. Baekhyun may have received a branch to the eye a few times, but nothing that was overly painful, thankfully.

With the artificial tree now upright and standing, they turned their attention to decorating it. But that involved finding the box with the decorations in it. For some strange reason it wasn't in the same cupboard that the tree itself had been in. So they ended up going on a bit of a hunt around the dorm. They ultimately found the decorations in the corner of one of the wardrobes in Kyungsoo's and Jongin's room. Why it was in there, Baekhyun did not know but they could now at least begin to decorate the tree.

First step, the lights. Which proved more difficult than originally thought. They had opened up the box, dug around for the lights before Chanyeol pulled out a giant knot which was supposed to be the Christmas lights. Baekhyun had looked at it in horror. That knot looked like it would take hours to straighten out.

Letting out a deep exasperated sigh, the shorter took the knot of lights from the other and sat down on the floor. Ever so slowly he began to untangle the string of lights, being careful not to break any of the bulbs, leaving Chanyeol to sort out the rest of the decorations, and placing them into appropriate piles. They had to catch up time somehow.

Once he had finished that though, he had apparently gotten bored as Baekhyun suddenly found himself with a string of gold tinsel wrapped around his neck. It tickled. And it was off-putting. But he didn't have the heart to take it off as when he looked up at Chanyeol he was met with a beaming happy smile, excited eyes and a matching string of red tinsel around the rapper's own neck. He looked adorable, almost like a child. Who was Baekhyun to deny him that? So instead he had endured the scratchy tinsel around his neck and finished untangling the knot of lights.

With a relieved sigh Baekhyun stood up and, together with the taller boy, managed to string the lights around the Christmas tree. Thankfully without any more problems. They were four hours into their tree decorating task, and all they had to show for it was an erect tree strung with lights, an itchy neck, a few scratches and one sore toe. This was not going to plan at all.

Working as quickly as they could, the two young men wound the strings of tinsel around the tree, including the two that Chanyeol had decorated themselves with earlier. They looked much better on the tree anyway. And with the Christmas tree looking a little less bare, Baekhyun allowed himself to smile, calling a short break for tea and biscuits.

Biscuits which he had ended up smashing into Chanyeol's face. Not that the taller minded overly much. Once their tea break, and short food fight, was over they quickly got back to work. Baekhyun handled one side of the tree, while Chanyeol worked on the other, and they began to decorate the branches with baubles and other Christmas bits.

Things were going well and Baekhyun was feeling nice and relaxed... until he heard a smash from the other side of the tree, followed by a low cuss. Closing his eyes in mild frustration, Baekhyun took a deep breath before sticking his head around the branches to see the damage. Just as he had thought, Chanyeol had dropped a glass bauble, which was now in pieces on the floor.

Without hesitation he quickly grabbed the dustpan and brush to clean up the mess, but was too late. The taller boy had already begun to pick up the pieces, uncaring of the jagged edges. Baekhyun let out a warning asking Chanyeol to be careful, but just as he had feared, the slightly younger had ended up cutting himself on the glass, his palm now bleeding.

Ushering Chanyeol into the kitchen, Baekhyun quickly patched up the other's hand, and leaving him to nurse his injury, returned into the living room to finally clear up the mess. He grabbed a chair from the kitchen table, and ignoring the pouting rapper as he did so, the slightly older of the two placed it in front of the tree and quickly finished decorating it. All that was left was the Star.

As carefully as he could, Baekhyun took the Star out of the box, and standing in front of the tree he pondered on how he was going to put it on the top. He would have to use the chair again, that much was certain. He wasn't tall enough to reach the top of the tree himself. Normally one of the taller three would place it on the top, usually Sehun. But the maknae wasn't there, neither was Jongin, and with Chanyeol whimpering about his cut hand in the kitchen, that only left him to do it.

Stepping up onto the chair, he held the Star tightly in his hand so he wouldn't drop it, and began to lean over, reaching up to try and place the final decoration onto the tree. He didn't feel safe though. On the contrary he felt really unstable. Feeling the chair underneath him beginning to slip, Baekhyun's eyes widened in fear and horror as he felt himself beginning to fall.

Falling onto the Christmas tree was not something he wanted to do. Not only would it ruin all of their hard work but it would also be incredibly painful.

Wrenching his eyes shut, he braced himself for impact as he fell, but instead of the prickle from the branches and pain from the decorations being squashed into his skin, he felt the safety and security of a pair of arms catching him around the waist. Chanyeol had caught him. And Baekhyun couldn't feel more relieved.

He was just about to turn himself around in the arms holding him, to thank Chanyeol for saving him when the other lifted him up higher, without saying anything, his eyes flicking from the Star to the top of the tree. Baekhyun just grinned at the other in understanding before he reached up, and with Chanyeol's help, placed the Star safely and securely onto the top of tree.

They were done. The tree was finally decorated. They could now relax.

And the two of them did just that, snuggling into each other's arms on the sofa while the Star twinkled down at them from the top of the tree, reflecting the soft colours from the lights. After all of the excitement and stress of the day, it was no surprise that they fell asleep.

That was how the others found them when they had returned from their Christmas shopping escapade, and how Jongin ended up with another photo for his blackmail folder on his phone.

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