Title: Decorating the Tree

Rating: G

Pairing: Jessica/Tiffany

Note: Part 2! … of double digits!

Summary: Decorating a tree is a lot harder than you think.

Jessica isn’t completely sure when making paper snowflakes turned into tree decorating, but it did and she’s sure that Stephanie had everything planned out a while ago. Her suspicions are confirmed when she finds an artificial Christmas tree sitting in the younger woman’s bedroom.

“You like?” Stephanie asks, stepping beside the pre-lit tree with a huge grin on her face.

“Um…” Jessica can only stare at the tree because she’s sure it should be in the living room and not in a bedroom. She reaches out to touch a branch and slowly nods, wary about the words leaving . “Why is it in your room and not in the living room?”

“Oh, the other girls put one up. I wanted my own!” Stephanie replies back with unwavering excitement. “Let’s decorate it!”

The older woman wants to protest, but she remains mum when Stephanie hauls out a box from her closet. She blinks several times when the other woman pulls out a huge assortment of garland, ribbon and ornaments from the box.

“Let’s start with the garland!”

All Jessica does is nod, especially when one end of the garland is pressed into one of her palms. It takes her a few moments and a couple of revolutions around the tree to realize that the garland is pink-- hot pink. She’s halfway down the tree when she stops and questions the choice of colour.

“Pink, Steph?”

“Yep!”

Cue the bright smile and crescent moon-like eyes.

“Why isn’t it red, gold, silver or blue?”

Cue the confused stare.

“Those are plain. I like pink. Pink is my favourite colour. Therefore, pink garland.”

Jessica shuts and looks over at the rest of the decorations. She grimaces when all she sees is pink. She likes the colour, but she doesn’t think a mass of pink items hanging off of a green tree makes sense. The tree should’ve been white, at the very least.

“Keep decorating, Jessi,” Stephanie calls out, tugging on the woman’s hand while she continues to hang ornaments on the branches.

“It’s pink, Steph.” Jessica turns to the woman kneeling down beside her and drops the garland. “It doesn’t work with a green tree.”

“But, I like pink.”

“I can tell; all of the decorations are pink.” Deadpanned, Jessica walks over to the bed where the other ornaments are. She picks up a ball and feels her eye twitch when she notices the amount of glitter on it. Once that gets in her hair, it’ll stay there. Not good. “Why is it all pink?”

“I love pink.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious.” She reaches for the pink star and wonders how the tree will not look tacky when everything is put up. “Don’t you think the tree will look… weird… being all pink?” When she looks over her shoulder, she shrinks into herself when a withering glare is sent her way.

“Pink is not weird.”

Pink is not weird.

Pink is not weird when used in moderation, Jessica thinks as she turns back around and picks up the smaller pink balls. She walks over back to the tree and is about to hang it up, but gets swat out of the way. She tries to put it somewhere else, but gets swat away again.

“The hell, Steph?” She glares at the younger woman, but is met with a glare back.

“Garland first, then everything else.”

Jessica opens to retort, but rolls her eyes instead. She grabs the end of the garland she dropped and winds it around the tree. When she wraps it around the top, she hears a whine and groans. “What?”

“You left a huge gap in the middle.” Stephanie points at the huge patch of green and tugs on the garland to narrow the gap.

When Jessica tries to hang the pink ball again, she gets stopped again. Before she can even ask what she did wrong, she finds another end of garland pressed into her palm. She stares at the thicker decoration and shakes her head.

“Isn’t this too much?” When all she gets is a blank stare from Stephanie, she sighs and begins to wrap it around the tree. She haphazardly wraps it along the branches, but hears another whine and stops. “What now?”

Stephanie pulls at the garland so it only drapes along the bottom of the tree.

Jessica just stares in disbelief before she goes off and lies on the bed.

***

When an hour passes, Jessica still finds herself lying in Stephanie’s bed. After being told that she was doing things wrong, she eventually gave up. It’s a little more safer to be in bed-- there is less swatting and reprimanding being done.

She thinks it’s stupid that there is a method to decorating a tree, especially when the entire thing will look pink anyway. She can understand that certain things shouldn’t be put together in certain amounts, but she thinks Stephanie’s wasting her time trying to be proper.

“Steph, is this really necessary? The entire thing will be pink, glittery, sparkly and-- is that a pink Totoro ornament?”

The younger woman is grinning widely. “Totoro was grey, but he wouldn’t match everything else, so I painted him pink.”

Jessica climbs out of bed and stares at the mostly finished tree. She inhales deeply and stays silent. The tree does look amazing, but she didn’t help.

“Do you want to put this up at the top?”

She turns to the side and blinks a few times when she finds a white angel tree topper being handed to her. She furrows her brow and recalls that there is a pink glittery star somewhere.

“My mom and I bought this before she passed away and… I never decorate without it.”

Well… damn.

“Sh-Shouldn’t you be putting it up, then? If it means that much to you… shouldn’t you be putting it up?” She hears Stephanie chuckle and watches her shake her head.

“You should put it up. I love my mom and I love you.” Stephanie places the angel in Jessica’s hand and nudges her to the tree. “I want to share this particular moment with you.”

Jessica isn’t sure if she should be happy or embarrassed. She stares at the ornament in her grasp and thinks she shouldn’t be the one putting up the angel. When she gets another nudge in the side, she hesitantly puts the tree topper on and sighs.

“What’s wrong?”

“Are you sure you want to spend Christmas with me and not your family?” Jessica quietly asks as she runs a hand along the beautiful tree. She understands why there was so much thought put into decorating it and it makes her feel unworthy.

“What are you talking about?”

“You decorated your Christmas trees with your mom, didn’t you?” She doesn’t have to look to the side to know the answer; she can feel Stephanie’s answer. “So, why me?”

“Oh, Jessi…”

Arms wind around her waist from behind and Stephanie’s chin props against her shoulder. She wants to feel better, but she feels heavy. Stephanie has so much patience for her and her behaviour and it irks her that she gave up when the other woman didn’t.

It makes her wonder if Stephanie’s patience will last a long time with her.

“You are part of my family now whether you like it or not. I know I got a little bossy with it this time, but it’ll be our tree. Come on, I know the other girls have more ornaments, so we can fix this up to be ours.”

Jessica remains still and she can’t help but feel guilty. Decorating a tree is supposed to be simple and joyful, but she took it for granted and now she feels unhappy. She shakes her head and pulls out of Stephanie’s arms. “I’m going to go take a bath. You can finish the tree.”