Baubles. Baubles! His entire house was covered top to tail in baubles. His expensive, sophisticated, a la mode house. Christmassyfied. It was utterly horrific, streamers, tinsel and god knows what else covered practically every surface. He could almost feel himself coming out in hives at the flashy plastic displays.
When he'd confronted his uncommunicative elder brother, all he'd received was some hushed rant about 'family'. Well it figured. Some point around Elijah's fifth Christmas tree, Klaus had just given up and rolled over. It just wasn't worth it. To be fair, it wasn't like he didn't have anything better to do. People to eat, chaos to oversee, that kind of thing.
Hayley looked similarly irked, rolling her eyes and letting out a heavy sigh whenever Elijah was nearby. But Klaus could see the way her eyes lit up whenever she caught sight of a plate of gingerbread flittering past, or a particularly ornate decoration hanging from the chandeliers. It made the whole thing slightly more bearable. Just slightly.
In Klaus' view it was still all far too gauche, with obnoxious reds and greens stretching as far as the eye could see. He felt like he was stuck in the middle of a sparkly avalanche. At least the greens and whites of his childhood had been more understated, much more refined and cultivated. Those had been the days, when green wreaths and bright snow had heralded in the winter festivities. None of this tacky filth which was just itching to be thrown away.
One thing Klaus had never understood about humans was the transformation in their attitude towards Christmas. It never used to be so obvious. And as the days wore on he found himself being dragged further and further into the whole farce.
Somehow it came to Christmas Eve and he found himself pushed into one of their living rooms (although from the size of it, ballroom would probably have been a more apt moniker). A boiling glass of mulled wine was thrust into his hand, sweet scents of cinnamon and nutmeg curling their way upto his nostrils as he tried to ascertain whether it contained anything slightly more suitable for a vampire. He only began to complain when Elijah loomed over him, brandishing a bright yellow paper crown. The original hybrid did not wear paper crowns. Or at least he didn't until his brother made a subtle head gesture towards his little wolf and fixed him with a questioning stare. Fine, yellow party hat it was. Not that she seemed to appreciate it, just flashing them both a disdainful glare.
He had to admit he spent most of the night in a sulk, but slowly in little bits he found himself warming up to the experience. After spending hours bemoaning the lack of live bloodbags, Elijah had managed to bully him into testing out his rusty piano skills.
Hayley had been much more interested in that, and he had no idea how it had happened but the three of them ended up belting out no end of 'classics' (nothing was a classic when you were over a thousand years old). He was surprised to discover that his little wolf had quite the captivating voice.
Although he went to bed that night with a disgruntled sigh, distastefully batting tinsel out of his face, he couldn't help feel the ghost of a smile dragging at the corners of his mouth. Klaus might be unimpressed with Elijah's Christmas plans, but at least they seemed to bring Hayley a little peace.